Columbia Tower Club Pre-PAX Tabletop Gaming Event for 2015!

For those of you looking for information on the 2015 Pre-PAX event, please click here.

It's a sellout!

For the second year in a row, Sky High Tabletop Play is SOLD OUT! Thank you to everyone who has purchased tickets. This is going to be a fun, high energy, fantastic event.

If you missed the boat, we do have a waitlist here: http://skyhightabletopplay.shindigg.com/. At this point, it is unlikely that we're going to sell any more tickets, though. We'd love to, but the Columbia Tower Club is only so big. We want to make sure everyone has a seat somewhere, and it's not fair to current ticket holders to go beyond what we've already sold. Still, it can't hurt to add yourself to it. Note that if we accept a waitlist request, it's binding (meaning we charge your card right then and there) so make sure you set an expiration time and/or cancel your request right away if you wind up making other plans.

Tickets are also transferable. While we will not be facilitating any ticket transfer requests (we've got too many other things to do in the next 24 hours!), you are welcome to post "needed" or "selling" messages to the "The official "Need Tickets/Selling Tickets" thread" on this page. All ticket transfer requests are between the buyer and the seller, and can be facilitated by the seller via their shindigg.com account. If you do wind up buying tickets from someone, please MAKE SURE you PRINT your ticket. We will be creating the master list sometime tonight or early tomorrow, so if your name doesn't appear on the list, the only way you can prove that you are the owner of a ticket is to have a valid printout with you.

The dreaded P-word: Parking

Hello again, everyone! We're excited for Thursday evening, and we hope you are as well. We've very near a sellout (only 10 tickets left!), and are busily preparing to make this our best event ever.

Unfortunately, there's one topic that will always cause the blood to boil a little bit in downtown Seattle: Parking. There is no one solution that is best for everyone, but hopefully this will help.

First, obviously, if you're from out of town and staying downtown, the Columbia Tower is walking distance from most hotels. From the Convention Center area, it's about 6-7 blocks, and is mostly a gradual downhill walk on 5th Avenue. If you're worried about getting back to your hotel after the event, we highly recommend using Uber. They're clean, reasonably priced and prompt.

If you are local and absolutely must drive, here are some pointers:

• The Columbia Tower garage will charge you the day rate for the ENTIRETY of your stay if you arrive even 1 minute prior to 5:00. If you're like many and plan on showing up when the doors open, this might not be the best option for you, because even though you'll be parked in the garage during evening hours, if you arrive before 5:00, you will accrue day rate charges the entire time and will get a nasty shock when leaving. Several people had this problem last year. Avoid this at all costs!
• If you do arrive after 5:00 and are SURE you'll be leaving before midnight, the Columbia Tower garage, at a flat $9 rate, might not be a bad option for you. Just make sure you do leave before midnight or you will start accruing day charges once the calendar flips.
• Side note to this: Another strategy, if you're arriving after 5:00 but staying until 2:00, would be to park in the CTC garage, pay the $9, and then move your car to the street before midnight.
• If you're arriving after 6:00, the open air garage on 4th and Cherry (on the roof of the Arctic Hotel) is a decent option at a flat rate of $8.00.
• If none of these options fit your schedule, our best suggestion is to park on the street and pay for the first 3 hours of parking. After 8:00, it's free. If you need an escort back to your car, please see one of the hosts. We will make sure you are taken care of.

Keep in mind also that there is a football game at CenturyLink Field on Thursday (Washington State vs. Rutgers), but parking isn't usually impacted as far away as the Columbia Tower for events like this. Nonetheless, there may be some parking areas that are charging premium game rates, and street parking may be a little more difficult to find. If you do decide to park in a garage that is not the Columbia Tower garage, please make sure you read all the signs to ensure that your car won't get locked up overnight!

Finally, as is common sense for any urban area, don't leave valuables in your car where potential thieves can see them! While you can never be 100% sure your car won't be a target, you can reduce the odds of a mishap to pretty darned close to 0 if you follow this one rule.

Oh, and finally finally--DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE! See one of the hosts if you think you've had one too many. We will take care of you.

See you all on Thursday!

Welcome to the #76thFloor

Here is this year's floorplan! Click the image to make it bigger.



