Penguin's Ohio S&T 10-23-10 (Reach, Mario Kart, Rock Band 2, Board Games, and Beer)

2 weeks, people.

Make sure you put your stuff on the spreadsheet and pay careful attention to the board game section. Make those requests.

Count me in! I just told the wife. There's no excuse for me to miss on so much gaming goodness when it's so close to home, I'm in Fairview Park. However, I have another b-day party that night. At the very least, I was gonna try and show up early to help with set up and may have to bolt by 7 or 8. I'll bring extra cheap beer to share (I've grown rather fond of the High Life) and I've got a bunch of liquors I can bring from home. Adding my info to the spreadsheet. I'm SO ready for some RB!

Bump!
I'm bringing a non-GWJ friend and will add a +1 to the spreadsheet.
Ten days, woot!

Awesome, Phish =)

We had 13thD drop out last night, so that +1 keeps us well into the 30s.

Any questions at all, fire away. I'm planning on buying a Sam's Club sized thing of AA batteries on our first shopping trip so we should be covered there.

Phishposer wrote:

Bump!
I'm bringing a non-GWJ friend and will add a +1 to the spreadsheet.
Ten days, woot!

I hope you drive a roomy vehicle. 5 people + overnight items = ?

trueheart78 wrote:
Phishposer wrote:

Bump!
I'm bringing a non-GWJ friend and will add a +1 to the spreadsheet.
Ten days, woot!

I hope you drive a roomy vehicle. 5 people + overnight items = ?

AFAIK we're still only four (still haven't heard from SR). Five shouldn't be a huge issue, someone will just have to sit in the middle of the back seat. It'll build character There still should be plenty of room for gear in the trunk.

Well, you can all drink and forget the horrors of the ride up.

However, a hungover ride back home on Sunday... that's the kind of thing that might stay with you.

And I don't suppose anyone can get us a copy of RB3 early, can they? That would be awesome.

Ok, folks. Let's talk about events.

Now, I would like to run a few things throughout the night that are the "official" events. What I mean by that is these will be tournaments or games that will either raise money for child's play or just be planned in advance. Here are a few ideas:

1.) there should probably be some kind of Halo thing. I don't know if we want to set up teams or just run a slayer tournament. What I think would be fun but would take some planning, is keep a running tally of each person's score throughout the night, all game modes and then award some winners. That way people playing through the internet could participate too. I'm open to ideas on this.
2.) Rock Band battle of the bands? I think we'll have 2 systems running Rock Band. I think it would be fun if we all formed bands and competed against each other playing the same songs for a cumulative score. We could run that as a tournament with mystery songs for every stage of the bracket.
3.) Do we want to do the potluck games thing? What I mean is, everyone brings some games to donate and people buy tickets. We then have a drawing for tickets and people can pick out a game from the pile until we're out of games or tickets. Any leftover games will be donated or sold and the money donated. Please limit games to current gen consoles (and wii, zing!) or super awesome older stuff. PS2 MvC2? Sealed? Hell yeah. Xenogears original edition (not that damn greatest hits version), yes please. Etc.
4.) Hat passing for Child's Play
5.) Mystery tournament that I really want to see happen but only a few of you may like. It will be really fun, though. I promise.

I have some prizes for little tournaments but I don't have anything too extravagant. We'll have a few of the awesome GWJ Day posters that 7inchsplit made, I have 2 really, really awesome (and huge) posters and I can part with and I think I have a few gift certificates around here someplace.

If you have an idea for a tournament, post it in here or shoot me a PM. Bonus points if you're supplying your own prizes for it =)

There is a room in this office that has walls you can write on. I'm planning on using 1 wall to keep track of tournament standings and brackets; 1 wall with a (very) loose schedule and I'm going to leave 1 wall open for event ideas. So feel free the day of to toss things up there, I'll be checking in on everything periodically.

I don't think the potluck games thing will work out, I'm for scrapping that.

Also, we should do a fighting game tournament of some kind, that should go pretty quickly.

I'll look into the fighting game tourney. I can promise you there will be a SSF4 tourney as a few of the regular GWJ group is coming. I don't want to use that as a tournament with prizes, though because it's so niche.

Just make sure that you bring your DS's and your DQ9's. That's all I really ask.

Oh, and for rockstar goodjer treatment, because, y'know...

Tourneys for games sound fun, how do we use that to make money for Child's Play?

But a Halo tourney would be fun, or Rock Band, or whatever. Just any excuse to play games

PyromanFO wrote:

Tourneys for games sound fun, how do we use that to make money for Child's Play?

$10 door charge entry fee.

Oh, some of the tourneys would have a suggested, nonmandatory donation of probably $5 a team. Like going to the art museum. Guilt = $!

At least the ones for prizes.

And I can't stress enough that I don't have very good prizes. The posters are really sweet (some very HUGE and nerdy wall posters) and I have a Best Buy gift card that is at least $20 but if people get super-serious about tourneys, it won't be for material prizes it will probably be to virtually tea-bag all comers.

Now accepting prize donations. If you have something cool you're willing to part with, that will only help. In fact, if it's a cool enough prize and the tournament is accessible to enough people, we might raise more money by getting donations than we would by auctioning off the item in question.

And hell, this might not even work, but it's worth a try =)

Regardless of how much money we raise, let's be honest. Any excuse to get together and game is a good one.

