Happy February!

Every month in 2012, I’ll be delivering some tips, questions, and writing prompts that you can use to freshen up your dating profile and have you looking your best for the love of your life (or the love of the month, if you roll that way).

Big Tips For Every Dating Profile

Start with a bang! Folks on the internet are in a hurry and like to have things delivered to their eyes as quickly as possible, otherwise, they move on. If your first sentence or two isn’t gripping, they’re going to slip away to the next profile.

Have an interchangeable section of your profile.  If this happens to be the beginning of your profile, even better. Have parts of your profile that you can delete and replace with other information. This is where you can freshen up your profile for the month by shooting in some new words that will catch the eye of someone new.

Don’t worry about Valentine’s Day. Every single person knows that 2/14 is coming, so don’t stress about it or mention it.

A Tip for Those in New Relationships on Valentine’s Day

If you end up on a first date around V-Day, bringing a single rose is a nice gesture. Go for pink, which is generally considered to be less serious-romance than red. Or if your date has a sweet tooth, a small box of chocolates would also be cool. Sappy cards are right out.

If you’re in a new relationship (under a month), think about where you stand. If you’re in contact constantly and all lovey-dovey, then go for the traditional gift and sappy card. If you’re only seeing each other once a week or you’re not exclusive, a smaller gift is more appropriate.

Three Questions for February

Looking for inspiration to freshen up your profile so it says, “I’ve updated this recently”? Here you go!

• What do you love about Winter? Do you love warm wool sweaters, playing in the snow with your kids or dogs, going skiing, or just having an excuse to drink more hot cocoa?
• What’s your favorite way to spend a snow day?
• What are your plans for the leap year? (Hey, it’s a whole extra day!)

Three Writing Prompts

Starting a new profile or re-writing yours? Here are some questions that might get your creative juices flowing.

• What’s the biggest leap of faith you made that was totally worth it?
• If you could take a weekend class to learn something new, what would it be?
• What scent reminds you of home? (Either your childhood home or current home.)

Happy Dating, Geek Friends!

Remember that I’m here for you if you need any help with your dating profile.

Thanks be to Thor and whatever other gods are controlling the weather; we made it to Ft. Wayne this year! It’s 12:33 am and since I haven’t gone to bed yet, I’m going to say it’s Thursday. (It’s technically Friday.) I wanted to be sure to get the news out to all the folks who don’t follow me on Twitter, so here’s the excitement of the first full day of DDXP and the introduction of the new edition of D&D.

Seminar:  Charting the Course: An Edition for All Editions

Loads of folks turned out for this! Of course, everyone is excited/interested about the new edition, but part of the good attendance also is because the seminars were nicely nestled in the time slot between game slots, so you didn’t have to choose between seminar or a game. Sweet!

The panel was moderated by Greg Bilsland and featured Monte Cook, Mike Mearls, and Jeremy Crawford of Wizards of the Coast. We were told we could blog everything except if someone took of their shirt. (Nobody did. Darn.)

Goals for the New Edition

The first thing they spoke about was what they were hoping to achieve with the new edition:

Monte wants to distill down what’s best about all the editions of D&D. He also mentioned the importance of the DM/player relationship; it’s a core part of the game that the player and DM should be able to communicate and be creative together. Also, fireballs.

Mike mentioned the importance of offering a wide variety of options for players to explore the world the way they want to explore. The shared language of D&D is also vital; keeping the culture and stories of D&D alive so that everyone can understand the story of the dread gazebo.

Jeremy wants the new game to be a toolbox for creating worlds and stories and hopes to see a rebalancing of the game between story & mechanics.

How It Will Work

Regarding how the game will be designed, Monte said that they are creating an underlying foundation or core game, which is D&D distilled to its essence. The core game can be played by itself, or you can build your own game using the different modules.

If you like a tactical game with lots of maps, miniatures, attacks of opportunity and the like, you can use modules to have that game.

If you want extensive skills and ways to customize your character, you can have that game.

If you want BOTH, you can have that game.

