Jürgen Hubert
First Post
Unlike my other Wiki project, the d20 NPCs Wiki has grown by leaps and bounds, with now over 1,000 individual statted NPCs and new additions practically every day.
However, it now seems to become a victim of its success - it is becoming bloated and unwieldly. Take a look at the d20 NPCs by Challenge Rating page - it has become gigantic and hard to navigate. At some Challenge Ratings, there are arbitrary subdivisions into different creature types, while CRs don't have anything like that. Finding the right NPCs has become difficult.
Thus, I think it is high time we try and organize the Wiki a bit more. For this, I think we should use the nifty tool known as Categories a bit more. This means that basically any listed NPC receives a certain number of tags that describe him, her, or it.
Categories are already in use to some degree, but aren't nearly prevalent enough to be useful. I propose that we comb through the entire archive and add all the required Categories to all NPCs. This way, finding a certain type of NPC will become much easier - just click on the appropriate Category, and you will get a list with all NPCs that fall under it.
But first, for consistency's sake, we need to hammer out a consistent scheme for the categories. I propose the following:
Challenge Rating: In the format "CR X" (i.e., "CR 3"). For the most part, this seems to have already been implemented - but if you see it missing somewhere, be sure to add it.
Creature Type: In the format "Undead", "Dragon", "Humanoid", etc.
Species: This could be "Human", "Red Dragon", and so on.
Template: Any templates that got added to the base creature - "Vampire", "Fiendish" and so forth.
Class: "Rogue", "Monk", "Commoner" and all the others.
Rules: Any rules additions beyond the Core Rules that were used in creating the NPC. "Expanded Psionics Handbook", "Book of Exalted Deeds", etc..
EDIT:
Campaign World: "Eberron", "Forgotten Realms", and so on. This can mean that the NPC uses rules specific to that setting (and in that case, he can use rules from the entire line of setting books - no need to list them seperately), or that he has a background story that is tied closely to the setting in question, or both.
I think that should cover the most important categories. Have I missed any?
However, it now seems to become a victim of its success - it is becoming bloated and unwieldly. Take a look at the d20 NPCs by Challenge Rating page - it has become gigantic and hard to navigate. At some Challenge Ratings, there are arbitrary subdivisions into different creature types, while CRs don't have anything like that. Finding the right NPCs has become difficult.
Thus, I think it is high time we try and organize the Wiki a bit more. For this, I think we should use the nifty tool known as Categories a bit more. This means that basically any listed NPC receives a certain number of tags that describe him, her, or it.
Categories are already in use to some degree, but aren't nearly prevalent enough to be useful. I propose that we comb through the entire archive and add all the required Categories to all NPCs. This way, finding a certain type of NPC will become much easier - just click on the appropriate Category, and you will get a list with all NPCs that fall under it.
But first, for consistency's sake, we need to hammer out a consistent scheme for the categories. I propose the following:
Challenge Rating: In the format "CR X" (i.e., "CR 3"). For the most part, this seems to have already been implemented - but if you see it missing somewhere, be sure to add it.
Creature Type: In the format "Undead", "Dragon", "Humanoid", etc.
Species: This could be "Human", "Red Dragon", and so on.
Template: Any templates that got added to the base creature - "Vampire", "Fiendish" and so forth.
Class: "Rogue", "Monk", "Commoner" and all the others.
Rules: Any rules additions beyond the Core Rules that were used in creating the NPC. "Expanded Psionics Handbook", "Book of Exalted Deeds", etc..
EDIT:
Campaign World: "Eberron", "Forgotten Realms", and so on. This can mean that the NPC uses rules specific to that setting (and in that case, he can use rules from the entire line of setting books - no need to list them seperately), or that he has a background story that is tied closely to the setting in question, or both.
I think that should cover the most important categories. Have I missed any?
Last edited:
