Breeding Season.

Starting at 22 months old, wolves reach sexual maturity and are now considered as young adults (they are also mentally ~20 years old by human standards). This is when the "magic" and character development gets interesting as your maturing character might start to realize what they want in life (to gain a mate, to have a family, to start a pack, etc.) and figure out ways how to make it happen. On Ruins of Wildwood, there is one breeding season that any wolf 22 months or older can participate in. This takes place during the month of March. Eligible wolves may complete a breeding thread (that fades to black per site rules) during this time in order to produce a pup on-site. This is special, because the only pups permitted to join the game are those that are born on-site.

This article covers how to navigate the process of producing, creating and adopting out a litter.

Breeding Requirements

In order to breed on Ruins of Wildwood, there are some specific hoops to jump through. There are two key components to getting your litter 'on the map': Registration and an In-Character Breeding Thread. This section of the article breaks down exactly what needs to happen with both in order to successfully produce a litter.

Registration

• Registration opens at the beginning of March. To register, you simply respond to the registration thread put up by staff with the form provided containing all relevant information.
• The registration thread is typically closed on March 28th. Threads must be finished prior to the beginning of the litter lottery in order to be eligible.
• The Mother's Rank determines the max number of cubs.

Breeding Thread

• Breeding thread should be a thread between the mother and father leading up to the breeding itself, where the thread is faded to black.
• Breeding threads cannot start before March 1st and must end before the beginning of the loner lottery
  (typically March 28th) otherwise they will be ineligible for puppies.
• Sexual assault and pornographic description of breeding is 100% not allowed.
• Site rules do not excuse any wolf from violating any existing pack rules about breeding.
• After completing the thread, and after being given the maximum litter size for your litter, compile information to attract adopters and send it to the Spirit of Wildwood account.

Litter Lottery

Litter sizes will vary from litter to litter. A litter can have anywhere from 1 pup to 5 as of right now. How many pups are in a litter will be based off of the female's rank only. Litter numbers will be randomly generated by staff during the litter lottery night, these are the current maximum litter sizes, these numbers are subject to change:

Lead females: Lead females who meet all breeding season requirements are guaranteed at least 1 pup, and will have 1d5 rolled to determine the maximum size of their litter.

Subordinate females: Subordinate females who meet all breeding season requirements are guaranteed at least 1 pup, and will have 1d3 rolled to determine the maximum size of their litter.

Lone females: Loners will no longer be guaranteed to be successful at breeding. Instead, loner litters will be awarded on a lottery system, couples 'apply' with their completed breeding threads, and the 'successful' pairs will be picked at random. How many successful litters being awarded will change year to year based on how many active packs/characters are in game. Lone litters will still be restricted to only 1 pup.

Note: Just because you are granted x number of pups, does not mean you have to create a litter that large. If you have a lead female who is granted 5 in the dice roll for your litter, you can choose to make less, but you can't make more than 5.

The lottery will also determine paternity for litters that may have multiple potential sires. Because wolves can have a single litter with multiple fathers, RoW allows this as well. For litters that have more than one pup and more than one potential father, staff will roll how many sires the litters will have, and which of the potential fathers were successful.

ex. Susan mates with Bob, Fred, Adam, and Jerry (she was very busy in March).

Susan is a leader and rolls a litter of 4, staff will roll an additional 1d4 to determine how many fathers there are. For this example let's say we rolled a 2.

Staff will then randomize the father's and announce which 2 fathers have genetic children in the litter. It is up to the players involved to determine how many cubs are related to who.
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Pup Adoptions!

General Pup Adoption Guidelines

In early April, after breeding season finishes, a large thread containing information of every pup of every litter will be posted by the Spirit of Wildwood account. Here are some general guidelines for this point of the season:

• Parents have the right to pre-reserve pups from their own litter that they wish to play
• Players may apply for multiple cubs.
• If a player has not been found by the time the pup is playable, the pup will die.
• If you are interested in adopting a pup, you should email an application with all relevant information to both parents.

Submitting Pup Information

Parents, it is your responsibility to submit information about each playable pup to staff in a timely manner. The master thread of available pups cannot be posted until we have all information! Parents may choose to define a pup as much or as little as they would like.

A typical pup information submission will contain the following:

• Pup's name
• Pup's place in the litter (oldest, middle child, youngest, ect)
• Description of wolf (reference, art, word-based description like 'tawny with blue eyes) usually containing build (small, medium, large), fur color and eye color
• Personality traits. Note, some players choose to leave personality entirely up to the applicant, meanwhile some flesh out a general guideline of what they imagine for the pup.

An example of what a pup's information will look like when posted

Note: Art will not be provided by staff. If you wish for your pups to have art visible in the master thread, you must have submitted it along with pup information.

Awarding Pups!

Parents have the final say in who plays what pup, and this is entirely handled by the players themselves! Once both parents have agreed on which player will receive their pup(s), all they have to do is DM a staff member to ask them to mark that pup reserved and who by.

Free Template Code!

Below is a template code you may use for submitting pup information along with an example of what it might look like filled out!

Code:

[h1]Parent & Parent[/h1]

Short blurb about the litter here

Opportunities:

• Opportunity 1
• Opportunity 2
• Opportunity 3

To apply please send a role play sample to [Parent 1] and [Parent 2] along with any ideas you may have for them.

Pup Name. The CARDINAL.

Claimed by: N/A

Can list stats here Blurb about pup

Lachesis and Lilya moved their pack south, to Driftwood Surge, to leave the past behind them and start over. Part of this rebirth was establishing themselves as the only breeding pair in the pack, as they did not want a repeat of the year before. The couple’s second litter will be part of one of Relic Lore’s largest packs—meaning they’ll have plenty of older packmates to annoy, along with older siblings.

• Plenty of packmates to bother/create relationships with
• Children of active parents
• Two older sisters (and an older half-brother)

Players are final

LEGOLAS "Leggy" Stark. The CHICKADEE.

Claimed by: Arla

Male, last born Medium Physique Arctic x East Timber Pale agouti fur (ivory, white, red), sea-green eyes Shy, gentle, anxious, quiet Legolas, to put it simply, is a mess. As the youngest, Legolas is the most docile out of the three Stark children. He shies away from the spotlight, for he does not like having attention drawn to him, and prefers to be on his own. Unlike his siblings, he has no desire to step outside of pack territory (adopting the same irrational fear that his older sister, Lavender, had as a child). He is gentle, thoughtful and much more subdued than his older littermates; would rather observe than participate. Like his father once had, the boy will also develop a stutter in his early years that may or may not disappear as he ages.