We’re almost $15,000 ahead of our total from this time last year. Let’s keep this party going!

Keep sending in your milestone pics to [email protected]!

With the number of titles to his credit, you’ve almost certainly played at least one game the Chris Avellone had a hand in developing.  From his days at Interplay, to his current position as a game designer with Obsidian Entertainment, Chris has worked on such high-profile games as Fallout 2, Planescape Torment, Icewind Dale, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Fallout: New Vegas.

Chris will be calling in at 1:00PM Pacific time to answer your questions, so make sure to post any you may have in the comment section below.  Make sure not to miss this call, because we’ll be concluding it with a related auction lot donated by our good friend Steven Dengler.

Card Kingdom is a Magic Card retailer located in Seattle, Washington and generous sponsor of their very own hour of Desert Bus, which we’re calling the “Card Kingdom Sponsored This Hour, Hour!”

If you have any questions about Magic, or just want to ask us if Cafe Mox is as cool as it seems, 6:00 to 7:00 pm PST on Tuesday, November 22st is the time to do it. If that wasn’t awesome enough, Card Kingdom has also donated two $100 gift certificates for us to give away during their hour. While you might think to yourself, “I don’t live in Seattle!” or “I live in Seattle, but I’m locked in my bathroom!” Fear not, for you can redeem them at their website (www.cardkingdom.com) and they’ll send your Magic cards right to you. It’s the convenience of buying cards online without the heartbreak of someone outbidding you ten seconds before the auction ends.

At 11:00AM you’ll want to make sure to tune in as we speak to legendary game designer Tim Schafer! From his days at LucasArts to the founding and flourishing of his own studio Double Fine Productions, Tim’s work carries a reputation for creativity, innovation, and fun.  Tim has worked on numerous titles, including Monkey Island 1 & 2, Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle,Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Brütal Legend, and the BAFTA award-winningPsychoauts.

If you have any questions for Mr. Schafer, this call will be your best opportunity to ask them, so feel free to post anything you’d liek to know in the comment thread below. Tim’s call will conclude with an auction lot donated by our friend Steven Dengler, and you will not want to miss it.

$30,000 went by sometime during the wee hours this morning, but no one was here to shout it from the rafters.

Thus, here we are:

And the winner is…… Dr. Broccoli!

But there were some amazing submissions, some deserving of what James would call ‘Madd Propz’.

Thanks to everyone who submitted!

Hey all, as mentioned here and there, we have scheduled some of our live auctions ahead of time, so you can plan your bidding wars and practice your smack talk. We’re having a bit of trouble getting the times to show on the listings for each auction lot, but we hope you’ll bear with us. In the meantime, you can see the full week’s worth of scheduled live auctions here. Below are the exciting items coming up for auction later today. Stay tuned for madness!

Saturday November 19:

• Lot #148 – The Brütal Legend lot  – 11:00am PST
• Lot #145 – The Obsidian Lot – 1:00pm PST
• Lot #56 – Atlas in Pieces mosaic breakfast tray – 3:30pm PST
• Lot #39 – Majora’s Mask laptop bag – 4:00pm PST
• Lot #77 – Nouveau Chell poster – 5:00pm PST

Bellevue, Washington’s own 5th Cell, the lauded creators of Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life, pride themselves on two things: a reputation for innovative gameplay mechanics, and protagonists with superpowers we couldn’t be trusted to use properly. This year, they’ve floored us all by donating an iPad 2 with Scribblenauts Remix preloaded on it. If you asked us to pick between this and Maxwell’s magic notebook that can create anything… well, now that I type that out, I guess I could make an iPad with Maxwell’s notebook, but that seems like cheating.

Dragon Chow Dice Bags produce awesome dice bags with a flat bottom to ensure your bag will not tip over (unless your DM table has a milk crate holding up one side like ours). If you were hoping these might be bags full of something to feed that dragon, you’re out of luck; you’re the one who tastes good with ketchup. Dragon Chow has graciously donated a very special lot of their amazing dice bags to Desert Bus; each one is hand crafted and made with special, limited edition Desert Bus for Hope fabric! D20s stored in these bags are guaranteed to roll 20s roughly five percent of the time!

If you’re not lucky enough to get one a limited edition Desert Bus bag, there are still plenty available at www.dragonchow.com.

I’ve been instructed to refrain from any Muppet Show jokes because the children we’re trying to help are too young to laugh at them. HogRocket is an independent game developer from England created by former members of Bizarre Creations (who sponsored Desert Bus in years past). They’ve sent us a bunch of download codes of their inaugural game. Tiny Invaders (in which alien germs try to take over the world through infection).

It’s only the beginning for HogRocket, and you can read more about them at their blog at www.hogrocket.com.
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PIGS IN SPACE!

[Kool, see me in my office please – Kathleen]