Thanks to everyone who attended!

It's the day after, and the post-event hangover still hasn't subsided, but we just want to give a shout-out to all the people who attended our event last night. We're still tallying things up, but we raised an impressive amount of money for Food Lifeline considering that this was an inaugural event. We'll post here once we have all the numbers crunched.

We plan on sending out a survey so you can provide feedback on what worked/didn't work/etc, but in the meantime, enjoy PAX this weekend!!

Information for attendees tonight

If you're coming to the party tonight, here's the rundown:

• Cosplay is OK!  Our party is in the banquet area of the Columbia Tower Club, not the members only area.  Therefore, we can wear what we want (but please keep it clean).  You will be the first people to ever cosplay at the Columbia Tower Club.  Oh, and weapons rules are the same as are used by PAX.
• Parking:  Remember, there's a Seahawks game tonight!  That means that parking, and especially free street parking, is going to be difficult to find.  We highly recommend that you park in the Columbia Tower garage.  It's 9 bucks as long as you arrive after 5:00.  The entrance is on the Columbia Street side, about halfway down the block.  Note that due to one way street configurations, you have to come from the 5th Avenue side.
• If you're walking down from the convention center district, be aware that the weather is going to be unsettled tonight.  Might want to bring an umbrella, just in case.  There will be a coat check at the concierge desk on the 75th floor.
• Dinner is at 8:30.
• Credit cards are accepted tonight (for drinks, pop-up store or prize entries), but cash is always nice.  There are cash machines in the main lobby and on the 40th floor.

See everyone tonight!

Sky High Tabletop Play Completely Sold Out!!

Yup, that's right--it's a sellout! If you missed the boat, we are providing a "have tickets/need tickets" thread on the Facebook event page. Click here to be taken there. The first (pinned) post is the thread you are looking for.

Ticketholders can expect an email from the organizers with last minute instructions sometime Wednesday evening.

Sky High Tabletop Play Floorplan - We Own the 76th Floor!

The Columbia Tower sent over the latest version of the floorplan today, so feel free to check it out. Click in the image below to open a larger one:


A few points of interest:

• As you can see, we are spanning both ballrooms. The seating configuration in these is set up for 175 total. That means that we have more than 175 seats, due to the fact that seating probably won't be used at 100% efficiency.
• VIP rooms are the small conference rooms on the right (north) side. Note that the smallest of the three has a couch in it, as we are looking to set up a video game console in there.
• The Washington Room (the ballroom on the left) has open space for Life-Sized Tsuro. It also has a Loser's Couch.
• The corner small conference room (Board Room) on the far left (south) side is booked by another party early in the evening (if you see them in the hall, be nice--they probably aren't used to gamers, let alone cosplayers!), but if we need it, the other large-ish one (Blake Island) is available for overflow.

Procurement update: Getting close to $5000 worth of prizes!

This is updated as of Wednesday evening. Added some games from Looney Labs and updated Chef John Howie's contribution. Looney Labs sent us 30 Fluxx (Star and Zombie) games! Chef John Howie added 75 free appetizer cards to his already generous donation. We're also expecting donations from local gaming companies Lone Shark Games and Calliope Games to be added to this list soon. The latest list:

PAX Badges!
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday

AEG
Love Letter

Calliope
Double Double Dominoes
Got 'Em!
Tsuro
Tsuro of the Seas
Ugh!

Chivalry
Chaostle

GMT
Dominant Species (x2)
Commands & Colors: Ancients (x2)
Dominant Species: The Card Game

Indie Boards & Cards
Flash Point: Fire Rescue (x6)
Gauntlet of Fools (x6)
The Resistance (x6)

Looney Labs
Star Fluxx (x3)
Zombie Fluxx (x2)
Plus one copy of Star Fluxx or Zombie Fluxx for each VIP SWAG Bag

NSKN
Warriors and Traders (x2)
Wild Fun West (x2)

Paizo Publishing
Save Doctor Lucky

Plaid Hat Games
City of Remnants
Summoner Wars (x2)

Slugfest Games
Red Dragon Inn 2 (x2)
Red Dragon Inn 3 (x2)
RDI: Erin the Ever-Changing (x4)
RDI: Pooky the Vicious (x4)
RDI: Gambling? I'm In! (x2)

Steve Jackson Games
Munchkin
Munchkin 3: Clerical Errors
Munchkin 4: The Need for Steed
Munchkin Cthulhu
Munchkin Cthulhu 2: Call of Cowthulhu
Munchkin Bites
Munchkin Impossible
Munchkin Zombies
Star Munchkin

Chef John Howie
$50 gift certificates to Seastar (x2)
$50 gift certificates to John Howie Steak (x2)
$50 Gift card to Sport Bar & Grill
Autographed copy of Passion & Palate
Free appetizer gift cards (x3) for each VIP SWAG Bag

Chef Jason Wilson
2 $50 gift certificates to Crush

Sci-Fi author Hugh Howey
25 Signed copies of Wool. One copy will go in each VIP SWAG Bag. All remaining copies will go to the general drawing.