Modules & Balance

Achieving balance in a game that is so modular and flexible is a challenge, but Jeremy said that their vision is that the core game has seeds for each module. Using the modules just builds on that seed.

Monte’s example was of a fighter.

In the core game, a fighter does more damage and takes more damage than any other class. (As a fighter tends to do!)

If you prefer the fighter of 4e, where you have different fighting powers that allow you to move monsters around, push them, etc, there will be a module that will allow you to build that kind of fighter and play him at the same table as the core fighter. And they’d be balanced.

Monte also pointed out that as a DM, you could say up front, “I’m running X kind of game,” where X is tactical or X is political intrigue or X is exploration, and your players will then be able to create characters that will interact well with the world you want to build.

3 Pillars of D&D

Mike mentioned that they see the three pillars of D&D as Roleplay/Interaction, Combat, and Exploration. That covers about 90% of what goes on in D&D, minus the rules lawyering (that last one was pointed out by someone during Q&A at the end). They think a lot about how they can incorporate all the things that people want to do at the table, without making a rule for everything.

Monte recognized that some PCs will be good at exploration and not so good at combat, and vice versa. But it’s important to have a firm role for each class. If you have a player who just wants to kick ass, you can help that person create that PC.

Continuing on the classes discussion, Mike added that you can be a stabby rogue (more combat-heavy) or a sneaky rogue (more exploration heavy). Monte added that bards can still kick ass.

High / Epic Level Play

High level play was the next subject and Monte spoke about how fans of D&D often say that the game breaks at a certain level. That level depends on the edition and whether or not the game actually breaks or just becomes drastically different is up for debate. He said that 4e did a good job of making epic level play a different experience.

After admitting they haven’t done much work yet on high level play, Monte said they want to keep the game manageable at high levels. Maybe swap a bunch of abilities from low levels for a single, high-level ability and make things a little less complex. (As someone who hates having pages and pages and pages of character sheet, I can appreciate this.)

Of course, Monte added, there are things you want to do at high levels. You want to build your own castle, you want to have followers, you want to mix with royalty. These are things they hope to include. Mike added that you can still keep going into dungeons and killing monsters, or maybe gods.

Monsters

On to monsters! A lot about monsters ties in to player advancement. Monte said they’d like to keep the iconic monsters like orcs, goblins, kobolds and the like in the game for a long time. But they don’t want a level 1 orc, level 2 orc, level 3 orc. They want a group of orcs to be really scary at level 1 but still significant at level 8, albeit in larger numbers.

So instead of the fighter’s attack bonus going up, up, up every level, maybe it goes up every few levels and he gets other things at the other levels. So you can go back to that orc and know that this is the same exact orc that nearly slaughtered you at level 1. It gives you a bar to see your character advance.

One of the big pushes for the new edition of D&D is putting out an amazing DungeonMaster’s Guide. Mike had the best quip on this (it may be a paraphrase, live-tweeting is hard!): “We don’t need rules for everything. We need good DM advice.”  The DM plays such a huge role in how the game is shaped and if the system supports the DM with advice, it empowers the DM and makes the game better without adding more rules.

Playtesting & Your Feedback

Jeremy spoke a bit about playtesting, which has been going on for about 9 months. One thing that has come up again and again is how diverse people’s tastes are about D&D. Clearly, D&D players love their game, but everyone has a different idea about what the optimal D&D game is. This is something that’s gone all the way back to 1st edition.

When playtest feedback comes back, two people at the same table might have opposite opinions. Player A wants more combat while Player B wanted more interaction.

Monte said that because of these factors they’ve been focusing on the story of D&D. What is a fighter? What is a wizard? What makes the D&D wizard different from say, Gandalf or a spellcaster in Skyrim? Figuring out whether you get a +2 or +3 is the easy part, he said. Making a D&D ranger that feels like a D&D ranger is harder. Is that class more Aragorn or more Drizzt?

Monte said that the most important feedback you can give if you’re able to playtest the new edition is “Does this feel like D&D to you?” and “Does your class feel like it should?”

What’s Your Game?

