Announcements:
<ul type="square">[*]Apparently there aren't any community plots or events running at the moment so that window is currently being occupied by Newspapers, on the Main Page.[*]As a result, Newspaper's window is currently being occupied by Magazines. If anyone has any news-related art for next week, do share![*]The randomly selected featured Villain for this week is Deepcut! Congratulations mate! Nice character concept also.[*]The randomly selected hero was initially GoodGuy's Dr. Furnace, but its an empty profile so I had to look again. Hehe. Then I hit another stub; ND and had to choose again!! Bambi Delight's stub; choose again! Finally, I arrived at New Moon; which thankfully had lots of info, woot!! Gz Moon![/list]
Oh, and thank you for that post Blackdove, much needed and much appreciated.
[ QUOTE ]
As for spelling errors, it is no worse than quite a few unionwiki pages, or general posting on these forums. I honestly think picking on someone's grammar just looks petty. If you want corrections to that page, you could use the talk page, I am sure?
[/ QUOTE ]
Look, my point was that Liz was talking about there are so many pages with spelling errors in the context of editing pages and removing errors when Liz has made numerous typos and probably isn't the best person to be changing things like that!
Oh [censored] it, I'm having nothing to do with you lot, you take minor comments like that, which Liz hadn't even commented or and doesn't even seem bothered by, and blow them way out of proportion.
Not having anything to do with your drama.
[url=http://vox-doom.deviantart.com]Take A Gander At This.[/url]
[ QUOTE ]
Not having anything to do with your drama.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh the irony! 
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
[ QUOTE ]
Announcements:
<ul type="square">[*]Apparently there aren't any community plots or events running at the moment so that window is currently being occupied by Newspapers, on the Main Page.[/list]
[/ QUOTE ]
I see a need, or at least a use, for a plot category and a cheat sheet for plots. Currently there is no ready, nifty place or format to be used.
Right off the cuff I can think of these things that would make plot information useful:
- name of the plot, if there is one good title for it, like Riot in the Row.
- the gamemaster of the plot, ie. whom to contact for more information. A global handle might be most useful way, and/or a character name.
- The timeframe for the plot. When it can have been said to have started, and when it possibly came to an end. With one glance it could be told how long for example Chronodyne plot ran.
- The major events in the plot. What took place and when. This would be a recap of the notable events that shaped the plot. A concise representation what led the where and why.
- Scope of the plot. Is the plot aimed at a small group of people, an SG ir two or is it plain community wide, up for grabs for any who's interested? Even if the plot is for a small band of people it warrants listing for the curious, like, what is the relation between identical looking women Sword of Truth and Light of Truth? Such information might spark ideas for others and they could even join that small band of people to whom the plot was run.
- Visible effects of the plot. A summary of things which can be observed by others. This is a tremendous help when something unseen by game engine is changed in the world while the characters inhabiting it would be aware of it. For example, even if all the reasons and motivations are hidden from the view, there still is one mystical, blue flower growing on a remote Talos Island zone island, and it has an effect to those who visit it. The existence and the effects would be observable.
If there was such a cheat sheet I could begin transporting Tempest's added lore to the Wiki to be enjoyed and used by others. And I do hope that there would be a flood from others as well.
How to organize them? I have no idea. By supergroup? By character? By alphabetical name? Here the "tags" field come very useful.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Not having anything to do with your drama.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh the irony!
[/ QUOTE ]
Hey you can't blame a man about being possessive of his own drama.
Shadowplay - Scrapper DM/DA SL 50
Doctor Storm- Brute SS/Elec SL 50
"speed boosts someone in the face" - Cognito
**Reads the threads**
I like the work that has been done so far, I also understand that as a Wiki anyone can edit/add to what I in-put.
IW as thinking about possibly doing something similar for the Defiant server but to be honest there are not that many roleplayers around on defiant..Unless there are a lot more roleplay supergroups around than I thought, compared to Union where I can do a /SEA and every time find a person with the {{RP}} tag in their search bar.
[ QUOTE ]
I thought "revert" was just when a change is made and then somebody undoes it (on Wikipedia there's an undo button on the history page; I don't see it on the Handbook though) so it goes back to the previous version. Your scenario would then be three edits, not three reverts? (I may be entirely wrong on that).
[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, if it's three reverts like that, then I don't see any particular harm in having such feature, and possible benefits. (Though still optimistically hoping there wouldn't be a need.) Disregard my earlier comments on that 
.
just added in Drade into the handbook, still need to update and add in a few things, but 3 hours so far.. of work and i need rest.
Additional to the plots: it would be helpful if there was a ready format show where a plot originated and where it led to.
An example:
Octavo and Trial of Nightsparrow led to Trapped in robotworld plot which led directly to Tempest Virus scare, which led to Riot in the Row.
It might be fun for people who were entangled with Kings Row riots to see where the assumed virus actually came from, and why.
