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Style manual

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Spoilers

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Images • Spoilers • Content warnings

This is BG3.Wiki's style manual. It serves as a style reference for contributors to the wiki, and is regularly updated and maintained as necessary.

Also see the wiki's editing policy.

Bg3Wiki articles use clear and easily understood language that prioritises readability over flair. Editors should strive for clarity, consistency and conciseness – less is more.

Always discuss major changes to the format of well-established articles. When the style guide is unable to provide guidance, follow current wiki convention until a consensus is reached.

Article names

Article titles and headings are usually written in sentence case, with the exception of names (see the capitalisation section of this guide).

Characters

Opt for the character's simplest name, without any titles, aliases, or nicknames. Titles and aliases can be described in the text of the article itself. If a title or alias is very frequently used in-game, consider adding a redirect for it.

• Gut (True Soul Gut Priestess Gut)
• Spaw (Sovereign Spaw)

Firstname Lastname is also acceptable.

• Roah Moonglow

Items

Use the name of the item shown on the ingame tooltip, including the enchantment value, if any:

• Longbow +1

When an item has both an enchantment and a unique name, use the unique name without the enchantment value:

• Merregon Halberd
• Speedy Reply

Locations

When a location has multiple names, opt for the name displayed on the minimap while standing in that location. Create redirects for alternative names.

• Ebonlake Grotto (Myconid Colony)

If a notable location does not have a minimap name, opt for the name of the nearest Waypoint or fold the location into a larger region or area that encompasses that location (such as The Risen Road).

Article layout

The following is the correct order of elements on most pages:

1. {{PageSeo}}
2. {{DISPLAYTITLE}}
3. {{hatnote}}
4. Content warnings: {{cw}}
5. Notices: {{Priority}}, {{Stub}}, {{Under construction}} or {{Rewrite}}.
6. Infoboxes: {{CharacterInfo}}, {{LocationInfo}}
7. Images
8. Tab template: {{CompanionTab}}, {{CombatTab}}
9. TOC template: {{TOC}}
10. Introduction: A brief and spoiler-free summary of the article's contents that gives context to the article.
11. {{SpoilerWarning}}, if applicable.
12. Body: Most of article's contents (see below).
13. Achievements: A section with an {{achievement}} template.
14. Gallery: A section with a <gallery>.
15. See also: A section with links to relevant articles.
16. Notes: A section with bulleted notes, using the {{notesbegin}} and {{notesend}} templates.
17. Footnotes: A section with a {{notelist}} template.
18. References: A section with {{reflist}} templates.
19. External links: A section with external links.
20. Navboxes
21. Categories

Body

Sections near the top of an article should cover more broad and contextual information, whereas sections near the bottom should include more specific information. Most spoilers should be centered in the middle sections of the article.

Specific guidelines for section order:

• Origin characters: Overview (Background, Recruitment, Personal quest, Approval, Personality), Interactions, History ...
• Major NPCs: Overview (Background, Quests), Interactions, History, Related literature ...
• Locations: Overview (Locations, Characters, (Traders), Related quests), Interactions, History, Notable loot (Quest items, Quest rewards, Other) ...

Templates

• NPC articles typically have an infobox template instead of an image, and links in tbe form of tabs at the top of the article, each leading to a respective subpage with more in-depth information, such as Romance, Approval, Banter or Combat.
• Location articles typically have a compass template at the top of the article.
• If an article has spoilers in its contents, a {{SpoilerWarning}} should be placed immediately before the h2 section header ("==Header==") where the spoilers begin on that article. (see Help:Spoilers).
• Hatnotes should be placed right below the header of a section, and never above or in the middle of one.
• Navboxes are always placed at the very end of an article.

Page templates

Most action, spell and item pages have three distinct, but similar, fields: summary, description and quote.

The summary field should contain a summary of the subject matter of the article. The description field is a concise but precise description of the what the action, spell or item does. The quote field is reserved for quotes from the game.

Neither the summary nor the description of a page need to be identical to the description used in the game, but it should still accurately reflect the game. If the in-game description is incorrect, the description used on the wiki should reflect the gameplay, and any contradictions noted on the page, such as in a notes section.

"Where to find" sections

When describing where to find an item, include all of the following details:

1. A description of the location of the item - or the source, if it's a quest reward or sold by a vendor
   • Include both broad and specific information in this description, as needed (e.g. "Found in Act One in the Underdark. The sword is near the Selûnite Outpost, embedded in a rock (X:116, Y:-192).")
2. Instructions for any additional steps necessary to find or obtain the item (e.g. 'Jump up to the ledge behind the purple mushroom.')
3. Map coordinates of the item, if applicable, in the format (X:123, Y:123)
   • This can be done in the form of the 'Coords' template: {{Coords|123|123}}

Lengthy instructions can be formatted with sublists, as necessary:

• Can be found near the sign that says "Here Lies Our Dear Leader", after solving the Torch Puzzle.
  • By the north end of Pickens' farm, jump across the gap onto the three large rocks, then light the numbered torches in the following patterns: 6, 9, 2, 3. The item will then appear near the sign.

