5 Essen, behind the scenes

18 How to spend...

20 Through the ages

22 Why I hate Tom Vassel

24 Impulse (riddle)

27 Neuroshima Tactics

- Toxic Clouds

Editor: Ignacy Trzewiczek Translation: Marcin ’Joker’ Karbowski, Danai ’Smoczyca’ Chondrokouki Design, layout and DTP: Maciej ’Scorn’ Mutwil

PORTAL PUBLISHING, ul. Św. Urbana 15, 44-100 Gliwice, POLANDportal@wydawnictwoportal.pl, www.portalpublishing.eu

Here it is - STORYonBOARD dedicated to Essen 2012. It is the most important show here in Europe. This is the moment of the year. We work whole year to bring our best game to Essen, to promote it, to show it to players and publishers and end a year with a smile on face. This year we were in Essen with Robinson. It was a great adventure. We write about our Essen, how we experienced the show and what was important for us during these few crazy days. It was the most important moment of 2012. We are looking forward to 2013. Will we come to US conventions? Will Origins, Gen Con or BGGcon became the new most im-portant event of the year. I don’t know. But I am looking forward to new adventures. It will be fun!

Ignacy Trzewiczek

We have released sheet with stickers for pawns for Robinson Crusoe (as a PDF file). Pawns will look nicer and what is more it will be easier for you to explain the rules to new players with sticker or brawn meeple on pawn! Have a good time with Robinson!

Z-Man announced that new print of Robin-son will be available in March 2013. Few co-pies of first print (from Portal) were available during BGG.con

We gathered all questions from BGG forums dedicated to Robinson and created a FAQ for Robinson. We hope it will help you with playing Robinson without doubts and qu-estions! Big thanks to Mr Mjeh for his sup-port and help with FAQ! Here you will find the file. http://files.neuroshima.org/RC_FAQ_v1_ENG.pdf

There are new reviews of Robinson on BGG, here and here. Both reviewers strongly re-commend the game and bad news is that Robinson is sold out… New print in March 2013. This is crazy!http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/888008/thank-you-for-this-gamehttp://boardgamegeek.com/thread/888074/metagames-review-robinson-crusoe

In Gallery section we posted few new pho-tos of Robinson Crusoe. In Files section we posted PDF file with items from scenarios. If you find it easier for you to play – you can print them and put them on main board to remind you that you can build them. Check out Robinson’s page.

We posted a short video to show you how our booth in Essen looked like and how we were doing during Essen 2012. It takes 4 minutes, is has English subtitles and we hope it gives you a glimpse of atmosphere in Essen! You can watch video here!https://vimeo.com/54533145

One of the most respected BGG users, ThinWhi-teDuke (author of great articles about strategy in Stronghold) published a deep, great review of Robinson Crusoe. We strongly encourage you to give it a shot and read this amazing piece of work. You will find review here.h t t p : / / b o a r d g a m e g e e k . c o m / a r t i c -le/10654470#10654470

We are happy to announce that we signed new contracts – Robinson Crusoe will be released in 2013 in Russia (published by Hobby World) and China (published by MYBG Co.). These are fifth and sixth local editions along with previous En-glish (Z-Man), French (Filosophia), German (Pe-gasus Spiele) and of course Polish (Portal).

Ignacy Trzewiczek:

Day 0 – Wednesday,

8:00 AM. Hulk.

Have you ever been thinking

how these all games get to

publishers booth? I’ll tell you

how - we bring them there. I

may not look like Hulk, but this

is exactly how it works – trans-

port company like UPS delivers

palettes of games to halls and

then we need to unpack all

these palettes and take all ga-

mes to out stand.

1500 copies of Robinson.

1000 copies of Convoy. 1000

copies of Winter. 1000 copies

of Dancer. 1000 copies of older

stuff like Pret-a-Porter, The

New Era, 51st State or Steel

Police. Nearly 20 palettes all

together.

And there are three of us to

do that. Rest of the team arri-

ves to Essen in the evening.

I may not look like Hulk

but being honest, after day 0

and unpacking few thousands

copies of games I am not sure

why the hell I don’t look like

Hulk. On Wednesday we carried

few tons of games. I talked

with Petr from CGE – they had

nearly 10 tons of games. They

don’t resemble Hulk neither.

Well, some publishers look

little bit tired in the first day of

the show. Try a guess why...

Day 0 – Wednesday,

2:00 PM. Willson.

At 2 PM I have demo of

Robinson on BGG live stream.

I go to BGG stand. I am a little

bit nervous. Did you hear about

stage fright? Yes, I did hear

about it too. So I am there, but

BGG schedule is torn in pieces.

They have 30 minutes of delay.

I have to wait and trust me,

waiting is not helping. Waiting

is making me nervous. Waiting

is making me think about few

things... That English is not my

native language. That BGG has

delay and I have to shorten

my presentation because they

want to lower this time pro-

blem. That in a few minutes I

am going live. Worldwide.

Sophie from Z-Man Games

appears at BGG stand. She

greets me. She wishes me a

good presentation. She will

keep her fingers crossed. I

tell her that I am prepared. I

tell her that demo of Robinson

will be great. I tell her to not

worry.

There is only one thing I

don’t tell her. I don’t tell her

about stage fright. Yes, it just

got me and hold me tight.

Finally BGG is ready. They

give me microphone. We can

start. We start. I am no more

nervous. No more care about

stage fright. I just do what I

can do the best. I talk about

my beloved Robinson. And this

is live. And worldwide. Yes, it

is.

30 minutes later we are

done. My mobile starts to

beep every few seconds. Many

friends from Poland send me

immediate feedback. They say

it was good demo. I am happy.

photos: Piechu, Merry

Few days later, when Essen is done I finally can watch

it. Robinson’s demo happens to be – as far as I can

see - most popular video from Essen 2012. 1800 views.

