Hey, here we are on the second-to-last-day to register online for on-campus housing and to order a t-shirt, and we haven’t even revealed the t-shirt design! So here’s a peek at it:

I urge you to click the picture to see the design large—WordPress is making the thumbnail look a little fuzzy, but it’s a nice clean sharp design, as always by the estimable John Harper.
If you want to be rocking this year’s shirt, then you’d best go to our registration page and order one now!

Hey, just want to remind you that we’d love to see your photos from this year’s Go Play NW (or even from past years if you’ve got some).
If you’re on Flickr, we have a Flickr group for Go Play NW! Please add your photos to this group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/goplaynw/
And if you could tag them something like “Go Play NW 2011” (or “GPNW2011”, “goplaynw2011”), everyone can find them on a search and distinguish from previous years. That’d be nice, but it’s not necessary to do that in order to add your photos to the group.
If you’re on Facebook, you can add a link to your photos on the official Go Play NW Page.
And wherever you’re posting your photos (maybe on that newfangled Google+), we’d really love for you to tell us by posting in the Photos topic in the Afterglow: The Good, The Bad & The Awesome forum right here on our site.
Thanks much! Looking forward to seeing them!

On behalf of this year’s Go Play NW team—Tony Dowler, John Powell, and myself—I just want to say thank you to everyone for another fantastic year! Thanks to Brandon Amancio, this year’s catering czar, for stepping up to choose a caterer and make all the arrangements for the Friday Night Feast. Thanks to John Harper for once again providing an awesome t-shirt design and managing the production. Thanks to Ben Robbins for being our webmaster and offering some good planning advice. Thanks to everyone who stepped forward to offer help whenever it was needed.
And thanks to all of you who came out this weekend, whether across town or across the nation, whether for the first time or the fifth (or in-between), to play games and have fun. You bring the awesome; we just facilitate it. We hope to see all of you again next year!

John kindly took the few extra minutes I did not to make a modified Seattle Center map highlighting where the Northwest Rooms are.

Northwest Rooms at Seattle Center

Go Play NW 2011 begins on Friday, July 8, 2011. A mere eight weeks away. Have you registered yet?
Oh, the eyes above? We’ll reveal the whole image soon enough…

I know it’s been fairly quiet around here, but things are bubbling behind the scenes. We’re getting the catering lined up for the Friday Night Feast, and John just gave us a peek at this year’s t-shirt design—and I have to say, I can’t wait to reveal it to all of you, it’s sweet as always.
Here in Seattle, spring has been slow in coming; it’s been cloudy and rainy for months, and although we’ve had a few surprisingly sunny days, a chill has persisted in the air. July may seem a long way off, but it’s almost May, really! You know how fast May goes; you turn around a couple times and hey, Memorial Day Weekend, summer’s here. And then June’s just a few short weeks. Go Play NW 2011 will be here before you know it; now’s a good time to register. Don’t miss out!

Things have been very quiet around here since last June and the conclusion of Go Play NW 2010. But I’m dropping by to let you know that it’s a common misconception that sasquatches hibernate for the winter. In fact, behind the scenes, we’ve been busily working on arrangements for Go Play NW 2011.
The Sasquatch has been tromping around town, glancing up at the sky and irritably wondering if it was going to snow again, and looking at venues old and new for this year’s Go Play NW. We asked him how it’s going, and he grunted, “Hrrr grungl grak HARRK HARRK hrmflflg!” at us. We’re not sure, but we think that means things are moving along. So check back soon, we should start having announcements about when you’d expect in February. In the meantime, I think I’d better go make some hot chocolate for the Sasquatch. He could use it.

What do you need to bring for Go Play NW 2010?
Over in the forums, Adam asked that very question, wondering what would be in a “GoPlay Survival Kit“. There were some good suggestions, key among them being pens and index cards (there’s always stuff needing to be written down) and water—though as Ping pointed out in an earlier post, the Hugo House does have a functioning water fountain, but it’s always nice to have a bottle on hand so you don’t have to leave the gaming table. (Hmm, sounds like Vegas…) If you need some advice or want to make some suggestions of your own, why not head on over to that topic?
Oh yes, and all you owlbear-lovers* will have to bring your own owlbear, because we won’t be supplying them.
*Not that kind of lover. We love them like pets. Bad-tempered pets with red-rimmed eyes of bestial madness that wouldn’t hesitate to claw/claw/bite the nearest human, but hey, that’s part of their charm (Charisma 10).

Hey, did we mention that this year’s Go Play NW will be held in the Richard Hugo House? Why yes, I believe we did, and we posted photos of it to boot. But where is this fantastic venue? Why, right in the heart of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Some of you may recognize the neighborhood from our first Go Play NW in 2007, as that year’s venue, Seattle University, is just a few blocks south. And of course some of you are from Seattle and know all about it. But for the rest of you, let me give you some idea.
First, right across the street from Hugo House is Cal Anderson Park, and if the weather’s nice, you should consider getting your lunch to go and eating in the park. It’s got a cool fountain and reflecting pool, some large chessboards along the pool, and plenty of places to just relax and enjoy the surroundings.
Hugo House is just a couple blocks away from the intersection of Capitol Hill’s two main commercial districts, the Pike-Pine Corridor running east and west, and Broadway running north and south. Both feature a mix of cool bars, restaurants, cafes, and funky shops. Just within a few blocks of Hugo House, there’s the Elysian Brewing Company (where we had our impromptu Friday night gathering for the first Go Play NW), Molly Moon’s Ice Cream, Boom Noodle, Via Tribunali pizzeria, Caffe Vita, Espresso Vivace, Annapurna Cafe Indian cuisine… and lots lots lots more.
Capitol Hill’s a cultural center as well as a commercial one. It’s generally viewed as the heart of Seattle’s LGBT community, and several bars in the area cater to that crowd. The pulse of Seattle’s music can be felt here too, at clubs such as Neumos, the Comet Tavern, and Chop Suey. Just around the corner from Hugo House is the Northwest Film Forum, and a couple blocks down E Pine Street, the Landmark Egyptian Theatre has midnight movies every Friday and Saturday night. There’s the Repertory Actors Theatre, there’s the art-and-alcohol combo of Grey Gallery & Lounge, there’s old-school dancing at the Century Ballroom and modern electronic music and DJ culture at the Electric Tea Garden… again, more stuff than I can reasonably list out here.
I really enjoyed being at the Freehold Theatre last year, I felt it was fun having our gathering right in Belltown, surrounded by some of Seattle’s nightlife. But I’m really excited to be back on Capitol Hill this year, with its own nighttime craziness like Belltown (though Hugo House is safely insulated from that noise) but a coziness too that Belltown just can’t match. Capitol Hill’s probably my favorite neighborhood in Seattle, and I hope you’ll love it too.