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How to submit art and literature on this website

1. Create art or literature and submit it to the gallery

Step A: At the top of the page, click "Gallery" - this should take you to a page with four or more galleries. Click the blue "+" next to the header of the gallery most appropriately suiting your submission: 

• • Art - Daily Life (This gallery is for any traditional, digital, or physical visual art that is not eligible for training points such as Speed, Stamina, Gait, Strength, or Jumping. Art depicting horses hanging out together, being groomed or cared for are all good candidates for this gallery. Horses and riders still get general EXP towards their horse and rider's ranks for these entries.)
  • Art - Training (This gallery is for any traditional, digital, or physical visual art that depicts horses running, cantering, trotting, jumping, pulling, or doing any other physical activity to build their skills in Speed, Stamina, Gait, Strength, or Jumping! Entries get general EXP towards their rank, and also training points towards the stats that are relevant to what is depicted.)
  • Literature - Daily Life (This gallery is for any literature that is not eligible for training points such as Speed, Stamina, Gait, Strength, or Jumping. Writing describing horses hanging out together, being groomed or cared for , or any lowkey slice-of-life activities are all good candidates for this gallery. Horses and riders still get general EXP towards their horse and rider's ranks for these entries.)
  • Literature - Training (This gallery is for any literature that describes horses running, cantering, trotting, jumping, pulling, or doing any other physical activity to build their skills in Speed, Stamina, Gait, Strength, or Jumping! Entries get general EXP towards their rank, and also training points towards the stats that are relevant to what is depicted.)
  • Show Entries (Art & Lit) (This gallery is where any entries especially created for anything labeled as a Show can go. These are typically admin or player run events with different show classes, themes, and prizes. Show entries typically accrue both General EXP and Training Points towards horse and rider wherever applicable.) 

2. prepare your entry for submission and submit it!

Step A - If your entry is Art: Click "Choose File" and select the art you would like to upload as your entry. When submitting images like this anywhere on the site, please ensure it is under 3000x3000 and is in .jpg format for the best chance at success. Images can be .png format, but will need to be much smaller in size, such as under 1500 x 1500. Images larger than this can cause our website to struggle at times, and image troubles may cause your submission to be returned to you to reupload a smaller size image. Apologies for this- Admin is working on finding a fix, but for now, this is the best workaround for this issue!

Step B - If your entry is Literature: Ignore the "Choose File" box and copy/paste your Literature in the next field labeled "Text" - this is the place for Literature to be formatted and your wordcount to be made visible. 

Step C - Basic Information:

• • Title your entry however you like. 
  • Include any collaborators or participants involved, such as players who RPed with you or collaborated on an art piece. Or if the piece is a gift for someone - it will alert them so they can also see the art or read your writing! 
  • Description - totally optional and whatever you want it to be! Best practice is to count up EXP here and include it, but that's not required. 
  • Content Warnings - best place to give folks a heads up if you have some common triggers in your art or writing. 
  • Prompt - if your art is being submitted for a training event, a show, or some other special occasion that has an associated prompt, it must be selected here for you to get those event's rewards. 

Step D - Add Character by clicking the blue button. You will need to enter your character's ID number, which typically begins with a letter and then a three digit number. This is what links the art or literature to your character's profile page and enables it to be viewed in their gallery. Once you type the number, you can hit enter, and your character's thumbnail should appear along with their name. You can select all featured characters this way, including riders. 

Step E - Click Submit! Your art or literature will be submitted to the Admin queue for review and approval.

3. Get your Rewards!

Much of the fun of HARPG is leveling up your horses and riders, training them for shows or daring events, and getting fun items, gold, points, or other goodies for drawing and writing about them, so this is how we do that! 

Step A: At the top of any Sun-and-Mane.com page, click on "Submit" in the upper right hand corner and click "Submit Claim" from the dropdown. 

Step B: In the URL field, provide a link to your Pending Gallery Request. The best way to do this is to click Gallery at the top of the page, click "My Submission Queue" on the side, and then click on the title of the submission you are submitting the claim for. Then copy/paste the link to that page into your Claim. If you copy only the link to the "Gallery Submissions" page, we won't be able to see what we need.

Step C: In the Description field, you can write anything specific you would like the admin to see. 

Step D: Skip the "Add Reward" button - this is tied to User-Level rewards, not Character-Level rewards. 

