A d20 NPC Wiki?

[IronWolf]

We should also come up with some sort of "standard template" for the entries - while the stat blocks themselves should follow the examples given in the DMG, we should also give some guidelines on what else could or should be mentioned...

Here's my proposal for structuring the entry:

- Name (should be fairly generic, but descriptive - "CR2 Street Thug")
- Material used: Such as the EXP, any of the "Complete" Books, and so on. Page numbers would also be useful. Can be omitted if no rules beyond the Core Books are being used.
- The stat block
- Combat Tactics (Optional) - what they are likely to do in each round of combat, etc.
- Personal Experiences (Optional): If you used them in your own adventures, how did they fare in them?

"War stories" are acceptable as a way of making the entry more interesting. Besides, more people will come to it (and possibly include some stuff on their own) if they find some great quotes there... ;-)

I think a standard template is a great idea. The information is much more useful if a person visiting the site will know they will find each NPC in a very similar format. This will also help keep the site from getting a "cluttered" feel for it.

I also think to be really useful it should go beyond just the stats and include a description of the NPC. I hope people will use the Personal Experience and Combat Tactics section too even though it is optional. I think it could be a useful feature.

 

[JimAde]

Yes, but the RPGNet Wiki is more of a general resource for a large range of role-playing games and topics. I think a dedicated d20 NPC Wiki makes sense here - it will be easier to categorize and won't come into conflict with NPCs from other systems and other topics.

I agree, but should we include non-fantasy d20 (i.e. d20 Mondern) characters? If so, we should include a field to sort on that.

And given the generous offers from all the wolves (what is up with that, by the way ) we'll have to make a final decision on where to host. I personally lean toward wikicities as a sort of "neutral ground." It's nice of Greywulf and Iron Wolf to offer up their bandwidth, but administrative tasks would tend to devolve on them, and if there were problems with the site it could get messy.

 

[IronWolf]

And given the generous offers from all the wolves (what is up with that, by the way ) we'll have to make a final decision on where to host. I personally lean toward wikicities as a sort of "neutral ground." It's nice of Greywulf and Iron Wolf to offer up their bandwidth, but administrative tasks would tend to devolve on them, and if there were problems with the site it could get messy.

Not sure what is up with all the wolves!

WikiCities sounds fine to me. I wasn't sure how long it would take to get one setup and since I can host MediaWiki's on my stuff I thought I would offer it up. In either event, I think this sounds like a good idea and hope to contribute some NPCs to the site once its location is settled.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I agree, but should we include non-fantasy d20 (i.e. d20 Mondern) characters? If so, we should include a field to sort on that.

I don't see why not - after all, most creatures will be compatible for both. Just mention it at the top of the entry, and maybe create a seperate index page for them...

 

[greywulf]

Not sure what is up with all the wolves!

WikiCities sounds fine to me. I wasn't sure how long it would take to get one setup and since I can host MediaWiki's on my stuff I thought I would offer it up. In either event, I think this sounds like a good idea and hope to contribute some NPCs to the site once its location is settled.

:grin:

Us wolves tend to stick together. It's the pack mentality y'see.

WikiCities sounds good to me too. The where doesn't matter too much, it'll just be good to have it up and running while this momentum is still around.

As to templates, given the wiki nature of the beast, I don't think the layout matters at all - if a template is required, the wiki will evolve (as WikisDo) into forming it's own template by concensus.

What might be a good idea though it to aagree a set of tags from the start, so someone can search for (say) "tank" or "sneak" or "coward" or "shopkeeper" or whatever and get just the hits they want. Remember that one man's tank may be another woman's cannon fodder though

 

[Dog Moon]

Well, Dog isn't quite Wolf...

Anyway, I think that d20 and d20 modern should be kept at least somewhat separated. I know I for one have never done d20 modern and probably never well do d20 modern and I don't want to be browsing the d20 stuff and keep having d20 modern popping up everywhere. I suppose making sure people are aware of it being d20 modern before looking at the NPC would be great.

And creatures can be NPCs too, FYI.

I'm definitely looking forward to this. Need more NPCs!

 

[Yair]

Hi Jurgen - I discuss the legal situation a bit here - http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=136725 - but I don't think it's the law you're concerned with* so much as WoTC's policy on fan sites. TSR used to have a "no fan D&D materials except in the Authorised Zone" policy, but WoTC has never attempted to control fan sites & materials on the Internet. You can check their policy on fan sites if you like, it's probably on their web site. Note that they will NOT actually _authorise_ you to do anything with their IP, for lawyerly reasons. What you want to know is whether they'll send you a cease & desist letter (which they could do if they wanted whether or not there was any legal basis for so doing). AFAIK they definitely won't for the kind of thing we're discussing here; or else a lot of Internet sites would have been shut down.

*FWIW: copying & pasting a paragraph straight from the SRD without using the OGL is potentially copyright infringement. Listing an NPC's stats without using WoTC's stat block format isn't, IMO, at least in UK. To infringe copyright you need to copy a substantial part of a work, generally more than a sentence but less than a paragraph.

I wasn't concerned with Wizard's/OGL issues as much as I was with the wiki-farms themselves. But if wikicities (or wherever) is willing to let us open shop as an fan-site (not subject to a copyleft license or anything except Wizard's fan-site policy) then there is no problem.

Eagerly awaiting the wiki's link...

 

[Bretbo]

How about organizing this way:

..Major Product (D&D, D20 Modern, Star Wars, Mutants and Masterminds, ect.)
.....Specific genre or location (Eberron, Greyhawk....D20 Future, D20 Past, ect.)
........Character Types (I'm thinking three types: Adventure Classes, Creatures and Mundanes)
..............Class Range and/or CR

Not perfect, but I think that makes sense. Thoughts?

Sideline: I agree that a standard format for characters should be used. If folks post a character not in format, I'm sure someone will update it to the "approved" format...know I like doing that.)

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

There's a thread with almost a hundred npcs in Rogue's Gallery.

 

[Mavnn]

There's a thread with almost a hundred npcs in Rogue's Gallery.

Which is nice, but lacks the searchability of a fully functional Wiki