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Back to Middle-earth Month 2012: Bingo Baggins' BINGO Bash!



This year is the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit! In honor of the occasion, Bingo Baggins cordially invites you to a party in March to play--what else?--BINGO!

Today's BINGO Number

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How to Play

  1. Start by claiming your BINGO cards. You can claim as many cards as you want; obviously, the more cards you claim, the better your chance of being the first to have BINGO!
  2. Each day, we will call a number. Numbers correspond to challenges on the BINGO cards. If you have a card with that number on it, you will have 48 hours (2 days) to begin a response for that challenge1 and report to us that you have begun a response for that challenge.
  3. Once you report that you've started working on a challenge, a volunteer will stamp your BINGO card for that challenge.
  4. The first person to have five stamps in a row (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) will have BINGO and win the game! We'll keep playing until the end of the month and award banners for runners-up.

Footnotes
1: It is our hope that, by only requiring you to start your response, members who want to take their time on longer stories or more detailed artworks will feel they can do so without missing out on the event. As always, we trust participants to decide what counts as having started a response. There are no rules regarding minimum word counts, time spent on the project, et cetera.



Frequently Asked and Anticipated Questions

Where do I report that I've started on a challenge so that I can get my stamp?

Report your success on the B2MeM LiveJournal community, the B2MeM Dreamwidth community, or by emailing us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org. Look for the post that matches the BINGO number you've written for and leave a comment with the BINGO card(s) you need stamps for. (If you email us, please include the BINGO number and cards you need stamps on.)

What do I do if today's number matches with multiple challenges on my cards?

If you find yourself in this situation, you can certainly complete multiple challenges per day. (And, yes, as in years past, you can satisfy multiple challenges with a single piece.) You do not, however, have to complete multiple challenges; you can choose to complete as many as your time and energy allow.

Today's number matches with a challenge on one of my cards, but I won't have time to meet the 48-hour deadline. What do I do?

You do not have to write for a challenge. If you don't have time, skip that challenge; there is no penalty for skipping except for the fact that you won't receive a stamp for that particular challenge.

Unfortunately, we cannot give stamps after 48 hours.2

How many cards should I claim? Can I claim additional cards once the game has started?

You can claim one card or all of them. The number you claim should depend on how actively you want to participate. Some people have time for one or two challenges per week; others prefer to have a challenge every day. Obviously, the first group would do better to claim just a few cards. The latter group should claim a lot, to increase the chances that they will have at least one challenge per day.

You may claim additional cards at any moment during the game.

What kinds of responses are eligible for the challenges?

Some challenges may specify that the response must be in a particular format. For example, a poetry challenge should be completed with a poem; a drabble challenge should result in a response exactly 100 words in length. No one checks your responses, however; you do not have to post them publicly or show them to event moderators. We take participants' word that they've met challenge requirements.

If the challenge doesn't specify a particular genre, format, length, et cetera, then any response is acceptable. The only requirement is that it must relate to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Stories, poems, ficlets, essays, artwork, crafts, graphics, music, videos--all are welcome. All genres and ratings are welcome, include alternate universe (AU) and crossover pieces.

Please note that a piece's eligibility for B2MeM does not automatically mean that it is an acceptable piece to publish on the archives of groups that participate in B2MeM. For example, the Silmarillion Writers' Guild accepts only Silmarillion-based works, and Many Paths to Tread restricts certain explicit content. Check with these groups before posting your B2MeM pieces on those sites.

Footnotes
2: There are two reasons for this. One, the folks who hand out stamps are volunteers and trying to manage 31 days worth of challenge claims can become an administrative nightmare. Two, allowing folks to write for a challenge at any time might result in participants waiting until they could have BINGO on one of their cards, then write all of those challenges at once and win the game.



Creating BINGO Cards

Who creates the BINGO cards? Anyone who wants to! We encourage participants to help us offer a variety of cards to choose from by helping us to design BINGO cards. You may create as many cards as you want.

BINGO cards can have anything or nothing as their theme. By that we mean that you can design a card with a theme--prompts related to Gondor, quotes from The Silmarillion, various forms of poetry, characters from The Hobbit--or design a card with a hodgepodge of random prompts. Be creative! You're limited only by your imagination.

Need some inspiration? Check out the BINGO cards that have already been created!

You will be able to create BINGO cards in one of three ways:

BINGO cards are due by February 21, 2012. This will give us time to upload them to the participating groups and allow participants to claim the cards they want before the first day of the event.

Ready to create your BINGO cards? Visit our card creation page to send us your cards!