Julia's on Broadway
Pair of VIP tickets to Le Faux Celebrity Impersonation Show

Cupcake Royale
Stuff your face certificate. A dozen cupcakes of your choosing + a pint of ice cream ($50 value)

Nuflours
2 $25 gift certificates

Ivar's
$50 gift certificate

Miscellaneous
Nuance Software: Dragon Naturally Speaking 12 Professional

Up-and-coming Sci-Fi author Hugh Howey donates 25 signed copies of Wool to our event!

Hugh Howey, author of the indie sci-fi sensation Wool, has generously donated 25 signed copies of his hit novel to our event. Every single one of these will be going home with one of you! For those of you who don't know yet, Wool was released in 2011 as a series of 5 independently published sci-fi novellas that quickly went viral. The omnibus edition (all 5 novellas in a single publication) has now sold millions of copies worldwide. The author himself is one of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you could ever hope to meet, so we're thrilled that he's supporting us. Incidentally, Wool is book 1 of a 3 part series. Here's the best news: Book 3 just came out today, so no waiting years and years for the conclusion!

This latest donation brings the total number of items that will be given away on this evening up to close to 100. For a full list of all donated items, please see this post.

Announcing our featured game store partner: Uncle's Games!

We are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement for Uncle's Games to be our featured game store partner for Sky High Tabletop Play.



Uncle's will have a pop-up store on site, and they will also provide a gaming library for you to borrow games from. If you've ever been to an Uncle's Games store, you know that along with having an immense selection of games of all kinds, they are one of the cleanest, friendliest and most inviting game stores you will ever find. We're thrilled to have them on-board, and look forward to seeing what they bring to the event!

This Website is fully armed and operational!

Full speed ahead! We got our artwork approved today and cleared a couple other final hurdles on our "must do" list, so we can now say that we are completely ready to turn this into the amazing event that it's going to be. The charity we are teaming up with, Food Lifeline, is first class in every sense of the word. We're excited and honored to be working with such an amazing organization!

Here's all the info you could possibly need for this event. There are links at the bottom for even more info if this just isn't enough for 'ya.

Who:  Hopefully you, along with 249 of your closest friends or soon-to-be friends

What:  Pre-PAX gaming party.  A night of tabletop gaming, drinking, socializing, and general merriment from the absolute most scenic location in the entire West coast and the swankiest spot in Seattle, with 100% of all proceeds going to Food Lifeline.

When:  Thursday, August 29th, 7:30 pm - 2:00 am

Where:  Columbia Tower Club, 76th floor, downtown Seattle

Why:  Because you're like us - you like to game.  Because you want to kick off PAX in style.  Because you'd like a tasty alcoholic beverage and a supplied meal whilst you play your games.  Because you're bringing an S/O whom you would like to dazzle with the most stunning views imaginable (or to at least distract them long enough for you to play).  Because you're traveling and want to go someplace special.  And, most importantly, because you'd like to do all of this whilst supporting a fantastic charity - and getting a tax write-off in the process.  That's a lot of wins in one package.

What's included in all ticket levels:

• Up to 249 other people to game with
• A game library that you can borrow from (feel free to BYOG, as well)
• Dinner
• Full (cash) bar access
• Guaranteed seating! We will have more than enough seats for everyone attending, so no waiting to play games.
• A pop-up game store to make acquisitions, if you so choose
• A ticket-based drawing, with prizes including gift cards to many of Seattle's best restaurants, tabletop games - and,oh yes, PAX badges in case you struck out and want to go.
• As all monies spent are going to Food Lifeline, all monies spent are 100% tax deductible
• (Pending final acknowledgement) Representation from the Cookie Brigade, who will be "donating" their delectable treats to raise funds for Child's Play

VIP ticket levels also get:

• A swankier plated dinner
• Drink vouchers
• Free drawing tickets
• Private-access gaming rooms, if you so desire
• A bigger tax deduction

For more information, please visit our FAQ. Help us spread the word by inviting your friends to our Facebook Event Page.

Get your costumes ready, because this shindig is starting to come together!

