I was just thinking about how I could make a future contest stand out from the last one, when an idea struck me: ripoff the "next season" bingo contests! To be more specific:

• There would be an equal number of cards for each age rating, and entrants will have to sign up to get one. (Though I'd need help with making the M-rated cards, because I don't read many of those.) There would be one winner per category.
• The cards can contain any tag on the site, except anthro, Anon, crossover, fetish, human, OC, porn, and second-person. (And alternate universe, but that's because roleswaps are AUs by definition.)
• Entrants have to use every tag on the card, but can use additional tags, too.
• Some cards would mention specific characters, while others would mention groups of characters. For example:

Lyra Heartstrings SWAPPED WITH Bonbon. RATING: E. GENRES: Romance, comedy

A unicorn SWAPPED WITH a member of a non-magical race. RATING: T for violence and profanity. GENRES: Adventure, dark

Rainbow Dash SWAPPED WITH a character who can't fly. RATING: M for gore and death. GENRES: Drama, sad

What do you think?

EDIT: On second thoughts, I might regret allowing M-rated entries.

seems good

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Ohoho, I'm liking the sound of that. Sounds like a recipe for sheer ridiculousness

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After giving it some thought, I think including ratings on the cards is a bad idea, for two reasons:

1. It’s too limiting.
2. I’d regret allowing M-rated entries as soon as one makes me feel squeamish.

With that being said, does anyone (not just you two; anyone reading this) want to help me with making cards? And when would be a good time to run this? I’m thinking January, since the Secrets contest would have been about half a year ago by then, and I have a lot of college work in December.

I advocate for more contest like this on fimfic, they sound both awesome AND a challenge. Ideal to get out of your comfort zone.

Btw, I may be able to help with the cards
Although if I want to enter, I dont know if I really should...

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If you make cards, you can’t enter, but you can judge.

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I can help. Just shoot me a dm on discord when you need my help

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After giving it some thought, instead of dividing the cards by age rating, I could instead divide them into two categories: standard and wildcards. People could specify which category they want, and there would be more standard cards.

Each card would contain three sections. The first section would be the swapped pair, the second would be a scenario (location, event, episode, etc.), and the third would be one or two genres. Standard cards would always contain two specific characters or groups (eg: Mane 6, Student 6) who have appeared in animated media, while wildcards contain things from the IDW comics and/or broad groups of characters (eg: member of X species, character with X trait). To rework my examples from the first post:

Lyra ⇌ Bonbon in Ponyville Park. Genres: Romance, comedy

Twilight Sparkle ⇌a member of a non-magical species at the Convocation of the Creatures. Genre: Drama

What do you think? Also, do you think that all of January - February 2021 would be a good time to run this?

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Unfortunately January-February is when I'll be doing my final assignments, so I won't be available much or consistently

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Maybe it would be a good idea to hold this in the summer after all. I won't have college then.