RuneScape:Style guide

This style guide has the simple purpose of making the RuneScape Wiki easy to read by establishing a certain format. One way is often as good as another, but if everyone does things the same way, the articles will be easier to read and use, along with being easier to write and edit. Reading the style guide is important to ensure that each user's edits will be consistent with those of other users.

Article titles

Pages must have appropriate titles. Names, locations, and titles (like a quest) should all be capitalised, though not the whole title. Block capitals should not be used in titles (e.g., 'Article titles' instead of 'ARTICLE TITLES'). An exception is acronyms in disambiguation page titles, which should be in block capitals. Try to make the article's topic the subject of the first sentence in the article. For example, write "This style manual is a guide" instead of "This style guide is known as..." Use boldface ( in the edit tool bar) for the first (and only the first) appearance of the title.

Articles about items, monsters, quests, overrides and non-player characters should be titled exactly as the subject's name appears in-game. A rule of thumb for article titles is that items only have the first letter of the first word in their name capitalised for the most part; exceptions to this rule exist (such as the Pendant of Skill). There is no capitalization convention for monsters or non-player characters. Unless the monster or character's name has more than one capital in-game, do not put a capital at the beginning of every word. If a page's title conflicts with its content, make the content consistent with the title before checking in-game to ensure accuracy. In cases where other Jagex sources are inconsistent with in-game (of particular note are newsposts and Solomon's General Store), in-game names and capitalisations should be used, with redirects utilised for other names.

However, this rule should not be followed blindly and applied for every single subject encountered in the game. For example, "2/3 cake" is located in ⅔ cake due to the technical restrictions which exist in the software. In cases where the in-game name is ambiguous, disambiguation is necessary, such as Swamp toad (creature) and Swamp toad, the item.

Words such as articles and short prepositions in titles should be left un-capitalised, unless they are intended to be capitalised in RuneScape. These include words such as 'a', 'the', and 'of'. For example, the article on the Tears of Guthix quest has the title 'Tears of Guthix' (the "of" is left un-capitalised).

Sections and headings

Separating articles into sections makes them easy to read and navigate. Headings are used to split articles into sections.

Markup

Use two equal signs (==) style markup for headings. Start with ==, add the heading title, then end with ==.

This section's heading was created with the markup:

==Sections and headings==

This subsection's heading was created with the markup:

===Markup===

Wording

• In a heading, capitalise only the first letter of the first word and the first letter of any proper nouns, and leave all of the other letters in lowercase. Quest titles, skills, names, cities, and so on should all have the first letter capitalised. For example, "Fishing equipment", not "Fishing Equipment".
• Avoid putting links in headings.
• Make sure that the heading has an appropriate and accurate title, as this is important to help readers navigate the article. For example, do not make a "Monsters" section in an article about an area or dungeon and then include non-player characters in that section. Instead, make an "Inhabitants" section with "Monsters" and "NPCs" as subsections.
• Keep headings short.

Lead sections

A lead (introduction) summarises the most important points of an article, creating interest in the topic. Thus, it should be limited to a few paragraphs. Certain information, such as strategies and trivia, should be in a separate section instead of in the lead. This applies only to articles that are of sufficient length to incorporate a lead.

Articles about a subject that are referred to by their in-game name and full name should mention the in-game name before mentioning the full name. For example, on Millie Miller, the start of the article should say something in the format of "Millie Miller, full name Millicent Miller, ...". When the in-game name is part of the subject's full name, the full name should be included right away. For example, Reldo should start by mentioning his full name, Reldo Trimmly. See the bolding section for more information about bolding guidelines.

Text elements

Font colours

Coloured font can be used sparingly, though not in very bright colours. For example, you can use a dark colour for a warning. Note that light colours will not show up well against the wiki's white background.

Invisible comments

Invisible comments are used to communicate with other editors in the article body. To do so, enclose the text which you intend to be read only by editors within <!-- and -->. For example, using <!-- This is a comment --> will be hidden in the article.

Bulleted lists

Bulleted lists can be used in quest walkthroughs and lists. For example, you can use bullets if you're listing what levels to train a certain skill or locations of an item. Do not forget proper punctuation. To add bullets, put an asterisk (*) before the name. For example:

* List name 1
* List name 2
** Sub-list

would come out as:

• List name 1
• List name 2
  • Sub-list

Numbered lists

All the rules for bulleted lists apply also to numbered lists. Numbered lists can be used for listing steps in a process. To add a numbered list, put a number sign (#) before the list name. For example:

# List name 1
# List name 2
# List name 3

would come out as:

1. List name 1
2. List name 2
3. List name 3

Bold and italics

Italics are mainly used to emphasise certain words, though they should be used sparingly. Italics may make longer phrases or sentences difficult to read. Bold is used as a stronger emphasis than italics, although it should be used sparingly as well. The first appearance of an article's title in the article should always be boldfaced.

