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Hi everyone, it's uh JP from the Just Play podcast, and this isn't a normal episode actually. This is a vlog, and this is the Essenspiel vlog. So um I probably mentioned it on a few of the uh previous episodes that I wanted to do a uh kind of vlog series whilst I was basically here in S and then here I am. I am in a room at the premiere in. How exciting you can tell by the the lovely lights that are behind me. Um so the purpose of this is I'm gonna split kind of each day into a separate video. It's gonna be low production, very limited, if not any editing whatsoever. And yeah, the purpose is to kind of just rattle off a little bit what I've been up to uh each day, just so I can kind of get some content out there whilst I'm still here in Essen enjoying myself, if I'm being honest. Um, I will still do a full kind of blown Essenspiel uh coverage episode, um, which will probably come out the the week after uh when I get back. So I'll have a lot more detail in this. It's gonna be very much whistle stop tour and all sorts of things. Um, you can probably tell by my voice that it's probably an octave lower than it normally is. Um that's because I've been nursing a cold. Um, I've been trying to sort that out even before I even arrived. So yeah, um, so that's been fun. Uh so yeah, that's gonna kind of kind of been continuing on um into the the funness that is the essence um for for the first day. But anyway, I want to cover today uh on this little video um a little bit about the travel over and a little bit about what I call day zero, which is the press event or the the novelties show. Um so yeah, so we traveled over on the Tuesday. Um I travelled with um Paul Grogan from Gaming Rules, Mark Monk uh from Ninja Geek Games, and Rob and Ian, some friends of ours and friends of the show. So yeah, we got all bundled up into uh a van early hours in the morning. I had to pick Paul up at I think it was 5 a.m. Um, which is very early. And I didn't get any hardly any sleep that night. I think I literally woke up at half two, which was a bit ugh. Um, but we we got there, and I'll be honest, um, we all kind of bundled into the van about 6am and we headed towards uh Folkestone for the channel tunnel, and it's pretty much uh the cleanest run I've had from you know the southwest of the UK to Essen. Um, you know, Mark did the UK leg driving, Rob did the the German, uh sorry, the EU part of the driving, and it's just no no traffic really. We just kind of sailed all the way through and landed about 6 pm. So naturally we got a beer and naturally we wanted to play a game, so we needed something that was kind of light, and we played this. So I brought it's the only game I actually brought to Assam. We played Deco, Deco designed by Harkin uh Holgarter. And um, yeah, fun fact, I've got an interview with Harkin coming up on the show to talk about its expansion. So, anyway, I won't go into details of what Deco is, but it's basically a poker mixed with deck building game, and it's uh yeah, anyone that's kind of played Bellatro the video game, it's kind of got hints of that in a competitive way, and it's a fantastic fun game, and it was a perfect game to play to unwind and not you know do anything too heavy. So, other than that, went to bed, got some shut eye, uh, which was bloody you know needed, I think, after a long day, and also feeling like crap if I'm being honest, but pills, basically popping lots of pills and paracetamols and aspirins and all that kind of stuff to make myself feel better. And then we got to Wednesday, so day zero, woke up feeling pretty good, and we um basically me and Mark um headed off down to uh the press event. So we headed there about 11. Uh, 11 is kind of when you get access to the publishers, and we made a beeline uh for uh Czech Games Edition CGE, and we saw kind of our our kind of friend Pavlina uh literally as we walked in. So we we went basically followed her straight to CGE and we got to meet uh Vlada Shuttle and uh um Thomas Hollock, and they were in full medieval getup here. And I think you probably see on my socials some of those uh picks. Um we was chatting to those, and that was just a bloody, bloody privilege, to be honest. It was pretty cool um to kind of talk to them about their hot new game, um, which probably everyone knows about because it's the one that's been hyped uh to boogery. Uh so yeah, we we chat to them and we managed to pick up uh I'm gonna bend down here. Um pick up codename Critical of Ron Adventures. More on that later. Uh we picked up drillers, um, so that's pretty cool. And then the one, I'm gonna need a minute here, I'm gonna have to, you know. Give me a sec. This one, this little known game, uh Kingdom Con Deliverance. I'm excited, it's here, I've got my hands on it. Um so yeah, we pretty much did that. And um knocking the mic. Uh pretty much did that, and uh yeah, effectively uh met around lots of different people as well. Uh met with Peter from Albi, uh, which is a joy, uh managed to get him some chocolate, which is cool. Um met with Mindclash. I always like to catch up with my friends at Mindclash Games. So I'm looking down here because I've got my notes, by the way. Um, yeah, and we just yeah, basically met loads of people and yeah, lots of