Essen SPIEL 2026 Diaries | VLOG No. 5 (Sun 25th Oct)

Welcome everybody, it's JP here from the Just Vape Podcast, and this is the last Eschen Spiel vlog, part five, day four. And insert any number here. Here's Rob. Hi. Hi, everyone. Those that know Rob will know that you are from the Who's Tellings It Anyway podcast. Yes. Um, one of our core members. And also we did a re reunion episode.

Easy for me to say. Reunion episode. We did. Yeah. Well, whilst we were in work in Memphis, again in a hotel room.

It was in a hotel room where you'll find us this evening.

Yes, we are still well in a hotel room. Not the same hotel room, but the different hotel room in Germany. This is really exciting chat, isn't it? Yeah. You can tell how tired we both are. I'm knackered. Absolutely. I'm I I've gone through I don't know, I don't know what stages of of illness since I've been here.

I mean, you've had to put up with me, so I apologise. It's been a bummer. You know, I came in with a cold, I escalated the cold to the point where I think my hearing or my sinuses are just blocked. And then everything just went. I don't know how you kept going, to be definitely honest with you. And then it kind of went round again.

Yep. And I think I'm finally over it.

But touch wood, you have none of us, no one else has fallen ill.

No, no. Which has been nice. I kind of just pretended I wasn't I wasn't ill and just went, well, I I can't be ill. I can't fly guy, fly, I can't drive to Germany and then stay in a hotel room for six days. That's just silly.

Listen to the advice of my little ponies, isn't it? And just uh friendship is magic, and if you believe it, it will come true. And that's what's happened.

That is what has happened, it has got me through. But no, look, um, this is the vlog for Sunday, which is typically the quietest day. We already made a plan, and those that have been following the vlogs will know that I plan to do half a day. We did, and we did half a day, which worked.

So amazing that a plan that we made actually came through to the time that we thought it was gonna, which was exactly it's a rare achievement.

It's a rare achievement, but it you know, I don't think I had much left of the tank, to be honest. So that's good. It's it's good. I was happy to leave half day anyway. So, what did we do on the final day of SH Bill 2026? Well, I had a demo of Diablo, that you know, small under the radar game that Glass Cannon and Plugger just froze on Wednesday night and said blah Diablo, the secret game that no one knew we were doing that we announced two years ago.

Everyone knew it was happening. Um didn't they put something on the Facebook? No, they didn't. Someone had took a picture of the booth and then put that in the leader.

And it said Diablo everywhere.

And it was Diablo untold, or what was it? I should have I should know the butt the bag is behind me. Unbound, unbound. There we go. Um, so yeah, I had I had a demo, and actually Rob beat me to the punch. He had a demo Thursday morning.

Well, me and Curly thought we'd just try it and see what we could do. And we got to the booth and said he demo, he said, yeah, we can do 11. Yeah. And it was half past, it was about quarter past 10, 20 past ten at this point. We're like, oh, okay, cool. Today, yeah, yeah. So um, so yeah, we were lucky enough to sit at the table pretty much for the first playthrough with one of the designers who was really nice.

And yeah, it was really cool. I'll let you give your thoughts of mine.

But um, yeah, so we sat down, we had Lucas um teachers, and uh he did a fantastic job. Um, and basically, for those that don't know Diablo, the it's based off a video game IP where you play as a character class, you kind of go through these gothic dungeons and you effectively twack monsters um over and over and over and over and over again.

Get better builds, yeah, then go and do it all again on a harder setting and keep going.

And get better. So it's it's effectively a board game adaptation of that system. So what they've done is they've taken Diablo 1, 2, 3, 4 as a collection, and they've created this new game called Unbound, which kind of meshes all of the things together. Yeah, um, so it's not like this is Diablo 4 the board game or Diablo 3 the board game, this is just Diablo Unbound.

Yeah, because the throw it all in. The games kind of don't follow like specific parts, they they follow like the the kind of evil gods, so yeah, they've taken the bosses and and certain villain types and demons and mixed them all together, which is quite cool.

So effectively I played as a paladin class, which I think you did as well. I did as well, yeah.

Um Curly was a barb, he was a barbarous.

He was barbarous, right? And your your playthrough. So I had Mark Monk on my playthrough, he was playing as the rogue. Cool, um, which fitted his character. Um, he's a bit of a rogue, isn't he? Um and uh yeah, and effectively it's what you think it would be, but I think mechanically it's just fun. Like you you'll you'll move around, you'll play cards, you'll move around the map, you'll fight, you'll roll dice for dealing damage.

