Postcards From Berlin #41: An After-Essen Mint

By Jeff Allers
November 26, 2009

German Word of the Month: Nachspeise (dessert)

“If you can’t make it to Essen, then make Essen come to you.” That has been my motto and motivation the past three years for the “After-Essen Party” in Berlin, and Michael of the Spielwiese has gladly hosted the event, as it always falls on the “birthday” of his café, which he opened the Tuesday after Essen four years ago. Every year, we invite gamers – both local and visiting – as well as Berlin designers to bring and teach their new releases. For the inaugural event, we even had Boardgame News editor Eric Martin and his wife Linda as special guests; this time we were treated to Boardgame News writers Brad Keen, Fraser McHarg and Melissa Rogerson. Fraser and Melissa even brought along their “gamer” daughters.

Spielwiese owner Michael Schmitt and Jeff Allers – ready to party


Berlin designers in attendance included Peer Sylvester, Günter Cornett (who released Peer’s Filipino Fruit Market), young designer Tizian Blumenthal (whose Tokugawa was published by Cornett in 2008), Andrea Meyer (with the self-published Climate Poker), Hartmut Kommerell (of Finito fame), Mario Coopmann (developer for Schmidt Spiele and designer of Robotics), and Bernd Eisenstein, enjoying the successful launch of Irongames through its first release, Peloponnes.

Peer Sylvester (right)


Before everyone had arrived, Peer taught several of us a nice card game of a size and quality matching many Adlung games. In addition to the gameplay, we had fun simply saying the name – Fzzzt!

By the time the short filler was finished, the tables were full, drinks were being served, and games were being pulled off of the impressive pile of new releases Michael had brought back from Essen.

Part of the haul from Spiel 09


This year, however, we had decided that we would program the evening a little more than in previous years. As the master of ceremonies, I gave a brief welcome, then presented the prize table filled with games by Berlin designers. Along with the new games everyone was itching to play, we had a few other games that the entire group would be playing simultaneously, with the winners earning a pick from the prize table. Rather than holding a simple lottery, Michael and I wanted people to earn their prizes.

The first of these was also a new Essen party game from Heidelberger called Erwischt! (published as I Betcha! in English from Le Scorpion Masqué). The game is actually meant to be played during other activities and includes a large deck of cards. Each card has three goals on it in increasing difficulty worth 1, 2, or 3 points respectively. The cards include goals such as “Don’t speak for 5 minutes” or “Ask someone to explain quantum physics.” After you attempt one of the goals, you must wait 30 seconds. If someone else suspects you are trying to fulfill a goal during this time, they shout, “Erwischt!” If no one catches you before the 30 seconds are up, you reveal that you just finished a goal and show the card to the others at your table. You record the number of points you receive for that particular goal, discard the card, and draw a new one.

Keeping score for Erwischt


I quickly realized that playing this game over several tables was a bit more work for the M.C. than I had imagined, as I was very busy writing down scores and handing out new cards for the first hour of the evening. And it became clear that two of the tables in particular were playing very competitively, while the other tables had begun focusing on playing the board games in front of them. After several prizes were awarded, I wiped the sweat from my brow and took a break to relax with Andrea and Melissa.


Andrea Meyer, Melissa Rogerson, Geheimnisvollen Berliner


And what better way to relax than to play the new optimization game by Friedemann Friese, Funkensclag: Fabrikmanager. The rules explanation was a bit much after running the show for a while, but the game started to become more intuitive by the second or third round. It is definitely a wonderfully intricate piece of game design, with some original mechanics that fit nicely with the theme.

We also had a few minutes to chat, and Andrea even taught us how to play Quartets with our fingers instead of using cards, which was an interesting logic exercise with a memory element. More importantly, however, it served as a perfect segue to my next prize-table contest: an Indonesian Finger Game tournament.

Valerie Putman had described this component-less, two-player abstract in a Boardgame News column several years ago, and it became one of my favorites to teach people when standing in line or killing time on a train. Here are the rules from Valerie’s column:

Object of the game
The goal is to eliminate both hands of your opponent by increasing the tally on each hand to 5 or more. But beware, a player can bring back a hand that has been eliminated. It takes careful planning to eliminate both hands!