Woow.

Day 0 – Wednesday, 5:00 PM.

Z-Man’s crew

That day at 5PM demo guys from Z-Man came to our

stand. We did teach them how to demo Robinson and

Convoy. You know, doing demo during convention or fair

is not a piece of cake. There is no space for improvi-

sation. This something you have to prepare for.

We’ve spent whole week at Portal’s office

training how to explain rules of Robinson in the

easiest way possible. At the beginning it was

taking us 30 minutes. Later that week we were

able to explain rules of Robinson in 10 minutes. It

was hard work and lots of trainings.

You need to cut off the crap. Cut off all rules

that are not important at the very beginning. Cut

off all unnecessary details. Be focused. Be clear. Be

understandable.

You have to remember about one important thing

– in Essen you will meet gamers from Germany,

from France, from Italy, from whole damn world, ga-

mers for whom English is not a native language. Your

demo has to be simple. Your demo can not involve

sophisticated vocabulary. Your demo has to be easy to

understand for any one who can barely speak English.

We spent an hour with guys from Z-Man. We did

teach them a special, dedicated for Essen set up for

the game with the easiest events and cards, set up that

makes demo easy. And we were lucky. Z-Mans crew was

a bunch of great gamers. They picked up things in a

second. I was sure we were in a good hands.

Later on I visited Z-Man’s stand to check if everything

is going well and if they need any help. They showed

me that they changed a little bit set up of the game.

They start demo from second turn so the game speeds

up from the very beginning. It was a great idea. They

knew what they were doing. No need to worry. I was

happy.

unboxing Robinson

building the fortification

Day 0 – Wednesday, 7:00

PM. Everything is set

At 7PM we were ready to

go, 11 hours after leaving ho-

tel, 11 hours of work without

lunch break, dinner break,

any break. Few thousand

games were set at our stand.

Demo of Robinson was live on

BGG site. Z-Man’s crew was

ready to present Robinson

and Convoy.

We were tired. We were

hungry. And yes, we were

damn happy. Man, it’s Essen.

We were waiting for that day

for whole year!

Day 1 – Thursday, 11:00 AM.

Frank.

I have a demo game of Ro-

binson scheduled with Frank

Kulkmann. For those of you

who may not know it – Frank

is one of the most famous and

respected German reviewers.

He runs an amazing website

at boardgame.de and year

after year he reviews tens of

games that are released in

Essen. His Essen reports are

extremely popular in Ger-

many. During this 4 days of

Essen Trade Shows he plays

tens of games and reviews

them right during fair.

How is it possible?

Frank reads rulebooks befo-

re the fairs. He doesn’t waste

time for publisher to explain

him the game. He just sits

and plays. He’s prepared. He’s

scorn and his banner

a professional.

So, Frank comes to our stand. He sits to

Robinson with two other gamers who were

also interested in testing Robinson and...

starts to explain them the rules. Just like

that, he sits and he teaches them how to

play. I try to help, but Frank says that he

can handle it. I go to the second table to

present Robinson.

Yes, Frank is a pro.

Day 1 – Thursday, 01:00 PM,

Tables, tables!

We have two tables to play Robinson,

8 people at one moment can play the

game. Is it enough? OK, try to guess.

We are under a storm of gamers. I made a huge buzz

and now I am in trouble – we are crowded with gamers

who want to test Robinson.

We need to react. We need to redesign our stand. We

move tables, we take one table from Rebel, we put it all

in new order. Now we have two tables to play and one

table to explain the game - short explanation just to give

a glimpse of the game. From the moment we make it

available, till the very end of Essen fair it is crowded with

people. We talk about Robinson all the time.

Three people are assigned to this table. It’a a very exhau-

sting work, you have to talk all the time, you have to talk

loud because of the noise all around, you have to repeat the

same monologue time and time again. We take turns every

30 minutes. It’s tough.

Day 1 – Thursday, 06:32 PM.

BGG BUZZ

I receive a SMS from a friend from Poland. You are on the 7th

place in BGG Buzz ranking. Woow. We were so busy, I forgot

about it. I forgot that BGG is making this poll to check which

game is the most popular. Our hall and our booth is far away

from BGG booth. I am so happy that despite of that some play-

ers went there and voted for us.

I am very tired after 9 hours of explaining Robinson. Ho-

wever, this BUZZ news gives me new adrenaline boost. I am

truck with our games

joker explaining neuroshima tactics

happy that people like Robinson.

Day 1 – Thursday, 09:00 PM.

Hotel tournament

Before Essen my wife Merry scheduled a little tourna-

ment with gamers from Hungary: Gabor and Krisztina.

Gabor states that he managed to have 128 points play-

ing Winter (he is one of our testers and had Winter many

months before its release in Essen). My Merry couldn’t

believe it. She said she will meeet him in Essen and

kick his ass.

Yeah.

Merry convinced our friend from Gdansk, Hubert,

to join the game. Two players from Poland, two play-

ers from Hungary. They were waiting for that for a

few weeks arguing on FB chat who will win.

So they meet in the hotel. They sit at the table, re-

ady to show who is best 51st State player in Europe.

Ready to rock. I smile. I ask them: ‚BTW, anyone has

51st State with him?’

They look at each other. I start to laugh. No one has

the game. Brilliant.

Day 2 – Friday, 09:00 AM.

Fluency

It’s the second day of the fairs. We no longer have

problems with English, our demo games and presenta-

tions are smooth and fluent. Number of players wan-

ting to test Robinson is ridiculous. We decide that we

have to shorten the demo games. We ask players to finish after

4th round of the game. They understand. They see queue of other

players wanting to test the game. We were afraid how players will

react when we ask them to stop after the 4th round but players

act awesome. They understand the situation. They test the game,

and then they make space for other gamers. Geeks play fair.

