RD:Article Guidelines

These Article Guidelines will handle an in-depth explanation of things that should go on article pages. The RD Wiki houses eight different kinds of articles that can be made with a ninth one that isn't available to people who aren't primary staff. However, the ones to focus on are these:

* Characters
* Teams
* Objects
* Organizations
* Storylines
* Eras
* Universes

These are the most important ones and are the ones that maintain the most focus to create and develop. Thankfully - however -, this system has been automated by way of "Create-A" pages that are going to be linked below at the end of this demonstration. However, it is important to note that while they are automated in the sense of preload pages, you - as the editor - will still have to fill out the information to complete it. A full list of the templates used for the aforementioned pages above while also be included at the end of this guided tour. This page will go over how to create each one of those types of pages successfully and correctly. It is **highly** recommended that you have at least two tabs open for the website if you plan on working on it. For any circumstances where you are lost or confused, reach out to Morpheus on Discord.

To find the Creating pages, use the top navigation. Under Hubs, there will be a page titled "Creating 101" and when clicked, it will take you to a category page that has all of the Creating 101 pages within it.

## **Character Creation**

### **Loading The Template**

When beginning to create a character page, you will use the "Create-A-Character" option. On that page, it will explain to you what you are needing to put for the title of the page. In less words, you need to put the name of your character and their Earth designation. Here's an example:

`Shay Daniels (Earth-30)`

Now, with that, you will click on the "Create Page" button, and it will reload the page in "Source Editor" mode. In Source Editor, this is where most of the coding occurs. Below is what it should look like when you load it up, if it does not, then restart the process from the beginning. However, do not restart if the page loads up and the words are colorized differently. Here is what you will do to change this to make it easier to read and edit.

First, go to the gear wheel at the top right of the page.

Then when you click it, a drop-down menu will appear. Move the cursor down until you see the words "Syntax Highlighting". Essentially, what this does is to show you - in color form - what you are doing with the lines of code. However, for new people to HTML & CSS, this is utter confusion. Therefore, when you find it, click it.

Once you click that, the page should automatically disable the syntax highlighting and leave you with white text for better readability. It should look like this:

Read the beginning text which helps you understand what to do with the basic information. Once that is completed, begin to fill out the Infobox by starting with the **title**, **name**, and **currentalias** labels but leave `characterimage(s)` and `caption-characterimage(s)` blank. Below is a brief interlude to take the time to explain Infoboxes.

### **Infoboxes**

Infoboxes are entire sections of articles and are arguably the most important of the article themselves. They house all information about the character, era, object, team, organization, or story information before getting readers to the actual article itself. The infobox is on the right side of the article on Desktop view while on Mobile, it is the first thing that everyone sees.

Desktop ExampleMobile Example
Infoboxes are great tools to showcase base information for a character or other types of articles in an easy, quick fashion. You most likely will never have to create an infobox as most of them are made for you and the creation of infoboxes are not covered in the guidelines. However, in the event that you **absolutely** need to create an infobox, send a message to your Wiki Admin over Discord. Or use the Community Central Wiki to help you create a infobox.

### **Aliases, Affiliations & Relationships**

Once you reach the `Aliases` label, you will begin to see a series of lines of code that may confuse and/or intimidate you.

Don't worry, this is why we have the guidelines. Here, you have the chance to do two things. This being to continue to use the Source Editor or switch to the Visual Editor at the top left of the page. This portion will follow both ways to do so as it is divided by it being labeled as "Source Editor" and "Method 2: Visual Editor". Below is where you can see the option to change from Source to Visual and vice versa. However, it is **highly** recommended to do Infobox editing through source editor as it will be nearly impossible to do it in visual editor. Once finished with the Infobox in source editor, you can then switch to visual editor but this will only cover the source editor version of the Infobox. Furthermore, it is also easier to work on the entire article page through source editor. Below will cover how to work on the entire article page in source editor with occasional flips between. However, if you wish to write in visual editor, this will also show you how to do that.

#### **Source Editor**

These are the next following steps to take forward whilst using source editor. First, there is a section of text that says "See Source Editor. Delete When Finished." Here, you will highlight this line of text - do **not** delete the label of "| aliases=" - and leave this blank. Now, each of the alias categories will be explained here so you aren't confused as to what goes where:

* **News Aliases**
	+ These are aliases that the news gives your character which are different from Editorial Names. Examples include "The Spring Valley Swinger" or "The Armored Woman of Manhattan". Things that you would see on the front pages of newspapers or titles of web articles.
* **Nicknames**
	+ Self-explanatory. I hope.
* **Editorial Names**
	+ These are official titles that the news gives your character. Examples include "The Spectacular Tarantula" or "The Unbreakable Iron Maiden". Essentially, full adjective superhero names that are referenced in the world of RD and so on.
* **Given Titles**
	+ These are titles that were bestowed upon the character from outside sources that have no relation to the news. Examples include "The Sorcerer Supreme" or "The Leader of The TMNT", titles that have no real barring over anything outside of being given to said character.