Bent just gave me an idea.

We'll go out for breakfast Sunday morning if anyone is still conscious. Say, 9 or 10?

I just sunk $1600 into my van, y'all better make this trip worth it.

As far as tourneys and stuff, I've never done much MP console gaming, so sure, why not.

Crispy wins the award for most money spent to get here, I think.

And I promise NOTHING.

Just think, this time next week I hope to be passed out and recovering.

(Or I might be on my way to Cleveland for a Social D show, still waiting on word about tickets)

So finalize your plans, check back on the sheet for games and needs and feel free to add to any categories. I just made a new page for stuff I want to make sure I have on hand when we get started.

And again, any tournament ideas; questions or ideas/ donations for prizes, let me know.

You misspelled Guinness but I won't tell anyone... whoops...

Also, did you post the address? Or did I miss it?

And, what time did you want us there? I'm hoping to abandon my wife & kids as early as possible. Is it improper of me to imbibe a Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA before 2PM?

And... are we setting a web-cam or speakers for the Conference Call or Skype-ing other parties? I have a small USB webcam that I can bring but the quality is exceptionally "meh".

And... This is going to be a blast! Been looking forward to it all month! Wish my wife didn't have class at 8AM on Sunday.

I did! thanks for keeping it between us.

I've been changing the thread topic with the info. The address is on there.

Or, for the lazy... 6830 Cochran Road, Suite B, Solon, Ohio 44139. But there's a link to the google map on the topic.

We're officially starting at 3 but I'll be setting things up as early as 10am. So... abandon your family whenever you feel like.

As for the conference call... we shall see. We certainly have everything we need to set up cameras in town if not in the building and since Pyro is coming, he's bring his laptop and his mic to take part of the call. I don't know if there's going to be a big movement to set up cameras at all the S&Ts but if there is, we should be more than ready to handle it.

As for your wife, I take it that means you need to be home to watch the kids? If it's a question of getting her the car, I'll be happy to swing by and pick you up from home so she can keep it.

Ah, thank you! Yes, I'm lazy.

oilypenguin wrote:

As for your wife, I take it that means you need to be home to watch the kids? If it's a question of getting he7r the car, I'll be happy to swing by and pick you up from home so she can keep it.

Yeah, I'm Mr. Mom while she's in class to my 4 year old & 2 year old so I have to be home early. Too bad I can't bring my 4 year old, he's got some mad Mario Kart skills.

I've got a spare webcam, I know we all have laptops with webcams but I'll bring it as well so there's something a bit more mobile, just in case.

Do you want us to bring anything on that shopping list? I need to go to CostCo this week anyway.

As far as tournaments go, any interest in a mini-TF2 tourney? Or maybe some strategy game, depending on how powerful everyone's laptops are.

Or hell, JKII.

EDIT: Also, I can bring a pound or two of freshly roasted whole bean or ground coffee if anyone is into that. I don't drink coffee, so you'd have to give me an idea of what y'all want.

I can bring a not-so-comfortable but very functional drum throne, because no serious Rockbander should sit on folding chairs or wooden ones--and I can bring extra sticks.

I will be there as well. Marking the thread.

Is anyone bringing an actual PC? I can bring mine... But I'd rather not if we're not going to do some real LAN-partying.

I must admit, after my recent move to Pittsburgh, PA, I am very tempted to be a part of this. Would it be Koscher if I came? I'm still not 100% because this will be after my first week at my new job, but the opportunity to meet the TF2'ers and DoW2 rivals sounds like a lot of fun.

Crispy: We won't have room for PCs or probably laptops, just no table space. Next year =) As for bringing stuff from the list, you can, sure (and coffee would be great) but we'll have more than enough time to make food and drink runs. Since we're setting up so early, we'll be able to grab stuff the day of. If you feel like you want to grab something and bring it (like cups, plates, etc), feel free. Just mark it off so I don't buy things needlessly.

Spedman: yes, please!

Mike: Next year, promise =)

Dave: Hells yes, come! Since we changed venue out of my house, we don't really have a (realistic) upper limit to how many people we can have show up. If you think you can spare the time, come on over.

My buddy BK is going to be coming with our crew. Added him to the list.

Mike: Next year, promise =)

Oh, believe me, we don't have to. Packing up this PC is a Female Doggo. I have a luggage rack specifically for it. It's just not portable. I'm kinda relieved.

carrotpanic wrote:

My buddy BK is going to be coming with our crew. Added him to the list.

3 more people today. If we hit 40... Well, nothing changes but that is a sh*t ton of people!

NSMike wrote:
Mike: Next year, promise =)

Oh, believe me, we don't have to. Packing up this PC is a Female Doggo. I have a luggage rack specifically for it. It's just not portable. I'm kinda relieved.

I'm planning on doing one of these a year around my birthday. Next year is definitely PC-Lan. So you've got a year to buy a smaller case =) We'll get started talking about that probably around July so people can coordinate what games to buy.

I feel your pain, though. I recently bought my first full-size case and I'm not looking forward to moving this monstrosity either. I'm hoping I'll have a number of monitors free to ease some people's pain... but that's a ways off. 53 weeks, actually.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm not asking anyone but Pyro to bring a PC and that's only so he can participate in the call. There are plenty of local laptops in and around the office that we can use for video footage if we need to. So no one bring your laptop unless you feel the urge.