Russian Imperial Stout Questions

Planning on brewing a Russian Imperial Stout soon, maybe for National Homebrew Day this Saturday. I'm mostly a hoppy beer brewer so this is all fairly new to me!

So here are my questions:

1. How do you select the grain bill? Do you like Pale or Maris Otter for the base? And how do you select the other grains? It seems like all the recipes I see have a bunch of different grains in different amounts, I wouldn't even know where to begin except to get the SRM to "black as hell."

2. Are the hops irrelevant? I figure I'll use Columbus for the bittering since I have some extra. Should I add flavor/aroma hops too?

3. Will 2 packets of S-05 (or another dry yeast) be sufficient to ferment out a ~10% beer?

Thanks!

JamilZ is always a good source for recipes - http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/Jamil/JamilsRussianImperialStout.htm

I think 2 packets of S-05 should do the trick. Hops do matter - you need to balance out all of that sweetness somehow, and let the malt shine. I would stick to the English varieties.

JZ has a great recipe for a RIS.

If this is your first complex big beer I would just go with a already formulated recipe and take tasting notes on that. Decide what you like about it and what you don't then look into the ingredients and what they add flavor-wise and make changes that you think are appropriate for next time. This way you are less likely to mess something up on a beer that you need months to age.