NBITTRPG Wiki:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style is a resource specifying the guidelines or standards expected of certain pages on the wiki. It will also be a resource for how to use templates and the editor.

External Resources

When looking for resources to help style templates or wiki pages, it's more effective to refer to documentation labeled for MediaWiki as opposed to labeled for Fandom. While both Fandom and NBITTRPG Wiki are both built on MediaWiki, they do not share the exact same extensions or capabilities as one another.

• See [page] for help on creating templates.
• If you are familiar with CSS, Javascript, and understand what functions are and aren't available between NBITTRPG Wiki and Fandom, you can use Fandom-related style guides, like here.

Writing Style

Most pages should be written in past tense. This is to avoid unintentional spoilers for those casually browsing the wiki. Future or present tense may be used for campaigns that have not happened yet.

It usually does not matter whether pages use American or British English.

Templates

To make a template, go to the URL and after the ".xyz/", type Template:[Template Name]. This will bring you to an entirely new page that you can then create a template on. See [page] on MediaWiki for more general information on templates.

Infoboxes

Infoboxes are a type of template that displays information in a box. This is usually a two-column table with a label on the left and page-specific data on the right. We have session infoboxes and character infoboxes as an example of these.

When making and naming infobox templates, please try and integrate "infobox" somewhere into the name of the template. This helps avoid confusion on what templates do what, as many templates may have similar names.

Navigation Boxes

Navigation Boxes are a type of template that users can use to navigate between related or similar articles. For example, the session navigation box at the bottom of session pages allow users to click between sessions within a campaign without relying on the session infobox to go in chronological order.

When making and naming navigation boxes, please try and integrate "navbox" somewhere into the name of the template. This helps avoid confusion on what templates do what, as many templates may have similar names.

Message Templates

Message templates inform users regarding information contained on a page. These are the templates like the Stub or Spoilers template.

There are no special rules in regards to naming these upon creation, just that they're kept short, and singular. This is to prevent confusion over categories, which are usually written in plural.

Other Templates

There may be other template types made to ensure most articles with similar information can be updated at the same time. If you have an idea for a template but don't know how to make one, you can ask CStatic to make one.

Categories

Categories are a tagging system that allow pages to be organized by certain parameters. Please put tags in the plural, as that avoids confusion with templates. For example, Stub denotes the name of a template, while Stubs refer to the category.

When adding categories, you may use the "advanced options" tool or simply place something like [[Category:Category Name]] at the bottom of the page. It doesn't matter what order tags are added, as they're usually sorted alphabetically due to one of this site's extensions.

Character Pages

Characters should be tagged with:

• [World Name]
• Characters
• NPCs or PCs
• [World Name] NPCs or [World Name] PCs

Locations

Locations should be tagged with:

• [World Name]
• Locations
• [World Name] Locations
• If applicable, City, Nation, or something else

Sessions

Sessions should be tagged with:

• [World Name]
• Sessions
• [Campaign Name] Session
• If applicable, Oneshots, Finales, or something else

Page Formatting

This section is to make sure every page is consistent with other pages similar to them or of the same category. This section may become its own separate page as this page expands.

Character Pages

The formatting of character pages is dependent on world and whether they're a PC or NPC.

Spireloft NPCs

For now, all I have to say about these pages is that they use Template:NPCInfobox, but in this specific way:

{{NPC
|campaign=Spireloft
|image=[File:Placeholder.png]
|created by=CStatic
|othernames=
|first appearance=
|age=
|species=
|nationality=
|occupation=
}}

Any unavailable information will be automatically omitted from the infobox, so don't worry about that. But please do not add more data than this, because I do not want their latest appearance to be listed so high on their page. Age ranges are also preferred over specific ages.

Session Pages

The formatting of session pages is dependent on the campaign. However, some things remain the same. Please put the Template:SessionInfobox template at the top, then place everything else after. Keep the headers in the given order, but feel free to omit headers that have no applicable content. Make sure to also alphabetize the "NPC Appearance" list.

Weathia: Resurrection

Please refer to The Blacklight Archive for the general format of session pages for this campaign. Please do not change the format of this page for now, but feel free to fill in the missing information.

Weathia: Final Crisis

Please refer to The Fifth Leader for the general format of session pages for this campaign.

Location Pages

The formatting of location pages is dependent on the world.