User:BadCatMan/Manual of Style

This Manual of Style is a style guide giving guidelines for writing, formatting, and organizing articles on the Forgotten Realms Wiki (FRW). It aims to encourage a consistent, high-quality article style that suits wiki policies.

These guidelines are based on the standard wiki style used at Wikipedia and other wikis and on practices developed by FRW editors to suit the Forgotten Realms setting and the wiki's goals. Some are just habits that most editors have picked up and shared. Some are set by our policies, while others are not mandatory but are commonly used. An editor might not use some of these on an article, but another editor may eventually apply it.

See Wikipedia's Manual of Style for more detailed guidelines. Ask BadCatMan for clarifications and advice. Various aspects of these were discussed at Forum:Manual of Style.

Why?
You may be wondering why you should follow a style guide, or why we have even one. It may all sound a bit pretentious or nitpicky, and some of the rules and guidelines don't seem all that important. But many wikis have style guides like this, and all the best ones do. A wiki with no consistent style will usually have articles that are messy, confused, and broken, and it's hard to read and find information. Every editor is doing something different, pulling in different directions. Meanwhile, a wiki with a proper style gets all the editors on the same page and will generally be easier to read. At a glance, a well-styled, properly formatted article will just look nicer and be easier to read. A consistent style across every page on the wiki makes that wiki appear unified, neat, and professional, and this raises its profile among fans. Don't think of this as a checklist to follow, but rather a set of suggestions to further improve an article.

But some articles…
No, some existing articles don't use these styles. These articles were mostly written before these policies and habits were developed or enforced, while others slipped through the net later. This doesn't mean the bad habits they show are okay, only that we have quite a backlog to get through. We hope to eventually bring all these articles up to a consistent style and good quality. If you see any, try fixing it up yourself.

There are also some competing styles in use across the wiki. Editors have different approaches and habits, and these each have their pros and cons. This is fine—putting different styles in use is the best way to determine which is better and which editors and readers prefer. We can't develop improved styles and techniques without trying them out. If you have an idea for a new style, then feel free to try it out, as long as it doesn't break our policies or conflict with the overall style of the wiki. But don't be shocked if another editor changes it: that's the nature of competing styles, after all. If people like it, they'll pick it up and use it. Feel free to start a discussion with the other editor or talk about your idea in the Forum.

Article name
The name of an article may seem like the most obvious thing—just the name of what it's about—but there are a few things to consider.

To make linking to it easy from within the main text of an article, make sure the article name is how it would appear in a sentence. For example, a spell like enlarge or reduce person should be written about all in lower case, so the name is also all in lower case. Except for the first letter, the article name is not case-sensitive, so Enlarge or Reduce Person does not go to the same page. The first letter, however, can be either upper-case or lower-case, so the Vast and The Vast both work. Wikia software will assume you mean the upper-case, so this is what appears in the article at the top of the page and when it suggests a link.

For simplicity, try to avoid "the" at the start of the article name, unless it is specifically a part of the name. If it is written with "the" all the time or if "The" is capitalized and is part of the proper name, then you may include "the" at the beginning of the article name. If not, then it may be simpler to leave it out. For example, the Scarlet Sheath tavern but The Fish House, both how they are written in sourcebooks.

Sometimes, there might not be a proper or official name for something. In that case, pick something that it is commonly called or you can describe it as, and again write it as it would appear in a sentence. For example, the second battle of Shadowdale is very clear from the name, though no official name for the battle has been given like for the Battle of the Gods' Theater. The kittenlord and the one who waits don't have names; instead, these articles use appropriate phrases based on a nickname and a description, respectively.

Note that we write magical items and spells all in lower case, following the style used by the sourcebooks, unless a proper noun is a part of the name. For example, ioun stone but Wong Fei's ioun stone.

In-universe
An in-universe article is one about the fictional lore of the Forgotten Realms or another setting and the Dungeons & Dragons game. A common fan term for this is "fluff" (as opposed to the "crunch" of rules and statistics; see Crunch, below, for how to handle this). This includes characters, creatures, places and areas, events and history, spells, items, and even classes. An in-universe article shouldn't mention crunch, novels, sourcebooks, and so on. These are obtrusive; coming across these breaks the reader's suspension of disbelief, reminding them that they are not reading about a world, but about a book or game. See Help:Citing sources for how to cite a novel in an unobtrusive way, through footnoted references.

