Contribution Guidelines

When contributing to the wiki, please follow the guidelines on this page. Content not conforming to the guidelines is subject to removal without notice.

Contributing Your Own Content

Where to Write?

The COWL welcomes all of your worldbuilding, and we're eager to see it as it grows! For best results, and to keep your content from being removed by our janitorial staff, make sure to parent your content to your user page. Everyone with an account on the COWL gets their own User Page, accessible by clicking your username at the top of the screen or navigating to "https://cowl.dnd.guide/wiki/User:YourUsername". This is like your very own sandbox - you can even make your own sub-pages using a forward slash: "https://cowl.dnd.guide/wiki/User:YourUsername/MySubPage".

Make sure all the content you write falls under your User Page. That way, it'll be safe and sound from the usual scrutiny our main pages are exposed to.

Tag Your Content!

While you are not allowed to use the categories and tags used in main namespace content pages, you are encouraged to use categories and tags within your content. Ensure all your metadata is logically prefixed with the name of your setting, and have at it!

Additionally, while not a hard requirement, adding the following snippet to the bottom of the main page for your setting only will allow it to appear in the list of non-game ready settings and make it easier to find your content! [[Category:Campaign Setting]] [[Category:Not Game Ready]]

Copyright and Legal Information

Unless otherwise specified by you the creator, all content you create on this website remains your intellectual property. However, by publishing said content on this website you grant the Compendium of Worldly Lore (this website) and the other users of this website a permanent, irrevocable license to store, use, display, and modify the content on this website, provided modifications are clearly stated and credit is attributed to the original creator(s).

Game Ready Settings

Game Ready settings are those settings that have been built and written to a high community standard and are thus deemed polished enough to feature prominently on the site. Game Ready settings get their own wiki namespaces, are listed prominently on the main page, and their content becomes eligible to be promoted into 3.6e system content.

A setting is considered game ready if it meets the following criteria:

• The primary page for the setting is well-constructed, visually pleasing, and easy to navigate. It should contain links to all relevant setting information and content.
• The settings more in-depth content is well-constructed, visually pleasing, and easy to navigate. It should be logically organized and well-interlinked.
• The setting's content is written and published to a reasonable degree. The information published should include, but may not be limited to, the following:
  • Races and/or Sapient Inhabitants
  • Languages and Culture Information
  • Collections of Mighty Beings, such as Pantheons
  • Cosmology, which may be multidimensional, astrological, or similar,
  • Nations, Factions, and/or Groups of Interest
  • Geography and Physical Layout, which includes both physical land features and the creations of civilization such as cities and roads.

Adding Existing Content

Classes, Feats, and Spells

Classes, Feats, and Spells should be listed in the common 3.6e namespace, and not in any specific setting's space.

Do not under any circumstances create these pages manually. Instead, use the helper forms linked in each of the listing pages which will make sure all the data you input is well-formed and in line with wiki standards.

The form will also ensure the class you enter will automatically be added to the relevant listing pages, and appear in the correct categories.

What if my class/feat/spell is only allowed in a certain setting?

Ideally, this shouldn't happen. The Classes, Feats, and Spells listed in this wiki should be usable in all Game Ready 3.6e settings.

If it is absolutely unavoidable and your setting is Game Ready, please follow the below guidelines. If your setting is not Game Ready, please do not add the content to the main namespace at all. Keep all setting-specific content to a minimum in the main namespace. Excessive setting-specific content not kept to a setting-specific namespace will be subject to removal.

• For feats, please add "[Name] Setting" to the feat prerequisites, without the square brackets. The prerequisite page should link to your setting namespace's main page.
• For classes and spells, please prepend the name of the setting to the class name, for example "Domum White Wizard" or "Vorovia Acid Splash". Please also add a short note explaining the setting(s) the class is allowed in at the very top of the class page.

Races, Magic Items and Materials, and Planes

Due to the large amount of content that is very similar - if not outright identical - between many traditional D&D settings, these content pages will be kept in the main namespace.

Common items will have their own pages, for example https://cowl.dnd.guide/wiki/Human. At the bottom of each page, below all the setting-agnostic content, there will be several subsections which contain setting-specific information. The subsections will be titled "In [Name]", for example "In Domum", or "In Vorovia". These sections may be at most two paragraphs in length. More in-depth information must be linked to, in order to avoid cluttering the primary pages.

Items homebrewed for only one specific setting should go in that setting's namespace. If two or more Game Ready Settings settings choose to use the same base common item, that item may be moved into the main namespace at that point in time.

Divine Pantheons and Gods

While many gods are shared between settings, the pantheons - meaning organizations of gods worshipped together - often change between settings. Therefore, the pages for divine entities and mighty beings themselves will remain in the main namespace, but the collections of those entities will remain within their settings' respective namespaces.

This means common entities such as https://cowl.dnd.guide/wiki/Pelor and https://cowl.dnd.guide/wiki/Pazuzu will exist in pages in the main namespace, but collections such as "Gods worshipped by X group of people" and "Demon Lords of the Abyss" will be made per-setting, in those settings' namespaces.

Languages, Nations, etc.

All other game content will be kept in their respective settings' namespaces with no exception.