Round One: Let the Games Begin!

[asherdashery]

The Round One Prompt went up last night, as most of you who stay up later than I do probably already know! Pardon me as I just copy and paste the entire thing here.

ROUND ONE: GAMBLING

they call you lady luck

Hey shippers! 
We are so incredibly excited to announce the first main round prompt and the official start of the HSO!
This year, we’re loosely theming the prompts around patron trolls. We’re also trying to give you a little more creative space with this year’s prompts, so we’ll see how this works out!

For Round One, incorporate gambling--literal or metaphorical--in your submission. It doesn't need to be the central focus, but it should be a major theme.

And as always, if you are unsure whether something counts or not, just ask! You can reach us at homestuck.shipping@gmail.com

All submissions must be created/assembled new for this round by members of your team.
No fan-created content is allowed that has not been made by members of your team specifically in response to the prompt. Mainstream creative content is fine (e.g. popular music, well-known art pieces, the Homestuck soundtrack), but not fanart, fan music, etc. This is largely to ensure that the original content in your entry is clearly identifiable as distinct from the borrowed content.

This challenge will run until 11:59PM EDT June 23. If your Palhoncho sends it in after that time according to the gmail timestamp, your team’s submission will get posted--but we cannot guarantee that it will be posted in a timely manner. 

Requirements (as stated in the Info Post)
Fic/meta must be between 800-3000 words.
Combination fic/art entries cannot have more than 4 images.
All other image-based media (including comics) cannot exceed 10 images/panels.
Cosplay must be at least 75% created or assembled new for the challenge.
The penalties for going over 3k words will be as follows:
3000-3050: no penalty (to allow for disparities in wordcount software)
3051-3150: -30 points
3151-3250: -60 points
etc.
PLEASE NOTE that gdocs is notoriously bad at generating an accurate wordcount, so you should probably check your submission at http://www.wordcounter.net/ just to make sure.
Also, this year we are requiring transcriptions of all text on images. These transcriptions count towards the wordcount.

Please remember not to post your HSO creations publicly until voting ends, whether or not they are chosen as part of the team submission. We would like to keep things as anonymous as possible!

Submission Format
We’re still working out the details, but this year we’re probably going to ask palhonchos to post their entries directly to the round comm! Stay tuned for more details.

Questions about this challenge should be emailed to homestuck.shipping@gmail.com; we will attempt to check the comments on this post, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to see all of them.
Please remember to check the Info Post and FAQ to see if your question is answered there! 





Remember: collaboration is not required for this round, but it is encouraged, so if you've got a great idea but need a  helping hand, get right on up here and ask!

GET EXCITED, GUYS, THIS IS GONNA ROCK!

Collaboration Round: Get the Ball Rolling

[asherdashery]

Along with the Round One info and prompt (see the entry below), the Collab Round prompt went up last night! Copying that info here, too.

COLLAB ROUND: ABERRATION

a break in the pattern

Hi shippers! Welcome to the very exciting and super special COLLAB ROUND post. 
The prompt here is ‘aberration,’ which you can interpret more or less any way you like; like last year, we’re deliberately leaving it pretty vague. If you are unsure whether something counts or not, just ask! (It probably counts.)
To quote from the info post:

The final round is the collaborative round! IDEALLY 'collaborative' means that everyone on the team pitches in in some way, whether by brainstorming or organizing or creating content. Really though, we understand folks are busy! So as long as at least three people pitch in, it counts as valid for this round. Note thatthere is no longer a media requirement for this round.
This round is also different because only one entry per team gets created! Basically it should be a wonderland extravaganza of teamwork and togetherness.

All elements of this submission must be created/assembled new for this round. 
No fan-created content is allowed that has not been made by members of your team specifically in response to the prompt. Mainstream creative content is fine (e.g. popular music, well-known art pieces, the Homestuck soundtrack), but not fanart, fan music, etc. This is largely to ensure that the original content in your entry is clearly identifiable as distinct from the borrowed content.

This challenge will run until 11:59PM EDT August 4. (the link says '11:55' because it only goes in 5-minute increments) If your Palhoncho sends it in after that time according to the gmail timestamp, we cannot guarantee that your submission will be posted in a timely manner.

Suggested Schedule
We will be checking in with Palhonchos at a few different points over the next couple months to make sure you’re all on track. 
Generally speaking, you should at least brainstorm a little over the next 2-3 weeks. By the end of June, your team should have some idea of who’s contributing, who’s doing what. 
If you don’t know what you’re doing and haven’t really started by early July, you might want to talk to us. 

Requirements
This year there are no media requirements! So long as everything’s created/assembled by your team specifically for this round, it’s all good. 

Submission Format
We’re still working out the details, but this year we’re probably going to ask palhonchos to post their entries directly to the round comm! Stay tuned for more details.

Questions about this challenge should be emailed to homestuck.shipping@gmail.com; we will attempt to check the comments on this post, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to see all of them.

Please remember to check the Info Post and FAQ to see if your question is answered there! 



Annnndd end copy/paste, now back to me. This is gonna be tricky but really rewarding to fill out, so we need to start planning and working now! Start throwing ideas out here and we'll see what sticks. I'll also see if I can put together some kind of chat on AIM, Skype, or Pesterchum so that we can brainstorm in real time sometime this week. Let me know what day/time might be best for you, and don't worry if you can't make it--I'll make sure we have a log and a summary of what we discuss and we will keep discussing here in the comm.