New Contributor Guide

Hello and welcome to the Furry Basketball Association! We're glad you could join us!

This page is meant to give visitors and new contributors a jumping off point. Below you'll find a brief explanation of the FBA, a list of useful terminology, a few ways to start learning about and engaging with the league, and a some ways to get your own character into the league.

There's a lot of information and history in the league. Don't worry, nobody is going to expect you to know it all, and there are a lot of people that are willing to help.

What is the FBA?

In-universe, the FBA is a professional basketball league in a setting inhabited entirely by anthropomorphic characters. The league is co-ed, and allows all nationalities and species to participate (though there are certain body limitations). The league has 24 teams spread across the United States and Canada, with up to 15 players on each team.

Out of character, the FBA is a community based around a combined basketball management simulation game and shared storytelling setting. The league is a collaborative project, with community members helping to run all parts of the league. One or two community members run each team. Each player is a character created, submitted, and played by a community member. Each year the community plays through a full season of games, with team staff managing strategy for the teams, and characters' actors telling stories, creating art, and playing out interactions between their characters.

Useful Terminology

• Actor – the community member who is currently portraying a player. A player's actor is generally the person that is writing stories, generating art, making decisions regarding, and for all purposes 'running' the character. Often a player's actor is the player's creator, but not always.
• Commissioner – the community members that manage and run the league. The commissioners run the game engine and sim games, handle and perform upkeep on the website, administer the FBA Discord, and generally make the league run.
• Committee – the committee is a set of community members that assist the commissioners with running the league. They are elected on an annual basis. Committee members help vote on canon decisions, moderate the FBA Discord, and assist with running league events.
• Contributor – community members in general. Anybody that helps contribute to the league.
• Draft Candidate – a player who has been submitted for the upcoming draft, and is not yet playing in the FBA.
• The League – the general term for the FBA. 'The League' can refer to the in-universe or out of character Furry Basketball Association.
• Player – a character that plays in the league. Generally, draft candidates and retired characters are also broadly considered as players.
• Rookie – a player that is in their first season of playing for the league.
• Team Staff – community members that manage a specific team. Team staff are responsible for determining the makeup of the team, adjusting lineups, and generally running the team. Team staff are divided into two roles – primary contacts (who are ultimately responsible for the team) and secondary contacts (who assist the primary contact).

Where do I start?

Contributors to the FBA can be as involved or as hands off as they'd like. The league itself is massive – at any given time during the season there are up to 360 active players, and normally six games being run every evening. Some of these players have many pieces of art, active Twitter accounts, audio content, and entire story series. A few good ways to get started are:

• Join the Discord – much of the community side of the FBA operates off of Discord. There is a link to the FBA Discord in the top section of the left sidebar on the wiki. This is where the community gathers to talk about games, discuss the season, share art and stories, and just generally hang out. When you first join, you'll be asked a few screening questions before being allowed into the rest of the channels. There's almost always somebody around in the server, so feel free to jump in and start asking questions. There's a separate FBA Discord server that is primarily for roleplay purposes. This server acts as a hub for teams and a location to run league special events.
• Take a look around the wiki – The wiki is a treasure trove of information. If the Discord is overwhelming, feel free to start looking around the wiki. Some good places to start are the team pages (available from the front page). Each team's page lists all of the players currently on that team. Check out some of the players' pages from there to see their bios and find any stories or pieces of art that have been posted for them. Some players' pages have more or less content on them, so feel free to poke around until you find a character that interests you, and use them as a jumping off point. The front page also shows all of the most recently submitted art and stories, which can be a good way to identify active players.
• Follow the results – if you enjoy the mechanical or stats side of sports, start following game results. The most recent results are linked in the left sidebar on the wiki, under the Boxscore section. Team and player stats for the season are listed on the left sidebar of the wiki, under FBA Assets and Data.
• Dive into Twitter – if you live for the drama, then the FBA Twitter space is a good place for you. Twitter is where a lot of the FBA's roleplay and character interaction takes place. This can range from characters casually talking about their days, to whatever hijinks they're starting, to escalating beef and feuds between players or teams. The wiki's front page has a feed that updates with the most recent tweets from FBA characters. You can find a list of various FBA Twitter accounts here, or you can use the FBA Twitter List.

How do I get a character into the League?

You can introduce a new character at almost any time. Characters in the FBA don't necessarily need to be players – they can be journalists, other athletes, various members of team staff, or just about anything. Just make sure to speak to anybody that may need to know about the character – for example, if you're creating a member of a team's staff, make sure to okay it with that team's primary or secondary contact.

There are a few more limitations surrounding how and when you can add a new character as a player to the League.

• Draft Submissions – The draft is how new players make it into the league. There's an annual period where the FBA accepts new draft submissions. You can reasonably be playing your character long before they get drafted, just not as a player in the league. For more information, take a look at the Draft Candidate Resource.
• D League Players – The D League is the FBA's Development League. This is a separate but related league where players that haven't received contract offers from the FBA's teams can develop their talent. Players from the D League can be signed to an FBA team with open space at any time.
• Adopt a player – The Committee and Commissioners keep a list of characters that are up for adoption. These players are no longer being actively played, and their creators have given permission for others to take them over. These characters are already active players in the league, and they may already have pre-existing stories or lore.