The final question before moving into the audience Q&A portion was “What kind of campaign would you play in the new D&D?”

Monte said he’d use minis, but without the super tactical stuff, mostly just to visualize where things are when needed. There’d be lots of social interaction and exploration that relies on the ingenuity of the players, not die rolls. Players should think about where to search in a room, rather than just rolling a die for Search. He likes to reward his players for being smart.

Mike would start with the core game and then introduce modules later, adding them on a session by session basis. For example, if there was a large scale war, there’d be a module to help run that particular gaming session (or series of sessions). Mike doesn’t want a lot of rules, so he’d move modules in and out depending on what was happening for that particular game.

Jeremy agreed that he’d be the same as Mike. He doesn’t want to pick one game and stick with it. One night he’d do no minis, no die rolls, all talking. The next game might be the full on tactical game with the grid, minis, and tons of dice.

Audience Q&A

Q: To what degree will multiclassing be available? Or will that be mainly about skills/feats/etc?

A (Monte): We want both to be an option. So you could be a fighter that is okay at interaction. Or you could make a bigger commitment to multiclass.

A (Mike): The rogue could learn some stuff about Arcane Lore, but he wouldn’t be able to cast spells unless he multiclassed into Wizard.

Q: How does the new edition appeal to the new player who has no attachments to a previous edition?

A (Mike): The core will be simple enough for a newbie to try out because it focuses on the story first and interacting with the DM.

(E’s note: I started with D&D 3.5 and for me, looking at stat blocks and all the numbers intimidated the crap out of me. Coming into D&D with a more streamlined system – even say, Essentials – would have been easier. Of course, that’s me. Everybody is different!)

Q: What steps are being taken to give creativity back to the players?

A (Monte): Players can be empowered to have more answers to the DM’s question: “What are you going to do?” There are limitless answers and everything is very open now. Fewer rules means that the DM is empowered to handle imaginative players, too.

Q (ChattyDM): Will there be random charts and tables to help the DM?

A (Monte): Yes, for the DM who likes the chaotic nature of rolling to see what is living in the Temperate Swamp, you’ll be able to roll to find out. We don’t need tables for everyone, but the DM who wants them will have them.

Q: Say everyone shows up to the DM’s place and they want to kill shit, but the DM had planned a RP-heavy session… is it easy to switch up?

A (Mike): On the fly, it’s pretty easy to slide in a module to change things. Use minis, don’t use minis, big fight, little fight, no fight.

Q: How are you addressing the needs of organized play?

A (Mike): We’ll have an agreed-upon standard so folks know what they’re getting into for each session. There aren’t any specifics yet, though.

Q: Will one player really have fun with the stripped down rules while another one has a more complex character if they’re at the same table?

A (Monte): I ran a game for two 4e guys, two 3e guys, and one who hadn’t played since 1982. The 1e guy didn’t want a complex character sheet; he liked it simple. He wanted to know which orc to hit and then he hit it and had fun. With this system, if that guy eventually wanted a more complex character, we could change it for him and build one.

A (Jeremy): If you have two fighters, for example, one fighter might prefer to just do a lot of damage while the other might want to do less damage but be able to slide monsters around the grid.

Q: At higher levels, won’t the complex characters take way more time to do their turn?

A (Monte): We really want to keep combat moving quickly, so it will prevent that guy from spending 10 minutes on his turn.

Q: Do you think D&D will start to take itself too seriously?

A (Mike): I think D&D needs chaos in it, whether it’s a funny moment, something totally silly, or something very serious.

A (Jeremy): Art in the new edition will have a more grounded approach and PCs that appear real, not like superheroes. We have some halflings that look like they ate a few too many muffins and adventurers that barely survived their last battle. Very diverse art.

Q: How will the 3 pillars compete in this edition?

A (Mike): Balancing each class is important. We want to be sure that everyone at the table feels useful in some way and has something to contribute to the party.

The Playtest

Immediately after the seminar, I went to my mustering station and was assigned a table for the WotC Secret Special adventure, which was a playtest of the new edition core rules. I didn’t know anybody at my table (at least until Mike of SlyFlourish sat down!) but we were all excited to try the new iteration of D&D.

