We've got a number of good fics to look through, but I've been busy with Chinese New Year preparations. I'm into the third day of it now, although this update is dated on the second day due to timezone differences. While I'm generally quite out of touch with my Asian roots, Chinese New Year (or the Lunar New Year as it is sometimes called) is a holiday I still rather enjoy and celebrate. The hongbaos (red envelopes containing money) are certainly welcome, but the large amount of feasting and and playing mahjong are always great fun, too.

Anyway, as I don't have any new fics to offer you just yet, I've decided it's time for another fanfic challenge. For now it's a challenge; I'd like to turn it into a contest with prize(s), but I have to discuss that with our legal department first. In the meantime, here are the new rules:

1. Write a fic that takes one of the following real world holidays and "localise" the holiday, making it relevant to the world/universe of the game you're writing the fic for. Holidays you can choose from are: New Year (Western or Eastern), Valentine's Day, Easter, April Fool's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day or Christmas. Feel free to refer to any traditions or religious significance related to the holiday in question, whether it's Christian or 'pagan' (for want of a better word), or cultural, or whatever. As long as we can recognise the holiday for what it's supposed to be in the real world.
2. All standard guidelines apply. Click the link on the right.
3. Fics should have a length of between 500 and 1500 words. This will not be strictly enforced but see it as a useful guideline to follow.
4. Other than the usual reviewing criteria for fic acceptance, we will also be judging each fic heavily on ORIGINALITY and CREATIVITY. I know Valentine's Day is on the list, and it's next Monday, and is going to be the easiest to write about, but if you do a VD fic it's going to have to be really good.
5. Also, try not to write for games based on the real world already. If you do a Parasite Eve fic with Aya celebrating Christmas in New York, it's going to score pretty low on creativity unless you do something really wacky with it. Surprise us.
6. Submissions will open on 23 February 2005, the last day of the Lunar New Year. Any submissions received before 23 February (by my system clock, GMT+8) will be discarded and not taken into consideration.
7. Submissions will close on 11 March 2005. This gives you a 7-day window during which to send your fic to us, and a total of 28 days (one lunar month) to write and submit your fic.
8. Send your submissions to fanfic at rpgamer dot com with the subject line "[FANFIC CHALLENGE]" followed by your game and fic title as per a normal submission.

Have fun with the challenge! I'll post an update if I manage to secure prizes of any sort. In the meantime, keep those brain juices flowing.

Joel Pan