Blogs about gaming from Pew Pew Laser Blog

Halloween 2009.

I made these ghost cupcakes for Halloween this year. I swiped the idea from a picture I saw online, though I can't remember where. These ghostly goodies are constructed from this chocolate cake recipe (bake regular sized cupcakes for 17 minutes), the "Love Buns" topping, and some eyeball sprinkles that I found at Cookies in Ballard. I've very pleased with how cute they looked, but the frosting did fall a little overnight. I think next time I'll try a full on seven minute frosting recipe.

We had just a few folks over for Halloween this year. I thought more people would be coming, but it turns out that we had just the right number for some focused game-playing. We started on the Wii with Boom Blox Blast Party, which is always fun. (We'll be keeping this copy from Gamefly). A bit later in the evening, we played an epic 6 player game of Munchkins (which the husband got for my birthday). The game was just complicated enough to keep everybody interested without being confusing. Munchkins is also, as I mentioned before, hilarious. Remember:

No one can help you! You must face the Gazebo alone.

Settlers and Munchkins.

PAX was not all video games & germ distribution. Tabletop gaming is a revered pastime, and it suffered no shortage of representation at PAX.

We had no trouble getting invited to a game of Settlers of Catan, simply by wandering around in the well-stocked board-game check-out room. Everyone else had a settlement on an ore point except me. At one point, after three ore-producing rolls in a row, I broke out the Monopoly card and took all the ore. Everyone acted so miffed! On the next turn, the player next to me also produced a Monopoly card and demanded ore. Good thing I had already built my city.

We also checked out a new game to try - Munchkins. We then had the good fortune to wander into the official Steve Jackson gaming area, where we played our first game under excellent snarky tutelage. Munchkins is similar to Ninja Burger (which I've subjected friends and family to in the past) but much simpler. It is also hilarious! For playing the official Steve Jackson area, we each received a "Promotional Bookmark of Power" which play a practical joke on their owners. One bookmark allows a one-time special swag boost, but requires it's own destruction. But the other bookmark cancels the first bookmarks effects! I sure wouldn't mind owning a copy of this Munchkin game.

Favorite PAX Moments.

Here are a few of my favorite moments from PAX 2009:

• To escape the crowds (and convention pricing) for our mid-day repast, we usually went down to Specialties - home of the best cookies that can be bought in Seattle. One of the helpful employees recognized my t-shirt and said "Yay Zelda!". We then had a brief conversation on Zelda - how she was stuck, and had I played Twilight Princess? She may not have known that PAX was afoot just a few blocks to the east.
• During Jonathan Coulton's concert, the audience rickrolled Mr. Fancy Pants himself. During a pause, a dozen people near us started singing :

  Never gonna give you up
  Never gonna let you down
  Never gonna run around...

  The singing petered out about there, but the point was made. Turn-about is fair play, Mr. Fancy Pants. (If you plan to play a similar joke in the future, do be sure to hand out reference cards with printed lyrics to your co-conspirators.)
• Overheard at a handheld lounge:

  What did you think of Paul and Storm?
  Awesome! I loved them!
  I had no idea how awesome they were!
  I bought tons of their stuff!

  It's great to hear Paul and Storm getting the mad props that they deserve.

Animal Crossing - Fruit from Villagers.

In Animal Crossing, if you send letters with presents to the animals in town, then will respond with presents, and every once in while they will send fruit back as a present. This is a great way to get a non-native piece of fruit so that you can plant it in your town for big bells. The trick is in sending a letter that's just right to get fruit in return, instead of furniture or clothes.

In Animal Crossing: City Folk, this in a letter (with a piece of fruit attached as a present) has resulted in a pretty high rate of fruit return for me:

Got any fruit?

It might work in other versions of Animal Crossing. Of course, you could just visit my town instead. I've got several of each kind of tree growing.

PAX '09.

This weekend I went to PAX - a gaming exposition in Seattle put on by the folks at Penny Arcade. It was a ton of fun.

I participated in the brilliantly conceived Distributed Tournament System (DTS) - wherein every expo attendee can participate in a tournament. Every attendee gets two DTS buttons, and can challenge other button-wearing attendees to any game; the winner takes a button. The top 20 ranked button owners earned fabulous prizes. I won two buttons playing Tetris DS, but then lost 2 in Tetris and 1 in New Super Mario Bros. The husband lost one button in a Thumb War. We weren't contenders, but at least we came away with a souvenir button.

I enjoyed the various card / tabletop games that we played. After we'd had a Fluxx game going for about 5 minutes, we got some interested looking people to join. We learned how to play Munchkins in the official Steve Jackson gaming nook; I wouldn't mind having a copy of Munchkins. And we were invited to play a pick-up game of Catan that included quite a few laughs.

The Saturday night concerts (with opening band Freezepop, Headliners Paul and Storm, and Closing Act Jonathan Coulton) were excellent. That the concerts lasted until 2 am was a little extreme.

On the day after PAX, I discovered I had come home with a little unanticipated swag. Remember folks, I'm staying in my pajamas all day for your safety.