Perspective
Write in-universe articles from an in-universe perspective, that is, the point-of-view (POV) of someone in the setting. That person can't see the novel something was written in, they can't see the game rules, or the level of a character. So don't mention these things. That person, being essentially the reader, is otherwise omniscient, however; they know everything else that went on. But, because of our past tense policy, below, all these things occurred in the past. If it helps, imagine yourself as a sage living centuries in the future of the setting, after everything has changed and ended, collecting and compiling all these records of the past.

That said, you should also write from the third-person point-of-view. For example, "she did this". There's no need to go into character with a first-person POV ("I saw this") or address the reader or player with a second-person POV ("You see this"). This provides a neutral perspective.

Tense
Owing to our Remove the Wiki from the Timeline policy, all in-universe articles must be written in past tense. So, not "Elminster slays the dragon and flies to Cormyr" (present tense), but "Elminster slayed the dragon and flew to Cormyr" (past tense). In the first case, both events seem to happen at once, which doesn't make sense. Some users employ an odd conditional future tense with "would", as in "Elminster would slay the dragon and would fly to Cormyr" but this sounds even stranger, suggesting Elminster only planned these things, but did not necessarily do them. Only the past tense makes it clear that these things actually happened in the story: "Elminster slayed the dragon then flew to Cormyr" is clearest and simplest. Saying "Ravens Bluff was a city in the Vast" does not mean it has been destroyed in the latest edition (it hasn't), only that it was a city then and was a city up to when we last heard of it. The past tense is how most novels are written, and you'd read the wiki in the same way.

As an exception, the present tense is used in articles about individual years, following the custom of chronologies presented in the sourcebooks and on Wikipedia. For example, from −286 DR, "The Xothol arcane college is closed." and "Wulgreth of Netheril settles in the ruins of Karse." The present tense can also be used when referring to real-world topics, e.g., "the rapier is a sword with a thin pointed blade", as this is a real item currently existing in our world. It can also be used when information is unknown, e.g., "The outcome of this battle is unknown", meaning it is unknown to the article writer or reader, but may be known to characters in the setting. This should be used with discretion. The main body of the article and in-universe lore should still be in past tense. If you're not sure, just stick with the past tense.

Other tenses can still be used for more complex events: "Elminster would have slayed the dragon, but it was immune to his magic." (a conditional perfect tense for events that were planned) and "Smuggling had been going on until 1375 DR when paladins put a stop to it." (the past perfect continuous tense, for events that took place for some period of time until some point in the past). This is just normal grammar. You can look guides online for how to use these different tenses.

But what happened next?
Adventure modules and video games often present events for which the outcome is not set in stone. Players may have several options for completion, or may choose to do almost anything. Events will turn out differently for each player and gaming group. Readers may also want to see their own characters behind these events, or they may want to see all possible outcomes so they can choose which occurred for their game. Often, there is no canon confirmation of how things played out. Therefore, try to give all the outcomes and options presented in the game or module. We want to see the whole story covered, even if that story branches out.

There are several ways to go about this. One is to write the article up to the point the characters and location are in at the beginning of play. For example, The Green Lady leaves her in the state she is in when players are expected to find her. An out-of-universe note is included in the Appendix to explain that there is no official resolution, but mentions what will happen if PCs progress successfully. This is the simplest solution, and is most useful when there is no clear outcome.

If the game assumes only one outcome, then you may go further. For example, "Adventurers investigating Dura's death discovered the Green Lady and roused her from her depression, before learning from her the details of the bandits."

Things get more complicated when a game suggests multiple outcomes or even branching outcomes. In this case, consider using conditional statements—would have, could have, and so on—to express these. (That's the conditional perfect tense above.) You may assume successful progress down the main, heroic plotline, with other possibilities branching off from this. For example, the Ward Mossfeld article has several branching possibilities: "The Kalach-Cha, after defeating the Lannon siblings, would have faced him and his brothers, Wyl and Webb. If the Kalach-Cha, Amie, and Bevil were defeated, they could have asked Merring for a rematch or submit that the Mossfelds had won." However, this can sound very vague and uncertain, and is difficult to write well.

