Guide to Uploading RPs, Duels, and More
So You Want to Upload Your RPs?
Uploading RPs to the wiki might seem like a daunting task, but once you've given it a shot, you'll find it's really quite simple and straightforward. The wiki is a useful, player-friendly tool designed to help you out as much as allow you to display your Hollow activities! Have no fear of making mistakes, that's how you learn, and it's why there are Wiki Assistants to swoop in and mend any errors. No mistake will permanently harm the wiki, so push on, dear pioneer.
Step One: Accessing the Wiki
First and foremost, you must be actively logged into the wiki to upload or edit anything. To log in, go to the bottom of the left-hand column on the wiki, find the Log In link, and click it. You log in by using your Hollow character name and password--your main or your alt character works for this.
Once logged in, look at the left-hand column, locate the Search bar, and type in the RP's title. The title follows this format (examples used):
RP:Satoshi Does Something Irrelevant
Fight:Satoshi v Wiki
Duel:Satoski v Wiki
The "RP:" must come first, and there is no space between it and the title. This ensures it gets categorized correctly with all other uploaded RPs. The title is formatted like a book's, capital letters for all but minor words.
Is it an RP, Fight, or Duel?
To determine which format term goes before your title, you must look at what you're uploading. What is it focused on? Dialogue, interaction, etc.? This is an RP. If it is centralized around combat, it will fall under a Fight or Duel. Fights are unofficial combat, battles that occur without judges or time limits (Spars fall under the Fight category for the wiki). A Duel follows a stricter and officially recognized format with time limits, judges, stakes, and possibly more.
Fights and Duels alike are always listed alphabetically by the participant, not by winner.
Step Two: Putting in the Text
Back at the Search bar with your title, you'll hit Enter, and the wiki will take you to a page saying, "Create the page "RP:Satoshi Does Something Irrelevant" on this wiki!" Click the red link it provides in this text.
This opens a blank table to copy/paste your RP into, which is the beginning of your RP's page.
For easy reading when your RP is uploaded: Make sure the posts are double or triple spaced, or it will be an ugly, solid block of text. We Wiki Admin hate this and will curse your name while inputting a thousand Enters to make your RP readable (I kid, mostly).
If you have the room name the RP took place in, at the top of the RP, input it with this format:
==Kelay Way==
This allows readers to immediately see which room your RP is taking place in. You can include the room's description, although it is not necessary. If room location changes during the RP, you can add more tags. just follow that same format and place it above whatever post changes the scene:
==Kelay Tavern==
==Scenic View==
==Frostmaw Arena==
And so on.
You can also include at the top of the page a synopsis. This should be a brief description of what took place in the RP so that those curious can learn roughly what happened if they're unable to read the entire RP itself. This is extremely useful for following Arcs and storylines--it is very time-consuming to read every RP that takes place during such things, otherwise.
Duels Get a Little Something Extra
If you are uploading a Duel, you can include further information at the top of the page. Some common and useful things to have might be the judges, time limits, stakes, and the number of rounds.
Personally, I use this format for my duels, although you can display yours how you see fit, or not at all:
Duelists: Kasyr vs. Satoshi. Duel: Traditional 3 posts each, with final defense. 15-minute posting limit. Stakes: Auto-hit post and leadership of House Azakhaer to the winner. Judges: Svilfon (mid), Dami, Kirien
Step Three:Tagging is an Art
At the bottom of the page is where the category tags go; this gets slightly tricky and is where most wiki newbies get nervous. If you aren't comfortable with these, leave it blank, and one of us Wiki assistants will take care of it.
Firstly, the PC tags. One of these is needed for every character that posted in the RP. The tags look like this:
{{PC|Satoshi}}
{{PC|Kasyr}}
{{PC|Svilfon}}
Once your list of PC tags are in place, it's time to follow them up with the RP type tag. This tag places your RP in the right category for the type of RP (RP, Fight, Duel). If one or more types of RP took place, including the appropriate number of tags:
[[Category:RP Logs]]
[[Category:Fight Logs]]
[[Category:Duel Logs]]
And lastly, you want to include your location tags. Location tags are set up by the locations' proper names, such as Port Rynvale, Kelay Town, etc. The tags are set up like this:
{{Region:Kelay Town|RPs}}
{{Region:Frostmaw|RPs}}
{{Region:Kingdom of Enchantment|RPs}}
A Regional Reference Guide
The proper regional names are listed below for easy access in naming the Tag:
- Alithrya
- Archmosia
- Armantium
- Cenril
- Chartsend
- Craughmoyle
- Dark Forest
- Dark Lands
- Darkilin
- Dead Caves
- Dragonlands
- Elimdor
- Eternal Forest
- Ferminville
- Fog Forest
- Frostmaw
- Gamorg
- Grasslands
- Gualon
- Kelay Town
- Kelay-Sage Area
- Kingdom of Enchantment
- Kregus
- Larket
- Larket City-State
- Lower Craughmoyle
- Milous Plains
- Misshapen Lands
- Nameless Desert
- Port Rynvale
- Preklek Realm
- Realms of Chaos
- Rynvale Island
- Sage Forest
- Schezerade
- Taylebeck
- Trist'oth
- Underdark
- Upper Craughmoyle
- Vailkrin
- Venturil
- Vhys
- Western Lands
- Xalious Mountain Range
- Xalious Village
Step Four: Preview and Upload!