Nothing in innovative here right now. Um, one of the things I do like in the system is if you crit, it's like the exploding dice system. So if you crit, you roll another dice in the pool, and it could crit again. Guess what? You roll another dice in the pool. And that for me is exciting uh when you're using dice uh based combat systems because it's like yeah, roll again, yeah, and you're just stacking up the damage, which is good fun.

Um, I think unless you roll like me, of course. Yeah, you roll like you. Um, and I think the character classes all are asymmetrical as well, which is quite fun. So the rogue was basically kind of building a combat chain um in front of them over several turns. As a paladin class, you kind of had like a mini chain where you could trigger off the oath uh abilities on the cards if you were playing the same suit of that card, which again you did that thing, did another thing with the same suit, and it just buffs up.

It became more powerful with the more you use also like a lot of retaliation damage, yeah.

Yeah, you kind of want to get hit so that you can do damage back, yeah, which was cool.

But what's cool about it is that you every time you kind of kill, you go on a kill streak, and then when you max the kill streak out, you'll get loot, and then when you get the loot, it's undiscovered, so it's these cards you're not allowed to look at straight away. Um, but you have a town portal uh token that you can flip uh instead of doing your core actions on the map, and you can kind of buggle off back to town and and start discovering that loot and sorting yourself out, healing up potions and back into the fight you go, which I quite like that.

I haven't played Diablo 3 in a long time, but I'm pretty sure when you've got legendary items, you had to go back to town to kind of get them checked out and discover them, and then they be revealed, so it kind of follows that vein, yeah. Um, of kind of so you know you've got something, you just don't quite know what you've got.

Yeah, so it without going to massive details, I'll do that on on a kind of uh the episode when I get home at some point. I don't know when I'm gonna record it yet, but figure that one out later. Um it was a lot of fun, it was a great opening for for today. And if you're wanting that kind of dice-based, like minion smashing, like kicking ass.

You felt powerful. Yeah, you felt powerful character felt well, yeah.

Yeah, you did. You were just murdering minions left, right, and centre, but then more were just spawning in.

So it felt like Diablo, yeah, which is like quite an underrated statement to say, considering it's Diablo, but they it feels like it, especially in the demo that I played, it it felt like they've kind of nailed what Diablo is, yeah.

Which was good. So that's good. So really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to to hearing more about the campaign. I'm glad I got to try it, and yeah, let's see. I mean, I uh it's with glass canon unplugged. I mean, could it be with a better publisher for a video game IP? I don't think it can. I think it's in the safe hands.

Anyone who's skeptical, don't worry. I think it's gonna be fine. Yeah, cool. Um, so we did that. You went and did some painting. Um I went and picked up a game, then yeah, then I I was getting a masterclass from Ian because his painting skills are incredible. Yeah, so we're with the friend Ian who's a fantastic mini painter, and uh we just found you and him having a little painting date, which is very cute.

Yeah, playing a Halo Flashpoint figurine, which was cool. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, it was chill. To be honest with you, it was just nice to sit down for this moment.

And then we we went uh kind of on our way out, is it because it's gone to 12 by this point, so we went on our way out and then we caught uh a demo of uh Trash Poker, which for those that have kind of been following any of my content will know that I'm kind of into my poker variant games uh recently, so I thought I'd give it a go.

And yeah, I I probably need to play more of it, but I didn't it didn't like if I compare it to Deco and I compare it to some of the other games which I haven't played, which is difficult, but mechanically I know how they work. Um, it didn't leave me with, oh my god, this sits in that space and I need to have it.

But granted, we only played it two player, and I think it's probably a game that thrives off uh higher player. Yeah, like poker generally would, but you you kind of play uh you draw a load of cards, you play a poker hand. The the the ones that you don't play uh in in your hand get stolen by the other players.

It can be, yeah. It can be and then and then they have special effects, yeah, depending on the number that you steal. Yeah, it's all quite. I mean, we we had a we had a great teach to be fair, but you had to go, so we were then left to our devices, and we probably just played everyone before.

We we probably did, but I think we got I think we played enough of it right to understand what it was. Yeah, it felt a lot more serious, yeah. A bit more serious than like DECO does, which for me, I I don't play poker games to make it feel as serious as playing poker. That kind of but um I got it, it was fun, like you could do some kind of wicked stuff comboing wise and kind of make the hand super powerful.

And again, we only saw a fraction of it, so that might not be fair, yeah, uh a fair fair assumption, but um but no, it was good, yeah.

And then we headed on the tube or the the German tube and we headed back and effectively got Kingdom Come deliverance to the table, which we've been wanting to do all week. And I have to preface this with I'm very tired at this point, yeah. We're all very tired. Very tired. So me, uh Rob and uh uh Mr.

