Schedule

Tag suggestions: Now–Sunday, July 2nd

Nominations: Friday, June 30th–Sunday, July 16th

Sign-ups: Friday, July 7th–Sunday, July 16th

Team assignments: No later than Tuesday, July 18th

Deadlines are 10PM EDT.

As soon as the mods divide signed-up participants into teams, the boards will be revealed and the game will begin. There is no set schedule for the game; it all depends on how quickly the teams clear the boards. We estimate it will last about three weeks.

All works will be hidden until all boards are cleared of traps, all bosses are defeated, and everyone who signed up to the main collection and requested at least 3 unique fandoms has a gift. (Putting a prompt in the prompt collection does not guarantee a gift.) After works are revealed, authors will remain anonymous for two weeks.

Links

Battleship Discord server (not required to play, but strongly encouraged): https://discord.gg/U4NjJwA

Main Tagset: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/16117

Main Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/battleship2023 | https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/battleship2023

Prompt Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/battleship2023_prompts | https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/battleship2023_prompts

Dungeon Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/battleship2023dungeon

Tower Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/battleship2023tower

Mod contact email: battleshipexchange@gmail.com

Click the section titles below to reveal the rest of this post.

FAQ

What is Battleship? How does it work?

Two teams compete to clear boards of targets. Each board is a grid on which targets of various sizes and shapes are secretly placed. Teams fire shots at the boards. When a shot is fired at a square on the grid, the mods declare 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. This year, each square is randomly assigned a quantity (from 2 to many) and a pair of targets. The targets can be tags (such as Sharing a Bed or First Time) or AO3 ship types, ratings, or archive warnings (collectively labels). Once a team collectively posts enough works to meet the goal quantity of the targets, the square is cleared.

This is a fanwork exchange, so works must be created to fit fandoms, ships, and tags in the exchange tagset, and to fulfill requests or prompts by exchange participants. This year, there will be no official assignments. The mods will provide a giftless and treatless list to ensure that everyone who requests at least 3 unique fandoms receives 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 clear the boards, defeat the bosses, and win the Battleship Exchange!

What is the Battleship history and lore?

The Battleship Exchange was created in 2020 by Soulstoned and Red Ranger, inspired by a community challenge in the Trick or Treat exchange. This year's mods are Soulstoned, Firebird, and lailah_tov.

The 2020 round of Battleship had a similar design to the board game, with the Yellow and Red teams directly competing to find ships on each other's 10x10 boards. They fought so ably that a separate board was created to battle a boss called the Ocean Witch. The Yellow Team won, but more peril loomed. One of the teams was taken off to space by an eldritch entity; the other was pulled into the ocean by a tentacle monster.

In 2021, teams Void and Abyss returned, once again looking for ships on each other's boards. The mods introduced new rules to include non-team players called mercenaries, who were bribed with in-game gold to create works supporting a particular team, and NPC pirates, who held the team captains for ransom. Just as Void closed in to defeat Abyss, the Ocean Witch banished the teams to dry land.

In 2022, the competition was between Forest and Frost, who went hunting for each other's strategic buildings. This time the game design was considerably more complicated, with a separate grid of shields that protected various board sectors. There were multiple types of weaponry and in-game currency, including gems stolen from two local dragons. Competition was fiercer than ever, and mercenary bribery escalated. In the end, Frost prevailed but offered a truce to Forest, hoping for an era of peace in which everyone could recover from the exhausting battle.

But it was not to be. Tarina the Fairy, angry at the harm done to her beloved Ocean Witch and the theft of gems from her dragons, imprisoned the two teams in her castle: one in the tower, the other in the dungeon.

In 2023, teams Dungeon and Tower will fight, but not against each other. Each team must clear three castle floors, Dungeon working upward while Tower works downward. A floor is cleared first by making works with needed tags to disarm traps and find treasure on a 10x10 board, and then by defeating a boss with wordcount hit points. Meanwhile, non-team treasure hunters are already on the ground floor, raiding Tarina's hoard of gold and gems.

