Welcome to the Hollow's scoring guide. This guide discusses how to submit your art and writing to this ARPG and the rewards you can expect to receive for doing so.
Submitting to galleries
To submit work to the Hollow, you'll go to the Gallery page and click the plus mark beside the appropriate gallery.
Which gallery is appropriate? We have five main galleries.
General: Any general artwork or writing you wish to receive lucre for should be submitted here. Do not submit masterlist images or non-canon works to this gallery, and note that works submitted to this gallery will not receive professional rank -- if you want your character's professional rank to increase from a submission, submit it to the Professions gallery instead.
Professions: Submitting a piece to this gallery lets staff know that you intend for your character to earn professional rank from it. The character shown performing their job or role will receive professional rank points equal to the total lucre value of the submission if they belong to you or half that value if they belong to another user. Make sure your character has their profession or membership item equipped before submitting to this gallery!
Prompts: Any works created to fulfill prompts should be submitted here, including Professional Development prompts. After you've submitted your work to this gallery, you should also complete a prompt submission via the Submit dropdown or through the prompt's page. This will allow staff to award you the additional rewards for completing a prompt on top of the rewards you would earn for a non-prompt submission. Please review the FAQ for guidelines on collaborating on prompts.
Masterlist Images: You may submit your characters' masterlist images (both their initial image, if MYO, and any design updates you may do down the line) to this gallery to receive lucre for your efforts.
Non-canon: You may submit depictions of your character(s) that do not adhere to the Hollow's canon to this gallery for 50% of the lucre rewards you would otherwise receive. Characters may not receive professional rank from non-canon submissions.
Do's and Don'ts
- Don't submit the same illustration or writing twice, including multiple pieces on the same base or otherwise edited pieces, even if the edits are substantial. (3D models may be reused in different poses and scenes, but should not check the "Is this a new model?" box more than once.)
- Don't submit WIP's.
- Do submit small/simple pieces in batches. It's up to your judgment how many smaller/simpler pieces comprise a full piece of work.
- Do submit comics. You may add a note in the description of your submission to ask staff to score your comic as individual panels rather than as one illustration.
- Do collaborate! If multiple people collaborate on a piece, they all receive the full amount of lucre. (It should be submitted only once, by a single user, but the collaborators should be indicated through the gallery form.) If you wish to collaborate on a prompt, please see the FAQ for guidance on the prompt submission form.
- Do submit non-canon works to their gallery, for 50% of the rewards a canon piece with the same scoring would have earned. You may not submit non-canon works for prompt rewards unless otherwise specified by the prompt.
- Don't farm for points. Rules-lawyering will get you nowhere here; keep to the spirit of the game. Examples of farming include making many low-effort submissions, packing characters into a piece in repetitive or generic ways, reusing compositions or visual elements, etc.
- Do contact staff if you believe the automatic scoring for your piece is inaccurate. The best place to do so is the #contact-staff channel in the Discord sever.
submitting & scoring
When you make a gallery submission, first you'll need to upload your image or text. Do not upload images and text together, unless you wish for your text submission to have a cover image; if you select "Writing" as your submission's type, the attached image will not be scored.
A note on roleplay submissions: Please copy and paste the text of your roleplay from wherever you originally completed it into the Text section of your submission. You should remove timestamps and other extraneous text from your submission, and you do not need to preserve a record of who wrote what.
Be sure to scroll down and fill out the accompanying form, particularly the Collaborators, Characters, and Lucre Awards sections. In Lucre Awards, you may leave any fields that do not apply to your piece blank. (For example, if you are submitting writing, you do not need to choose an "Animation" option.)
The site will automatically calculate the lucre value for your submission, though you will not actually receive the award until staff approves both your submission and your lucre award (usually in quick succession). You may indicate in the optional "Description" field if you believe the automatic scoring does not capture the effort involved in your piece.
Below are the details of the Hollow's scoring system, which are automatically applied to your piece.
Categories (piece type)
Currently the Hollow accepts three categories of work: illustrations, which covers both digital and traditional 2D depictions, 3D models, and writing. If your work does not fall into these categories, please contact staff so we can score it individually or develop a new category.
others' character bonus
The form's second field asks whether your submission includes depictions of characters you don't own. This includes NPC's (found here) or characters belonging to other users.
You do not need permission to depict an NPC, but you should make sure that other users' characters are open for gift art/writing (visible on their masterlist pages), or ask first.
This bonus does apply when users collaborate, including roleplay, even if all of the characters depicted belong to one of the collaborators.
However, this bonus does not stack for additional NPC's or non-owned characters depicted.
