Help:Standards and Formatting

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The following are guidelines based on general observations from official Wizards of the Coast products.

For guidance outside of WotC books or this article, a good rule of thumb is Wikipedia's List of Guidelines.

Grammar Styles

The standard language used on D&D Wiki is U.S. English. The only exception to this is proper nouns that are spelled in a way to reflect in-game culture. This is not with intent to alienate anyone, but is simply following the practices of the WoTC. (e.g. favorite instead of favourite, maneuver instead of manoeuvre, -ize instead of -ise, armor instead of armour, or aluminum instead of aluminium.)

You are not required to create your articles in U.S. English, but it is encouraged, and you should not revert attempts to change your spelling to U.S. variants.

Common Misspellings

Misspellings	Correct
lightening (illuminating)	lightning (electricity)
mithril (J. R. R. Tolkien)	mithral (Gygax)
rouge (a color)	rogue (a scoundrel)
diety (weight-lossy)	deity (god[dess])

"Effect" and "Affect"

The common usage of "affect" is a verb. (This only affects non-living matter.) The common usage of "effect" is a noun. (Living matter is not subject to this effect.)

However, there are less common usages of these words where the reverse is true. An "affect", as a noun, is a physical manifestation of an emotion, such as a frown indicating sadness. To "effect", as a verb, is to put into practice; "to effect a change" is to make that change happen.

Commonly Used Special Characters

Character	Code	Description
−	−	Minus sign
–	–	En dash: literally means "through" (19–20, 1st–9th)
—	—	Em dash: used to represent values of N/A or Nil (e.g. a non-ability "Con —")
×	×	Multiplication sign
→	→	Right arrow: used for the "Back to" footers
‘	‘	Left single quotation mark
’	’	Right single quotation mark; also used as an apostrophe
“	“	Left double quotation mark
”	”	Right double quotation mark

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