there are loads of story ideas for the people I know nothing about
That seems like the point of the fest, and the target audience is people who know and care about these people. Not to say that there won't be a lot of Sid-related stuff, but it sounds like your issue is just that the fest's interests are fundamentally different from yours. Prompt rules that allow pairings like Hagelin/Zuccarello and Geno/Ovi -- i.e., rarepairs with non-Pens players -- seem like they would be more likely to result in a glut of Sid fic, because people would prompt a ton of Sid rarepairs like Sid/Nate, Sid/Claude (does that qualify as rare anymore), a million other Sid-pairings that people have occasionally made noise about..
Re: Bangs, fests, exchanges etc - Pens Rarepair Fest
That seems like the point of the fest, and the target audience is people who know and care about these people. Not to say that there won't be a lot of Sid-related stuff, but it sounds like your issue is just that the fest's interests are fundamentally different from yours. Prompt rules that allow pairings like Hagelin/Zuccarello and Geno/Ovi -- i.e., rarepairs with non-Pens players -- seem like they would be more likely to result in a glut of Sid fic, because people would prompt a ton of Sid rarepairs like Sid/Nate, Sid/Claude (does that qualify as rare anymore), a million other Sid-pairings that people have occasionally made noise about..