While waiting on our DM to arrive, I was scrolling through my Twitter stream and saw a tweet from Baldman Games that if any table yelled “THE BALDMAN RULES” they’d get Monte Cook as their DM. Since I hadn’t heard any tables yelling, I showed the tweet to my table and we all sounded the chorus. Sure enough, Monte himself came to our table to run our game!

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed my silence for the next few hours. Here’s why:

1. Monte Cook. Srsly, do I need more reasons?
2. I couldn’t publish any crunchy details about the game, including any pics that might show character sheets. (Sorry!)
3. Our game was pretty freakin’ awesome.

Now, you don’t need your very own Monte Cook to make the new D&D great. Of course, having an awesome DM helps, but that’s true for pretty much every game out there.

Here are some of the things that struck me about this game:

There was a LOT of talk at the table. In character at times! I’ve never been at a D&D table where players were more invested in figuring out their next move.

On that topic, your next move isn’t on your character sheet. You don’t go paging through all your stuff thinking, “Well, I could Bluff this guy.” Nope. We were doing what we thought our characters should do, even if that involved our very NOT charismatic half-orc fighter trying to be a charismatic leader of a band of skeptical savage orcs.  Multiple times. In other games, it’s “Okay, who has the highest Charisma? You? Okay, you go talk to those orcs and get them to help us.”

Everything was fun and fast and fluid. I didn’t feel like the game got bogged down at any time during our session, even when we had a few rules questions for Monte. Things just happened and they flowed with the story and the story was awesome because we made it that way.

Thanks again for an awesome game Monte & friends!

…and thank you, intrepid Reader, for making it to the end of this marathon post.

Before you comment, understand this: This is my house and we play by my rules here. If you have negative things to say, they won’t make it past moderation. If you’d like to be a dick, please go do it elsewhere.

So we did it.

Lobster Stuffed With Taco Cake

Our inspiration came from these two sites:

• Lobster Cake
• Candy Tacos - we used chopped maraschino cherries for the tomatoes

We gathered up all the necessary ingredients and went to work making our delicious masterpiece. Enjoy the photos!

Completed Candy Tacos

Funny story. The middle of the cake didn't cook through, but turns out, that left a great hole for the taco.

All the cake parts assembled

A redonkulous amount of frosting hides all sins. (Book of Cake 3:14)

Of course, he needed a fondant hat and Twizzler antennae.

A close-up of the taco in his claw. Delicioso!

"Excellent, Sir. Lobster stuffed with tacos."

Love my crazy cake? Please pass it on to a friend!

(Sorry, Dave.)

I love Dungeon Bastard. His videos are well-written, impeccably done, and downright hilarious. If you don’t subscribe to his channel on YouTube, go do that now.

His newest “Ask The Bastard” is on Edition Wars and he echoes my feelings on the subject:

“Does it have dragons? Does it have dungeons? I want to play it!”

Here’s why you should kick those excuses to the curb –>

See that picture right there? That needs to be your motto.

New Year, New You?

Everyone starts the new year with aspirations. And we think, if I can just get those things on track first, then I’ll put up a dating profile. If I can just have this one habit cemented in my daily life, then I’ll go join that singles group. If I can just get to the gym every day for a month, then I’ll go to that mixer at church.

Why wait?

The biggest difference between you now and you two months from now is that you’ll be two months older and have two months more experience at being single.

Nobody’s Perfect

I’m certainly not perfect. I’m overweight. I have been overweight for the majority of my adult life. I suffer from depression and have occasionally thought I was “good enough” to go without my meds. (I am very happily back on them and plan to stay that way.) My previous career as a public school teacher left me in temporary poverty every August and with a small mountain of debt.

But I didn’t wait to find love. Neither should you, no matter how imperfect you may be.

Parts of You Are Pretty Awesome

Every time I interview a new client, I have an amazing time. I love learning about new people, “meeting” them via chat and getting to know what’s important to them and how they tick. More than that, I love being able to use my talents to write them a profile that really showcases what makes them pretty awesome.