Some highlights:

• There are 246 chairs in the 2 main conference areas. We are capping GA tickets at 185, so with the vendors, it'll be cozy, but we should have enough room for everyone. Please obey Wheaton's Law and don't be a (table hog).
• The Circus Maximus game in the Blake Island conference room (far left, adjacent to the corner room) is something to behold. Please stop by and play!
• VIP rooms consist of all of the small conference rooms in the northeast corner (lower right side on the map), as well as the Board Room on the south side (small corner room in lower left). The Circus Maximus game is open to everyone. Incidentally, the club is going to renovate the northeast corner and make that area one big room, so that will be a huge help for us next year.
• The game store and lending library will be in the Columbia room (large conference room on the right). We will also have our prize table in there.

Beverages! Oh, and we're over 90% sold out.

We only have 20 15 tickets left!  Get them while they last at http://SkyHighTabletopPlay.shindigg.com.

To celebrate PAX, why not have a drink? Here are the signature drinks that you will be able to get at the event. We're working on one more as well--stay tuned!

GALLIFREY DOUBLE SUNRISE
A sweet and tart cocktail with a cherry kick to it that rounds it out very nicely.



Ingredients for Gallifrey Double Sunrise:

• 1 oz Pineapple Juice
• 1 oz Lime Juice
• Orange Juice
• Grenadine

THE TICK BLUEBERRY LEMONADE
Either have the bartender hand the person a spoon when they hand them the drink or put a tall spoon in the glass for them to walk around with. It’s sort of a “thing” with the Tick.


Ingredients for The Tick Blueberry Lemonade:

• 12 oz. bottle of Jones Soda Berry Lemonade
• 1 oz. Blueberry liqueur
• 1 oz. Vodka
• 1 Blue Twizzler

The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver
Ah! Big, flashy, lighty thing, that’s what brought me here! Big, flashy, lighty things have got me written all over them! Not actually, but give me time. And a crayon.



Ingredients for The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver:

• 1 shot vodka
• 1 shot blue curacao
• 1 splash Rose Blue Raspberry Mix
• Fill glass with orange juice (to color)

Love Potion #8.5
Inspired by the drink of the same name in The Sims 2



Ingredients for Love Potion #8.5:

• 8 Raspberries
• Crushed Ice
• 10ml / 0.33oz. Chambord Raspberry Liqueur (Or Raspberry Juice)
• 50ml / 1.5oz. Raspberry Lemonade
• 100ml / 3.3oz Champagne (Or Tonic Water)
• Top Up with Lychee Juice
• Mint Sprigs
• Fresh Lemon Juice

Event Update: 10 days to go!

Our event is only 10 days away!  We have sold our entire allotment of Tier 1 and Tier 2 tickets, and only a limited number of Tier 3 tickets remain.  Get them while they last at http://SkyHighTabletopPlay.shindigg.com.

MENUS:

The VIP menu is still having the finer points of it fleshed out - there will be 4-5 options for each course this year as opposed to the 3 last year (will be themed to feature Washington's local bounty). We will be reaching out to VIP guests in the next few days regarding their meal orders. 

Chef Tyler and our food guru worked out a lot of details for the menu. We're presenting a luau theme with the general meal this year. General admission dinner will be (subject to changes, of course, but unlikely to do so):

• Whole roasted Kalua pig (no, you won't see the whole animal on display) served 2 ways - shredded and loins. Served w/ a tropical slaw and w/ or w/out buns for sandwich style
• Whole sides of fish - what type of fish is TBD depending on what looks good at the fishmonger when the purchase is made. Given what's good end of August, we're likely looking at either steelhead or mahi mahi. Preparation style TBD depending on type of fish
• A tropical salad w/ fruits both local and exotic, mixed with peppered greens (likely mizuna) and tossed with a lime white balsamic and orange olive oil vinaigrette (gluten-free menu choice, though the above may qualify as well)
• Tropical rice pilaf, specifics TBD

SPONSORS AND DEMOS:

The following companies will be physically in attendance showing off games and providing prizes and instructionals:

