Way back in… a long time ago… we hit our first 100 fans and decided to throw a spontaneous in-store giveaway party that we ever-so-wittily titled Facebook Fan Fantasy Festival Party Time (or FFFFPT for short). We had a lot of fun with it so we’ve thrown one for every 100 new fans ever since.

Every FFFPT is a little different. Sometimes we give things away, sometimes we give out discounts, sometimes we make them available to the first FB fans to identify themselves as such, sometimes we make them available for a limited time. However they work, they’re all triggered and announced the moment that we hit our next 100 fans.

As of this moment, we are 7 fans away from hitting 1,000 facebook fans, an event so momentous, so epic, that we’re calling it FFFFPT X.

And given how much interest and excitement our is generating, we’re probably going to hit it within the next few days. So keep your eyes out for a facebook post announcing FFFFPT X. You’ll know it when you see it because it will be attached to an image like this:

When you see it, get dressed appropriately,

and come on down to Gamma Ray Games for our FFFFPT X deal:

Buy 1 game and get a 2nd one of equal or lesser value for 50% off. If the combined cost of that purchase is $50 or more, select any one of our high quality pre-owned games for absolutely FREE. That’s a total of 3 games for half off!

That’s a deal right there!

See you all there!

Once it actually starts. While supplies last.

We all have things we think about and say, “wouldn’t it be great if…” But then whatever you said seems so ridiculous that you never bother actually pursuing it. Not big things – like running for President or directing a feature film – but the little, silly things like teaching a course on 80s cartoons. Could you teach a course on 80s cartoons? You probably could. Would it be great? Oh, totally! But it wouldn’t likely be the focus of anyone’s life, it would just be a fantastically fulfilled “wouldn’t it be great if” opportunity. You know, like those things you talk about when you’re drunk at parties but never actually get around to doing because it doesn’t really warrant the effort. But still, it would be cool if it really happened.

Strangely, opening a game store was never a “wouldn’t it be great if” for me. Even at the height of my gaming (and I’ve actually had a couple of heights now) it never crossed my mind. I love that I did it and I love my job and I love many of the things it lets and occasionally requires me to do but opening a game store, for me, isn’t the fulfillment of one of my giddy thoughts. It’s something else. And I’m aware of this now because I recently got to fulfill on one of my “wouldn’t it be great ifs” and it is, indeed, a very unique and wonderful feeling.

When I was in my mid-twenties or so, I would think, very passingly, in between my raucous substance-fueled debauchery, “If running roleplaying games were a job, I’d be great at it. Wouldn’t it be great if it was my job to run roleplaying games?” But it was a silly thought so I never pursued it. I mean, really. Paid to run games? That seemed like such a silly thing. So I’d completely forgotten about it and the emotions attached to it when I was quickly crafting our last week. We had a long list and it was a very fast, very focused process to brainstorm, pare down, propose, review, write and submit descriptions. Very fast.

When I wrote down that I’d be willing to run some roleplaying games it was pretty much just a mechanical process. What resources do we have? We have me. Great. What could I do? I could run some roleplaying games. I’m really good at that. Great. Stick that in there. What’s next? I was so busy I really didn’t even think about it.

And then two different people selected roleplaying with me as their Kickstarter pledge reward this week. When these individuals claim their reward it will be my job to run a roleplaying game for them. And all of a sudden, I live in another world. A different world where people get to do things just because it would be great if. I am so thankful to those two people who have accidentally given me the opportunity to experience this amazing feeling of having a “wouldn’t it be great if” come true. It’s profoundly moving in ways I never would have expected it to be.

Thank you.

Now I just need to start developing some adventures…

Wait. You didn’t think I was going to run straight fantasy did you?

See you all again soon,

-Eric

Wow. The 48 hours since we launched our have been amazing, exciting and, at times, a bit… emotional.

Take last Saturday morning when Seattle’s scheduled an impromptu meeting with me to discuss some “concerns” that they had with the phrasing of some of our Kickstarter pledge descriptions. With us having recently sponsored, provided t-shirts for and walked with their Pride parade float, figured it was going to be all

but when they all showed up wearing leather vests and headbands

and I realized that it was going to be a lot more

So I start hitting AB AB hoping to figure out how the kick and strike work when their lead negotiator pulls a CD Right Trigger Power Combo and just as I’m wondering how many buttons these things even have on them, their wartime consigliere, who shall remain nameless lest I reveal him to be Andrew, shouts “Phoenix Wright Objection Strike!” and pulls out his own controller and while I’m whining about how I thought this this was a sidescroll fighter they all yell 3vP Multiscreen and just go to town on me for the next twenty minutes straight. Absolutely brutal, I tell you. Toughest negotiation I’ve ever experienced.

On the happy side, their lounge date has been secured and is going to be totally great, our Kickstarter pledge goals have been adjusted appropriately, and Dominic got to overhear the most intense in-store business conversation since the legendary Tom Ko phone call of 2010.

And that was just Saturday morning.

Stay tuned for more daring tales of thrilling game store adventure with me, your host, Eric Logan.

Welcome back. There’s actually a ton going on around here over the next few weeks. The most important thing, obviously, is that we’re opening The Raygun Lounge up the street in the former Travellers space at 501 East Pine. To answer a few key questions that I get all of the time; the game store, Gamma Ray Games, is staying right where it is in the 411 E Pine corner space. The Raygun Lounge will be a completely separate venue set up exclusively to host all of Capitol Hill (and, really, Greater Seattle)’s regular board, card and tabletop gaming events. The lounge will be open 6 days a week, most of them until 1am, and will serve beer, wine, coffee (etc.) and a well rounded, if simple, rotating food menu.

With comfortable, well-lit, seating available for up to 60 people at a time, the space should be able to comfortably host multiple events at a time with room for casual seating and pickup games and should, like the best venues of its kind, feel like a convention every weekend.

If you’d like to support us in this (and get yourself some free drinks, good food and reserved table space to boot) head on over to and select a support level that feels right for you and your game group.

I’ll be back in the next day or so to talk about some of the wild personnel changes that are coming up as we double our venues while a key member of our team moves to California for grad school so be sure to tune in for our next jam-packed, gossip-filled update!