business cards flying around, which is what that event's about. And I think Essen do it really well. Um compared to the UK Games Expo Essen, you can properly like network um uh schmooze, I like to call it schmoozing, but yeah, you can properly network and make connections. And you know, I think off the back of that day, um there's a potential of like five or six guest episodes I could do. So I'm kind of filling up uh the backlog, which is is good fun. It's kind of what it's about. Um, but once we were done, me and Mark, we we headed back to uh the hotels and we wanted to kind of get stuck into things. And I made the mistake in getting excited to open kingdom come deliverance and start pop you know punching a few of the tokens out. And once I started, of course, you have to finish. So guess what? I spent nearly two hours punching, sorting, uh, with the amusement of many people kind of watching and looking as I try to build that that bloody card stand that you get. Um, and finally got it done, and that was like a yes, an achievement. And the reason why I wanted to do it whilst I was here is because I want to play it, I want to get a game of it. Um we're planning to do that on Sunday, I think. So we've got a bit more time. So whilst I did that, Mark was learning drillers and he had his copy punched out. So we played drillers, so finally played uh the Gen Con release of drillers, and uh yeah, uh, we had a good good kind of shout on on that. It's a good game. Very solid, very clean Euro game. It does what it does. It's just yeah, nice push you look, go deeper into the mind, get minerals, sell them, upgrade your cards, do better things, rinse, repeat, kind of nice core gameplay loop. And yeah, I'll talk more about that on my um kind of main episode show. So we played that, and then it was a kind of toss-up between what do we do yeah, after that? Do we want to play Kingdom Comes? Or should we do it? But it was kind of getting on to eight, nine o'clock, and I knew if we played that, I'd be up till three or something like that. And I kind of didn't fancy it with me feeling a bit rough. Um, so we played the the code names. We played played this little bad boy, and I have to say, this this little bad boy is the best codename games I've ever played. And we was talking to CG about this. Um it's actually like code names, critical critical role adventures, and we think it should be the other way around. We should it should be like Critical World Adventures, a code names game. And the reason is because I think many people are going to dismiss this, um, because they'll just think, oh, it's just like another variant like codename pictures or codename duet or code names this. But it's it is a very different game. You are running a DMD campaign in the code names rule set, and the way that you work, you you are playing as characters from the critical role series, and you know, you level them up and you get a new abilities and you get different things, you get items, you go on decision branch, uh kind of branching lines in your quest of where you go. And uh yeah, it was just really fun. And we had um Adam Tursey, because he's staying in this hotel as well. Uh he was our games master, and yeah, he learned that again while I was popping Kingdom Come Deliverance out. He was learning that game and effectively, yeah, uh wanted to play it. So we we played that in the evening with uh Adam, Jace, who's one of the team. Hello, phone, one of the team from Mindclash um uh development and testing team, and also demos, and uh they're there demoing uh this weekend. And Rob, so we all played and we played through about what I think three scenarios, and we're trying to finish that off because you get like a six campaign uh run through for each kind of campaign. There's I think it's three in in the box. So yeah, we had a yeah, we had a good fun with that. It was very relaxed again. A couple of more beers, and uh yeah, really enjoyed playing that. And I think after that, it was a case of right, I'm knackered and off the bed, and that's pretty much the the kind of summary of the press day. But you know, I have to say, and I will say it again and again, it's like you know, a massive thank you to to Check Games Edition. You know, they looked after me uh massively. Um, you know, I've got a bunch of games to to play, and I've probably played you know a couple of them, but I'd like to delve into them more. And I cannot wait to get Kingdom Con deliverance to the table. I cannot wait to experience it here in Essen, um, which is difficult because of the time you kind of need to do it. And it's a trade-off. Like, well, I want to be in the halls and seeing what the new stuff is and getting the new games and things like that. Um, but you know, it also I want to play that game, and it's sat there, it's literally there looking at me on the floor. Uh so yeah, that's that's the plan. I need to turn my phone off because it's kind of annoying. Um, but other than that, I think that's pretty much a wrap-up for day zero, guys. And um, I'll be back tomorrow for uh the day one kind of recap, the first full day of Essen, the Thursday. So thank you for watching, as always. And uh yeah, I'll see you tomorrow or see you on the next one, however it is that you watch it. Cheers, guys. Bye bye.