Help:Getting started

Welcome to ! We're really excited about the concept of collaboratively-created game books, and we hope you are too. Thanks for trying us out!

Below are a series of steps required to start up your own project here on the Wiki. If you're wondering about the specifics of how a site like this works, check out Help:How it works.

Concept
You should have a good solid concept for which book you want to do. This includes the game line, the title, and a general idea of the content. If you're still hammering out the specifics and want some feedback, try asking in the Concepts Forum.

At this stage, you need to meet the following requirements.


 * 1) An Unused Game Line. The game line or setting of your book must not be one currently in production. For example, while a D&D Spelljammer book would be fine, as Spelljammer hasn't been published in over a decade, an Eberron book would not, since it's still in active publication.
 * Why? This is to prevent any issues of copyright conflicts. There's been a few times (including once involving the Wiki's founder) where some fans have made a book for an active game line, and then later the publishing company decides to create essentially the same book on their own.


 * 1) Know the Title. You need to know what you're going to call the book, since all pages on the Wiki will include that title as part of the URL. It's possible to move pages, but it's a pain in the ass, particularly for larger projects, so please avoid it.

Outline
You must have a valid and complete outline. An outline should contain the following information:


 * An Overview. A general breakdown of what the book is, what it isn't, and what it's all about.
 * Chapter breakdown. Your outline should list the individual chapters you're planning on including in your project, and what sort of content you expect to see in each one.
 * Wordcount. The projected size of the book, in number of words. This should be listed as both a total for the book and for individual chapters. It's okay if the total is a little higher than the chapters: it's a good idea to have a couple of thousand words' wiggle room if needed.

It's not necessary, but an estimated timeline (dates due for first draft, second draft, final draft, and publication) may be of help to those people who work better with due dates.

For help see our outline sample, or the outline for a valid project, such as that for the Trinity Storytellers Handbook.

Submission

 * Note: The following section is under discussion, and may or may not be in the final version of these rules.

Once you have a complete outline, submit it to the founders. If it meets our approval, you'll be free to start work on your ebook.

Beginning

 * Note: The following section is under discussion, and may or may not be in the final version of these rules.

When you get started, you should start up a main project page. For example, if you're creating a book called Wraith: The Wild West, that page will be your book's outline. Subsequent pages are created as sub-pages, using a forward slash. So, for example, sections would proceed as Wraith: The Wild West/Introduction, Wraith: The Wild West/Chapter 1, and so on. To link from the main Wraith page to a subpage, all that's required is to create a link to /Chapter 1, and the rest fills itself in.

If you're linking in between two subpages, for example, from Wraith: The Wild West/Chapter 1 to Wraith: The Wild West/Chapter 2, it's probably easiest to use /Chapter 2. will automatically be replaced by a page's parent page.

If a chapter gets too unwieldy to be kept on a single page, it's acceptable to create further subpages. So, for example, Wraith: The Wild West/Chapter 2/Geography and Wraith: The Wild West/Chapter 2/History.

Now what?
For suggestions on what to do once your project is started, see Help:How it works.