Things are really starting to move with this event! Early Bird tickets sold out last night, several game companies have donated games (that YOU can win!), our artwork is almost done, and the Columbia Tower Club is going to LET YOU WEAR YOUR COSPLAY to this event!!! We hope to be 100% formally launched by tonight. In the meantime, tickets are still on sale! Tier I tickets (only $5 more than Early Bird tickets) are still available--get yours while they last.

Handshake agreement reached with Food Lifeline

We just wanted to let everyone know that we reached a handshake agreement with Food Lifeline, a 4 Star Charity according to Charity Navigator and one of the most well respected charities in Washington State, to be our charity partner for Sky High Tabletop Play on August 29th. We are thrilled and honored to be working with such an amazing organization. Please stay tuned for more details in the next few days.

Stay tuned -- Major announcement in the next week!

We're working on putting together another giant game night atop the Columbia Tower--bigger and better than TableTop Day--on the Thursday night before PAX Prime (August 29th). It will be a fundraiser for an as yet to be announced charity. Keep an eye on this site for details!

Video from TableTop Day

Here's a video that Kristen and Torrin put together from TableTop Day. It contains some good action shots. Enjoy!

The Resistance: New TableTop episode may be the best in the entire series

If you haven't seen it yet, watch last week's episode of TableTop titled The Resistance from Indie Boards and Cards. The editing is superb, and the game itself really lends itself to the format of the show. There's drama and intrigue, and... well, I don't want to spoil it, but let's just say that the fact that the players in this game are actors in real life gave this episode a little extra something. Watch for yourself and see:

Looney Labs is following us on Twitter!

Looney Labs is now following us on Twitter. Therefore, Dawgsled Events hereby decrees today to be Fluxx day. Everyone is requested to honor said day by playing your favorite variant of the awesome card game Fluxx this evening. You're welcome.

ICYMI: TableTop Season 2 Premiere Episode

In case you missed it, here is the season 2 premiere episode of TableTop. In it, Wil is joined by Grace Helbig of Daily Grace fame, Hannah Hart, creator of the YouTube hit series My Drunk Kitchen, and sketch comedy actor Greg Benson. The featured game is race car game Formula D from Asmodee Games. Enjoy!

Video from various Seattle area TableTop Day Events (including ours)

Thanks to Mike Selinker and his fabulous crew for this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohZC4kEfVG0

First set of pictures released

Thanks Jeff Slostad for these great pictures from Saturday!  Find the pictures on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/slostad/sets/72157633139414108/ and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4741855510431.1073741831.1416264957&type=1. 

There should be more pictures and even a video or two posted in the next couple of days.

Handful of tickets released

We've released a few extra tickets today. Get them before 11:59 PM tonight--and before someone else does! Click here to go to the ticketing page.

Free ticket opportunity for someone who doesn't mind talking to people!

We are having a raffle tomorrow! We will be raffling off a ton of games, and everyone will get one raffle ticket at check-in. We will also be selling more (for a cat rescue charity, and also to help us offset some of the costs associated with this event) to those that want to sweeten their odds a bit, and to that end, we need one volunteer to sell tickets. You'll get free admission if you do this (or a full refund if you've already bought a ticket), and will be required to "do the rounds" for one hour at some point during the day (probably 1:00-2:00). Therefore, you should be somewhat outgoing and not afraid to talk to people. For the rest of the event, you'll be free to play games to your heart's content. If this is you, or if you know someone who wants to come to the (sold out) event but doesn't have a ticket, please get in touch with me (Matt) at dawgsledevents [at] gmail [dot] com.

Game of the Day: Munchkin

Munchkin is the dungeon experience... with none of that stupid roleplaying stuff. This game, one of the flagship products of Steve Jackson Games, is a card and dice game where every card is more ridiculous than the last. From plutonium dragons to shrieking geeks to pantyhose of great strength to bribing the GM with food, it's sure to be a laugh a minute as you turn that level 2 Large Angry Chicken that your buddy is fighting into a Humungous Enraged Large Angry Chicken. Not only is this one of the most fun games out there to play, the TableTop episode for it is one of the best as well. Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh and Steve Jackson himself join Wil Wheaton as they play Munchkin.


If the real job time crunch issues aren't too extreme tomorrow, I'll post Castle Panic.

"What Games Are You Bringing" post pinned to Facebook event page

A ton of people have asked for a forum for posting what games will be available. A thread has been started and pinned on the Facebook event page for you to post to/look over.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/218247851657923/

We are now sold out! Options for people looking to buy or sell tickets:

At 11:05 AM today, we sold the last ticket for TableTop Day on Top of the World.