Bold and italics combined emphasise selections well, but should be used extremely rarely. There are no common cases in which bold and italics are used together. Excessive use of any of these text elements will make the entire article difficult to read, so please use them in appropriate situations.

Italics should not be used on any quotes, which should always be delimited with quotation marks. The final punctuation mark of an italic section should sit outside of the italics.

Titles of works

Titles of works (e.g., books, movies) have standards in styling that should be appropriately followed here as well. Common examples for each type are listed below. For an exhaustive list, see Wikipedia's Manual of Style for titles.

Italics

Below are commonly encountered examples of types of works that should use italics.

• Books; e.g., The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Video games; e.g., RuneScape
  • Note that "RuneScape" may refer to both the game itself and the world in which it takes place (as a synonym of Gielinor). "RuneScape" should only be italicised when referring to the game itself, as a franchise or a different installment (e.g., RuneScape 3).
• Films; e.g., Casablanca
• Television shows; e.g., The Simpsons

Quotation marks

Below are commonly encountered examples of types of works that should use quotation marks.

• Short stories; e.g., "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"
• Songs; e.g., "Sandstorm"
  • For practicality's sake, this should only apply to real world songs, not any of RuneScape's various music tracks

Grammar and spelling

Case

• Older item and monster names are normal nouns, always being lowercase. For newer items, this is not the case however, and the exact casing as used in-game should be used on articles and in article names for all items and monster names, e.g., helm of neitiznot and Banner of Armadyl are correct, but helm of Neitiznot and banner of armadyl are incorrect.
• All place names, NPC names, quest names, task names, (etc) and skills are proper nouns - always uppercase, per ingame (also certain monsters, like Sigmund, Nomad, King Black Dragon ("the King Black Dragon is a black dragon")).
• Care is to be taken in certain cases, in places where the name is a verb, like mining, smithing, fletching, etc. "The queen can be smooshed by mining the pillar, requiring level 10 Mining."
• Other things should have common sense applied on a case by case basis. Normally, it should be easy to work out what to do.

Abbreviations

Try not to use abbreviations. For example, use "battleaxe" instead of "baxe." Some players may not know what these abbreviations mean. And, as far as looks go, it's much more pleasing to the eye to look at "That dragon hatchet will help you to cut the logs faster." than "Tht d hacht wil help u 2 cut da logs fastr." It's even worse when you type something in "Leet Speak" also known as "1337 5P34K." This wiki's preferred language is British English, not numbers.

Punctuation

If you are listing multiple things, like different runes, each of them should have a serial comma at the end. For example, "fire runes, earth runes, and water runes" would be proper, "fire runes, earth runes and water runes" would not be.

If you are compiling a list of drops for a monster in the bestiary pages, try not to use brackets to denote quantities. For example, instead of "nature runes (5,17,35)" it should be "5, 17 or 35 nature runes." The reason is that brackets can be part of the in-game description, and a monster that drops 2 full waterskins would be very confusing if the brackets system was used (e.g., "Waterskin (4) (2)"). The same problem applies to potions. This is not a problem when using the DropsTableHead and DropsLine templates, as there is a section for the quantity.

Usage and spelling

• The S in RuneScape is capitalised.
• Jagex should always be spelled as Jagex, not JaGEx or JAGEX or any other variations.
• British spelling should be used at all times. Almost everything in RuneScape uses the British spelling, making this rule easy to follow; however, exceptions do exist, and in-game spelling should be used in favour of British spelling in those cases.

Notable exceptions include:

• The item Nitroglycerin uses the US spelling
• The NPC Brother Tranquility only has one "l" in his name, per the American spelling

See also: American and British English spelling differences

Tense

A rule of thumb is to use present tense in all cases. For example, articles for quests, skills, activities, non-player characters, etc. should be written in present tense. An exception to this rule would be events that have occurred in the past, or for in-game content that has been removed. For example, holiday events that have already occurred should be written in past tense. For future updates and upcoming content that have been confirmed by Jagex, use the future tense.

• Past tense: Past events and in-game content that has been removed
• Future tense: Future updates and upcoming content that have been confirmed; See also: RuneScape:Future content
• Present tense: All other cases

Point of view

Articles should be written in the third person or objective point of view. Using the word "you" in articles is informal and should be avoided except if it is inside a quotation; try to use "players" or "the player" instead. For guides, "you" can be used, although the command imperative ("Cut some logs and bring them to Lumbridge") is acceptable as well.

References and citations

Main article: RuneScape:Style guide/References and citations

References or footnotes are notes which appear after a section of text and are linked with a specific part of the text. They are used for long explanations which cannot be worked into the paragraph naturally and for citations. Non-citation references should only be used sparingly, however references used as citations can be used as often as necessary. Detailed usage and syntax instructions can be found on the main article.

