"Wow!"
Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd October...
I
really don't know how else to express myself at this point in time. I
have tried; mental, insane, awesome, overwhelming... but really, "wow!"
sums up the last week perfectly.
I will start somewhere at the beginning... probably for the best.
Sometime
ago I stumbled across a game by the name of Cornish Smuggler, by a
company called Grublin Games. I liked what I saw and embarked on a crazy
journey of creating a prototype for the game I had volunteered to
play-test. You can read about that mini adventure here:
Anyway,
fast forward a couple of months, some reviewing, a bit of blogging and
proof reading later and I was fortunate enough to be invited by Grublin
Games, as a thank you, to attend the board game fair in Essen (Essen
Spiel 2013).
Wait, what, really? Really.
I of course said "Yes!"
What
else could I say. It was a really amazing offer. A week in Essen, the
biggest board game show on the planet... the place where the biggest and
best my hobby has to offer is on show. So the plan was in motion.
On
Monday 21st October they (Henry, Rachel, Nick and Peter) set off,
picking me up from home along the way... along the way from Penzance... this is the journey we took.
Penzance via Crowthorne, France, Belgium, Holland and finally onto Essen (Germany).
At approximately 11pm Rachel and Henry collected me. We had a brief look at the final product we were going to sell (more on that later), a brief chat and introduction and off we set.
I
must admit I was feeling exceptionally anxious at this point... a whole
week with people I had never met before. Thankfully, these were four of
the nicest people I have had the pleasure of meeting.
Moving
along about 12 hours and 665 miles and there we were; Essen in all its
glory. We had arrived, nay Grublin Games had arrived and Essen had
absolutely no idea what was in store for it, no more than we had a clue
what was in store for us.
After a brief sleep in the hotel, we needed it, we all headed off to the convention centre to set up the stall; our home for the next 5 days or so.
 |
| Peter and Henry have arrived! |
With
absolutely no idea what was in store, we headed gleefully into the
halls, unpacked 500 or so games and set to work. Here is our creation:
Left to right: Peter and what seems an insurmountable task, Henry surveying his vision.
Left to right: Rachel adding the finishing touches, Nick "My work here is done!"
One
might ask why Nick is so happy? Well, quite simply because this was the
second time we set up the stall. Initially we had unpacked and set the
whole thing up in the stand next door, only to find out that it was the
wrong place. We could hardly be blamed for such a mistake, there were no
numbers anywhere to be found and the stock had actually been delivered
to the wrong place. However, with our lips stiff and upper, we took the
whole thing down, moved it and started over!
With our work for the day done, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed beer...
...and wondered what the next few days had in store for us... had we known, we may never have emerged from our rooms, but that is a story for another day.
...and wondered what the next few days had in store for us... had we known, we may never have emerged from our rooms, but that is a story for another day.
