Battleship 2022 Gameplay and FAQ

[soulstoned]

The goal of the game

Two teams compete to clear each other's boards of targets. Each board is a grid on which targets of various sizes and shapes are secretly placed. Teams fire shots at each other's boards. When a shot is fired at a square on the grid, the owner of the other board declares it a hit or a miss. Once all the squares occupied by a target are hit, the target is eliminated.

The rules are loosely based on the Battleship board game, but for the Battleship Exchange, shots are fired by creating fanworks with particular tags. Each square is randomly assigned a tag or other fanwork element (such as M/M, Rated T, or "Sharing a Bed") and a quantity (from 1 to many). Once a team collectively posts enough works with a needed tag, the shot is fired.

This is a fanwork exchange, so works must be created to fit tags in the exchange tagset, and ideally to fulfill requests by exchange participants. Everyone who signs up is assigned a recipient to create for, but the game is really won through treating. The game can't end until everyone has a gift.

There are a number of additional rules that make the game more complicated and more fun, but the gist is this: Create both rapidly and strategically, collaborating with your team, to find all the enemy targets and win the Battleship Exchange!

 

Gameplay

There will be two game boards per team this year.

The lower board is where all of the targets are stored. The buildings you will be attacking could be placed anywhere on the lower board. In order to attack the lower board, the section you are attacking must be revealed.

The upper board is sectioned off with each section containing a shield generator. To attack the board below, you must knock out the shield generator. Destroying the shield generator will reveal the entire corresponding section below. The requirements on each square are lower than on the main board, so hits (and misses) should happen often.

If you destroy every square in a shield section, that team will be unable to repair that shield generator and that section of the board will be revealed permanently.

For a visual representation that will hopefully explain the two-board system, you can look here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pc2r5vBF54sODUBLa60Lu8U2bTXltNewznSJh61chSw/edit

Freeform tags

There will be two tag sets. The primary tag set is here: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/11751. This tag set will contain all of the fandoms and ships, and all of the freeform tags for the main (lower) board. The tags here were chosen by last year’s winning team and anyone else who earned the right to choose a tag for this year. The leftover space is being filled in with tags the mods will choose from the suggestion form here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NgxmBYK9mHdNF1OGBaxRNlFMsQLrzjWpmOVmTR45NFo/edit?usp=sharing

The secondary tag set will be a leftover stockpile of tags that may or may not be used for the upper board. These tags will be taken from the suggestion form above, a google form I passed around a couple weeks ago, and whatever the mods can come up with. As shield sections are replaced, these are the tags we will pull from to fill in those spaces. 

Exchange collection and prompt collection signups

The exchange collection and prompt collection have different purposes.

Signing up for the exchange collection will automatically put you on the list of people in need of a team placement. Being signed up for this collection also means you are guaranteed at least one gift. 

To sign up for the main collection you must request: 

3-10 fandoms

1-20 relationships

3-20 freeform tags

You must also offer: 

3-10 fandoms

1-20 relationships

3-20 freeform tags

Please only sign up to the main collection using one account per player.

The prompt collection is so participants can add prompts as the game goes on, and so minions of Firebird and others just passing by can give us additional prompts to work with and take their chance at maybe getting a gift. Signing up to the prompt collection does not automatically add you to the list of people who want to be on a team. Multiple accounts per person are welcome and there is no minimum number of requests in the prompt collection.

Teams

There are two teams. This year they will be called Forest and Frost. Everyone who signs up to the main collection will be drafted onto a team. If you want to be added to a team without signing up to the main collection, contact one of the mods before signups close. Once signups close, we can’t guarantee that there will be space on either team.

Once signups have closed, we will divide the teams as evenly as possible and give everyone their team assignment. We will post the rosters of both teams on Dreamwidth, and give everyone in Discord the rank that will allow them to see their team’s channel.

Discord

Our Discord is here: https://discord.gg/U4NjJwA

Discord isn’t technically required in that we won’t be checking to make sure everyone is in discord and removing everyone who isn’t, but things move very quickly in this game, and Discord is the best way to keep up and strategize with your team.

Each team has a private channel where they can strategize without anyone from the other team watching. You don’t have to worry about avoiding mentioning specifics of what you’re working on to preserve anonymity with your team; it’s okay to share the details for things like who you’re creating for (since one requirement before the game can end is that everyone has a gift) and what tags you plan to hit, or to openly request beta reading or other help.

Minions of Firebird (people without a team, formerly known as mercenaries) will also have a private channel where they can discuss the exchange and what they’re creating. Team captains may stop by to offer bribes to entice minions into creating something to benefit their team.

Resource generation

This year, there will not be a mid-game interruption. Instead, we have developed the system with the repairable shield sections to help slow things down a little.

Every night at midnight EST, each team will generate 100 resources that they can use as they wish.

Resources can be saved indefinitely, or spent on the following: 

Shield generator repair:  Shield generator repair: Regenerates a shield section. The shield generator will be placed somewhere randomly within that shielded section. Any destroyed squares in the shield section will be replaced with a new square with a tag from the secondary tag list. To regenerate a shield, at least one square from that section must remain intact from before the generator went down. If every square is destroyed before the shield generator can be repaired, then that section of the map is permanently visible.