Which team will reach ground level first? How will the other team escape? And what can you buy with all that loot? Play the game to find out!

How do I participate?

Everyone is welcome to play Battleship. There's no requirement to collaborate on strategy, create prolific amounts of fic or art or podfic, or be on a team at all.

In order to nominate fandoms and ships, post works, or post prompts, you must have a free AO3 account. If you don't have an account, join the account creation queue or contact the Battleship mods for an invitation code.

Some of the ways to participate:

Join a team. You do this by signing up with at least one request, the way you would in an ordinary AO3 exchange. If you want to be on a team, you must sign up! Team assignments will be made as soon as sign-ups close, and are set in stone once the first boards are revealed.
Be a treasure hunter. This is the 2023 version of previous years' mercenaries/minions. You'll post works just for the fun of it, without assisting either team.
Post prompts. Having prompts to create for is very important! Over the course of the game, the two teams will post hundreds of works, and each one must fulfill a request or a prompt. Plus, the more you prompt, the more gifts you could get.
Support creators. Edit podfic, brainstorm artwork, beta-read fic—anything that helps the team members and treasure hunters hit their goals.
Hang out in Discord. If you're not playing, you won't have access to the team channels, but you can still enjoy the general chatter, explain freeforms, promote your favorite fandoms, and cheer from the sidelines.

If you want to collaborate on developing team strategy, you'll need to be in Discord, and you'll probably want to check in at least once a day so you can assist your team in hitting the most strategic targets. However, it's also fine to post works at your own pace and choose whatever tags you like. Your team will need to hit a total wordcount-equivalent number to defeat the bosses of round 1 and round 2, and all works posted during boss battles will count toward that goal, regardless of labels or tags.

What are the requirements for works?

Fic and podfic must be in English and at least 300 words long.

Art must be at least a clean sketch on unlined paper, or digital equivalent.

All works must be complete (no missing chapters or truncated scenes) and created specifically to fulfill requests or prompts in this year's Battleship collection. Works may not be wholly or partially created by generative text or art programs (so-called "AI") such as chatGPT or OpenArt.ai.

Are there any other major rules?

You must be 18 or older to participate in this exchange.

Don't be an asshole. We know it when we see it. Treating Battleship participants or mods disrespectfully is grounds for a ban.

This exchange allows for a large variety of different themes and prompts, some of which may be sensitive for some participants, and tags of all types will be discussed in team channels. If there's content you don't wish to create, don't create it. If there's content you don't wish to receive, be unambiguous in your DNWs.

Battleship is about the joy of creativity under constrained circumstances. Using generative text or art programs to create works completely misses the point, and is grounds for a ban. Any other kind of cheating is grounds for a ban. (Excessive rules-lawyering, however, is traditional and always welcome.)

An individual person may sign up with a maximum of one account, since that account will be placed on a team and eligible for the gift guarantee. Don't worry—there will be plenty of gifts for everyone. Socks may be used to leave prompts.

All Battleship works are technically treats, so anyone who signs up or prompts must enable treating in their AO3 settings. Do this by going to your Preferences, scrolling to the Collections, Challenges and Gifts section, and checking the box for "Allow anyone to gift me works."

Since there are no assignments, there's no defaulting and no pinch hitting. Participate as little or as much as you like.

I have so many more questions. Where do I find answers?

Join the Discord and ask there, or email the mods at battleshipexchange@gmail.com.

Nominations

Freeform tags

Each board has 100 squares. Each square has 2 tags. There are 3 boards. This means we need 600 freeform tags, and that's a whole lot. You can help by suggesting tags for the mod team to choose from.

Follow the instructions in this post to contribute tag suggestions. If you won a guaranteed tag last year, that post also has instructions on how to claim it.

Tag suggestions will close on July 2nd.

