GuildWiki:Style and formatting/NPCs

=Definition= A non-player character (NPC) is defined as a character or creature within the game who is not hostile to players. NPCs are shown in the compass as lime green triangles.

=General Guidelines= The style and formatting guidelines presented here should be adhered to consistently. Exceptions and special cases are discouraged and should be avoided where possible. If any guideline here contradicts that which is presented in Style_and_formatting/Bestiary, the guideline here takes precedence. Refer to the Bestiary guidelines for any information not stated here.

General
Origin: Ascalon Profession: Monk, specializing in Protection Prayers Armament: Staff

Put any description, history, or important information here. Please indicate if there are spoilers. The above three lines provide at-a-glance information summarizing the important details of an NPC. Provide these only if they are known and/or relevant: Nation, Affiliation, Origin, Age, Profession, Armament. You can omit the header itself if the whole article is very short or has very little sections. Do note the section heading level. This is a level 2. The following are all level 3 until the footer.

Quests Given

 * Quests that you can obtain from me

Quests Involved In

 * Quests where you have to interact with me

Location

 * Region 1
 * Newbie Area
 * Special Area (what's the condition?)
 * Region 2
 * Newbie Location
 * Special Location(what's the condition?)

Evaluation
Got any behavioral evaluation or comments? Tips? Put them here.

Dialogue

 * "Something NPC says when clicked on or when prompted. Please indicate if there are spoilers."

Quotes

 * "Something I say for apparently no reason and no pattern at all, but please indicate if there are spoilers."

Article Header
The header portion is primarily made up of the BeastInfo template info box. Fill in only information that is available. Try not to use "Unknown" or question marks in place of unknown values. See the Beastiary guide for more info on the template. Everything mentioned there applies with the exception for the prof parameter. If an NPC has an acknowledged type like Collector or Merchant, use the NPC type in place of an actual profession.

Please also mark a new NPC article as a   right above the BeastInfo template. The stub mark can be removed if the article contains enough relevant information or when there simply isn't much more that can be added. A screenshot of the NPC in question should also be present.

If it is necessary to hide the automatic table of contents (such as a short article where the table of contents is really not necessary), place the   tag in front of the BeastInfo template, on the same line. This prevents an unnecessary space at the top of the article page.

Article Body
The body of an NPC article contains the bulk of the information. As per the general style and formatting guidelines, please omit any section here that does not have content.

Common Sections
Please use only the listed section names and their following order for all NPC articles. As per the template above, all the following sections except the first one should be level 3 section headings. The first one is level 2.


 * 1) General An explanation of the purpose and/or history of the NPC. Character description or in-game relationships with other characters are also appropriate. Location or purpose can be mentioned here, but try to phrase it such that the more detailed version appears in their relevant sections. This section header may be omitted if the NPC article itself is rather short (only several lines, like Monk (NPC)).
 * 2) Quests Given Quests that can be obtained from this NPC, preferably in the order of availability. There is not need to indicate requirements, but do note if a particular quest is no longer available (such as special event quests).
 * 3) Quests Involved In Quests that involve this NPC in any manner (unless already listed in Quests given), again preferably in the order of availability.
 * 4) Location All the locations where an NPC can be found, grouped by regions (preferably) in the order of the campaign or storyline. A map of an explorable area may be furnished to indicate important or hard-to-find locations. Please indicate if there are conditions for an NPC's apperance, such as a certain mission or quest being active.
 * 5) Skills Used Skills that this NPC is observed or known to use. Mark elite skills or monster skills as necessary. See the henchmen for examples. Please do not list unconfirmed skills and then add a note saying it is not confirmed. Please also do not use anything to the effect of "to be added". But do use the   template for listing the skills, and do order them alphabetically (sort those with double quotes first). If there are variations to the skill set depending on location or some condition, please either add a note or provide a variant listing.
 * 6) Evaluation Meant for recording any behavioral notes, usefulness evaluation, and handling advice. This is mostly used by henchmen and NPCs who become party allies. Any tips regarding NPC behavior also go in here.
 * 7) Dialogue Formal NPC dialogue are provided in proper message boxes with a dialogue tree. Things that an NPC say during a mission or quest to progress the storyline are also considered dialogue; this includes any text that appear as a result of quest or mission completion.
 * 8) Quotes This should only include random text bubbles or random messages, most notably from the henchmen or NPCs like Meerak. Group them by region or occasion if there are obvious subsets. The easiest way to distinguish between dialogue and quotes is how they are produced. Dialogue requires player interaction or trigger, meaning that the player must either click on the NPC or complete a certain objective. Quotes are those that randomly appear. Dialogue appears reliably, quote appearance are unreliable.