Set up
Players face each other with their hands in front of them, each with a single digit (typically the pointer finger) extended. Randomly decide who will go first.

On your turn

1. A player may take either hand and use it to tap his own hand (the other hand) or either hand of the other player. The number of fingers extended on the tapping hand are then added to the hand that is tapped. (So on the first turn, you will add a single finger to someone’s hand – resulting in three hands that still have just one finger pointing and one hand with two fingers extended.)
2. If the resulting total on a hand is 5 or more, the hand is reduced to zero (held in a fist with no fingers extended).
3. A hand with zero fingers is temporarily eliminated from the game and cannot be tapped in a normal turn.
4. If on your turn you have one hand with zero fingers extended and more than one finger on your other hand, you can split the total from one hand between the two hands instead of tapping. For example, if you have zero fingers on one hand and four fingers on your second hand, you can bring your eliminated hand back into the game by dividing the four evenly, giving you two hands each with two fingers extended. The total must be divided evenly if possible. If dividing three, one hand will have one finger and one hand will have two. Remember, this is done instead of tapping another hand on a turn.

Winning the game
If you succeed in eliminating both hands of your opponent at the same time, you win!

I thought that this game would be the perfect thing to play as a large group, without needing to cut any other games short or rearrange the tables. Players could compete while waiting for their turn, and if there was one trend at Essen this year, it seemed that downtime was making a comeback.

The rules to the tournament were simple: Keep playing until you lose. When you win, play against someone else who has not yet lost. In the end, Bernd went undefeated and was crowned “Indonesian Finger Game Champ of the Evening,” snagging one of the remaining prize table games that did not have his name on it.


Designer Bernd Eisenstein and one of his mighty fingers


For the remainder of the evening, I was content to table-hop and watch others try to wrap their heads around all the new game rules. A few older games also made an appearance, most notably Qwirkle, the one Eric and Linda first introduced here three years ago. It is still not available in Germany.

As the crowd dwindled, we sat back and enjoyed the last pieces of the “birthday” cake Hartmut and Wiebke Mast brought in for Michael and the Spielwiese – shaped like a giant red pawn, of course. Yes, it would have been nice to be in Essen this year, but sometimes it’s as much fun to skip dinner and just eat dessert.

© 2009 Jeff Allers

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Comments:

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I don’t recall seeing Valerie’s column at the time it ran, but my Korean exchange student Seung Chan taught me the finger game while he was here, so I did know about it. The only difference as he taught it is that you can hit your own hand only if it’s dead and you’re bringing it back – not during regular play. I’ll have to give the game a try that way. Glad to hear Qwirkle is still hitting the table in Berlin. Surprising that it still isn’t available there – and the folks in Berlin definitely need copies so they can brush up on their skill. Who played that yellow diamond on the left without nesting it on the yellow row? Same thing with the orange or red clover on the right-hand side of the pic. Those should be nestled together for more points. I think Linda and I would still dominate the locals if we returned for a rematch… Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Nov 26, 2009 at 04:02 PM | #

Is that a promise?  I think it’s time you came back:) We’ll have to have some Qwirkle game training during the year, if you give us some advanced warning… Posted by Jeff Allers on Nov 26, 2009 at 04:56 PM | #

It was a great night, Jeff - and still almost the only chance we’ve had to play any of the new Essen releases (they’re all in transit to our place in Australia). Thanks again for inviting us! I’ll definitely look up a copy of Erwischt in English - it was a lot of fun. (Really from Melissa but the joys of sharing a computer mean that this will appear to be from Fraser - we’re getting used to it) Posted by Fraser McHarg on Nov 27, 2009 at 04:13 AM | #

It was great having you here.  I’m glad Daughter the Elder had so much fun playing Erwischt.  Of course, there is also a rule that if someone challenges you and they are wrong, they lose points, and if they are right, the challengers gain points, but that was too much book-keeping for a game spread out over several tables. Perhaps I’ll finally get to go to the “main course” in Essen next year.  Until then, I can still claim, “I’ve never been there, but I can see it from my house”:) Posted by Jeff Allers on Nov 27, 2009 at 06:46 AM | #

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