Character Sheet Use
From Cynefrith
Contents |
Creating a New Page
Creating Wiki Pages in General
If you want the new page to be linked to another page, then just add a link to an existing page. When you click on the link, the new page will be created. For example:
[[New Page Name Here]]
If you want to create an "orphaned" page, one which is not linked to other pages, then just manually edit your address bar to point at the URL you want. For example:
http://cynefrith.wiki-site.com/index.php?title=New_Page_Name_Here
For more details on creating new wiki pages, see the wikimedia help page: Starting New Wiki Pages.
Creating Character Pages For This Campaign
For the character pages in this game, please create a page named "Character Name". This page will have links to pages for each level. For a level-specific page name the page "Character Name - Level". For example, "Sir Test - 4". This way we will have a handy record of the character's progression over time.
Character Main Page
Create an orphaned (we'll link it in somewhere later) page for your character's progression menu. The Talk page for this will be used to discuss general character plans and plot arc ideas. It should look something like this: Sir Test
* [[Sir Test - 1]] * [[Sir Test - 2]] * [[Sir Test - 3]] * [[Sir Test - 4]]
Character Level-Specific Pages
You can click the links you made on your character's main page to create the level-specific pages. You will probably want to open the previous level's edit page, select-all & copy before you create the new page, so you can just paste the previous level's stuff in and tweak it.
For the history section, please write the stuff that happened from the last level to the current level. For example, the 1st level character sheet should have the history of the character from birth to 1st level. The 4th level character sheet should have the history of the character from 3rd level to 4th level.
It may also be useful to put a link to the next and previous level on that page, or at least a back-link to the menu page.
Using the CharacterSheet Template
Wiki Template Primer
Template names and arguments are specified within double curly braces. When the page is loaded, the double curly braces and everything between them are replaced with the contents of the template page. Parameter names in the template (surrounded by triple curly braces) are replaced by the values provided in the template specification. Parameters may be named or unnamed (in which case they are automatically numbered).
For example: There is a template called Template:BoldTest. Inserting {{BoldTest|stuff}} in your page results in <b>stuff</b> when the page is loaded, which looks like this: stuff.
Editing a template will result in changes to every page which uses that template. I encourage you to learn more about templates so you can create new ones and improve the ones we have. However, if you are unsure about what you are doing please limit your changes to your own test templates. Please don't edit the CharacterSheet template until you get the hang of the concequences.
For more details on templates, see the wikimedia help page: Template.
The CharacterSheet Template
Template:CharacterSheet is a template with a lot of named parameters. Editing this template will change every character in the system, so please do so carefully. It's ugly right now [--Sum1els 23:53, 17 December 2007 (IST)] but we can make it prettier later, and you won't have to edit your character (much).
At the top of your page, insert the text: {{CharacterSheet}}. Previewing or saving the page will show you a blank character sheet, and will tell you the names of the parameters that are unspecified. You can specify values for the parameters like this:
{{{CharacterSheet|name=Ghork|race=Ogre|class=Barbarian|level=3}}}
Anything you put between the | will be in the value, including newlines. If you want to put the prameter specifications on all new lines, you can put |= at the end of each line. This has the effect of assigning the value (new line) to an unnamed parameter, which is ignored:
{{{CharacterSheet|=
|name=Ghork|=
|race=Ogre|=
|class=Barbarian|=
|level=3}}}
Copying An Existing Character
Perhaps the easiest method of setting up a template is copying the source of a page that already uses it. This is a great way to make a new page for a character who has leveled up, when you want to preserve the old character sheet. For example:
- Open the page TestChar
- Click the edit tab
- Put the cursor in the edit pane
- Type ctrl-a ctrl-c to copy the source
- Open your character's edit page (don't save changes to TestChar)
- Put the cursor in the edit pane
- Type ctrl-v to paste
Editing Parameter Values
Go through the parameters and make sure they are set appropriately. If you don't like the way that they appear, you can add formatting information to the parameter value, but be aware that the CharacterSheet template may change, and your formatting may mess up future versions. Try to stay away from the wiki formatting characters when possible. You can use html character specifications such as < for < or = for =. The template {{!}} can be used to insert a |. (You can always look at the edit page for a page that uses a symbol and see how the author did it, then look up the details of the method in the mediawiki help.)
If you don't want to see "parameter unspecified" notices, but you also don't have a value for the parameter, you can simply specify the value {{X0}} which is a template for nothing. However, in the future we may turn the entire line on and off based on whether a parameter is specified, and if you specify a blank it will still show up. If this is unclear, just ignore the unspecified messages, and if it really bugs you, talk to the DM for an explanation.
