Grublins and Greblords

I ended part one with the words “Had we known what was in store for us, we may not have emerged from our rooms.”

That is probably a little unfair. We were excited and terrified in equal measure. I should have probably said “We would be better prepared.”

I perhaps should also have posted these pictures of the first couple of days in the previous post, but here they are now, a few pictures of the setting up before the show proper.

Tuesday and Wednesday in Essen... the calm before the storm (quite literally)

I remember walking along with Nick at about 8:50 am on the Thursday morning. Nick, Rachel and Henry were already inside, having headed over a little earlier than us. We passed the entrance to the convention centre and there was a little crowd gathering outside. We had a cursory glance and ducked in a side entrance, gleefully showing our ‘exhibitor passes.’

We got to our stand, C-105, and tinkered about a little, sorting out the finishing touches, when we realised that there a couple of things missing. Nick and I agreed to head back to the hotel and get the required bits ‘n’ bobs. Back passed the crowed, a little larger, but still no sign of the crowd we had been told [warned] about. Collecting the items from the hotel, we then passed the convention centre again at approximately 10am... “Oh my good Lord!”

Where did all these people come from... the place was rammed. With the exhibitor passes in hand we again made for the side entrance and into the halls proper and what for the past 2 days had been relatively quiet (aside the hive of activity that was people setting up stalls) was now wall to wall people... all on the hunt for the same thing, BOARDGAMES!

Shock to the system: The Halls of Plenty.

Exhibitor pass: Saving your sanity one day at a time (just don't leave home without it!)

The canny amongst you might have noticed that the 27^th is un-punched.  Here is a lesson for all you kids out there, don’t misplace your pass EVER! If you do, all notion of German efficiency will leave you forever. Another story there... will post that tomorrow (if I can bring myself to relive the torment of that hour I will never, ever, get back.

Moving swiftly on as I can feel the tears coming back....

Pushing our way back to the Grublin Games stand, we could not believe our eyes.

I should say at this point, we had all been harbouring an unspoken fear; what if we weren’t busy? What if people didn’t want to buy Cornish Smuggler.

That fear was quickly put to rest and never surfaced again for four solid days. I won’t dwell too much on the actual business side, only to say that from 10:00am through to 19:30 on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and pretty much until we left on Sunday, all we did was sell Cornish Smuggler, Demo Cornish Smuggler and talk about Cornish Smuggler. Of course, Henry also had to do all the talking to the press, interviews (see BGG one here), etc. Actually, I will say one thing on the demonstration side of things. We had back to back demo slots from 10:00 Thursday until 18:00 (by which time we also had two games running at a time). Much like the ubiquitous Zombies, they just kept coming... 

Demonstrations of Cornish Smuggler with the Grublin Games Team

I met some great people while I was there, Warren, Neil and James. I was lucky enough to play a game designed by a friend of Henry’s.  I am not certain what I can say about it, so will only say that it was a card drafting game, where players bid and trade resources. I am not sure how far along the game is, but what I experienced I really enjoyed.

I was also lucky enough to bump into an old friend who I had not seen for a long time (actually, that is not entirely true, I also bumped into him at Salute this year, but that is besides the point). So to you Mr Greblord, a salute. Thanks for the beer and introducing me to Love Letter.

Oh and a final mention. In the post today I received a prototype of a game to play test from another person whom I met in Essen. So a quick shout out to Katrogue and Chaosgen.

With Sunday night drawing to a close and with sadness and happiness washing over me in equal measure we stowed what was left of our Cornish Smuggler in the car. We gave Essen a wave goodbye and set off for the drive back to the UK, through storms, wind and rain we battled; eventually arriving back in Crowthorne at approximately 3am. I unpicked myself from the boxes, bags, boardgames, laptops and all manner of other items and crawled into my bed for the best sleep I have had in ages. Exhausted and drained, but with memories that will last an awful long time.

Bowing out of Essen, we were proud to display the following:

 

Game yourself happy
Chris