Now, when wanting to fill in the information for each of these, what you will do is this: Read the words that are next to the "body =" syntax. Then, you will highlight the text and delete it and here, you will place the aliases that you will give your character. Do not worry about citing, that will come later. Now this is important. If your character does not have news aliases because they are a normal person or they don't have any given titles, those sections are safe to be deleted. Once you have finished writing the aliases, at the bottom of the page, there is an eye icon with the word "Preview" next to it.

Click it and a preview of the page you are currently editing should pop up. Like this:

To check your work to see if you have completed the aliases correctly, click the expand button next to the "Aliases" label and then select expand on all of the sub-labels to view them.

If you run into a problem where the formatting of the Infobox, do not worry. However, continuing this method, you will fill out the following sections, "Relatives" and this is an interesting part. As you will see, there are two sections labelled "Primary Family" and "Extended Family". Here's a brief explanation just in case you are confused.

* **Primary Family**
	+ These are the immediate family members that are around your character or were involved in your characters life. These being: Mother, Father, Siblings. The correct formatting (using `<br>`) is this for example:
		- Unnamed father (missing; presumed alive)
		Jennifer Daniels (mother, alive)
		Patrick Knight (step-father, deceased)
		Jordan Knight (step-brother, alive)
		- You will not be able to see the usage of `<br>` here because Fandom renders it as an actual code instead of an example. However, notice how the names are uniformed as they are placed underneath each other. The `<br>` stands for Break.

* **Extended Family**
	+ These are members of the family who are notable but aren't immediate. Such as cousins, nephews, etc. The correct format is the same as the Primary Family.

Remember to check your work to see if you formatted everything correctly. It should like it does below, if it does not, review the previous steps.

The next section is "Companions" which houses Lovers and Friends. Much like the previous section of "Relatives", it follows the same formatting style. If the character does not have a lover, you can delete everything from Lovers to the end brackets of **that part of the section**. Do not delete anything else. But for a brief explanation of what these two means is this:

* **Lovers**
	+ These are people who your character has dated or has been in some type of sexual/romantic relationship with. This also includes current and deep relationships such as wives, husbands, fiancées, etc. If you wish to put the type of relationship next to the name, you absolutely can. Remember to place them all here, even if it is hard to contextualize into words, you can simply put complicated. Below is an example of how to format it, again using `<br>`:
		- Alexis May (deceased)
		Valerie St. Lauren (complicated)
		Jane Harper (long-time mutual feelings)

* **Friends**
	+ These are the people who your character is close with. The types of people that are there for your character endlessly. If a friend of their's is deceased, still list them as they are still friends and as we all know from comics, nobody ever truly stays dead. Formatting is similar to that of the Lovers section above but for Friends, remember to use **their alter-ego aliases**. Below is an example, still using `<br>`.
		- Jinx
		The Winter Soldier
		Stormsword
		Hulk
		Areus
		Weaver

Once you have done this, remember to delete the "see source editor" text at the end of the "companions =" and preview it. It should look like this:

Now at the home stretch when it comes to having to use lines of code, you will be greeted by the last section of this called "Affiliations". This houses two sections, the first being for characters and the second is for alter-egos, labeled "As Character Name" and "As Alter-Ego". If your character does not have a secret identiy, then congradulations, you get to skip this part by highlighting the entire section and deleting it, like so:

And once deleted, you can simply just put what they are affiliated with like such for example:
Avengers, Stark Industries; formerly Force Works, West Coast Avengers

But if the character you have **does** have a secret identity, then there are some things I need to explain. First, when editing "As Character Name", please highly the "Character Name" part and put their first and last name, like so:
 As Shay Daniels

This section is for the things your character is affiliated with that have nothing to do with their alter-ego identity such as notable schools and organizations. There is no proper formatting for this but it is instead simply just done with comas, for example:

**As Shay Daniels**

Then for alter-ego, replace "Alter-Ego" as their superhero name and format it the same as above. It should look like this:

**As Tarantula**

Once done on the article page, it should look like this:

Congradulations! You completed the hardest part of the Infobox. Now everything else is simply data entry on your character. However, to clear up any confusion on certain labels, I will give a brief overview of some of the more obscure ones:

* **Species**
	+ This label represents what your character is. Humans are "Humans" (duh) but for individuals with superpowers are different. If your character gained their powers from the X-Gene, they are known as "Mutants". If they gained their abilities in an accident, they are known as "Human Mutates". However, there are specific kinds of human mutates. For individuals who got their abilities through gamma mutations and have powers related to that of The Hulk, they are known as "Green Door Avatars". For individuals who gained abilities from a spider bite - depending on the kind of spider - they are known as "Zinchari Avatars". This is specific to only RD but for all other types of Spiders, they are simply known as "Human Mutates". For individuals with Symbiotes, they are known as "Humans' in most realities but again, specific to only RD, they are known as "Void Knight Hosts". For people who are of the mystical variety, they're only known as "Humans".

* **Origin**
	+ The "Origin" label is a brief, vague, one sentence summary of how the character gained their powers or how they are able to do. For this, I will showcase two examples of a good Origin section.
		- 1. Eaten by a Zinchari spider on his 16th birthday and bestowed with spider-like abilities.
		- 2. Human gifted with genius-level intelligence.
	+ It is a very condense version of the Overview section (more on this later).

* **Reality**
	+ For the reality, put their earth and their numerical designation, for example: Earth-30. However, it is important to know that you should absolutely place in parenthesis the nickname of the Earth. Example: Earth-30 (RD). This is to alleviate any type of confusion when it comes to where they are. If they are part of an In-Universe Subsection, you would format the reality as this: Earth-30 (RD/TMNT) or whatever the name of the subsection is.

* **Creator(s)**
	+ RD is a big supporter of creators and creator-owned works. Therefore, we give credit to individuals who have created something for RD. For the creator's label, you will simply place your most widely know alias if you do not feel comfortable using your real name. If you co-created the character with someone else, place their name as well. For example:
	+ Morpheus & NeoFantasy

* **First Appearance**
	+ The first appearance of a character is whenever the character debuted into the roleplay during a storyline. Historically, there is always a storyline going on in a roleplay but in the event there isn't one and they just appeared, then you can place the Era they debuted in. For example:
		- **RD Presents: Welcome to the Show**
	+ However, if the character is retroactively being added into the roleplay via a character's backstory, then you will add two different things. 1. Chronologically and 2. Debut. Because while they chronologically appeared in a backstory, they didn't debut until you brought them into the roleplay. Here is an example, using `<br>` in between Chronoligcally, the era name, Debut, and the era name (ie. **Chronologically**`<br>`RD Presents: Dummy`<br>`**Debut**`<br>`RD Presents: Welcome to the Show):
		- **Chronologically**
		RD Presents: Dummy
		**Debut**
		RD PresentsL Welcome to the Show

If you find yourself not needing to place something in an label, then highlight the word "Example" and then press delete and leave it blank. This makes it so that the label doesn't show up on the infobox but the label still exists if you need to go in and add it later.

Now onto the easier things.

### **Quotes**

Quotes are things your character has said, and you feel are significant enough to warrant being on their character page.

The first quote which is directly underneath the Infobox is mandatory as it states. It will look like this:

Where it says "quote =" you will place your quote after the equal sign. Following this, the "speaker =" section will be where you put your character's name, formatted like such **Tarantula (Shay Daniels)**. Remember to bold their name like shown.

### **Overview**

The overview is the opening three paragraphs to a character's page that tell readers a very brief summary of who they are and what they are about. It includes origins, their life, and what they are up to currently. Please delete the " " and the "You can put a brief summary of your character up here. Think of it as selling your character to the reader." so that you can write.

* **First Paragraph:**
	+ The first paragraph includes a hook sentence and a very brief summary about their origins (ie. how'd they get their powers, what caused them to be so-and-so, and reiterate their alter-ego name). Example:
		- *The quippy, pop-culture-loving, and archeologist-to-be, **Shay Daniels** is better known to the world as the bombastic and legend-making **Tarantula.** Born to the absentee and influential biologist, Dr. Daniels, Shay would come face-to-face with his father's discoveries on his sixteenth birthday in The Mojave Desert. After awakening a Zinchari Spider on accident, Shay would be eaten by it and when he emerged, he would be bestowed incredible spider-like abilities. Shay refused to use his abilities until after the death of his step-father which forced him to step up and protect the city of Las Vegas as Tarantula.*

