How art duels work on openmog

Artists have always traded drawings of each other’s characters: art trades, draw this in your style, the yearly fight. A duel is that exchange as a post, with a score attached and nothing else added. This post walks the rules; the character it is usually about has its own post.

What is a duel post?

A post with one extra setting. In the composer you arm the duel kind, attach the art, give it a title if you want one, and pick who can attack. The post goes into the feed like any other, with a container that says “open to attacks” and, as they land, how many. It collects likes and replies like any post; the attacks are made from its Attack button and land among the replies, each carrying art. A duel can be posted under your name or as one of your characters, in which case the attacks are, in effect, fan work of that character and the character keeps the count.

Who can attack?

Your choice, made when you post. Everyone means any account that finds the duel can attack it, which is the setting for a duel you want to travel. People you follow limits attackers to the people you already follow, which turns a duel into an exchange inside a circle: a group of friends, a server, a class.

What counts as an attack?

Art, from the Attack button. It opens the attack sheet, which takes an image, a clip or a track and nothing without one: your attack is the art. A plain reply with a picture in it is just a reply; only the sheet makes an attack. It lands as a reply under the duel, credited to you, and it scores one point for you and one for them. There is no grading. A five-minute sketch and a finished painting score the same, which is deliberate: the point is a mark that the exchange happened, and the art is where the effort shows.

What is revenge?

An attack that answers one. Say Mara attacks one of your duels. Later you attack one of Mara’s. That attack is marked as revenge, on the attack itself and in the notification Mara gets, which says revenge rather than attack. Only the person whose duel was attacked can take revenge for it, and revenge scores like any other attack, a point each. What it adds is the thread: a pair of attacks that answer each other is the smallest possible art fight, and it can go on as long as you both keep drawing.

Where do the points show?

On your profile, under Duels, in two views: attacked, the attacks you have landed on other people’s duels, and defended, the attacks that have landed on yours. Each duel post shows its own count in its container. A duel posted as a character counts on the character, and a character that has been attacked ten times earns a badge that stays with it whoever owns it later. The points have no exchange rate: they buy nothing, unlock nothing and rank nobody, which is why they can be handed out for every attack without anyone farming them.

How does this compare to Art Fight?

Art Fight is a season, and a good one: every July, everyone is split into two teams, attacks are art of other people’s characters, points are graded by how finished a piece is, and a team wins. Duels keep the exchange and drop the calendar. There are no teams and no month; a duel is open from the moment it is posted until you delete it. A point is a point, whatever the finish. And revenge is between two people rather than a team total. If you spend every July attacking and the other eleven months waiting, this is the same game with the waiting removed.

What are the rules?

The same ones as everything else here. An attack lands as a reply, so it follows the content guidelines; art that is not yours, or not human-made, is a report away from review. You can block a person, which removes their posts and replies from your feeds and notifications and keeps them off your duels, and you can delete a duel at any time. A duel costs nothing, and there is no way to pay for a point.

Start one, or answer one. The feed shows duels open to attacks as they are posted, and a learn post is the other way artists here set each other a task.