Ah yes, it is time. Part of the joy of writing our grubby little characters is the joy of finding love, romance, or just getting jiggy with it for fun because why not? So this is what you can expect when it comes to mating and reproduction on Nocturne.

As a foreword: any wolf with a uterus is considered a dam, and any wolf who can impregnate a dam is a sire. This is the closest we can really get to some gender neutral terms for explaining how things work.

Sexual Maturity

The first thing to know about wolves here on Nocturne is that they must be 1 year, 6 months old (also known as 1.5 years) in order to reproduce. This is when they are considered adult (equivalent of 18 years in human years) and capable of having sex. We do not allow underage sex, so no, characters under this age are simply not permitted to do the devil's tango. However, characters who are entering an age where they start going through puberty may experience attraction, frustrations, a hormone shift, and a desire. They simply cannot act on it.

A dam's estrus (heat) cycle:
Your character, as the dam, will experience their first heat either around the time they reaches 1.5 years old, or the first winter after they does. During this period that character may be moody, needy, flustered, horny, and even confused. Whether or not they reproduce or have a sexual drive is up to you. BUT - each character should still be affected by these hormones, and other characters likely will react to how pretty the wolf in heat smells.

Heat cycles are generally a total of one month long, but the dam is only ovulating for 1-2 weeks during this period (at the end of the cycle). That means the dam or those around them may wanna do the deed before the fertile period hits. It is up to you whether this fertile period is 1 week or 2 weeks - but if you set a time period for it we ask that you stick to it.

During the dam's cycle, they can mate with as many sires as they like, but only a maximum of three sires can be used for a litter.

A dam can only come into heat once per IC year which is once every 300 days. The system tracks this for you and simply won't let a dam have more babies if they still has a timer left.

Breeding Season

Just like in real life, almost all dams will go into heat in the winter. You can choose to do this any time of the year, but you should consider the repercussions of any litter born in winter. Winter-born litters are simply not going to thrive as well. If you wanna do it, though, we won't judge you. We all love a little struggle.

Attraction typically begins in autumn, or about two months before the dam's heat begins. During this period a hormonal shift and a change in pheromones will cause the dam and their suitors to be drawn to one another. During this period they will likely take time to get to know one another, form bonds, and determine if they'd be a good fit.

While there is this "warm-up" period before a dam's heat in which to build interest in suitors, they can also choose to have one night stands. If they meet someone during horny hours, there's nothing stopping them from having fun even if they don't know the suitor. It's judgement free here (though we're probably reading it too, its juicy ok).

Do I have to write out the deed? Absolutely not! If you are not comfortable writing sexual acts then you can simply describe how the character is feeling in the moment and fade to black. You must at least imply that sex was had either at the fade to black point or after. Remember: copulation has to happen in order to have babies.

Requirements for breeding:

Honestly, there aren't many of those. The character (dam and sire) must on-site for at least one season (75 in-game days) and that they have had time to settle in and get to know their surroundings. This timeline is to help prevent spamming of new characters for the sake of having more litters.

Outside of that? There is no stressful post requirement, or anything to consider. The checklist is simply: Is character of age? Has character been in-game for at least 75 days? If the answer to both of those questions is yes then they can have babies.

Note: If you are found to bring in characters and just kind of "wait around" until the 75 days is up and then have them bone to make babies and then go inactive with that character again, your ability to have more litters may be removed. Do not abuse the system. This is not a wolf dating simulator.

I'm ready to go how do I get my puppies?

Good of you to ask! Once the dam has had their naughty time and done the deed with whoever the suitors are, you can go to the litter hub to generate your litter. That's right - you randomly roll it yourself! Just hop over to Litter Generator. Here you'll enter the dam's ID, the id of each sire (at least one, no more than 3), and a link to each thread where copulation takes place.

You have to enter attempts as urls separated by commas (link,link,link). This is to give a safety check for if copulation actually happened, otherwise the litter may be denied during the approval process.

Once the litter is rolled, you will see an outcome. Some litters may not conceive, as sometimes puppies just don't happen. Keep in mind that litters can also have stillborn puppies.

Important notes:

A dam who mates with any sire who is 2 or more times their size is likely to have complications. These complications have a variety of affects. This is a bit of forced realism, and you should follow the complications you are given.

The rolled litter will tell you what litter it is of the year, what year you rolled it in, the season and moon cycle they were conceived under, the dam, the sires, how many puppies, who rolled the litter, and it will list the attempts (if you linked them properly), as well as other details. You should read the Litter Creation page for more details on litters.

Wait, mutations? Yes, mutations! We have a Mutations Page specifically detailing how mutations work and what they are. Mutations are breed-only, with only a a few exceptions.

How do I make my puppies though?
Well, you'll have to check the Litter Creation guide above and it will guide you through the process of using the generated litter to design, convert, and adopt out your little potatoes.