Fandoms and ships

Nominate fandoms and ships at our AO3 tagset. Nominations will continue through the sign-up period. After sign-ups and nominations end, if you really need a fandom added so you can create a late prompt, message the mods and we'll add it.

This year's mods have a "tagset anarchy" policy. If you nominate it, we assume you want it to be in the tagset the way you nominated it.

Fandoms

All fandoms may be nominated, including All Media Types, Original Work (including subtypes such as Original F/F as their own fandoms), Creator's Choice of Fandom (which includes original work and any fandom at all, not just nominated fandoms), and Any Fandom I've Requested Before. If a fandom has multiple formats, please make sure you nominate the particular format you want.

Nominate all crossovers under Crossover Fandom. The instructions on the nomination page say to do something different; ignore those instructions.

Ships, characters, groups, and worldbuilding

Use the format A & B to nominate ships that are non-romantic and non-sexual. Use the format A/B for ships that are romantic or sexual. If your ship doesn't fall clearly into either category, use your best judgment or nominate it in both & and / forms. Combined ships such as A/B & C are permitted, but be aware they may be interpreted differently by different people (are both A and B friends with C, or is only B friends with C?). Other ship formats such as Werewolf!A/Vampire!B or A xcons B are not permitted.

All solo characters and non-shipped groups may be nominated in the relationship field in the format 1: Character or 1: Group. Groups should be finite and clearly defined. The mods will not arbitrate disputes about who is or isn't in a group.

Significant objects and places can also be nominated with the 1: prefix: 1: The Shire (The Hobbit), 1: Daniel da Silva's Nipple Ring (England Series - KJ Charles). This can be useful for art and worldbuilding prompts.

You may nominate OCs, solo and in relationships, with or without specification (Original Character, Original Nonbinary Character, Original Elf Character, etc.); "Any" with or without specification (Any Character, Any Female Character, Any Villain, etc.); and "Reader" with or without specification (Character/Reader, Character/Non-Op Trans Male Reader, etc.).

Disambiguation

Please put the fandom name in parentheses after the ship or character. This is called disambiguating and helps us reassociate ships with their fandoms if they get separated. If the fandom has multiple formats, the disambiguation should reflect the format you want. For example, "Dorothy Gale & The Scarecrow (Oz)" is not a useful disambiguation because there are multiple Oz works featuring those characters. "Dorothy Gale & The Scarecrow (Oz Books - Baum)" is clearer and will help us put the ship where it goes.

Limitations

RPF: No non-famous family members of 20th/21st-century famous people. No living people under 18. No 20th/21st-century Nazis, fascists, or white supremacists.

Recursive fanwork: Nominations must have the original creator's approval in writing. Please provide approval evidence to the mods before nominating.

Sign-ups

You may request 1 to 10 fandoms, 1 to 20 ships per request, and 1 to 588 freeforms per request (20 in the Additional Tags box plus an unlimited number in the Optional Tags box). Please only use tagset freeforms in your sign-up or prompt. In order to be guaranteed a gift, you must request at least 3 unique fandoms. Fandoms may be requested multiple times. For each request, you can indicate whether fic, art, and/or podfic is desired.

If you're requesting original work or original characters, please note that these will be created by the work's creator. To request work with your OCs, nominate your original work as a fandom.

Since nominations will be open throughout sign-ups, you may want to periodically check the tagset for new nominations and adjust your requests.

There are no offers and no formal assignments.

DNWs

Your DNW list does not need to explain why you don't want something. Please don't use your DNWs to disparage something that someone else may be into.

DNWs that create an impossible request, such as "DNW incest" for an incest ship, and DNWs that are vague or difficult to understand, such as "DNW hard kinks," will be disregarded. DNWs that directly contradict a freeform (such as requesting an omorashi tag and then "DNW watersports") will be disregarded. However, DNWs may be used to specify how freeforms are applied to requested ships or characters ("DNW Bill Nye wetting his pants").

If you're requesting a solo character, you have the option to DNW romantic or sexual ships involving that character. By default, your creator may depict that character being in relationships.