Step E: Click "Add Character" and type in the character code of the character featured in your entry and hit enter. The character name and their thumbnail should appear, including an "Add Rewards" button. Click the button to add a row for each reward.

• • Using the Art & Literature EXP Guide, count up the total amount of Experience Points for your entry. For this total, you will enter "Currency" as the "Reward Type" and select "Experience Points" as the reward. The total number of points your entry earns goes under the "Amount" column. 
  • If your entry was eligible for Training Points to put towards your horses stats and was put into the Training or Show Entries galleries, you can take that number of Experience Points and break it out inbetween as many stats as you want. This is done by clicking "Add Reward" selecting "Currency" as the "Reward Type" and then selecting Stamina, Speed, Gait, Strength, or Jumping. You can do this for each stat you would like to put points into, but all stats should add up to what you put in for  "Experience Points" earlier. 
  • If your entry is for a Prompt that explicitly indicates that all participants receive a prize upon participation alone, you can also ask for those rewards here by selecting those items, adding the indicated amount of gold, or anything else. If you aren't submitting to a prompt though, please do not try to give yourself prizes or random items you don't qualify for. Mistakes happen, but it will cause the Admin to reject your claim with a note on what was potentially claimed incorrectly and how to proceed. 

Step F: Add any Add-Ons, starting with items in "Your Inventory" - if you are entering a show or event prompt, this could be an item that could impact your performance or roll, such as a Lucky Charm, or perhaps an item that is required to participate in the event. For now, we have no items though. If the show has an entry fee associated you can offer up gold here as well, under "Your Bank" by clicking "Add Currency" and entering the amount of gold to offer. 

Step G: Click Submit! 

After all three of these things are completed, your submission and accompanying claim will be processed by the Admins and your characters will recieve their EXP and any other related points and rewards! 

(Theoretically. This process is currently under testing.)

Guide to the EXP System

Earning Experience Points

Every art or writing submission will have general Experience Points awarded to the horse featured. If an entry features both a horse and a rider, they will both earn the total Experience Points that the entry qualifies for. Extra participants featured can also earn these boths. In addition to earning Experience Points, horses are also capable of earning Training Points if the art or literature depicts them performing certain physical activities. More on that below!

Art 

• Base Values (select one for each horse featured)
  • Headshot of horse (+5 EXP) - A headshot is defined as either a bust (from the shoulders up) or at least half of the neck visible.
  • Partial Body (+7 EXP) - A partial body image is defined as at least half of the horse's body is showing, or the horse is viewed at an angle that obscures most of the body, such as front-facing poses.
  • Full Body (+10 EXP) - A full body image is defined as the entire body of the horse being shown, where most of the coat pattern is visible.
• Color & Shading (select one for each horse featured)
  • No color (+0 EXP) - Images don't have to be colored, but coat patterns should still be recognizable. 
  • Flat color (+2 EXP) - Color is blocked in, but no shading is present. 
  • Simple Shading (+3 EXP) - Color is blocked in, simple shadows or lighting is present.
  • Complex Shading (+5 EXP) - Color is blocked in, and the piece is fully polished in shading and lighting with details present. 
• Rider or Handler & Tack (select any that are relevant, if multiple riders, you get +4 EXP per rider featured! Likewise +1 EXP per horse with tack.)
  • Rider or Handler featured? If yes: (+4 EXP) and the rider also gains the total amount of EXP alongside the horse.
  • Does the horse have tack? If yes: (+1 EXP)
• Background & Setting (select one- every horse and rider featured will get the EXP rewarded by the background)
  • No background (+0 EXP) - Not required, but no points either. 
  • Simple flat (+1 EXP) - Simple shapes of flat color, blurred photo or screenshot backgrounds, simple graphics all fall under this category.
  • Simple background (+3 EXP) - A discernable setting with a foreground and background and simple elements such as fences, bushes, trees, mountains, etc.  
  • Complex background (+5 EXP) - A detailed setting with a foreground and background, detailed foliage or architectural elements. 
• Total possible in one piece of art: 25 points (that features one horse and rider)

Copy/Paste Version

Copy and paste into your art's Description field and delete what isn't relevant to your submission. Then fill in your Total Experience Points at the bottom. 

