Last year in 2025, the Dice & Mystics Fringe Event opened its doors wide again for all our old and new friends. Like always, by the end of May booking had started, and within minutes, the first tickets were taken. Soon, we reached the full capacity of the event in October.
As we opened the doors for our guests, tables were filling up quickly, and everybody found a place. We were happy about each and every one who came, sat down at the tables with their Spiel Essen haul, punched cardboard, tried out their latest discoveries and treasures, exchanged their experiences and thoughts, and simply had fun together.
Coffee, teas, and biscuits were at the ready.
But even more attractive were the games our guests had brought to our tables.
It was good to see people who had been coming for long years now mingling with other regulars and with first-timers, setting up such beautiful new games and having the leisure to actually enjoy them together and get to know designs that they maybe glanced at while passing by at Spiel, wanting to look it up later—and forgot or, more likely, ran out of time.
Game designers, artists and illustrators, authors, publishers, and content creators – there were so many chances for them to do something they were not able to experience during the fair, namely meet their audience, supporters, and customers privately as fellow gamers, and for those, a rare opportunity to play games with the makers and designers of their most cherished games.
And our good friends from the industry even found the time to chat among themselves, exchange views, make plans …
… demo games: Timon Thöne and his team presented Syncanite Foundation, a deep economic and area control game.
And it was a very special pleasure to watch Paul Grogan demo Thebai to his fascinated audience. You simply cannot get a better and more concise introduction to this deeply engaging game!
At the usual time, the call for “SILENCE!” boomed through the building, and everybody came rushing to the largest room. The raffle was about to start! There were high hopes and anticipation of the wonders to come. All eyes were on the trolley that was slowly emerging from the background.
Maxine Metzger, the designer and artist, donated her captivating new game Nocturnis, which shows you how to create the most suitable habitat for moths in your garden. It came together with a postcard set and other attractive assets in its own beautiful, branded bag.
Damir Debanić from InterHuman Games donated a copy of the newest edition of his ingenious little game Propuh, so that Grandmother will have some able helping hand preparing the house for her guests while keeping evil spirits away …
… and to the other steadfast gamer went his scarier title, Fear of the Dark, a solo horror game that plays with one of your most primeval fears.
The Vibe, a quick mind-reading game with pictures for 2 to 6 payers by Uloomi, and a meeple plushy from the Rathskellers’ assortment of charming accessories, were collected for the wife, who had an injured foot and found it difficult to get up quickly.
And some time later, Lady Fortune rewarded him for his chivalry with Carnival Zombie, 2nd Edition, by Albe Pavo from Italy, together with warmest greetings, and extras: a deluxe set of screen-printed cubes, a stunning collector’s coin and a beautifully embroidered component bag.
Another one of the much-coveted Rathskellers bags and a luggage tag are never out of order and might even help Damir Debanić to carry donations in the form of his latest games to the next Dice & Mystics Fringe Event.
A special piece of art: one of three astounding handmade fantasy maps—in film prop quality—designed by Endi Oblak from Strigun Art came to these happy winners each.
A Rathskellers design bag and some nice goodies came as the cherry on top.
A handy CMON bag was a fine addition for some serious fun to carry home: To Be Continued, a game about comics about gamers, published by Snovid.
To the next winner, Timon Thöne, went a really large 3 D printed piece of architecture by HBS Print-2-Play Printing Services, and a fittingly large Rathskellers bag.
The next prize drawn was Kaki Lima, a hearty welcome to the buzzllng historic city of Kuala Lumpur, and Petal Plotters, where animals struggle to attack or defend a tropical garden, both games with an exotic setting published by LUMA, and a CMON bag.
This year, fortune favored family ties, it seemed: The father, a true Dice & Mystics Fringe Event veteran, wins the lovely copy of Critter Kitchen Deluxe Edition by Cardboard Alchemy and can become a celebrated master chef …
… while the no less talented son, a first timer, acquired the chance to become a viceroy of Tundra, a game by Hobby World, and gets a Rathskellers luggage tag to mark the suitcase he will take it home in.
A whole bundle of Rathskellers goodies, including, of course, a bag, is always very welcome to Jamie Jolly, and the cuddly meeple plushy is certain to be welcomed by a special young person back home, we heard.
A bag full of legendary goodness: Heroes: Write & Conquer, as well as GZHEL with a special promo pin, all very kindly donated by Hobby World – in their branded bag!
A nice Rathskellers bag to easily move an entire Food Alley, self-published by the designer Simon Schmieder, an ingenious variation of highly entertaining light games for every occasion in one handy single box.
