It’s been more than a decade since I’ve participated in a tournament. Though attending conventions is my job, I usually work at the Portal Games booth at those events and don’t have time to spend hours in competitions. Also, it probably doesn’t befit someone working in the industry to fight for main prizes with other competitors. At some point in my life, I stopped competing in wargaming. I didn’t join the fight for keys in Keyforge or road building in Catan. Tournaments are a thrill, a rush of adrenaline, but also a lot of frustration, when one of the competitors focuses too much on the prize and destroys the fun for everyone else, ignoring the rules of fair play. I haven’t experienced all of this in years.

Last weekend, after my decade-long break, I took part in a tournament. I was stressed out, of course! But I packed my Arkham Horror LCG cards and went to the small, local tournament organized in a board game pub in the city I live in.

Nothing works in this game. The mechanics based on k20 dice, just like the famous Dungeons & Dragons, completely fails on every step in this case. Contested rolls are ridiculous, attacking your opponent is extremely risky, and duels are so random that it would make more sense to take a deck of regular cards and play War. The balance of available spells doesn’t exist. If you put me on a scene, I would start roasting Frostgrave for an hour, and I wouldn’t list even half of the problems I have with this game. 

Also, I have to mention I’ve played it eight times already, I bought six expansions, and last weekend I also bought a second army so that I could play two campaigns simultaneously, cause one campaign is just not enough! I’m hopelessly in love with Frostgrave.

John Wick is one of the most important creators in the RPG games industry. I had the pleasure to meet him in person just once, for a short time, when he was a guest at one of the Polish conventions. I’m that guy from the board games industry, and he’s the star of the RPG scene, but we somehow always manage to pass by each other.

John designed some of the best games in the history of RPG—Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea. I had lots of fun playing both these titles, but what’s equally important, they heavily influenced my beginnings in the industry. John is also a great writer—his series of articles about Orkworld, published online in 2000, had a huge impact on my narration style and marketing of my first games. This legendary collection of opinion articles, printed and bound, proudly stands on my RPG bookshelf to this day. Right next to the Orkworld, of course.

In 2009 I had my Nokia with an awesome battery and Snake game. I paid no attention to Iphones, had never heard about Ipad, and was far behind the hot new trend. My friend Marek approached me and told me he is starting a video games company, and they want to do Neuroshima Hex for iPhones and all other upcoming mobile devices. We met, he showed me the prototype, which blew my mind, and I signed the contract the same day.

In 2010 Apple launched Ipad. Sold bizzillion of copies. And thanks to my friend Marek, who took some correct guesses, Neuroshima Hex became the second board game (after Small World) available on Ipads ever.

You guess right. We sold a shitload of Neuroshima Hex app that year.