If you still want to go, get on our waiting list here. Approved waiting list requests will be processed in a first come, first served basis. (UPDATE: The first 2 requests on the waiting list were approved. We're doing our best to insure that those that want to come can come!) If you do sign up on the waiting list, then you are committing to buying a ticket should your request be approved, so please bear this in mind. Our ticket seller site does have a cool feature where you can set an expiration time on waiting list requests. So, for example, if you want to come to the event but really need to know for sure whether you have tickets by say Friday night at 7:00, you can set an expiration time after which you will drop off the waiting list and will not be at risk of being charged.

If you have tickets but now realize that you cannot go, please send us an email at DawgsledEvents [at] gmail [dot] com. We will do our best to facilitate a full refund minus any fees charged by our ticket vendor, provided there are interested persons on the waiting list to take your place. This process will be best effort on our part to accommodate you, but is NOT GUARANTEED. You are also more than welcome to sell your tickets on your own. If you elect to go this route, you will need to log into the Shindigg site and change the names on your tickets by Friday at 11:59 PM. We will not change the names on your tickets for you, as this is a fully supported feature for ticket holders on Shindigg.

Thanks to everyone who bought tickets for your amazing support! This is going to be a fantastically good time. Even Mother Nature looks to be cooperating. Looking forward to Saturday!

Seating arrangement for Saturday!

The Columbia Tower Club sent over a rendering of what the seating chart will be for Saturday. Click the picture below for a larger version:



Some highlights:

• There is enough seating for 280 people on the 76th floor at this event. We expect 225 people plus vendors and volunteers, so probably 240 total. This should be more than enough room. We also have use of the 75th floor for a portion of the time (more on that below).
• See all the rooms in the corners? We have those for the entire day. There are 4 rooms that can accommodate 10 people and 2 rooms that can accommodate 20. One of the "wings" will be the game lab that Japanime Games/Coffee Haus games will be using.
• The Dreaming Comics and Games will be setting up their pop-up shop in the larger of the two banquet rooms. They will be acting as MC's for the event, making sure that people have games to play and helping to get games started. They'll also have lots of goodies (games and other stuff) for you to gander at and purchase, if you desire.
• Not pictured is the 75th floor. It's more of a lounge area than 76, and we can use this space until 3:00. After that, they have to get ready to open the club, so we'll have to all migrate up to 76. At that time, if it gets too cozy, we'll re-purpose the tables that were used for lunch and turn them into game tables. If we do an event like this again, we'll do it on a Sunday so we can have both floors for the entire time!

That's it for now! Stay tuned to our various social media outlets for more updates as Saturday gets closer! Get excited to Play More Games!

Wil Wheaton announces season 2 of TableTop

See the post on his Tumblr. Looking forward to it!

Game of the Day: Chez Geek

Beer. Nookie. Roommates. It's another Friday night at Chez Geek. In yet another brilliant card game from Steve Jackson Games, Chez Geek celebrates all those wonderful days spent as a young adult first making your way in the world. Bad jobs, cheap booze, roommate issues, slacking off... it's all there! Today's episode features musical duo Paul & Storm along with Wil. Who knew that there were so many creative names for cover bands? Find out what they are as you enjoy today's episode, Chez Geek.


Sorry this is a day late. Blame the real job! I guess the need to eat won out. At any rate, we're back on Monday with a fun palace builder game called Alhambra. In the meantime, do what I'm going to do this weekend so I'm ready for next: Play More Games!

Game of the Day: Gloom

The world of Gloom is a sad and benighted place. The sky is gray, the tea is cold, and a new tragedy lies around every corner. In Gloom from Atlas Games, each player is in charge of one of four eccentric families. The goal? To bring about their demise. But it's the way you do so that makes this game so entertaining. You can have your characters be terrified by topiary, pursued by poodles, or eaten by bears, all the while making sure your opponents' characters are finding love at the lake while being delighted by ducklings and marrying magnificently. Sound silly? It is--and the sillier you can make it, the better. Think the gang on TableTop is going to have any problem with this? Yeah, me neither. Enjoy today's episode, Gloom.


Tomorrow, we'll stick with card games by featuring Chez Geek, which pokes fun (in a loving way) at many of the stereotypes of the modern geek culture. In the meantime, if you can peel yourself away from March Madness, Play More Games!

Games of the Day: Tsuro, Get Bit, Zombie Dice

3 for 1 today as we focus on games that are good at "getting the party started"--and yes, we will have a few of these on hand next Saturday! The featured games are Tsuro from local gaming company Calliope Games, Get Bit from Mayday Games, and Zombie Dice from Steve Jackson Games.

The concept of Tsuro is simple: Keep your dragon alive longer than all the others! You get to place tiles that determine the path of your dragon, but don't fly off the edge of the board or crash into another dragon or your dragon loses!

