Rexalia - Breeding & Gene Mechanics

Breeding & Gene Mechanics

Breeding in Rexalia occurs bi-monthly. During Beta this schedule may be shifted to accomodate playtesting of other game systems. Check the discord for updates!

Our breeding system is a little different than other ARPGs!
In Rexalia the offspring's markings are not only rolled from the genes of the parents but also the grandparents. Additionally, there is always a chance for a random magic color or gene to appear, even if it occurs nowhere in the lineage. These are called mutations.

Mutations may take the form of traits, which result in physical changes to your Rexal. Most traits provide cosmetic changes only, however some do provide a gameplay advantage.

How To Submit Breeding Items Slots Courtship Submissions

How To Submit A Breeding

Breeding is not available at all times. Every so often the elders will lift the magic that keeps rexals from being able to reproduce and allow new rexals to be brought into the world. Only rexals who have completed their Coming Of Age Ceremony may successfully produce offspring. Before deciding to breed your rexals, please refer to the breeding rules on the group rules page.

Breeding Items

Allows for same sex breedings. Made with red fruit.

Higher chance of random mutations. (Mutations are random genes that can pop up even if they are not in your linage!

Allows you to skip doing a courtship, and still have a chance at 2-4 eggs.

ALL the pups will inherit the selected parent's magic colour. Please note - this item does NOT increase or allow the passing of any magic modifier marking/trait.

Item usages

Items must be written in the form when submitting your breeding request. Items cannot be retroactively used after your breeding request is rolled, so please remember to use any desired items! Items must also be in your inventory at the time of usage, if it is not available in your inventory, it cannot be applied.

Slots

Slots can be sold, traded, or even gifted. These slots can come with various rules, such as allowing or disallowing inbreeding and courtship submissions (including what type of courtship submissions are allowed). When splitting a breeding, pick of the litter should also be specified. All rules should be stated in the written permissions that is linked in your form. When buying a slot, the seller may not make any claims to POTL, if the buyer wants to share the clutch afterwards, that is up to their discretion. Please be aware of what the rules are to a slot and ensure you are okay with them before purchasing/trading.

When using said slot, be very careful to not only be sure you're okay with the rules of the slot, but to also follow them exactly. If a user is found to be breaking a rule, the breeding will be rejected.

Each breeding season you get to use 3 breeding entries. These can all be splits or full breedings, or it can be a different matchup of the two kind (for example, as 2 split and 1 full). ATTENTION - Doing a Split entry will count as an entry for BOTH participants, regardless of who posted the breeding.

To change the ownership of a slot, go to the Rexal's profile, and click on their "Slots" tab. From there, select a slot that is in your ownership and click on the "Details" button. This should redirect you to that specific slot's link. From here, you can fill out a form regarding the slot's permissions, and you can save it with the "Update Comment" button. Please note that the form cannot be edited once you have saved it, so make sure that everything looks correct! You can also transfer the slot without filling out the form at your own discretion, but keep in mind that the admins will not be able to help you as effectively in the case of a dispute due to the lack of written permissions. You can transfer the slot by scrolling down to the "Transfer Slot" window, typing in the other player's name, selecting them, and then hitting the "Transfer" button.

COURTSHIP SUBMISSIONS

Please remember that you do not need a courtship when using an NPC or Elder breeding slot. These slots will always produce 2-4 offspring.

Courtship submissions are not required, however are recommended due to the benefits. Rexals bred without a courtship submission will produce either 1 or 2 offspring. However if a courtship submission is included, that number changes instead to 2-4 offspring.

Split breeding with another player will always result in 2 eggs. Split breeding with another player and using a courtship will always result in 4 eggs.

Courtship submissions and literature do not have to be done by you. You may have another user create your courtship submission, whether through trade, commission, or just as a favor, however the artist must give permission for you to use the image as a courtship. Please be mindful of any rules of your permissions if you are submitting a breeding using a purchased/traded/gifted slot.

Courtship submissions should follow the same art and literature rules that other images and literature follows. Furthermore, each courtship submission may only be used once - there will be repercussions if a user is found to be reusing courtship submissions for multiple breedings.

A courtship submission should also follow the following rules

Art

Rex must always be clearly visible and the focal point of the image.
At least 3 body sections (the 'headshot' being mandatory) must be visible of each rex.
Both rexals participating in the breeding must be in the image.
Images do not need to be romantic, but the participating Rexals must be interacting in some way.
Images must be colored.
Backgrounds must be full color and meet the 3 Planes OR Elements standard.
Collaborations are allowed but must be clearly labeled who did which part and/or what was done by each party. They must include at least one Rex owned by each collaborator.
Each Rex must be at least 150 pixels wide or tall, and must be identifiable by color/markings, and each image should be at least 500x500 pixels.

