Writing Guidelines

The Great Library of Greyhawk is always looking for new editors to contribute to the grand project of documenting the World of Greyhawk campaign setting in its entirety. The following writing guidelines will aid you in your efforts.

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. While 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. Multiple editor often work on a single page. Sometimes, edit conflicts happen. This should go without saying, but don't be a dick. While disagreements between editors sometimes occur, assume that the other person is acting in good faith, and not intentionally trying to hinder your efforts. If you're angry, perhaps take a break and come back when things have cooled off a bit. Also, if someone is currently making edits to an article, try to avoid editing that article at the same time, to avoid edit clashes.
3. Follow the style guides. Do your best to follow the Category:Writing guidelines and Great Library of Greyhawk:Manual of Style regarding naming standards, title case, and other minutiae,
4. Stick as close to "official" as possible. Greyhawk canon, for the purposes of this wiki, is officially published material from the IP holder—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 about events from novels and comics, for instance, is generally considered apocrypha, and should be noted when included in a subject's entry. A separate namespace for fanon is currently being developed. You should consider having an admin or bureaucrat review this type of material before including it. Information exclusive to the Living Greyhawk campaign should be listed under a separate section within the article. Topics or content from some specific fan sources are permitted, but, it should be explicitly and clearly stated in the article and in citations.
5. Avoid copying word-for-word from the source. Articles should not duplicate the source material from which they're derived. Put the information into your own words. Brief quotations are fine, but must be minimal, should establish context, be limited in scope, and be specific to the topic of a page. Citations should absolutely always be given, so others can identify what and how much is being quoted. Copying information word-for-word from other sources with similar policies (especially those which use Creative Commons), such as Wikipedia, is acceptable but citation should absolutely always be given.
6. 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.
7. 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

For purposes of style, grammar, and usage, this wiki follows the Chicago Manual of Style. The GLoG uses the "Notes and Bibliography" style.

Links

When an article mentions another proper noun appearing in the World of Greyhawk which will have its own article at this wiki, make it into a link, by placing it within [[double brackets]]. However, if the name appears multiple times in the article, it is usually only necessary to make the first instance a link (or first instance in a section), unless the article is very long. Links may also be repeated in bibliography sections or timelines.

Infoboxes

In many cases, an infobox may be appropriate for the subject. Infobox templates can usually be found on the corresponding category page— e.g., Character and New Chatacter are found in Category:Characters.

Templates for entirely new articles can be found in Category:New article templates.

Images

When available, images should always be used in an article. In the body of an article, they should always be placed as thumbanil images in the right margin, unless they would extend the page past the end of the text. In such case, images should be added in a "Gallery" section. See Image use policy for more details.

Images to be used in infoboxes should be no more than 250 pixels wide, in most cases. Sourcebook infobox images should be no more than 200 pixels wide. Heraldic devices, when used in infoboxes (such as for 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 concise description of the image. The sourcebook, date, and artist, if known, should also be listed. An example of a minimum caption is: "[The subject], as depicted in [sourcebook name] (year). Art by [Artist Name]."

Citations

Ideally, all information should be sourced using in-line citations. In-line citations should use the Cite sourcebook template or be inside reference tags, like this: <ref> [information] </ref> tags, so they populate near the bibliography in a special section. At the very least, they should be in parentheses. They should always contain the source's code or abbreviation and the page number where the information was found (e.g. WGA1 Falcon's Revenge, p4). Whenever possible, the abbreviation should be linked to its corresponding page. All sources cited should also be included in their longer form 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. Many article types have standard section layouts (see "Specialized guidelines", below).

Introduction

The article's title 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.

See also

This section should be used sparingly, and only for very similar articles. This section should follow "Publishing history," and directly precede the "Bibliography," and "External links" sections.

Bibliography

As previously stated above—for purposes of style, grammar, and usage, this wiki follows the Chicago Manual of Style. The GLoG uses the "Notes and Bibliography" style.

The bibliography includes all works cited in the notes, the notes need not duplicate the source information in full because readers can consult the bibliography for publication details and other information.

"... ^[2]. Wrigley Field, p.138."

In bibliographies, where entries are listed alphabetically, the name of the first author is inverted, and the main elements are separated by periods.

"• Shea, Stuart. Wrigley Field: The Long Life and Contentious Times of the Friendly Confines. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014."

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.com. 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 or another major D&D campaign setting wiki, that should also be listed here.

Specialized guidelines

Several types of articles have specific writing guidelines. They may also have standard templates which can be copy-pasted to produce a new article to a standard.

Authors or artists

Articles on real-world people who have written World of Greyhawk works. See Writing guidelines: Creators, as well as the Usage found in Template:Creator.

Characters

Articles on fictional characters appearing in Greyhawk works. Does not include deities. See Writing guidelines: Characters, as well as the Usage found in Template:Character.

Creatures

Articles on creatures appearing in Greyhawk works. See Writing guidelines: Creatures, as well as the Usage found in Template:Creature.

Deities

Articles for deities of the World of Greyhawk. See Writing guidelines: Deities, as well as the Usage found in Template:Deity.

Locations

Articles on locations of the World of Greyhawk, not including realms or settlements. See Writing guidelines: Locations, as well as the Usage found in Template:Location (for features and geography) and Template:Building (for places like shops, temples, etc.).

Magic items

Articles on magic items of Greyhawk. See Writing guidelines: Items, as well as the Usage found in Template:Item.

Organizations

Articles on Greyhawk organizations, such as guilds and knightly orders. See Writing guidelines: Organizations, as well as the Usage found in Template:Organization.

Realms

Articles on Greyhawk realms and kingdoms. See Writing guidelines: Realms. See Template:Realm for the infobox format and recommended section layout.

Settlements

Articles on Greyhawk settlements, such as towns and cities. See Writing guidelines: Settlements, as well as the Usage found in Template:Settlement.

Sources

Articles on Greyhawk sourcebooks. See Writing guidelines: Sources, as well as the Usage found in Template:Source.