The game call's out for Festival '12

Yesterday I saw that the official Festival of the Larps 2012 Twitter feed put out a call for game bids for Larpocalypse. This is about the right time if you want to have a schedule up by January. Good on you, ninja_report*, for being on top of it! And I find myself trying to figure out what I will be contributing this year.

The last two weeks since the semester ended were more responsibility-laden than I expected them to be, which meant that I didn't end up really digging into a project like I meant to, except that I've returned to sewing and made good progress. Much as that pleases me, no new writing of any kind got done. I still have my idea for Imperium, my ancient Roman game, which I would love to be able to debut for Festival, but... the con is only four months away. I've never written a game in so short a time, and school with all its writing assignments will start back up again within that period. Seems like that would be a recipe for making myself miserable and over-committed. So I think I am going to make the tough choice and say no new game for Festival. *Sigh* That makes me sad, but I think that's the right thing for me right now.

Still, I want to run something for it. I feel a real personal attachment to Festival and I want to contribute to its success as much as I can. The question is, what? I am the author of six games. One, The Labor Wars, is a weekend-long and completely unsuitable for a con. Two of my solo games that I'm better known for, Alice and Oz, I believe are still at market saturation, so I won't be bidding either of them. I'm pretty sure there aren't enough people who haven't played in the community at this point to get full runs.

With those three eliminated, that leaves the potential for the remaining three-- Resonance, Paranoia: Research and Dismemberment, and The Stand. Resonance will see its fourth run at Intercon L, but I suppose if enough people are interested I could check with the Alleged Entertainment team I worked with and see if they were willing. A fifteen-player game can theoretically support a fifth run; Oz is the same size and saw six. Paranoia has only run twice and I know Bernie has been itching to run it again, but for some reason I feel a little unsure about it. I have a fear in my gut that it won't fill. Paranoia takes place in a very specific setting that I feel like you have to be interested in already, and I've met a number of people who say they flat-out don't want to play that sort of game. I just be, well, paranoid, but for some reason I'm nervous about that. That leaves The Stand. It's my newest game and has only seen two runs. I seem to recall a great deal of interest being expressed in it, but it did run last year at Festival and I guess I wonder if that satisfied the need. I don't know why I'm so worried about  games not filling, but for some reason it's nagging at me this year.

Or... hmmm... maybe if I wrote something new that was small and short... something that would be easier to write in four months than a full-sized, twenty-plus character larp. I might be able to manage that. But what would it be about? I don't presently have an idea.

So, friends... what should I do?