When an item can be found in multiple places, list all known locations. Exception: For common and very plentiful items, don't worry about documenting every location via text. Instead, consider working with other wiki editors to generate a map of all locations or include a link to an external map resource.

Spelling

The wiki, like Baldur's Gate 3, follows British English grammar and punctuation rules. Aim to consistently employ these rules wiki-wide for consistency.

Aim to consistently employ British spelling rules wiki-wide, particularly when copying text directly from the game, as with item, feature, and spell descriptions.

• Armour (Armor)
• Defence (Defense)
• Colour Spray (Color Spray)

Capitalisation

Articles and their contents, including article names and headings, are given in sentence case.

Capitalise proper nouns and adjectives when appropriate, but avoid unnecessary capitalisation.

Specific in-game items, spells, characters and locations should also inherit the game's capitalisation.

Article names and headers

Use the the same capitalisation as you would for a any other sentence on the wiki.

• Game mechanics
• Game Mechanics

Game concepts and mechanics

Do not generally capitalise game concepts, mechanics, terminology or rules.

Abbreviations should always be capitalised, such as: AC, DC, HP, STR, DEX, NPC.

Capitalise the following terms:

• Armour Class
• Camp Supplies, when referring to the gameplay mechanic.
• Classifications of weapons and armour (Longsword, Light armour).
  • Exceptions: These terms should not be capitalised when the terms are used descriptively (eg. with no mechanical significance).
• Creature sizes (Medium, Large)
• Creature types (Aberration, Humanoid)
• Difficulty Class
• The item categories Consumables, Miscellaneous and Valuables are capitalised.
• Specific abilities (Strength, Dexterity)
• Specific actions (Attack action, Hide action)
• Specific class features (Cunning Action, Rage)
  • Subclasses are considered class features, and are therefore also capitalised (Champion, Wildheart)
• Specific conditions (Bleeding, Slightly Drunk)
• Specific damage types (Fire, Piercing)
• Specific difficulty modes (Balanced, Tactician)
• Specific feats (Tavern Brawler)
• Specific items
• Specific skills (Athletics, Sleight of Hand)
• Specific racial features (Keen Senses)
• Specific spells

Do not capitalise the following terms:

• Common nouns such as ability, action, armour, check, class, condition, creature, damage, feat, feature, hit, initiative, item, miss, proficiency, race, resistance, rest, roll, save, skill, spell, weapon.
• Compound terms such as ability check, ability score, attack roll, critical hit, damage resistance, damage type, hit points, long rest, saving throw, short rest.
• Names of classes (barbarian, fighter).
  • Names of subclasses should still be capitalised.
• Names of races (elf, illithid, owlbear)
• Spell schools (abjuration, necromancy).
• Subcategories of Consumables: arrows, camp supplies, coatings, dyes, elixirs, grenades, potions, scrolls.

Exceptions:

• Races and classes may be capitalised when used as titles (Gale, Human Wizard).
  • This includes specific individual creatures, which may have identical names to their race (which is not capitalised) – eg. the creature Mind Flayer Leader is a mind flayer.
• The term attack is only capitalised when it's referring to the Attack action. Otherwise, it is not capitalised (take an Attack action, roll an attack roll)
• The first letter in game concept terminology can be capitalised when used as keywords (Type: Condition)

Other capitalisation guidelines

References to other articles

Names of articles should be capitalised on other pages when they referred to as an article, but not when they are simply linked to.

• For more information about potions, see Potions.
• For more information about potions, see potions.

Cultures, regions and languages

Cultures, languages and regional descriptors should all be capitalised.

• Perry speaks Common.
• Perry speaks common.

• This elf speaks Elvish.
• The elf speaks elfish.

• It's a Baldurian beverage.
• It's a baldurian beverage.

Text formatting

The following text formatting guidelines apply only to textual article contents. They do not apply to templates.

Bold font

Use triple apostrophes '''...''' to highlight the first occurrence article's subject matter (usually its title) in the introduction of its page.

Strong

Strong formatting {{strong}} or <strong>...</strong> should never be used in article texts. It can be used on non-article pages, such as project and talk pages, to denote urgency or importance.

Italicisation

Use double apostrophes ''...'' to style certain terms as cursive text. On BG3Wiki, we style the following terms using italics:

• Titles of entries in the Forgotten Realms franchise, including Baldur's Gate 3 and the franchise itself. Other franchises may also be italicised when appropriate.
• Names of vessels and ships, but not the nautiloid ship.
• When writing about words as words (an ability is a representation of a creature's physical or mental capabilities).
• Terminology or phrases that are not in English.
• Items or titles that are stylised using italics in-game should be similarly stylised on the wiki.

