The CBG Wiki:Community Portal

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Welcome to the the CBG Wiki,
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Welcome to the Community Portal

The Community Portal is the site's Table of Contents for tips and projects on the wiki. You can help build the CBG Wiki into a better wiki by editing and creating new articles. If you create an account, you can track your changes and more. If you don't know where to start, try visiting the list of most requested pages (by links) and start typing!


What This Wiki Is For

The main purpose of this Wiki is to provide a space for members of the Campaign Builders' Guild in which to post their homebrew material, as well as work collaboratively with others on community projects.


Getting Started

First things first, please read and understand our CBGWiki policies page. If you have any questions at all about it, join in on the CBGWiki policies discussion.

Here's how to start using this Wiki

  1. Create Login. Create a login by using the link at the top right. Currently, the login uses a separate database than your CBG name, so for the sake of less confusion, we suggest you use the same login name and password you use on the main site.
  2. Find Projects. Find a project that you're interested in. Here's a few ways to do so:
    1. The Major Projects page will contain descriptions of all of the projects at this Wiki which span more than several pages.
    2. The Homebrew Campaign Settings page will list various homebrew campaigns posted by members of the CBG.
    3. The search box at left will let you search on key words for projects you might be interested in.
  3. Enjoy. Once you've found a project, read, edit & contribute as you see fit. A Wiki is about not just being a passive reader, but also being a creative participant!
  4. Discuss. Also, free free to talk about this Wiki, announce your projects, request help, or whatever else over at the CBG.


Creating a New Project

Use this Wiki by creating your own projects! They may be multipage projects or singular resources (NPCs, monsters, spells, whatever) for your favorite game system.

The trick with any collection of resources like this is to keep it organized, so when creating new projects, please following these steps:

  1. Create Your Project Home Page. The easiest way to do this is to go up to the location bar of your browser, where it currently says "http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page" and replace Main_Page with the name of your project home page.
  2. Choose Names Well. Please be sure to choose the names for your pages well, as that's going to be one of the prime ways that people seach this Wiki. Here's two simple naming conventions we suggest:
    1. If you're creating a singleton page (usually a single resource for a game) give it the best name you can, using underscores between words. Examples: The_Adventure_of_the_Reluctant_Bride (a Pendragon adventure) and The_Altar_of_Blood (a Stormbringer Location).
    2. If you're creating a game system, a large background, a full supplement for a book or something else that will span multiple pages, then, make sure to use the Setting template on each of your setting/project's pages, like this: {{Setting|MySettingName}}. Then, you can use the L template to create unambiguous links. (See below)
  3. Clearly associate ambiguous concepts with your own project If you've created a nation called "Exampletopia", it's unlikely anyone else's setting will have a nation with that exact name, and the page can be called simple "Exampletopia". However, if you're creating a page called "History", then, please call it "History (MySetting)", in order to differentiate it from everyone else who has a "History" page.
  4. Add your Setting to the List of Settings template. Just go to the page, click "Edit," and then add the name of your setting to the alphabetical list.
  5. List Categories. The {{Setting}} template will automatically add every page that includes it to a category with the same name as your setting. This helps keep all of your pages together. You can also add other categories. For example, if you've created a campaign setting, add the main page of your setting to the "Campaign Settings" category with the following code: [[Category:Campaign Settings]]. The category should generally match the game system for which your content is intended, or else the name of your system you're creating, or else 'Generic', 'Generic Fantasy', etc. Also try and be consistent in your use of category names. By using categories and being consistent you'll make it easier for everyone else to find your content.
  6. Be Aware of Our Creative Commons License. Because anything created on these pages is innately a community effort, we've decided to recognize that by adopting a Creative Commons license. Please be sure you're aware of how our Creative Commons license works before you contribute to this site.

A Few Hints on Page Editing

The CBGWiki is built on MediaWiki, a simple, dynamic page editing program. It has a lot of simple formatting commands, most of which you'll see available from an editing bar when you edit a page. Please do use these. Here's a few other hints:

  1. Headers. Use headers on your pages. A level one header is marked by an equal (=) sign at the start and end (=Header=), a level two by two signs (==Smaller Header==), etc. If your page is long enough to have at least four headers, the Wiki will helpfully start including a table of contents.
  2. Links. In order for this sort of resource to be useful, pages need to be linked together. You can create links with bracketed text. Links can be either internal to this Wiki or to external pages. Here's an external link [http://www.theCBG.org CBG Site], here's an internal link [[Main Page]].
  3. The L Template The L template works almost exactly like a standard internal link, but will automatically disambiguate links for you. That is, if you have a page "History (MySetting)" within your setting, called MySetting, all you need to do is create a link with {{L|History}} and the link will automatically go to "History (MySetting)" and not anyone else's history page.
  4. Freedom. The whole purpose of a Wiki is community design. If you see something that you want to contribute to, you should do so. (And, conversely, if you put something on this site, it should be because you welcome other contributions.)
  5. More Info. Visit the main MediaWiki Site for more info.
  6. Make Use of "Minor Edits. Whenever you edit a page, before you hit "submit," there is a small box above that which can be checked called "Minor Edit." Minor edits are edits that just correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc, and don't significantly alter content. This is very useful for you to click, because it gives people searching the option to disregard minor edits and have smaller lists to browse.

Common Misspellings

Misspellings Correct
lightening (illuminating) lightning (electricity)
mithril (J. R. R. Tolkien) mithral (Gygax)
rouge (a color) rogue (a scoundrel)
diety (weight-lossy) deity (god[dess])

Commonly Used Special Characters

Character Code Description
− − Minus sign
– – En dash: literally means "through" (19–20, 1st–9th)
— — Em dash: used to represent values of N/A or Nil (e.g. a non-ability "Con —")
× × Multiplication sign
→ → Right arrow: used for the "Back to" footers
‘ ‘ Left single quotation mark
’ ’ Right single quotation mark; also used as an apostrophe
“ “ Left double quotation mark
” ” Right double quotation mark


Feel free to click the edit tab on any page, just to see what some basic formatting looks like. (This page is locked, to keep all the basic info there, but you can edit most other pages in the Wiki.)

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