Humiliated at the table for the last time, we are now determined to secure victory at any cost. We briefly considered more training and practice, but I believe these solutions were presented in a humorous context. Once the fits of laughter had ceased, we began to research toxic amphibians and the ochre sap one might squeeze from their drooping pustules. You may find the results immoral, but you need to consider Ping Pong as a global phenomenon. For example, when playing by Djibuti Rules, it’s considered perfectly normal to release a hungry lion. Like clay or grass, each venue presents unique challenges.

We just shipped out four boxes of games and prizes to Ziggurat Con to make sure they got there, but we’ve also put the word out to our vast network of tabletop industry contacts to emphasize the need. As it stands, we sent several kits with maps, miniatures, and dice, a substantial supply of Magic cards, and piles of fantasy and sci-fiction reading in addition to the requested shirts and books from our own holdings. Keek even made them an official logo, like so:

Hopefully that will get things started off right.

I own an Xbox 360 from launch and it had never given me no sass, so frantic reports online about the fragility of this equipment were never taken especially seriously. It is difficult to determine the actual distribution of these failures since virtually every establishment publishes, republishes, and then ruminates over the same incidents. Anecdotally speaking, it had never happened to me or anyone that I know, so it loomed like some boogieman - unpleasant, to be sure, but largely a theoretical proposition.

Well, it happened. I was always mildly curious about the precise numbers, information whose value has diminished. When it happens to you, the failure rate might as well be one hundred percent.

(CW)TB out.