If it gets too bad, consider adding a Gameplay section to the Appendix, and discuss the various outcomes there more freely. If there are two or more main storylines, you can also put two separate sections in the article. For example, the Blood & Magic computer game offers pairs of conflicting campaigns, so the Harvest of Horrors page handles this by presenting two sections for the course of each campaign.

Note that if a novel or sourcebook presents a canon outcome for these events, then this takes precedence over the alternatives, as given by out Canon policy. You can still present the alternatives for interest and completeness, however.

Who is this about?
By custom, you may refer to the players as "adventurers", as most players are adventurers and the rest may be seen as such by people in the setting. They are also usually unnamed. However, the protagonists of some games have acquired some more-or-less useful titles: Gorion's Ward for the Baldur's Gate game series, the Hero of Neverwinter for Neverwinter Nights, Drogan Droganson's Pupil for the Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark expansions of Neverwinter Nights, and the Kalach-Cha for Neverwinter Nights 2 and some of its expansions. These may be used where relevant, though they are not easy to follow.

If the adventure module or game is written as a novel or is referred to in a sourcebook, then canon characters may have performed these events. Thus, by preference, you should refer to them where applicable. For example, Abdel Adrian was involved in events specific to the Baldur's Gate novel series and Gorion's Ward was involved in events specific to the Baldur's Gate game series, and where events are the same in both series, Abdel Adrian acted in place of Gorion's Ward. In a lesser case, the players of Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave are described as "adventurers in service of Mystra" in The Grand History of the Realms, confirming the Tunaster Dranik opening plot hook, so this may be assumed to be the canon case, rather than one of the alternatives.

Infoboxes
The first key part of an article is the infobox. This is a sidebar providing a summary of important information, so the reader may tell at a glance if it suits their interests or quickly find some basic lore or statistics like a character's title, a town's population, or an item's value. It also includes crunchy information like the levels of characters, magic items, and spells, allowing the wiki to present some important crunch while still keeping it out of the main text.

Look through Category:Infoboxes for a suitable infobox. Most are widely applicable, and if you're not sure, check out some other articles (click edit to see the code used) or ask another editor. The key ones are Person (for all non-player characters), Location (for lands, realms, and wildernesses), Building (for castles, inns, towers, shops, etc.), Spell (for all kinds of magic spells and the like), Item (for magic and mundane items), and Creature (for races and monsters in general), but we have others. Just copy the raw template from the page and paste it at the top of your own, then start filling out the entries.

Each template has their own separate guidelines for each entry. You don't have to use all entries; in fact, you usually can't. You may delete entries you won't use, but consider leaving some present for later users to expand on, if further lore is possible. For example, an ordinary peasant doesn't need the dynasty and reign entries used for monarchs, but may have parents, spouses, siblings, or children. A 4th- or 5th-edition character may require the 4e and 5e alignment and class entries, but usually won't need the 1e, 2e, and 3e entries, and vice versa.

To save time and effort, you can find another article on a similar topic and copy the infobox template used there, then correct the relevant entries. Editors making articles on every person in a town will often reuse their infoboxes like this. However, take care that you fully update the infobox and that you don't leave any errors behind. You also may need to add missing entries that weren't included in the other article.

A feature of every infobox is the image, to nicely illustrate the subject. The infobox allows a larger image size than the thumbnails, and this is the first thing a reader will see, so try to find an eyecatching image that best illustrates the subject. Per edition conventions, try to use the latest image if possible. If no image is suitable, say there are no canon images or there are only maps, you don't need to include an image here at all. If you have an image, link it in the "image" entry with, where "image.jpg" is the file name and "250px" is the size of the image. On the FRW, the infobox allows a maximum image size of 250 pixels, so no image should be bigger than this. Smaller images may look bad when blown up to this size, so you may give a smaller size. To make things easier, many infoboxes will take simply Image.jpg and default to 250 pixels or a smaller size. Following the image is the caption; use this to describe what is shown in the image, especially if there are several characters or complex events. A caption is not necessary if the image is very self-explanatory.