Respect for all of you!

Day 2 – Friday, 01:00 PM.

Interviews

During Essen many people want to do make an interview with

me, want me to talk about Robinson. They don’t know it is a risky

business to talk with me about Robinson. For Friday I have schedu-

playing robinson

ignacy in work

led interview with Paco from G*M*S Magazine. Paco

asks me about Robinson so yes, I talk about Robin-

son. And you know, when I talk about Robinson this

is like ‚Fatality’ in Mortal Kombat series. You can’t

defend. You can’t resist. You are unprotected.

Paco didn’t know that. This lesson costs him 45

euro. We finish the interview and then he buys Robin-

son. 24 hours earlier the same mistake was made by

John Knoerzer from BGG crew. He sat with me when

I was presenting Robinson on BGG live. He shouldn’t

let me talk about Robinson... Yeah, 45 euro from his

pocket to mine...

Never, ever let me talk about my games.

Day 2 – Friday, 03:00 PM. Going green

At some moment of the day our booth is visited by

His Green Majesty Friedmann Friese. He buys Ro-

binson. I congratulate Friedmann that Friday finally

found his master and we have a good laughter. Then

I have this crazy idea - Let’s make a photo together!

Robinson and Friday!

Friedmann has sense of humor. He immediately agre-

es. My Merry takes a photo of us. Few days after Essen

I upload it on BGG. Immadiatelly we are on #1 place in

gallery on BGG. We have a nice souvenir from Essen.

Day 2 – Friday, 06:00 PM. Android Jan

In previous post I mentioned that on Thursday we

decided that we need not only tables for play. We

also need at least one table to talk about Robinson,

to explain it, to present it in a just few words. This

was a hardest spot, it was most exhausting part of

the job, it was place where work was so hard that

we had to take shifts. I mentioned that in a previous

post.

Czech Games Editions had a beautiful big demo

version of Tzolk’in. Always crowded. Always busy.

Since 9:00 AM till 7:00 PM. No break. No single pau-

se. Always crowded.

This demo version of Tzolk’in was managed by one

person. One. Just one.

I am not sure if he was a human. I’d rather say he

was some kind of android. Terminator. Cyborg.

At the beginning we were working hard and he

was working hard. But then, we died (all 3 of us) of

exhaustion. He didn’t. Czech android.

Some about 4:00 PM it was getting ridiculus. It was

his 7th hour of talking about Tzolk’in. Without a damn

break.

At about 5:00 PM Merry came to him and give him

a chocolate. We were afraid that he will – sooner or

later – just faint. He said ‚Thanks’, but he couldn’t eat

it. He had to explain Tzolk’in. Without a break.

It was about 6:00 when we spoted that Tzolk’in

demo version is empty and Czech android is gone!

OK, he died we thought. He was damn good. He

worked for 9 hours without a break. Let him rest in

peace... Few second later we realised he sits with a

group of players at the table and he teaches them

how to play Tzolk’in... This was really crazy.

After the fair, on Sunday we came to the guy and

congratulated him his work during Essen 2012. His

name is Jan Kudela. He is the hardest working demo

guy I have ever seen in my life. And man, trust me,

I saw a lot. Jan, if you read it, once again I’d like to

say: ‚You did an awesome work this Essen’

Day 2 – Friday, 09:00 PM. Winter has come

Second evening in the hotel. Hungarians against

Poles. 51st State competition. Krisztina and Gabor

against Merry and Hubert. I am going to watch and

be judge if there are any problems with rules.

ignacy and friedemann friese

They look at me. They want me to play. They don’t need

judge. They want to play with me.

I am tired. I don’t like to play my games. But what the hell,

Essen is once in a year. I play.

Krisztina plays well. Gabor plays very well. I play with Mer-

chants and I have difficulty to burn him down and stop him.

Other players are either blind either stupid not getting him and

kill him. In round third I finally do my best and my peacefull

Merchants visit Gabor and start burning. It is at least one turn

too late. He is already damn strong.

I am pissed off. I won’t let some Hungarian player kick my

ass! No way!

60 minutes later it turns out that I will. Gabor is

fuckin’ good. He kicks my ass. And Merry’s, Krisztina-

’s and Hubert’s ass too. At the end of the game Gabor

has more points than Merry and Hubert together. This is

knock out. I am second, but far away from Gabor.

Merry invites Gabor and Krisztina to Poland. They will

visit us again. Kicking ass is on the way. I don’t think I can

defeat that guy...

Day 3 – Saturday, 06:00 PM, Marvin Gaye

I start to sound like Marvin Gaye. For 3 days we were taking

all medications we could to protect our throat and voice but

now, after 3 days of presenting Robinson on our stand they

don’t work anymore. Because of that noise in the Essen’s halls

you have to shout when you present or explain the game.

You can’t shout for 3 days in a row without consequences.

Se here they come. The consequences. I sound like Marvin

Gaye. I kinda like it. Merry likes it too...

Day 4 – Sunday, 08:00 AM, It will be hard day

Half of our team has to go back to Poland. They were our

supporters, but they don’t work in Portal, they have their nor-

mal jobs and they have to go to work on Monday morning.

There are only 3 of us left on the stand. We are – however –

not scared. For many years Sunday was boring day for us. On

Sunday halls are always crowded with avarage German fami-

lies not geeks. Games like Neuroshima Hex, Pret-a-Porter or

The New Era never atracted them. On Sunday we were always

bored and had nothing to do.

Soon it turns out that Robinson is interesting for German

families. We have as much work as every other day. We are adrian from nst team

alek

ignacy teaching

robinson

crowded. They want to play. They want to listen abo-

ut the game. The theme is very interesting for them.

