Help:Standards and Formatting

D&D Wiki Help Portal Joining About FAQ Logging In Mission Statement Community Community Portal DnD Discussion Featured Articles Glossary of Jargon News Salasay/FA Mockup Social Media Talk Pages Whacking with a Wet Trout Editing Article Naming Campaign Settings Constructive Editing D&D Guidelines D&D Links Help Page Improving, Reviewing, and Removing Templates Meta Pages Sandbox Sourcing and Linking Images Standards and Formatting Table Table/Examples When to Italicize and Capitalize Using D&D wiki Browsing Policies A Good DM Attribution Policy Behavioral Policy Deletion Policy Legal Mature Content Policy Page Protection Precedent Rating Policy Spirit and Intent Warning Policy Administration List of Administrators Request for Moderation Requests for Adminship Talk to the Administration

Formatting Links

Formatting on the wiki entails, among other things, the use of source coding on pages to link to appropriate pages (SRD, homebrew content references, etc.). The following is a short list of linking help, separated by edition.

5e Linking	Result
[[5e SRD:|]]	link to SRD terms/items
[[(5e )|]]	link to homebrew items
[[5e SRD: Skill|]]	link to SRD skills
{{5a| }}	link to ability score
{{5c| }}	link to SRD condition

4e Linking	Result

3.Xe Linking	Result
[[SRD: | ]]	link to SRD terms
[[ | ]]	alternative method to link to SRD, often for rules

Grammar Styles

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.

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

---