I am in Nurnberg. Fair is big. 12 halls. 12 huge halls full of toys, models, teddy bears and all other stuff that kids would kill for.

Halls with boardgames are – you won’t guess! – farthest from the entrance. It takes me 40 minutes before I reach my boardgamer beloved land.

Well, I got lost. Twice. But still – 40 minutes?!

It is however not problem of time. It is problem of 3 huge boxes with prototypes I am carrying with me and lack of bag. Why the hell I didn’t take a bag?! What was I thinking?

Want to feel like Trzewik in Nurnberg? Take 3 games from your shelf and walk with them around your home for 40 minutes. That’s my impression from Nurnberg.

My arms faint.

So when I see on the horizon a man who gives away some free bags, I don’t think twice. I run! I take the bag. I put games into. Uff! I have no damn idea what I will be advertising now, because this slogan is written in German, but I don’t care. I am this point where I have no problem even advertising treatment for prostate.

***

These days we don’t have watches. We have watch on mobile. Who needs watch these days?

Well. I do.

I do because my mobile is down.

I am not making it up. This is really happening!

I have 4 important meetings scheduled and I have no watch. This is me. Ignacy Trzewiczek. Shark.

So I desperately start to look for contact.
I find contact in one of corridors.
I plug in.
I sit. Like a dog on the rope. It will take a while before my mobile starts to breath again.

***

So I am sitting like a moron on a rope waiting for my mobile to start working when just from now where came Ben and Basti from Spielama.de! Among those thousands of people in the middle of some stupid corridor I met a guys who gave me Game of the year prize for Robinson Crusoe! Amazing.

We shake hands. I propose them meeting later on. They agree.

They go away. I stay. Moron on the rope…

***

Finally I go to meetings. I present my games to our US, French and German partners. Pegasus is not interested in Prototype2. Iello is interested in Prototype2 and is not entirely convinced to Prototype1. Zman need to discuss everything with team at their offices…

This is hard. You have couple of minutes to present games you are working on. Meetings are short, no one here have time to sit with you for two hours and play the game.

You show prototype. You describe it. Bach, ten minutes passed, you show another one. And another…

You don’t know when it is 5PM. I meet Spielama again. We play. Discuss. Bach, it is 6PM.

Time for dinner. Time for hotel.

***

Nurnberg this year was very intense for me.

When I reached home, my friend Tycjan sent me a photo – German box for Robinson Crusoe.

You can see it here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151281970667005&se…
It was shown in Nurnberg. I was so busy I haven’t chance to see it. It gives you glimpse of how busy can you be during a fair, does it?

I have this rule ’Never purchase new game if the one you bought previously is still unplayed’

It helps me keep my budget under control. It helps me keep reasonable number of games in my collection. This is important.

So – never purchase new game if the one you bought previously is still unplayed. It’s clear. Of course I had to make one small exception when Christmas was approaching but well, what could I do?! Shouldn’t I buy games for my family because I was lame and didn’t manage to play game bought in November? Should I hurt them? No!!

So basically, the rule is: never purchase new game if the one you bought previously is still unplayed except the situation when not purchasing would hurt feelings of people you care.

Yeah, it is a little bit longer, but it is fair.

***

For a moment I was wondering if purchasing six games for Christmas isn’t a violation of my rule but technically it isn’t. I was buying them in a one moment. I don’t think it is exploiting the rules. I hope you agree.

***

There was a tight moment at the beginning of January with a good offer for Smash Up in one of the Polish game stores, so I needed to look at the situation with wider perspective – Space Cadets which I bought for Christmas and didn’t play yet is a game for 3-5 players. Merry and I makes 2 players.

This is objective reason why I didn’t played Space Cadets yet. I simply can’t. I really wanted, but I can’t.

In this situation everything is clear – never purchase new game if the one you bought previously is still unplayed although you could play it (except the situation when not purchasing would hurt feelings of people you care).

I was totally allowed to buy Smash up.

***

Mid-january shows me as a loyal client and man of honor. I was contacted by my favorite game store. They informed me that they just managed to import the game Coup I was asking about few months ago. You can not expect me being rude and cancel my order, right?

This is matter of rules. This is matter of being a honest and responsible man. Yeah, I bought Coup but I didn’t break any rules. Read them carefully. Everything is according to rules.

Never purchase new game if the one you purchased previously is still unplayed although you could play it (except the situation when not purchasing would hurt feelings of people or game stores you care).

***

Few days ago I discovered the problem with wording, and you know, wording in rules is extremely important. Carelessly I used the word 'purchase’ when writing the rule. It obviously should be 'buy’. I mean, this is important, because the fact that I am just receiving 4 new games from Polish edition of Math Trade is something totally different. Technically it is not buying. I want you to understand very clearly. This is not against the rule.

Never buy new game if the one you bought previously is still unplayed although you could play it (except the situation when not purchasing would hurt feelings of people or game stores you care).

Math Trade is legal. I can exchange as many games as I want!

***

This week I bought Mage Wars.

And technically, I mean, if you look at this promotion I was offered and if you consider I am father of big family and I really need to keep my budget tight and such an offer let me save money so I can buy warm clothes for my little kids and…

OK, you know what? Give me a break. Look at my avatar here. I am game designer. Not rules lawyer. Are we clear?