Rules and Guidelines

[Saint Cecone]

All of the rules below apply fully to all aspects of the site (game, forum) as well as official chats (admin, mod, and designer streams, discord guilds, etc), regardless of the content. By signing up here at basiliskstew.com, you are agreeing to follow all rules set by the administrators, and you also agree to take note of and abide by any updates or changes to said rules going forward.


General Rules​

You must meet the minimum age requirement to join us.
The recommended age for this site is 16+, as we have and allow content that may not be considered appropriate for younger viewers. The absolute minimum age allowable is 13. Any accounts found under this age will be immediately deleted.

Multiple accounts are not allowed except for mules.
One user may have one normal account. A mule account is a secondary account which has been created with the "mule" option at registration; these accounts function normally apart from not being able to earn credits or items themselves. You may have as many mules as you want, but they must be marked as such upon registration. Multiple credit-earning accounts are not allowed.

Mules may not be used to participate in events or games.
You may not use mule marked accounts to try and get more things in contests, games, shops, or forum projects. If you accidentally post with a mule for something, just correct your mistake by posting with your main account.

Do not harass or incite other users.
If you have a problem with another user you cannot solve peaceably, utilize the ignore function. Do not start fights or arguments with them. Do not interact with them in any other way. Do not degrade them to others. Treat them as if they do not exist.


If you see a user causing issues, please use the report button.
Do not attempt to moderate (or "mini-mod") the general forums yourself. Doing so will be considered an infraction on your part and you will receive a warning for it.These infractions will result in an eventual ban if you continue.


Do not troll other users.
Lighthearted teasing between friends is fine, but if you are persistently going out of your way to cause difficulty in another user's life you will be considered harassing. This includes, but is not limited to, creating multiple accounts to get around bans or attempting to "vague post" clearly inflammatory complaints.


Do not post any obscene or grotesque material.
No pornographic images may be posted on Basilisk Stew. This includes all images, photography or manmade, that imply any sexually stimulating act or acts. All images, including photography, must conceal genital regions of any and all genders. Photography must conceal all nipples of any gendered individual. Drawn/painted/otherwise hand-created art may display visible nipples, but only if the content depicted does not display any sort of sexually suggestive content, including but not limited to groping or stimulating the region.

No photorealistic images of any kind, including photography, of real or extremely lifelike gore may be posted. More simplistic or stylized violence is allowed, such as scars or injuries on clearly illustrated art or "candy gore" type images. If you are uncertain, please ask a mod or admin for clarification before posting.


Do not post artwork that you do not hold the rights to post.
If an artist does not allow posting of their artwork, do not post it. If you are unaware of their policy and are informed they do not allow posting at a later time, you must remove the artwork you have posted.

You are not required to go through and filter all past posts if an artist updates their terms of service at a later date to disallow posting, though you must stop using their art immediately from that point onward.

Artists who make contracts with users to sell art to them may not later update their terms to disallow postage or use; the agreement made at the time of sale is considered the binding ToS.

If an artist requires that you credit them when posting their work, you must credit them - regardless of what you are using the image for - and you must do it every time unless they clearly state otherwise.

You may not use character designs belonging to other individuals for references without their documented, express permission to do so. This includes adopts and reference sheets, though it does not extend to commercial properties. You may use commercial property characters as inspiration for designs (for "cosplay" style designs) under the understanding that you hold no right to the original material.


Shops and groups may hold blacklists if they desire, and may not be harassed about them.
These lists may vary in their depth at the shop or group owner's discretion (e.g. simply be a compilation of names, up to a detailed list with full examples of rule violations), but they may not be used to harass the banned individuals (e.g. listing inciteful names or slander as 'reasons').


Scamming in any capacity is not tolerated.
Scamming is defined as any action where a user receives something in a way they shouldn't have.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• agreeing to pay 1000 creds for a piece of art, getting a preview, then backing out without paying
• creating multiple accounts to enter raffles or free events
• offering things the user does not actually own in order to gain access to a design or item
• an artist agreeing to produce a piece, taking payment, and then never completing it.

It is very recommended that you add an agreed date of completion to all contracts; slow completion is not considered scamming on its own - the date to be completed by must be present in the initial agreement to be considered. However, an artist must remain present and in contact with the commissioner / customer; disappearing for six months or more will allow a client to file a scam report and be refunded if the project was for credits.

