Help:Character
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Templates within MediaWiki function by calling on elements defined in the CSS file, in the JavaScript file, or just by using raw html. Templates exist to allow users to navigate this code without rewriting it countless times or by using elements that are too complicated to easily be understood. The Template:Infobox functions by using elements defined in the CSS file, while the Template:Navbox calls on table forming mechanics. Since they're both templates within this wiki, knowledge about how either system works is unnecessary to fill one out.
This page will show you have to fill out the character template for use on your pages. See Help:Templates for help on creating your own template from scratch.
The Info Box
Infoboxes are panels that are automatically placed on the side of whatever article that they are called in for the purposes of providing a brief and easy to read summary of the topic at hand. The templates Template:Character, Template:Nation, and Template:Item are all specialised templates that are derived from Template:Infobox. All three of these function in the same way, which means that they can be constructed in the same way once you get to know how the infobox is put together. For demonstration purposes, we'll work on filling out the character template. The complete interface for this template will be at the bottom of this page.
We can begin by navigating to the page we want to put the character infobox. Because each character will be unique, we can just call the Template:Character from inside the page instead of creating an entirely new template. For this example, the character box is going to be going in Help:Article.
{{demo}}
<br>
{{cquote|I'm invisible when I take off my shoes. |4=Grandpa Ant}}
In this article, there are some existing templates that have already been written in. The Template:Demo which tells readers that this is just a demonstration article, and Template:Cquote which gives an opening quote for this character. When you place a template in an article, it will generate it in that spot or on that particular line in the page. So, most of the time calling the character template or other side panel as early as possible is for the best because it will pop up at the top and readers can get the overview right away. However, if we start writing the template above the demo and quote templates, it will push then to the centre of the page below the character infobox, so we'll place it under both of them.
The Template and Name
Start by invoking the template
{{character
The {{ symbols mean you are starting the template. We can close it off with }} after we're done putting in our data.
The first line we can add in is |character =. This is usually the name that will display over the infobox in bold letters. Usually, this is the title of the article because it's the name of the character; however, if the title of your article is The Sinking Lure and you wanted the infobox to read The Serene Republic of the Sinking Lure, this is where you would do that. In this example, the name of the character is Grandpa Ant.
Image
{{character
|character = Grandpa Ant
Each instance of | indicates an input slot that was designated in the template we're working in. So "character|" is registered as an input in Template:Character that means we can put something there. The next line we'll add is |image =. This is the main profile picture that will be displayed for your character. You can call it here by using File: and the name of your image in the wiki database. Our image is called GrandpaAnt.png. You can place a vertical pipe after the name of the file to tell the wiki what size to render the image. If you do not add in this specification, the image will display at whatever resolution it is uploaded at. It is highly recommended to add a specification to a reasonable size that does not overflow the size of the infobox. In this example, we'll be using 150px.
{{character
|character = Grandpa Ant
|image = [[File:GrandpaAnt.png|150px]]
Notice how there is abundant whitespace in between the variables and what we've input for them. When the code is run, all of this is reduced to a single white space. Therefore, you may use as many spaces as you would like to organise your template and make it easier for you and everyone else to read.
Caption
The next input line is for a caption. It displays as text just below the image. This input works best if it's unformatted and doesn't contain any links.
{{cquote|I'm invisible when I take off my shoes. |4=Grandpa Ant}}
{{character
|character = Grandpa Ant
|image = [[File:GrandpaAnt.png|150px]]
|caption = Ant at the Refuge Film Festival in 2014
Demographics
At this point in the template, a horizontal rule and a blue header that says "Demographics" are automatically generated. This is where you can talk about your character's main details. There are a number of options in this section and the other descriptive sections that follow. If you do not have need of an input spot, leave it blank or do not include it in your page. The labels will only render if there's data attached to them.
In this section, we can include the following:
|player - Displays what person controls this RP character, like Wisdom ([[User:Wisdom|Wisdom]].
|species - The character's species.
|born - The date that they were born.
|died - The date in which they died. If they have not died, leave this blank.
|age - Their current age, in years.
|nationality - The character's nationality.
|political - The character's political affiliation.
|religion - The character's religion or religious denomination.
