RealmBox Project/Instructions

Introduction

Using a template, especially for those unfamiliar with the template concept, can be a very intimidating task. Hopefully these instructions will let you get started in creating a basic RealmBox for your own realm.

The Concept

A RealmBox is a table that contains information about a realm. It is a table created using wiki table markup. This allows the table to be created in pieces. The wiki formatting system takes all the pieces, puts them together and creates a single table to display on your page. We make it easy for you to build your table using individual pieces, or blocks. All you have to do is pick the blocks you want, paste the code into your wiki page, and then add your own text.

The basic building block of a RealmBox is called a block. There is one block to start the RealmBox, one block to close the RealmBox, and one or more blocks between them. You can have as many block in the middle as you want. Each block is a single table row. Each one can hold anything you want it to hold. It can be a bit of text, an image, a map, a region listing, or even another table.

Available Blocks

The blocks that can be used to build a RealmBox are these:

• Template:RBTop - This is the opening block. Every Realmbox has to have one and only one of these, and it has to be the first block.
• Template:RBTitle - This is a block that spans the entire width of the RealmBox, normally used to separate sections. You usually put one of these containing your realm name at the top of your RealmBox, and then again before any groupings of other blocks. For example, you could use a title above a list fo the regions of your realm, or above a listing of the ruling council members or dukes. Title blocks have larger, bold text, and usually have the realm's signature color as the background.
• Template:RBSingle - The Single block is very similar to the Title block, except that the text is regular size, and not bold. This kind of box is normally used for listing things like the realm councilors, major religions, duchies, etc.
• Template:RBDouble - This is a two-column block. The common use for this block is to list categories in the left column, and values in the right column. For example, you could list the council titles in the left side and the nobles holding that title in the right. Or you could list duchies in the left and the dukes in the right. You could even put a battle flag image in one and a crest in the other. Or have a two-column listing of the regions in your realm, or...
• Template:RBMap - This block is custom-designed to display the game-generated map of your realm. This is the map you see when you go to "Realm and Regions" and click the "Realm Map" link. Note that many realm maps are quite wide. Placing one in your RealmBox may make your RealmBox quite a bit wider than you really want.
• Template:RBImage - This block is custom-designed to hold a single image that has been uploaded to the wiki. You can upload an image here: Special:Upload. Only use the file name, and don't include the "Image:" portion.
• Template:RBRegion - This template is designed to display a game-generated region map. While not that useful for a display on a realm-based page, it can be used to display regional information using the RealmBox templates. Alternatively, it can be used for very small realms or for duchies.
• Template:RBBottom - This is the closing block. Every Realmbox has to have one and only one of these, and it has to be the last block.

Planning Your RealmBox

To make sure that your RealmBox has everything you need in it, and that it goes together as quickly as possible, you should have some idea of what you want in it. The best way to do that, is to look at some other pages that use a RealmBox. You can find a list of all pages that include a RealmBox here. You can also view some of the samples.

In general a RealmBox will contain the following parts:

• A title listing the name of the realm
• A realm flag or crest
• A listing of the realm council members
• A short set of statistics, including the number of regions, number of duchies, number of nobles, population, etc.

Some RealmBoxes contain the following information:

• A realm map (Often omitted, as they tend to be rather large. Sometimes done as a small thumbnail silhouette.)
• A listing of the realm's armies
• A list of the realm's regions
• A listing of the major religions practiced in the realm

Based on these lists, you can get a good idea about the type of information you want in your RealmBox.

Adding your RealmBox to Your Page

Add a Skeleton RealmBox

Start by adding the following code to your page. We'll pretend our realm is named Keplerstan. (You can copy the code given here and paste it onto your page.)

{{RBTop}}
{{RBTitle
|Text = Keplerstan}}
{{RBBottom}}

That will display the following:

Keplerstan

Add Some Basic Content

Now let's add an RBSingle block to list the ruling councilors, preceded by an RBTitle block to describe it. It now looks like this:

{{RBTop}}
{{RBTitle
|Text = Keplerstan}}
{{RBTitle
|Text = Ruling Council}}
{{RBSingle
|Text = King Kepler<br>Judge Hangem<br>General Warmonger<br>Banker Coinsmith}}
{{RBBottom}}

Now our RealmBox looks like this:

Keplerstan

Ruling Council

King Kepler Judge Hangem General Warmonger Banker Coinsmith

Make It Pretty

That looks pretty basic and boring. We can dress it up a lot by using the realm color of Keplerstan: a rich green. To do this we add the BackColor parameter to our RBTitle blocks, as shown below. Note that in order to make our title text show up against the dark background, we switched to white text for our title blocks.

{{RBTop}}
{{RBTitle
|BackColor = #0B7500
|TextColor = White
|Text = Keplerstan}}
{{RBTitle
|BackColor = #0B7500
|TextColor = White
|Text = Ruling Council}}
{{RBSingle
|Text = King Kepler<br>Judge Hangem<br>General Warmonger<br>Banker Coinsmith}}
{{RBBottom}}

Now our RealmBox looks like this:

Keplerstan

Ruling Council

King Kepler Judge Hangem General Warmonger Banker Coinsmith

One More Tweak

Since King's tend to be a bit touchy with formalities, and want to make sure that everyone knows they are in charge, we'll make one last change to highlight the king's position at the top of the ruling council. To do this, we'll put in a new RBSingle block above the one that lists the other three councilors, give it a light grey background, and only put the king's name in it. The code looks like this:

{{RBTop}}
{{RBTitle
|BackColor = #0B7500
|TextColor = White
|Text = Keplerstan}}
{{RBTitle
|BackColor = #0B7500
|TextColor = White
|Text = Ruling Council}}
{{RBSingle
|BackColor = #CCCCCC
|Text = King Kepler}}
{{RBSingle
|Text = Judge Hangem<br>General Warmonger<br>Banker Coinsmith}}
{{RBBottom}}

Now our RealmBox looks like this:

Keplerstan

Ruling Council

King Kepler

Judge Hangem General Warmonger Banker Coinsmith

Finishing It Up

Continue to add more blocks to display all the things you want people to know about your realm. Remember to refer to the RealmBox Project/Samples page to get some idea to help you out.