And there are only 3 of us. One is selling. One is

explaining. One is teaching. No coffea break.

Day 4 – Sunday, different hours, Prototypes

Before Essen I set meetings with different authors

for Sunday. I was going to play prototypes and see if

there is something interesting out there.

On Sunday I was going to have spare time.

Situation however is different. Our stand is crow-

ded. We are selling Robinson, we are demoing Robin-

son, we have hands full.

No chance to play prototypes. I have to say big big

sorry to authors who had a meeting with me. I have

no chance to play. I feel awfull. I feel guilty. In a fact

I am guilty. I should feel awfull.

I promise them I will play these prototypes as soon

as I am back in Poland.

Day 4 – Sunday, 04:00 PM, Fatality

I am extremely tired. We have no shifts on demo

table. Piechu sells, Scorn teaches how to play, I have

this demo table. I feel like Czech android – whole day

talking again and again...

I have moments of weakness. People come to

the table and wait for explanation and I have no

strenght to come ther and explain the game. They

walk away after looking just on components of the

game. I feel guilty. But I am terribly tired.

At some moment another group of three people

comes to the table. I take a deep breath. I look at

them. And finally I come to the table. I am pissed of

on myself and my weakness. I motivate myself in my

mind. I promise myself to never ever give up. And

I start again: ‚Robinson is a cooperative game. You

are castaways of deserted island and your goal is to

survive. There are 6 different scenarios in the game

and I will talk about them later on...’

I do my best. I find every bit, every single piece of

passion I have left and I use them.

From among these 3 people that listened me, all 3

decided to buy Robinson. And what is more, one ga-

mer who was just walking by and saw that they are

very excited after my presentation and they all buy

the game... He decided to buy the game too.

Three people listened. Four Robinson boxes sold.

I am very tired. But I am back in action.

Day 4 – Sunday, 06:00 PM, The End

On 6:00 PM lights dims. Essen 2012 is done. Whi-

stles and applause fills the hall. Every publisher here

is extremely tired. Every publisher here is happy that

part of our crew

scorn and his banner again

this is the end. This is tradition since few years. Li-

ghts dims, and hall burns into whistles and applause.

This is for short moment. Than we have to go to

work. Every published here has to clean the stand.

All games not sold have to be packed back into

boxes, then on palletes and then on trucks.

All games sold to distributors need to be packed on

palletes and moved to their stand.

All furniture, banners, stuff have to be packed into

boxes and put on trucks.

I think that if I did a poll right here and ask you

how much time we need to do all that stuff, no one

would know the right answer. Let me show you...

It’s 07:00 PM, you are probably taking shower after

great fair. First hour of moving heavy boxes...

It’s 08:00 PM, you are probably at home already

eating dinner. We are packing games.

It’s 09:00 PM, you are tired after fair, but you are

very excited and you are unboxing games you bo-

ught. We are packing games. Still.

It’s 10:00 PM, you checked all games you bought.

You search internet for news after Essen. We are pac-

king games. We dream about lunch. We had no time

for lunch today.

It’s 11:00 PM, you are tired. You go to sleep. We

are packing games. It’s 15th hour since we left hotel.

We dream about anything to eat.

It’s 11:30 PM. Yes, we are still there working...

It is hard to believe, but this is really really true –

when I reached our car on Essen parking it was exac-

tly 00:01 AM. Very symbolic moment. After these all

days of work during fair we needed to find strenght

and pack all these boxes of games for another 6 ho-

urs. Without a break.

We reached our hotel at 00:40. Would be 00:20 but

I was so tired while driving that I got lost in Essen. At

01:00 AM we ate small lunch. At 08:00 AM we drove

back to Poland...

That’s my friends Essen behind the scenes. I hope

you enjoyed this ride...

Post-fair psychotherapyEssen Spiel 2012:

Flashbacks

Text: Michał Walczak, Rafał Szyma, Marcin Karbowski

Yes, we went to the fair. Yes, we were impressed.

Yes, we came back exhausted. And yes, we wanted

to tell you all about it. This time though, instead of a

piechu with our friends

during interviewv

...

general review, we’ll share with you a couple of anec-

dotes – the things that made Essen Spiel 2012 stand

out from the previous editions.

Walec:

Merc graveyard

We started out for Essen in an ancien mercedes.

The brand name can bring into mind images of posh,

luxurious cars, but in our case it was a vehicle with a

loose clutch, unable to go faster than 130km/h. The

speed wasn’t really a problem, though, because only

someone with a death wish would speed in a car with

crooked brake discs…Basically, we drove to Essen in

a car, that apparently knew it was going back to its

motherland. And decided to die there.

100 kilometers away from our destination, after 12

hours of driving, I happily declared that we’re just

about an hour away… 90 kilometers from the hotel,

I was excited to see the name of the town on the

billboards. 80 kilometers from the much-desired hotel

beds we heard an ill-boding hiss… At 74 kilometers

the clutch was still loose, the brakes rattled – eve-

rything was bad, but steady. Except for the wedge

belt, which melted. The power steering, accumulator

charger and engine cooling also went down.

So, it’s 2:36 in the morning, we’re just a stone-

’s throw away from our hotel. By pure momentum

we managed to roll into a small parking lot and we

called our boss, who said something along the lines

of „Look, I’m very sorry, but everyone’s asleep, you

gotta take a nap on the parking lot, in the morning

someone’ll pick you up, and then I’ll kill you.”

Pondering the last night of our lives, we wrapped

ourselves in whatever we had handy, and fell asleep.

After a 12 hour drive even a car seat seems like a

decent place for your night’s rest.

Disregarding what the car had in mind, we didn’t

let it die in peace in its motherland. We had it fixed

at a arm-and-leg price and came back home. The in-

teresting fact is that for the past three years the car

never failed me – it only decided to do so when we

left for Essen. The moral of this story?

