Rules
  1. Request at least two fandoms. You may not request crossovers.
  2. Offer at least three fandoms.
  3. Minimum story length is 1000 words.
  4. The threesome relationship in your story may take the form of either a triangle (each person in the relationship in a sexual/romantic relationship with each of the other two) or a vee (A has a sexual/romantic relationship with both B and C, but B and C relate platonically.) It is not acceptable for a couple to casually pick up a third person for a one night stand that remains a one night stand. (If you want the threesome to start out as wholesome sluttery and turn into something longer term, that's okay, but the goal is not to read stories about couples.)
  5. You are only guaranteed that one of the fandoms requested by your recipient will be in one of the fandoms you said you could write in. The other one or two may be rare or not to your taste.
  6. Do not post your story to lists, your livejournal, etc. until January 15, so the author revelations can be a real surprise.
  7. Let me know as soon as you know you cannot complete your story. Do not wait until December 29. I will be e-mailing and making check-in livejournal posts as time approaches to make sure everyone will be done on time. If you don't respond to the e-mail or the LJ announcements, I will get a pinch hitter and you will be counted as defaulting.
  8. Friend the 3_ships livejournal or track entries tagged 'status report' for announcements.
  9. E-mail your completed story on time, as an attached text file or in the body of the e-mail you send to me. Do not send word processor documents of any sort.
  10. If you signed up for but did not complete the challenge in the past, you may not request a story this year. You may sign up as a pinch hitter. If you complete a pinch hit story this year, you may request a story next year.
  11. If you default on submitting your story, the story that was written for you will not have your name on it. If the person who was assigned to write you a story defaults on December 31, no pinch hitter will be assigned to make up your request.
  12. Please, please, please thank your Secret Santa. You do not have to be lengthy or detailed, but let them know you are pleased that a story was written.
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Frequently Asked Questions
There's no place to choose pairings when you list fandoms to write in. What if I can write some threesomes in a fandom, but not all of them?
If you have serious problems with any particular characters, do not offer to write in that fandom. I cannot make character accommodations when making assignments.
But DC Comics and Marvel have thousands of characters. How can I honestly say that I could write any of them well enough for a threesome?
I have neither the time nor the knowledge to break DC and Marvel down further than that. If you would prefer to write out the specific line/family/superhero teams you feel competent in, whether for the fandoms you offer or the fandoms you request, that's fine. Be aware that, with the exception of Batfamily or Superman and friends, people rarely make requests such that I can assign them to someone who has specified they will only write for a particular substrain of DCU or Marvelverse comics. There's more likely to be a match of request and prompt in Marvelverse or DCU in other media.
Do [X and Y] count as one fandom or part of a larger fandom?
One fandom Multiple fandoms
  • Bandom: Fueled by Ramen and Friends
  • DC comics
  • Doctor Who: Doctors First through Tenth
  • Marvel Comics
  • Popslash: Boybands who charted from the mid-90s teenpop explosion, as well as Britney, Christina, and their fellow pop princesses.
  • Babylon 5, Crusade
  • Joss Whedon's California: Angel, Buffy, Buffy Season 8 Comics, Fray
  • Star Trek: Enterprise, TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY
  • RPF: Bandom, BBC television, Canada, CW, individual Sports Leagues
Can I request incest?
Yes, you may, but you have to do it in a specific way. If you request one incest-y threesome, you must also request a non-incesty threesome in the same fandom. So, an acceptable sign up would be
  • Heroes: Clair Bennet/Noah Bennet/Bob the Haitian
  • Heroes: Hiro Nakamura/Ando Masahashi/Nikki Sanders
  • Grey's Anatomy: Miranda Bailey/Tucker Bailey/George O'Malley
Don't forget, you are required to sign up in at least two different fandoms! Unacceptable signups would be just the first two threesomes (no second fandom) or just the first and third (failure to request a non-incest threesome in a fandom with an incest threesome.)
Why can't you request crossovers?
They're too hard to put into my spreadsheet. Nobody volunteers to write crossovers, so I wind up matching someone against two fandoms, and it severely diminishes my fun.
Is RPF allowed as a fandom?
Yes. Traditionally, there is a low RPF participation. If you want to read or write RPF threesomes, please encourage your friends to sign up for I Saw Three Ships!
What should the 'requested story element' be?
Keep it simple, please. The idea isn't to squick your santa or to make things difficult for them. You're just trying to give them a direction in which to take the story. Some people give random one word prompts, e.g. sofa, chocolate milkshake, green, and other people ask for a setting or a period of canon or a particular emotion. When you write your Santa Letter (and there will be a Santa Letter post), you may want to consult TFV's Discussion of Yuletide Prompts for further direction.
How are these prompts assigned?
You get assigned completely random threesomes. One of your recipient's fandoms is guaranteed to match one of the fandoms you said you could write. The one to three other threesomes they request may not match you at all.
How does pinchhitting work?
  1. After the deadline passes, I make a list of those who turned stories in on time but did not receive a story.
  2. I compare their requested fandoms to the fandoms the pinchhitters have offered to write in.
  3. I select a pinchhitter for each recipient, whom I e-mail to see if they can write up one of the requests in about four days. If they say yes, then I make a note on my spreadsheet. If they say no, I move on to the next available pinchhitter. The priority sorting for pinch hitters is as follows:
    1. Pinchhitters who did not request a story.
    2. Pinchhitters who turned in a story early.
    3. Pinchhitters who have successfully hit in years past.
    4. Everyone else.
    5. Me or the roommate.
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