Battleship is very much still active! It usually runs once a year, during the summer. The official comm is over at battleshipex, and there's a full explanation of how it works over there. But for a shorter version that became longer than I meant for it to be, oops:
Basically, this exchange is, as the name implies, based on the game of Battleship. There's been changes made to the format every year, but that remains the main inspiration of the exchange. Regardless of how the specifics play out, everyone who signs up always gets sorted onto one of two teams, and the goal is always to "sink" or "hit" the other team's targets on a board.
Sign-ups take place on AO3, similar to how it works with a regular exchange. (So nominations, tagset, etc. I'm not sure how familiar you are with how that works, so if you need more explanation than that, I'd be very very happy to explain it! I just don't want to unnecessarily tl;dr about something you already know if you are familiar with it.) You sign up with between 1-10 requests, with the required fields being the fandom, requested ships/characters, and requested freeform tags from the tagset.
Each team is given a board divded up into smaller squares. Each of these squares has a tag from the aforementioned freeforms list (or, as of last year, two tags) and a number on it. The number signifies how many works using that tag (or tags, as of last year) need to be made in order for your team to call a "shot" on that square. The first team to successfully find and hit the opposing team's targets wins.
In the years I participated, there were multiple boards that needed to be uncovered, as well as "boss fights" in-between. In order for works to be revealed, we need to have both a winning team, and everyone who signed up must have received at least one gift.
Each fill must be a gift for someone who signed up or left a prompt in the prompt colleciton, and it has to include at least one of their requested freeforms, though the tag they requested doesn't have to be the one you're targeting on the board, if that makes sense. Each work can also hit more than one tag, though there are restrictions on this.
You're also not actually required to create anything; there's no punishment or shame if you sign up, but don't manage to finish anything in time or realize after the fact that the format don't work for you. Tbh people are mostly just happy that they have more requests to create for! There's also a prompt collection for people who want to request things but not sign-up (though there's not gift guarantee for that one), while people who are instead in making things but don't want to request anything usually also are given a way to participate. Though imo the most fun is signing up and joining a team.
It's a very high-energy, fast-paced experience. There's never an official end date, but it usually lasts about three weeks weeks in which I basically live and breathe Battleship I do know that some people find it stressful/not for them, but I personally find it very freeing. It's definitely not the exchange to go to if you're looking for a perfectly tailored gift, but if you're in it for the love of writing (/creating, since it's multi-format, but for me it's writing) and the joy of the game, it's a wonderful experience.
This was a lot more than I meant to write, but I kept thinking of more and more to say... in any case, if you have any questions, feel free to ask! I'm happy to ramble on more if needed. It can sound complicated when reading through explanations of it, but imo when you're actually playing, it's pretty clear.
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that became longer than I meant for it to be, oops:Basically, this exchange is, as the name implies, based on the game of Battleship. There's been changes made to the format every year, but that remains the main inspiration of the exchange. Regardless of how the specifics play out, everyone who signs up always gets sorted onto one of two teams, and the goal is always to "sink" or "hit" the other team's targets on a board.
Sign-ups take place on AO3, similar to how it works with a regular exchange. (So nominations, tagset, etc. I'm not sure how familiar you are with how that works, so if you need more explanation than that, I'd be very very happy to explain it! I just don't want to unnecessarily tl;dr about something you already know if you are familiar with it.) You sign up with between 1-10 requests, with the required fields being the fandom, requested ships/characters, and requested freeform tags from the tagset.
Each team is given a board divded up into smaller squares. Each of these squares has a tag from the aforementioned freeforms list (or, as of last year, two tags) and a number on it. The number signifies how many works using that tag (or tags, as of last year) need to be made in order for your team to call a "shot" on that square. The first team to successfully find and hit the opposing team's targets wins.
In the years I participated, there were multiple boards that needed to be uncovered, as well as "boss fights" in-between. In order for works to be revealed, we need to have both a winning team, and everyone who signed up must have received at least one gift.
Each fill must be a gift for someone who signed up or left a prompt in the prompt colleciton, and it has to include at least one of their requested freeforms, though the tag they requested doesn't have to be the one you're targeting on the board, if that makes sense. Each work can also hit more than one tag, though there are restrictions on this.
You're also not actually required to create anything; there's no punishment or shame if you sign up, but don't manage to finish anything in time or realize after the fact that the format don't work for you. Tbh people are mostly just happy that they have more requests to create for! There's also a prompt collection for people who want to request things but not sign-up (though there's not gift guarantee for that one), while people who are instead in making things but don't want to request anything usually also are given a way to participate. Though imo the most fun is signing up and joining a team.
It's a very high-energy, fast-paced experience. There's never an official end date, but it usually lasts about three weeks
weeks in which I basically live and breathe BattleshipI do know that some people find it stressful/not for them, but I personally find it very freeing. It's definitely not the exchange to go to if you're looking for a perfectly tailored gift, but if you're in it for the love of writing (/creating, since it's multi-format, but for me it's writing) and the joy of the game, it's a wonderful experience.This was a lot more than I meant to write, but I kept thinking of more and more to say... in any case, if you have any questions, feel free to ask! I'm happy to ramble on more if needed. It can sound complicated when reading through explanations of it, but imo when you're actually playing, it's pretty clear.