If you're requesting Creator's Choice of Fandom (CCOF) or Any Fandom I've Requested Before (AFIRB), you may DNW up to three fandoms.

Optional details

Prompts and likes are encouraged but not required.

You may opt in to receiving sequels to your past gifts and remixes or sequels of your own work.

Linking a letter or a list of likes is encouraged but not required. Please complete and unlock letters by July 16.

If you request Any Fandom I've Requested Before, please link to a list of your past requests or your "everything search" results in the AO3 Automagic App.

Prompts

Prompt at the prompt collection. Prompts may be filled multiple times; there's no need to claim a prompt before filling it. Prompting will remain open throughout the game.

A mod account, Ocean_Purl, will provide open-ended Any/Any, Any & Any, and 1: Any prompts for Creator's Choice of Fandom and Original Work. However, we ask that you try to fill a more specific prompt or request before resorting to using these. Works gifted to Ocean_Purl are greatly appreciated, but Ocean_Purl will not leave comments.

Playing the game

Assignments

There are no official assignments or pinch hits.

Joining teams

After sign-ups close, team placements will be posted to Dreamwidth and Discord. We will do our best to create balanced teams based on what we know about the participants from past rounds.

Soulstoned will be the mod for both teams. lailah_tov will provide spreadsheet support to both teams.

Using Dreamwidth

The Battleship Dreamwidth account is where boards and major game updates will be posted. To subscribe to posts there, create a free Dreamwidth account and then subscribe to see posts on your reading list or track posts to get notifications of them. Links to Dreamwidth posts will also be posted in Discord.

Using Discord

Being in Discord isn't required, but it is both helpful and fun.

Each team has a locked channel for discussing strategy and mutual support. Please don't share information from those channels with people who aren't on that team.

There will be a channel for treasure hunters to chat in, and a general discussion channel. There are also channels for explaining tags and boosting fandoms.

If discussion gets too boisterous, mods may employ slowdown to help it chill out a little. Everyone is encouraged to keep the conversation congenial. Please remember that team members are in different time zones and have different amounts of time and energy that they can devote to Battleship, and keep team spaces inclusive of all types of participation.

Posting works

Each team member is limited to posting 10 works per week. This cap does not apply to treasure hunters. During boss battles, works worth more than 10,000 points will be counted as 10,000 points.

Team members may post works to their team collections: Dungeon and Tower.

Treasure hunters may post works to the main collection.

When you post your work, list the tags you're claiming in the author's note. One tag may be claimed for every 100 words of a fic or podfic. Art may claim as many tags as can be reasonably considered present within the artwork. You can tag the work however you want, but only tags listed in the author's note will be claimed.

When you post art during a boss battle, list the points earned in the author's note to make sure the mods score your artwork correctly.

Quality

We understand wanting to cut corners if you need to hit a tag in a hurry. However, please remember this is a gift exchange, and the ultimate goal is to make something that your recipient will enjoy. Make sure your work sufficiently fills the recipient's request or prompt without hitting any relevant DNWs.

The collection could go live at any time and there will be no editing period, so everything posted should be complete and ready for the recipient to see it. Please don't leave placeholders in titles, summaries, or the work itself. If possible, ask someone to check your work for errors.

Anonymity

Works are as anonymous as you want them to be. It's fine to openly discuss and brainstorm a work with a potential recipient, or to say "I just finished a work that hits tags X, Y, and Z" in team chat. Sequels to your previous works are allowed, art may be watermarked, and podfic may include the podficcer's handle in the recording and on cover art.

Scoring

During board attacks, each claimed tag on a work counts once toward the needed quantity of that tag's square on the current board. In addition, the AO3 labels (ship type, rating, and archive warning(s)) on that work automatically count toward any label goals on the current board.

