Thursday, July 31, 2014

Food buffet options for this year's party!

We met with the Executive Chef at the Columbia Tower Club today and came up with this year's menu.  It is significantly upgraded compared to last year's spread.  You're paying more this year, so you should expect more.  The theme is Tropical Luau, and here's what we will have:

  • Roast Kalua pig, shredded up with a nice pineapple-citrus slaw and buns
  • Whole sides of fish, TBD depending on what looks freshest when the chef makes the order
  • Tropical fruit salad w/ pepper greens and a lime balsamic/orange olive oil vinaigrette
  • Tropical rice pilaf

For VIP guests, we will be contacting each of you individually regarding your meal choices.  Suffice to say, it will be a similar step up from last year as well--and we will make sure that the pacing is such that you don't waste 2 hours eating/waiting between courses when you'd rather be playing games!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Update - July 30th

Here's an update on the event as of today:

  • We have sold out of the Tier 1 General Admission tickets and are well into Tier II.  Overall, we are a little over 60% sold out at this point.
  • A list of our gaming sponsors can be found in the right-hand column.  These are the companies that have pledged to donate to our drawing, and we will also have plenty of games from them on hand for you to check out and play.
  • We also have commitments from several local restaurants, including a TON of stuff from Chef John Howie (more on his contributions in the very near future).
  • Finally, we received an autographed Russell Wilson football today, and expect to get a few more goodies from the Seahawks that you can win.
If you're local, come to our monthly game night this coming Monday, August 4th, 6-10PM at the Columbia Tower Club.  Admission is free!

Monday, July 21, 2014

Tier I General Admission almost sold out!

As of this morning, there are less than 20 Tier 1 General Admission tickets remaining.  If you're sure you will be able to attend this year and don't have tickets yet, you may wish to consider getting in now.  The price will go up by $10 once Tier 1 sells out.  All total, we have sold over 100 tickets (including VIP sales).  Compare this number to last year:  On July 21, 2013, we had sold exactly 0 tickets.

This year's event is going to be awesome.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

VIP tickets now sold out

As of this morning, VIP tickets are officially sold out!  Thank you to everyone who has purchased these.  We will work hard to make this a very memorable experience for you.

There is a chance that we will be able to offer a few more VIP tickets, but there are a number of factors that we will need to consider before doing to--the most important one being that we want to insure that the experience for the people who have already purchased VIP tickets will not be watered down by selling additional VIP tickets.  We have enabled a waiting list and will process them on a first come, first served basis.  Anyone who does get upgraded will automatically have any general admission tickets that they have purchased fully refunded on a 1:1 basis.  Because the event is still over a month away, it may be several weeks before we're able to determine the feasibility of opening up more VIP spots, so please be patient on this one.

Thanks again!  This once again proves how awesome the gaming community is.

Monday, July 14, 2014

We have a FAQ!

If you're looking for the nitty-gritty details for this event, they can be found on our FAQ.

As a quick update, we've sold 52 tickets as of this morning, and VIP tickets are over 50% sold out.  We didn't reach 52 tickets sold until mid-August last year. Heck, tickets weren't even on sale at this point last year!

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

What's New in 2014

We’ve added and adjusted a number of things this year based on feedback we received last year. A few of the changes we’ve made include:

  • Expanded hours! Last year’s event was 7:30 to 2:00 am because the space was unavailable before 7:30. This year, the event will run from 5:00 pm to 2:00 am. 9 hours of gaming!

  • More space! Last year, a private group reserved one of the conference rooms (the nicest of them, in fact) for a dinner before we asked for it, and that space was unavailable for use for much of the night. This year, we’ve taken over the entire 76th floor.  More space, more people, more game!

  • The pacing of the dinner for the VIP’s. The Columbia Tower Club didn’t quite understand that our VIP’s just wanted to eat their meal, have it cleared, and then put games back on the table and, as a result, the VIP dinner took almost 90 minutes last year.  We’re working with the host manager of the tower club as well as the executive chef to ensure the pacing of the meal is greatly improved so there aren’t 30 minute wait periods between courses and the food offerings are conducive to a still-elegant meal, but by which the courses can be served without long down-times.