Introduction
Begin the article with a short introduction to quickly tell the reader what it's about, to give context to the article and let them know if it's something they want to read about. Try to answer the who, what, when, where, and sometimes why of the topic. Try to interest the reader in it, but keep it short and to the point.

For example, let's look at Susztam Mar-Shinn. The first line tells us:
 * Susztam Mar-Shinn was a male drow illusionist and shadow adept. He was the Head Student of the Inverted Tower and a user of the Shadow Weave in Szith Morcane in the 14th century.

First thing, it tells us who or what the article is about, which is also the name of the article. This is bolded for emphasis (put three apostrophes on either side of the name, as in name ). This is a standard style for wikis. This should usually go first, but some topics with no proper name may require a different phrasing. If the topic has multiple names, they can all be bolded (but try to space them out a bit to make it clearer).

Second, it tells us what he is: his sex, race, classes, and occupation. You can be a bit cute with this: it's basically the beginnings of a character sheet or NPC statblock. That's fine—this is D&D after all. (We don't usually do alignment here, which might be a step too far toward crunch, but it can appear in a Personality section.) For a building, say if it's an inn or castle or even both; for a settlement, say if it's a village, town, or city; and so on.

Third, it gives context, the where and when. He lives in Szith Morcane; one might go further and say it's a drow outpost in the Deep Wastes of the Underdark. He also lived in the 14th century, at least. Use your judgement on the date; drow are long-lived, so Susztam may spend much of the century in this role at the tower. In fact, he was in the post from 1354 DR to at least 1372 DR, so one could also say "mid–14th century", "mid-1300s", or "from 1354 DR onwards". Shorter lived or more transitory characters might be given a single year. Cities and nations last centuries and might not need a date. Mountains and oceans certainly don't.

Fourth, it tells us why he might be important. He's a head student at the Inverted Tower, and he's a practitioner of the Shadow Weave, which is of minor importance. Small-scale topics and short articles usually don't need any more detail. Major topics and very long articles (such as those that become Feature Articles) can have lengthier discussions of why the subject is important, even summaries of the article as a whole.

Sections
Rather than a big wall-of-text that's hard to follow, break your article up into sections, each covering a separate aspect. Each of the infobox templates and "Help:Writing an article about…" pages will present a set of example, commonly used section headings. For example, see Person and Help:Writing an article about a person. We'll use this as an example, but other types of articles work the same way.

In general, an article about a Person could have the following:

Rumors and legends
Not all are required; if a minor character's appearance is unknown, then a Description section is not needed and may be left out. (Note we say "Description" rather than "Appearance", which is a section in the Appendix; see below.) Sections may be renamed if something else is more suitable to what appears: "Relationships" to "Alliances" or "Family", for example. The order may also be changed; "History" often explains some aspect of a character or place, so it may be worthwhile putting it first, unless it may spoil a character's death, so you may feel "History" should go last. You might put "Relationships" first, to introduce the other people in the history. Think about how the article should be organized, and the story you want to tell about the topic.

Very small articles, those with only a few sentences, usually don't need sections. After all, it would look odd and unbalanced if there was more section than text on the page.

You can create a section by placing two equals signs, ==, on either side of the heading. For example, ==History==. You can make a subsection with three equals signs, such as ===Ancient history===. More equals signs produces smaller sub-subsection headings. Subsections are for breaking a large section into smaller parts focusing on individual aspects of the topic.

There are two ways to write these section headings. One is called "title case", which uses capital letters at the start of important words, as you would see in book titles. For example, "Ancient History", "Rumors and Legends", "Tressym found in Cormyr", and "External Links". The other is called "sentence case", in which only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized, while other words are kept in lower case, as you would see in a sentence. For example, "Ancient history", "Rumors and legends", "Tressym found in Cormyr", and "External links". We haven't yet reached a consensus on which style to use: some editors prefer title case, others use sentence case. Sentence case is probably more commonly found on the wiki. But whichever you prefer, make sure you use it consistently throughout an article, don't switch halfway through.