Some of these sections do not apply to Grandpa Ant, so we'll only be using the following:
{{character
|character = Grandpa Ant
|image = [[File:GrandpaAnt.png|150px]]
|caption = Ant at the Refuge Film Festival in 2014
|species = Oecophylla Smaragdina Sapiens
|born = Last Seed 28, 3E433
|age = 608
|nationality = Welsh
|religion = Order of the [[Zyqxuwy]]
Note how you can link to other pages within this section. So in declaring Ant's religious denomination, we can also linke to Zyqxuwy for ease of access for the readers.
Items and Abilities
Items and Abilities is the next header that's automatically generated for us. The descriptions of skills and abilities should ideally be short and talked about in greater depth in the actual article, so we won't include any more than a basic heads up. If you have an item in your character's profile which has its own page, you can link to it here.
These are the input options that have been built into this template:
|skills - Any particular skills or trades that this character has. |items - Things that are physical tools in the character's arsenal. |worth - If they have a net worth that can be expressed in their local currency, you can do so here. |weapons - Any weapons that they are prone to use, or any unique weapons of note. |magic - A very brief description of their magical abilities or the school(s) of magic to which they subscribe.
Of which we well use:
{{character
|character = Grandpa Ant
|image = [[File:GrandpaAnt.png|150px]]
|caption = Ant at the Refuge Film Festival in 2014
|species = Oecophylla Smaragdina Sapiens
|born = Last Seed 28, 3E433
|age = 608
|nationality = Welsh
|religion = Order of the [[Zyqxuwy]]
|skills = <br>
*Shuffleboard
*Golfing
*Moving like William Shatner
*Boundless Wisdom
|items = <br>
*Magic Pilgrim Hat
*Golf club
|worth = 675,000 planets <small>''(est. 2019)''</small>
|weapons = <br>
*+7 Staff of Asskicking
|magic = <br>
*Newscasting
You may notice that each line begins with <br>. This is because I am dumb and cannot figure out how to make the template work without it. Bullet points need to each be on a new line to work and even if a linebreak is a part of the template itself, this input doesn't recognise the first thing you write as wiki code. If you have a solution to this issue, please let me know.
Signature
The final section that we'll be adding to this character is a signature, the unique way that this character record their own name. Like the |image input, this will be displayed as an image, so we'll be using File:AntSig.jpg. We will need to specify a size for this image to be rendered because some valid signature files will be very narrow. Mod Advice's recommendation is 175 to 150px.
At this point, you can also add in |appearances which adds a section on the RP posts that they have been featured in, but the RP content pool isn't large enough for this feature to be necessary yet. You can also add |notes, which functions as a "below" section to write in what other blips of text do not fit in anywhere else.
Display
The template is ready and will appear as follows within the demo article:
| Wiki Code | Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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{{character
|character = Grandpa Ant
|image = [[File:GrandpaAnt.png|150px]]
|caption = Ant at the Refuge Film Festival in 2014
|species = Oecophylla Smaragdina Sapiens
|born = Last Seed 28, 3E433
|age = 608
|nationality = Welsh
|religion = Order of the [[Zyqxuwy]]
|skills =
*Shuffleboard
*Golfing
*Moving like William Shatner
*Boundless Wisdom
|items =
*Magic Pilgrim Hat
*Golf club
|worth = 675,000 planets <small>''(est. 2019)''</small>
|weapons =
*+7 Staff of Asskicking
|magic =
*Newscasting
|sig = [[File:AntSig.jpg|175px]]
}} |
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Base Template
The complete interface for this template is below. Copy this template to your character's page and feel free to delete or leave the parts blank that you do not need to use.
{{character
|character =
|image =
|caption =
|player =
|species =
|born =
|died =
|age =
|nationality =
|political =
|religion =
|skills =
|items =
|worth =
|weapons =
|magic =
|sig =
|appearances =
|notes =
}}