In Get Bit, you are a robot being chased by sharks. Can you keep your robot at least somewhat in one piece longer than all of the others, or will the sharks get you first?

Finally, in Zombie Dice, you get to play the role of the zombies for once! Your goal? Score as many delicious brains as possible while warding off gunshots from those pesky humans. Don't press your luck too much, because if the humans get you three times, you don't get to keep any of the brains you worked so hard to get on that turn.

Want to see these games in action? Then watch as TableTop brings you all three in this Casual Games episode.


Tomorrow, we feature Gloom, a silly card game where your goal is to bring about the demise of your characters. Sounds morbid, right? Well, maybe a little, but it's also hilarious--especially the way it is portrayed on TableTop. In the meantime, you guessed it: Play More Games!

Game of the Day: Star Fluxx

Enough with the Brackets! Getting back to the world of tabletop games, Star Fluxx from Looney Labs is a derivation of the card game Fluxx. In this game, you are dealt three cards. There are different kinds of cards: Keepers, Creepers, Action cards, Rule cards, and more. At the beginning of the game, all you do is draw one card and play one card. Sounds simple, right? It is--until someone changes the rules! Today's TableTop episode features a first for the show... but to tell you what that is would be a spoiler! To find out what it is you'll just have to watch today's featured episode, Star Fluxx.


Tomorrow, to honor the fact that local gaming company Calliope Games is donating some demo games to us, we will feature the episode with the game Tsuro. In the meantime, wait for it... Play More Games!

Game of the Day: March Madness!

I can already hear the cries of "Hey! That's not a tabletop game!" You're right--but, it does indirectly have tabletop implications. Geek & Sundry is not going to always be there to gift wrap these events for us, so if we want the event on March 30th to not be a One Hit Wonder, then this site is going to have to offer more than just giant game days. One potential idea is to develop tournament software that we can use to run gaming tournaments. This would be stuff that anyone could use, and we would implement it into our events. How awesome would a 64 person Settlers of Catan tournament be? It would be a whole lot easier if there were a ready-made Website that did all the scheduling, calculating and game setup for us. If you are a front-end designer, then let's talk. As you'll see if you visit the March Madness site referenced in the next paragraph, the design is, to put it nicely, very "retro". It works, but it definitely looks like it came out of the 1990's (which it did). The database behind it, however, is rock solid. We would like to take something like this and apply it to tabletop gaming.

Now, March Madness. Our sister site, www.dawgsled.com, hosts a March Madness pool management program every year, and it's that time of year! It's free, and unlike most of the major March Madness tournament management sites out there, it has no advertising. You're welcome to come in and fill out a bracket to compete for the $100 Amazon gift card. If you regularly run a pool, you also might want to consider hosting it on this site, as you can create your own pools. One of the features we have for pools is customized scoring, which allows you to choose how many points per round games are worth and also allows you to award bonus points for forecasting upsets. The site also has a Tourney Simulator, which allows you to play the "what if" game with your pools once the basketball games actually start. That way, you'll know exactly who you need to root for to stay alive to win your pool.

Anyone else see how something like this might translate to the tabletop arena? If so, let's talk.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow as we feature Star Fluxx.

Announcing our first Game Lab Partner: Japanime Games!

We are pleased to announce that representatives from Mountlake Terrace-based sister companies Japanime Games and Coffee Haus Games will be on hand to run one of our game labs! They will have games from both lines available for you to play, and you'll be able to ask them questions about the various games. There will also be games available for purchase on-site if you find anything you like. Make sure to stop by and try out a game or two!

Announcing our first Featured Partner: The Dreaming Comics and Games!

We are proud to announce that we have entered into a Featured Partnership with The Dreaming Comics and Games! Representatives from the store will be on site and will have a booth set up where you can borrow games to play during the day. They will also have games for sale, so if you find one you like, you can purchase it right there!

You can visit their store (and play games there, too!) at 5226 University Avenue in the U-district in Seattle. You can also visit their Website or their Facebook Page. We look forward to seeing them there!

Game of the Day: Small World

Today's game, Small World from Days of Wonder, is a wonderful mix of strategy and fantasy. Players choose which race they want to be and then struggle to control land on the board. It's a strategic game, but it doesn't take itself too seriously. Today's featured TableTop episode also just so happens to be the series premiere. Enjoy seeing Wil and the gang play Small World.


Next week, we'll pick this back up by featuring Star Fluxx. In the meantime, enjoy a green beer and Play More Games!

TableTop Day on Top of the World Update: 200 Tickets Sold!