You are a unique and awesome snowflake. There, I said it. There are things about you that are unlike any other person anyone has ever met. The way you smile, the way you laugh, the way you think, the things you’re great at, and the things you fail at hilariously. You are pretty awesome.

Who are you to deny your awesomeness to the world because of a few imperfections?

Baby Sumo Wrestler

Craft: Knitting

Suggested Yarn: Cascade Superwash 220

HAT:

With size 8 circular needles, cast on 64 stitches.
Join in the round.
Knit for 8 rows.

Change to size 9 needle.
Knit for 4.5-5”

Decreases:

Place marker after every 8 stitches.

Row 1: K6, k2tog (56 remaining)

Row 2 (all even rows) – Knit all.

Row 3: K5, k2tog (48 remaining)

Row 5: K4, k2tog (40 remaining)

Row 7: K3, k2tog (32 remaining)

Row 9: K2, k2tog (24 remaining)

Row 11: K1, k2tog (16 remaining)

Row 13: k2tog (remove markers) (8 remaining)

Row 15: k2tog around (4 remaining)

Cut a long tail (really long!). Thread tail through remaining stitches twice, then through the center of the hat into the inside.

TOP KNOT FOR HAT:

Cast on 6. Knit icord for 8-10 inches (your choice, longer = bigger bun).

Bind off. Knot icord into a bun, then use the long tail from inside the hat to secure the bun to the top of the hat.

HAIR TIE FOR TOP KNOT:

Cast on 6 stitches in red. Knit icord for about 3”, or however long you need to make a loop around the base of the bun. Bind off and stitch together or do a 3-needle bind off to join so it wraps around the base of the bun.

BELT:

In red, cast on 56 stitches. Join to knit in the round.

Garter stitch for 8 rows, bind off.

Pick up and knit 8 stitches on the bottom center of the loop.

Rows 1-3: Knit all.

Row 4: Knit 2, purl 4, Knit 2.
Row 5: Knit all.
(add more repeats of 4&5 until desired length)

Last three rows:
Row X: Knit all.
Row Y: Knit all.
Row Z: Bind off.

Don’t forget to post a picture of your completed project on Ravelry!

The announcement of the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons came out today in the NY Times. It promises to capture the hearts and minds of all D&D players, young and old, no matter which edition they thought was best.

My Challenge For You

In your discussions of “5e” (or whatever it ends up being called), stay positive.

We all love slaying dragons. We all love exploring dungeons. Let’s focus on the positive aspects of what make us LOVE a game rather than talking about the new game in the light of how much you hate (your least favorite edition).

Think Of It This Way

When you meet a new romantic interest, you don’t immediately start in telling them how they can be the exact opposite of this girl/guy you dated that you totally hated.

“OMG, and you’d BETTER not leave your beard clippings in the sink! Howard did that and it is SO DISGUSTING. I can’t stand beard clippings!”

“I could not STAND how my ex-girlfriend used to leave her half-empty coffee cups all over the damn house. Seriously, if you can’t understand how to use a goddamn SINK, we will never fall in love!”

Sounds pretty rude, doesn’t it?

Wizards of the Coast is Listening

If you want to be heard, if you want to be respected, if you want to have your views taken into consideration, wrap them in things positive. Wrap them in the love you have for your game. Wrap them in the respect you have for the men and women who work long hours to try to make a game that makes thousands of people like us happy.

Leave your old, old, old edition war drama in 2011. Let’s make 2012 the year of awesome.

More D&D “5e” News:

• ENWorld
• Critical Hits
• WotC
• Baldman Games (DDXP)

Happy New Year!

Every month in 2012, I’ll be delivering some tips, questions, and writing prompts that you can use to freshen up your dating profile and have you looking your best for the love of your life (or the love of the month, if you roll that way).

Big Tips For Every Dating Profile

Start with a bang! Folks on the internet are in a hurry and like to have things delivered to their eyes as quickly as possible, otherwise, they move on. If your first sentence or two isn’t gripping, they’re going to slip away to the next profile.