Special Sections
These are additional or alternative sections that may be necessary due to an NPC's presentation in the game or due to its type. Any additional sections that are mentioned below should be inserted right above the footer portion of the article unless mentioned otherwise. These new sections, unlike the common sections, are all level 2 sections, unless otherwise noted.


 * NPCs with multiple versions : An NPC may be presented differently from area to area. For each version of the NPC, use a separate level 2 section header for each version and repeat the above sections (all with level 3 section headers) for each version, as necessary. See all the henchmen or Meerak for examples. In the case where an NPC is actually present in multiple campaigns, please use level 1 headers to indicate the campaign (which also elevates the Notes section to level 1 as well). For NPCs in multiple campaigns, see Eve and Mhenlo for examples.


 * NPCs that are also enemies : If an NPC is also a hostile foe at some other point in a campaign, it is usually sufficient to simply treat it as a normal NPC and simply fill in the relevant sections with additional information regarding this. A screenshot of that NPC as a foe is recommended. If there is significant difference between the NPC version and the hostile version, it may be treated in the same manner as the multiple versions note above. As with Bestiary articles, always insert a Items Dropped section, even if it is empty. See Markis for an example, but be wary of spoilers.


 * Armor Crafters : Obviously, the armors that a crafter offers need to be listed. Insert a new section with the heading of Armor Sets. The armor sets must be ordered by profession and listed in colored boxes. See Alemeth or Koumei for examples. Or browse all armor crafters.


 * Artisans : Artisans produce Rare Crafting Materials. As such, use a new section with the heading of Rare Crafting Materials Offered to list the rare materials that can be crafted. See any artisan, such as Artisan Orpah and Artisan Daved, for examples.


 * Collectors : All collectors will have at least one table showing the items that can be exchanged. Insert this table as the first section of the footer portion. It is usually not necessary to provide a section heading for the collector table as most collectors will only have a Dialogue section. In the case where a section header is necessary, use Collector Items. See any collector, such Slayton Redblade or Tully Blackvine, for examples.


 * Merchants : Use a section titled Goods Offered to show all the items offered in a table. If a merchant actually offers a different set of goods depending on their location, use multiple tables and add explanations regarding each set. See merchant articles such as Trader Versai or Arnaud for examples.


 * Skill trainers : Provide the list of skills offered by that particular trainer in a Skills Offered section. See any skill trainer, such as Master Scout Kiera and Captain Greywind, for examples.


 * Weaponsmiths : The list of weapons available from this crafter is to be placed in a table under a new Weapons Offered section. For examples, see Hylas and Pust Emberclaw, or any other weaponsmiths.

Article Footer
The footer section is meant to contain the Notes and Trivia sections as well as the categories. As will all section names, please use "Notes" (as a level 2 header) to contain any additional comments regarding the NPC in question. Please use "Trivia" (again as a level 2 header") for any trivia information regarding the name or concept of the NPC. Remember to omit these sections if they are not needed.

As for categories, always place them at the bottom of a page. See the following section regarding the actual categories needed and their ordering.

=Categories= All NPC articles must be categorised. As a general rule, use as specific a category (or categories) as possible. Please do not categorize any NPC into Category:NPCs, as that is meant to be the topmost category for all NPC categories only. Also, care must be taken to keep the Category:NPCs category tree totally separate from the Category:Bestiary category tree. This will prevent any mixture of hostile and non-hostile characters.

The following categories must be present for each NPC article:
 * 1) Type
 * 2) Location
 * 3) Organization (optional)

As per the ordering above, all Type categories must be sorted before Location categories, which are before Organization categories. Within each grouping of categories, sort them alphabetically. The only exception to this rule is when an NPC has more than one category of the same type but referring to different campaigns. In that case, sort the campaigns in the correct order instead. For example, Devona is a henchman found in both the Prophecies and the Factions campaign. As such, sort Category:Henchmen (Prophecies) before Category:Henchmen (Factions), since Prophecies is chapter 1 and Factions is chapter 2.

Type
An NPC must have one or more Type categories. Refer to Category:NPCs by type to see the available type subcategories. Apply as appropriate. Check each potential type for an explanation and potential subcategories before committing. Logically, an NPC should not belong to more than one category in each type subtree. For example, a collector NPC should not belong to both Category:Collectors and Category:Collectors (Factions).