• Base Values (copy paste multiples for each horse featured if needed)
  • (+5 EXP) Headshot of horse
  • (+7 EXP) Partial Body
  • (+10 EXP) Full Body
• Color & Shading (copy paste multiples for each horse featured if needed)
  • (+0 EXP) No color 
  • (+2 EXP) Flat color 
  • (+3 EXP) Simple Shading 
  • (+5 EXP] Complex Shading 
• Rider or Handler & Tack
  • (+4 EXP) Rider or Handler featured? (+4 for each rider featured, they also gain the entry's total EXP for being here alongside their horse.)
  • (+1 EXP) Does the horse have tack? 
• Background & Setting (select one- every horse and rider featured will get the EXP rewarded by the background)
  •  (+0 EXP) No background
  • (+1 EXP) Simple flat
  • (+3 EXP) Simple background
  • (+5 EXP) Complex background

Literature  

• Base Values
  • Minimum of 500 words (+10EXP) - Writing should cover the basics: they should describe the horse, what they're doing, where they are, and why they are doing what they are doing.
    Additional Writing:
  • For every 250 words after the initial 500 words, add (+5 EXP) 
• Collaboration or Roleplay
  • If multiple horses or riders are featured (aka: more than one horse and rider pair): (+5 EXP) per additional character - they must generally meet the five W's as well and everyone should have roughly the same amount of "screentime" - if they do, then everyone gets the EXP awarded.
• Long Roleplay scenes can be entered into the #literature-submissions channel for exp, you'll just need to format them into a Google document or something similar and submit them there. Please note that excessively long RP submissions may have their experience capped if they exceed 5000 words.

Guidelines & Rules

1. Be kind and mindful of your words. Do not bring transphobia, homophobia, racism, sexism, or ableism into this space. If you are given a warning, it will be privately. In most cases, we give folks two warnings, unless the transgression is particularly severe. The community guidelines that apply to the LARP also apply here. 
2. The horse breeds here vary between Closed breeds and Open breeds. All breeds will state if they are open or closed on their respective breed pages. Open breeds are free to create and anyone is welcome to create their own, so long as it suits the breed standard. Closed breeds cannot be created freely and must be obtained via an auction house, trade, or event. 
3. The roleplay here should remain centered around horses, riding, and stay fairly low-key. No serious combat should occur between characters, and nothing that heavily impacts main plot should take place here. Please save that for at games!
4. There are no activity requirements or reclaim process for horses which are not used. If you would like to surrender a horse and bow out of this roleplay space, feel free to message CirclingBirds and we can place your horse up for adoption for you. Otherwise you are welcome to trade or giveaway your horses however you like. 
5. If you would like to play a character besides your current LARP characters, you can create riders just for the purposes of this HARPG space. However, they should still be able to fit into the world of Solarean Adventures.
6. Tracing and referencing stock photos with permission is okay, but please don't steal art or designs from other artists on the internet without permission. Please credit all references you use when you submit art.
7. No AI art or AI-generated literature may be used. Traditional and digital art forms and literature made by you are allowed.
8. A gentle reminder: this site is privately maintained, which comes with an element of risk. The hosting server may go down, the admin may accidentally nuke the database, etc. While we do everything to avoid these issues, we aren't a big site with infinite hosting capabilities, high-paid developers, or data backups, so please keep this in mind. Anything stored here is not guaranteed for life- please backup your personal art and stories on your personal devices so they aren't lost forever if the worst were to happen to our site. ♥

Art Guidelines

• Artists may utilize digital art, traditional art, animation, sculpture, etc. to portray their horses. If your art form isn't listed in the EXP Guidelines, that doesn't mean it won't be accepted! Experience points will still be awarded based on the effort put in, on a case by case basis. 
• Please no AI art. 
• Tracing is allowed! Just please credit the photograph you traced when submitting the art on the Discord server. Please don't trace images off of Google- try to find images where the creator or photographer has indicated it is free to use. DeviantArt is a great place to find stock images and our Discord also has links to personal photos available for use. Unsplash also has many free-to-use photos.
• Art for shows and training should be unique and created for that purpose. Please don't reuse lineart of horses or riders in order to mass-produce training art. However, backgrounds can be reused, but won't earn experience points past its first use.
• Collaborations are allowed and encouraged! You can depict your character riding another player’s horse or you can feature their character in your story or art piece. Just be sure to work together, ask permission, and maybe have the other person approve your entry before you submit it please!

Literature Guidelines

• Writing entries should be a minimum of 500 words and uploaded to a site like Google Docs, or anywhere else you can provide a link to. 
• If submitting more than 5000 words, please break your submission up into entries that are no more than 5000 words each. 
• No plagarism or AI generated writing please! 
• Writing should generally convey the "who, where, why, what, and when" of a situation or scene. 
• Roleplay can be entered as writing, in transcript form! When submitting, please list all horses and riders involved and once verified, everyone will get the associated EXP. 