Literature

Both rexals participating in the breeding must be a central character in and throughout your story.
Participating rexals must be interacting throughout the story. While they may do independent things (such as walking away for a moment and returning, for example), they should not each have their own plotline. Furthermore, the writing should focus on the rexals (ie, not writing about the scenery for 75% of the word count).
Roleplay is allowed. However, each post must be clearly labeled with who has written it and it may be submitted to the group only once.
Collaborations within literature that are written and presented as seamless stories are allowed as well, but must also be clearly labeled who did which part and/or what was done by each party.
Literature should be at least 800 words.

Breeding Submissions

Mechanics

Claiming a geno

When participating in a split breeding you must state how the genos will be split. To claim a geno, reply to the breeding admin's comment on deviantART to state which genos you want to claim and which ones you want to give to your breeding partner, if applicable.

In the future we hope to automate this via the website.

How do halo/magic colors work?

All halos follow a certain color coding. The color model we use is the HSL one. Magic colors are constructed like this:

hsl( YOUR COLOR NUMBER, 90%, 70% ) The two secondary values are always 90% and 70%! This ensures that all rex have the same saturation and lightness to their magic. Due to this, the colors are able to be mashed together without getting mudded! This means that halo colors are always a mixture of both parent's colors (unless a random mutation happens)!

For example:

We have the color

#f76e64

and

#6e8ef7

The roller will roll a color between those two!

This entire range is possible! In our case, the breeding roller rolled:

#F77E6E

and

#6EF7D3

As you can see, these two are in between this range! But if you are lucky (or unlucky, depending on your color preferences), there is always a chance of a mutation, which will pick a completely random color within the halo ranges.

Are there other colors?

There are! Some color modifiers will affect the magic of your rex, as well. For example Nox is a modifier that will color all magic black. This doesn't mean that the actual magic hsl code is black, however. The rex will still have a normal magic color that they can pass down. This will be listed in their import information. However, on the actual import, the magic will be pitch black. For now there are only two color modifiers that affect the halo, but there might be more down the line!

Inbreeding

A breeding will be considered inbreeding if the parents share a common Rexal in any section of their lineage, excluding Mysterious Strangers. Inbreeding has an extremely high chance of producing only stillborn eggs, and conveys no benefits such as increased mutation chance.

Even with the risks we understand some players will choose to inbreed for lore reasons, but admins will always ask for confirmation that you wish to inbreed before rolling an inbreeding.

What are mutations?

Random mutations can happen any time rex are bred, which means that sometimes markings, traits or magic colors that are not present in the Rexal's lineage will show up in a breeding! New markings and mutations are sometimes revealed this way, rather than announcing them when they are created.

What are the pass rates for markings and traits?

Only Vuek knows the exact passing rates! Admins are not able to assist with questions regarding pass percentages. However,

Markings and Traits pass rates are dependant on their rarity, with common being the easiest to pass, and very rare being the hardest.

If both parents have a marking the chances of it passing are greater than a single parent having the marking.

Dominant markings have a greater chance of passing down than recessive markings.

If a grandparent has a marking it has a chance to pass to the offspring.

Legendary markings, have no pass rate at all, and can only appear in breedings as a random mutation.

How does the roller roll each gene?

Not to get into too much detail: The roller goes over each and every single coat color, gene or trait and rolls for if it will get passed on. It does that for each parent and grandparent, until it went through them all. Then it will roll if the egg will get a random mutation and if yes, it will roll a random pick out of the gene/trait pool to apply.

So you can see, if your parents both have a single gene, the roller will roll for that gene twice, which means about twice the chance of getting it!

What % have grandparents' genes to pass on?

Yes, you read that right! Rexals have the chance of inheriting their grandparent's markings. The chances for that aren't as much as a parent's genes of course, but they are not impossible by any means. The exact percentages might change down the line if we feel it is too little or too much, so see the chances about a third of a breeding overall.

What is the chance to get a random trait or gene?

There's a small chance to get a random trait or gene within any breeding. The chances of that are around 5%, so you might get lucky! These can be any genes available in the game, even legendary ones.

What are the chances to inherit the parents coat color? Does it help if both parents have the same coat color?

If both parents have the same coat color, the chances are very high that the baby will get that same coat color as well. Otherwise, the baby might get one of the coat colors of the parents (or the grandparents!). There is, however, a chance of neither coat color getting 'caught' by the roller. If that happens the baby will get a new color and that can even include one of the very rare coat colors!