Missile: Send out a shot that takes out a random square on the enemy map. Your aim is not good, and the square is chosen randomly by Firebird.

Scattershot: Send out a shot that will reduce the requirements on five random squares by 1. Scattershot will avoid any square that only has one left, so it can't result in an immediate shot

Shield scrambler: Interrupts a shield on the other team’s board, revealing the map below for 24 hours.

The value of these items has not yet been set, and may be adjusted as the game goes on. For example, if the game is going too quickly, we may make it cheaper to regenerate a shield, and if the game is going on too long we may make it cheaper to use a missile or scattershot. If nobody can get any hits in, we may lower the price of the shield scrambler, etc. New technology could be discovered at any time. Resources do not expire.

Creation limits and requirements

These requirements are for all gifts, including treats.

Fic:

-300 words or longer

-Incorporate at least one requested ship and one requested freeform tag

-Avoid DNWs

Art:

-A clean sketch on unlined paper

-Incorporate at least one requested ship and one requested freeform tag

-Avoid DNWs

Video:

-At least 30 seconds long

-Incorporate at least one requested ship and one requested freeform tag

-Avoid DNWs

Podfic:

-300 words or longer

-Incorporate at least one requested ship and one requested freeform tag

-Avoid DNWs

Each creator is limited to posting ten works per week. There’s no limit on how long or detailed those works can be. The aim of this is to help stave off burnout for faster creators and allow slower creators a chance to get something posted before the game is over. The limit is intentionally set higher than most people can do, so don’t worry at all if you aren’t hitting your maximum.

Fic and podfic are limited to one freeform tag that counts for each 100 words. For example, a 300 word fic can contribute up to three relevant tags.  If a fic or podfic is posted with more than its tag allowance, the first ones in the tag list will be the ones we count unless you specify in your top author’s note which tags you would rather have count instead.

Once your work is approved, you can remove the author’s note or retag the fic, but you can no longer change your mind about which tags you want to have counted. Any length added after works are approved won’t impact the game.

Categorization, archive warning, and word count tags are not included in the total. So if you’re aiming for a square for something like “M/M works,” “Underage,” or “Fic over 5k,” you don’t have to worry about factoring that into your total.

Art and video don’t have a tag restriction, because either something is there or it isn’t. If you think you can work ten tags into a single drawing, go for it. 

Assignments

Assignments are barely relevant. It’s a good starting point because ideally your assignment will be someone who is requesting something you know, and everyone will have to have a gift at some point, but there is no obligation to create something for your assigned recipient. This game functions primarily through treating.

Posting a gift

When posting a gift, be sure to add it to both your team’s collection and the main collection.

Adding it to your team’s collection is how Firebird tracks what each team has submitted so that shots can be fired. As each work is approved, a spreadsheet will be updated letting the team know what has been posted so far, so that teams can strategize for what kind of tags they want to prioritize creating for. A neutral Fairy Gridparent will assist teams with maintaining their individual grids and strategizing.

Minions of Firebird (teamless participants) can add their works to either team’s collection to help them out, or to only the main collection if they would rather post without assisting either team.

Please don’t post unfinished works. Keep in mind that a team could win and everything could reveal at any moment.

Winning/ending the game

To win the game, your team must be the first to destroy every building on the opposing team's lower board. If this happens before everyone has a gift, the game will be a draw and nobody will win, so it’s important to keep an eye out for giftless people.

Once a team has won, or the game has ended in a draw and the final giftless person receives a gift, works will be revealed.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

doesn't adding a work to either team's subcollection of the main collection for the year automatically add the work to the main collection for the year?

[flowersforgraves]

Not a mod, but the answer is both yes and no. It will appear on the collection page from a participant/regular user perspective, but not from the mod perspective (i.e. it won't appear to be an item in the collection from the "edit items" page)

[stillturningout]

I asked this on the other post but maybe here is better, can people request to be on the same team as others or is it purely random?

[(Anonymous)]

I'd like to second this question!

[soulstoned]

The teams are intended to be randomized and we can't promise that we will keep groups together, but if you let us know who is in your group or what your team preference is before assignments go out we will see what we can do to accommodate that while still keeping the teams as balanced as possible. If you want to guarantee that you can play with your friends, the only way to be absolutely sure is to stick to the prompt collection and be Firebird's Minions (equivalent of last year's mercenaries). Smaller groups will be easier to keep together than large groups.

[bold_seer]

After Sunday, are nominations still open for the prompt collection? And you're adding some of the suggestions from the doc to the primary tag set for sign-ups - there will be more tags in Additional Tags than Aliens → Worldbuilding?

[asymptotically]

Relationships: These will re-open after signups are over for the prompt collection, possibly with a lower limit.

Freeforms: Yes! Any suggestions from that sheet that make it onto the main board will be added to the primary tagset before signups start. Currently that's looking like it'll be ~85 tags from those suggestions (144 minus non-freeform squares and freeform tags that were earned last year, though that number isn't solid until the boards are made).