Adam Turtsy sat down for a game, pre-player game, and uh and yeah, started to play it. And I think I had a like that's right, let's get this out of the way. Did I enjoy the game? And I think my answer is I didn't love it. Um Paul he's here is he wants to say. I know you were he's only downstairs. Exactly.

I didn't love it, but I think I might if I give it the attention it deserves. Um because I'm not a massive Mage Knight player. I bounced off Mage Knight for most people that know. Um and I'm not used to um Vlados Fattles kind of game design in that that space, and it's fascinating I I did shit, and I uh started off fashioning in a bow, which was fine, and then I kind of meandered around, I didn't really do a lot for uh for a couple of days and failed a lot of tests, and I kind of kind of realised I was making stupid mistakes.

And by this point, the game's kind of going on. And what you've got to realize is we're playing with Adam Tursey, who is very good at games, and very good at like understanding the mechanics of games and and how to exploit them to the best ability.

He clicked with it immediately.

Yeah, you just you just saw the puzzle and ran away with it. And me and Rob just basically had broken arms and and broken wrists and concussion.

Which when you when you pull an injury, each injury has a description. So if you've been in a fight and you failed a fight, I walked away with a concussion and a broken arm. Yeah. Um, which is brilliant. Like the storytelling element is brilliant. Now, this is my second playthrough. Yes. Um, and the first playthrough I had was phenomenal.

Yeah, you had a like you were there, like you played it. You went, this game is this is the best.

This is it, like this is brilliant. Um, but I had somebody who um Chris from uh Chris who plays Roll, um, he did a brilliant teach. He already knew what all the symbols were, he already knew what all the mechanics were, and I'm going off of one playthrough's worth of knowledge trying to help teach the rule, not teach the rules, but kind of fill in the gaps in the rule book that weren't fully understood, and there's a lot of elements to this game, so we kept getting pulled out of the game.

And for such a narrative game, being pulled out of it that many times kind of breaks up the flow. Yeah, um, and I forgot quite critically that this isn't an exploration game, this isn't a go here, do this, then move on to the next thing. You have to have an outline of kind of what you want to do. And the and the first scenario doesn't really help that the story doesn't kick in until a little bit later.

So you're kind of learning the game as you're playing the game. Um, but it when you're failing tests, admittedly, that you probably shouldn't be attempting. Yeah, uh I think it's that or prepared for. Um, you know, it was kind of like uh yeah, bit of a bit of an empty feeling, especially when somebody over the table is doing so well at it and he's figured it out and he's doing brilliantly, and his turns go for 20 minutes because he's because he's linking stuff and he's doing incredibly well.

Um, yeah, it was just a bit like, oh, I I'm a moron. I will I will rest and get five energy. Yeah, great. Your turn. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, so um, so yeah, not the best playthrough, um and probably not the best experience of that game.

That's the thing. I I I didn't I enjoyed it, and I I enjoyed uh learning it. And I think as an objective for the first playthrough, playing the introductory scenario, did I learn the game? Yes, I did. Tick. Okay.

I think ultimately that is the only goal of the first scenario.

And I think that's what I need to remember is that I'd learnt how to play this, and now I can basically play this.

Yeah, and I think that's a that's a win. If you went and did it solo as in spent time thinking about absolutely everything, rather than feeling like I've got to do this just to kind of hurry up a little bit.

Um, I think you'll have a better experience with it. Yeah, and I think once I get my head around the efficiency puzzle, which is that game, and understand the levers and the buttons. And I I'll be honest with you, viewers and listeners, I don't. Um, and even after one play, there's things I've realized I did stupid mistakes.

Like you said, I was doing tests, like, why am I doing a test? You went on when when my discard pile my discard pile is full of the colours that would help me with that test. Like clearly, it's not going to be in the deck, JP. So there's things that was doing, but again, tiredness, the last day of Essen.

Maybe, maybe trying to play this on Sunday was not the best idea. It's the only time we could do it, though realistically. But I'm glad I played it, and I'm glad I've popped it, and I'm glad I now have learnt it because now I want to give it the attention that it will deserve. So I don't want this to appear negative because it's not, and I I do see the genius in the game, and I do see the the fantastic design in it, and I do feel like the immersion in the narrative, even though there isn't like reams of text, it's there, and I did feel it.

Like I was I was basically a peasant having a really shit day. Yeah, you were not having the best time, but narratively, that's what happened.

Yeah, I kind of limped over the finish line. I was starving, I had a broken arm, uh, I had concussion again, and and I got to the end, but um but I'm gonna be back with this game, and I will give it its proper run through.