Never trust machines!

Multidej:

A taste of the fair

Day of arrival

A soup with minced meat and melted cheese.

Thick, but not too much, filling you up without that

feeling of grogginess. The taste – surprising, well-

-ballanced, detached from its original components,

now transformed into a new entity. The dish was

prepared accordingly to the the aintopf philosophy

(germ. „Ein Topf” – one pot). Accompanied by a lager

beer.

First day

A deceptively small lasagne, which upon consump-

tion proved to be equally tasty and filling. One of its

greatest pros proved to be the texture of the pasta,

soft and pliant, withouth a trace of unwanted hard-

ness. Accompanied by a lager beer.

Day two

Meatballs and potatoes with a side of – watch it

- bouillon. This gave the diners the possi-

bility to choose between having a

thick, starchy and meaty soup,

or a solid dish, drizzled with a

light sauce. Each of the diners

needed to answer this tough

question for him/herself. Accom-

panied by a lager beer.

Day three

A filleted fish, served in four

different styles: breaded, with

mushrooms, with spinach or with

cheese. The taste – dazzling, in

spite of its origin being a hiper-

market. Boiled potatoes and cauli-

flower rounded the dish perfectly,

making me ignore the pangs of

fullness sent out by my desperate

stomach and continue the feast.

Accompanied by a lager beer.

Day four

A gas-station hot-dog, supersized,

and a standard coffee. Nausea within

bearable limits. We’re going home.

Joker:

Discreet charm of sales

The Essen expo is a real test of will. It’s not even

about saving home budget – with that kind of mind-

set, it’s better you don’t go at all – it’s about not

ruining it utterly and completely. I knew about that

for about a month before going, and I dreaded the

event, because when it comes to board games, I

have an exceptionally weak will. In the end, I retur-

ned victorious, but it was tough.

Day one

I promised myself I would refrain from purchases

at least on the first day. I lasted about 30 minutes.

I would probably manage a bit longer, if it wasn’t

for Alek (our friend, living right next to Essen), who

dropped by our NST stand. „Do youknow they’ve got

Cash&Guns for 5 e?” . I couldn’t miss an opportu-

nity like this. When I was standing in the line, the

C&G box in my hands, I spotted a WoW - Adventure

Game. For 10 e. Well…Since I had already broken my

vow anyway…

Day two

WoW is now two times cheaper. I feel like a noob.

So I get another game, to cheer myself up – Ubon-

go. It’s supposed to be great. The others also buy

it – even Scorn, who doesn’t do board games. Later,

I ask people what the game’s about. No one knows

a thing. But everyone bought it. It’s some kind of a

mass madness. In the end I manage to reach the

source of all this hassle: „’Cause, you see…Alek came

by in the morning, and said that the game was wic-

ked awesome”. I should’ve known better.

s.o.b. team with gunter

Day three

The crescendo of sales. Percents everywhere.

-30%, -50%. Games that usually cost around 40-50

e zł, now selling out for 5. I’m trying just to hang out

and survive untill Sunday. But, alas, in the afternoon

Alek visits again. I buy a Wow expansion. A couple

of hours later Piechu, with a condescending smile,

explains to me the subtle difference between WoW-

-Adventure Game and WoW - the Boardgame, for

which I bough the expansion. I got an expansion for

which I don’t have the core game. Oh, well, at least it

was cheap.

Return

Finally came the glorious moment when I was back

home with all my spoils (and there were quite a few,

some not mentioned earlier), and had a chance to

have a closer look at them. That’s when I noticed my

Cash & Gun was in french.

S.O.B. team aga in

Piechu:

My first Essen

This year it was the first time I attended SPIEL

fair in Essen. If you haven’t been there but have

seen some photos, read some reports or heard some

stories, you know what to expect. The halls are huge,

there are hundreds of games and thousands of pe-

ople buying them. And they don’t buy 1 or 2 games

but a dozen or two. AEG was selling special bags for

games, bags so big that you could carry a small man

inside it. If only there was more space at the halls,

you would probably use a shooping trolley. It’s crazy

but it happens only once a year.

Apart from explaining Robinson Crusoe at Portal’s

booth, I was there as a representative of a Polish

boardgame magazine Świat Gier Planszowych. My

first task was to attend a press conference opening

the fair. It was held in German and I don’t speak

German so while other guys were unloading a track

full of games, I was sitting in a warm place, eating

sandwiches and taking some photos. That’s how I can

work ;)

So my job was to meet with some publishers and

designers, so I met Martin Wallace, Friedemann

Friese, Max Holliday (Eaten by Zombies), Denys

Lonshakov (Ruthenia), Filip Neduk (Goblins, Inc.). I

also talked to guys from CGE, Lookout Games, Indie

Boards & Cards, Pegasus Spiele, Eggertspiele and

more. Quite nice for a guy who’s the first time in

Essen, huh? ;)

Scorn:

I don’t like to write. Never liked. That is why I do

graphics, photos and music. I’d love to share with

you my photos from Essen, but... but I didn’t take

camera with me to Essen! I won’t write a song ne-

ither. So here I am writing...

Essen 2012 trip for me was a conclusion of my first

year in Portal. In Essen debuted Robinson, the game

I was preparing for two months day and night (with a

help from Multidej and Moracz). Countless number of

hours spent on the game. Not seeing home too much

those days...

I was terrified when we reached Essen. I havn’t

seen final product in Poland. First time I put my

hands on box of Robinson there, in Essen. Moment of

huge tension and... Uff... Everything is OK. That was

a moment of relief. That was a moment I could start

to enjoy Essen.

It didn’t last long for me. 4 days passed like a mo-

ment. I will - however - remmber it for a long time...