Semantic emphasis

Use {{em}} or <em>...</em> for emphasis, for example to place emphasis (stress) on a certain word in a sentence, or to clarify the meaning of a sentence. In most cases, you should only use emphasis one one word per sentence. Never use apostrophes for emphasis.

What to avoid

• Do note use bold or {{strong}} for emphasis.
• Do note use capitalisation for emphasis.
• Do not use quotation marks (") for emphasis.

Font size

Font size in article texts should primarily be managed via templates. Never use the <small> ... </small> tag in article texts, due to accessibility concerns.

Punctuation

Colons

Use colons (:) at the end of complete sentences, when it precedes a definition, description, explanation or a list:

• Perry looked at all the animals at the grove: birds, bears and oxes.

Commas

When writing a list, insert a comma before the "and" (or "or") if it adds clarify to the sentence: Fire, Cold, Poison, and Thunder damage.

En dashes

Spaced en dashes (–) are preferred over em dashes (—), and can be used as a replacement for parentheses, commas, colons and full stops, when more than one option could be appropriate:

• Lae'Zel has three actions – they are gith, yank and perry.
• Perry – a gith of virtue – decided to aid the villagers.
• Perry and Lae'Zel were not merely friends – they were allies.

Avoid the use of closed dashes (like—this or like–this). Do not use hyphens (-) to approximate en dashes – instead use the template {{-}}.

Exclamation marks

• Do not use exclamation marks (!), except in direct quotes

Quotes

Use straight "double quotes", as opposed to 'single quotes'.

Semi-colons

Use semi-colons (;) to connect two independent clauses that are thematically connected.

• Perry chose to take a level in barbarian; Lae'zel thought Perry's decision unwise.

Grammar

Grammatical person

Most articles are written in third-person perspective:

• This item is bugged in Patch 9.
  • We know this item is bugged in Patch 9.
• A Bard can use this to inspire allies.
  • We can use this to inspire allies.

When writing sections of articles that make frequent or confusing use of terminology such as the player, second-person perspective should be used instead, for consistency and readability:

• You cannot enter this location if in a multiplayer session with another player that is controlling Astarion, unless you have the key as well.
  • The player cannot enter this location if in a multiplayer session with another player that is controlling Astarion, unless they have the key as well.

Single or isolated instances of the player should still be written in third-person perspective.

• The player will always enter this location from the east entrance.
  • You will always enter this location from the east entrance.

Never use first-person perspective in the main wiki namespace, even when making conjectures. If a statement is tentative and needs to be verified, that's okay - simply include the {{Verify}} template to let readers and other wiki editors know.

• This is also dropped by John Baldursgate.^{[Needs Verification]} (I think this is also dropped by John Baldursgate.)

Exception for guides: When writing content for the Guide: namespace, feel free to write subjectively and from any perspective. This namespace is your place to interject your opinions and recommendations for players. Additional guidelines tailored for this namespace may be added at a later date.

Tense

Present tense

Use present tense when describing the current state of the game:

• Wyll is a Companion.
• Mystra is the goddess of magic.

Use present tense when describing potential events and conditional outcomes:

• When they accept, they acquire 3000 gold.
• When Gale arrives in the city, he discovers that Astarion already bought a house for them.
• If you use this spell, you regain 10 Hit Points.

Past tense

Use past tense when describing previous versions of the game:

• Prior to Early Access Patch 9, this weapon was dropped by Zevlor

Use past tense when describing past events:

• Astarion was a magistrate in the city of Baldur's Gate.

Future tense

Use future tense when describing possible future events:

• If Gale accepts Astarion's proposal, he too will become a magistrate.
• If you reject Withers's advances, he will later ask you why you are alone.

Pronouns

Mimic pronoun usage from in-game text, where available. Otherwise, maintain gender neutrality when a pronoun is called for, and use "they/them" for both singular and plural cases.

• The Paladin can heal their allies. (The Paladin can heal her allies.)

When describing illithids, use the "it" for singular case and "they" for plural case.

• The mind flayer leader summoned its allies, and they were up dancing all night.

Terminology

Ability checks

The term "ability check" is preferred to the term "skill check", except when the distinction is important for clarity or brevity.

For example, "Investigate ability check" is preferred to "Investigate skill check", but "skill check" is a useful shorthand for phrasing that would otherwise be overly long, such as "ability check that allows you to add a skill's proficiency bonus to the result of the roll".

Features

Features are unique qualities that set a creature apart from others. They can either be passive (meaning it is always in effect) or active (meaning it has to be activated, and often had limited uses per rest).

Any features from class levels are called class features. Subclasses, class actions, passives, spellcasting and feats unlocked from classes are all examples of class features.

