The Dice & Mystics Fringe 2023 – The Year of the Bag

What an event! The 6th Dice & Mystics Fringe was able to run at full capacity again. And you were there. Regulars since the first Fringe in 2016 as well as new faces started to arrive, all smiles and anticipation. Everything was ready and waiting.

Thursday and Friday we had been busy picking up donations for the raffle; 3 games had already been set aside for us on Wednesday but had miraculously grown into a little tower of 10 games altogether when we got there. 

Prizes rolling in

This is about half of the treasure trove only. The other half was going to emerge on the arrival of our guests from the board game industry. The publishers and businesses seemed set on really outdoing themselves this year, and everybody at the Fringe can testify that they achieved their goal.

This charming new attendee just beat some of our seasoned Fringe goers to 1st place in a line that was forming shortly after.

Game bags were unpacked, and soon the subtle sigh of tearing shrink wrap and the musical trickle of punched tokens onto tabletops could be heard. The first game rounds had settled in, fresh coffee and biscuits at the elbow, ready to get going. And thanks to you all it was going to be legendary!

There were so many hot new games on the tables, and some beloved classics, too. 

Once the people from the industry had come, there was even an exciting prototype to admire and try out. Everybody was relaxed and in high spirits, played, enjoyed their drinks, nibbles and food that was delivered to the table, and–just like last year–King Racoon Games had converted  their  trolley they normally transport game boxes on into a cart for a number of crates with a large range of refreshments as a gift to you all.

At 10 p.m. sharp, at the well-known boom of “SILENCE!“ people from the upstairs rooms came rushing to the ground floor. The raffle was imminent, the tension was rising. The hushed silence broke into aahs and oohs when the prizes were rolled in.

The trail into the land of games and fun started off with–bags! (You will hear more of that later.) 

Starting in a fairly safe environment at home with Garden Guests (2023), brought to you by Van Ryder Games, the journey quickly moved on to a more dangerous quest, namely Robot Quest Arena (2023) by Wise Wizard Games

Further on the trail we encountered a plushy little yellow Bread Dragon called Loaf and its fellows, the red Meat Dragon Hot Dog, who immediately befriended his new owner, and purple Thistle, the Potion Dragon. They all were sent out to delight you by Cardboard Alchemy, straight out of their popular family game Flamecraft (2022), also donated to you as yet another magnificent prize, including all the goodness of an original KS pledge, highly sought nowadays!

To get to their new friends, the cute little plushies had to master a veritable “ninja mission by crossing a labyrinth of balancing floorboards”: the new title Floating Floors (2023), kindly donated by Stella Jahja from Meeple University.

The journey went deeper into the realms of mystery and wonder. We had the fantasy author Betty Finke with us, who also wanted to contribute to the raffle and personally gave the two novels, the prequel The Lanyon Stone and  Delharne’s Daughter, the first volume in the series, to the winner.

Once you have entered the land of faerie, anything is possible: The Dixit Disney Edition (2023), a splendid prize donated by Libellud,  went to the probably greatest Disney fan in the room (and to the future second greatest fan, we presume).

We travelled on, intrigued by the building site of  5 Towers (2023), constructed and brought to us by Deep Print Games.

On we went, away to the far East, directly into historic Nippon. By donating Senjutsu: The Battle for Japan to the raffle, Stone Sword Games and Lucky Duck Games made this fascinating time travel possible.

A perfectly crafted card holder by Rathskellers, seasoned with some extra goodies from their range, further motivated our travellers on the way.

This lady here was happy because she thought she had won one of Spiel’s hot new games plus a luxury two-sided neoprene game mat…

…when in truth she had also won everything else. Due to the generosity of none other than King Racoon Games, she got both hands full with splendour from the Kickstarter edition:             EOS: Island of Angels, the gorgeous game mat, EOS: Island of Angels – Deluxe Upgrade,               EOS: Island of Angels  Nation Expansion, EOS: Island of Angels – Mission Cards Expansion.

One lucky winner not only got the highly appreciated Witchcraft by King Racoon Games, but also the comic book of Tsukuyumi-Full Moon Down 1 by the multi-talented artist Felix Mertikat.

Travellers do not only find treasures to take home, they sometimes simply go shopping in beautiful countries, in this case in Croatia at InMyBox, the makers of outstanding wooden game boxes, a large choice of clever quality game accessories and even game-related wooden jewellery.                 
InMyBoy had given us two vouchers to raffle off, one of 25 Euros and another of 40 Euros. We are sure these two gentlemen will be able to find something really great to enhance their gaming experience with the games they had also just won: 

Cosmoctopus (2023) by Lucky Duck Games

…and Age of Wonders: Planetfall (2022) by Arcane Wonders, where your travels whisk you away into space to explore alien planets.

If, however, you prefer to remain stationary on your home planet Earth, you will not regret your decision if, like this lucky earthling did, win one of InMyBox’s cleverly designed storage solutions for the game Concordia. 

When it got close to midnight, the winner could not restrain himself any further: The box was unwrapped and the ingenuity of its inside duly admired. 

A howl from the deep forest on the wayside reminded the journeying gamers of dangers often found in the wilds of strange lands: In Armata Strigoi, the vampires of south-eastern legend, are obviously very real, but, as you can learn from this image, if you show no fear, all will be well. We thank the designer and legend Paolo Vallerga from Scribabsfor graciously donating this beautiful, original and exciting game to the raffle.

When you happen to have your own spell book, or if you are so lucky to win SpellBook by Space Cowboys, it is not surprising that your luck is extended to winning a super elegant Rathskellers dice set, too, as held up here,

and it even rubs off onto the winner of Benevolent, a generous donation by Matagot, who is coyly hiding his new Rathskellers foldable dice tray that he just won as well.

And even the next winner who is cheerfully presenting his copy of Waterfall Park, a prize donated by the good people of Repos Production, has an assortment of Rathskellers goodies to be happy about.

This year, Rathskellers had us all in the bag! The creators of amazing high-end gaming tables have a new line of useful and exceptionally well-crafted gaming accessories and had given a lot of thought to the choice of items they could bring along to the raffle.

There were wonderful things to be won from their stock of elegant foldable dice trays, dice vaults, precious dice sets, card holders, with a garnish of lovely goodies from neat little pouches, wrist-bands and key-fobs on top and, oh yes, there you have it – a number of absolutely spectacular tote bags made from a fabric especially designed to protect and carry heavy objects, all with a radiantly colourful high quality limited art print that was more like a deep-dye and imbued those bags with almost a light of their own.

Winners could proudly carry their prizes and games off in style, beaming as radiantly as the print on the bag, so it was not surprising the bags were immediately very, very popular indeed. Therefore, some guests who did not win a bag considered buying one at the Rathskellers booth the next day.

Gotta2 Gottani had come all the way from Japan, but, sadly, could not make it to the Fringe event; nonetheless they sent greetings, together with a copy of their classically themed and lovely little social deduction game Who am i? Alice in a Mad Tea Party. 

Yes, these are the actual game components!


You do, of course, all know Chip Theory Games. Again, they regretted they would not be able to make it to our Fringe event, especially because they had problems getting their English language games delivered to the fair on time. Despite being woefully short of stock, they again proved how very much they appreciate you, the gamers: Chip Theory Games sent their very best regards and packed us a big bag with two very, very heavy boxes of their newest games (English copies, too!):

This is Hoplomachus: Victorum (2023), a “strategic gladiator combat and adventure featuring solo gameplay” by Chip Theory Games. (The picture had to be taken quickly, before the Victorum Premium Hero Tracker Mat was put on top of the box as well)…

…and this is Hoplomachus: Remastered (2023) itself in all its glory, a tactical game for 1 to 4 gladiators! Do all ways really lead to Rome?

