taggle | 2026 Rules (Reply)

Conduct

Gameplay is run via Discord. The rules for the Discord are as follows, and you will have to accept them to be granted access to the server:

This is an 18+ choose not to warn space that practices YKINMKATO (your kink is not my kink and that’s okay), which means that people may talk about fandoms/ships/tropes/kinks that you do not personally enjoy and that is fine. We do not require spoiler warnings for any fandom and kink related topics. We expect discussions about fandom to be respectful and polite.
This is a community space for a high intensity team event, and while the event is ongoing we are all part of the same community. While trying to complete the puzzles in the minimum possible time, and feeling team loyalty is definitely admirable, we ask that all participants communicate with each other and the mods in a way that respects differences of opinion as well as our event rules.
Sometimes the rules and the way that the event operates may be somewhat confusing. Most updates will be posted real time to discord. Storyline progression updates will be posted to dreamwidth. While we don’t expect everyone to be glued to their discord at all times to keep up with updates, we do acknowledge that not being able to check discord or not checking discord may result in less of a fun experience in Taggle.
This is not a deliberately badfic/art/pod event. While gifts may be made in haste (and may be a result of combinations of tags that are still required for game progress which might result in creations that are charmingly unhinged), works should be gifted 1) to people who are likely to enjoy them, 2) should be gifts made in good faith to the best of the creator’s ability, in an attempt to make something the recipient will like, and 3) avoid all DNWs.
Works produced for Taggle should be the original work of the participant, never before published elsewhere, and complete. They may not be wholly or partially created by generative text or art programs such as ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, etc.
As this is a low anonymity event, if you have a question for a potential recipient, please feel free to contact them to ask them.

Link for joining the Discord.

Nominations

As we do not need to run matching, we are doing tagset anarchy, meaning that you can nominate whichever subset of canon you want. We request that you disambiguate everything – add the canon name or an abbreviation thereof in (brackets) after the tag you wish to nominate – but other than that, we do not care. Nominations will run throughout the event.

To nominate a character, nominate as 1: Character Name (Canon)
To nominate a relationship, nominate as Character A & Character B (Canon) (for familial or platonic relationships) OR Character A/Character B (Canon) (for romantic or sexual relationships)
To nominate worldbuilding, nominate as 1: Worldbuilding (Canon).
Nominate crossovers under Crossover Fandom, as either Character A (Canon A) & Character B (Canon B) OR 1: Character Name (Canon) in Other Canon

Prompting

Prompting happens at the prompt collection. Prompting is open for everyone, so you can also prompt if you are unable to participate or unsure about your participation – or ask your friends to drop some prompts as well. The more the merrier!

Sign-ups

To sign up, you must first join the Discord and accept the conduct rules. There, if sign-ups are open, you can sign up by filling in the sign-up form.

You will also have to have submitted at least one prompt to the prompt collection.

Gameplay: Posting

To play the game, you must post works to your team's AO3 collection, and then log the details of the work in the work submission spreadsheet. (If you are unable to do so, you can ask a teammate to do it for you.) Links to both will be provided on Discord.

A works approver might have to contact you for whatever reason. (Embed fail, copypaste fail, author's notes in main body of text, misclicked so the work isn't gifted to anyone, etc.) Please be kind to them so we can fix the issue and get your work approved properly. After all, we are all on the same side, players and mods alike: that of wanting the event to run smoothly.

All works must be a gift for one (1) person only. It is not permitted to change the work's recipient after the work has been approved.

Works produced for Taggle should be the original work of the participant, never before published elsewhere, and complete. They may not be wholly or partially created by generative text or art programs such as ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, etc.

This is not a deliberately badfic/art/pod event. While gifts may be made in haste (and may be a result of combinations of tags that are still required for game progress which might result in creations that are charmingly unhinged), works should 1) be gifted to people who are likely to enjoy them, 2) be gifts made in good faith to the best of the creator’s ability, in an attempt to make something the recipient will like, and 3) avoid all DNWs.

The minimum length for fic and podfic is 300 words. Art must be at minimum a clean sketch on unlined paper, and depict a coherent scene (or, for a comic, a series of coherent scenes), rather than a disconnected jumble of items.

Podfic: There must be a clickable link to the fic that has been podficced. (Either via the Related Work function on AO3 or manually.) The podfic itself must also be embedded, not linked.
Podding a fic series into one work counts as one work for guards, but will count as however many works there are in the series for the boards.
For work and points caps (explained below), multivoice podfics count as being a work by the person who has done the most speaking in the pod. Mark this person as the creator on the spreadsheet when you are submitting the work.

Art: The image must be embedded, not linked. Given that this is a low-anonymity event, it is OK to sign your work. If you wish to participate in the anon period, you may also sign your work with something along the lines of "Taggle 2026".

Gameplay: Scoring

Gameplay will consist of multiple phases, divided into two types: board phases and guard phases. They have slightly different rules for progression:

In the board phases, you are allowed to claim 1 tag present in the work per 100 words of fic or podfic, and for art, all tags which can be reasonably said to be present in the work. You do not have to list out your tag claims on the work, only in the works submission spreadsheet. For a look at what counts as depicting a tag in art, please see the relevant document: [2026 document is being peer reviewed by artists in the server and will appear here when gameplay starts]
All players have a cap of 7 works per board. This is the same for all boards.

All tags must be present in the work. Bad faith misinterpretations and tag gremlining, such as the following, are not allowed:
"Going kayaking with friends counts for watersports!"
"The two pixels on the bottom right represent horses and also a pizza!"
"This dress with crosses on it counts as crossdressing!"
"My cat OC whose name is Volcano counts for volcanoes!"

In guard phases, each word of fic or podfic counts for one point. Art is scored so that:

the first and second characters or structures are worth 500 points each

subsequent characters and structures are 250 points each (two characters and a structure is 500+500+250)

shading is worth 250 points per character or structure

coloring (depiction in more than one color) is worth 250 points per character or structure

a background is worth a flat 250 points

There is a player-specific points cap for each guard, but no work- or panel-specific cap. It is possible to write/pod one work long enough, or make a single illustration complex enough, to use up all of one's points in one go. The points cap will depend on the guard, and will be communicated when players reach the guard. (The final numbers we choose for this will depend on the number of participants. However, expect at least 10k and at most 40k.)