Folks, we have ourselves a game day! At 3:50 PM today, we sold our 200th ticket--more than 2 weeks before the event! That's crazy!!

We're not sold out yet, but there has been a price increase in tickets. For more information on why this is so, please read this post from earlier today.

We're working on several things to help make this more than just a giant game day. Stay tuned to this site over the next couple weeks.

Game of the Day: Last Night on Earth

Prepare to be entertained. Today's game, Last Night on Earth from local gaming company Flying Frog Productions out of Kirkland, pits the Humans against the Zombies. Don't let the genre fool you. This is a fun, silly, enjoyable game that just happens to take place during the Zombie Apocalypse. Today's featured episode is one of the best in terms of the back and forth banter between the players, and it features the genesis of a certain made up character that will be forever linked to Geek & Sundry lore. Who is this mysterious new character? I'll let Felicia Day handle that one. Please enjoy today's featured TableTop episode, Last Night on Earth.


Tomorrow, it's time to find out more about the zany civilization-style game Small World. Until then, yup, you guessed it: Play More Games!

Additional tickets released "at cost"

Earlier this week, we met with the folks at the Columbia Tower Club.  They were so impressed with our ticket sales pace (191 as of this posting!! Update: Now over 200 tickets sold!) that they agreed to let us use the 75th floor members lounge area in addition to the convention space that we're using on 76.  This increases our capacity from 200 to as many as 300 quite comfortably.  The newly-released tickets are priced "at cost".  More on what that means in a bit. 

First, however, an update on what we're getting.  There are 2 main banquet rooms on 76.  One is a little bigger than the other, so there will be 110 seats in one room and 90 in the other.  In addition to this, there are 6 small "break out" rooms, all with spectacular views, that are also ours for the day.  We can use those for tournaments, workshops, or whatever we want (incidentally, if you'd like to put together a tournament of some sort, get in touch!)  In addition to all that, we now have the 75th floor members' lounge!  This has a 103" television that we're hoping we can use to play the live stream from Geek & Sundry.  It has lots more tables, including one table in the shape of a giant guitar pick.  There's even a shuffleboard table!  As for food, we will be fed lunch at 12:30 (buffet style sandwiches--yes, there will be a vegetarian option!) There will be 2 cash bars for your imbibing pleasure.  Top tip:  Bring CASH if you plan to get drinks!  Cards are slow and keep people from playing games.  If you forget, there are ATM's on site.

Now for the ticket details:  To date, every ticket sold has been at a loss.  It is costing the producer (aka, me) $28/head to put on this party.  To those of you who are quick with math, you can see that I'm easily into 4 figures in the red currently.  I'm willing to do this because I get to count drink sales against the cost of the event, so when you factor that in, it becomes more palatable.  Despite this, I'm still probably looking at a modest loss even with the rosiest of projections.  I knew that going in, and I'm OK with it.  However, while I'm OK with a modest loss, I would really rather not get creamed.  Therefore, I'm only willing to take on risk for the first 200 tickets.  After that, I have to insist that the price be "at cost". 

I do realize that this is going to price some people out.  What this does is makes it so that people who really want to go this event will still have the opportunity to do so, while simultaneously protecting me from completely losing my shirt.  If $28 is too much for you, remember that there are a TON of other TableTop Day events happening on March 30.  They may not be as big (or as tall) as ours, but they are cheaper (heck, most of them are free).  There are at least 4 or 5 in the immediate Seattle area.  Your best bet is to go to TableTopDay.com and use their interactive map.  The downside to this site is that it takes FOR-EVER for the little stars and Meeples to populate the locations of events.  Your best bet is to start the map up and then walk away for 10-15 minutes.  When you come back, all of the events should be there.  Despite all this, we would still love to have you at our event!  It's going to be the bestest!

Thanks again for all the amazing support, everyone!  We couldn't do this without you.  Until the next post, Play More Games!

Game of the Day: Pandemic

Our featured game today, Pandemic from Z-Man Games, differs from the majority of other games in one major area: It's collaborative. It's you and your cohorts against the game in a frantic race to save the world from four disease outbreaks. Although this game can seem a bit intimidating at first, once you play a round or two, you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. After that, once you're hooked, you're hooked. Entire afternoons have been joyously squandered attempting to beat this game. Not that I (the author of this post) would know anything about that... But enough already. See for yourself in today's TableTop episode, Pandemic.


Tomorrow, enjoy some hilarious Wil Wheaton vs. Felicia Day banter as we feature Last Night on Earth, where it's Zombies vs. Humans in an epic effort to survive. In the meantime, please continue to Play More Games!

