rule63exchange | 2020 Rules Post

Rule 63 traditionally states that for every fictional character, there exists an opposite-gender counterpart. Rule 63 Exchange is for creating and receiving fanfiction or fanart in which characters have a different sex or gender than they do in canon.

2020 Schedule/Dates
Assignment Rules
Nominating Guidelines
- Eligibility
Sign-Up Guidelines
- How Matching Works

2020 Schedule/Dates

schedule

Assignment Rules

The minimum word count for a story is 1000 words.
The minimum fill for an art request is a clean lined drawing of the requested character(s) on unlined paper, or its equivalent in painting/digital form.
Defaulting before the assignment deadline will not be punished. Defaults after the deadline will result in being barred from the next year’s round of the exchange.
Anyone not 63ed in the relationship nomination is assumed to be their canonical self, unless okayed by the requester.
DNWs, or Do Not Wants, will be enforced if they are put in the Optional Details field of your request. DNWs within external links will not be enforced.

Nominating Guidelines

Use “/” for romantic or sexual relationships, “&” for platonic relationships.
You may nominate a solo character by using “& None.” This does not mean that no one else may appear in the story; rather, that you will match on a solo character rather than a relationship.
Every relationship tag must include a minimum of one character who is Rule 63ed. (eg. “Sleeping Beauty/F!Prince,” “F!Harry Potter & F!Ron Weasley & M!Hermione Granger” and “NB!Jonathan Sims & None,” are permitted, “Sleeping Beauty & None” is not permitted.)
Crossovers are permitted. Please nominate them under Crossover Fandom and indicate the fandom of each character, eg. "NB!Dorian Gray (Picture of Dorian Gray)/F!Henry Jekyll (Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde)".
Original Works are not permitted.
RPF is permitted, but people who are under 18 or who aren’t famous in their own right are not permitted.

Eligibility

Please use common sense and don't nominate canon versions of characters as genderswaps - "M!Natasha Stark" (aka Tony Stark), "F!Garrett Hawke" (aka Marian Hawke), "M!C-3PO", "F!Pearl (Steven Universe)" (two characters where human ideas of sex/gender are less applicable, but who are treated in canon as having a gender), and "F!Haruhi Fujioka" (arguably but not canonically nonbinary) are not eligible tags. F!Tony Stark would remain eligible, since a female Tony is assumed to be a swap of canon Tony rather than a request for the Natasha continuity (just as an F!Loki tag is assumed to be a request/offer for a non-canon scenario, not for the part of canon continuity where Loki is Lady Loki). You can use the evidence post to present evidence that a tag would still be eligible in light of this rule, or leave a comment/email us if you have questions.
As participants have previously expressed interest in, for instance, stories in which a trans character is magically granted their ideal body, trans characters may also be nominated as their canonical gender (eg. "M!Ned Wynert"), not just as a swapped gender. We recognize that this formulation is awkward but we hope that it will allow participants to request and tell the various kinds of stories that interest them. Since participants are otherwise required to include at least one swapped character in a nominated tag, if you wish to nominate a trans character "swapped to" their canonical gender and are concerned that the mod would not be able to tell that the character is canonically trans from a quick search, we suggest that you comment in the evidence post. The mod will enforce DNWs of characters being written as cis if they are canonically trans.
You may nominate 63ed groups. Please avoid ambiguity - eg. "F!Amis de l'ABC" is a good shorthand for "F!Enjolras & F!Combeferre & F!Courfeyrac & F!Feuilly" etc., and "M!Murdered Wives of Bluebeard & M!Judith" is a way of nominating a group with no distinct personalities, but tags like "M!Everyone" or "F!Slytherin House" are not allowed. If you want to do a full swap of a mixed group, your best bet is probably something like "F!Male Avengers & M!Female Avengers" ("F!Avengers & None" is permitted and would indicate that you want characters like Natasha Romanoff to remain female). To exclude a character or characters from a swap, you might nominate "F!Amis de l'ABC & Enjolras."

Sign-Up Guidelines

You may request 3-10 fandoms.
You may offer 3-10 fandoms.
You may request or offer the same fandom more than once if there are different freeforms, mediums, and/or ratings that you want to request/offer for different ships. However, you must offer and request a minimum of three unique fandoms.

This is being used to differentiate between fanfiction and fanart requests. You may request or offer one or both of them.

Rating tags show whether you are interested in smut, non-smut, or both. General Audiences does not restrict your writer/artist from using a Teen or Mature rating, only from writing/drawing smut.

Relationship tags match on OR, ie. you may match to anyone offering/requesting any one of the tags you have selected.
Recall that “/” refers to a romantic or sexual relationship, “&” to a platonic relationship, and “& None” to a solo character. The latter does not mean that no one else may appear in the story; rather, that you will match on a solo character rather than a relationship.

Available freeforms are “Always a 63,” “Temporarily a 63,” and “Permanently a 63.” The latter two refer to a change that takes place as part of the plot of the story. You may request/offer one, two, or all three.

This is the place to include likes, prompts, or anything else that might help your author or artist create something you'll love!
Include any DNWs in this field. DNWs that are only in your letter, and not in your signup, will not be enforced. Recall that DNWs must be reasonable and cannot be used to box your writer into writing something specific that they did not match on; eg. even if you would only be happy with noncon, you cannot "DNW consent."

How Matching Works

Request 1 by GottaSwapEmAll
Fandom: Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling
Rating: General Audiences
Character: Medium: Fanfiction, Medium: Fanart
Relationships: F!Harry Potter & None, M!Luna Lovegood/Harry Potter, F!Harry Potter/F!Ron Weasley
Freeform: Always a 63, Permanently 63ed

Request 2 by GottaSwapEmAll
Fandom: Yuri!!! on Ice
Rating: Explicit
Character: Medium: Fanfiction
Relationships: F!Katsuki Yuuri/F!Victor Nikiforov
Freeform: Always a 63