Each Type category should preferably be split into subcategories organised by campaign. Each of these subcategories can then be part of the Category:NPCs by campaign as well. So Category:Collectors (Prophecies) would be a subcategory of both Category:Collectors and Category:Prophecies NPCs. Special event NPCs go into an encompassing subcategory, such as Category:Collectors (special event). There is no need to group by event since their numbers are mostly small and these are readily accessible via Category:Special events. Any general Type category (for example Category:Collectors should only be used to hold NPC pages that are not specific to any campaign, such as the PvP NPCs. Do note that the explanation article on that particular type of NPC, such as Collector must still be categorised under Category:NPCs by type rather than each individual Type category.

General NPCs
Category:General NPCs is a special category that can be applied if and only if all other Type categories (of the same campaign) are inappropriate. This usually means that the NPC in question doesn't serve any specific purpose. Do not use this category if some other Type category within the same campaign apply. So an NPC might be a general NPC in one campaign, but could be a quest NPC in another (resulting in two Type categories).

The only exception to this rule is when it comes to special events like Wintersday 2005 and the Dragon Festival 2006. Special event NPCs should always be categorised as an NPC for the associated event (for examples, see Rore Aleswigger and Acolyte Norge).

New Types
The Type categories currently in use are enough to encompass all the existing NPCs. Should a new type be necessary, discuss it first before applying, unless it is rather obvious, such as NPCs for a new special event.

Location
Where an NPC makes a regular or permanent appearance, use the name of the location or area for the Location category. For example, if an NPC appears in an outpost, in a mission explorable area, and in another explorable area, that NPC has a total of three Location categories. Please do not categorise by region.

See also the following exceptions to this rule:

Henchmen
Due to the fact that henchmen appear in alot of towns and outposts, henchmen articles are exempt from this rule. Do not categorize a henchman article by location, unless the henchman in question is specifically known to be in a location where he is not a henchman.

Special Appearances
Some NPCs appear in a particular area due to a quest or condition being active. Do not add a Location category for such special appearances, use the relevant sections instead. This includes special event NPCs that only appear during a particular event and hence are not eligible. Note that this does not apply to NPC appearance in missions. If an NPC appears in a mission, he or she will always appear, hence it is considered a regular appearance and a Location category needs to be added.

If an NPC makes a special appearance due to a quest, indicate the location next to that quest in the Quests given section or Quests involved in section. If an NPC appears due to a particular condition or state, such as a newly created character, then add an appropriate entry in the Location section and indicate the condition of appearance next to it.

Special Events
NPCs that found in the game only during special events are also considered special appearances, so they do not need a Location category. NPCs who only serve a different purpose than normal during a special event will bear both the special event category and the Location categories.

Organization
The Organization category for an NPC article is optional. The term organization is used here loosely to include all forms of organizations, groups, factions, affiliations, clans, and even classifications. Any NPCs that warrant an Organization category usually only need one, although there are exceptions like Dinas and Markis. See Category:NPCs by organization for a list of existing organizations, factions, or groupings. When considering creation of a new Organization category, keep these points in mind: The only special case regarding this is when a particular organization or group has both friendly (green dots) and hostile (red dots) characters. Rather than mixing NPC pages into a category which also contains monster pages, a "NPCs" is appended to the name of the Organization category. Please use Category:Kurzick NPCs, Category:Luxon NPCs, or Category:White Mantle NPCs as references and templates.
 * An article categorized as Category:Lore should be provided explaining the purpose or providing a summary of the new organization, faction, or grouping.
 * The new organization or grouping should be specifically noted or mentioned as an organization or a group in the game.
 * Similar prefixes or suffixes in NPC names alone do not justify a new Organization category, unless they collectively serve a particular function.
 * If it feels like no non-trivial summary page can be created for a new organization or grouping, it is usually a good indication that such an Organization category is not necessary.

Barred Categories
These categorization guidelines is a turnabout from the previous version. The previous recommendations to categorize NPCs by species, professions, nationality, and organizations have been removed and is now very much discouraged. The reason for this is that these categories serve no useful purpose in identifying NPCs, when the primary concern should be their function or purpose. Location categorization has been re-added with refinements to cut down on the quantity.

The species and profession of an NPC is not lost and is still available from the BeastInfo template. Nationality and group or organization affiliation can be mentioned or noted as part of the description. An alternative way to list organization affiliation would be to add the members to the organization article itself.

Bestiary Categories
If the article contains both the NPC version and the hostile version, then please add all categories that are relevant according to the Bestiary categorization guidelines. Do not sort the two category sets together. First add all appropriate Bestiary categories (sorted appropriately), then add all NPC categories (again sorted appropriately).