Of course these fields could be used or discarded at will, but if they're there it'd promote adding that information.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
As for spelling errors, it is no worse than quite a few unionwiki pages, or general posting on these forums. I honestly think picking on someone's grammar just looks petty. If you want corrections to that page, you could use the talk page, I am sure?
[/ QUOTE ]
Look, my point was that Liz was talking about there are so many pages with spelling errors in the context of editing pages and removing errors when Liz has made numerous typos and probably isn't the best person to be changing things like that!
Oh [censored] it, I'm having nothing to do with you lot, you take minor comments like that, which Liz hadn't even commented or and doesn't even seem bothered by, and blow them way out of proportion.
Not having anything to do with your drama.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, I mean, why would you want to associate with people who get in a huff over insignificant little things like a box that can be filled in or not in a template.
Oh wait. 
Disregard! 
I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but...
We currently have the following non-story categories listed on the front page;
Characters (currently used for player characters)
Supergroups
Locations
Businesses
Should we also have Items/Artifacts and NPCs added as extra catergories?
I know that I reference NPCs on my character page, and will be using a magical item on at least one of my characters, and having their own lists would be a good start. Or do we just create a category with a community agreed tag to the entry page and let the list grow for itself?
Sorry, I'm very new to Wikis and not sure what the procedure/etiquette is!
Formerly @Crimson Archer, now @CA
The Militia - Protecting Paragon City through roleplaying since June 2006!
Coile, we did initially consider having plot profiles separate to story profiles, but if you think about it, plots are just developing stories. Past plots like Riot in the Row, Tempest Virus Scare etc would (I think, and let me know if you disagree) belong under community stories. If needed, we can write up a Guide for story profiles which would include a cheat sheet to standardize the overall template.
Archer, character profiles are for both PC's and NPC's *wink*. As for artifacts and item profiling, I too like the sound of that; it'll most likely be one of the new sections coming next week.
[ QUOTE ]
Archer, character profiles are for both PC's and NPC's *wink*.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ummm.. isn't that gonna get quite unweildy quite quickly? Essentially any person referenced in a story or in-game convo which isn't a player could be classed as an NPC, and that's a lot! Personally, I like browsing the full character page for new folks, but I'd like to be able to browse the player characters and the NPCs seperately, but that's just me. 
Can I suggest discussing with Z about a cut down version of the CharacterBox and Template for use with NPCs, if a user wants. After all, most of the time NPCs won't need much fleshing out, but if they do, then the full player character template is available.
Just a thought. 
Formerly @Crimson Archer, now @CA
The Militia - Protecting Paragon City through roleplaying since June 2006!
Good point. A subcategory could always be set up to be tagged to all NPC profiles, like [[Category:NPCharacter]]. We could then link that subcategory to the Character category list. Also, I believe Z is actually thinking of setting up some smaller Character Boxes.
About NPCs... if they're not fleshed out, are there reasons to add them to the handbook?
And about Items and Atrifacts...
I would say that these are part of characters. (or SGs I suppose...) Personally, I'd put such an item I'd like to descibe in more detail in to it's own chapter of the character sheet.
I do not think they warent their own section, but then it may be my limited imagination on the subject.
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
I would also like to see a separate cheat sheet and category for IC newspapers. It would make archiving produced material that much easier.
Again, shaken from my sleeve what infos would be good to list.
- Name of the paper.
- If there is a general busybody behind the paper, who? A GM, if you will.
- When / how often does the paper come out?
- How big the circulation is and where it's likely to encounter it? For most cases it's relevant to list only if the paper is available in Paragon City / Rogue Isles.
- Who's the IC editor-in-chief and what notable staff members there are (and what are their fields)?
- The reputation: is the paper leaning to any side politically? Is it a respected morning paper, of the worst of the pond scum that the yellow press pushes out? This would heavily affect the credibility of the stories in each paper.
- Physical description. High quality glossy paper or your standard pulp paper? Black & white or plenty of color spreads? How many pages approximately, and what categories are there in the paper?
I'd like to have a format to publish my Paragon Times and Daily Comet pieces and start seeing how to implement all the Paragon Inquirer trash pieces (aside of Mature Content warnings, that is).
NPC's might deserve their own category, and one for items would not go amiss because I think there'll be lots of them too. It of course makes perfect sense to have those items mentioned in character and/or supergroup profiles but if you're looking info about one particular thing and there's a separate entry about it, all the easier to read about it.
As an example I offer the Blue flower. It is connected to Coile very much, and also to Silent Tempest, but exists in the world as a separate entity and can be encountered quite independent from Coile. Thus I figure it warrants its own entry.
[ QUOTE ]
Coile, we did initially consider having plot profiles separate to story profiles, but if you think about it, plots are just developing stories.
[/ QUOTE ]
Would it be worth / needed at all to distinguish between ready fiction pieces and plot summaries? They are, after all, different kind of written pieces.