F.A.Q.

If I have horses from another HARPG group, can I bring them into this group for roleplay? 

This is mostly handled on a case by case basis, but if the breed group they originate from states that they can be used in other groups, and the breed is not already on the "Approved HARPG Breeds" list below, then please post a link to the breed group in the #harpg-help channel and admins can review the breed. If we feel the breed suits our gameplay, we'll add them to the approved list!
Please keep in mind that if you use a horse of an outside breed, you will be responsible for following that group's procedures for registration, breeding, and gaining EXP and review and observe their group rules for art and literature standards. Horses from an external breed group will not be eligible for breeding in the Sun & Mane system, but they can still gain experience points and rank up alongside their riders. These horses will not be given Official Import Art in the Sun & Mane system, as they will already have import art from the group of their origin and be tracked in that group's registry.

Currently approved breeds: 

Beaurevers (sometimes referred to as Dream Breathers) - these are horses with a very magical theme and bright coat colors. They bond with a rider and have breath that smells like something they or their rider enjoys.
Loshenkas - non-magical, cold-weather horses with long tails and plush coats. 

Can I use P2U (pay-to-use) or F2U (free to use) linearts or pay another artist to draw my horse for my horse's art submissions?

Yes, but linearts can only be used to accrue EXP for one of your horses one time. In other words, you can not reuse free or purchased lines over and over to gain EXP, even if the horse being depicted changes each time. (This is why the official import art images done by CirclingBirds does not go towards EXP- the linearts are reused and recolored repeatedly.)
You can ask another artist to draw your horse, or you can purchase YHHs (your-horse-here) offerings from other artists, and those art pieces will go towards that horse's EXP, but the same rule above applies: the artist should not be hired to do multiple horses in the same pose, using the same repeated greyscale or lineart, without the understanding that those pieces will not be eligible to earn EXP.

My horse has super complicated white patterns, dapples, or other features on their import art! Do I have to match these perfectly?

Nope! The import art is thoroughly detailed because the admin has an unhealthy addiction to detail so that artists or writers who love detail can take on the challenge of depicting them, but this is optional! Coat elements like these can be simplified in art, and in the case of dapples, can nearly be left out. As long as the horse's most key identifiable features are generally represented and recognizeable, you are good! 

The import art only features one side of the horse- how do I know what the other side looks like? 

The other side of the horse is totally up to you, though it should follow the same general features as the side depicted in the import art. Base coat colors, dilutions, and other whole-coat modifers will generally look the same on both sides of the horse. While white patterns such as tobiano, overo, leopard spots, etc. aren't perfectly mirrored, so you can get creative with the side not defined in the import art. 

How to migrate an existing rider

1. The admin will create a MYO slot for you that has the existing details of your rider character from their Toyhou.se tracker and send it to your account.
2. The player recieves an inbox notification and the MYO Slot for their rider appears under Home > My MYO Slots
3. Click on the MYO Slot for the Rider character you want to register. 
4. Character information such as Title, Pronouns, Gender, Race, and Stables is all displayed on the righthand side of the placeholder image. Their name is at the top. Please verify that all of this is correct. Any important information from the Admin regarding this particular MYO Slot can be found underneath the placeholder image, under the "Description" tab, if there is nothing, it will be blank.
5. If all looks correct, on the far left-hand side of the screen, click "Submit MYO Design" tab. It will ask you if you would like to make a request. Click the "Create Request" button and it will take you to a page with five tabs. You will need to click "Save" on each tab, even if empty, in order for it to turn green and for Lorekeeper to allow you to submit the request:
   • Comments: A place to type any message or info you want the Admins to see or have. Click save.
   • Masterlist Image: An image of your choosing that will be visual reference of your Rider character. If you get a 500 error, it's because your image is too big. If you resize it under 3MB and it still won't submit, contact a CirclingBirds via the #harpg-help channel in the Discord server. Click save.
   • Add-ons: Not applicable. Click save.
   • Traits: A place to view and confirm the traits the admin has given your Rider. You can also request additional traits, but that shouldn't be necessary unless the Admin has forgotten a trait. Click save.
6. Click back to the "Status" tab, which should be green and have a "Submit Request" button. Click the button. It will then move to Pending status. Once the Admin approves, the character is yours, will show up on the Masterlist of Riders, and the Admin will grant them some starter Gold and any legacy EXP. You can create a Profile page for them by going to their character page and clicking "Edit Profile" under Settings and scrolling to the bottom - this is for players to share any information, backstory, owned horses, etc. that they would like to provide and is entirely optional. 
7. *If your character is Rejected, the Admin will provide a reason why. You will be able to resubmit with corrections.

