Are you a Critical Role fan writer or artist? Do you enjoy exploring less-commonly-seen characters, pairings, and groups? Do you want to secretly plot a beautiful gift for a fellow fandom member, and get a gift in return? Well:
Sign-ups for Critical Role Summer Wildflowers 2026 are now open!
Sign-ups ask what you want to request, and what you want to offer. Then, you'll get assigned someone to create a gift for, whose request(s) line up with what you've offered. You'll be able to see all their requests, and pick one to make a gift about. At the same time, someone is secretly creating a gift for you, according to your requests! (read the whole FAQ here)
Summer Wildflowers is an event about rarepairs - you'll be requesting and offering from this list of nominated relationships, which spans platonic and familial relationships, romantic/sexual relationships, poly ships, fun and bizarre crossovers, and everything inbetween.
Requests (What would you like to receive?)
You can make between 4-10 individual requests. Each request ends up looking like this:
Fill out the form for each request as follows:
Fandom (which campaign category the pairings are from)
Each individual request can only include pairings from one single campaign category.
This should match the campaign category that the relationships have been nominated under, which is visible in the tag set - for instance, Critical Role: Campaign 3 - Bells Hells (Web Series) or Other Exandria, NOT Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series).
Relationships (which pairing or pairings you'd like to receive a gift focusing on)
Only pairings that have been nominated (see here) can be requested.
Nominated pairings from Aramán that haven't previously been used on the Archive won't autofill - just type them in manually, according to how they're listed on the tag set.
Every request can include between 1-15 different pairings from one campaign category.
Otherwise, group pairings into requests however you'd like. The person creating your gift can choose one pairing from any of your requests.
Only request pairings you want to be the focus of your gift. Please do not tag side pairings, just mention them in the text.
Additional tags (whether you'd like Fic, Art, or Any Additional Tag (ie., either))
Ratings (which of the AO3 ratings you'd be hapy to receive a gift with - General, Teen, Mature, Explicit, or Any) (AO3's guidance on ratings can be read here)
Optional: Other details (the place to put prompts, likes, or a Do Not Want list)
Prompts aren't mandatory, but are encouraged for requests! Creators should treat prompts as general guidance rather than feel the need to follow it to the letter. Broad prompts and themes will give your creator their direction, while specific ideas will be more considered as inspiration. The more prompts you can give for each request, the more likely you'll get something you'll love. Prompts shouldn't be used to attempt to "box" a creator into creating one specific gift.
Kink, dark, and otherwise risqué prompts are totally allowed, but make sure to give other options too.
Do Not Want lists are for triggers, squicks, NoTPs, or things that would otherwise spoil your gift. Again, they should not be used to "box" a creator into creating one specific gift. It's better to be very specific than too broad. (see examples in the FAQ, Q.6)
Optionally, you can include a link to a Dear Critter Letter, which gives you more space to talk about your likes and dislikes, what you enjoy about the characters and relationships you requested, more detailed prompts, etc. The link should be publically accessible.
You can view more request examples from last year here! (Requires AO3 login)
Offers (What would you be willing to create?)
Offers look very similar to requests. You can make between 4-10 offers, each with 1-15 pairings from a single campaign category. Again, only pairings that have been nominated (see here) can be offered, and may not autofill if they haven't been used on the Archive before. You can make multiple offers for the same campaign - handy if you have more than 15 pairings you're comfortable making a gift about from one campaign, or if you're not comfortable writing in every campaign. How you group your pairings into offers is inconsequential for the matching process.
Again, specify in additional tags whether you want to create Art, Fic, or Any (ie. either), and then which ratings you'd be happy to create a gift with.
In the description field, you can write any stipulations about the specific relationships in that offer (eg. you're offering Essek & Verin, but you don't want to write about their childhood, because you don't like writing children). This is optional, since you're not required to follow any prompts specified by your giftee - but it can help us match you with someone you'll enjoy writing for.
You can edit your sign-up until signups close on the 30th May.
Assignments go out on or around 1st June. You'll then create one fanwork based on any of your giftee’s requests. If a request has multiple pairings listed, those are options that you can choose between - your gift only needs to be based around one. If your giftee has a prompt that isn’t for a pairing you signed up for, you can fill it anyway! Keep it anonymous!
Additionally, if you’re feeling inspired by other prompts too, you can also create treats for anyone taking part in the exchange! (This is completely optional!)
Assignments are due on the 20th July. If you don't think you'll finish in time, be sure to default by the no-penalty default deadline, 29th June - this gives us time to find a pinch hitter.
On the 27th July, all works become public, including who they were created for, although authors remain anonymous until the 2nd August.
Is there a lower-commitment way to participate?
Yes! As soon as people start signing up, you can browse requests here. Anyone, even if you're not signed up, can create a treat for any of these requests.
You can also watch out for if we need pinch hitters - or join the discord and help beta read or just cheer on the folks who are writing/creating art.
What if I don't have an AO3 login?
Send us a message, and we'll get an AO3 invite out to you right away.
