View source for Creation and Upkeep of NPC Listings

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Using the wiki, you can create a very rich and detailed set of NPC profiles for all the other characters inhabiting your ship or base. The tutorial below will teach you more about this. 

==Create your page==
If you used the standard ship history setup routine, you should already have a link in your navigation bar to an NPC listing page. If you did not, or don't have that link, simply create a page with a link that looks like this:

 <nowiki>[[Enterprise Non-Playing Character Listing]]</nowiki>

As usual with ship pages, you'll want to give your ship's name ''without'' the "USS" or any letters following (-E). Then be sure to spell out the "Non-Playing Character" part. 

==Start with a list==
The best way to start your NPC Listing is to create a list of all the NPCs on the vessel. If you're not intimately aware of all the NPCs, it's probably best to send out an e-mail on your ship's OOC list, and ask everyone to send you the names and positions of all the NPCs that they have created. Usually, you'll get at least a few responses.

Now you'll want to categorize them appropriately. Start by seperating the characters by duty posts. Engineering, Medical, and so on. A typical duty post's list of NPCs might look like this: 

 <nowiki>===Medical===</nowiki><br />
 <nowiki>* Freamer, Dianne: Lieutenant Commander, Assistant Chief of Medical</nowiki><br />
 <nowiki>* Reagan, Kiara: Lieutenant, Chief Nurse</nowiki><br />
 <nowiki>* Tamren, Sam: Lieutenant Junior Grade, Assistant Chief Nurse</nowiki><br />
 <nowiki>* Trentin Seeto: Ensign, Nurse</nowiki><br />

==Categorize the page==
Assuming that we want to make our NPC listing as complete as possible, we're going to eventually give many of these NPCs their own pages, with profiles on them. As such, we're going to want a category them specifically. So, let's put a category tag on the bottom of this NPC listing page that looks like this:

 <nowiki>[[Category:Enterprise NPCs|*]]</nowiki>

The "|*" that we add to the category tag should '''ONLY''' be added to this main listing page. It lists this page in your category as * so that it will show up at the top of the category and make it easy to find. 

Once we save our listing page, this category will show up at the bottom of the listing page, but will be colored red to indicate that the category has not been created yet. Go ahead and click on this category's name. You'll be taken automatically to an edit box for this category page. Fill in something like the following: 

 <nowiki>"For all NPC characters on the [[USS Enterprise]]."</nowiki>

Then, at the bottom of the page, put the category tag for your ship's main category, and the main NPC category. It'll probably look like this:

 <nowiki>[[Category:USS Enterprise-E]]</nowiki><br /><nowiki>[[Category:Non-Playing Characters]]</nowiki>

==Create page profiles==
Now that we have the listing set up, as well as the category, we can go ahead and start populating the list with the actual profiles for each character, assuming we have them.

Of course, it's best to start with any characters that you have created. Usually, most folks just like to create a rather basic profile for each NPC, so as not to spend too much time on it, and also to ensure that you don't box in other writers who might want to use the NPC. 

To create the links, of course, we just edit our page and add the brackets ('''<nowiki>[[these]]</nowiki>''') to the names we want to create profiles for. 

===Characters without profiles===
If you have an NPC who has just been briefly mentioned in sim, and does not have any real profile information to speak of, you're still free to create a page for them and include any and all information that you have. For a good example of this, see: [[Freamer, Dianne]]. No profile is too small, as it helps other writers on the ship, and those who come after you, to make their sims more rich and realistic by using characters who have been seen in the sim before.

===Characters with small profiles===
If you created a character, and want to give them just a modicum of information for use, feel free to fill in what you know. For example, take a look at: [[Tamren, Sam]]. The profile includes an image, stats, and all the information that has been used in sim. 

===Characters with full profiles===
If you'd like to give a full profile for a character, you may want to consider using some of the templates we already have for creating profiles. More information is available about them in the [[Creation and Upkeep of a Character Page#Templates|Creation and Upkeep of a Character Page]] tutorial.

==Remember the category!==
Finally, you need to make sure to remember the category tag at the bottom of your each character's profile. It should look something like this, if you recall: 

 <nowiki>[[Category:Enterprise NPCs|*]]</nowiki>

==Examples==
For some good examples of NPC areas, see the following:

* [[:Category:Atlantis NPCs|Atlantis NPCs]]
* [[:Category:Par'tha Personalities|Par'tha Expanse NPCs]]
* [[:Category:Wallace NPCs|Wallace NPCs]]

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