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Desert Bus 2025 Total Raised
$1,059,553.89
Desert Bus 2026 Begins Oct 23, 4 PM PT
141:02:41:46
Welcome to
Desert Bus 2026
Take This Giveaway! No, really: take it
November 11, 2023 at 10:39 PM PST
Posted by Soraya
A collection of items from the "Take This" organization. They include four unique Pinny Arcade pins, a plushy of the Psychomancer (a winged knight with distinctive yellow and orange helmet), and a book from Good Shepherd Entertainment.

Here on Desert Bus, we frequently encourage you to take care of others. But fun fact: did you know that you can (and should) also take care of yourself? This merch pack from Take This hopes to inspire you to do just that with a goodie collection from a fellow non-profit that aims to support mental health within the gaming community. It may dangerous to go alone, but you're not alone. Take this merch!

Donate $6.44 (or multiples thereof) before 11:15pm for a chance to win!

Sponsor Shout Out: Fangamer
November 11, 2023 at 09:25 PM PST
Posted by Soraya
Fangamer logo: a lime green, slanted hexagon. In the upper right corner there is a white D-pad and a single square button that, when placed near each other, form a pixellated letter F. The name "Fangamer" appears below in blue text.

Fangamer brings us fabulous Desert Bus shirts, but if you like video games, they can bring you plenty of other fabulous stuff too. The store launched in 2008, and ever since then they have been adding collections for video games you were sure nobody else but you was that deeply in love with. Good news, gamers: Fangamer is as deeply in love with your favorite video games as you are. Go find your favorite new shirt, plush, or tea cup (no really)! Be sure to tell 'em "thanks for supporting Desert Bus!" while you're there.

Giveaway: More MtG Stuff than you can shake an Isochron Scepter at
November 11, 2023 at 07:46 PM PST
Posted by Soraya

Quick, James is asleep! Let's give away his stuff. 😈

A spread of Magic: the Gathering items spread across a table. They include a branded backpack, four playmats (including an exclusive Loading Ready Run mat), and five prerelease boxes such Phyrexia and March of the Machine.

James spent 2023 on an exhaustive tour of all four MagicCons, collecting goodies at every stop, and ultimately assembled this prize we call "James Went to All the MagicCons and Hosted 6 PPRs in 2023 Just So He Could Build This Prize Pack." By the time you finish saying the name of this prize, you'll be as tired as James was after all that travel. But you will also feel an insatiable hunger, a ravenous desire, an all-consuming need to take his stuff.

Donate $11.18 (or multiples thereof) before 8:45pm PT for a chance to take home all of James's stuff!

Silent Auctions: Mushroom about Tokens
November 11, 2023 at 06:58 PM PST
Posted by Soraya

Kicking off the silent auction party for Desert Bus 2023, we have a Mushroom Witch Hat Trio and a collection of Watercolor Magic Tokens. Be the token-bearing card witch you want to see in the world by placing a bid on one or both!

These auctions will end at 2am PT.

Mushroom Witch Hat Trio

A top-down view of a witch hat with a broad brim and pointed tip. It's crocheted in orange, white, and salmon pink. Jutting from the hat as though growing from it are several purple-blue mushrooms, clustered or randomly distributed around the hat..
Mushroom Witch Hat Trio (one of three)

Watercolor Magic Tokens

A set of hand-drawn tokens for Magic: the Gathering, with cards such as "Monster," "Royal," and of course, "Banana." They've been filled in with watercolors that add a cartoony, pastel aesthetic to the cards.
Watercolor Magic Tokens
Giveaway: Wood-Turned TTRPG Accessory Set
November 11, 2023 at 06:43 PM PST
Posted by Soraya
A brown-orange-yellow dyed sycamore dice tray, a matching set of a blue-dyed curly cottonwood pen and a flame box elder mechanical pencil, and a dice tube made of purpleheart with a leather strap and magnets to hold the lid in place.

You do your best to raise your dice right, you know? You enter a giveaway to get them fine, lathe-turned wooden accessories like a beautiful sycamore dice tray with a flocked bottom to soften their landing. They get a nice home in a dice tube made of purpleheart wood and closed securely with magnets. Heck, you even socialize them with a beautiful matching set of pen and mechanical pencil!

And then they roll 1s, and 2s, and more 1s again. But still, you love them enough to try and give them a good home by entering this giveaway for the Wood-Turned TTRPG Accessory Set. Donate $8.57 (or multiples thereof) before 7:15pm PT for a chance to surround your ungrateful dice-children with luxury!

Art Challenge: Shift Fursonas
November 11, 2023 at 06:32 PM PST
Posted by Soraya

Look, neither of us wants our naked human bodies just walking around being human and/or naked. So let's make a trade. You draw the fursona of any Desert Bus shift (or several of them). If your fursona is our favorite, then we send you a Unisex 2023 Desert Bus shirt to clothe your body. Deal? Okay, let's get on it.

A unisex cut black t-shirt with "Desert Bus for Hope" across the front. It's a retro, pixellated design that features details such as an old globe, butterflies, and of course, the driving window for the desert bus. According to the shirt, it is Y2K-2X-3 compliant!
This shirt could be thine

But there are ground rules! We're looking for the fursona of the shift if that shift were a singular, conscious entity. No individual performers, please! We don't fursona without permission.

Send your fursona to contests@desertbus.org with the subject line "Shift Fursona" before 10:30pm PT. Please submit your entry as one PNG or JPG. Also, please be sure to include the name you'd like to go by (and your pronouns if you'd like to do so) should we show your submission on-air and on the blog.

Sponsor Thank You: Loading Ready Run
November 11, 2023 at 05:30 PM PST
Posted by Dan Wu

We would't be Desert Bus without Loading Ready Run.  In 2003 Graham Stark and Paul Saunders founded Loading Ready Run.  In 2007 they decided to do a Charity Drive featuring the game Desert Bus and the rest is history.

Since then the members of Loading Ready Run have taken part in Desert Bus as organizers, managers, entertainers, and everything else in between.  

Thank you Loading Ready Run for all you have done and all you will do for Desert Bus for Hope.

Giveaway
November 11, 2023 at 04:27 PM PST
Posted by Dan Wu

Do you want to an uncut sheet of Innistrad? Everyone wants an uncut sheet of Innistrad.  You can win an uncut sheet of Innistrad today by donating $8.14 or multiples there of between now and 5:25 PM PST.

Vegas Baby
November 11, 2023 at 03:08 PM PST
Posted by Dan Wu

Thanks to the generosity of Teller, we have our first giveaway.  Teller has a graciously donated 2 tickets to the Penn and Teller in Las Vegas and a 2 night stay at the Rio All Suites hotel.

To enter donate $7.11 or multiples thereof ($14.22, $21.33, $28.33).  This giveaway will run until 3:45 PM PST

Guest Call in Teller
November 11, 2023 at 02:31 PM PST
Posted by Dan Wu

Our first call in this year is none other than Teller.

Photo of Teller holding a 3 of clubs

Teller will be calling in at 3:00 PM PST

Teller is one half of the world-famous American magicians and entertainment duo Penn and Teller. The two have performed together since the late 1970s, and are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic. More importantly (to us, at least), they are a BIG part of how Desert Bus For Hope came to be. Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors for the Sega CD contains the Desert Bus mini game, without which Desert Bus literally would not exist!