#bang rules

It's official!! We have a new schedule for 2025

So if you're a writer or an artist and can squeeze us in this year, please come over to our discord and have fun with us!

Additionally we've updated the rules for this round. Please read them here:

(also available here)

E-mail: [email protected]

Twitter:  https://x.com/spnfb_reverse

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/spnfb-reverse.bsky.social

Discord: https://discord.gg/zmNqQEvXtq

The SPN Reverse Fantasy Bang is, as the name suggests, a mini bang where artists create fantasy-themed pieces of art depicting the characters from “Supernatural” and “The Winchesters”, and authors duel for the privilege of writing a fic based on their chosen masterpiece. 

What Counts as Fantasy?

Fantasy is fiction that features magical and/or supernatural elements that do not ordinarily exist in the real world. This includes (but is not limited to):

High or Epic Fantasy (think The Lord of the Rings) 

Low Fantasy (real world setting with unexpected magical elements)

Magical Realism (the real world but magic exists)

Dark Fantasy (combining fantasy and horror)

Fables

Fairy Tales

Myths and Legends

If you’re unsure if your idea counts as fantasy or not, send us an ask, e-mail us at [email protected] or contact the mods via Discord to get clarification.

As a participant:

You are expected to read, understand, and adhere to the challenge rules. If you do not understand something (or anything) please get in contact with the moderators (@ ickyV29 or @ bex) for further clarification. 

Although you will receive periodic reminder emails/ discord notifications, it is up to you to be familiar with the schedule and manage your time. 

You will meet all check in dates and submit drafts at the time they are requested. 

You will communicate with your partner[s] and moderators in a timely manner should any issues arrive in meeting deadlines. 

General Rules:

All participants must be registered for the challenge in order to submit art, claim a piece of art, or post as part of this challenge.

Please note that this is a bang for characters in the SPN verse (including the Winchesters). This means no RPF (real person fiction).

Participants are welcome to create works that feature any relationship between any characters in the SPN universe with the exception of incestual relationships (being defined as sexual relationships between two characters who are blood related).

There are no prerequisites in order to register. 

All participants must have a working email (or discord) that they check regularly. 

You must be at least 16 to participate. Artists under 18 may not submit explicit content, and their partners may not write anything above the T rating for Ao3. Underage authors may not claim explicit content. 

Claims are anonymous. Participants may not independently form partnerships. 

Rules for Artists: 

Artists will create one (1) piece of new art featuring characters from the SPN verse (this does include the Winchesters) 

Artists may submit up to three (3) separate pieces. This means that you will collaborate with up to three (3) separate authors. In order to submit multiple pieces, they must be almost complete (meaning just minor edits) and ready to be posted. 

Art may not be publicly displayed before posting, except during claims when it will be made available by the moderators. 

NOTE: to keep anonymity during claims, we ask that the artist not publicly discuss their art. However there is a spot on the discord server where artists may communicate with each other about their pieces. 

Artists will submit their completed art through a provided form. Art will go through the claims process where authors will claim a piece of art to use for the basis of their fic. You may continue to make changes to your work after claims, but the author must be able to write a fic based on the art as-is. 

Along with their art, artists may include a list of restrictions for the fic based on their art work, or suggestions on prompts. For more info see below on Art Submissions. 

Your art must be publicly available for at least 12 consecutive months following the reverse bang posting period. 

Art Guidelines and Content Restrictions: 

All visual art forms are welcome, whether digital or traditional, 2-d or 3-d. Photo based art must be more than a filter application, text overlay, or a collage to be accepted: the photos must be significantly altered in order to create a unique image. 

At this time we are not accepting AI generated art. 

Art should be at least 500px wide for 2 dimensional art and photos of 3 dimensional crafts, or 30 seconds of video. There is no max size, but be mindful of final file sizes. 

All characters depicted in sexual situations should be over the age of 18. 

Other content restrictions: No incest and no RPF

Rules for Authors: 

Authors will write a fic at least 3,000 words long based on the art claimed. Authors will have three months to write their story and should consider this timeline when making claims. 

You may co-write, but if you choose to do so, be aware that you and your partner may only work on the art you claim together. You may not choose to work independently as well. Each partner will need to sign up as an author. 

Authors may claim one piece of art for this challenge. You may pinch-hit for another piece of art but only if your first story is complete. 