Out-of-universe
An out-of-universe or real-world article is one about real-world information related to the Forgotten Realms or another setting and the Dungeons & Dragons game. This includes all accepted sources of lore, i.e., sourcebooks, novels, magazines, comics, games, video games, and so on; the trilogies and series of these; and the overall ranges they are a part of. It also covers designers, writers, artists, and others responsible for their creation; the publishers who release them; and the companies who own these ranges. Assorted other topics can be treated as out-of-universe, such as pages explaining aspects of game crunch and pages covering Living Forgotten Realms and RPGA games. Appendix sections on in-universe articles are also considered as out-of-universe and should be treated the same way.

Perspective
Out-of-universe articles should of course be written from a real-world perspective—that is, your own. This should be quite easy. Just tell us about the book or whatever. Don't try to give a review or comment on events in the setting, as opinions and judgements on quality are not the point of this wiki. There are many forums and fan sites for that. While you can have some fun with in-universe articles, try to remain detached and neutral with out-of-universe articles. Remember that you're talking about the work of real people like yourself, and that not everyone will share your opinions. So, to borrow a line: just the facts, ma'am.

Nevertheless, a very detailed article on a work might necessarily discuss fan reactions and speculation, especially ones with controversial events or sitting at the break between editions. For example, the final page of The Grand History of the Realms and the Spellplague. In such a case, maintain a neutral point-of-view, and refer to those who hold the opinions discussed: e.g., "some fans thought", "many fans were worried", "reviewers said", etc. You can link to important reviews and forum discussions, especially those made around the time, to give supporting evidence. Balance opposing opinions, so a positive view is countered by a negative view, and so on. If there are many fan theories, then discuss all the main ones, not just your own pet theory.

Tense
The tense of a real-world article will vary depending on the context. As books and such are still in existence, the present tense is used to state what they are and what is presented in them. Meanwhile, past tense is used to discuss things about them that happened in the past. For example, Darkwalker on Moonshae "is the first book in the Moonshae trilogy" (present tense) but "was the first novel set in the Forgotten Realms". For another example, City of the Spider Queen "is an adventure module" and "focuses on drow, the Silence of Lolth, and the cult of Kiaransalee" (using the present tense), but it "was ranked the 24th greatest adventure of all time".

Organization
Organization is rather more straightforward for a real-world article, and shares many elements with in-universe articles. However, they are very different according to the subject of the article.

Infobox
Again, a real-world article begins with an infobox, a sidebar providing a summary of important information about a book, game, company, or real person. For example, dates of publication, editions, number of pages, and ISBNs for books, and some basic background for an author or artist or for a company.

Look through Category:Infoboxes for a suitable infobox. The main ones here are Book (for all novels, comics, and sourcebooks) and Author (for all authors, artists, and designers), but there are others. Again, just copy the raw template and fill in the necessary entries. These tend to be much easier to work with. You can also include an image, usually the cover of a work or a photo of an author.

Introduction
As normal, begin the article with a short introduction to quickly tell the reader what it's about and give context to the article.

If it's an article about a book, game, or comic, then put the title in bold at the start, mention the authors or designers (as well as artists if it's a comic, given their key role), and give the original publication date. Also state what series and range the work is a part of, and if it's a sourcebook, state what edition of D&D it was designed for. Consider also giving a brief summary of what it's about and any significance it has.

If it's an article for a real person, then put their name in bold, give their occupations and what they've done in the Forgotten Realms setting or Dungeon & Dragons game, and what might make them important: famous characters they write for, for example.

Sections
Real-world articles are also broken up into sections, but they can have very different sections, depending on their topic and what you choose to write about them.

An article about a source may have sections for a Blurb, quoting the text on the back cover; a Summary, briefly summarizing the story or subject; a Synopsis summarizing a story in more detail; and an Index listing everything in the source that can be a subject for the wiki. These are all optional, but if you want to fully wikify a novel, you'll probably want to do a blurb and index and a short summary, though a full synopsis isn't really necessary.

An article about a person would give a brief biography and a list of their works, though these don't require sections if they are too short.

Writing style

 * US English
 * Humour

Formatting and style

 * Book title (italics) vs article title (quotes)
 * Punctuation
 * Links
 * Years
 * Measurements