This includes real money transactions, however, in order to act on any reports, private information such as transaction data must be handed over to the administrators if requested. Please keep in mind that while we can moderate user actions on our site, and scamming is a bannable offence, we cannot force anyone to provide services externally. Please use all caution you would use elsewhere when dealing with off-site agreements! We cannot return money given to a user to you!

The site may add more examples as necessary, and we reserve the right to judge unusual incidents as needed.


Repeatedly offering free events with no payout is considered scamming.
This is a separate rule to emphasize its seriousness and also highlight a policy that may be different from other sites you may be accustomed to. Offering free events (such as “post this many times to get a free sketch” or “first to post 1000 gets a freebie!”) then not following through with the offer is considered scamming, as you are gaining advertising / attention for yourself under false pretenses.

We do understand that sometimes situations come up and you may not be able to follow through on a single offer, so we do allow some leniency for this. However, doing this three or more times within two months or failing to provide rewards seven times will be considered scamming. Please do not waste peoples’ time or falsely get their hopes up.


Shops may implement trade and ownership rules at their discretion.
Any thread/group that gives or sells art may implement their own trade rules which must be followed upon participation of that thread/group. Examples of allowances include removal of players upon shop banning/expulsion, rehoming/reselling/rerolling owners of designs with certain conditions, or total disallowance of any trade whatsoever. Please be certain to read any thread/group’s individual rules before participating.

Any rules that did not exist at the time of design acquisition may not be applied retrospectively. For instance, if a shop decides four months after opening that they will rehome any designs not claimed to their master list within a month, any designs given out before implementation of this rule may not be rehomed. The exception to this is trade rules; if a shop has no trade rules, then it is assumed trading is not allowed. However, if a shop implements trade rules in the future, then they may choose to apply them to all existing items and design at their discretion.

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You may advertise work for real-world currency, but you may not trade site assets directly for it.
Only your personal work or services may be traded for actual money. Items and assets on Basilisk Stew are not considered to have any monetary value and are therefore barred from being bought and sold directly. You may offer site assets for any premium items, however, as these items are non-refundable and cannot be swapped for real money.

Shop/Project Specific Rules​

Agreements are considered binding contracts between users.
Any agreement made on this site is considered a contract between those two users, and may not be broken unless both users are returned to their original state. For instance, if a user agrees to buy an adopt for 1000 creds, then sends the creds, then the seller changes their mind, the seller must return the 1000 creds to the buyer.

Cancellation of agreements by a seller is allowed before completion of an agreement as long as payment is returned to the buyer. Agreements may not be canceled after completion, such as a user selling lines then later deciding they want them back; they may not reclaim the lines this way unless it was flatly specified in the original agreement.

Cancellation by a buyer is only allowed with agreement from the seller, before work has begun, or if an agreed upon due date has passed. Buyers may not simply change their mind and decide not to pay if an artist can demonstrate they have been working to complete the agreement as intended.

Cancellation in the instance of trades or swaps must be agreed upon by both users if any work has begun on either side. If no significant work can be demonstrated, either side may cancel as long as they alert the other immediately.

Reminder that any violation of the above rules is a bannable offence.


Terms agreed to are considered binding for any site or usage.
If a user agrees to provide services to another, such as linework, base edits, etc, then those items belong to the user to which they were given unless explicitly stated in the original agreement. They may use agreements made on this site as proof of ownership anywhere else at their discretion, and they may contact an admin for the site’s verification.

Previous users may not have any influence on future participants of agreements unless originally agreed upon.
For instance, if user A sells lines to user B with the agreement that they will not be sold for more than originally paid, user B may not sell those lines for more than they originally paid. However, if user A sells lines to user B and gives them full rights to the lines with no other stipulations, then user B may resell those lines for whatever they wish in the future. This includes usage range; unless an agreement states that work may only be used or posted on basiliskstew.com then it may be used wherever the purchaser desires.

Any terms agreed to on other sites are considered binding on BS as well. If you are using an artist's work from another site, then whatever terms they have laid out there are binding here. Any modifications or changes to an artist's terms must be displayed publicly. We will not accept screenshots for verification proof.


