Goreswap Exchange

Nominations will close in roughly nine hours, at midnight EST! Submit your nominations now.

Nominations are open! Click here for the tagset. Detailed instructions are below.

Nominating is how the fandoms, relationships and characters you can offer and request in the exchange are chosen. You can nominate up to ten fandoms, and up to twenty relationships per fandom by filling out the form here (or click 'nominate' at the top right of the tagset). All eligible, correctly formatted nominations will be approved.

Formatting Guidelines:

If your fandom has an existing AO3 tag, please enter that tag. If not, make up a tag that matches AO3's formatting. See below for instructions for specific franchises.

Individual character nominations should be nominated in the form "Solo: X." These nominations are for works featuring at least the requested character, not necessarily that character alone. Romantic and sexual relationships should be nominated in the form X/Y. Platonic relationships should be nominated in the form X & Y. You may also nominate larger groups, such as X/Y & A/B for a work which features all four characters together in two relationships, A & B & C for all three characters featured in platonic relationships, X/Y/Z for a threesome, etc.

Original characters may be nominated, by themselves or in relationships with canon characters. All details that aren't included in the tag are up to the creator's discretion. For example, Harry Potter/Original Female Slytherin would require a work featuring Harry Potter in a romantic or sexual relationship with a female Slytherin OC, whereas Harry Potter/Original Slytherin would allow the creator to choose the original character's gender. Creator's Choice of Fandom and Original Work relationships should also include all important details in the tag.

Please do not nominate ambiguous groups such as "Harry Potter & Slytherins." Instead, you may nominate "Harry Potter & Any Slytherin," or "Harry Potter & Any Slytherin(s)." This is to avoid ambiguity as to which specific characters must be included. I will generally correct this type of nomination without querying.

Crossover pairings should be nominated in the formatting X (Fandom)/Y (Fandom). Disambiguation (putting the fandom after the character names) is optional for other fandoms.

Eligibility Guidelines

In general, all fandoms are eligible (but see the main rules post for RPF-related exceptions). You may nominate fanworks if the creator gives permission for transformative/recursive works. Please send me either a link to a public statement or evidence of a nonpublic one before or when you nominate fanworks.

Without getting into existential issues, characters should unambiguously be some combination of alive, self-aware, and/or distinct individuals in canon. Animals, ghosts, and eldritch abominations are eligible, but non-sentient settings and objects generally aren’t. Specific “versions” of characters are eligible only if they are so distinct as to be a different character (e.g., Wishverse!Buffy is a separate character with a different backstory and personality. Vampire!Willow is likewise a demonic entity and comes from a divergent timeline. Evil!Willow is not eligible as a separate character, as she is her usual self from the main timeline of the show in the midst of an emotional crisis.) AU versions of characters which do not exist in canon, such as genderbend AUs which are not canon, should be included in your optional details rather than nominations.

Franchise Guidelines:

Star Wars should be nominated by the specific Star Wars property or trilogy, e.g., Star Wars Prequel Trilogy - Anakin Skywalker/Obi-Wan Kenobi or Star Wars Legends: New Jedi Order - Solo: Ben Solo. I will query Star Wars nominations which do not give a specific property, and either make my best guess or reject at the end of the nominations period if I don't receive an answer.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and any related fandoms should be nominated under Buffyverse.

MCU movies should be nominated under MCU. TV shows should be nominated by the specific show.

Fire Emblem games should be separated into individual games.

Doctor Who should be nominated under the specific series or property.

If you have preferences for how an additional franchise fandom is nominated, please comment!

Goreswap will run in 2025! The tentative schedule is:

Nominations: Jan 8-15
Sign ups: Open by Jan 17-24
Assignments out by: Jan 26
Assignments due: Mar 9
Work reveals: Mar 21
Creator reveals: Mar 28

In addition I have some announcements regarding the rules. These are not changes in the rules per se, but clarifications about questions I've received in the past, and some changes in enforcement:

1. Regarding RPF, and OW and fictional characters related to RPF works: real people famous for participation in the Nazi regime remain banned, as are fictionalized versions of real Nazis, as are Nazi OW nominations. Fictional Nazis may be banned at my discretion if I feel they are a violation of the above in spirit. HYDRA characters from the MCU are generally fine. Most living or recently living people primarily famous for committing atrocities are also banned, as are OW expies. In particular, Vladimir Putin is banned, as is any OW nomination I believe is meant to circumvent this rule. (The real serial killers rule remains as before, and has not generally required clarification.)