* **Second Paragraph:**
	+ The second paragraph is a brief overview of their world and their daily lives. This talks about who they know, their secret identity troubles, and a mention of a few villains they have fought. Example:
		- *To protect those he loves, Shay kept his identity a secret but told a handful of individuals like Ren Carter, Hendrix Shays, Jane Harper, Tyler Price, and others. All the while, Shay began to gain notoriety as Tarantula, becoming a pillar in the modern superhero community and becoming a founding member of The Hooligans. Since Shay donned the suit, he has fought countless dangerous villains such as The Radioactive Man, Morbius The Living Vampire, Shriek, Calpyso, and the most notorious of his villains, Hobgoblin who killed Shay's girlfriend Alexis May.*

* **Third Paragraph:**
	+ The third paragraph is the one that is the most updated as the previous two don't change at all. This paragraph deals with the now. Essentially, it is a very brief summary of what the character is up to currently. It is recommended to write about what the character will go through post-whatever is happening in roleplay to avoid needing to constantly updating it. Example:
		- *Recently, following the events of the superhero communities war against SHIELD, Shay would be one of the many primary targets in SHIELD's campaign. However, once SHIELD was defeated, Shay's life would undergo an extreme change after he returned to normalcy in Vegas. This revelation shattered his own will and belief system that it almost made Shay quit but instead, he was only left wondering if any of it was ever really worth it in the end.*

### **Personality**

For their personality section, there is a quote but if you do not want to use it, then simply highlight the quote and then delete itn along with the text that says "this quote is optional". Here, you will place the personality. Please **do not** simply put "good hearted, lovable". Actually, take the time to flesh it out, write it out to flesh out the character. Below is an example of a personality (only the first paragraph):

* Shay James Daniels is a harrowing individual on numerous levels and in every sense of the word. To begin though, Shay is generally a nice, easygoing and laid-back guy. Oftentimes being cited as being nonchalant and passionate about things he loves. A nerd and child at heart, Shay is goofy and a jokester, using quips and one-liners to make people laugh as it makes him happy. He is a very impressionable young man who has been claimed to be infectious. Jordan has stated that Shay makes people want to be better and be better with him, claiming that - in his opinion - Shay is a highlight superhero and will go down in history as one of the greats. Shay is often seen quoting movies and relating everything to pop culture, quite literally down to his studies as he figured out how to love history by relating all of the problems to the Indiana Jones franchise. He is kind and caring, along with great with children as he has shown a paternal side to younger individuals, sometimes even taking the mentor role as if it were natural. This all stems from his stepfather had the mentality of "falling forward". Instead of yelling or punishing Shay, he would ask him, "Now what did we learn?" which forced Shay to realize the problem, see the result and understand what to do next. This is something that he has carried over for his entire life.

### **Attributes**

There is another quote here, but it is optional and if you don't want to use it, use the previously mentioned method.

The attributes section encompasses Powers, Abilities, and Weaknesses. However, there is good news. If your character is human, then they don't need to have a listed weakness as they are **literally** human. Therefore, the weaknesses section can be highlighted and deleted, including the hr/ class="hidden" part. To format all of it, below is an example:

To start, you place the type of species they are as the start of it then explain their origins and interesting facts about it.

***Zinchari Avatar**: After being eaten by a giant gamma-mutated spider that was a holdover from The Nevada Nuclear Testing Site, Shay developed spider-like abilities. Almost to an alarming rate. Studied by Alexis, Shay discovered that more than half of his DNA had become spider-like and the worst part of it is that it is actively mutating. Meaning that there is an eventuality that he may become more spider than man, on the other hand, this could also mean that he will develop new abilities. Due to his young age, it is hard to tell as both are possibilities. However, after encountering alternative versions of himself, 505-Shay asked him which came first, the spider or the gamma mutation but Shay dismissed this out of hand but during the superhuman war, Shay traveled to the hidden African Kingdom of Myrth. Here, he met King Dakari Onasi who presented Shay with a book that detailed out what 505-Shay talked about, The Zinchari and in the book, it described Shay's origins, but the book was written four decades ago. With this newfound information, Shay learned very quickly that he was not only a Zinchari Avatar but there was more science behind his origins than he realized. The Zinchari that ate him had no special abilities, but it wasn't until it was exposed to the gamma radiation of The Nevada Nuclear Testing Site that it activated its abilities but made it aggressive and in turn, ate Shay on his 16th birthday. However, the book details out that there was another that was bitten by the spider, but the story ends there. More recently, after his fight with Montage, Shay sent his blood to Dakari for testing, and he reported some almost eerie findings. Dakari reported that Shay's blood is mutating to the point that it has begun to affect his DNA, that eventually Shay will become more powerful than most of the other street-level heroes and that there is no telling what the skill ceiling is for Shay. He also explained that his more recent abilities - i.e., Energy Absorption - were passed down to him from the spider that ate him. The two theorized that the reason why the spider that ate him was hostile was because it was using its latent energy absorption abilities to absorb the gamma energy from above while it hibernated and when it awoke, it awoke angry and lashed out as it couldn't release the energy in a constructive way like Shay can. When asked how much energy Shay could absorb, Dakari stated that based off of his blood analysis and various simulations run by Myrthian Scientists, it is likely that Shay could absorb the power of a collapsing sun but because he is still human based, that much energy could kill him. With this newfound information, Maria's HARM system ranked shay as a Street-Level Threat 8 and a Potential Street-Level Threat XXX, with Maria herself even commenting on how scary Shay would be if taken over to the dark side, willingly or unwillingly. Epitaph also told Ren to watch Shay as even she felt that Shay had become stronger and Ren would be the only one to stop him.*