- +10 for depicting NPC(s)
- +15 for depicting character(s) from other users
- +25 for depicting both NPC(s) and character(s) from other users
Level of Finish
This field applies only to illustrations, and determines the base score for your illustration.
Sketch: 8 lucre
- All illustrations, however simple, may receive this base amount as long as they include an identifiable Hollow character, setting, or object.
Clean lines / lineless: 12 lucre
- Works with clean lineart (not sketches) may select this option.
- Lineless works can receive this option if they are cleaned up and not sketchy.
Color: 20 lucre
- Works in color may select this option.
- This includes monochrome works as long as they display notable variation and complexity in value.
- These works may have rough lineart and visible sketching as long as they are in full color or complex monochrome.
Shading: 30 lucre
- Works with shading that creates a sense of depth, texture, or three-dimensional appearance should select this option.
- While cel-shading and painted styles are both accepted here, shading should be noticeable and complex. Works with gradients and other minor or automated shading effects should select "Color" instead.
- These works may be monochrome as long as they include full shading.
- These works may have rough lineart and visible sketching as long as they include full shading.
Background
This field applies to both 2D illustrations and 3D models. If your piece's background does not meet the requirements for a minimal background, please select "None."
Minimal background: +6 lucre
- Works that include a background that is more than a simple block of color, but does not depict full scenery, should select this option.
- If a work includes a background object or objects, but not a full scene, the artist should add this to their score (e.g. a character sitting on a bench, but no scene behind the bench).
- Abstract backgrounds qualify for this score if they are reasonably complex.
- Simple shapes and gradients do not qualify for this score.
Background scenery: +15 lucre
- Works with a full background that depicts a location or scene should select this option
- The background does not need to fill the entire canvas as long as it is identifiable as a scene.
- The scene or location depicted may be specific (e.g. your character's home) or generic (a forest).
Animation
This field applies to both 2D illustrations and 3D models. If your piece is not animated, please select "None."
Simple animation: +7 lucre
- Works that include simple animation, but do not depict a change in pose or a complex movement, should select this option.
- Animations such as sparkling, glowing, or flashing fall into this category.
- Depictions of a character blinking or bouncing, without more complex movements, should be scored here.
- Rough works and sketches may take this score if they are animated.
- 3D model turnarounds should select this option.
Moderate animation: +12 lucre
- Animations that are too complex to fit into the simple category, but do not include full-body movement or pose changes, should select this option.
- Animations that depict part of a character's body moving while the rest of the pose stays the same (e.g. a character waving) should take this score.
- Background animations may qualify for this score if they are sufficiently complex (e.g. clouds moving across a sky).
- Rough works and sketches may take this score if they are animated.
Complex animation: +20 lucre
- Complex animations that include full-body movement, pose change, or movement around a location should select this option.
- If an animation includes elements such as multiple camera angles, full changes of scene, etc. you may contact staff for more nuanced scoring.
- Rough works and sketches may take this score if they are appropriately animated.
New model
This checkbox is only for 3D models. If you are submitting a different category of art, feel free to ignore it.
You should check this if the character model in the piece is freshly created and has not been used in previous pieces. To avoid confusion over pieces with multiple character models, we encourage you to submit each new model you create as its own submission, then submit any pieces you create with those models separately -- this will ensure that you get the full amount of lucre for your efforts.
A character model that receives this bonus should be poseable and somewhat polished.
- +20 lucre for a new model
Props created
This field is only for 3D models. If you are submitting a different category of art, feel free to leave it blank.
You should enter the number of unique props you created for this render here. Do not count props that you have used for previous renders. If a prop is particularly large or complex, you may ask for it to be scored individually in the optional "Description" field of your submission.
- +5 lucre per prop
Full bodies
This field applies to both 2D illustrations and 3D models. Enter the number of "full body" characters depicted in your piece. A character image is considered "full body" if it shows at least 75% of the body. On humanoid characters, "full body" should run from the head to at least mid-thigh, or show a headless body.
3D renders may count previously-rendered models as full bodies.
- +20 lucre per full-body character
Writing
If you are submitting a written submission, enter its word count here.
If your submission is a roleplay, you should enter the full word count of all participants' posts.
Tip: You can copy and paste text into WordCounter.net to get a word count.
Base score: 1 lucre per 25 words
- There is no need to round off your word count; the site will do this for you.
- If you wish to submit pieces under 25 words (e.g. poems), please submit in batches of at least 25 words.
- Submissions must be finished threads / chapters / etc. If you plan a long and complex roleplay or story, consider breaking it into multiple threads or chapters so that you may submit pieces as they're finished rather than needing to wait until the end.