The story summary box could just be fleshed out to produce a plot summary box, assuming all the infos that I proposed are implemented.
Could be that it's mostly me, but I understand stories to refer to fiction. Now, if it said that in this case it also refers to plots there's my misconception fixed and not an issue any more. If it is a wider problem, then others need to learn the info at some point as well.
I personally would like to see separate entries for fiction and plots. With all the stories grouped into one category without a distinction between character/supergroup/community. For plots such division would make sense still.
My reasoning is that a plot you can get entangled with, and even a plot that has run its course can have visible effects still, and both are something that can shape our characters and their perceptions. Stories, at least for me, tend to tell just about one or two characters and offer scarce little for others to use.
In short, their function and usefulness are different. Thus imho warranting different categories.
Ah yes, I knew something slipped my mind. Newspaper Cheat Sheet/template. Easily workable, I can get a start on that sometime soon.
Good idea on the NPC categories. I should probably shunt Xortel over to there. If you check her page, it has her level listed down as --, mostly because she doesn't exist on my accounts at the moment, the same with several other characters.
[ QUOTE ]
About NPCs... if they're not fleshed out, are there reasons to add them to the handbook?
[/ QUOTE ]
The main reason, I think, is that there are two different types of NPCs to my mind; the fully rounded character and the supporting cast.
In Crimson Archer's back story he has a cousin who is also a laywer. He's been featured heavily in some stories, and has a full background which I'd like to document so that I don't make mistakes if I use him in the future!
But I also have a NPC called Chad Williams, who's little more than a name but is tied to a fictional company Crimson uses. He's not rounded enough to be a full character, but if other people wanted to use him in their stories, then some basic info on appearance and personality might be useful, but without the history or motivations!
I just feel bad about using the full character template and leaving 60% of it blank.
[ QUOTE ]
And about Items and Atrifacts...
I would say that these are part of characters. (or SGs I suppose...) Personally, I'd put such an item I'd like to descibe in more detail in to it's own chapter of the character sheet.
I do not think they warent their own section, but then it may be my limited imagination on the subject.
[/ QUOTE ]
I should probably say that I wasn't specifically talking about player character personal items/equipment, or Items of Power in bases, but to plot devices, McGuffins, Handwavium Power Sources and the like which are used as story hooks, solutions or problems for the characters.
For example, I could write a story which has a specific NPC with a device for robbing magical heroes of their powers, but at the end of the story the device is lost. It would still exist, and might be useful to another player as a plot device in a story they are writing. As such, an entry in the UnionWiki which isn't tied to either the original story or to the player character would make it easier to browse these player created devices/artifacts, and maybe find inspiration from that.
Formerly @Crimson Archer, now @CA
The Militia - Protecting Paragon City through roleplaying since June 2006!
I added my level 50 character's profile... Blue Rush. I hope I did not make mistakes of some sorts, it's my first try... Feedback is appreciated
Edit: also, please let me know if you find spelling/grammar/syntax mistakes, English is not my mothertongue, I'm italian, so I might have made some. Thanks!
I would also like to know... do you know how to create a thumbnail image that will open the full version when clicked? I have a great cover for Blue Rush's comics () made by a friend of mine that I would like to put up...
[[image:blue_rush.jpg|thumb|left|Blue Rush comics Issue #1]]
Coile, I'll bring this up in the meeting, but thought I'd discuss it here first; what if we renamed Character, Supergroup and Community stories as Character Plots, Supergroup Plots and Community Plots (then write up a brief guide and cheat sheet along the lines of what you've suggested) and then transfer all the current creative writings to a single section called Fiction.
I had that exact idea, but then had a second thought... and now I can't figure out what it was. Probably nothing major. I'd be cool with that system.
[ QUOTE ]
[[image:blue_rush.jpg|thumb|left|Blue Rush comics Issue #1]]
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks a lot!
[ QUOTE ]
The Donation page is a holdover from MediaWiki software. I have no clue how one would go about removing that, and I don't really want to tamper with it. RE: Dead links. Dead links are fine for the moment. Those little red blocks of text are a PAINFUL reminder for someone to link their character in or what not. Filling them in just for the sake of them not being dead seems a little, eh, and harder to then pinpoint what needs to be done.
[/ QUOTE ]
Lets leave it then and work around it. You can add there that it's totally free for people to donate their idea's (link here or talkpage) or to donate their profiles...
That way the link will be active and has nothing to do with money.
- The Italian Job: The Godfather Returns #1151
Beginner - Encounter a renewed age for the Mook and the Family when Emile Marcone escapes from the Zig!
- Along Came a... Bug!? #528482
Average - A new race of aliens arrives on Earth. And Vanguard has you investigate them!
- The Court of the Blood Countess: The Rise of the Blood Countess #3805
Advanced - Go back in time and witness the birth of a vampire. Follow her to key moments in her life in order to stop her! A story of intrigue, drama and horror! Blood & Violence... not recommend to solo!