• Japanime Games, who will be demoing ‘Krosmaster Arena’, with a giant Krosmaster board and figures
• Eagle-Gryphon, which will be showing off games such as ‘Francis Drake’, ‘Fleet’, ‘Games of Art’, and possibly the new ‘Defenders of the Realm’
• Frog the What, who is demoing their upcoming Kickstarter ‘Slaughterball’
• Privateer Press, makers of games such as Level 7 (Omega Protocol), ‘Zombies Keep Out’, and ‘Bodgers’ (pending final confirmation)
• Harebrained Schemes, demoing ‘Golem Arcana’
• Calliope Games, likely again be bringing the life-size ‘Tsuro’ game board
• Volunteers will be on-hand demoing games from various publishers who support the event in various ways but cannot physically attend, including Plaid Hat Games (‘Bioshock Infinite’, ‘Mice & Mystics’), GMT (‘Dominant Species’, ‘Command & Colors’), Stronghold Games (‘Space Cadets’) and numerous others.

Behind the scenes, we’re currently working on having some special guests hosting the games they’ve designed. This is of particular interest to those who are into the ‘King of Tokyo’, ‘Werewolf’, 'Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game' and ‘Smash Up’ titles to use as examples. We’ve already secured the confirmation on some of these, but not sure if they want us pre-announcing their specific attendance or not.

PRIZES:

So this list is going to evolve as things roll in. Last year, most of our donors and supporters didn't get things to us until about a week before the event, which will likely be the case again this year. We will update the status of these periodically as things show up. What is presently a known commodity to be given away at the drawing:

GAMES:

Note: Many of our donors are providing or have provided multiple copies of certain games. The exact amount that will be given away is either the total they've provided or the total minus 1 in case we don't have a copy of the game to demo or put in the lending library. This is per the publisher's requests, as part of the reason they support this event is so that people will be exposed to their games. So if we publish a picture of the prize table with 4 copies of Bioshock Infinite on it and give away 3, the 4th one is at a demo table; it didn't "fall off the truck".

• Plaid Hat Games - Copies of Bioshock Infinite 
• Japanime Games - Copies of Krosmaster Arena and 20 assorted characters that are given away in promotions only
• -hivalry Games - Chaostle & the Melee expansion (the core game box is HUGE so if you're traveling, you might need to talk to us about shipping it)
• Gearbox Software - A Borderlands 2 Swag-filled Limited Edition Diamond Plate Loot Chest 
• AEG: An assortment of games, including Guildhall, Dominare, Smash Up, and War of Honor (information at AEG's website). Added bonus: There are also certificates for the limited edition "Geeks" faction for Smash-Up
• Hurrican: Augustus, nominated at the 2013 Spiel for best game.
• Harebrained Schemes is donating Golem Arcana
• Privateer Press has donated multiple copies of Zombies Keep Out and Warmachine
• Calliope Games - Copies of Tsuro, Tsuro of the Seas and other games in their line.

FOOD GIFT CERTIFICATES & MORE:

• John Howie (of John Howie Steak, Seastar, Sport, and the new Wildwood Spirits Co. & Beardslee Public House) has once again gone completely over the top with donations. We still don't have everything in-hand yet, but he's giving away an immense amount of stuff, including the first item at our event that is worth so much, it's necessitating a silent auction. For those traveling, John has what is considered by many to be the finest steakhouse in the Northwest, and what is arguably the best seafood restaurant in the entire nation.
• Calozzi's Cheesesteaks on 4th & Union (best, realistically only, authentic cheesesteaks in town) has put in 2 $25 gift cards.
• Tom Douglas restaurants (multiple James Beard awards, including the James Beard award for best restaurateur in the world last year) has donated lunch for 2 at his famous Dahlia Lounge along with an autographed copy of one of his books
• The Miller's Guild, a nose-to-tail themed homage to all things meat & James Beard award winning chef Jason Wilson's latest endeavor located on 6th and Stewart has donated 2 gift cards

Event now 75% sold out -- Less than 10 Tier 2 tickets remain!

UPDATE -- Tier 2 is now sold out.

We are more than 3/4th of the way sold out, and a very limited number of Tier 2 tickets remain.  After that, procrastination tax applies once again and ticket prices rise by $10.  Get 'em while they're left!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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 Stuff^TM surrounding this event here. In addition, you can also stay informed by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.



Follow @DawgsledEvents

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.

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.