With the holiday being on a Saturday and the extra hour from the time change, Halloween this year was set up perfectly for maximum awesomeness.

Indeed, it would appear that everyone had such a great time that no one had any scary stories to share!  (Or maybe it took a few days to recover from the festivities).

Whatever the reason, the awesome people at AvatarArt have graciously agreed to give a free copy of Adventure Art to every person who shared their costume with us (that didn’t have a copy already), in addition to our randomly chosen Twitterer!

The six winners are:

1. Oz
2. Angille
3. Dice_Girl
4. Graham
5. Aaron
6. Twitter Winner:  @alterus
   

Congrats!  If you’re a winner, please shoot E an email (using the same email address you comment with so we know it’s you!).

It was a blast checking out the costumes that were submitted, and I’m glad I didn’t have to choose.

How do you feel about our kinder, gentler approach?  Should we have been mean and stuck to our guns, refusing to award the story prizes since there weren’t enough entries for a competition?  Or is it totally cool that the folks at AvatarArt helped everyone be a winner?  If you didn’t enter, what held you back?

Feel free to let us know!

What, that’s Christmas?

Nah.  HALLOWEEN, BABY!

The fine folks at AvatarArt have a bi-monthly magazine called Adventure Art, which is full of awesome artwork that you can use to inspire your players (or your GM!).

The latest issue is a “monster-sized” double issue full of all the scariest, nastiest monsters possible.  Check it out here. If you love monsters, you’re going to want to get your hands on it!

And… what?  I’m giving away FIVE COPIES of the PDF version right here?

The Contest

Since I’m giving away FIVE copies of the PDF of Adventure Art #3, there are FIVE ways to win this contest.

#1 -  Best Male Geek Halloween Costume Picture

#2 – Best Female Geek Halloween Costume Picture

In the comments, submit a link to a picture of either you or a member of your family in a geeky Halloween costume.  I’ll be flexible on what qualifies as “geek” – so zombies and pirates and ninjas are all good.

#3 – Best SCARY True Halloween Story

What’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?  Can be Halloween related or not – going for creepy and spooky stuff!

By “story,” we don’t mean novel.  Try to keep it under 300 words.

#4 – Best FUNNY True Halloween Story

What’s the funniest thing that ever happened to you at Halloween?  Crazy Halloween party?  Wardrobe malfunction?

By “story,” we don’t mean novel.  Try to keep it under 300 words.

#5 – Random Twitter Promoter Prize

Tweet about the contest using the hashtag #gdgween and we’ll pick a random winner from all the tweets from today through the weekend.

For example:

I just entered to win a free Adventure Art magazine by submitting a picture of me dressed as a dalek.  http://su.pr/2G2Z5U #gdgween

I really hope I win the AvatarArt contest at Geek’s Dream Girl! http://su.pr/2G2Z5U #gdgween

A Winner Is YOU!

Since we know you will all be partying on 10/31, we’ll give you until the end of the day on Monday, 11/2/09 to get your entries in.  Feel free to enter as many times as you wish in any or all categories!

Since J is our resident Halloween-freak, she’ll be the lead judge on the photos and stories and will post the winners once they’ve been decided!  The Twitter winner will be chosen at random from all uses of the hashtag #gdgween through 11/2/09.

Thank you to the awesome folks at AvatarArt for donating these prizes.  They do amazing work – you’ll really want to get your hands on their stuff.  Check out their portrait of my cleric, Mielka.   Get some scary monsters for your campaign – check out Adventure Art #3 and enter to win!

Don’t forget, we have a Halloween sale going on through 11/2/09.  Get 25% off all Geek’s Dream Girl services – even the Gold package!  Special bonuses for GeekMMM members!  Click here to check it out.

Turns out, I got $5 off for mentioning that! Woot!

I gave them the description of Mielka and in a little bit, they sent me an initial sketch and asked for feedback. She needed to be a little fatter. She also had an expression on her face that was a little more mean than confused. I wrote back with my feedback and they came back with a second sketch that was much better! She has the perfect “I really dunno if I should be here…” expression.

Then came the final shaded penciled version for my approval – woot! Still looking good. After that, they colored her in and sent her my way…

…and here she is!

Want your very own character portrait? Prices at AvatarArt start as low as $25. Go now, and tell ‘em Geek’s Dream Girl sent you to get $5 off!