At nights I had additional events - I was visiting

industrial museums in Essen, old factories etc. It was

great.

Yeah, I can’t believe I didn’t take camera to Es-

sen...

on top of heap

tetraeder

industrial lan

dscapes

from ruhr ar

ea

I met Silent few years ago. He came to ‚Pawn’, conven-tion that I organize in Gliwice since 2006. He was like many gamers who attend con - had a bag full of games, had a passion in his eyes and was able to play games for two days without taking even a 5 minutes break.

After ‚Pawn’ he joined our gaming club. He lived in a dif-ferent city but for a man with passion this is not a problem. He was coming to Gliwice eve-ry single week.

Another edition of ‚Pawn’ was coming. Silent came to me and said: ‚I will help. I wo-n’t play. I will explain games to new gamers.’

We formed Orange Team. Most devoted members of our gaming club. Du-ring „Pawn” Orange Team didn’t play a single game.

Two days of gaming and they didn’t play even once. They were helping other players. They were explaining rules. For whole damn weekend.

That was incredible. At the end of convention I asked them to come to the stage. And then whole room burst into applause.

Now, 6 years later this is tradition. Every Pawn is sup-ported by Orange Team. Die Hard Gamers who decide to spend weekend on game co-nvention and yet play no sin-gle game...

Every single Pawn, at the

end of convention I invite them on stage and every single time there is one minute of ama-zing applause. 400 people claps their hands to say ‚Thank you’.

Goose-bumps...

‚It’s worth it’ Silent once said to me. It’s worth to explain rules for two days long, but to be there on the stage in that very moment, to see this 400 people in the room who say „Thank you”. This is moment of magic.

***

Silent was one of this first squad in the Orange Team. It was 6 years ago. This week-end we do XIX edition of Pawn. Quite close to a nice anniversary. Six years passed like a flick.

Silent no longer can afford to be member of our gaming club. He has job now. He lives in other place. He got married. Years passed.

He has no time for playing games as he used to have when he was 24. Life finally cat-ched him and holds him tight.

And yet...

I met Silent two weeks ago on a football pitch. ‚We do new edition of Pawn, you know’ I said. ‚Nice. When?’ ‚In a two we-eks’ I said. ‚Do you need a help?’ he asked. ‚Try a guess... But well I know it is harder every time...’ ‚I never turned you down, did I?’ he said. ‚You never...’ ‚I will be there. I am Orange Team. It won’t change.’

We shake hands. Two friends ready to go together to the end of the world.

***

First Pawn was in 2006. Since then about 20 new conventions appeared in Poland. Pawn was first board game convention in Poland. Orange Team was first supporters group. We all started that. Now you have Yellow Team in Gdansk, you have Blue Team in Wroclaw, you have such teams in every single board game convention in Poland.

And Poland is not an island.

There are conventions all over the world. There are people like Silent working hard to help you gamers all over the world. People who don’t play, but help. For whole damn weekend.

Silent, thank you.

Orange Team, thank you.

All teams and all supporters all around the world, thank you.

You guys do an amazing work. I salute you.

[this is my old text written almost three years ago I publish it because of two reaons. First: many of you probably didn’t read it. Second: it has a new ‚2012 conclusion’]

It is called Das verructe labyrinth. Known also as The aMAZEing Labirynth or just Labirynth. Published by Ravensburger in 1986 roku was then republished in 16 different editions and gave a birth of whole range of games with La-birynth in name. True classic. Best-seller. And – what is more – the boardgame of my childhood. I do really have no idea how it got into my ho-use. It was a deep communism in Poland then, no boardgames in stores. It must have been sent to us in some ‚help package’ from western Germany. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I spent countless hours with it. It’s been more than 20 years ago. I still remember playing it with my parents and brother. I still have old photo in my pho-to album with me playing the game. I loved that game. I believed then I will play it till my last day. Well, unfortunately, I grew up. I got to know Role Playing Games, I got to know hundreds of exciting things to do. My box with Labirynth disappeared. Lost in time. Adventure has been finished. It seemed for ever. Well... Not for ever. Three years ago my friend Adam Hammudeh brought his copy of Labirynth to our gaming club. When I saw box, I felt thrill. My eyes ope-ned wide. Heart beat stronger. Memories be-come live again. I asked Adam if I can borrow the game. ‚No problem. Have a good time with your kids’ he said and I took Labirynth with me. It was nearly 15 years since I have it last time. It was amazing. It was time travel. I was sitting at my table, with my kids and I was playing Labirynth. Magical moment. Co-

uld I – 20 years ago – believe that when I will be adult, I will still play this game? I couldn’t. We played for a few months. I sat with my kids and together we fought to find best track to our goal items. Every single game of Labitynth with my kids was like a best game ever. I had a great time. Unfortunately, my kids grew up... I’ ve just packed my Labirynth to box. The adventure is finished, again. My son wants to play Galaxy Trucker, Nina wants to play Kingsburg, and in a fact, Descent is their favourite. ‚Dad, Labitynth is a kids game’ they

said. Me playing Labirynth... It is over again. Labi-rynth goes at the bottom of wardrobe. I will miss it. My youngest daughter has 2 years. In three years I will pull out the box from wardrobe. I will put it on my table. And again, I will be the hap-piest man on the planet. [2012 conclusion.Lena is almost 5 years old now. It’s time.]

[disclaimer: today

I was going to post

final part of my re-

port from Essen, but

in the meantime Tom

finished his Top 100

and I really needed

to celebrate this

and say something to

Tom]

You know me much

better than you knew

me a few months ago.

These days you know

that I can talk abo-

ut my games. You

know that I really

can show my passion.

You know that I talk

with a 100% belief

in my games. And

this belief is my

strongest weapon. My

weapon. The Weapon.

