Post by TheSeaWolf on Mar 20, 2015 13:37:40 GMT
Hello to all SSC Members!
While the group doesn't have too many OCs yet; designing, drawing, breeding, selling, and roleplaying with OCs will be a very fun part of this group! This journal/thread will discuss the situations that you can have SSC OCs in, preferred species, what you can do with your OCs, details regarding roleplay, and how our OCs will ultimately help further the group's mission. Let's get started!
The Situations: SSC HeadQuarters and The Wild!
OCs created for SSC can be in one of two situations: they can be captive animals living at SSC HQ, or they can be wild animals that SSC is researching. In both cases, this is completely fictional; but it sure will be fun!
SSC HQ is a fictional research/display facility. We have large, naturalistic habitats for all of our canids; we also have self-sustaining population of natural prey. While the animals are usually fed pre-killed carcasses to stay humane, sometimes they are able to hunt the prey. This gives us insight into hunting strategies, and is good enrichment for the animals! Depending on the size and species of canid, prey can vary from Impala to small rodents. At HQ, we research not only our captive populations of both predator AND prey; HQ is a hub for analyzing data collected from wild animals as well! We also allow guests to visit our facility, and educate them on the canids that we have.
The Wild is fairly self-explanatory! This is where wild animals lived; SSC radio-collars wild canids and studies them in their natural habitat, working to understand and conserve them better. They live completely natural lives, and SSC does everything they can to preserve them. SSC may occasionally bring wild canids into captivity to preserve our population.
Preferred Species/OC Guidelines
As always, we PREFER Threatened, Endangered, and Critically Endangered canids. We want these the most.
Examples:
Mexican Gray Wolves
Ethiopian Wolves
Red Wolves
African Wild Dogs
New Guinea Singing Dogs
Dhole
Island Foxes
Sierra Nevada Red Foxes
Darwin's Foxes
Near Threatened canids will be accepted as well, but preferably less than the above.
Examples:
Maned Wolves
Bush Dogs
Least Concern Canids will be accepted IN MODERATION, simply because these are good for raising awareness of habitat destruction/lesser-known subspecies.
As for guidelines, make sure that your OCs are REALISTIC! They can have unique features (larger-than-average ears, different markings, etc), but keep it realistic. Wild OCs should be drawn with radio collars, to keep up with our theme!
Examples:
Gray Wolves
Red Foxes
Fennec Foxes
A Crapton of Other Foxes That I Won't Even List (Despite adorableness, IN MODERATION! Go make Sierras or Island Foxes instead!)
What You Can Do with OCs
Here's where it gets really interesting!
You can simply draw your OCs! This is always fun, and it will help further the group's mission (as I will discuss later). Writing stories about your OCs is also accepted.
Roleplay with them! We will discuss this in more detail later.
You can breed your OCs and sell the offspring! Just make sure to plop a link to the group/forum in the description, and then sell however many you want! You can sell wild OR captive babies; these can go to anyone.
Members and non-members can Sponsor both Wild and captive canids! I will discuss this in detail in another journal/thread.
Roleplay
Roleplay is incredibly fun; it gives us something to do, and it also helps us explore the personalities of our characters while acting out realistic canid behavior. Today, we'll focus on talking about RP with SSC OCs.
First off, with our SSC OCs; try to keep the RP REALISTIC! I will allow some talking, but make sure to try and use naturalistic behaviors; and keep the social structure realistic! For example, female African Wild Dogs often disperse to find mates while the makes stay with their natal pack. Include this in your RP; don't have males dispersing and females staying. Include realistic domination displays, body postures, etc. I will help you with this, and no one's going to bite you if you get it wrong. Everyone will be able to learn some natural behaviors to use, and it'll be super fun!
In the Wild, OCs are just wild animals; usually radio-collared for studying purposes. Keep them in their natural habitats (don't put an African Wild Dog in a rainforest, keep it on the savanna!), and make sure to have them hunt and stuff. Like I said earlier, try to keep it fairly realistic!
At SSC HQ, OCs are captive. They have pretty huge enclosures, but they can't roam miles and miles like the wild ones do. They get daily enrichment, and are usually fed carcasses; they won't have to hunt. These guys won't experience a natural social structure, as there is no dispersing in captivity.
If the owner of a Wild OC would like to bring it into captivity; for example, to breed with a captive, they can!
Likewise, we may also release some canids! Pups/kits will be bred and will receive little to no human interaction, while also being conditioned for a life in the wild. They will then be radio collared and released. This would be more recommended, and successful, with solitary canids like foxes; then there isn't a worry of them being accepted into a wild pack.
The main purpose of RP is to have fun! It gives us something to do, and will increase forum activity.
How OCs Help
OCs can help further the group's mission in several ways.
Firstly, artwork! Drawing OCs is really fun, so group members will probably do so. When they do, they can put the ever-important educational information and group links into the description! This serves the fundamental purpose of the group, which is to spread awareness.
Roleplaying will help make the forum more active! It will also be somewhat educational, since we will be using realistic behaviors and research methods. In the future, it would even be cool to make pretend research papers. For example, if I made a paper about the behaviors of my AWD OCs; for that, we could simply draw upon REAL research papers to make realistic assumptions. That would be very educational, and fun!
Conclusion
OCs have the very real potential to be big, fun, and helpful parts of SSC! I will be designing adoptables before too long, and making some OCs of my own. Skulls887, aka ElementFox, made an OC as well. Drawing, writing about, and roleplaying with OCs will make the group fun and encourage activity. I hope you guys will buy and design some OCs!
