Gswiki:Style guide/Storyline guidelines

This page lays out how to handle and organize storyline categories and pages that tie to them in order to maintain consistency across the wiki.

Official Storylines

Official storylines are storylines that are created and run by GMs. They can be short engagements, month-long, or span the course of several years. They may take place in one town, involve several towns, or have a global reach.

Storyline Page Organization

Official storyline pages must be set up as a category page {ex. Category:Nations on the Brink}. A redirect page should be set up for the category page with the storyline name and (storyline). The naming convention is in place to ensure there is no accidental overlap, and thus overwrite, of other pages, such as announcement pages. Examples of how and why this needs to be done can be found at the following pages: Hyacinth - gem page that already existed, Hyacinth storyline redirect, Hyacinth category page.

The category page should contain a summary of the storyline and pertinent information utilizing proper header cadence (starting at ==Header 2==). Things to be recorded on the category page are as follows:

• Story and/or chapter summary
  • If the storyline is multiple chapters, the chapter summaries would fall under the overall summary header and each chapter would be using ===Header 3===.
• "Cast of Characters" - links to NPC pages involved in the storyline
• Official vignettes, with links - GM only
• Character vignettes, with links
• Logs, with links
• Optional: In-depth summaries, with links
• Storyline NPC subcategory - This is set up and organized via the NPC template used on each NPC's page.
• Categories assigned to the storyline such as year or town.

Official Vignettes

Official vignettes are vignettes posted by GMs as part of driving the storyline. These tend to focus on what NPCs are doing when not player-facing. Official vignettes should be set up as subpages to the redirect page, as they cannot be set up as subpages to the storyline category page. This ensures the vignette is properly tied to the storyline. Page naming standard should be as follows:

Storyline redirect page name (storyline)/Vignette name (vignette)

The official vignette should be linked under the Official Vignettes subheader. The storyline's category should be added to the vignette, as well.

Character Vignettes

Character vignettes are vignettes posted by players for their characters. These may be tied to a storyline, but must always be tied to the character first and foremost. This is done by setting the vignette up as a subpage to their character page. Page naming standard should be as follows:

Character name (instance)/Vignette name

It is on the contributor to ensure the vignette is linked to the storyline page, and if done so, must be under the Character Vignettes subheader. No category is required for character vignettes. Character vignettes should not use the creative work template.

Logs

Logs is the shorthand term for files containing a record of in-game events seen through the viewpoint of characters.

• All log page titles should use the real year, not the Elanthian year, to help reduce confusion for other players. The content of log pages can reference either the real year or the Elanthian year.
• All log page title dates should be in the format YYYY-MM-DD.
• All log pages should begin with: This log is from the {storyline/event (page linked if applicable)} on {date} from the viewpoint of {character}.
• Log page content can use headers to break up the length, have summaries, note characters involved, and otherwise be formatted however the poster would like. They can use the following code for consistency and ease of reading: <pre{{log2|border=none|font=arial}}> PASTE LOG HERE </pre> .
• All logs should be categorized in [[Category: Logs]].

Storyline logs should be tied to the storyline first by name, then by date. This mirrors standards in place for handling other logs, except that these should be set up as subpages to the storyline redirect page. Page naming standard should be as follows: Storyline redirect page name (storyline)/[Date] - [Title of Log, if applicable] (log)

It is on the contributor uploading the log to ensure the log is linked on the storyline catalog article space, and if done so, it must be under the Logs subheader. The storyline's category, as well as the log category, should be added to the log.

Storyline logs should additionally be categorized within the category or categories created specifically for that storyline. Only the storyline category, not the log, should be categorized into its relevant town storylines category (i.e. Wehnimer's Landing storylines), its relevant year (i.e. 2016 Storylines), and the [[Category: {Storyline}]] category.

For more information on log formatting, please see the style guide.

In-Depth Summaries

In-depth summaries contain more information than what is found on the category page, but are not full logs. These are optional for the category page, however if added should follow similar standards to logs and vignettes. Page naming standard should be as follows:

Storyline redirect page name (storyline)/Summary name (summary)

Summaries of this nature could be a single event per page or multiple summaries on one page. It is on the contributor to ensure the summary is linked to the storyline page, and if done so, must be under In-Depth Summaries subheader. The storyline's category should be added to the summary page.

Storyline NPC Subcategory

Main article: Help:Storyline NPCs

NPCs are automatically entered into this subcategory when the storyline NPC template is filled in properly. The category itself will only need to have the storyline category added to it upon creation. No further steps are needed here.

Categories

Due to when and where a storyline may take place, and which instance, it is important to designate which categories it may pertain to.

• All storylines should have the Storylines category
• Platinum storyline categories:
  • Platinum storylines
  • (Year) storylines
• Premium storyline categories:
  • Isle of the Four Winds storylines
  • (Year) storylines
• Prime storyline categories:
  • (Town) storylines - Storylines that are specific to a single town. If more than one town is involved, then this should be added for each town involved.
    • In the case of a global storyline, ie. every location has some involvement, Category:Global storylines should be used in place of Category:(Town) storylines.
  • (Year) storylines

Player-Run Storylines

Player-run storylines are specifically player-led with no GM involvement. They can take place in any instance. Because these are player-run, there are no set standards for how these are set up and handled aside from those listed below:

• Page name standard should be: Storyline name (player-run storyline)
• They should be set up as a regular article, not as a category page.
• The creative-work template should be used at the top of the page with the correct parameters filled in. (See: creative works style guide for template and form information.)
• The only category that should be assigned to the page is Player-run storylines. This can be automatically added with the above mentioned template.
• Vignettes specific to the storyline should be set up as subpages to the storyline page.