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Hooray, hooray! It's officially the season for the annual Heavy Artillery HBO War Holiday Fic Exchange. Sign up to swap a fic with another mystery member of the HBO War fandom on and revel in the gift provided to you in exchange on January 1, 2026!

If you're unfamiliar with how a fic exchange works, check out the FAQ section below.

SCHEDULE

Tuesday, October 7-Tuesday, October 14: Nomination period.
Wednesday, October 15: Sign ups open!
Friday, October 24: Sign ups close!
Saturday, October 25: Assignments out.
Tuesday, November 18: 1st check in.
Tuesday, December 9: 2nd check in/dropout deadline.
Saturday, December 27: Fic due!
Thursday, Jan 1: Collection opens!

SIGN-UP INFO
To participate in the Holiday Fic Exchange, you will need:

• an AO3 account (to sign up and post your fic to the collection)


• an email account (to receive your assignment)


• a Discord account, if you'd like to take advantage of the two check-in dates on the calendar, or if you enjoy hanging with cool people who are into HBO War shows like yourself

You'll be allowed to make up to ten requests and up to ten offers total. All completed fic must be at least 1,000 words long, in English, to qualify.

If you have any questions that aren't answered in the FAQ below, feel free to reach out to yours truly in the comments, via email to the heavyartillerymods at gmail dot com, or via Discord.

FAQ
What is a fic exchange?
Precisely what it sounds like! You write a fic for another member of fandom while a mystery author writes one for you, and then you exchange them. (Note: the person you are writing for will not necessarily be writing for you, though in a fandom this size it is a possibility.)

How do nominations work?
In order to generate the tag set that people will use to select characters and relationships during their sign-ups, we will have a nominations period from October 7 through October 14. Anyone who wishes to nominate characters or relationships must have an AO3 account. You do not need to sign up for the exchange if you nominate anything (although we certainly hope that you will sign up!). In order to nominate a character or relationship, you need to go to the tag set , click “nominate” at the top, and enter up to four characters or relationships (and specify the fandom).

Relationships must be submitted under the “character” submission field in the following format:

Relationship: [characters]

For instance:
Relationship: Brad Colbert/Nate Fick
Relationship: Pappy Patrick & Walt Hasser & Mike Wynn

If you are looking for a romantic or sexual relationship between characters, please use a “/” in between those characters. If you are looking for a platonic relationship between characters, please use a “&” in between those characters.

NOTE: The moderating team will be approving nominations periodically to ensure that the tag set is ready for sign-ups. AO3 doesn’t tell the moderating team who put in the nominations, so in the unlikely event that there are questions, they will be posted to Heavy Artillery’s tumblr, dreamwidth and discord. 

You can edit your nomination until its been approved. At that point, you’ll no longer be able to edit. If one of your nominations is approved during the nominations period and you wish to change it, please contact the moderators at heavyartillerymods at gmail dot com. 

How do I sign up?
Once the nominations period has closed, then the sign-up link will be active (link to follow in the FAQ once the nominations have closed). Then you click on the link, enter between three and ten requests and three and ten offers and submit!

How detailed do my requests have to be?
Each request must have a fandom (this will be one of Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Generation Kill and Masters of the Air) and then must contain exactly one character or relationship from the tag set. Each request must be for a different character or relationship, with one exception. The exception is that you may choose for a fandom that you would be willing to receive or offer any character or relationship by selecting the “any” box. If you request “any” then you can receive a fic about any character or relationship in that specific fandom. If you offer “any” then you can be matched with a recipient for any character or relationship in the specific fandom. If you would like to receive “any” character or relationship for one specific fandom and no others, then you would include “any” and that fandom three times for your three requests.

Each request may also include optional details and/or a link to a letter at your personal journal (tumblr, dreamwidth, livejournal etc.)! You can offer as little as "wing!fic plz" or expand into entire paragraphs. If you don't think there's enough room in the form to accommodate your request, you can always add more details in a "Dear Author" letter.* Just keep in mind that while fic writers will do their best to accommodate your needs, they are individuals with distinctive styles and voices, and as such will bring their own flare to any request you make. Which is all part of the fun!

*If you're not familiar with what a "Dear Author" letter looks like, here are a few written for various challenges over the years, as examples.

