What the fuck is an Adoptable

[sugoi]

might clean this up more in the future but for now HERE YA GO 

> "What the hell IS it??"
a character design. usually made with the intent to sell it.
a (socially accepted) example would be:
selling a design to a vtuber for them to use as their persona.

> "Ok. That kinda makes sense. But other than that, what else do you buy them for?"
I dunno. For writing, roleplay, to collect.
Yes, just to collect! People collect art all the time.
This is just another- albeit slightly convoluted- method of doing so.

---

### Introduction
I will be using "adopt" and "design" interchangeably. For brevity, they are the same thing.

Adoptables are a niche method of obtaining a cool little character.
You don't commission them. You don't give any input on the creative process. You see a design you like and buy it- for dollars, for pocket lint, or whatever else the seller is accepting in lieu of legal tender.

### Bases and Off-Base Adoptables
The adoptable type you've probably seen the most of are ones made with a base. 5 drawings of a horse all with the same pose and lineart, but different coloring. These are far quicker to produce and therefore cheaper. Usually. We'll get to that.

Off-base is just a regular ol drawing. The pose and lineart arent reused- it's one and done.


### Understanding the community and culture
Artists can technically sell adopts on any site, but some are better suited for it than others. Here is a non exhaustive list in order of most to least recommended: Toyhou.se, Furaffinity, Twitter, DeviantART, Instagram. There's also YCHCommishes but I just really don't know enough about it to have an opinion on it. Discord, VGen, and Lorekeeper-based sites are what I consider secondary platforms- as you need a preexisting audience to use them effectively.

In this section, I will primarily talk about adoptables on Toyhou.se. It's specifically built for storing and tracking characters, and so is a popular choice by far. The biggest caveat users cite is the learning curve.. but that's not what we're here for.

Toyhouse has a large active user base and many niche adoptable communities within it. Oh yes, we will be niche-ing down even further.

If you're a buyer, or just want to peruse without spending anything, you're spoiled for choice. You could grow FAT off all the amazing things these artists have built for you. For free. It's really very impressive.

If you're a seller, it's tough out here- but there is room for EVERYONE! Have a seat!
^{I SAID HAVE A SEAT.}

There are three main categories: Humanoid, Furry, Feral. Person, dog-person, just a whole-ass dog. Simple.

Toyhouse's storage system works like this: every new character gets their own profile. You are assigned as the owner by default. You can put a few images on there and call it a day, or go all out on customization. Each image can be credited to artists both on and off-site.
Transferring ownership of a character to another person is easy: you open up the ownership page and submit a transfer request to.. uh.. Susan. Susan accepts. The character- and everything you put on their profile is now under her ownership! Yippee! Ah, but what if there are conditions attached to the character? "Please don't dress them in polka dots." There's a ToS section just for that- and it is also attached to the character. This website has everything it's fuckin bananas.

### Species
^"what"

Okay, what if you want to niche down just a tad further? Lets make our own adoptable species! A dog with human hands for feet. We'll call them.... "HandHounds"! Huh? That's horrifying? How about I kill you how about th

We'll just hop onto the Toyhouse forums and make a post about our cool new species there :)
What's their lore? Where'd they come from? What traits do they need to have to be considered a HandHound? You can be as detailed or as vague as you want. And that's all there is to it.

#### Species types: closed
^{i lied}

Closed Species means "only i have permission to make these lil fellas".
Why would you want that? A closed species allows for a more laid back approach. You can develop both the design and world at your own pace, or not at all. It's just you, after all. Smooth sailing.

#### Species types: open
^{"please met me go home i havent seen my family in months"}

Open Species means your design is open to the public.
You can make strict rules or be lax- but at minimum, interested parties are going to want a trait sheet.
Do they need hands on all four paws? Can I give them even more? Can it be a cat instead? What kind of hands are allowed?
Users are enthusiastic and (generally) respectful of your wishes. They want to know all the rules before making a wonderful abomination to call their own!

Some open species (also called "semi-open") control the creation of new critters via "MYO" slots. Make-Your-Own. How do you get one, you ask?

ARPGs and Lorekeeper sites are high-maintenance, but many users enjoy making and participating in them. Events are held- writing prompts for example- which give out virtual currency. Which you then use to purchase a MYO slot or some other item in the game. Maybe an elixir that gives your HandHound a bomb-ass set of acrylic nails. Yes, we're playing a game now. Adoptables? What are you talking about? Shut up and use my sign-up referral so I can get more DawgPoints.

I'm sorry- I got ahead of myself. What's an ARPG? What's a Lorekeeper?
For brevity- because this post is long already- think neopets, but with more writing/drawing involved to earn currency.
An ARPG can be run on Toyhouse (god bless them), but a more sane alternative is Lorekeeper. It is a framework with all the tools and plugins needed to run a (pretty robust imo) ARPG for your species. Did I mention that some adoptables on those sites sell for thousands of dollars of real money?


Oh dear, that's all the time we have! Thank you for reading my slop and let me know if you have questions! This is my special interest and I know way too much about it.
-sugoi


===================================================

## Glossary

### Auctions
- SB - Starting Bid. Bidders will often just put this instead of the number.
- MB - Minimum Bid. The minimum increment for bids.
- AB - Auto Buy. Price to buy outright.
- OTA - Offer To Adopt. The artist is considering offers of cash, virtual currency, art, other adopts, etc.
- PP - lol. pp. Payment Plan. Usually when high bids are involved.

### Listing Status
- Pending - Artist is waiting on full payment.
- Hold - Same as pending but it's implied no payment(s) has been made yet.
- TBA - To Be Announced. Placeholder for a title or name. Sometimes used in place of "Pending."
- TBN - To Be Named.
- NFT - Not For Trade.
- NFS - Not For Sale.
- FS - For Sale.
- Master List - A list of all adoptables under a species or artist.
- MYO - Make Your Own. Permission to create your own adoptable of given a species. These permissions are sometimes given out in the form of tokens which may or may not be gifted/traded/etc depending on the species guidelines.

[AutoReiv]

I really appreciate this, bc even if I've been around the internet for a long time, and observed the adoptable culture happen from a distance, it still seems a very intimidating and strange culture to me. I really love your art tho sugoi. It peaks my curiosity and it's inspiring!
Thanks for typing this out!

[sugoi]

WAAAAAH ty auto ;___; !!
ive dipped my toes into it over the years, but have only been going all-out this past month. it definitely would have been overwhelming if i hadn't had as much exposure to it beforehand

[kringle]

will pin this when u r done with your post #nopressure 

[sugoi]

i think its as done as its going to be. i was going to add a section on how to actually make them but that's just character design *shrug*.
i do wanna spruce it up with bbcode later though

[kringle]

i was going to add a section on how to actually make them but that's just character design *shrug*.

if thats something you want to do i think it'd be a cool addition! maybe there will be future forum users who could find the information put in a concise&sugoi way helpful