Dice & Mystics Fringe 2024 – Running at Full Steam Again

This year, in 2024, the Dice & Mystics Fringe Event returned to full capacity after the pause we all remember too well, along with the necessary precautions that remained in place in the following year. The sheer joy of seeing all those wonderful people streaming in through our door was overwhelming! So many faces of those whom we have come to regard as good friends, so many new faces, too! 

We had every single seat in the house occupied by gamers who could happily huddle together over an exciting new purchase from Spiel and simply put another chair in to invite just one more to share in the experience.

Although the house was full to the brim, everybody agreed that, miraculously, there seemed to be more space and freedom of movement than ever.

You had the chance to meet publishers and creators, talk, play games with their makers, and also:

Our industry donors outdid themselves again, and we had our hands full giving away all the precious goods to lucky winners.

The game Ito by Arclight Games went first to somebody who had just discovered how entertaining the gameplay was.

Extremely popular were the goodies from Rathskellers again, and the unanimous clamoring for “BAGS!!!” (if you were there in 2023, you will know why) did not go unheard …

One of the most fascinating small games, Propuh by InterHuman, where you send Grandmother around the house to check for ghoulies, ghosties, and things that go bump in the night, exchanged hands from the designer to its new owner.

Speculaas, not just for the winter season but for all year, was donated by Ummaramma and will guarantee the winners a taste of real fun.

You might like to relax over a cuppa and a bickie to prepare, though, because Terrorscape by ICE Makes might require a resolute and courageous player—just like this one—to keep his nerve throughout. 

Who knows whether entering the ring with the fair folk is less hazardous, though. But Fairy Ring by Repos Production looks fair enough, and the winner of the game and also of a set of four signature curved card holders by Rathskeller’s certainly looks in very good spirits!

Inori, published by Space Cowboys, and a luxury Rathskellers dice set would put smiles on many faces, like on that of this lucky lady who could carry them both away in one of Rathskellers’ new game bags.

Riotminds has a new roleplaying game named World of Kensei. Here, the winner is receiving a copy of the book by one of its authors, Alexander Urbanek.

For The March Against the Tyrant by Scribabs, a bag was definitely in order for this lucky individual. It wouldn’t do to march ahead without an item so essential!

The roleplaying game Brancalonia by Acheron Books from Italy will take this adventurer on a wild ride through one of the most colorful and dazzling worlds ever created! The Rathskellers’ component pouch, together with other lovely goodies, might help him to keep his things together when the story gets turbulent.

Published by Open Borders Studio and given to our raffle by Ivan Lashin, the game Neodreams, complete with promo, got bagged by a true game enthusiast, as you can judge for yourselves.

A truly beautiful prize: The RPG, After The Moonfall, set in the wonderful world of Tsukuyumi Full Moon Down by game designer and author Felix Mertikat, published by King Racoon Games, and in addition, two small component bags by Rathskellers.

2070: Your Choices. Your Adventure. Your Story. This cooperative graphic novel adventure game by Van Ryder Games has found its hero. And the hero has found his Rathskellers’ plushie and component pouch to take along on this exciting journey into the yet unknown.

There were also games that came in their own bags, complete with many attractive extras, such as Witchcraft, designed and donated by Maxine Metzger.



Luck alone will maybe not solve cases in real life, but being blessed by Lady Luck is definitely a bonus for this future investigator and his new partner: Detective: City of Angels, plus two promos, kindly given by Van Ryder Games.


Sadly, the photo of the lucky draw did not turn out, so we can only offer our deepest apologies and show you the kindly donated prize on its own. Well, not quite—Roaring 20s by Deep Print Games came with a lovely bag as well!

A set of the much-coveted 2024 Rathskellers’ component bowls and one of the great game bags accompanying the ingenious card game The Band is Even Better—donated, designed, and with art by Paolo Vallerga, published by Scribabs—made this splendid game even better than it already was, with these special cherries on top.

Another epic treasure fell to this lucky individual: Tiny Epic Kingdoms by Gamelyn Games. Maybe one does not really need a bag for this huge game in a small box (“It’s bigger on the inside”), so one of the excellent limited 2024 sets of component bowls by Rathskellers was, no doubt, a most welcome and highly appreciated addition.