Welcome! 

This website is a framework called Lorekeeper, which is becoming more and more adopted as an alternative to Deviantart and Toyhou.se that provides better customization, organization, and features that specifically suite Art-RPGs, of which HARPG is one! Don't fret if you aren't a visual artist though- writing is art too!

There will be a few new terms here that are more standard for general Art-RPGs, but less standard for HARPGs, so I just wanted to give a small guide to some terms here: 

"Character" - What is a character? In ARPGs, characters are not their necessarily their name, backstory, etc. They begin as an image, and this image what means this character exists in the world. Often in HARPG, this is referred to as an "Import" or a "Reference Image" and a horse character is not considered to inhabit the world of the ARPG until this initial art is created. If you aren't a visual artist though, don't fret! The admin can create this intial image for you to establish your character, as well as other artists in the community!

"MYO Slot" - MYO stands for "Make Your Own" and a "Slot" is an opportunity given to you, for you to do something with before submitting it back to the Admin for approval. Essentially, the Admin creates a character slot and determines some defining information for the character that is unchangable by the player (such as a foal's genes, the horse or rider's ID number, etc.) and then the player takes that locked profile, adds whatever image is needed to depict the character, and then resubmits it to the Admin for approval. These slots will be used for: 

• • Creating or migrating in a Rider character. 
  • Receiving a foal.
  • When you buy a MYO Horse Slot to design your own horse. 

"Species" and "Subtypes" - For us, these equate to horse breeds, and then finer designations within those breeds. We have three standard grade horse breeds available that can accomodate nearly any real-life horse breed. "Grade" is a term that simply refers to a horse that is not registered, their parentage is unknown, or they are significantly crossbred. "Rider" is also considered a Species, though in our system they have no rarity associated and are for our rider characters.  Subtypes are a further category under Species, which can designate special variations of a breed, such as regional or magical subtypes with special traits. 

The three grade breeds are: 

• • Grade Hotblood: Hot-bloods refer to thin-skinned, long legged, lean-built horses that are known for their speed and stamina. Arabians, Akhal Tekes,  and Thoroughbreds are all great examples of the hotblooded horse's body type. 
  • Grade Warmblood: Warmbloods are the crosses of Hotblooded breeds and Coldblooded breeds, combining the best of both worlds in terms of athleticism. They are fast, but also strong. They are excellent jumpers. Hanoverians, Irish Sporthorses, Danish Warmbloods, Dutch Warmbloods, Holsteiners, Selle Francais, and Trakehners are all examples of warmbloods. Iberian or Baroque-built horses such as  Andalusians, Lippizanners, and Lusitanos are also under the greater Warmblood umbrella as well. 
  • Grade Coldblood: Coldbloods refer to short-legged, but thickly built horses that are prized for their strength. These are your  Clydesdales, Percherons, Ardennais, and also your Norwegian Fjords, Mongolian horses, various Cob horses, and Belgian Drafts.

Traits - The majority of traits are genetic information that determine a horse's coat color and other aspects of appearance such as eye color and sex.  They can be limited by species or rarity, but the majority aren't. Traits may also indicate your horse or riders Ranking and accompanying Title. Traits in your horse's profiles appear in the following format: (geno code for the trait) phenotype name (rarity) (the horse's genes specifically) 

For example:

This horse is a stallion, and his genotype is: EE aa SOSO nt (carries Tiger Eye)

Currency - A new addition to our system will be currency and for now, these currencies primarily operate at the character level with the exception of Gold. What does this mean? Each character has their own EXP amounts, number of breeding slots, and if they are a rider, they will start with some gold in their pocket. Gold is kept at the player level and can be exchanged for horses, items, favors, or whatever else you like on behalf of any of your riders. Currency generally looks like the following things: 

• • Horse and Rider overall experience points, which are used for ranking up. 
  • Training Stat experience points such as Stamina, Speed, Gait, Strength, and Jumping which can determine certain event bonuses.
  • Breeding Slots
  • Gold coins for buyin' stuff!