Work must meet the standards of the agreement made.
A user may not substitute a lower or less costly version of an item in an agreement; if user A agrees to provide a painting to user B for 1000 creds, they may not instead provide a sketch. Work should match the quality of advertised work and skill.


Work completed in an agreement is the property of the recipient unless otherwise noted in the contract.
A user who creates assets for one shop or project may not use that asset in another project unless given explicit permission. While the creator must be credited and they may display the result as an example of their work, once sold or donated they retain no usage rights not stipulated in the original agreement.


Any designs created within a shop (by the shop’s staff members) are considered part of that shop or community for the purposes of display and setting trade rules or rights.
Users are considered the owner of the individual visual designs they acquire, though no implication of species or lore ownership exists. Artists do not retain any right to designs beyond the right to be credited to their work, and may not demand that users return or stop using designs sold during their time there should they later leave.


Users working in a shop or group must be credited for their work.
If a user provides any work for a shop or group, they have the right to request they are publicly credited for this work. This may be in the form of a visible credit in a thread and/or visibility on shop work or certificates. This must not be of questionable visibility and should be immediately obvious; extremely small text or near-invisible text to make crediting less notable is not permitted.


Art theft is not tolerated and will result in heavy penalty.
For the purposes of Basilisk Stew, art theft includes but may not be limited to:

• tracing or painting over others' art or photos without verifiably documented permission
• creating works that are extremely similar to another piece of art so as to create a copy that "isn't traced" (aka “eyeballing”)
• using pieces of art created for one shop and adjusting it for use in another without permission
• piecing together pieces of bases without permission to do so, both drawn and pixellated
• generally any instance where a user claims a piece of art is theirs that isn't

While not directly art theft, painting over others' art or photos that have documented permission without telling the end user is considered in poor form and will be warned. Paintovers must be explicitly documented.

Art theft is not using resources like stock photos as reference material for image creation. It is also not using non-character-design images as inspiration to create new designs. These are both good practice and should not be conflated with art thievery.


Plagiarism is not allowed.
While we cannot offer protection for loose concepts (such as having a shop based on creatures born from a crystal or dogs with wings), direct plagiarism is not permitted and will be treated as seriously as art theft. This is defined as "the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own."

There are many different types of plagiarism, and we are not able to cover all of them. Concepts, for instance, are very shaky in adoptable communities, and will not be enforced unless a very large portion of information can be demonstrated to be directly lifted from another. Our rule deals with direct and paraphrased plagiarism. This includes:

• Directly taking text from another user's shop, project, or game without permission and using it as your own.
• Taking text from another user's shop, project, or game and changing only a few words and using it as your own.
• Claiming permission to copy text when none is given.

Permission to use text must be stated clearly on the site that the content originated from by the creator; for instance, if it comes from Basilisk Stew, it must be posted on the forums, preferrably in a public space, and if it comes from DeviantArt, it must be posted in the description, a comment, or on the forums, etc. Screenshots will not be accepted for proof of permission, and private communication is likewise not acceptable.

Permissions may not be revoked later unless stated in the original agreement; however, please note that moderators for Basilisk Stew can only see the post history ON this site. Unfortunately this means permissions revoked elsewhere will still be enforced as we have no way to verify history, so please decide what might work best for you and yours with this in mind.


Recolored/"twinned" work must be explicitly stated in any event or sale that has such creations.
While permitted, you must clearly denote when a design is, has been, or will be reused, even if the recolor is clearly visible. A recolor here implies a design that is identical to another with colors changed, not simply reusing a base - i.e, this and this are recolors/twins, but this and this are not.


Templated base usage must be clearly noted in any art or adoptable shop.
If you are running a shop that uses premade bases, this must be stated in your shop thread somewhere, just so users understand what they are getting. As long as this notice is made, all work in that shop will be considered to be templated/reusable lines. It is advisable, then, that shops make sure to make a note when unique additions or edits are made and what they are so that their users understand what they are buying, though this is not a requirement.

When using templated bases in a shop, you must give credit and link the artist of the base/edits even if they do not require it. If they are an artist onsite, you may simply link their profile / "@" them. If they are offsite, you must link one of their online art profiles.