Once you've placed your tags and posts into the blank template, click the Show Preview button at the bottom of the page. This will allow you to see what your finished page will look like. You can correct any errors, typos, or wrong tags before submitting the completed work. If everything looks correct, hit that Save Page button and behold your uploaded RP!
Don't worry about messing up. Any error is easily fixed by either yourself or an assistant. And if you're uncertain about anything, look at similar pages that have already been uploaded to the wiki, click Edit, and you can see how the tags and formatting are done. This method of "wiki scavenging" is incredibly useful in learning how others set up their pages.
The Chaos of Uploading an Arc
Skylei here, picking up the torch for Satoshi! Whilst I'm not a wiki-goddess like her, I hope I can lay some light on the madness of arc managing.
Creating the Arc or What is an Arc?
An arc, loosely speaking, is a series of interlocking RPs based around a broader goal, adventure, or theme; it could even just be a single character's adventure across a series of RPs. An arc can have anywhere from two to unlimited characters, can take place across regions. It's just another storytelling device you may wish to use.
So, you have a series of RPs, and you want to turn them into an arc. Where do you start?
In many ways, arc pages are similar to your standard RP pages in that the initial formula is very similar. Once logged in, look at the left-hand column, locate the Search bar, and type in the arc's title. The title follows this format (example used):
Arc:Amazing Adventures in Hollow
Like RPs, arc titles have no spaces between the colon and the title.
Once you’ve decided a name, put it into the search bar, hit Enter, and the wiki will take you to a page saying (for example), "Create the page "Arc:Amazing Adventures in Hollow" on this wiki!" Click the red link it provides in this text, and a blank page will open up. This is your arc’s homepage!
Formatting and Tagging the Arc
The first thing to add to an arc page is a short synopsis to allow the player base to know precisely what your RP is about. This can be anything from a short sentence to an extensive paragraph; it all depends on how much you want (or need) your audience to know. Once that is done, it’s time to link your RPs
So, I have two RPs, and I want people to know that they’re linked (examples):
RP:Satoshi Does Something Irrelevant RP:Hildegarde Songed A Song
To link to an RP Page follow the below examples,
[[RP:Satoshi Does Something Irrelevant]] [[RP:Hildegarde Songed A Song|Hildegarde Sings a Pretty Song]]
In the first example, the link will read RP:Satoshi Does Something Irrelevant. In the second example, the text beyond the | will appear as the link to the RP; ‘Hildegarde Sings a Pretty Song.’ The second is more stylistically friendly, but both are equally functional. Capital letters and formatting matters! Any discrepancy between the original page and your link title will create a dead link. We don’t want any of those.
Your RPs can then be ordered using asterisks (bullet points) or hashes (bulleted numbering) as follows.
#[[RP:Satoshi Does Something Irrelevant]] #[[RP:Hildegarde Songed A Song|Hildegarde Sings a Pretty Song]]
Or
*[[RP:Satoshi Does Something Irrelevant]] *[[RP:Hildegarde Songed A Song|Hildegarde Sings a Pretty Song]]
There are other options too: Gevurah and I like tables, for example. I would advise looking at a variety of arcs on the wiki and taking the most appropriate formats from there:
Different examples of formatting:
Next, add Player Tags and Region Links (seen in Step Three of Uploading Your RP) should then be added to an RP page (examples):
{{PC|Satoshi}}
{{PC|Hildegarde}}
{{PC|Skylei}}
{{Region:Kelay Town|RPs}}
{{Region:Frostmaw|RPs}}
Two other tags that should be added to an arc are the RP Log and the Arc Log tags. The first marks the arc as an RP log:
[[Category:RP Logs]]
Whilst the second tag will need changing depending on whether your arc is current or completed:
{{Arc|Current}}
{{Arc|Finished}}
How to Tag Your Arc-Linked RP Pages Like a Pro
So now you have your arc page, you want to ensure that your RPs link back. To do this, you need the Arc-Nav Tag. At the opening of every RP page that is part of your arc, you’ll want to include this tag (example included):
{{ArcNav|Arc=Amazing Adventures in Hollow}}
For example, head to one of your RP Pages, for instance…
RP:Hildegarde Songed A Song
Open it up, and above your previously added text, insert the ArcNav tag. As you add new RPs to the arc, you can add this tag to ensure they all link back to your beautifully formatted arc page.
A note here: capital letters matter here too! If you have capitalized your initial arc page, follow that pattern, or the arc link will not work. The capital letters in the ‘ArcNav’ and ‘Arc=’ section are also entirely necessary; miss these, and your arc link will not work.
Arcs may seem like a lot of work to manage on the wiki but, beyond the initial set-up, they are no more complicated than a standard RP page and allow players to follow a long term storyline with greater ease! They also look pretty snazzy, and you’ll be the envy of all your wiki-user friends when you can pull them out of the hat with no problem! Admin, wikiguides, and other wiki-friendly people are here to help you.