Match of the Century by Capstone is a match between two chess masters and could, as such, take place anywhere.

The complete big box of Final Girl Series 2 plus a set of miniatures was a final triumph: “I so wanted this!” Lady Luck had been in a happy and benevolent mood that night: Julie Ahern from Van Ryder Games again generously gave away a highly sought after gem to a true fan.


And last but by no means least, the travelling heroes from the game Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood by Shadowbourne Games joined the track of phantastic games on their quest towards their ultimate goal: entertaining and making you all happy!

When the raffle was ending and we believed we had reached the aim of our quest 2023, Rathskellers surprised and delighted us all with a very generous expansion:                                                                             “Everybody who comes to the Rathskellers booth on Sunday and shows their ticket of the Dice & Mystics Fringe Event 2023 will receive a bag as a gift.” So, for the very first time ever, each and every Fringe attendee had a winning ticket!

As early as Sunday morning reports started rolling in about how thoroughly Rathskellers had kept their word: Really everybody with a Fringe ticket got one of the coveted bags, even those who had not been able to come in person and had, in high hopes, entrusted their ticket to somebody else for the purpose. And thus people started talking about “The Year of the Bag”.

Eventually, the 6th  Dice & Mystics Fringe Event in the Year of the Bag ended. 

We are grateful for all those amazing and generous gifts from you, the publishers and businesses who outdid themselves to donate so very many awe-inspiring prizes, and say Thank You for bringing our guests so much joy. We especially thank Rathskellers for making everybody a winner. We thank King Racoon Games who, again, gifted our event with such a lovely variety of refreshments free for everyone.

We give a Big Round of Applause to our engaged, tireless helpers and fellow Dice & Mystics without whom the event would not even be possible, and who, footsore, tired and exhausted from keeping it all up and running, said what a truly happy day it had been for them. 

A very Big Thank You to the Community of St. Engelbert of the Parish of St. Franziskus, who for the 6th time allowed us to use their entire building, and also to those kind ladies of the “Ecumenical Lunch”, who once again postponed their gathering to the following week without any further ado. 

And to all our precious guests: Thank you for coming! Without you, we would have sat at empty tables.

It has become a tradition that we got presents from you, too, and that at this point we think fondly of you and everybody who attended, and say: Thank you so much!

…which also came with some bags.

We were told by our regulars, “Old Hares” as we fondly use to call them in German, that coming to the “Fringe” was almost like coming home, like an annual family reunion. That is the point, really, isn’t it? All kinds of people from all continents, from–often very–young to old, all hair and eye colours and complexions, different beliefs and ideas, in all their differences and diversities, are united in this: They can gather, communicate and cooperate happily and peacefully like friends or family, even if they happen to have a war game on the table, teach each other rules by which they all abide, have fun and laugh and joke together and have a good time. Some other guest once said: “Here you can see for yourselves that peace and goodness are not out of reach, when we really want it.”

Hoping to see you all again in 2024. Stay safe, game on, and be kind towards each other!

Good Play, Better Day!

Your Dice & Mystics

The Dice & Mystics Fringe 2023

Attending Spiel Essen and want to play?

Come to the Dice & Mystics Fringe 2023!

You would like to  conclude your day at the SPIEL with a nice and comfortable game night in good company? 

We are hosting our 6.th Dice & Mystics Fringe event on Saturday, October 6th, at our location in Bochum, 15 minutes by car from the SPIEL.

Like always, all you great people and fellow gamers from all over the globe are very welcome, and, as usual – our event is free of costs and totally non-commercial.

We simply want our fellow board gamers to enjoy, meet people, exchange their experiences of the fair and have fun together over their brand new games (and discharge shrink wrap and punched cardboard sheets to lighten their luggage).

There is space and time to play on Saturday from 4.00 p.m. to midnight. However, the places are limited, so we do kindly ask you to make a reservation in advance. To make your booking faster and easier and save you from having to queue at the entrance, we use an online booking service (see below), also free of costs.

There are hotels and restaurants in the vicinity that are no further away by car than some in Essen.

There will again be the opportunity to order food and drinks on the premises; a delivery service will bring everything to the tables. And of course teas, coffees and biscuits are free, as always! 


You would like to come?

Make your reservation on:

https://doo.net/veranstaltung/133130/buchung

You are going to receive an automatic confirmation as soon as you are booked, together with a detailed description on how to reach us (just 3 turns from the autobahn; also by public transport) and some important information.

No entry without e-ticket (on mobile device or print version).     

For any important questions you may contact us on contact@diceandmystics.de.

Registration ends on: Saturday, 23.09.2023

Dice & Mystics Double Feature June 2023

We give you time and space for all those epic board games that need more than a  single game night can provide you with. You can bring those loved but long-unplayed gems from your collection to our event to play on large tables and leave them set up overnight. In addition, we have prepared two tables hosting:

Frostpunk

Blood Rage

The event starts Saturday the 10th of March at 04.00 PM.
At 07.00 PM we are collecting food orders for the delivery service.
At midnight we close the rooms. Your games can stay over the night, but sadly, we must send you all back to your own living places, dens, and lairs.
On the 11th of March, the second day of gaming starts at 09.00 AM.
At 11.00 AM, we are collecting food orders for the delivery service.
At 02.00 PM, we are closing the event softly.
During the whole event, we will provide you with coffee, tea varieties, and cookies for free.
You can order soft drinks from the delivery service with your food order.

You can book your attendance here.

We are looking forward to playing with you.
Good Play, Better Day!

The Dice & Mystics Fringe 2022 – A Celebration of Gaming

The fifth Dice & Mystics Fringe started later than intended, but it took of with a flourish. It had been  a long stretch from 2019 to 2022. Too long? We wondered, would people remember us, and would they come and play with us? Would we still miraculously get things for a raffle? You guys are amazing! When the bookings for this year’s Fringe opened, guess how long it took until first reservations rolled in? One second-questions answered.

The Dice & Mystics Fringe event had to follow the same rules as Spiel Essen, so everybody needed a mask, and also there were not quite as many people allowed in as in 2019. On the sunny side, that meant there was more space for everybody.

As soon as the announcement went public, publishers and designers – who, as always, were also cordially invited – immediately began to contact us and got us all excited about the truly wonderful things they would bring to our Fringe for you to win and enjoy. It soon became crystal clear that, even if the event was going to be a bit smaller, the hoard of raffle items would not. By no means.

Everybody was happy that the 5th Dice & Mystics Fringe was about to take place. Preparations started, our equipment had to be updated with things like disinfectant dispensers, new signs hung up, but all in all it felt like the “downtime” in between had never happened.

Prizes were sent to us, or we were invited to pick them up at the Spiel on Thursday and Friday. After the Spiel Essen had started, the table was soon groaning under the weight of good things donated to our raffle …

Prizes rolling in

… and that was just the beginning; many more contributions arrived later in the course of the event itself.

People started flocking in and in no time at all the tables were well-filled with all sorts of colorful and fun things and buzzingly busy. At 10 o’clock sharp, a voice boomed through the building: “Silence!” All fell quiet. The raffle was about to start.

The raffle begins

Three boxes of the little great game Witchcraft by King Racoon Games went to three happy winners, who went home with one of the most popular and sought after items of the fair. Witchcraft was sold out to the very last copy and could easily have sold lots more.

All good…
…things come…
… in threes.

If you are looking for an easy but highly entertaining game for younger kids, try and get this beautifully designed portion of Popcorn Dice by Van Rider Games. Who would have thought making popcorn can be thus challenging and exciting?

Yummy popcorn anyone-?

So Kleever by  Repos Games, intelligent at any time, soon exchanged hands, …

Clever Kleever

… and also  copies of the cool “Cactus” by Second Gate Games:

Cactus standee edition
ANother Cactus standee edition
Cactus miniature edition plus expansion for the standee edition.

LudoCafe from Brazil again gave away their unusually themed card laying game Afluentes (Tributary rivers) designed by Luish Moraes Coello …

Afluentes (Tributary Rivers)

… and two two copies of his brand new Ferias em Dupla (Double Holidays).

Double Holidays…
… and double joy.

Van Rider Games generously brought a whole treasure trove of graphic novel adventures for you to enjoy. Here are the lucky winners of: Captive, Dark Mage, Sherlock Holmes – Four Investigations, Hostage Negotiator, The Grand Tournament, Space Brigade, and also Sherlock Homes- The Shadow of Jack the Ripper.

Captivated by Captive
Dark Mage and Sherlock Holmes – Four Investigations
A capable Hostage Negotiator
The grand Tournament, Space Brigade, and Sherlock Holmes – The Shadow of Jack the Ripper

This beautiful “Spiel Attendee 2022” foldable wooden dice tower and also two dice trays and two vouchers  for their Spiel booth or online shop are by InMyBox from Croatia. Maybe you remember Their ingenious and breathtakingly designed wooden storage box for Scythe. This year, among a number of useful board game accessories, they also showed off an equally impressive box for the game Concordia at their booth.

A stylish dice tray and a voucher
The dice tray in a different attractive colour and another voucher
The “Spiel Attendee 2022” foldable dice tower

Not one, not two, but three awesome kickstarter pledges of the fabulous Flamecraft by Cardboard Alchemy with a number of exquisite enamel goodies, promos, a dragon miniature,  and a pair of adorably cute fluffy dragons went to very happy new owners.

Fun with a really great game…
… and cuddly critters…
… and lots of goodies to go with it all.

More phantastic creatures were to follow: The Ruinmasters Bestiary, a bestiary brimming with descriptions of fantastic creatures and beasts, with breathtaking art, by Riotminds:

Ruinmasters Bestiary

Not with stupor, but with cheers from the audience the Repos game Harry Potter – Stupor! passed into the hands of this aspiring young wizard:

A magical prize

Others had to stay safely on the grounds of solid Muggle reality with Fun Facts by Repos Games.

Facts are fun

A mask hides the broad grin as this lucky individual gets ready to join the gruesome festivities of Carnival Zombie, 2nd Edition by Albe Pavo.

Ready to join the Carnival

With Fire & Stone – Siege of Vienna 1683 plus promo pack by Capstone Games, this combatant can get in touch with European history.

Vienna under Siege

Another hush went through the room when a rarity found its new owner: Final Girl by Van Rider Games found its winner. It came together with the eagerly sought after and extremely rare Mystery Box, the promo card “Paula”, plus the vignette expansion Terror from Above.

The Final Girl in fearless hands

These is nothing quite like the Illustrated Trudvang – Hidden Trails, the truly great art book of Trudvang, by Riotminds:

Ready for a journey on Hidden Trails

Riotminds  also gave you the role-playing game Trudvang Chronicles – The Seed of Vanirs and the adventure book The Elven Road with an extensive and immersive role playing experience in the world of Trudvang, the latter written by Alexander Urbanek.

Travellers on the Elven Road

Chip Theory Games regretted they could not attend, but they sent greetings:

A copy of the famous Too many Bones by Chip Theory Games plus two delightful expansions: Ghillie and Nugget!

Prospector found Nugget …

The full moon, its expansion, minis and everything came down on this poor person who had been bold enough to attend the Fringe and not bring an extra trolley …

All given away with a smile

… because King Racoon Games had donated a copy of their Tsukuyumi Full Moon Down – Miniature Edition. Look at his face and see if he has any doubts he will only be too glad to carry this home-!

A whole tower of exciting gaming time

Another very special treat was going to Brazil . an incredible diorama of Warhammer Khagras Ravagers in tournament quality!

This amazing piece of art by the truly gifted painter Adrijano Kesgei  was donated by his Rhino and Navel Miniature Painting Studio and obviously took the winner’s breath away.

And last but not least, this Lucky Bob here gets a precious handshake from Jamie Jolly from Shadowborne Games – sealing the promise that in just a few days one of the – at that moment – last five existing standee pledges of Oathsworn is already his. We have news that the game has arrived in prime condition almost immediately after Spiel Essen, resulting in the winner skipping the weekly game night: “I have some unboxing to do…”

“What did I win -?”

We had fun, we enjoyed coffee, tea and biscuits and each other’s company, the worldwide friendship,  recurrent and brand new attendees, we were missing those who had not been able to come, a good friend we lost, we saw all the hotness of Spiel Essen in action and played through on our tables, and we thoroughly celebrated the hobby of gaming.  And again, after such a long wait and a fun game night in Bochum, another Dice & Mystics Fringe event ended.

We are grateful for all those amazing and generous gifts of you, the publishers who donated the prizes, and send a heartfelt Thank You your way, and especially we thank King Racoon Games who also came with several crates of free drinks and snacks for everyone.

We give a Big Thank You to our engaged, tireless helpers and fellow gamers who made the event possible, especially our friend who came home alone from his family holiday to be there for us and for you while his family stayed on. Big Thanks to the Community of St. Engelbert of the Parish of St. Franziskus, who once again allowed us to use their entire building, and the kind ladies of the “Ecumenical Lunch”, who – as we found out only after our event – without further ado just postponed their gathering to the following week.

And we got presents from you, too, anything from manioc snacks and incredibly yummy pacoquita peanut bites from Brazil, delicious Tim Tams from Australia, extraordinary chocolates and specialty coffee, lavender tea (if you know you do know, if you wonder why, you do not need to know), beautiful shot glasses and liquor from Croatia, … to name just a few. Thank you so much!

Delicacies from all over the globe

Nice and friendly things have been said to us. Trying to be kind and sociable towards one another is quite enough, apparently, to give everybody a good feeling, at least for a wonderful while. We simply celebrated our hobby, just as you did when you came to us to play.

As it is 2023 now, we wish you all an excellent and very happy New Year! Hoping to see you all again. Stay safe, game on, and be kind towards each other!

Good Play, Better Day!

Your Dice & Mystics

Dice & Mystics–Up and Running: Dice & Mystics Fringe 2022

Attention! Urgent update at bottom!!!

Long time no see …

In Spring 2020 the first lockdown–or rather the pandemic itself–stopped us in full swing. No more game nights, no planning for the future. Staying safe and keeping others safe was paramount.

The core of the Dice & Mystics never stopped gaming: We went online. Now, more than two years later, we are back at St. Engelbert’s and are having our regular game nights again. Everything is not as before, but slowly getting there. We sorely miss a dearly departed friend we had shared good company and many an exciting game with. We gained some friends who had deepened their love of board games during the lockdowns.

We are again ordering our dinners to prepare for the coming adventures because most of us come straight from work, and with restrictions concerning the kitchen gone, we will soon be having biscuits, sweets, teas, and coffees once more.

And we have started planning for another Dice & Mystics Fringe event during the next Spiel in October 2022!

Providing nothing untoward is suddenly going to happen, we will attend the Spiel Essen this year and will also be able to host

the 5th Dice & Mystics Fringe on Saturday, October 8th, from 4 p.m. to 12 midnight.