Quests

Main article: RuneScape:Quest style guide

Quest transcripts

Main article: RuneScape:Style guide/Quest transcripts

Images

Main article: RuneScape:Images and media policy

Some general guidelines which should be followed are listed below.

• The preferred format for images is PNG.
• Right-alignment is preferred to left- or centre-alignment. However, centre-alignment can be used for some images in the quest pages, such as the reward picture.
• Personal images which are only used on a userpage should not be uploaded. Images should be able to be used on main space articles, else they will be deleted.
• Don't upload images we already have. We have many users doing this and it is not good to have multiple images of the same item! Before you upload an image, search the wiki if someone has already uploaded a version of it. We don't need [[File:Fire rune.PNG]] or [[File:Fire rune.gif]] if someone has already uploaded [[File:Fire rune.png]].

Captions

Complete sentences in captions should always end in a full stop (period). If the caption is not a complete sentence, it generally should not have a full stop at the end. Captions should also not be italicised.

Wiki-linking

• Every time an article is mentioned on the page, you don't have to link to every single one. For example, lobster may be mentioned five times. You only have to link to lobster once. You can link to articles more than once if the page is very long.
• When a skill is linked to, the name of the skill should be used, not a short form or a different spelling of it. Instead of saying "this item can be [[Mining|mined]] by..." you should state "this item can be obtained through the [[Mining]] skill by ...."
• Piped link formats for simple plurals are generally unnecessary. For example, use [[lobster]]s instead of [[lobster|lobsters]].
• On the other hand, use [[wolf|wolves]] instead of [[wolf]]s when appropriate. Don't be afraid to use a piped link when necessary, particularly if avoiding them contorts the language unnecessarily or introduces spelling or grammatical errors into the article. Piped links have legitimate uses in an article.
• When including wiki-links in an article, there is no need to use underscores, since the software produces them automatically.
• Do not place the last letters of a plural outside of a link that already has alternate text. For example, [[wikipedia:anti-aliasing|anti-aliasing artefacts]] should be used instead of [[wikipedia:anti-aliasing|anti-aliasing artefact]]s.

Writing articles

Everyone is encouraged to contribute meaningfully to the wiki.

Ownership and bias

• Keep personal bias out of articles. Even if "Mining is for noobs" or "Smithing is awesome," we do not need to hear it in the articles.
• Nobody owns articles. This is a wiki, after all. This means words like "I", "we," or "me" should not be included in articles.
• Do not include specific usernames of players or groups of players (clans) in articles, unless they highlight specific historical events or achievements, such as naming the first player to earn two hundred million experience in a certain skill. These should be kept relevant, and should be supported well, with an external link.
• Do not try and claim "facts" such as "player x was the first to complete this task" without any verifiable proof.

Facts and trivia

Main article: RuneScape:Trivia policy

If you have a piece of information or trivia that you would like to add to an article, yet are unsure of its accuracy, leave a note on the talk page of the article so that all editors can discuss it. Do not engage in edit wars on the article page.

Drop logs

Articles about monsters that drop Charms should include a transclusion to a subpage (Pagename/Charm Log) that uses Template:Charm data to log the drop percentage of each charm. Logs of any other sort do not belong in the article namespace, users can instead create drop logs within the user namespace on their userpage or on a subpage. See also: RuneScape:Charm logs.

Numbers

For numbers, a comma should be used as a thousands separator. Jagex uses a comma in the Statistics screen (see the Assist System and Skills Interface update on 12 November 2007) as well as in the Game Guide - Farming - Seeds.

Floor numbering

Jagex uses the British convention for floor numbering in the Game Guide: Ground floor is the American 1st floor, 1st floor is the American 2nd floor, etc.

{{Floor}} should be put at the top of an article that references floors.

Dates

Use the day before month format (dd/mm/yyyy - 1 May 2008) rather than the month before day format (mm/dd, yyyy - May 1, 2008). Note that no commas are used in the day before month format. Jagex (British) and most of the world uses the day before month format.

Release dates

The release date used in an infobox should be the date that the item was added in the game's code itself. Usually, this will be the date the item was announced and made available; however, the common exception is Treasure Hunter items, which are always added with the main update of the week, and left dormant until the promotion starts. For example, Farmer's cuffs were added with the update Elder Divination on 6 May 2014, but the item was not announced until 8 May with Treasure Hunter – Farming Skill Outfit and was not obtainable until 9 May. The release date in the infobox should (and does) name the release as 6 May with the Elder Divination update.

Time zones

The time zone used to indicate event start and end times in-game should be UTC, as this is a constant time that does not need to be adjusted for daylight saving time, as well as the one that this wiki uses for events and the one on which Jagex servers run.

External links

Feel free to link to other sites, such as the RuneScape home page. However, you may want to avoid linking to other fansites, unless it has exceptional content that cannot be reproduced here or because of copyrights.