Games! So many games!

Thanks to you guys and our crazy matching money, we’ve raised over a MILLION DOLLARS for Heifer International! Rachel noticed yesterday that the grand total was getting close, and obsessively refreshed her browser until it looked like this:

Then she giggled a lot.

Our next mile marker is doubling that to use all the matching funds! We’re hoping we can entice more folks to increase our base donations to a million dollars so we can give Heifer a cool two million for their projects.  As part of that enticing enticement, we’ve added a bunch of games to our Lottery Library. How many games is “a bunch” you may ask? That’s when we get all smug and say, “We’re glad you asked that specific hypothetical question–we just added over $84,000 worth of games!”

Seriously. And not just any games. It’s not like we got a bunch of sidewalk chalk for tic-tac-toe. We have many pallets of games from Mayfair Games, Fantasy Flight, Wizards of the Coast, and Settlers of Catan, just to name a few. That’s on top of all the games we already have from Cheapass Games and Pathfinder! Check ’em out!

Mayfair has been supporting us for a while, starting with their initial donation of 18 pallets of games a few years ago. It was enough for Maria to actually rent a forklift during a blizzard. They’ve been in the biz long enough to know that serious gamers love serious games with quality components. If your games library is looking small, or you’re in search of some solid new games to bring to the…tabletop…we listed a bundle of 22 Mayfair Games on auction here.

Fantasy Flight also figured out that quality games have staying power, and we’re so happy they joined us this year! Amanda has a large (and growing) game shelf in her house, and there are a bunch of Fantasy Flight games on it that look well-loved. Thanks to their generosity, we have a bunch of solid Fantasy Flight titles in our Lottery this year, and if you don’t want to leave it to chance, we have an auction going for a bundle of 23 games right here.

Wizards of the Coast is a name you might recognize, especially if you play their flagship game, Magic the Gathering. This year, they joined us by donating an unprecedented 2,000 copies of the Magic Origins Deck Builders Toolkit. Magic the Gathering has staying power for a reason: it’s a game that’s pretty simple to pick up after a quick tutorial, and decks can be customized to take full advantage of a player’s individual style. Each Deck Builder’s Toolkit contains enough cards to build a couple decks and get started, or to bulk up your existing deck! Also good for combating denner addiction.

Settlers of Catan is one of Pat’s all-time favorites, and if he’s got a free hour, all you have to do is say, “Catan?” and he’s stuck. It’s like making Mister Mxyzptlk say his name backwards. Catan has a version of the game called the Traveler edition, which is the same game we know and love, but in a smart, smaller size you can play anywhere. They donated a bunch of them to us, and they’re all going in the Lottery.

We love games, and we know you guys love ’em too, so we’re beyond thrilled to be able to offer more games than ever this year. Thank you all so much for joining us this year. After raising so much money for Heifer International, we’re going to volunteer Amanda to host games night!