We already reserved the location. There will be tables and chairs for you to bring and try out all those great games you will have bought at the fair, leave your shrink-wraps and punched cardboard behind, discuss your Spiel experiences and enjoy each other’s company. (For bokings see UPDATE at the bottom of this post.)

As usual, there will be no entrance fee or any other costs for you. We are soon going to update all information on how to reach us, and how to book places, on this website www.diceandmystics.de.

At the premises, you will be able to order food and drinks from our usual caterer and have them delivered directly to your tables. Please have some cash and small change ready, as you will not be able to pay via credit card.

As the dangers of the pandemic are not entirely over, we need to put some adjustments in place. We have to have more space between the gaming tables and less of a crowd around the free coffee, tea, and biscuits we would like to have ready for you. Consequently, we can, sadly, not allow as many people in as at our past events. We hope this is going to change again in the future.

Disclaimer:

We reserve the right to restrict, limit, or deny access to our event in order to protect your safety or the safety of other attendees.
Especially we are bound by German laws, regulations, and ordinances related to COVID-19, which could change the format, the number of attendees, or the timing of our event. Additional restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic could also change other aspects, e.g. vaccination requirements, face coverings, and other precautions, of our event or even result in its cancelation at any time and possibly on short or no notice.

Should we have to cancel the event due to restrictions in place by the German authorities, we will attempt to inform you via our website www.diceandmystics.de as soon as reasonably possible.



We welcome your free decision to wear a facial mask and disinfect your hands to protect yourself and others from any danger and keep your distance where sensible. Please do respect the decision of any group that prefers to wear facial masks at their table.

There are no words to tell you how much we missed meeting you all, and we are excitedly looking forward to the Spiel and once again celebrating our great hobby together this October.

Take care, keep your fingers crossed, stay safe, and have fun gaming. We’ll be seeing you soon.

Your Dice & Mystics

UPDATE 1: The booking site is up staring today, 18.07.2022. Book here: https://doo.net/veranstaltung/107734/buchung

UPDATE 2: We are happy about the great response to our event: The Dice & Mystics Fringe is booked full.

An especially big THANK YOU to all our recurring guests and gamers for your support and enthusiasm for our great hobby. And a big WELCOME to all new faces. We are looking forward to seeing you!

If you were not able to book a ticket, you can have your name put on a waiting list. For this, please use the contact function of this website.

UPDATE 3: As promised, we would like to notify you of the following: Acccording to the current situation and the news, it now appears likely that we will have to have a mask mandate for our Fringe, just like Spiel Essen have already announced for the fair.

Therefore, please bring a medical grade protective face mask covering mouth and nose (“surgical mask”). Children aged 6 years and above will also have to wear the same type of face mask. Since safety is our top priority, we unfortunately will not be able to accept any medical certificates for exemption from the mask requirement.

On 23.9.2022 a new Corona Protection Ordinance NRW will come into force, which might require an extended hygiene concept. For this reason, please check this website again shortly before the Fringe event for any changes

UPDATE 4:

ATTENTION! URGENT UPDATE!

We have a total roadblock on “Kassenberger Straße”  just a very short distance before our event location.

It is approximaletly a  5 to 10 minute walk on foot from the entry into Kassenberger Straße to the Dice & Mystics Fringe. If you come by public transport, you might get off at the bus stop next to it, called “Scharpenseelstraße”, and walk a little downhill in the direction the bus is continuing and enter Kassenberger Straße on foot.

There is an alternative if you stay on the bus until it reaches “Bahnhof Dahlhausen” (Dahlhausen train station).  However, we have no information if you can still continue via bus from there; we are researching the situation this very moment. (Waling from there is definitely the longer – and a rather steep – stretch.) There will be another update tomorrow.

This also applies to everybody arriving by train from Essen. Again, we are researching if you can continue via bus. We will update you tomorrow.

If you come by car (from Bochum city or via the A 40), drive past Kassenberger Straße and take the next small road that comes up on the right (at the nice blue house) called “Kapellenweg”. Ignore the sign that says “Anlieger frei (For Anlieger only)”. As you are guests at our location, you are “Anlieger” who need to go through to reach your destination. At the end of that short road, turn right or left, just as you please, whatever seems convenient. The road you get on is called “Gaußstraße” and runs in a full circle right past the event location. If you have been at our Fringe event before, you might have parked your car there last time. You can also drive past the church and on to “Kassenberger Straße” for more parking opportunities.

UPDATE ON COVID REGULATIONS

Please take note that you need to wear an FFP2 mask or a medical mask inside the building at all times, as it is the case at SPIEL ESSEN, too. 


UPDATE 5:

NEW UPDATE (September 29th) / NEUES UPDATE (29. September)


There is news for people arriving by train via Bahnhof Dahlhausen:
The bus line 345 will still get you close to the event location by an alternative route. Take the bus 345 from Bahnhof Dahlhausen. (The line ends/starts there, so there is only one direction.) The bus stop is at the side of Lidl supermarket, right next to the little roundabout. It is just 2 stops up the other side of the hill. Get off at “Scharpenseelstrasse”. You will already have seen the entry into “Kassenberger Straße”. So get off and double back to “Kassenberger Straße”. From there it is just a short and easy walk, about 5-10 minutes, along Kassenberger Straße which will lead you directly to the church and to our event location. (Do not consider walking up the hill from the station directly, as this would take much, much longer and be uncomfortably steep.)

For people arriving by bus, coming from Bochum city: Get off at “Scharpenseelstrasse” and continue downhill to the entry into “Kassenberger Straße”. Follow “Kassenberger Straße” to reach your destination.

No Dice & Mystics Fringe in 2021

We are forced to very sadly say: There will be no Dice & Mystics Fringe in 2021

There aren’t words to appropriately describe what it feels like to be forced to announce that, just like last year, the ongoing pandemic makes it utterly impossible for us to host the Dice & Mystics Fringe during the SPIEL ESSEN board game fair in 2021.

The SPIEL ESSEN is scheduled to take place, but what exactly the conditions are going to be at that time is really hard to tell within this dynamic situation. We hope all of you who come will have a good journey and a wonderful time at Essen, and you will all be safe, well, happy and successful in all your endeavours.  

For us, your Dice and Mystics, and our Fringe event, it is, however, clear that the pandemic situation and the necessary preventive measures will make it virtually impossible for us to welcome you to come together as one large happy crowd, mingle, sit down, play together and be comfortable and well cared for.

We were even unable to do any planning and organizing to prepare – which would have had to start as early as March when it was still unclear whether there would be any fair at all this year – and up to this point in time, and under the present health measures, we have no guaranteed access to our location which we use(d) to host our game nights and especially the Dice & Mystics Fringe, which is so dear to our hearts.

There will be a year 2022, there will be another SPIEL ESSEN, and there will be a Dice & Mystics Fringe again, when we will all be looking back at the past 2 years with a sigh of regret but also of relief.  The Dice & Mystics are readying themselves to see you all again and welcome you at our gaming tables.

The Dice & Mystics Fringe 2019 – A Company of Friends

The 4th “Dice & Mystics Fringe “ is in the past, and believe it or not, we have started preparing for 2020… As small as the event is, our “TinyCon” has turned into a regular thing by now, something that our guests regard as a natural part of their Spiel Essen experience: A night spent in good company, among old and new friends. And oh my, do we miss everybody!

For the majority of our guests, it has been the 3rd or even the 4th time. They meet but once a year at the Fringe – and immediately sit down together, unbox a game and play like they see each other at game nights on a regular basis.  The rooms start filling up rapidly, but nobody wastes any time but gets down to some serious fun right away.

