User:ArcaneFocus/Guides

How to use my Guides

I have my own preferences about style but am always open to input. These are the philosophies that I keep finding myself talking about on the discord. Please refer to the "official" style guide for how you should do this because I am just one person and wiki contributing is more about reaching a balanced community consensus.

Guide: Writing a good Introduction Blurb for a Character Page

These are ALL EXAMPLES that loosely copy other descriptions I wrote. They are not LORE, you dinguses.

TLDR

• Focus on how the character is important to Baldur's Gate 3, even if they exist in the broader Forgotten Realms universe.
• Describe them first using immutable characteristics that players will probably encounter, even if their choices can cause variance in other ways.
• It's possible to describe that the character is involved with spoilers, without describing what those spoilers are.
• It's good to clarify what Act the character shows up in, and try to clarify confusion that may exist about "similar" characters that can be easily confused with the character.

Example 1 - Minor NPC

'''Dingus the Magician''' is a [[Human]] NPC who appears in Baldur's Gate 3. He can be found in [[Ramazith's Tower]] during Act Three, and is sometimes available to trade with.

• Human - As a player, how can I track down this character if I'm looking at a crowd of multiple characters?
• NPC - Is this character only ever an NPC? Perfect, that should be in the blurb so I don't keep trying to recruit them.

Example 2 - Story NPC with Spoiler Considerations

'''Angy the Angel''' is an aasimar NPC who appears in Baldur's Gate 3. They are first introduced during Act Two, and their story plays a key role in the mysteries surrounding the [[Owlbear Cave]] and [[True Soul Nere]].

• "first introduced during Act Two" - So that a player in Act One knows why they've never met this character yet.
• "Their story plays a key role in the mysteries" - If we tell you exactly who this character is in their top-of-page description, it will spoil major story elements for page readers. Imagine if you accidentally clicked on this page, or just wanted to know if they can be hit by opportunity attacks?

Example 3 - An NPC who can become a Companion

'''Grandma Jay''' is a [[Half-Elf]] character in Baldur's Gate 3, who is first introduced during Act One as an NPC, but has the potential to become a Companion if she survives the events of Act Two. She uses the [[Druid]] class by default, but if recruited as a companion the player can alter this selection with the help of [[Withers]].

• "first introduced during Act One as an NPC, but has the potential to become a Companion" - So that a player in Act One knows why they can't recruit her as a Companion just yet, even though they know they want to recruit her.
• "if she survives the events of Act Two" - So that a player knows if they need to do something specific during Act Two in order to complete their goal of recruiting her.
• "Druid" is not used as her primary descriptor because if she's a companion, the player is allowed to change this. Druid is thus not part of her identity to the game, but is a good descriptor to keep somewhere on the page if players are searching this wiki to find out if there are recruitable Druid characters.

Example 4 - An NPC who later reveals a "True Identity"

'''Perry the Githyank''', also simply known as '''Perry''' is a [[Rogue]] NPC who appears in Baldur's Gate 3, during Act Two. He first appears to the player as a Human, and maintains this disguise indefinitely, unless the player completes a specific optional quest during Act Three. Although his surname is similar to the word "Githyanki", the spelling of his name is actually a specific reference to an obscure joke made on the BG3 Wiki Discord. 

• "He first appears to the player as a Human" - The tricky case of a shapeshifting character. Lead with the appearance they "start out" as to avoid spoiling it for later game players. If they know what his later form is, they know.
• "Rogue NPC" because the rogue part doesn't change about the character, even once his alternative form is revealed.
• "maintains this disguise indefinitely, unless" so that players who never see the form change know roughly when it's meant to happen, but can understand why their playthrough choices may not have resulted in his form change.
• "Although his surname" - Names are hard for all writers. If there's a common misconception about it, or if he's confused for a different character of a similar name, it can be helpful to add a short clarification for known reasons why the spelling.

Example 5 - A named character who may not "appear" in the game

I haven't written a good fake example for this one yet, but it's a case that seems to be cropping up more and more, and it might still be useful to write these pages for some characters.

Specific examples of characters like this include:

• Lenore De Hurst
• Belynne Stelmane
• Hahns Rives