And one of the guests (think Final Girl when you see him) discovered the attraction of playing the Fairy Godmother himself, carefully avoiding the sharp edges of the traditional Dice & Mystics coffee tin, which once stood in as a lottery box during the very first raffle years ago and has been used to bring happy smiles to faces ever since.
This chosen one is on his way to enlightenment with GoDo: The Five Paths, a beautiful game by Snovid. The Rathskellers bag will assist him on the journey.
And yet another copy of The Vibe by Uloomi, together with some Rathskellers goodies, found its new owner.
Wristbands, a bag and a key fob can be handy for the experience of Helluva Town, a quite unique RPG game by the ingenious publisher Acheron from Italy.
After the next lots were drawn, A.J. Porfirio himself is giving the good tidings that Van Ryder Games are shipping the fabulous Final Girl: Series 3 Ultimate Box to both of these extremely lucky gamers.
Who would not be smiling at this attractive prize? This lovely box contains the Flamecraft Deluxe Edition, the charming and much beloved family game by Cardboard Alchemy that found its new home with this capable and dedicated dragon handler.
This lucky man did not have to face dragons or even need to wrestle anybody down to win Rowdy Partners by Capstone Games, a Rathskellers Meeple tag and … you will recognize the bag.
Jamie Jolly and his crew from Shadowborne Games allowed this winner to hold this very handsome pre-production box of their latest game Avalon: The Riven Veil, which at the time was the only copy in existence. As soon as his copy will reach his doorsteps, the game will draw him into the mist of legend on the ancient Isle of Avalon.
Small, but exquisite: Mermaid’s Song by Bardic Armadillo, that can turn you into the ruler of the sea, Nixie Nox’ alternative Meerjungfrau-Regeln in German, vouchers for art prints accompanying the design, and one of the last unclaimed beautiful Rathskellers cloth bags with a colourful limited design.
You do not even need to be a gamer to covet this insanely attractive custom made and branded wooden hold-all for everything Carcassonne! It is a thing of immense beauty all by itself, created and generously donated by InMyBox, together with one of the vouchers for some of their other great accessories to be bought at their booth or ordered online.
Timon Thöne, the founder of Syncanite Games, and the designer of the game Syncanite Foundation, personally endowed the winner with a complete set of everything from his Gamefound campaign, including the large double sided neoprene gaming mat.
Thebai, a gem of a game by Board & Dice, was not only demoed by Paul Grogan, best known from his YouTube channel Game Rules!, but also donated as an attractive prize for this proud winner. Dark times might lie over Thebes, but this box will put his game group in a good mood indeed.
The impressive deluxe edition of Andromeda’s Edge, another generous donation by the fabulous Peter Vaughan from Cardboard Alchemy, clearly made somebody’s day!
The wonderful people at Big Board Theory and Meeple Pug could not attend in person, but they donated one of their exciting games to the raffle. Our lucky guest won a Gilgamesh Pledge along with a Hanging Garden Miniature of their game Mesopotamia.
Time flew, and once again, the raffle was over. The winners of this year and the hopefully future winners were in equally good spirits and told us how much they had enjoyed the event. Plans for next year were already being made, prizes safely stowed into their bags to have a snug and cozy journey to their new homes, last game rounds were finished, and the 2025 Dice & Mystics Fringe Event had come to its conclusion.
We have been, as always, happy to have you with us and share the fun and excitement of our wonderful hobby!
We would like to give our humble thanks to everybody who had made things possible: the priest of the Parish of St. Franziskus who again allowed us to use the community center of St. Engelbert, all members of the community that planned their own ventures around the Dice & Mystics Fringe Event, and to all the good people from the industry who never tire to create all those delightful games and who so generously donated all of these amazing, beautiful prizes to the raffle for your enjoyment.
And, of course, thank you, all our untiring helpers without whom setting this up, running everything smoothly, making coffee, refilling the water, cleaning cups and glasses, handling the food orders, and transporting all those wonderful donations for the raffle to us would have been next to unthinkable.
And to all our wonderful guests and friends from all around the globe, we say thank you for all your delicious tokens of fondness that you have given us!
Finally, we do, of course, thank all of you incredible and wonderful people who met, played, shared, gave, and spread the fun of gaming, and were such kind and excellent company. We cannot say this often enough:
Without you, this great colorful, joyous and exciting event would have been but an empty building.
So, take care, stay safe and game on until we meet again at the upcoming Dice & Mystics Fringe event on October 24th, 2026!
Good play – better day!
Your Dice & Mystics