Tables starting to fill up

The guests of the Fringe have slowly turned into a real community where everybody looks out for everybody else. The new booking system worked just fine, and we have been told it made things a lot easier. We still handled the few cancellations manually, and we give our thanks to everybody who needed to cancel and was so kind to mail us so that others on the waiting list had their chance. As always, we do hope that only positive things have kept you away.  It would have been so much easier to simply not turn up – but not a single one of you would ever do that to anybody else, oh no. You care for each other. The Fringe is starting to feel like an international family gathering. Many people from different corners of the earth know each other, have long since become friends, and they warmly welcome everybody who is new to the event. We hear that again and again, from regulars and first-timers alike: “We feel at home here.” What more could we possibly hope for?

Inside the largest of 4 game rooms

People make appointments for games, bring each other presents, translate from one language to another and back, share, teach and learn new games, exchange Spiel experiences and insights, give each other lifts back to their hotels and apartments. And the special thing is, that such things are not just happening between “regular” gamers, but they include the publishers, designers, artists, reviewers and YouTubers, because apart from who else they may be, they are gamers like all others sitting at the same tables, having fun together.

Waiting for the night’s raffle to start

Good-will and friendship are the key to everything. The Fringe would not be possible without the Parish of St. Engelbert, who once again let us use the building free of any charge.  We humbly thank for their hospitality and hope we will continue to benefit from their kindness and be able to host the Fringe event for years to come.

There were so many people of the Dice & Mystics but especially the guests themselves who made this a special night. Last year we took photos of where the tables were standing after you had all left and used this to arrange them accordingly right from the start. The buffet in the lobby had a new feature: next to tea, coffee, biscuits and sweets, there was also plain tap water. Judging by the number of refills this had actually been a good idea, and it had sprung from observations made by everybody together. But you are the people who bring yourselves and your games to our tables and create this great sense of community.

A big part of this community are also those good people from the gaming industry who bring you gifts and want to share their passion and joy of board games:

  • Albe Pavo contributed some serious fun in the shape of “BEER & Vikings”:
BEER & Vikings
  • Breaking Games did not think twice but gave us one copy of everything they had with them: “The Stars Align”, “We’re Doomed”, “Trellis”, “Rise of Tribes” deluxe and “Expancity”.

The Stars Align
We’re Doomed
Trellis
The Rise of Tribes plus deluxe extras
Expancity
  • Chip Theory Games who were sad that due to their schedule they could not come this time insisted on donating a copy of their much admired “Cloudspire” for you to win.
Cloudspire
  • Again there were quite a number of € 10 vouchers from Fantasywelt.de, the large German online game retailer.
One of the many vouchers
  • GOTTA2 Games from Japan showcased their beautiful little social deduction game  “Who am I” where you are invited to the Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland, sitting around a miniature table set with miniature real china dishes (all actually in the box). Of course they donated it to be raffled off to a lucky winner:
Who am I?
  • The amazingand wonderful Julie Ahern of Greenbrier Games did not take long to decide and simply gave us a copy of – everything! This bonanza included such gems as “Champions of Hara”,  “Of Dreams & Shadows“ plus the expansion,  “Helios Expanse” and – a huge box containing a full kickstarter pledge of “Folklore”, with a cherry on top.
Of Dreams & Shadows plus expansion
Champions of Hara
A big box full of Folklore

  • InMyBox, the wonder workers who design incredible things crafted in wood, donated their prize item, an ingeniously constructed and most beautiful storage solution for “Scythe” (and did you now each and every “Big Bad Box” is individually numbered?):
Big Bad Box: Perfect storage solution for “Skythe”
  • Once again our friends King Racoon Games gave us two copies of their famous “Tsukuyumi Full Moon Down”, the comic and also the art book, signed by the brilliant Felix Mertikat himself, and also the novel (in German) that was written after the game.
Tsukuyumi…
… Full Moon Down
The comic
The art book
The novelization
  • Mythic Games againpresented our guests with their great success “Time of Legends: Joan of Arc”, and once again rounded off with a “little” big extra: The “Reliquiary” box containing kickstarter specials!
Time of Legends: Joan of Arc, kickstarter extras, and yet another a voucher from Fantasywelt.de on top
  • There were two copies of  the much anticipated “Last Bastion”, quite the hotness,  by REPOS Production:
SLast Bastion
  • Scribabs (you may know their “Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas: Malleus Maleficarum”) generously provided for those who enjoy running in packs and hunting in the night:  a copy of “Armata Strigoi”!
Run with the (Were-)Wolves: Armata Strigoi
  • There were some prizes by Spieleparadies Wagner, the local toy and games shop in Bochum, too, of course. And they wouldn’t be who they are if they had not thought of including some very special prizes catering for the refined and more tender taste…
Princess in distress, successfully rescued by noble knight
Hana Zuki & C0.
  • Tetrahedron Games gave away two editions of their fun and colourful game “Dodoesque” – “Cherry Blossom” and “Jungle Fever”- for the raffle.  (Check out their Viking game VALHAL, too!)
Dodoesque Cherry Blossom
Dodoesque Jungle Fever

And last but by no means least we once again had the great pleasure of having with us:

The Dice Tower, who brought happy moments with their cute dice panda. It will be loved and cherished in its new home.

Dice Panda…
… and his new best friend.

It is not hard to see that by accepting your prizes with a radiant smile you also made the donors happy.

Happy to give…
… and happy for each other.

I was told that for the people inside the booths at the fair, it always remains a two-sided contact between a salesperson and one or a few customers at a time, with pre-set roles and a real or a virtual sales counter separating them from one another. This is o.k., that’s what everybody goes to the fair for: showcase your games to the public, sell them, have games shown to you, and empty your pockets and purses to fill up the trolleys and car boots with hours and hours of gaming fun.

GOTTA2 Games at Spiel Essen

But at the Fringe, especially during the raffle, everybody is on “the same side”, and when a game is held aloft to be raffled off to a happy winner, the excited murmurs, the cheers and spontaneous branding applause from such large a crowd are a feedback publishers do not get anywhere else. From what we experienced, they really put their hearts into their games. Their audience’s love and appreciation for what they do and create means a lot to them.

Board game friends

The main thing, though, is the hobby itself and the people who share it. We hope you are enjoying your prizes, but in truth really everybody was winning, learning a new game, seeing many of the year’s new releases on the table and in action, meeting somebody maybe from a different part of the world and sharing that one legendary game with each other. Thank you to each and every one of you all!

You brought us plenty of great and tasty gifts as well, and we also say a big thank you for that!

Especially dear to us were also some wonderful people from Life of a Board Gamer (Danijel Ljubas) and from Meeple University (Stella Jahja)who work to keep us all informed about the board gaming hobby and the happenings around it and who also found kind words in their reports and v-logs about their first time at the Fringe. Maybe you would like to have a peek:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8faiaGSlBN-_fDSBajddMA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjMq6IaluF9cpfBp8pA3BQ

We do hope you all had a great time, felt warmly welcome and are thinking back with fond memories.

We do hope you all had a great time, felt warmly welcome and are thinking back with fond memories.

We are not an organisation or club, neither have nor accept any money, with the exception of the donations to the parish for charity and the upkeep of the house, for which we thank you very much. Everything else is freely given away to make others happy:

Good play – better day!

It is for you all that we are hosting this event, and we are ever more richly rewarded by a happy company playing all those great games together, and by having you all as our friends!


See you all in October 2020!

Dice & Mystics Fringe 2019 Booked Full

Hey everybody – I have news concerning the Dice & Mystics Fringe:

We are booked full.

We could not believe our eyes, but it’s true, and it’s only July…!