This rule is primarily enforced at the nomination stage due to the logistics of exchange matching, but I reserve the right to remove works circumventing the rule and ban their creators without recourse. (Please note that I am referring to cases which are, in my judgment, clearly meant to circumvent the rule. I am not going to ban you for a fic where Steve Rogers shoots Hitler.)

2. Regarding DNWs, transgender characters, and sexual orientation and gender identity: You are generally permitted to DNW altering canon characters' backstories, stories focusing or giving detail to certain topics, and particular sex acts, but not permitted to DNW minorities' existence within a story. You may DNW writing specific canon characters, or canon characters generally, as transgender if they are not already transgender in canon. You may DNW coming out scenes, introspection on gender identity or sexual orientation, explicit discussion of sexual orientation, anachronistic identity labels, conversations about gender identity, and similar. You may not DNW transgender characters or OCs in general. You may not DNW gay/bi/pan/etc characters. I am aware that many people DNW something in this spectrum because they do not want to read transgender characters engaging in specific sexual acts, due to dysphoria or otherwise, and I recommend that if this is the case, you DNW the act (e.g., "DNW: transgender characters engaged in PIV," "DNW: transmasculine characters bottoming for PIV," etc.)

I will not be giving participants in violation of this rule the option to leave the DNW up without enforcement; participants will be given the choice to edit their sign ups or have them removed from the exchange.

DNWs of "non-canon gender/sexuality headcanons" or "gender/sexuality headcanons" will conflict with many requests (for example, they would conflict with requesting a character in a same sex relationship if that character doesn't explicitly experience same sex attraction in canon) and will only apply to canon characters. As what constitutes a "headcanon" in the context of narrative fanfic (vs. fan discussion or meta) is ambiguous, I recommend you use something else more specific. If you don't want the characters to discuss their sexual orientations or gender identities explicitly, DNW that.

3. Regarding DNWs on the subject of characters' ethnic backgrounds: Similarly to above, you may DNW racebending or changing a character's ethnic background, race, or skin tone/physical description, but you may not DNW people of a given ethnicity or race in a story. Some characters, particularly existing within franchises, may have multiple backstories which give different ethnic backgrounds or appearances. It's fine to DNW a specific version's backstory; it is not fine to do so with offensive language. As above, if you violate this rule, I will require you to edit your sign up or have it removed from the exchange.

4. While I generally give people something of the benefit of the doubt, if I have evidence to believe you are likely to behave unreasonably, for example, your recent public behavior in other exchanges, I may ban you on this basis on my sole discretion. (If you're worrying this is about you, and you have not recently done something which would violate point one on this list, it probably isn't.)

The collection has been revealed! Enjoy your gifts!

Remember that commenting on your Goreswap gifts before the next round is mandatory. Creators will be revealed in one week, on March 29 at 11:59 PM EDT. Until then, please stay anonymous.

Thank you, everyone who turned in a work on time or before their extension was up, and especially thank you to all of our pinch hitters!

The following pinch hits need creators! In order to claim a pinch hit, either comment on this post while logged in with your AO3 name and the pinch hit you would like, or send an email to [email protected] with the same information. Comments are screened, so I can't reply to anonymous comments. Minimum requirements are 500 words or a nice sketch, with significant gore content. Participants in the exchange may also swap an open assignment for a pinch hit.

The following pinch hits are due March 21, 11:59 PM EDT.

Pinch Hit #1: Fic, Persona 5, キミガシネ | Kimi ga Shine | Your Turn To Die (Visual Novel), Homestuck, Dangan Ronpa Another (Fan Games)

Pinch Hit #7: Fic, The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo, Hellsing, Fate/Zero

This is a reminder that Goreswap works are due in two weeks, on March 10 at 11:59 PM EDT. (This is just after the time change, so please check the timer!)

Please post your work by the deadline. Please make sure your work is not saved as a draft. Drafts will not fulfill assignments. Please also check your recipient's DNWs, and do not apologize for or insult your work or subject matter in your author's notes. Good luck!