The Rules wiki or 'namespace' is used to track the rules of your game. It is intended to track such things as rules for character creation, houserules, exceptions and Storyteller rulings.

This help page describes how to write an effective Rules wiki. To learn the technical aspects of how to create and edit pages, see the 'basics' section in the Wiki Help Index.

Basics

The most basic decision to make for any campaign is which core game system is used. For most game systems, you should also decide what books are allowed and by extension which ones are not. In many cases, you may decide to allow certain content from books, but not all. For example, you may want to use the rules for space-ship combat from a book, without giving players access to build their own space stations as described in the book.

We recommend that you list the books you allow on the rules start page, with a note if certain content is not accessible. Additionally, it will be helpful to create a page on character creation, to list special rules that apply for character creation only - like generating ability scores or special starting feats. If you add the Character Creation tag to this page, it will conveniently be shown for players who want to create new characters in the character list.

Houserules

Most games have some kind of houserules - this can be as simple as allowing a specific class from a non-standard book and as complicated as a detailed system for vehicle combat in a system that doesn't normally support this. Whatever houserules you create, the Rules namespace is a great place to list these, and you can track changes you've made (and revert them if you change your mind!)

One place the wiki shines in particular is if your houserules give different options to your players. In this case, you can create a separate entry for each option with a tag or schema, and then automatically create a list in the page explaining the generic rule. This list will then automatically update as you add additional options.

Policies

The Rules wiki is also a good place to track policies. These may be decisions the Storyteller has made in regards to rules interpretation, like how to settle combat order if initiatives are identical, or agreements between the players on how to write down certain capabilities on the character sheet.

Not all rules need to be game rules. Some 'meta' rules may include things like how dice are rolled, what happens to your character if you miss a session or even how to deal with players who try to cheat.

Things to avoid

To make the rules wiki as useful as possible, here are some tips of things to avoid:

• The wiki format is not well suited for discussions. If you want to discuss how a rule should be interpreted, use the forum (or chat) instead, then once you have reached a decision, update the rules wiki with the outcome. You can easily link to the forum discussion there as a reference.
• If the campaign is already running and a new rule or set of rules is still being developed, it is best to use the Notes namespace instead of the Rules namespace to keep a clear distinction between rules that are in effect and rules that are being proposed. You can easily move the pages to the Rules wiki once they are approved. As above, discussions about the rules are best done in the wiki (or chat)
• Copying the full content of books is not just a lot of work, it also exposes RPGpad to copyright claims, which may lead to us being legally mandated to undo your hard work and remove that content. Please try not to duplicate content from rulebooks within the rules namespace.