To everybody who successfully used our new booking system: We hope it was as convenient and easy for you as we intended it to be, and we thank you so much for joining our 2019 event.

For anybody who would still like to come but did not catch a ticket:

With the online booking system there is no waiting list. However, as soon as anybody has to cancel, we will manually remove their reservation and booking will re-open for those places, so keep your eyes peeled for any free spot that may pop up again. If there are any problems, you can reach out to us at: contact(at)diceandmystics.de

To anybody who has a ticket but cannot come:

Please do send an e-mail with your cancellation to contact(at)diceandmystics.de ! Please include your booking number.

There will be other people who would gladly like to take your spot, and for them to be able to do so we have to manually cancel the ticket so that there will be a free spot indicated in the booking system. For that, we must of course first know that there is a vacancy! Thank you very much in advance.

All that remains to say is: We are very much looking forward to meet you all in person in just over three months. Till then, have a wonderful time, lots of fun gaming, and a safe journey to Spiel Essen and our Dice & Mystics Fringe event in Bochum.

Good play – better day!

VALHAL – Joy and Sorrow in a Viking’s Life

Have you ever come around the next morning after a rollicking party with a headache, scrambling for orientation and finding your befuddled brain completely and totally blank? If you ever experienced such an extreme yourself, you might be able to feel with the stricken heroes in this historical civilisation builder board game. Everybody else will just have to employ their imagination.  The name of the game is a clue in itself: VALHAL is all about Vikings. Real ones. The theme of VALHAL is the life and day of the historic Vikings, and their religious beliefs play an important part. But Ragnarök can wait. For now, the most important thing is being a true Viking who, after a glorious death, will then proudly stride into Asgard, with his sword in hand, and claim his place amidst the mead drinking ranks of the heroes of Valhal. This is the sole and most noble purpose of every Viking’s very existence! It is just that a combination of too much mead, and a too deeply felt anticipation of the glorious afterlife, can lead to certain unforeseen complications…

On one fateful morning, the Vikings of Fjörnheim, a fictitious island in the North, wake up with a legendary headache. Still struggling with the aftereffect of mead still coursing through their veins and some major memory gaps concerning the finer details of the previous night, they are facing Rattatöskr, messenger of the gods, who brings it to their notice that in their drunken state they “accidentally” chopped up a holy tree to feed their little camp fire. The proprietors of the tree in question, the Gods of Asgard, are not amused. At all. Without further ado they withdraw the post-mortem access authorization to Asgard and Valhal from the hung-over Norsemen. Things cannot possibly get any worse for a Viking-!

The theme of the game:

This civilization builder board game takes place in the early Viking era, which is depicted with great historical accuracy down to the very details.  You assume the responsibility of one of the Fjörnheim Jarls under whose leadership the Norsemen strive to manage, improve and further their settlements and, most importantly, perform great deeds – i.e. go a-viking and bring home loot. This is done in order to gain Glory and win back the favour of the Gods and eventually be welcomed at the doors of Asgard and admitted into Valhal after their heroic demise.

Some basic data:

  • Published by  Tetrahedron-Games 2018 (Copyright 2017)
  • Designed by  Martin Otzmann and Mario Arthur
  • Artwork by  Nele Diel
  • Plays  2 – 4 players
  • Age  10+
  • Duration of Gameplay  90 – 120 minutes
  • Setup-Time  about 12 minutes
  • Box Size  square box (23,5 x 23,5 x 6,5 cm)

Lots of fun stuff in a box:

  • 1 Season Marker, which is the central game board in the middle of which the seasons get indicated (there is even a surplus of 3 additional Season Markers in the box that can be used as replacements)
  • 4 Favour of the Gods  displays (1 per player)
  • 4 Ravenhead Tokens in the player colours, used to record the progress on the Favour of the Gods display (1 per player)
  • 7 Achievenment Tokens (grant bonus points for being first to achieve certain objectives)
  • 8 Memory Aid Tokens (with the sides ”Spring & Disabled“ und “Summer & Winter“)
  • 16 Food Tokens
  • 16 Building Tokens:  8 Wood Tokens
      8 Iron Tokens
  • 80 Coins
  • 5 game boards:  4 Viking Settlements (the Viking settlement of the player where
    they can build, train their warriors and manage their ressources)
    The Mainland (one central game boardwhere the villages and towns to be raided are laid out)
  • 72 unit cards: 28 units Nordic Warriors
      20 units Nordic Veterans (elite warriors) and
      24 Longboats (the famous Viking dragon boats)
  • 16 Buildings Cards:  4 Warehouses (improve building of ships)   
      4 Blacksmith’s (help warriors to become “veterans”)
      4 Granaries (improve the food situation in winter)
       4 Sacrificial Altars (grant ”Benevolence of the gods” cards)
  • 24 Town Cards  (from small undefended villages to strong fortified towns plus relief troops) .
  • 24 Town Cards  (from small undefended villages to strong fortified towns plus relief troops)
  • 149 Playing Cards : 50 Event Cards
      30 Benevolence of (the) Gods Cards
      30 Wrath of the Gods Cards
      15 Lesser Loot Cards
      10 Large Loot Cards
      10 Greater Loot Cards
  • 4 Battletableaus
  • 20 Markers (little wooden cubes in 3 different colours)
  • 4 red D6 Dice
  • 20 white Custom Dice (faces showing 1 to 3, with each number appearing twice)

Sounds like a huge amount of content? It certainly is. It really baffles the mind how is it possible to put out such a lot of gaming fun for such a reasonable price. It is not the sheer number of single game parts alone that is impressive: The artwork is really excellent and the production quality of the components is good. Everything is straightforward, easy to handle, and well-made.  For such a modest price (or even higher prices) we have – on other occasions – seen flimsy products with just a fraction of components such as these. So it is truly amazing and also very gratifying to see how much of a game you are getting in a box of VALHAL by comparison.

The creators themselves, however, told us they are not entirely happy with the quality of the components, especially with some of the cards, although we and our fellow gamers had been satisfied with the present production and its components. So anyone who is planning to get themselves a copy of their own: You can look forward to the upcoming re-issue of the game (soon on  kickstarter) with components made by different production companies where everything is going to be even better than it is now!

What impressed us the most about this game is the care and thoroughness that went into the way the theme has been translated into the design and the game mechanics. There is not a single aspect that has not been researched and implemented correctly in terms of cultural history: There are no anachronisms anywhere, n horned helmets or any other such popular nonsense in evidence! The creators did not simply paste a popular theme onto a game mechanism, the mechanism organically grows from the very depths and realities of the theme itself. They do take the Nordic culture of that particular era very seriously indeed. This even applies to such detail as the colour scheme of the game and its components which moves within the scope of exclusively such pigments that would actually have been available at the time of the Vikigs. Wow! That’s what we call dedication! If you are expecting extravagant fantasy Vikings sprung from a comic strip, you won’t find any of those here. But you are not giong to miss them either. VALHAL is a novel and crisp gaming experience with a sound mixture of rules, strategies and luck – just like real life. If, however, you are genuinely into the historic Viking people, you will in fact experience some of their real life while enjoying a game of VALHAL If you have none such expectations and simply want to play an interesting board game, VALHAL is for you, too.

