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.

Template
<-- leave blank if unknown, do not omit

General
Profession: Monk, specializing in Protection Prayers Armament: Staff Armor: Some Armor Set

Put any description, history, or important information here. Please indicate if there are spoilers. Provide the above summaries if they are known and/or relevant: Origin, Age, Profession, Armament, Armor. 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 footers.

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 (any special condition?)
 * Region 2
 * Newbie Location
 * Special Location (any special condition?)

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

Dialogue
Where/When NPC says it:
 * "Something NPC says when clicked on or when prompted. Please indicate if there are spoilers."


 * "It is not necessary to include mission- or quest-only dialogue; those are covered in the associated mission or quest."

Quotes

 * "Something NPC say for apparently no reason and no pattern at all, but please indicate if there are spoilers."
 * "Group these by location or situation if necessary"

Special Notes

 * For pages on Collectors, see Style and formatting/Collectors for more specific details.
 * For pages on Heroes, see Style and formatting/Heroes for more specific details.

Sections
Each NPC article should consist of three segments: header, body, and footer. Please refer to the template sample above for a more complete overview of the sections in an NPC article.

Article Header
The header portion is primarily made up of the BeastInfo template info box. Fill in only information that is available. Avoid using "Unknown" or question marks. 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 NPC type like Collector or Merchant, use the NPC type in place of an actual profession.

Please mark new NPC articles with  . 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.

If it is necessary to hide the automatic table of contents, place the   tag in front of the BeastInfo template, on the same line. This prevents an unnecessary spacing at the top.

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 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.
 * 2) Quests Given Quests that can be obtained from this NPC, preferably in the order of availability. Requirements don't need any mention here, but do note if it 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 of the locations where an NPC can be found, grouped by regions 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 appearance, 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. Use the   and    templates to list skills 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 behavioral notes, usefulness evaluation, and handling issues.
 * 7) Dialogue Text response when NPC is clicked on or prompted. Mission briefings may go here.
 * 8) Quotes Encompasses random text bubbles or random messages, most notably from the henchmen or NPCs like Meerak. Group by region or occasion if there are obvious subsets. 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 an Items Dropped section, even if it is empty. See Markis for an example, but be wary of spoilers.


 * Armor crafters : List the armor sets that a crafter offers under the section 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. List them under a Rare Crafting Materials Offered section. See any artisan, such as Artisan Orpah and Artisan Daved, for examples.


 * Collectors : See Style and formatting/Collectors.


 * Merchants : Use the section Goods Offered to show all the items offered in a table. See merchant articles such as Trader Versai or Arnaud for examples.


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


 * Weaponsmiths : List of weapons available from this crafter in a table under a 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 a matter of consistency, if both are necessary, always place Notes above Trivia.

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 categorized. 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 creatures.

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. Sort each category grouping alphabetically.

If the article contains both the NPC version and the hostile version, 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).

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. 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 is usually split into subcategories organized by campaign. Each of these subcategories should 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 small and are readily accessible via Category:Special events. See Rore Aleswigger and Acolyte Norge for examples.

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 categorize by region.

See also the following exceptions to this rule:

Numerous Locations
NPCs like henchmen and Xunlai Agents appear in large number of locations. The Location category may be omitted in such cases.

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 Location and/or the quest sections instead. This includes special event NPCs that only appear during a particular event. 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 is needed.

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. Each NPC usually has only one Organization category, although there are exceptions (such as Dinas and Markis). See Category:NPCs by organization for a list of existing organizations, factions, or groupings.

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, " NPCs" is appended to the name of the Organization category. Please see Category:Kurzick NPCs, Category:Luxon NPCs, or Category:White Mantle NPCs for reference.