SemisomnosRes

It would be a relatively casual event, but still, like any social event there is some need for structure, so:

Basic Requirements for Participation (preliminary - other rules would be revised/added to as necessary at later date):

Ability to draw is needed! All skill levels are welcome - as long as you try your best to make a gift. Traditional and Digital Art both!

No PicCrews, AI generated images or anything similar - this would inherently be against the spirit of the Gift Exchange.

Willing to share your OC, and willing to draw other people's OCs! - this seems obvious, but there are people who prefer not to share their OCs or interact with other people's OCs, so this event won't be suitable for them. Also includes being willing to draw other people's OC & Canon interactions - which can be a dealbreaker for some people.

Your OC must have some form of reference - not necessarily a full blown one, but a basic one - where people can see the features and colors clearly. Or, if you are unable to have a clear one - supplemented with extra descriptions.

I'm thinking, for those who have a lot of OCs and can't decide on only one - you could offer up to 3 OCs for your submission BUT - its your Secret Santa who will decide if they want to draw only 1, or any number of those OCs.

With your OC, you can also give some background information on them (very short, so not to overwhelm anyone). There also would be an option to add up to 3 prompts with your submission - suggestions/ideas for your Secret Santa to consider/take inspiration from to make the gift.

OC & / x Canon Characters stuff would be welcomed, but kept in more of general interaction type! The details for this would be wrote out on a later date, if the event would be held.

Projected Timeline:

Interest Check - September 8th - September 21st (2 weeks) (Poll will be renewed for a second week, so more people will have a chance to see it!)

Checking poll results and Setting-up - September 22nd - 28th (1 week) - if there would be enough interest, I'll start to set stuff up!

Participants Submission & OCs reference gathering - September 29th - October 26th (4 weeks)

Pairing participants up - October 27th - October 31st (5 days)

Sending out Secret Ninja assignments - November 1st & 2nd (1-2 days)

Creation period - From the day of assignment - November 1st till December 25th (around 7-8 weeks)

Gift Exchange! - From December 25th (Christmas day - earliest) till December 31st (New Years - latest)

Why such a long timeline? - Since autumn and december is one of the busiest seasons for everyone (both IRL and with various other events like Inktober) (not to mention an increase of depression and art block episodes lol) and since I (insanely) decided to host it solo, I think trying to give everyone an ample time to decide and create is necessary. Also, we all have our own projects to work on, and this is supposed to be more of a fun side event! ;D

Why now? Why Secret Santa event? - Why not? ;D After all RC9GN fandom had Ninjavember and also Ninja Ink Academy (mainly on Insta) as autumn events in recent years, but I haven't see any Winter/Secret Santa type of events! Least of all ones centered around OCs. RC9GN might not be one of the biggest or most active fandoms, but don't we deserve some fun events too? ;D And since I was bitten by fandom bug, I decided to throw this idea out to see if it will land!

Why OCs then? Why not just general RC9GN fandom SS event? - Mainly because I had RC9GN OCs on my mind a lot. But, I was thinking about setting up a Ninja Holiday Prompt Week 2025 as an alternative for those who don't want to participate in Secret Ninja, but still want to have some fun! It will be a week of various Holiday and Ninja related set of prompts for a week in December (I'm thinking either leading up to 25th, or starting from 25th and lasting till 31st), which could include fanart, fanfics, moodboards, collages, gifs and etc. It will be easier to set-up than Secret Santa event, so I might do one regardless, but I am still curious:

Would anyone be interested in A Holiday Prompt Week in December?

I would appreciate any opinions about it, but since I can't set a 2nd poll, please share them in replies under this post!

This is the basic set-up I have so far, if you have any helpful suggestions or questions, PLEASE leave them in replies of this post! I would be checking it regularly and answering to the best of my abilities! If you want to send an anon ask on my blog - its ok too, but I will be getting to those much slower.

I'm thinking if minimum we get around 9-10 people to participate, we could have enough people for several Secret Ninja pairs for the gift exchange! Does this seem doable? I have no idea! ;D If it's possible - cool! If not? Well, at least I tried! Maybe next year, then! ;3

But for now #SecretNinjaof2025 interest check is a go!