The settlements:

There are four identical settlements. This settlement is the actual playing board for each player, where the destiny of the villagers decides; the victory points generated here are counted on the Favour of the Gods display. In the centre of each settlement there is the Jarl’s longhouse; this is where you place your resources. You collect your (unspent) coins, food tokens and building tokens (wood, iron). The number of food tokens in limited to four: Prior to the invention of canned food and freezers, you just could not store an unlimited food supply to last you all year. So in real Viking life, resources did actually run scarce at times…

In your settlement you have a shipbuilder; in that spot you are able to construct your dragon boats. You have a training ground where you may train farmers to become brave seafarers and man your ships, and a rune stone where you may sacrifice gold or glory (victory points) to be granted a favour of the gods. But be warned – gods are not bound to any profane rules. The favours they will grant are not always beneficial to mortals…

Also, each settlement has building sites for additional buildings – a warehouse, a granary and a blacksmith – as well as an (already existing) armoury for the use of which, however, you need a blacksmith, because it requires a blacksmith to adequately equip simple sailors with the necessary means to become seasoned veteran warriors. That makes a lot of sense.

Your objective is to finish your building as soon as possible. In order to do this, you must first place a coin on the building site and provide food for the settlement. (Workers need to eat.) Using resources can enable you to start or speed up the building process even without any food tokens. When finished, buildings allow you to build ships faster and with fewer resources, to train up and equip warriors or also to have more food during the long winter (better storage conditions).

How to play:

Each game consists of several rounds which take place during the three (!) seasons (summer, winter and spring). At the start of the first round, each player owns one longboat, one unit Nordic warriors manning it, one unit food, two units iron (represented by the two tokens) and three coins.

It starts with a “Vikingfahrt“:

You can only go on a Vikingfahrt (Viking sea raid) in summer. Therefore, the game starts in summer, and you begin by placing some (unfortified) villages on the mainland; their number is determined following the number of players present. And off you go!

The villages you aim for are easy prey – or not: There are small unprotected hamlets, but also big, heavily fortified cities that put up some fierce resistance with the help of relief troops in a second wave of defense. You are facing the dilemma that the easy targets guarantee some booty and a safe return of ship and men, but the booty you bring home may be rather unimpressive. Those rich fortified cities, on the other hand, contain a heap of real riches to be gleaned, and often some noble offspring into the bargain that can earn you a handsome ransom, but all this comes at great risk.

One thing is for certain: If you opt for a risk-free life bullying some conveniently harmless farmers into giving up the little they have,  you and your settlement will yourself end up having little, no heroic ballads are sung in your praise and the gates of Valhal will forever stay shut. So when you are planning ahead where to risk a sea raid, you should think and re-think before you take action.

You pick out one of the places laid out on the mainland that you want to raid and pillage and chose the longboat and unit of warriors you want to employ for the task. The next step is the actual fight. A successfully pillaged village or city is removed from the mainland and you bag all the loot that is stated on its card: gold, resources like food, wood or iron, ransom for hostages…

That having been done, the next player starts the next raid on the respective target. This continues until all the places on the mainland have been raided. 

How you fight:

If a ship has more than one unit of warriors on board, you have to first determine which of them is going to attack first.  The attack bonuses do add up, but not the life points. All attack bonuses are used in battle, but only the unit in front takes the damage. If the attacking unit in front loses all life points and die, the remaining unit will be next to attack, but of course there are no more bonuses to add up. This gives you the impression you are dealing with real human beings who are acting together in small groups, though you do not experience them as different individuals. However, you do perceive them in a totally different way than you would if you played “unit“ as a mere abstract.

Cities have their life points, too, and they can either put up a weak or a very strong defence.  An attempted raid cannot only fail, it can actually end in disaster!  This is a somewhat sobering view of the raiding seafarers.  What they do is depicted with all the dangers and uncertainties, the risk of paying for some lousy loot with the death of crew members, or even never returning home but sleeping with the fishes forever.

The good news: If your unit of warriors „die“, i.e. lose all their life points, they are not dead yet, but wounded to such an extent that their number of life points will be considerably lower in the next fight. The bad news: The wounded warriors are, of course, also weaker now. If the unit lose all their life points a second time, they are then considered dead and are removed from game. If the ship is no longer manned because your first and also second unit of warriors are truly dead, it is removed from the game. (It is lost to you.) This system also adds a lot to the realism of the gameplay.

The clear and well-structured combat system is easy to grasp and plays smoothly. How successful you are is determined by your attacking strength and choosing your targets wisely, but the dice add a random element of luck. The result of this combination convincingly simulates the actual hazards of a “Vikingfahrt”: However well you prepare, in reality you simply cannot achieve a total control on events and circumstances! To influence the probabilities in your own favour and prevent the worst from happening, all you can do is to plan ahead as well as you can and think your decisions through.  The element of luck adds a lot of suspense to the gameplay, but it also helps you maintain the hope that next time fortune will smile at you again, even while you are failing.

And there is more good news: If at any point a Jarl finds himself without any ship or men, his settlement will immediately provide a new ship and unit of warriors! It rarely ever happens that your settlement has to throw you that lifeline, but it makes certain that all players can always continue to have fun together and game on. When all is said, this is what it’s all about, even in a most definitely non-cooperative game. We really like this simple solution because it excludes nobody and there is no interrution in the flow of the game.

This happens during winter and spring:

After your “Vikingfahrt“ you will – hopefully – have all the resources necessary to prepare for the coming summer and to further develop your settlement.

You place food tokens on the seasons on your settlement. Food tokens can be replaced by coins; you “buy” food you do not have. Next you need to hire more men, train up your already existing units to become veterans, and of course you have to build things. This is important because the buildings give you certain advantages once they are finished. It is essential to have a larger number of reliable ships, too, and also more warriors manning them, because all those villages that are easy prey will soon be gone (due to certain activities of certain seafarers from way up north). The cities you will be trying to raid next will not be overcome by a handful of men in a glorified rowing boat.  In fact, this is a very busy and fast-paced phase in VALHAL .

The zeal you invest in your own village is not unlke the joyous ecxitement you would feel when packing your bags for a world trip. Your setttlement must survive the long winter; the journeys of the summer ust be well prepared for so that the men and boats will return safely and laden with treasures – what could be more important? Nothing, absolutely nothing of what happens here will be without consequence. In fact, this is a very busy and fast-paced phase in VALHAL

How to win – or lose:

You win by collecting the most victory points and thus being the first to reach the open gates of Asgard on the Favor of the Gods display.

The gaming experience viewed from the inside:

We tested VALHAL several times at our Dice & Mystics game nights: People who come to us expect to spend a nice, relaxing and entertaining time with good board games. Such guests only sit down at the table when the new game looks attractive and promises a great, varied gaming experience.

VALHAL immediately passes the visual test: As soon as the box is opened, there is a lot of interest. The artwork is appealing to all, and especially to some outspoken fans of the Viking culture, who admire the great care taken in the game design. They visibly enjoy the fact that the bold seafarers of the North, who so fascinate them, are not just props and decoration. During the following game rounds we constantly hear comments and observations about the life of the real Norsemen, their characteristics and their daily lives; the game arouses interest and furthers understanding. 

There is no shortage of players. Setup takes a little time. Good things will take a while. Patiently and full of anticipation we endeavor to learn the rules for the impressive amout of components. What appeared a little complicated at first soon turns out to be quite easy to grasp. In the first round, the rules are still in the foreground, but everything works smoothly and effortlessly: We sit down, start playing, and have fun.

The first “Vikingfahrt“ is quite easily accomplished, although success is by no means guaranteed.  In our very first trial round, all men and ships return successfully. The Jarls are happy. The first building projects commence in winter, in spring one of the settlements is proud to have their own blacksmith.  When the second much more difficult  “Vikingfahrt“ is in progress,  the rules  are crystal clear and the combat system does not need to be explained anymore.