Then once you are done, you will add a (\*) at the start of the next section. For simplicity's sake, "Superhuman Physiology" is one paragraph that gets to the point.

* ***Superhuman Physiology**: Shay has considerable strength. While he may not be as strong as his peers, he is strong enough to do many things. Such as lifting freight containers, and cars, and even holding two grown men over his head. However, the truest display of his strength is during the So Appalled era when Shay was forced to catch and hold The Coca-Cola bottle over his head with both hands to ensure that civilians could get away. Manny theorized that his current strength is 20 tons but stated that he is actively mutating so it could increase. Shay's speed is unnatural. He has caught up to speeding cars on highways, chased flying enemies, and most notably, dodged bullets. His overall speed is unknown, but his crowning achievement of speed is whenever he caught up to a helicopter by foot on rooftops in Manhattan. Shay’s equilibrium, agility, and bodily coordination was enhanced to superhuman levels to the point that he can balance on anything and everything, coupled with his wall-crawling ability makes him one of the most agile heroes in his community, allowing him to perform complex stunts and tricks, some of which are not humanly possible. Shay’s reflexes are too fast (not as fast as Jay's who can augment himself), to the point that he can catch flies in mid-flight. He has showcased this by being able to catch bullets and make snap decisions in seconds. A testament to his reaction time is whenever Ren, Manny, and Shay were training, and they both attacked him. He made the swiftest dodge and the two of them hit each other instead. Shay generates fewer fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of a normal human. At his peak, he can physically exert himself for at least several hours before the build-up of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to impair him. Shay's body is harder and more resistant to certain types of physical injury than the body of an ordinary human, though he's far from invulnerable. His bodily tissues are conditioned to allow him to withstand great impact forces and he has resisted impacts, such as falling from a height of many stories and being repeatedly struck by superhuman opponents, that would severely injure or kill a normal human with little to no injury to himself. He once fell off a tower and effortlessly walked to a hospital, where a doctor said that with broken ribs and massive fractures, it was amazing that he could even stand up.*

Following this, you will format all other powers like you did for the Superhuman physiology. However, if the character gained a new power that is unrelated to their species or gained a secondary mutation, it will be formatted like the first example, "Zinchari Avatar" then all powers relating to the new one is formatted like "Superhuman Physiology".

For abilities, this includes things that they are notably good at like their intelligence, combat ability, and other things related to it.

For weaknesses, this is just a simple bullet list which is used by (\*). Remember to bold the words before the paragraph on all powers, abilities, and weaknesses.

### **Paraphernalia**

The equipment section is pretty straightforward as it houses the equipment your character has in bullet list form. Remember to use the same formatting that you did for the abilities.

### **Trivia**

The trivia is where you will place funny or interesting tidbits of knowledge about your character in a bullet list form using (\*). There is no special kind of formatting needing. Just a bullet list like:

* Magic Man doesn't like seafood

and etc.

## **Graduation**

Congratulations!! You have successfully created a character page! Now press save and your page will render perfectly and completely finished. Remember to intermittently save while working on a page. Nevertheless, now that you know how to work on a character page, you know how to work on all pages as they are self-explanatory and since you have the experience of creating and editing, all of it will be easy moving forward!

If you have any more questions, ask a member of the staff or message an admin on Discord for further information.