Game of the Day: Wits and Wagers, Family Edition

Today's game, Wits and Wagers from North Star Games, features rounds of trivia questions where you wager your Meeples on which answer you believe is correct. You don't need to know the right answer, you just need to guess which answer is closest to being right. It's a game that does not require a lot of deep strategic thinking, so it can be played in any social setting. In today's featured video, Wil and the gang play the family edition of this fantastic game. Take it away, folks! Here's Wits and Wagers, Family Edition.


Tomorrow features a collaborative game, Pandemic, where you team up with 3 other people to try and save the world from an outbreak of diseases. Until then, Play More Games!

Game of the Day: Settlers of Catan

Admit it. If you've played or even heard of Settlers of Catan, you've made a "Wood for Sheep" joke at some point. It takes Wil Wheaton less than a minute to go there in today's video. Our featured game, Settlers of Catan from Klaus Treber, is one of the most successful games in history. The premise of the game is that players are competing and bartering for resources as they settle a newly-discovered island. The game involves a high amount of strategy, so an experienced player certainly has an edge, but it is a dice game, which means that there is also a fair amount of luck involved. Therefore, even novice players will always have a chance to win. But enough about that. Let's let Wil and the rest of the gang show us how it's done in today's episode, Settlers of Catan.


Tomorrow is Wits & Wagers. Until then, Play More Games!

The Felicia Day Bump is real, and Stephen Colbert should be worried!

Look out, Stephen Colbert! The Felicia Day Bump exists, and one day soon it will be more coveted than the Colbert Bump!

About 3 hours ago, Felicia promoted our event on her Facebook page. Predictably, tickets have literally been flying out the door since then. First of all, a HUGE shout out to the folks at Geek and Sundry for this. You guys said you were going to support us in our endeavors to host these events, and you have gone above and beyond with your delivery on this promise for us! If you're not already subscribed to their YouTube channel, head on over and do so! You'll be glad you did.

Now, to business. We just crossed the 100 ticket mark and are now over 50% sold out. About 40 of those were sold after Felicia's post. The point? Don't wait. Get your tickets now. If we do manage to blow the doors off of this thing and sell out by this weekend, I will discuss expanding the event with the Columbia Tower Club when I meet with them on Monday, but it's not guaranteed. Oh, and if you needed another reason to have a sense of urgency about this, there are not a whole lot of $15 tickets left. Once they're gone, they're gone, and you'll have to pay the procrastinator's tax.

In the meantime, as always, Play More Games!

Today's Game of the Day: Ticket to Ride

This site is going to be running a special series called "Game of the Day", where we will feature one game each weekday between now and TableTop Day on March 30. Our first game will be Ticket to Ride from Days of Wonder.

From the game's Website, "Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure in which players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America." Sounds fun, right? But rather than telling you more by putting a bunch more words on this page, we're just going to show you. Without further ado, here is the TableTop episode Ticket to Ride.


Monday, we feature Settlers of Catan. Until then, Play More Games!

TableTop Day: How you can help!

I've had a few people ask me how they can get involved with our TableTop Day event. There certainly are things you can do, but before I get to them, a little disclosure. This event is a not for profit event. The Columbia Tower has graciously knocked $2000 off of their regular club rental price, without which, there's no way this could have happened. For some reason, having 200 highly intelligent movers and shakers from the Seattle area visit their venue was appealing to them, so they worked with me. I wanted to charge $10 for tickets. At their normal rates, I would have had to charge $25. We settled on $15 because, at the end of the day, they have to pay their staff that's going to come in on a Saturday and cook/serve/cater to us. If I personally come out in the black on this event (which is not guaranteed, by the way), I will be donating the proceeds to charity.

Now, how to help.

1. The number one way you can help this event to succeed is to go to this Facebook event right now, click the Invite Friends button and invite ALL of your gamer friends. And your friends that you think might make good gamers (the "faux nerds", if you will). And then invite randoms, because who knows? Maybe they're closet gamers.
2. You can also "Like" the Dawgsled Events Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter.
3. We will have some games at the event, but as it stands right now, we won't have enough for 200 people (although that could change if negotiations for a partnership with a to-be-named game store work out), so you're encouraged to bring your favorite game. Show others why you love it so much!
4. Lastly, if you haven't bought your ticket yet, you can buy yours here. We've sold 60 tickets already, but we need to get that number up to 200. There is plenty of room on the top floor of the club to accommodate this number, but if we blow the doors off of that, there's a chance we could expand this event even further
5. Finally, if you're a game store owner or a game developer and would like to discuss a partnership with our event, please get in touch by sending an email to dawgsledevents [at] gmail [dot] com.

