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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LcKedovan" data-source="post: 1192015" data-attributes="member: 1576">Hi Everyone,Well Essen Game Fair '03 in Germany is behind us now, my dice hand is still itching to play more <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />. Day 1 - ThursdayMyself and nonresonance, a friend and colleague who post's here from time to time were up on Thursday morning at 05:00. I picked him up at his place at 06:00 and we packed the car full of our luggage, miniatures and some RPG and other games. First stop for us was Köln in order to pick up my friend and co-designer Ras. After a short detour when we went the wrong way, we manged to find him and an hour later we were at the fair.The fair itself is HUGE. I have never been to GenCon, but I have been to Origins. The difference is obvious. At the Essen Game Fair boardgames rule but there was an entire hall dedicated to mainly RPG related stuff as well. Essen is more a con where you go to try out new games or where game publishers come to show their new products. It is very much somewhere to spend a lot of cash <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />.We spent the first day wandering the aisles and nonresonance entered a buying frenzy. We met the guys from Midnight Syndicate (<a href="http://www.midnightsyndicate.com" target="_blank">www.midnightsyndicate.com</a>) and chatted with them a bit. I also grabbed 2 of the CDs perfect for Cthulhu. After a great first day we had a nice Chinese meal and went to bed fairly early.... at about the 17 hour mark of wakefulness.Day 2 - FridayOur hotel was cool. A free breakfast buffet where you could squeeze fresh orange juice or make your own fresh waffles (with Canadian Maple Syrup)! Here we actually felt like we were on holiday and we took our time. Arriving at the fair at 10:00 we had two hours before the first posted ENWorld meeting time. Somehow we STILL managed to spend craploads of cash. By the end of the fair the security guard near the entrance we used could recognize us on sight out of 120,000 people due to the fact we kept running to the car to stow our loot, or to the bank machine.at noon we stood near the AMIGO booth holding up a quickly cobbled together ENWorld sign. Here we met nsruf and Bensei. We talked a bit and got to know each other before we sprung our master plan. A makeshift game of 3.5e! nonresonance had run out and bought The Standing Stone to run for us. While we made our characters nonresonance quickly started reading and prepping. We sat on the cold tile floor near the AMIGO booth and next to some exit doors. COLD and uncomfortable... but we were hardcore. I'll post about our game in a susequent post! After playing until around 17:00 Bensei had to go to purchase tickets for the next day and we spent the last few hours wandering and shopping. We planned to meet nsruf back at the Amigo booth and go to dinner with him and his friend Mike. The four of us, Ras, and a friend Gerritt from the Amigo Demo crowd all headed out and had a great dinner at the Maredo steakhouse. Hilarious conversation ensued about some of the more hilarious things that had happened in various games we ran/played in. I couldn't believe I managed to eat the entire Rib-eye I ordered (and was still hungry). After that we retired to the hotel bar to read some KODT and a few of our other purchases. It was pretty cool to have the hotel bar full of people playing various card or table games in the hotel bar. Geek paradise! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Day 3 - SaturdayAnother great breakfast an we were on our way....egads was it FULL. I was glad we did most of our shopping the first few days. We met up with nsruf and Bensei again and continued our game. We also dropped by Kenzer's booth where I dropped a few hundred € and got a corpse's weight in Hackmaster goods. We talked with Brian (Jelke) for a bit and then headed for some more shopping. Later we figured out that there was a Pegasus 10 year anniversary party so we planned on attending. The party had a few bands playing medieval-rock and we consumed some beers and had a bunch of laughs. The group of us hung out with the Kenzer folks and I had a great time. I joked with one of them about how he bought the last pixie minatures right before I wanted to and so I was pixie-less. I will get my revenge I vowed!Day 4 - SundayAlso packed.... we met nsruf at 11:00 (we were an hour late) to complete the final confrontation of the adventure. As we were sitting there playing, noon fast approached for the last posted meeting time for ENers. We stuck the sign up again and it was at that point nsruf mentioned "Darklone said he might come". I asked naturally "Oh, so you know him?" thinking he was another one of their crowd (Bensei and nsruf game together). The answer confused me; "No, I talked to him last night at the party". I am sure I said "huh". nsruf then described him and at that point I realized Darklone and the Pixie Thief from the Kenzer Hackpack were one and the same!!! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />. Darklone dropped by to watch our battle progress before heading back to do some demos. We had a good laugh about having already met. Afterwards there was just enough time for some last minute shopping and saying our goodbyes. It had come and gone so fast, I can't wait for next year <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />. In summary, I had a fantastic time and it was really great to meet the other ENWorlders I met. They were all really cool people and we hope we can arrange to meet them again at perhaps another con soon. Thanks everyone for a great time!  (Pictures coming online!)-Will</blockquote>

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