Have an interchangeable section of your profile.  If this happens to be the beginning of your profile, even better. Have parts of your profile that you can delete and replace with other information. This is where you can freshen up your profile for the month by shooting in some new words that will catch the eye of someone new.

Three Questions for January

Looking for inspiration to freshen up your profile so it says, “I’ve updated this recently”? Here you go!

• What excites you about starting a new year?
• Do you have any New Year traditions? [You can do the failed resolutions angle if you make it funny, not depressing.]
• What was your favorite memory of the holidays?

Three Writing Prompts

Starting a new profile or re-writing yours? Here are some questions that might get your creative juices flowing.

• What never fails to make you smile? Is it a person, an animal, a writer, a piece of music? Describe what it’s like when you’re around this person/animal/thing.
• Everyone wants to change the world. Are you more likely to do this through volunteering your time or donating your money?
• When was the last time that you had so much fun that you lost track of time? What were you doing?

Happy Dating, Geek Friends!

Remember that I’m here for you if you need any help with your dating profile.

Welcome to 2012, everyone!

When you’ve read as many dating profiles as I have, you start to notice patterns. Whether it’s writing about your ex, being negative, starting every sentence with “I”, or not giving your audience any reason to write you, I think I’ve covered a lot of them in the past. (If you’re new, click on Geek Dating Advice and take a surf through the archives!)

But I missed this one!

A Good Example

Let’s look at an example of good web design. I’m going to be a little self-serving here and show off the skills of the designerds at my day job, ThinkGeek.  Here’s a screenshot of a product page:

Notice a few things, which I’ve numbered:

1. Photos & Video
2. Headline & top 3 things about the product
3. Social Media sharing
4. Customer Action Shots (social proof)
5. Price / Buy Now / Wishlist / Facebook Like (more social proof)

What do all of things have in common? It’s the secret that’s going to help your dating profile!

Location, Location, Location

All of these things appear above the fold.

Depending on your monitor, your fold-age may vary, but the important thing to realize is that when people read on the internet, they want to see something right when the page loads that catches their attention and holds it. Otherwise, they click away.

Web folks call this the “Bounce Rate.” These are folks who click into your site and instead of doing what you want (staying & interacting), they click away to go elsewhere. Having a high bounce rate means that something is wrong with your website. It’s not sticky enough. It could be your design, your content, or a combination of the two.

How Sticky Is Your Profile?

Let’s take a look at what above the fold looks like for two popular dating sites, OkCupid (free) and Match (paid).

OkCupid Profile

Your main photo and Self-Summary are the first things  people will see. If your Self-Summary is short, folks may see the What I’m Doing With My Life section (or if you leave things blank, whatever the next thing you filled in is).

What This Means

For a sticky OkCupid profile, you need:

• A great default photo. The math nerds at OkCupid have crunched the numbers and given some advice on that on their blog.
• A super self-summary. Most profiles have never been revised or edited. They start weak because you’re not sure what to say about yourself and as you keep writing, you hit your stride and by the end, it’s pretty good. Problem is, you never go back to fix the beginning, so it stays boring and wishy-washy. Start your profile with a bang! How about short, funny anecdote? Maybe something weird that you like to do: My dating profile started out by admitting I like to ride my shopping cart in the parking lot of the grocery store.
• Keep up the pace! Once you’ve gotten someone to read your self-summary, keep up the great writing! Need help? I can advise you on profile improvements, edit your profile, or write one for you from scratch.

Match.com Profile

I really don’t like Match.com’s new UI, but that’s a story for another post. (Note to self: Write another post!)

Like OkCupid, your main photo is prominently displayed above the fold. So is your headline, although it’s in a tiny font on a fairly dark background.

