For NaLaWriMo, my initial idea was for a whodunnit. In case people are wondering how this is going: its not. I thought hard about whodunnits until i was well into the disillusionment stage (I mean really, who murders someone while there are other people around? Its a completely idiotic plan). Then I moved onto the backup idea, which was an occult archaeology concept, inspired by the Sutton Hoo dig. I did some research (including watching The Dig, a nice gentle movie about geeks digging up a boat), threw some ideas on paper, and now have half a larp. Specifically, the mundane side. I could continue developing that idea, crossing it with something like Downton Abbey to add a layer of soap opera, but I wanted to do tentacles or ghosts, so I’m waiting for that bit to fall into place (after which it will probably go quite quickly).
One important question I was grappling with: do I try and do genderless characters in a 1920’s / 3’s setting? After all, its the era when people do walk around calling each other “Smythe” and “Baker” rather than using first names, so that bit is easy, and it would let me focus on a specific pathology - class - rather than having to deal with all the rest of the horrors of early C20th society. But is it really that easy to split out? After all, attitudes to cross-class relationships are remarkably different depending on the genders involved…