What about my offers?
You must have at least three offers. Each offer must have a fandom and then one character or relationship from the tagset, with one exception. The exception is that you may choose for a fandom that you would be willing to receive or offer any character or relationship by selecting the “any” box. If you offer “any” then you can be matched with a recipient requesting any character or relationship in that specific fandom. If you would like to offer “any” for one specific fandom and no others, then you would include “any” and that fandom three times for your three offers.

What if the person I'm matched with is requesting something on my DNW list as part of their prompt?
You're never obligated to write something you find distasteful or triggering for the person you match with. If your match includes some of your personal DNWs in their prompts, you can avoid or ignore those parts of the prompt and focus on other tropes/details they've listed that work for you.

Am I allowed to request/offer more than three characters/pairings/fandoms?
You're welcome to request and offer as many pairings in as many fandoms as you like, provided that they fit within the 10 request and offer slots you'll be allotted on the sign-up form. (Also, of course, it's gotta be HBO War—Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Masters of the Air, Generation Kill.)

I only write [insert character/ship here]. Do I have to offer or request more than one character/ship?
To keep matching manageable, you're required to request and offer at least three characters/ships.

There's some stuff I really don't like. Will I have the option to request that my writer excludes those things?
Of course! There will be an additional details option in the requests portion of the sign-up form that allows you to specify any content you don't want to see in the fic you receive. This is usually referred to as a Do Not Want (DNW) list.

What about original characters?
You are not currently allowed to request an original character as the main focus of a fic, even as part of a pairing with a canonical character. Limiting main character focus to what exists in the canon without requiring additional reading or research keeps the event accessible to everyone.

How are assignments generated?
AO3 has a matching algorithm that will be used to try and find recipients and creators for each person that signs up. To the extent that some manual matching is needed, then your friendly neighborhood moderators will work to ensure that all matching works out.

Does my fic have to be complete to be posted?
Yes. Meaning if you write a multi-chapter fic, every chapter has to be present and accounted for by the fic deadline on December 27, 2025. If you don't think you'll be able to finish your fic in time, you always have the option to default.

What does "default" mean?
If you don't think you'll be able to finish your story by the deadline, let your moderators (heavyartillerymods at gmail dot com) know and you will default on your assignment, which will then be awarded to someone else as a pinch hit. We ask that you notify the moderators by December 9 if you think you may need extra time or if you need to default.

Am I going to get in trouble if I default?
Nope! Life happens, and the holidays can get hectic. We would request that you be realistic about your schedule and capabilities to let the mods know that you're going to default by the default deadline, December 9, so we don't have to scramble to ensure that all recipients receive a fic, but if you elect to sign up next year, you will not be penalized for defaulting.

How do I claim a pinch hit?
After the default deadline, all pinch hits will be posted here on the community, where you'll be able to claim them via screened comment on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Where can I find the collection?
The moderators will drop a link to the collection here once it's open to post in, and will make a separate post on the Heavy Artillery Dreamwidth community and Tumblr pages as well. A master list will also be provided here in the community once the collection goes live.

THE RULES
Rules are subject to change or expand at any time as necessary to ensure that this event remains fun and inclusive. Having said that, rules will not change without any explanation or notice. Likewise, nobody will be punished for breaking the rules without the same consideration. If you have questions about any existing rules or need clarification on anything, you're welcome to reach out to the mods at any time.

1. Don't be a dick. Pretty straightforward, right?

2. Make sure your fic is appropriately tagged. Yes, this includes the option not to tag, so long as you appropriately apply "Author Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings," etc.

3. No kink shaming. That includes within your requests and your DNW list. Keep it civil or get booted.

4. No prioritizing requests. Basically, don’t list out which of your requests you want most and which you want least, as it can make matching tricky.

5. Do not troll fill or purposefully, maliciously include your recipient's Do-Not-Wants in the gift fic you provide for them. Doing so will result in expulsion from all future Heavy Artillery fic events and potentially blacklisting from the community itself.

6. Do not post your fic to the collection unless it could reasonably be construed as finished. You're welcome to edit or expand your fic until the collection goes live, but we ask that you not post an unfinished work. If you're worried about missing the default deadline but still think you might be able to finish your fic, let the mods know and we’ll do our best to work something out with you.

Please let the mods know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, or if you require clarification on anything.