You can't play this once, and I don't think you can give it an opinion. You can't, it's it's too it's too deep, and I think you need to give it its due. You need to play the scenario, intro, do it, tick it off if it's crap. Like if you go, oh god, that's rough, short girl to experience and pull your big boy socks.

I know I'm doing that, and get back in.

But with this like the the story, because it doesn't start until later, you're kind of left to your own devices, and you can't really do that when the it's such it is such a tight game, yeah. You can't really be left like with not to be good at it, no, yeah, yeah, but you can't be left directionless for that amount of time, and then you know, so um, so yeah, that that's the only thing.

So I'd be interested in because I've done the intro scenario twice. Yeah, I'd be interested in see what the next one brings and kind of how that kind of guides you through it.

But um, but yeah, I'm up for up for playing it more. So um talk about more that one later, but that's it. I mean, we've literally finished that, packed it away. We are packing the room up late tonight, and uh final closure, really. Final closure it's I'm looking forward to going home, and that's not because I'm not enjoyed it.

I've had a freaking brilliant time.

I'm looking forward to eating salad that isn't in a German Donner kebab, yeah. They are the best kebabs on the planet. I'm not lying.

They are the best, but but yeah, you can't eat you can't live off. You can't live off no. Um, so I'm looking forward to just getting back to normality a little bit and and sleeping in my own bed. You know, six nights away is a long time. Um, and but you know, I think for me, this spiel has been really like so much fun, and it's down to the company, down to him, down to like Mark Monk from Ninja Geek Games, down to Ian, down to Paul, down to you know, Mark, Jimmy, and Pokey, um, and Adam, who's all kind of been part of our like premiering group, shut up, phone, part of our great uh premiere in group.

Um, and and generally just the people that I've met this year, other fellow content creators, it's just it's just been a joy.

It's been cool, it's been it's been really laid back, it's been really like friendly, chilled. Um you can speak to anyone.

It's like today, right? I was playing Diablo and Asaf. You knew you met Asaf guy from Easy Board Games. Yeah, he runs over and he gives me the biggest bear hug. Because this this guy is he's a freaking unit, and and you give me the biggest bear hug. And I I just love that man. Like generally, I just thought I love him.

I do. I'm putting it out there, Asaf, if you're watching, I love you. You're the man, yeah, you're the man. And and it's just those interactions for me is what makes this convention, and it's just so many people that you you do it. I'm getting gushy, not even had a drink. Not today, anyway. Not today.

No, it's been it's been really cool. Everyone's really friendly, and everyone's like, you know, in the evenings when we've been playing games, everybody's come around and asking questions about games and and kind of, oh, I saw this today, I thought it looked good. What does it play like? Yeah. Um, you know, people say people like randomly sitting down at tables and playing games together that they've never met before that point.

It's really cool. It's really uh it's really eye-opening as well. Because um, you know, sometimes you think, oh, I don't, you know, kind of you can get a bit self-conscious about this sort of stuff. But everybody's really, really chill. Um, it's been great. Yeah, it's been really nice.

So I think I think we'll end the vlog there, guys. I um, as I keep saying, I will do a full-blown Essence spiel video. It might be two parts. I have no idea. I need to record it. I need to figure out how long that's gonna be. I need to figure out when I'm gonna record it with with fun and games of work and traveling and things like that.

But I will get it done and I do want to release it sooner rather than later. And there will be some overlap, right? If you're watching these vlogs, there's gonna be some overlap because I've given you a high-level overview of every day of what's been going on. But if you want a bit more thorough, like deep dive on the games, my thoughts, better production of graphics, my phone not going off every five minutes, those kind of things.

If you want a better produced episode, I've got you covered, and that's coming down um the pipeline pretty, pretty soon. So, anyway, thank you, Rob, for joining me tonight. Thank you, man. Um, we're gonna go and pack our pants and socks. Um, there you go. Oh, and Stuart, if you are watching, he is out of the cupboard, and not the closet, but I meant like you've got you were cupboard here.

I know, but he doesn't know that, does he? They think he thinks he'd been hiding you in a in a cupboard.

Yeah, to be fair, because um obviously I'm not part of the podcast anymore. I'm not in a lot of the photos and a lot of the posts. He's here, yeah. Yeah, until I think it was until yesterday there was no digital evidence that I was even here. So uh if my wife's watching, which I very much doubt she is, I haven't been here the whole time, I promise.

Um, thank you, dude. You're taking really good care of us, normies as uh normies. We're not we're not post, uh not um pressed or anything like that. But it's been nice. Thank you very much, man. It's been awesome.

Pleasure. See you later, everyone. Bye bye.

Essen SPIEL 2026 Diaries | VLOG No. 5 (Sun 25th Oct)

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