October 17, 2009: Spiel Essen

Next week, I'll be headed over to Germany -- the town of Essen, specifically -- for SPIEL '09. Just another convention? Not on your life.

Essen routinely sees a hundred thousand attendees -- Gen Con would be lucky to break 30,000 people. And with over 150 new games being unveiled, this place is Mecca for fans of tabletop games of all kinds. The 450,000 square feet fill up with over 700 exhibitors and thousands of games, demos, and tournaments. Pegasus, the German Munchkin publisher, will be hosting Ross and me; in return, the mascot will be doing his thing . . . somewhere. We'll let you know more about times and places as the dates approach.

Last year, an Essen release jumped the pond and ended up on our schedule -- The Stars Are Right. This year, who knows what games or ideas we'll come home with?

As long as it's not H1N1 -- I've dodged that bullet all summer, and I'm not ready to spend Halloween sick!

-- Paul Chapman