Tom Vasel can

speak with passion

too. Tom can speak

in a way that we ga-

mers are often de-

fenseless. He uses

the exact same we-

apon as I am using.

And damn, he is good

at it too.

When you let me

talk about Robin-

son, you will lo-

ose 45 euro. I will

make you buy the

game. I open my

mouth and you lose

45 euro. When Tom

talks about Nothing

Personal, I loose

60 bucks + 20 for

shipping. And you

know, I am from Po-

land. 80 bucks for

us is 16% of ava-

rage moth sallary

in Poland. 16% of

avarage sallary in

US is... It’s like

you’d pay 560$ for

Nothing Personal.

Quite a price, ri-

ght?

Yes, Tom is

good...

But this is not

why I hate him. I

use my weapon on

innocent gamers.

Tom does it too. It

is a fair trade.

But... [there

is always ‚a but’,

right?]

Tom makes his

Top 100 videos. He talks about 100 ga-mes other than Nothing Personal. He talks about them with the same passion. He talks with the same fire in his eyes. He talks with the same be-lief – he believes that the game he is just describing is for sure the best game on that very planet. He uses The Weapon again. This is not fair anymore. Few days ago he convinced me to buy Star Trek Fle-et Captains. Guys, I hate Star Trek. I really hate this movies. Star Trek sucks! And still, I decided to buy the game... I can not buy all of these 100 games. I simply can’t... And you know,

there are games on To-m’s list I don’t like. I played them and I think they suck. This is the moment of relief. ‚Ha!’ I think to myself when Tom talks about game I don’t like. ‚We like different games! I sho-uldn’t trust him! He knows nothing about good games! His recom-mendations suck. Ha!’ I am safe. I neu-tralised The Weapon. 10 seconds later Tom starts to describe another game. Game I don’t know. And again I start to trust him. Again I believe that this is the awesomest game on the planet. Again he uses The We-apon. He uses The We-apon against me! Against The Weapon Master! Stop it, Tom. Stop it now!

there are games on To-m’s list I don’t like. I played them and I think they suck. This is the moment of relief. ‚Ha!’ I think to myself when Tom talks about game I don’t like. ‚We like different games! I sho-uldn’t trust him! He knows nothing about good games! His recom-mendations suck. Ha!’ I am safe. I neu-tralised The Weapon. 10 seconds later Tom starts to describe another game. Game I don’t know. And again I start to trust him. Again I believe that this is the awesomest game on the planet. Again he uses The We-apon. He uses The We-apon against me! Against The Weapon Master! Stop it, Tom. Stop it now!

OBJECTIVE

Your objective is to move the Impulse through the La-byrinth, from the entrance [IN] to the exit [OUT], in such a way, so it doesn’t get eliminated on the go. In or-der to do that, you can use THREE of the many available Switches, which will change the qualities of the labyrinth. The particular fields and pa-ths of the labyrinth have their own rules, described further on.

To make your task a bit easier, you can use a couple of tokens (e.g. coins). You’ll need: 1 Impulse token, 3 acti-vated Switch tokens, a couple of additional ones (to mark e.g an inactive fuse, inactive Paths, leading into an disa-

bled quarter, etc.). Instead of coins, of course, you can use your memory or notes, and the Impulse can be lead by pointing a finger at the paper.

Place the Impulse token on the enterance field [IN].

Then use up to THREE to-kens, to activate the Switches of your choice (you’ll find the description below). There is at least one combination of ac-tive Switches, that will allow the Impulse to reach its tar-get without hindrances. The marked Switches are active from the beginning to the end of the Impulse’s movement, changing the rules of the bo-ard elements accordingly.

Pick the direction in which the Impulse will be pushed off from its starting position

[IN], and afterwards just lead it according to the rules, untill it reaches the Short Cir-cuit field, loops or exits the board.Note: After picking and acti-vating the Switches and pu-shing the Impulse from the [IN] field, the rest of the game is played out automa-tically, and the player cannot interfere in any way. You can only watch and see if the Im-pulse reached its target.

BOARD ELEMENTS

[IN] - the enterance field

[OUT] - the exit field

I’ve devised the mechanics of today’s riddle a couple of years ago for a supplement of the Neuroshima RPG game „Moloch - Escape from the City of Machines”. As a bonus, the box contained four puzzles, similar to the one I’m presenting today. If you happen to enjoy it, I promise more episodes utilising the „Impulse” rules.

WHITE PATHS - ba-sic Paths the Impulse can move on.

BLACK PATHS - to be used by the Im-pulse, those paths

need to be activated first, by using the Black Paths Switch [BPS]. If they are not swit-ched on, it’s as if they’re not on the board at all.

CROSSROAD - at the crossroad the Impulse picks the first

Path to the left or to the right, according to the little arrows on the given crossroad. At-tention! The black arrows on the Crossroad and some other fields are there in case the field arrows turned out to be too small and unreadable. Just like any other arrow in this game, they show you the way the Im-

pulse is supposed to go.

SHORT CIRCU-

IT - if the Impulse reaches the Short

circuit field, it is eliminated. Game over, try again.

JUMP - if the Impul-se reaches the Jump field, it moves to the

other Jump field on the bo-ard, and moves on according to the arrows there.

FORCED PATH - the Impulse has to go the way the big

arrow points to. If it’s not possible (e.g. the Path has been rendered inactive by some other active rule), go along the smaller arrows, just like in the case of a regular Cros-sroad.

RESISTOR - is a re-gular crossroad, but it can be blocked by

p lac ing one of the three to-kens on it. From this point on all the Paths leading directly to the Resistor field are con-sidered inactive, and are to be ignored as if they were not there. Note: Each Resistor is bloc-ked by a separate token, so if you choose to block all three of them, you’ll have to use all of your tokens.