  • Streamlined prize Drawing! Due to overwhelming support from the game companies, local restaurants and entertainment venues and the sheer volume of prizes, the prize drawing took over 90 minutes last year, which took away from gaming time. This year, we are streamlining the drawing process to include a system by which you can check your tickets on screens to see what you’ve won, and approach dedicated volunteers working the prize booth to redeem your prize at your leisure once the drawing has been conducted. This will eliminate the need to announce each individual game, then a ticket number, then wait for everyone to check and see who won, snake their way through the crowd to claim their prize, etc. Gaming will not be interrupted for the drawing this year.

  • Looking for game/group system:  Something we heard last year was it was difficult for people looking for a game to join to find a group looking for players amongst all the tables - and that it was hard for tables looking for players to identify people who were looking for a game to join amongst everybody walking around.  Tabletop is about building friendships, and we’re here to facilitate.  This year we’re implementing a balloon Looking for group/game system at all tables.  Are you a player short and want to see if someone new will ever possibly trade you wood for sheep?  Raise your balloon up high and see who comes by to play.  Feeling aggressive and wanting to stomp some zombies, but forgot to bring 3 friends?  Look for a balloon up in the air - those people are looking for someone just like you.

  • Improved meals! Feedback for the dinner offering last year was quite positive, but let’s be honest: It was a bit of a starch and carb bomb fest. This time, we’re working directly with the club’s executive chef to ensure the meal will be more balanced this year, as well as to ensure there are options for our vegetarian and gluten-free attendees. Our VIP menus will also be changed up this year, still including creative and daring options for foodies that chef Tyler is known for, but also including more traditional choices for our meat and potatoes guests.

  • New pop-up store! Some feedback we got last year was our vendor for the pop-up store was not price-competitive and the selection was thin. We’ve brought in The Dreaming Comics and Games this year. Aron’s prices are highly competitive, and he has a massive selection of games for sale, as well as a much-expanded lending library vs. last year. Aron has also generously included purchase vouchers to be used at the pop-up or his physical store with certain tiers of event tickets for sale. More on the vouchers is below.

  • Ticket pricing: So last year we were actually selling each ticket at a not-insignificant loss vs. what the actual cost was per person, shouldering the price difference expense personally out of pocket, and then relied entirely upon donations at the door and prize drawing proceeds to create the final donation to Food Lifeline. And this year we’ve added a number of improvements, which come with additional expense. We’ve feathered up the price of admission slightly this year to reflect a more cost-neutral cost of admission for tier 1 purchasers. We’ve also implemented a graduating ticket price schedule. Early bird and Tier 1 tickets will be available until July 31st or until the respective tiers sell out. Tier 2 tickets will be available until August 15th, and tier 3 pricing will be in effect from that point until the event completely sells out. Quite simply: Buy early and before others, pay less. We’ve also got 2 price points within each tier – one with The Dreaming’s sales voucher, and one without.

There you have it – an event where the hosts ACTUALLY listen to you and enact your wishes! Last year’s event was a huge hit, this year’s will be even better! We will see you on August 28th!

Early Bird tickets already sold out!

In stark contrast to last year, ticket sales out of the gate have been brisk and early bird tickets are now sold out! Tier 1 tickets are now on sale and will be so until July 31st or until they sell out, whichever comes first. Thanks to everyone who is already "in"!

You can keep up on all the latest Cool StuffTM surrounding this event here. In addition, you can also stay informed by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.



Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Announcing the second annual Sky High Tabletop Play Benefitting Food Lifeline!

We're live! Tickets are on sale now, and we have a very limited number of early bird tickets available. You can buy tickets here. Stay tuned to this page for more info in the coming weeks. Oh, and any posts below this are left over from our International TableTop Day event last March.