And yet another chance for some truly epic gameplay was opened up to the winner of the core rulebook of Lex Arcana, another roleplaying experience graciously donated by Acheron Books. A set of high-quality Rathskellers’ dice goes very well with this beautiful RPG.

A little luxury every now and then adds to one’s overall contentment, so this splendid edition of The Revenant Society, given by Van Ryder Games, is sure to greatly enrich its winner’s life with hours of entertainment and fascination.

This strong-nerved Duelist has already succeeded: He won The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth by Repos Production, and also a Rathskellers’ component bag and even more nice goodies, and, last but not least, a voucher to goshopping at InMyBox at their stall or online.

A beautiful new dice tray by Rathskellers and also Tiny Epic Dungeons Deluxe Edition and Tiny Epic Stories may be easy to carry in your bare hands. Yet, they are anything but tiny prizes if you consider the mountain of gaming fun you get out of them all.

There’s nothing like a little taste of some delicious dim sum. The winner of this lovely game by Hot Banana Games can now make his own, with Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum, anytime. Enjoy!

Carnival Zombie, with promos, donated by Albe Pavo, is already a well-loved classic, and in the face of a brutal onslaught of the undead, it is always good to have yet another gamer on our side. This gentleman proudly presents his brand-new Rathskellers luxury dice set, accompanied by a selection of other goodies, and a voucher to purchase quality accessories at the InMyBox shop.

Not all that glitters is gold, and there is even “black gold” with a very special shine. This lady has discovered an oil field that the whole family can profit from in Schwarzes Gold, a family game published by Mücke Spiele.

Rathskellers’ cardholders are nice to hold, it seems, and will be even nicer to use during gameplay. With Rathskellers’ wristbands, all the family get a nice present, too.

This beauty of a branded wooden chest by InMyBox will be a worthy home for this winner’s Lost Ruins of Arnak.

Talking about well-loved games: Another Oathsworn has joined the ranks! This copy of the highly immersive and fascinating game by Shadowborne Games will never fail to captivate and delight at many an eventful game night.


This breathtaking copy of Andromeda’s Edge by Cardboard Alchemy came with a very special bonus. Look closely! Indeed, it was especially signed by one of the designers, Luke Laurie, for the very occasion. 

This special prize required a little imagination from the winner’s side: Dark Blood by Big Game Theory and Meeple Pug was not yet physically present at the Fringe Event. He was given an all-in pledge of the then-current and funded Kickstarter project.

Here is a sneak peek of the amazing production value of this upcoming game: 

A successful treasure hunter found his prize: Gems of Iridescia was entrusted to its winner by its designer Roberto Panetta himself.

Space Bureau, with promo, by Hobby World already came with a bag of its own. By the way it looks, this SciFi space exploration game for the family will jump right out of it, though, into a space-ious shelf. 

And, yay, this last nice Rathskellers’ bag of the day for the winner of Raiders of the Cariddean and Expansions of the Cariddean by Top Notch made the last of 2024’s winners rejoice.


The raffle was over. Everybody was happy, either because they themselves had won, or else for those who jumped with joy at the delightful things they were taking home from the event, and happy having been at the event. Prizes were admired, game rounds were completed, and slowly, the 2024 Dice & Mystics Fringe event came to a close.

We were – and still are – happy of having had you with us, sharing the fun and excitement of our shared hobby. 

We would like to give our humble thanks to so many, like the Priest of the Parish of St. Franziskus who again allowed us to use the community center of St. Engelbert, to all members of the community that planned their own ventures around the Fringe, and to all the good people from the industry who give their hearts’ blood to create all those amazing games and who graciously donated a treasure trove of beautiful prizes to the raffle for you to win and take home.

And, of course, 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 our place for you would have been plain impossible.

We also want to say thank you for your lovely and extremely yummy gifts, too!

Finally, we thank all of you lovely people who came, played, and were such good company. 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 25th, 2025!

Good play – better day!

Your Dice & Mystics

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