The following summer it gets obvious that the first raid with the small easy-to-pillage villages had actually been some kind of tutorial. This is neat. It feels more natural to go through the steep learning curve within the actual gameplay rather than having to complete a separate practise session before. (In later game rounds, for a new gamer to be able to join in, a quic briefing about the bare essentials proves sufficient, everything else can be learned “on the fly”. Learning by Doing actually worked just fine!)

As the game proceeds, it turns out that it is not so easy to complete your buildings quickly enough and take advantage of them, if you had previously chosen to follow the less profitable but safer path. Two things become very evident. First, VALHAL rewards taking risks, not choosing the safest way. Second, the smallest mistake in your planning is going to mercilessly lead to serious consequences. That does make sense: The living conditions in the Viking age allowed no mistakes. So you have to be pretty alert and quick-witted. If you miscalculate your sea raids or fail to provide for he long winter or bring home too much of the wrong loot, you will have serious problems at hand – and there go your chances to become the most successful and most renowned settlement in all Fjörnheim. Winners as well as losers – all our gamers are enjoying themselves and want to play again as soon as possible.

At the following game nights and with the same paricpants, the gameplay is even more balanced. Everybody knows how it goes (or rather how Rattatöskr scuttles). Nonody is careless enough to naively attack the most harmless hamlet; all building activities, resource management and storage projects are planned more carefully and with better foresight; more ships and crews go a-viking, the game becomes more eventful, faster and more fluent, and whoever is going to win this time ramains open until he game is finished.

In the end, everybody applauds the winner, but although there is no envy among the players, you can read it in their faces – resolutions are being made to do everything differently and better the next time, all in order to win the favor of the gods. That’s the way it is meant to be!

Final thoughts:

If it was not for this little horned guy,  we might have taken a little longer to catch our attention, but a glance round the corner and there he was, his little keen eyes blinking up at us from his place on the corner of the table – and we stood spellbound! We were captivated on the spot!

This little fellow is the messenger of the Gods (the Asen), who came scuttling down the trunk of the world ash Yggdrasil all the way down to our hung-over Vikings to deliver the dire message of the angry management. This unusually attractive figurine is not needed for the game itself, but renouncing him? No Viking way!

The messenger of the gods, a finely sculpted resin figure, and the attractive leather coasters with their beautiful ornaments are the extras that come with the special edition.  But even without them the game VALHAL is a visual treat.

VALHAL is more than playable eye candy, it also has substance. It combines original, “organic” game mechanics with a historically correct and realistic representation of a popular theme. You can see very clearly what a huge amount of true passion and great care has been invested in the creation of this game. There is so much to do and experience, and although it is played taking turns, there is no downtime that deserves the name. 

The Viking theme so convincingly portrayed by Nele Diehl is not an illustration, it becomes tangible and alive. That is what makes VALHAL so special. Even the steep learning curve at the beginning can be explained by the logical and convincing derivation of the rules from the topic itself.

The playing time given by the publisher is a realistic estimate, as demonstrated on several game nights. This makes VALHAL an interesting game not only for plays at home but also for a game club. Several games one after the other, even with partial change of players, are easily possible.

VALHAL appeals to different types of gamers, is entertaining, plays differently each time and offers excellent value for money for a good and unusual game with good production quality. Its moderate length makes it suitable for adults, but it is easy enough to learn to be accessible to older children.

To sum up:

VALHAL has convinced us:  It’s great funthroughout! What more can you possibly want? We are glad that we discovered this game which now enriches our collection. „You should bring it to the table more often“, we’re being told, und there are questions concerning the upcoming kickstarter…

(The Dice & Mystics thank the publisher Tetrahedon Games for the free copy of their game.)

By: Martina Frohme; Dice & Mystics

Unexpected encounters of the board game kind… (Part 2)

Apparently, this time and day board games are the hotness. They seem to be so big „a thing“, they can now easily be used to promote huge international brands and keep them rolling nicely. Sometimes quite literally.

I needed a new set of summer tyres for my car. While I made myself comfortable on a Ferrari red sofa with a nice cup of coffee for the wait, I casually glanced across to the “kid’s corner“. I had expected to see toy cars and wooden building bricks, picture books and the like. They were all there, of course, and even that inescapable dexterity “game“ where the child entertainee has to navigate some (theft-and-nonsense-proof) ring or other device along twisting wires and all kinds of challenges towards some goal within the construction. I find these contraptions ever so enticing and am very temped to give it a go, but when all is said I always end up not to because squatting down on one of those miniature chairs with my ears next to my knees would be too embarrassing…

But the dexterity game was clearly outshone this time buy a total of three boxes with different games all produced for promotional purposes. There was a “family game for up to 7 players“ titled “I love my Doblo“ designed after “Snakes and Ladders” meets “Game of Life“, having event spaces like “Mom is sick. Move back 5 spaces.“, “First soccer training. TraTransporting half the team. Advance 7 spaces.“ und “Puberty. 3 spackes backwards. Have an argument.“ (NOT joking here.)

The winner is whoever gets on the new Fiat Doblo in the centre of the board first. If you can also ”beat“ the other player’s pieces and send them back to “start“ like in other games was not explicit in the rules. I have an idea that if you would like that, a little “house ruling“ would be in order. Sadly, playing pieces and dice were missing.  (Which proves the point regarding the self-defending precautions with any mobile components of the dexterity game.)

It is not just theme as such which is promoting the brand here, there are also promotional statements inserted in the details. You are informed there is a navigation system on board, or you stop on an event like “Summer vacation. Taking the surf board along. Plenty of room. Advance 1 space“, pointing out the advantages of the particular vehicle that is meant to be made desirable to you . To be fair, there are actually just 5 (or maybe 6 if you want to be a little more nit-picky) in a total of 19 event spaces that have any reference to a car and its uses, and not every one of them is positive Positives; there is one that tells you the car boot is too large and loading up therefore takes forever, so you have to skip a  turn. (That is, of course, a fairly see-through tactics, but I would still say it is “pretty clever“ – if that was not also some form of promoting a saleable item.) The other events cover a wide range of landmarks in a young person’s life like taking your very first steps, chickenpox, good marks at school, the very first kiss and love sickness. You are, however, left with the impression that as soon as you reach adulthood – and according to the editors of the game –  purchasing a nice large famlily cars should be high on your list of priorities. This adds a whole new dimension to the “family friendly“ attribute of a board game.

The card based game “Qubino“, a game  “For young unconventional and lateral thinkers“. Basically following the rules of  “Domino“ while playing, the future customers are training themselves to acknowledge all those reasons for buying the product that are being suggested to them from the sales catalogue, at the same time bonding to the company’s logo.

Some form of unconventional thinking may be happening to transfer the rules of “Domino“ onto “Qubino“, but there is no way the game  teaches any independent lateral thinking to the young gamers. On the contrary, this happens the less the more the game actually achieves to be fun.

The two copies of a memory game were also next to complete. I simply had to get down to sorting the cards into their boxes! One of the games appeared complete by all standards, the other one was lacking two cards, but this would not have impaired the playability in a significant way if all you wanted was to pass some time while u wait. All it would take was to remove those cards that were lacking a double from the game. I am not going to lie to you: That design was ever so cool! So cool, I was seriously tempted to buy a copy if at all possible.  (I even asked but was told the game was not available for purchse. Why was that, I wondered. Such a pity.)

The slightly abstracted images in black white and red colours all shared the same theme; in a wider sense they all depicted automobiles, racing and lots of things related (will not start contemplating the broken hearts and  lipstick prints, though).  There were only two motifs showing the photographic images of the company logo and actual car models. It definitely had something there…

Good play – better day!