Authors must respect the restrictions of the artists specified during claims. Your fic must be related to the art for which it is written and cannot have been already posted elsewhere. 

Authors may not alter the art or demand changes to the art to fit the fic unless it is specified by the artist that it is permitted. 

Authors may not commission additional art for this challenge, even if your artist permits it. Additionally, you may not illustrate your own fic or ask artistic friends to make art for you as a gift. 

Challenge fics must be written in English. If you are multilingual, and would like to also publish in other languages as translations of the original, you are free to do so. 

Challenge fics must be the author(s) original work: AI generated works (including works created using generative text and/or chatbots) will not be accepted any author(s) found to have used AI to create their work will be immediately disqualified and banned from all future rounds.

Submitted drafts must be typed. 

Please do not share details about your fic publicly until your posting date. Again there will be an author section on the discord to discuss amongst authors. 

Beta readers are strongly recommended, and can be found outside of the bang discord if needed. 

The story must be posted on Ao3 and included in the official archive of this bang. You are expected to include a link to your artist's master post. We encourage you to embed the art directly into the fic, with artist permission. 

Your fic must be complete and posted in its entirety on your scheduled posting date. Serial posting is prohibited. After the posting period ends you may create epilogues or timestamps. 

You must tag for any Ao3 major archive warnings. 

All characters involved in sexual conduct must be over the age of 18. 

Your fic must be publicly available for at least 12 consecutive months following the bang posting period. 

Rough Draft Submission: 

Rough drafts must be at least 80% completed based on your estimated total word count (do your best to determine this), with the remaining scenes outlined, in order to be accepted. Drafts and outlines must be typed. 

Claims: 

Claims are anonymous. Authors will have a chance to preview art several days before claims are open but they will not know the identity of the artist. 

Artist Eligibility: 

To qualify for claims, artists must submit a completed piece of art. We will not accept preliminary sketches or yet-to-be-colored line art for claims. 

You are welcome to continue perfecting the piece between claims and your posting date. However, an author must be able to write a fic based on the art as is. Further changes should not alter the subject unless you and your author have agreed upon it. 

The Claims Process: 

Claims opens at 10am EST on the scheduled date. Authors will be emailed a link to the claims form before claims begin, but it will not open until the scheduled time. The form will ask for the author's name, email, and top selections based on Art ID number. Claims will be assigned on a first come, first serve basis. 

Registered authors will have a priority during the first round of claims. If need be there will be a second round of claims that can be opened to the public. Claims will remain open until all art is claimed. 

You are prohibited from using scripts, bots, or other means to expedite the claims process. We will consider this type of behavior cheating and you will be uninvited from this round and future rounds of the challenge and its affiliates. 

There will be a max of one author or co-writer pair per piece of art. 

Withdrawing from the Challenge

There is no penalty for dropping out before claims, however we ask that you communicate to the mods so that we can remove you from the email list. 

If you have already gone through claims and need to drop out, contact us immediately so we can arrange for a pinch-hitter. You must communicate with your author or artist directly. You will not be eligible to participate in the next round if you drop post-claims for anything less than an emergency (mental health, family, pets - if you feel like it's an emergency, we will recon it as such)

In the event that an author drops out of the challenge before posting occurs, the moderator team will work to find a pinch hit author for their artist. If an artist drops, authors will be offered the opportunity to post their fic on their original posting date (with the opportunity to find a pinch hit artist even though it is a Reverse bang.

Do not use social media to announce drops, since we don’t want your artist or author finding out that way. 

In the event of an emergency, get in touch with us as soon as it is reasonably possible and safe for you to do so. We will work with you in any way we can.

Penalties

There is no penalty if you notify the moderators that you need to drop out before art claims.

If you drop out after claims, you will not be eligible for the next round of the Reverse Bang or its affiliates. 

If you miss a check-in point or fail to submit a draft, you will be immediately dropped from the current round. If the challenge is past claims, your partner will be reassigned and you will not be eligible for the next round of the Reverse Bang or its affiliates. 

If you are an author whose artist has been reassigned to a pinch-hit author because you missed check-in, you may only re-enter the challenge if the pinch-hitter opts to transfer the art back to you. 

If you lie to the moderators or to your partner, or if you break the rules about serial posting, the anonymity of claims, or commissions, you will not be invited to participate in future rounds of the Reverse Bang or its affiliates. 

Authors and artists who are found to have used AI to generate their work will be disqualified from the current round and will not be eligible for the next round of the Reverse Bang or its affiliates.

