So you've successfully generated a litter and you're ready to design them and get them out there? Well, this guide will take you through that process! The litters on Nocturne work a bit differently than on other sites so we'll break down the steps you'll need to go through.

The rolled litter will give you a variety of information which includes:

The number of that litter for the IC year, and what the IC year is

The dam and sire's names

How many pups are in the litter

Who rolled the litter (which player)

A list of attempts (separated by commas, if you entered them properly)

A list of complications, if the dam had complications.

Remember: A dam can have complications if the sire is 2 or more times larger, and the risk of complications increases with the size difference. You are required to follow these complications. None of them are truly life threatening (though you can certainly make them so if you fancy that).

This is what you can expect to see at the top of a litter after generating it:

Designing the Puppies

This is what you're really here for, right? Well, each puppy is given it's own little table which you use to design them. That little table looks like this:


All attributes from puppies are chosen from their parents or grandparents. Yes, grandparents! If a puppy is born on site, and then grows up to have babies OR if a character on site has bio parents on their profile and those characters exist on site - then the attributes a puppy gets is mixed from those. That means that all puppies pull from a "gene pool" to create puppies that look a specific way.

The colors that a puppy can be are pulled from a gradient range. As an example, if the dam has cream fur and the sire has tan fur, then the babies can be cream, peach, ginger, auburn, brown, or tan. So each puppy will inherit one of those colors. The same happens with eye colors, where the eye color is going to be a color that matches the parents or is a mix of their eye colors. Since it only outputs the base color for eyes and fur, it is up to you how to describe which parent they took after.

Now that you know how it works, the important things you need to consider when designing are:

The mass, weight, and height of the baby

The eye colors, which can be a singular color or mixed

The fur color

Personality

Mutation

Health

Sire

If we look at the puppy example above we can break down who they are. They were born male, are average in build and weight, and have a massive height. They were born with mixed (heterochromia) eyes, and timber fur. They have a unique personality all their own, no mutations, but they do have an autoimmune disorder. Their sire is "Father" - that is the name of the sire, not a generic word. Irony eh?

From here, you would take the designs of the parents (or grandparents) and combine features so that the design of the puppy matches what is rolled for you. The best way to do this if you have a puppy that doesn't really match either parent is to take in consideration the shape of the parent's markings or if there are any unique traits. A wolf with black ears, for instance, could pass on darker ears to their babies no matter the fur color rolled.

Once you have a design in mind, you go back to the litter and click "convert puppy #". This button automatically adds the puppy to your Character Hub. Here you can fully update their profile. If you or the other parent player(s) do not wish to write as that puppy, you can change their status to Up for Adoption (UFA) and other members will be able to search for them in character search!

So really that's all there is to it. Design puppies after the roll you are given, add features from related family members, and enjoy the babies you have created.

Important notes:

Mutations are entirely random and could affect fur or eyes. We have a Mutations Guide if you want more details on that

If your puppy is unhealthy or mom has complications you are required to follow both of those.

If a puppy is stillborn or a litter doesn't produce puppies, then you cannot repeat your roll. Everyone gets the same chance.

The swatches you see on a generated litter are there as a guide, you can use them as a copy-paste of colors for the pup, but generally they're there to give you a visual idea of the outcome. You do not have to strictly adhere to the rolled swatches.