What This Means

For a sticky Match.com profile, you need:

• A great default photo. The advice of OkCupid’s math nerds still applies here.
• Additional photos. I recommend clients to have at least 4 photos, and for Match’s profile format, you really need those extra shots to give folks a place to click. Since all your photos are available before a match sees your written profile, choose your photos with care. They are your first impression.
• A snappy headline. It is a little lost in the blue sea, but it’s the only thing above the fold that’s in your own words. Make it count. Movie quotes work great here!
• Activity & Interests: Notice the white boxes below the photos. These are populated by matching the checkboxes you selected for your interests with those of your potential match. Be sure to check off at least a few things that interest you. It also lets matches know if you’ve uploaded a new photo. Rotating photos in and out of your profile every couple weeks will keep you flagged as having “new” photos.

Once you’ve gotten someone interested enough to scroll down, remember that those first few lines of your written profile count! Make them interesting so your match will scroll back up and click “Email Him/Her.”

How About You?

Got questions about how to improve the stickiness of your profile? Take a screenshot of what your profile looks like above the fold and link it in a comment below. I’ll give pointers to anyone who posts here by Friday 1/6/12.

It’s been an awesome year here at GDG! Here’s a bit about how it went…

Single Geeks Helped By Our Services

• 100+ attendees at GenCon events (the free event didn’t require tickets, so I lost track of #s!)
• 170 eBooks (You Geek, They Grok: A Geek’s Guide To Leveling Up Your Online Dating Game)
• 9 Plastic d20 Packages (dating profile critique)
• 17 Copper d20 Packages (dating profile edit)
• 13 Silver d20 Packages (dating profile writing & coaching)
• 9 Gold d20 Packages (dating profile writing for multiple sites, extensive coaching)

Website Traffic & Popular Posts

• 2011 Unique Visitors: 283,350

C’s Most Popular Posts:

• And It Was ADVANCED!: Things The D&D Episode Of Community Totally Got Right
• Rules Are Made To Be Broken: Knowing When to Ignore What the Book Says
• The Blank Slate: Creating A Character When Inspiration Eludes You

C’s final post was this past Thursday. She’ll be leaving us to focus more of her time on her RPG company. We will miss having her around here, but you can always hang with her on Twitter.

Hopping into the RPG Girl Thursday spot for 2012 is the amazing and talented L, who you may know from around the web, on Twitter as @lilyorit, as the assistant to our former RPG industry expert, JLB (Jennifer Brozek), or from her work editing various RPG books. We look forward to reading L’s posts!

D’s Most Popular Posts:

• Butch Love: New in Butch-Femme Online Dating
• A Death In The Family: RIP Johnny Storm
• Webcomics: The Window Into the Queer Soul

E’s Most Popular Posts:

• Who Wants The Secret To More Replies on Match.com?
• Don’t Make This Big Mistake When Buying From Small Geek Shops
• Ladies: Your OkCupid Profile Is A Red Light District

GGG’s Most Popular Posts:

• Breathing in Life: 5 Ways to Make Your Campaign World Feel Real
• Beyond D&D: Five RPGs Worth Trying And Three Just Bizarre Enough to Love
• Props for My Homies: Making Handouts, Gear, and Props for your RPG

J’s Most Popular Posts:

• Guinness’ Top 50 Video Game Characters Of All Time
• Love, Sex and Doctor Who
• 5 Essential Games For iPad

M’s Most Popular Posts:

• Come Hell or High Standards: Why Anime Hasn’t Ruined “Real Girls” For You
• Top 5 Worst “Real Life” Jobs in Anime
• Dating Dos (and Don’ts) From Harem Anime

MLV’s Most Popular Post (she joined us in July):

• Calling all Freelancers! Adventure to Dice Castle

Most Popular Guest Posts:

• Great Dates In 50 States: St Louis, Missouri
• Great Dates in 50 States: Columbus, Ohio
• GenCon Speed Dating Tips From The Guy Who Got 9 Matches

Want to write a guest post for us in 2012? The Great Dates in 50 States series gets AMAZING love from Google. Those two guest posts were in the top 20 for the entire year! If you think you can write a post about your favorite city that stacks up to our current collection, please send it in. We’d love to hear your date suggestions.

Thanks for an amazing 2011, everyone! We’re looking forward to entertaining & helping you all in 2012!