Any features gained from race are called racial features.

Actions

Actions are things that a creature can do. The terminology used on the wiki to describe the activation of actions is take:. A creature takes an action. This is to avoid ambiguity in sentences, as the term action is also the name of the respective resource. In most cases, taking an action uses an action resource. Taking actions that use the bonus action or reaction resources may be referred to as taking a bonus action or taking a reaction, respectively.

The vast majority of actions are additionally classified as class actions. These are actions that are neither spells nor weapon actions.

Spells

When the action taken is a spell, the terminology used is cast:, as in cast a spell'. If a spell uses a bonus action, the correct terminology would be that the creature casts a spell using a bonus action.

Locations

Use the term region to refer to multi-location areas that have their own map (e.g. Wilderness), and the term location to refer to named places within those regions that appear on the minimap or the name of the save file, (e.g. Goblin Camp, Sacred Pool), even if they themselves contain smaller locations (eg. Emerald Grove).

For other places at the lowest scale, describe the place based on what the in-game map calls it, such as entrance, waypoint, or secret, or a similarly descriptive term if it's unmarked.

Acts

Follow the "Act" nomenclature when describing the three acts in the game.

• Act 1 begins when the party arrives on the Ravaged Beach at the start of the game. While the game labels the Mountain Pass as 1b, the wiki includes it under Act 1.
• Act 2 begins when the party enters the Shadow-Cursed Lands.
• Act 3 begins when the player exits the Shadow-Cursed Lands and takes a long rest.

Whether the numerals should be given in letters (Act One) or numbers (Act 1) depends on context.

Use letters (Act One) in the following contexts:

• Page names and headings.
• Names of categories.

Use numerals (Act 1) in the following contexts:

• Infoboxes and Navboxes.
• Spoiler warnings and spoiler boxes.
• Hatnotes and references.

Only use Roman numerals (Act I) in reference to the Steam achievements.

Images

See also: Help:File policy.

• Images should be in the relevant section, and should never be placed at the bottom of a section.
  • Galleries are the bottom of pages are an exception.
• Do not refer the positioning of images in textual contents (eg. "in the image on the left", or "the image at the top".
• Textual contents of articles should function independently from its images. Images are added as an additional illustrative supplement.
• Add alt text to any images used in articles.

Image alt text

When using the File template, alt text (text which appears when the image fails to load) should be added as necessary to improve accessibility. The text should be clear, concise and descriptive.

Alt text can be added to the File template with this parameter:

|alt=

Examples

Good alt text:

• {{File:A_Nice_Summer_Stay.png|alt=Astarion flinching in pain after being hurt by concentrated sunlight at the Githyanki Créche.}}
• {{File:Gale_Flirting.png|alt=Gale is serenading Tav while sitting on Mystra's picnic blanket at Lake Hurricane.}}

Poor alt text:

• {{File:A_Nice_Summer_Stay.png|alt=Astarion discovering the difference between a nice Summer stay and the full concentrated power of the sun.}}
• {{File:Gale_Flirting.png|alt=Gale sings while sitting at lake.}}

Links

Frequency of link usage

Be careful not to underlink or overlink on the wiki. Generally, a link to a specific page should only appear once per article. Link the first instance of that word of an article.

Exceptions to this include infoboxes, navboxes and, in some cases, the description of spells or special abilities. In these cases, multiple links per article may be appropriate.

Only use links when they're helpful to the reader – every word that has an article does not need to be linked.

Linking to other wikis

The FRWiki template should be used to link to the FRWiki when appropriate.

Templates

Limit usage of unnecessary inline templates in sentences. These are templates that add an icon and a link, along with an inline text. These templates should only be used when they add clarity to a text.

If an inline template would violate the capitalisation or linking guidelines if added, it should usually not be used.

Examples of inline templates that should be avoided in sentences:

• Template: Ability
• Template: Class
• Template: Race

Spoiler and content warnings

See also: Help: Spoiler policy and Help:Content warnings.

Spoiler and content warnings should be used in accordance with the Spoiler Policy and the Content Warning Policy. Ideally, they should not disrupt the user experience, but should effectively warn the user of spoilers and sensitive topics.

Spoiler and content warning templates

• Spoiler warnings
  • Template: SpoilerWarning: Provides guidance to viewers on what part of the game they may expect to be spoiled on if they read the articles.
  • Template: SpoilerBox: Intended for sections with major spoilers.
  • Template: RomanceBox: Intended for the Romance sections of articles, including Romance encounters with non-companions.
  • Template: Blur: Intended for inline spoilers in NavBoxes and, rarely, in lists.
  • Template: imgblur: Intended for spoilery images.
• Content warnings
  • Template: Cw: Used exclusively for content earnings.

Creating a new page

When creating a new page, whenever possible, try and use a Page Creation Template.