While the group doesn't have too many OCs yet; designing, drawing, breeding, selling, and roleplaying with OCs will be a very fun part of this group! This journal/thread will discuss the situations that you can have SSC OCs in, preferred species, what you can do with your OCs, details regarding roleplay, and how our OCs will ultimately help further the group's mission. Let's get started!
The Situations: SSC HeadQuarters and The Wild!
OCs created for SSC can be in one of two situations: they can be captive animals living at SSC HQ, or they can be wild animals that SSC is researching. In both cases, this is completely fictional; but it sure will be fun!
SSC HQ is a fictional research/display facility. We have large, naturalistic habitats for all of our canids; we also have self-sustaining population of natural prey. While the animals are usually fed pre-killed carcasses to stay humane, sometimes they are able to hunt the prey. This gives us insight into hunting strategies, and is good enrichment for the animals! Depending on the size and species of canid, prey can vary from Impala to small rodents. At HQ, we research not only our captive populations of both predator AND prey; HQ is a hub for analyzing data collected from wild animals as well! We also allow guests to visit our facility, and educate them on the canids that we have.
The Wild is fairly self-explanatory! This is where wild animals lived; SSC radio-collars wild canids and studies them in their natural habitat, working to understand and conserve them better. They live completely natural lives, and SSC does everything they can to preserve them. SSC may occasionally bring wild canids into captivity to preserve our population.
Preferred Species/OC Guidelines
As always, we PREFER Threatened, Endangered, and Critically Endangered canids. We want these the most.
Examples:
Mexican Gray Wolves
Ethiopian Wolves
Red Wolves
African Wild Dogs
New Guinea Singing Dogs
Dhole
Island Foxes
Sierra Nevada Red Foxes
Darwin's Foxes
Near Threatened canids will be accepted as well, but preferably less than the above.
Examples:
Maned Wolves
Bush Dogs
Least Concern Canids will be accepted IN MODERATION, simply because these are good for raising awareness of habitat destruction/lesser-known subspecies.
As for guidelines, make sure that your OCs are REALISTIC! They can have unique features (larger-than-average ears, different markings, etc), but keep it realistic. Wild OCs should be drawn with radio collars, to keep up with our theme!
Examples:
Gray Wolves
Red Foxes
Fennec Foxes
A Crapton of Other Foxes That I Won't Even List (Despite adorableness, IN MODERATION! Go make Sierras or Island Foxes instead!)
What You Can Do with OCs
Here's where it gets really interesting!
You can simply draw your OCs! This is always fun, and it will help further the group's mission (as I will discuss later). Writing stories about your OCs is also accepted.
Roleplay with them! We will discuss this in more detail later.
You can breed your OCs and sell the offspring! Just make sure to plop a link to the group/forum in the description, and then sell however many you want! You can sell wild OR captive babies; these can go to anyone.
Members and non-members can Sponsor both Wild and captive canids! I will discuss this in detail in another journal/thread.
Roleplay
Roleplay is incredibly fun; it gives us something to do, and it also helps us explore the personalities of our characters while acting out realistic canid behavior. Today, we'll focus on talking about RP with SSC OCs.
First off, with our SSC OCs; try to keep the RP REALISTIC! I will allow some talking, but make sure to try and use naturalistic behaviors; and keep the social structure realistic! For example, female African Wild Dogs often disperse to find mates while the makes stay with their natal pack. Include this in your RP; don't have males dispersing and females staying. Include realistic domination displays, body postures, etc. I will help you with this, and no one's going to bite you if you get it wrong. Everyone will be able to learn some natural behaviors to use, and it'll be super fun!
In the Wild, OCs are just wild animals; usually radio-collared for studying purposes. Keep them in their natural habitats (don't put an African Wild Dog in a rainforest, keep it on the savanna!), and make sure to have them hunt and stuff. Like I said earlier, try to keep it fairly realistic!
At SSC HQ, OCs are captive. They have pretty huge enclosures, but they can't roam miles and miles like the wild ones do. They get daily enrichment, and are usually fed carcasses; they won't have to hunt. These guys won't experience a natural social structure, as there is no dispersing in captivity.
If the owner of a Wild OC would like to bring it into captivity; for example, to breed with a captive, they can!
Likewise, we may also release some canids! Pups/kits will be bred and will receive little to no human interaction, while also being conditioned for a life in the wild. They will then be radio collared and released. This would be more recommended, and successful, with solitary canids like foxes; then there isn't a worry of them being accepted into a wild pack.
The main purpose of RP is to have fun! It gives us something to do, and will increase forum activity.
How OCs Help
OCs can help further the group's mission in several ways.
Firstly, artwork! Drawing OCs is really fun, so group members will probably do so. When they do, they can put the ever-important educational information and group links into the description! This serves the fundamental purpose of the group, which is to spread awareness.
Roleplaying will help make the forum more active! It will also be somewhat educational, since we will be using realistic behaviors and research methods. In the future, it would even be cool to make pretend research papers. For example, if I made a paper about the behaviors of my AWD OCs; for that, we could simply draw upon REAL research papers to make realistic assumptions. That would be very educational, and fun!
Conclusion
OCs have the very real potential to be big, fun, and helpful parts of SSC! I will be designing adoptables before too long, and making some OCs of my own. Skulls887, aka ElementFox, made an OC as well. Drawing, writing about, and roleplaying with OCs will make the group fun and encourage activity. I hope you guys will buy and design some OCs!