I’ve already paid and sent confirmation of it to Chimera email earlier this week, and for the four of my six games I asked for specific characters. Does this mean that if I’m getting the games I picked and nobody else before me asked for those characters I want (and has already paid the fee), then there is a high chance I’ll get confirmation of my character choice together with confirmation of game choice?
Oh rats. I can’t remember if I paid or not.
I really have no idea either… 
Don’t panic.
When I send out game confirmation emails, your email will be tailor-made for your situation. It will cover:
- What games you are in
- If you have registered for accommodation
- If you have registered for catering
- If we have received your payment
- If you have filled in The Gordian Knot questionaire.
For this reason, please read the entire email you get sent. It will answer all your questions about your specific situation regarding games, food, accommodation, payment and flagship larp.
This year, there is a four week deadline to receive payment before you will be removed from the larps you have selected. This four weeks is from the date we send you the confirmation email. I am expecting to start sending game confirmation emails out late next week, but as per the FAQs on the website, please allow at least two weeks before contacting me in a panic.
I hope this makes sense 
Just to answer some of Lucy’s questions as well.
Payment has no bearing on character choice. I have no say in character casting. Once I put you in a game and forward your name and requests to the GM in question, it is out of my hand. There will never be a system of “selling characters” to people who pay first.
Last year, we had a real problem with people signing up early and getting places in high demand games, not paying, not writing to say they weren’t coming and then just not showing up. This meant that GMs who thought they were sorted were scrounging around last minute trying to fill spots, and players who missed out on spots in those games were annoyed because they missed out in favour of a no-show. From my experience in running larps, once someone has paid, the chances of them turning up increase vastly: the hassle of arranging a refund, and the risk of being denied tends to mean that they will only not turn up for real emergencies (illness, death, unforeseen life circumstances etc) and eliminates the “can’t be bothered, so I won’t” factor to a large extent.
The procedure this year is that you are not confirmed in your games until we have received payment. If four weeks out from being sent your game confirmation, we still haven’t received payment, we’ll be in touch to inquire what’s going on. If we still don’t hear from you, you will be removed from your games.
We don’t mean to be draconian about this, it’s simply to stop people “squatting” on spots in high demand games, to allow games to be filled with people who are intending to attend, and to make it easier on GMs in being able to rely on the people who said they’re turning up. We understand that there’s always a degree of uncertainty and unforeseeability, but we’re working on reducing the stress involved.
We hope this explanation makes sense.
Sounds like a good way to do it. Thanks