That's all for now! Thanks to everyone for the great response this event has received so far! Please help us keep the momentum going, and PLAY MORE GAMES!

-Matt

Ladies! You get to use this restroom on TableTop Day!

Some of you may already know this, but for those of you who don't, the Columbia Tower Club's women's restroom is one of the most famous in the country. Each stall has it's own view of the world below. Read more about it in this blurb from Popular Mechanics. Side note: The author of this post, who is not female, may or may not have first-hand knowledge of what this bathroom really looks like.

How to score yourself some free tickets!

The $15 price for entry to our event is a steal when you consider the venue AND the fact that your ticket includes lunch. However, there are a few opportunities for you to help us out and in doing so score yourself a freebie or two (or a refund if you already have tickets). Here's how:

• Help us promote the event. If you do all of the following 3 things, you'll be entered into a drawing to win 2 free tickets. Your odds of winning this are excellent!
  1. Like our Facebook Page.
  2. Follow us on Twitter.
  3. Share our Facebook event on your homepage.
  The drawing for this will be on March 24th. We may be sold out by then, so buy your tickets now, and if you win, you'll be reimbursed.
• Volunteer to help out on Game Day! We need people to help check people in and generally greet guests as they arrive. We're looking for up to 4 people to help with this. You will have to work your 2 hour "shift", but once you're done, you'll free to play games! Shifts will be 11:00-1:00 and 1:00-3:00. Email dawgsledevents [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested.
• If you are a Photoshop wizard, we would love it if someone could cobble together a banner for us. Basically, we're looking for a 300px wide by 600px tall image featuring the Columbia Tower with the Table Top knight, 12-sided die, pawn and pencil on the top of the building, the Table Top Day logo halfway up the building, and DawgsledEvents.com across the bottom. Send a message to dawgsledevents [at] gmail [dot] com if you've got the chops to do this. A free ticket awaits you!

That's it for now! Play more games!

More information on TableTop Day on Top of the World

A few more things to know about this event and about TableTop Day in general:

• The folks at Geek & Sundry want us to hashtag the heck out of TableTop Day!  If you plan on going to any TableTop Day event, tweet about it using the hashtag #TableTopDay.  If you are coming to our event, please feel free to add our event's hashtag as well:  #76thFloor
• We have room for at least one more gaming store to partner with us!  The top floor of the Columbia Tower has break-out rooms (with killer views!) that you can use to pretty much set up your shop for the day.  We won't charge you anything to do this, but we will ask you to help us promote the heck out of this event!  Get in touch with Matt at dawgsledevents@gmail.com if you are interested!
• Much more in the coming days!

Confirmed! TableTop Day on Top of the World will be happening! In the meantime, please excuse our dust...

Dawgsled Events has reached an agreement with the Columbia Tower Club to let us come and completely take over the top (76th) floor of the Columbia Tower for an International Table Top Day extravaganza!

But before we get to details, please excuse our dust.  If it looks like this site and the various other supporting sites for this event were thrown together in a rush--well, they were.  Barely 36 hours ago, Geek & Sundry launched International Table Top Day.  In that short amount of time, we created this blog, a Facebook page, a Facebook event, a Twitter account, behind the scenes hookups for all of the above, a ticket sales page on shindigg.com, contacted the Columbia Tower Club, negotiated with the same, and submitted our event to Geek & Sundry, all so we could be live in time for Emerald City Comicon this weekend.  So our stuff may look rushed now, but we'll be making it all pretty in the next couple weeks.

Now, on to what you can expect from the party!  We will have games, games and more games!  We will have tables set up in both of the banquet rooms on the 76th floor.  Your $15 ticket also gets you a catered buffet lunch!  $15 won't even cover the cost of one meal at most downtown restaurants.  At our party, you get games, food, games, comraderie with friends old and new, and the best views in town for a solid 6 hours! Oh, and games.

We also have access to several "break out" rooms.  Comic Book and Game stores, I'm looking at you, here!  Email DawgsledEvents@gmail.com if you would like to discuss sponsorship opportunities!  Let's turn this into a mini Seattle gaming convention!

Much, much more to come in the coming days!  Please take a couple minutes and "Like" Dawgsled Events on Facebook:



...and follow us on Twitter:

Follow @DawgsledEvents
We'll keep you in the loop! Thanks for your support, everyone! Wow--5 tickets sold in time time it took me to create this blog post...

...And we're live!

We're in talks with the Columbia Tower Club to finalize Table Top Day on Top of the World, a 180 person gaming extravaganza on the 76th floor of the tallest building in Seattle!  Please stay tuned to this page for more information.