Game Night is much more appealing when the regular guys write about it. But Mary, you ruin enthusiasm really well. We're all good at something.

Uh oh. Looks like you've dissuaded dnt_trust_me from coming! Whatever will we do?

Would love to play the Call of Cthulhu or Game of Thrones card games, anybody else?

I have created an elaborate Sgt_Doom costume (tinfoil hat, camo pants, mimeographed pamphlets to hand out that warn of the dangers of using aluminum cookware, and more) and I am prepared to talk anyone's ear off at great length on how horrible Obama and Clinton are. Hoping I win the Slog Nerd Costume Contest!

@4 Only if all the pamphlets are written in Comic Sans

@4 make sure you get your B vitamin shots.

Although it's nice of them to give you free copies of Dungeon! in exchange for some publicity, it's really not a good game. If your music department was given free CDs of the slow thumping of a wooden spoon on a card-board box for 80 minutes, I don't think they'd be so enthusiastic (probably wouldn't mention it?) If you're going to cover analog games, I hope you begin to do so as the art-form that they are (more similarly to how you cover video games) instead of just featuring whatever you're given for free.

@7

It's just part of the promotional deal they have going on. We get to test out games that haven't been released yet and they get to promote their games. What's the big deal?

I'm in.

@8

Dungeon! was released as a children's game in 1975. I presume y'all were able to play it last month, yes?
I can understand where you're coming from. Perhaps if your Book reviewers only got one book in the mail to review they'd probably talk about it more. Analog gaming is a smaller medium than the other areas you cover- fewer people engage with it consciously than do so with music or television, for example.
The Stranger seems, in general, forward thinking and willing to explore in a lot of areas. I guess I'm not familiar enough with other mediums to speak to the quality of what you cover. I get the sense that regular slog coverage isn't promotional activity except for the paper itself. The ads are on the margins.

@7, it's true that DUNGEON! seemed to be a little, er... introductory... for our assembled group. And apparently the game I was in (Paul of the STD here!) dragged out unusually along according to one of the Wizards folks, Chris Dupuis.

But here's the full backstory, just so everybody knows there's no weird promotion payola going on: We asked Wizards to check out DUNGEON! because we saw it at PAX and had never played it, and they kindly sent up a few copies along with Chris and Rodney Thompson to demo it. The copies, as it turns out, didn't make it to the office on time, so Chris and Rodney brought extras with them. The ones we're giving away tonight were just the late arrivals that Wizards said we could do anything we wanted with—so we figured why not give them away.

I don't know if anybody has played Lords of Waterdeep, but it's a more crunchily satistfying, Puerto-Rico-esque, D&D-flavored board game from Wizards. Rodney led the design on that and he offered to come back someday to demo it.

If anybody has suggestions for designers or companies to approach for future game nights (or if you work for such a place), speak up! We don't pay anything, and all we expect is some nice person to come out with a copy of the game and teach and hang out.

They kind of are here, too, but my guess is the promotional factor of this SLOG Happy allows them to rent the space on a monthly basis as well as gain access to material they wouldn't otherwise have access to. I'll also point out that, if you attended last month, you'd know that there are plenty of other tables with plenty of other games for you to try out, play, and purchase if you are unhappy with the other material.

I, for one, hope to teach people how to play "Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre."

Annnnddddd I'm wrong.

But still, BOARD GAMES! I fucking love them.

@11
Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't trying to make a big deal, but I thought, based on your coverage in other areas, Dungeon! didn't seem like a game y'all would be into- perhaps you just hadn't been exposed to that many games?
Although I don't have any games to give away, I can give some recommendations (and if you want to partner up with a local business, there was a nice game shop on Pike or Pine last time I was in Capitol Hill- I bet the proprietor could help facilitate, he seemed to have good taste.) If you're looking for an older game designed for children that is actually a lot of fun for adults (drunk or otherwise), check out Family Pastime's Princess. If you're looking for a game that would appeal to your readership and is not Princess, give Gorilla Games' Lifeboat a shot. They might send you a promotional copy.
Lords of Waterdeep is mechanically interesting. It is pop music. It says nothing and there is no emotion to it. Way better than Dungeon!, however. Wizards of the Coast makes fairly trite games. That can be fine if all you want to do is dance.
Thanks for testing!

@12 (and other numbers): Is Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre your own design? Sounds intense! I love games too, but I don't love every game. Games like Dungeon! could really turn folks off if it is one of their first exposures, which would be sad.

@8 Funny, I played Dungeon! when I was a child, and now I could see myself playing Dungeon! with my children.