During boss battles, fic and podfic are worth 1 point per word. The base value of art is 750 points for a sketch of one character on a plain background, with additional points given for each layer of complexity: 300 bonus points per character after the first one (including animals), 300 for color, 300 for shading, 300 for a background.

Team collaboration

Round 1 board

Your team will face a 10x10 board where each square is labeled with a numeric quantity and two targets (tags or labels). The targets jointly contribute to the quantity goal.

Squares may hide traps or treasure. A trap may occupy one or more squares, and is disarmed when it's fully revealed. All traps must be disarmed in order to fight that board's boss. Treasure is used to reduce the boss's hit points. Each treasure is worth between 400 and 1000 points. The board's total treasure is not more than half the boss's hit points.

Example: A square is labeled "15, First Kiss, M/M." The team posts 9 works that are tagged First Kiss but not labeled M/M, 4 works that are labeled M/M but not tagged First Kiss, and 1 work about an M/M first kiss (which counts twice). This clears the square, revealing treasure worth 1000 points.

Round 1 boss battle

Once all traps on the board are cleared, the team chooses when to give up on seeking further treasure and begin the boss battle. If all 100 squares are cleared, the boss battle begins automatically.

When the boss appears, all the treasure found on that board will be applied to reducing the boss's hit points. Bosses are then defeated by posting works equivalent to their remaining hit points. Works posted during the board-clearing phase do not count toward the boss battle.

Example: If the round 2 boss has 100,000 hit points, and a team has found 35,000 points' worth of treasure, the team will need to post 65,000 points' worth of new works to defeat the boss.

Round 2 board and boss battle

The same as round 1: clear the board with targets, then defeat the boss with points. Works posted during previous rounds do not count toward subsequent rounds.

Example: During round 1, a team posts 16 T-rated works. In round 2, there is a board square with a goal of "20, Rated T, Fisting." That team must post 20 new works that are rated T or involve fisting to clear that square.

Round 3 board (no boss)

After this board has been cleared of traps, you've reached ground level and you're free!

Strategy

Once the traps are cleared, your team must decide: keep looking for treasure that will make the boss battle easier, or move on to the boss and write write write?

During a boss battle, tags no longer matter. This is a great time to finish any works you left incomplete when their tags stopped being strategically useful.

Works are technically anonymous. However, it's fine to openly collude on posting a prompt someone else wants to fill if that will help your team get a needed tag.

Non-team participation

You will face a 10x10 board with a quantity and two targets assigned to each square.

Each square hides a certain amount of treasure. Join with other treasure hunters to loot the lot! At the end of the game, the treasure will be redeemed for the prize of selecting tags on next year's board. If the Treasure Hunters collectively find at least 20,000 gold pieces, anyone who contributed 5 or more works to the main collection will be able to claim a tag; if the total is at least 45,000, anyone who contributed 3 or more works will be able to claim a tag; and if you clear the entire board, anyone who contributed 2 or more works will be able to claim a tag.

Game duration

Our goal is for each round to last about a week, but the real competition in Battleship is players vs. mods. No matter how much we try to design a game that will last long enough to be fun, the players always astonish us with the speed and volume of works produced. If the first round goes too quickly, we may make the second one harder. If it goes too slowly, we'll make the second one easier. We want there to be enough time for everyone who signed up to feel like they got to fully participate.

Ending the game

If your team is the first to reach the ground floor, you've won! But it wouldn't be sporting to leave the other team in Tarina's clutches, so both teams and the treasure hunters will collaborate to clear the traps from the last board so that everyone can escape.

Once both teams are free and everyone who requested at least 3 unique fandoms receives a gift, works will be revealed.

After the game ends

Rest your hands, drink some water, get some sleep. Then enjoy all your gifts and be awed by how much everyone did in such a short time!

Please leave kudos and comments on your gifts, and be understanding if a gift is a little rough around the edges because it was made in haste. Remember that optional details are optional, and be open to getting something gloriously unexpected.

Authors will be revealed two weeks after works are revealed.

Battleship 2023 FAQ and Rules