Breaking challenge rules and other actions not specifically outlined here will be handled on a case-by-case basis. The moderators’ decision is final.

Art Submission

You can submit ONE piece of art for each prompt. If you have created several art pieces for each prompt, please choose the one image that best represents that prompt.

You may submit up to three prompts (ie: three different pieces of art). Please use a separate form for each prompt you submit. If you combine them, we will ask you to submit your entry again (it messes up claims).

In order to submit more than one piece, your previous submissions must be completed (other than minor edits).

Submit your files in jpg/jpeg, png, or gif (if animated) format. We will not accept PSD files or files that can only be opened by a specific drawing program.

If you are submitting a video, please upload a screencap or preview image to the Rough Drafts field, and supply a link to an unlisted video on YouTube or comparable service. Please do not email us a video file.

Per the challenge rules, your images must be at least 500px wide and videos must be at least 30 seconds long.

Please resize your images so the files are no larger than 2MB. They do not need to be submitted at full size. If you are submitting an animated gif and this size restriction will cause your image to be blurry or lose quality, please reach out to the mods for a solution. (We are restricting size because our free database only has so much storage space and we are trying to avoid going over that amount.)

Please do not put your name or other identifying information in the filename! An author could see this information.

Do not add a signature to your image. These are blind claims and you should not add anything that might identify you as the artist. If you submit a piece with your signature, the mods will ask you to resubmit. 

You may continue to refine your work after claims, but the author must be able to write a fic based on the art as-is on claim day. The changes should not significantly alter the subject (unless you and your author expressly agree on this).

Form Instructions: 

Please consider writing your prompt, warnings, and restrictions in a separate document and copy/pasting them into the form in case something happens during submission (like internet failure). We don’t want you to have to type things twice.

If your art contains imagery that is inappropriate for the workplace or would not be appropriate for authors under 18 years old, please check the “NSFW” checkbox. NSFW art will not be sent to underage participants.

Please include the pairing that you wish to see in the fic.

While your art will speak for itself, we’d like you to include a prompt or details you’d like to see in the fic your author will write, keeping in mind they may not be able to fill the prompt exactly. You can be as specific or vague as you like, but please remember that being too detailed may decrease your odds of finding an author quickly. If you are open to the author’s own interpretation, please let them know this as well!

You must warn for major character death, underage, extreme violence/gore, and non-con. Beyond that, what you warn for is up to you. If there are no warnings, enter N/A in the field.

Are there subjects or tropes you don’t like? You may include a list of restrictions that authors must adhere to (eg. no AUs, no major character death, no blood, no A/B/O, nothing above a Teen rating). If you have no restrictions, enter N/A in the field.

2025 Schedule: 

(Unless specified, all deadlines are to be met by 11:59pm EST)

January 2nd: Sign ups Open

March 4th: Artist sign ups close

March 22nd: Art check in

April 5th: Art claim info due

April 6th: Author Sign ups close

April 12th: Claims

April 26th: Team Check in #1

May 17th: Team Check in #2

June 7th: 80% Due / Posting date picking

June 15th: Posting Date Released

June 28th: Promo materials due

July 5th: Promo Posting Begins

For this event, we will have several rules we will follow through our schedule. Please read them all before signing up or sending us an ask!

For claims, participants must disclose 'Major Archive Warnings', which means you will tag your work, both while submitting summary forms or posting your work, as one of these warnings if your work includes them: Graphic depictions of violence, major character death, rape/non-con, or underage. When posting, you have the option of disclosing or posting with 'choose not to use Archive warnings' tag.

All types of works, from fluff to dark, are allowed in this bang. The main theme is 'Mermaids' and therefore at least one of the characters must be some form of water creature- from seas, rivers, lakes, oceans, bogs, and more, all are okay. Please mind that the background characters being a creature of water does not count as a part of theme unless your work focuses on them, or at least one of the main/side characters are a creature of water as well.

All pairings and characters from Voltron: Legendary Defender are allowed. Popular ships, rare pairings, and gen works are okay.

Sign-ups and check-ins will be held on 'Google Docs'. We will email the necessary forms to the participants, and announce the event's progress on this event's blogs.

Claims will be blind. If a participant is signing-up both as a writer and an artist, we will expect them to help keeping the claims blind by not informing writers of artist chats, or artists of writer chats.