Writing Guidelines

Here are some general guidelines for writing and editing articles for this wiki.

General

1. This is a Greyhawk Encyclopedia. Articles should be written in a formal style, like those found in other encyclopedias. Articles should be limited to subjects concerning the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. Though there may be some crossover with other campaign settings (Planescape and Ravenloft, for example), there is generally no need for articles on subjects outside the setting. When writing an article about a general subject found in many settings, such as elves, provide context for the subject's role within the World of Greyhawk campaign setting.

2. Respect your fellow contributors. This should go without saying. In general, don't be a dick. If you find that you are, or things are starting to heat up, take a break and come back when things have cooled off a bit.

3. Stick as close to canon as possible. Greyhawk canon, for the purposes of this wiki, is generally anything that has been published in Dungeons & Dragons gaming material, either by, or with the approval of, the owners of the Greyhawk license. This mainly includes adventures, sourcebooks, and magazine articles. Information from novels and comics, for instance, is generally considered apocrypha, and should be noted when included in a subject's entry. Material created for your home campaign, or fanon, has no place in this wiki. Information exclusive to the Living Greyhawk campaign should be listed under a separate section within the article.

4. Avoid copying word-for-word from the source. Articles should not duplicate the source material from which they're derived. Try to put the information into your own words. Copying information word-for-word from online sources with similar policies, such as Wikipedia, is acceptable.

5. Avoid bias. Everyone has favorite characters or places within the Greyhawk setting, but stick to what's already been written, even if you do think "Mordenkainen can take Warduke without breaking a sweat." Also, avoid writing or editing articles about yourself, or about products you may have worked on. If you dispute any of the information in such an article, please note it on the article's talk page.

6. Provide an edit summary. Providing an edit summary, even if the edit is minor, makes this wiki work better by quickly explaining to other users what your change was about.

Guidelines for all articles

Links

It is rarely necessary to link to another wiki article more than once in the same article (links are made by placing a word within double brackets). Exceptions would be within bibliography sections, timelines, or extremely long articles.

Infoboxes

In many cases, an infobox may be appropriate for the subject. Infobox templates can usually be found on the corresponding category page, or on Robbastard's user page.

Images

Images, when available, should be used in an article. Images to be used in infoboxes should be 250 pixels wide, in most cases. Sourcebook infobox images should be 200 pixels wide. Heraldic devices, when used in infoboxes (such as fro realms), should be 100 pixels wide (for the shield only) or 120 pixels wide (for the entire coat-of-arms, including the crest, helm, and other elements). The image caption should contain a short description of the image. The sourcebook, date, and artist, if known, should also be listed. An example of a good caption is: "Subject, as depicted in Sourcebook (year). Art by Artist Name."

Citations

Ideally, all information should be sourced using in-line citations. In-line citations should be in parentheses, and should contain the source's code or abbreviation and the page number where the information was found. Whenever possible, the abbreviation should be linked to its corresponding page. All sources cited should also be included in the Bibliography section (see below).

Sections

Most, if not all articles should be divided into a number of sections. Section headers are created by placing two or more "=" signs on both sides of the section title.

Introduction

The subject should appear, in boldface, in the first sentence of its article. This introductory sentence should give a brief explanation of who or what the subject is. For example, "Mordenkainen is one of the most powerful archmagi of the Flanaess."

History

When possible, each article should strive to include some historical overview of the subject. At some point, it may be necessary for some articles to split off this section into a separate article (such as "History of the Great Kingdom"). The "History" section's location usually varies by the category of article, but generally appears near the middle or end.

Notes

The "Notes" section should be avoided whenever possible, and should be reserved only for information that would not fall under another section. In the rare cases where such a section would be useful, it should be placed near the end of the article, before "Creative origins.

Creative origins

When known, the real-life inspiration or circumstances leading to the subject's creation should be listed in this section, which should appear before the "Publishing history," "Gallery," "See also," "Bibliography," and "External links" sections. The published source of the information should be listed in references.

Publishing history

In some cases, it may be important to note first appearances, significant changes, etcetera throughout the subject's history in Greyhawk sourcebooks. Such information should appear in this section, which follows "Creative origins," and precedes the "Gallery," "See also," "Bibliography," and "External links" sections.

Gallery

If several uploaded images of the subject are available, it is generally best to place them in a gallery section, unless the article is long enough that the images can be spread throughout. Images placed in a gallery look best if they're of similar heights. This section is usually placed near the end of the article, directly before the "See also" section (if applicable) or the "Bibliography" section.

Maps

This section follows the same conventions as the "Gallery" section, but is reserved for maps of all types. When both a "Gallery" and "Maps" section are present, the later should directly follow the former.

Bibliography

Every article should contain this section. Whenever possible, follow the format given by the Chicago Manual of Style when writing bibliographical entries (and don't forget punctuation). Links should be added to the titles of Greyhawk-intensive works, as well as to authors with several Greyhawk works to their credit.

Generally, citations appear in the following formats:

Book or module: *Surname, First name. Title. City, State: Publisher, year.

Bailey, Robin Wayne. Night Watch. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1990.

Article: *Surname, First name. "Article Title." Periodical Title #x. City, State: Publisher, year.

Heard, Bruce. "Spells Between the Covers." Dragon #82. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1984.

Web article: *Surname, First name. "Article Title." Website Title. City, State: Publisher, year. Available online:[url in single brackets]

Broadhurst, Creighton. "Knight Protector: Honor, Honesty, Chivalry, Courage." Wizards of the Coast. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast: Available online:[1]

Multiple authors: Invert the name of the first author (last, first) listed on the work's title page. Authors following are not inverted.

Collins, Andy, Bruce R. Cordell, and Thomas M. Reid. Epic Level Handbook. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2002.

External links

Any links of interest should be listed here, with the title, if applicable. If the subject also has a page on Wikipedia, that should also be listed here.

Specialized guidelines

Greyhawk authors

Writing guidelines for articles about Greyhawk authors are located here.

Greyhawk characters

Writing guidelines for articles about non-divine Greyhawk characters are located here.

Greyhawk creatures

Writing guidelines for articles about Greyhawk creatures are located here.

Greyhawk deities

Writing guidelines for articles about Greyhawk deities and other powers are located here.

Greyhawk locations

Writing guidelines for articles about Greyhawk locations are located here.

Greyhawk magic items

Writing guidelines for articles about Greyhawk magic items are located here.

Greyhawk organizations

Writing guidelines for articles about Greyhawk organizations are located here.

Greyhawk realms

Writing guidelines for articles about Greyhawk realms are located here.

Greyhawk sources

Writing guidelines for articles about Greyhawk sources are located here.