FUSE - a regular crossroad, but after the Impulse has

gone through it, it becomes inactive. Mark that fact with an additional token(not one of the three you start with). The inactive Fuse is treated in the same way as a blocked Resistor.

SWITCHES

D I R E C T I O N SWITCH [DS]- the board is divided into

four quarters, with 4 Direction Switches. After turning on the given DS all the Crossroads (also - Forced Paths, Resi-stors and Fuses) in the given

quarter change their direction to the opposite.Note: The DS doesn’t affect the Forced Path nor Jump.

OFF - two of the quarters sport an OFF switch. After switching it on,

the whole quarter is disabled, and all of the paths leading

directly to this quarter are to be ignored, as if they were not the-re.

BLACK PATHS SWITCH [BPS] - after turning on the BPS, the Black Paths are active, and act like White Paths.

EXTORTION SWITH [ES] - after turning on the ES, the Forced Path fields are treated as regular Crossroads, meaning the Impulse moves by the small arrows.

IGNORE FIRST PATH SWITCH [IFPS] - when the IFPS is on, the Impulse picks not the first, but the second available Path to the left or right. This often me-ans it goes back using the same route.

SINGLE SHORT CIRCUIT BO-UNCE [SSCB] - if this switch is on, and the Impulse reaches the Short Circuit field, the Impulse bounces off and goes back the way it came from. After a single use the SSCB becomes inacti-ve for the rest of the Impulse’s movement (you need to remove the token).

Toxic clouds rules allow you to modify the basic NST rules to change the gameplay a bit. The rules are very simple and introduce some interesting options in the game. Wether you will use them in your games or not is up to you.

Toxic clouds A very interesting, yet dangerous phenomenon can be observed once again over the barren, empty lands of Radiated States. Toxical, gaseous clouds move ma-jestically through the dirty skies. They apperar from nowhere, and no one knows where they dissapear to, but one thing is sure - their pass leaves a trail of bo-dies, belonging once to those too foolish - or perhaps too slow - to move out of the way.

txt: Adrian Tyrakowskiillustrations: Mateusz Bielski, Tomasz Górnicki

Are the nimbus one of Moloch’s tricks or maybe they came into being due to atmo-spherical factors? Or maybe it’s the pollution?

Description: The clouds can be thick and viscous, leaving a tary residure on everything they touch. The black film causes all mechanical elements to jam, and it clogs the gas mask’s filters. Other-times, the clouds are jolting with electricity, frying the robotic circuits, or with bacteries, causing lethal damage to all living organisms. Those clouds, they’re damn dangerous.

Toxic clouds in play: Putting into play: The cloud covers a radius of 3”. Right after setting the battleboard and units, each player places a token, numbered respectively 1 and 2, within 6” from the middle line (but no clo-ser to the edges of the battleboard than 6”). Next, the active player rolls a k20, and de-termines which of the tokens represents the cloud (1-10 - token 1, 11-20 - token 2). Then s/he rolls out the type of cloud that will appear.

Movement: At the beginning of each turn you need to determine how the nimbus behaves:

If the cloud moves in a randomly cho-sen direction, each model standing in its way receives damage as if it was within its range. To determine the direction of the move-ment, you need to take a look at the die after you rolled to determine the how far the cloud will move. The direction is shown by the top of the triangle with the number on your k20 die.

Illustration 1.

The roll result showed that the cloud mo-ves rapidly in a randomly chosen direction. The roll determining the the distance will simultaneously determine the direction. The result on the die is a 4, so the cloud moves by 3” in the direction the top of the triangle points at.

Types of clouds Toxical gas Each unit coming into touch with the edge of the cloud, or being within it, rece-

ives a light wound (armour modifiers do not apply). Moloch’s units, due to the heavy pol-lution nad effacing of the mechanical parts, also recieve light wounds. The cloud obscures the vigilance field in the same way a smoke granade would. Additionally, each round every model within the cloud has to roll a Constitution test. If the test is failed, the unit loses one action due to asphyxiating, nausea and other unpleasant effects of the deadly toxin being in the air. Moloch’s units are immune to poison, so they don’t have to make a Constitution test.

Radioactive fallout Place a token in each spot the cloud stops at. Each unit within a 3” radius from the to-ken receives light damage and loses one ac-tion per round for the rest of the game, due to nausea. Moloch’s machines are immune to the radiation effects.

Powerstorm Electric discharges constantly take place wi-thin the cloud - but although they look vicio-us, they do no harm to organic units. Unfor-tunately, Moloch’s units within the cloud (or on its course), recieve light wounds. Additio-nally, the powerstorm has a negative effect on the robots: within 5” from the epicenter of cloud they lose 1 Operativity point due to heavy static. The effect is in game untill the next round, unless the unit stays within the range of the negative influence.

Biohazard This cloud is not only toxic, but also a pe-sthole. Any living unit that enters the deadly

fume must roll an additional Constitution test - if failed, the unit is infected by the virus, and recieves a -1 penalty to all of its stati-stics until the end of the game. Moloch’s ro-bots are immune to viruses.

Power Pack The cloud doesn’t charge the Power Pack or Reaction points. The only way the cloud inte-racts with the Power Pack is if you choose to use the Power Pack Effect „Breeze”. The nim-bus doesn’t dissolve, like regular smoke, but you get to roll for a cloud Movement.

To order Neuroshima Tactics figures, visit the following

stores:

Noble Knight – http://www.nobleknight.comBizarte – http://www.bizrate.comFRP Games - http://www.frpgames.comBattlefield Berlin – http://www.shop.battle-field-berlin.de

NST models are also available at Amazon, Amazon.uk and e-bay.

If you’re a shop representative and would like to order NST figures, please contact our distributor at sales@rebel.pl, or write to us directly – nst@wydawnictwoportal.pl