 | This page is an official policy on the d20 NPC Wiki. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. Feel free to edit the page as needed, but please make sure that changes you make to this policy really do reflect consensus before you make them. |
Legal
This wiki uses content from a variety of gaming systems, including the Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons® role playing game system. As such, we attempt to operate within the bounds of Wizards of the Cost's intellectual property agreements. Wizards of the Coast provides a Fansite Kit for Dungeons & Dragons® fansites, which lays out some guidelines for usage, but those usage requirements pertain to the content of the Fansite kit only (not the SRD or other content from Wizards of the Coast. However, a few portions of the user agreement from the Fansite kit can apply to this site:
- No Fee or E-Commerce Activity. Your Fan Site is for your own personal use. You may not charge any fee to customers or visitors to your Fan Site for use of the Wizards Materials that you have posted. This Fan Site Policy does not allow you to publish, distribute or sell your own free-to-use games, modules or applications for any of Wizards' brands
The d20NPCs wiki is free for anyone to use, for their own personal use. Content from this website may not be reused in products created for sale. Wikia does sell advertisements on the pages of this wiki, but Wizards of the Coast policy excepts "general advertisement" from this "e-commerce" categorization. - Use Trademark and Copyright Notices All Fan Sites must include the correct copyright and trademark information on each page that contains content related to Wizards' property.
Hence any mention of "Dungeons & Dragons" on this wiki should be followed by a ® symbol. - Use of Non-Public Information Prohibited You may not publish, display, exhibit or use any information about products (including any photographs, game text, rules, or drawings of such new products or their prototypes) that has not already been released to the general public by Wizards or that Wizards has otherwise expressly authorized for release to the collector community.
The content that Wizards of the Coast has "released to the general public" of interest to this wiki is the content that is contained in the System Resource Document for the appropriate versions of Dungeons & Dragons® (4th, 3.5, and Modern versions). Content that is contained within these documents are free to be reused here.
There are other agreements that Wizards of the Coast lays out, which do not apply to this site, including:
- "Online Policy" older agreement inherited from TSR, does not seem to be compliant with latest editions
- Open Gaming License (OGL) Only applies to using Wizards of the Cost products covered by this license ("d20 System" content, including d20 Modern)in a published, for-sale product.
- Game System License (GSL) Only applies to using Wizards of the Cost products covered by this license (Dungeons & Dragons® 4th edition) in a published, for-sale product.
In addition, as part of the Wikia community of Wikis, this wiki is by default under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA) "Except where otherwise specified". This is an example of "otherwise specified": content from this wiki can be redistributed, but cannot be redistributed for profit (as that would break the Wizards of the Coast Fansite policy).
So, to summarize the appropriate legal usage for content on this site, and contributing content to it:
- You can't utilize any content downloaded from this wiki to make money, such as publishing it in a professional product.
- You can submit NPC statistic blocks to this wiki that use templates and rules not in the SRD (such as the Metabreath Feats from the Draconomicon, or Mind Flayer or Beholder creatures from the Monster Manual). However, you can only indicate that this creature uses those rules, and what effect it has on that creature; you cannot post the entire definition for that rule (i.e. if there was a Feat that granted +1 bonus at first level and every three levels thereafter, a 6th level NPC could indicate they get a +2 bonus from this feat, but cannot mention the fact that if they gain one more level, that bonus will become a +3.) Do not copy text verbatim from these sources. This will encourage the purchase of the original source texts, supporting the industry, and help stave off potential legal issues.
What to include?
Please do not simply copy NPCs from published sources - including the System Reference Document! This Wiki is only intended for fan material - while NPCs and monsters using materials from the SRD and other sources are not a problem, actual copying from the SRD or other sources might be objected to by Wizards of the Coast or the copyright holder.
What do we mean by fan material? We mean NPCs, characters with fully calculated levels, or monsters modified by templates, advancement, or sheer customization. While stats for a basic Aboleth would not be welcome, an Aboleth with the fiendish template and five levels of Psion added to it would be welcome.
We have unfortunately seen several instances of users abusing the power to edit any page on the website, and so this must be said for official policy reasons: While we embrace users editing pages to contribute to the community, actions that hamper, harass, or detract from the community (i.e. Vandalism) will result in blocking, banning or other actions as seen fit by the administrators of this site. Please see the Vandalism page for more information on what constitutes vandalism and the likely consequences of posting such content.
How do I edit NPCs or other pages?
Click the "edit" tab at the top of every page to edit that page. If you're not sure whether an edit is called for, click the "discussion" tab and edit that page to leave a note for others (don't forget to sign your name) to start a discussion whether or not an edit should be done.
How do I include an NPC?
Once you've determined that this NPC follows the rules above, you may add it to the wiki.
- Visit the NPC Templates page and pick an appropriate template for your NPC's stat block.
- Fill in the name of the new NPC in the creation input box and click the "Create" button to start editing that NPC
- Ensure your new NPC is formatted nicely (see below). It will be automatically added to the appropriate indexes, by the magic of the NPC template used.
Formatting Guidelines
Choose a descriptive name for the NPC or monster. This name should be more than a one-word summary - instead of naming an NPC "Thug", consider naming him "Generic Human CR2 Thug".
After the title, first state if you are using any additional rules for that NPC other than those found in the Core Rules - for example, if you are using any specific supplements for feats, prestige classes, and so on, then list these so that other GMs immediately know if they have access to those same rules. Use the Reference Template to refer to rulebooks (and page number if known), to automatically include Semantic data about that reference.
After this, enter the stat block for the NPC or creature. Please use a template rather than entering plain text such that this wiki can maintain a consistent look, and other DMs who would use your creation can do so easily.
That's basically it. If you want, you can add further material - typical combat tactics, or examples of play where you used that NPC or creature, but none of these are necessary. You should also add a link to your creature from the other index pages so that Wiki users will have an easier time of finding it.
Categorizing
This wiki has moved to utilizing a Semantic indexing means to keep track of the various properties of NPCs and allow DMs to more easily search and filter for the NPC they need without putting undue work on the original editor to index the creation. To add semantic data to the NPC, simply use one of the NPC Templates, and it will automatically apply most of the semantic tags, though each template has specific instructions on how to ensure all the bases are covered.
What if I don't have an NPC to add?
There are still other tasks that need doing about the wiki that would be grateful for your assistance. Check out the Tidy Category to find pages that exist, but need some wikification to be more usable by the DMs who utilize this site. Or look under the Abandoned Category to find articles that have been left incomplete for a time and need completion by someone. You can also look at the Orphaned Pages list and find a list of pages that are not linked from anywhere else in the wiki; pick one and determine where in the list of indexes this page should be listed, so that people can find it by clicking, rather than searching for it. If you run across any pages that would fit into these categories, please add them by using the Tidy Template or I Warn Template. Finally, if you use an NPC in your campaign, please leave a message on that article's "discussion" page, and flag it with an Approval, Caution, or Warning badge, to assist future DMs on the quality of that particular creation.