Wikipedia:WikiProject Board and table games/Card game style guide

This style guide is intended to assist editors in creating, expanding and improving card game articles. It aims to bring a measure of consistency while also reflecting the richness and variety of the sources.

Card game style guide

Structure

Smaller articles may just need a lede and sections covering background, cards and play, together with the usual reference sections. For long articles, use the structure below as a guide. For examples of a well-structured, full article, see Königrufen. For a medium-sized article, see Black Lady or for smaller examples, see Black Maria or Lampeln.

• Lede - typically with a summary of the type of game, the family it belongs to, the number of players it is intended for, its origin, brief overview of its history and any notable facts or unusual features.
• Infobox - use Template:Infobox card game
• History - background to the game, earliest records and game descriptions, geographical distribution over time, development of its gameplay and current situation (unless enough for a separate section).
• Current situation - where the game is played today, by whom and how e.g. in pubs, in organised tournaments. Whether the game is still being taught.
• Prominent players - especially if they have an existing article.
• Cards - the type of cards traditionally or typically used e.g. German-suited, Bavarian-pattern cards, number, ranking, values and any special powers.
• Rules - succinct description of the play. Card terms need not be explained if linked and not specific to the game. See also Glossary of card game terms.
• Variants - major variants together with their key differences from the normal rules.
• Tactics - a brief summary of tactics may be given.
• Footnotes, References, Bibliography
• Navbox - those available include {{Trick-taking card games}}, {{Non trick-taking card games}}, {{Children's card games}} and {{Banking games}}

Images

While images to illustrate a subject generally enhance the article's utility and appeal, remain aware that the components of all packaged games are subject to copyright protection. A fair use rationale is needed for any copy of such.

Note that cover art is considered fair use for the purposes of identification of and critical commentary on the thing depicted. Therefore, do not use game cover art for identification purposes only. Keep in mind that commentary must (as usual) cite verifiable sources. Assuming these criteria can be satisfied, there exists a fair use tag, {{Boardgamecover}}, that can be adapted specifically for this purpose.

Naming and Capitalisation

Sources vary in how they approach naming and capitalisation. For example, the names of well-known games like poker and blackjack are often written in lower case, especially in the press and general publications, whereas less well-known games such as Belote, Black Maria and Schafkopf, tend to be written in title case. However, gaming compendia invariably use title case for the names of games and for cards with special names, but usually lower case for the names of suits, player titles and bonuses. The sources are split on the capitalisation of bids or announcements and the names of 'normal' French-suited cards. As a result, the following guidelines are recommended:

• Card game names:
  • In card game articles prefer title case; e.g. Mistigri not mistigri.
  • In general articles prefer lower case for popular games such as canasta or game families such as poker, except where confusion may arise e.g. Hearts not hearts.
• Card names:
  • French-suited packs: either title case or lower case are acceptable, e.g. Ace or ace, but not both in one article.
  • German- or Latin-suited packs: prefer title case e.g. Deuce, Ober, Unter, Knave, Fante, Caval, Two, Three, etc.
• Card symbols: are common practice for individual cards, e.g. ♠J and ♥K, as are numbers and letters for single cards e.g. Q or 7.
• Card ranking: may be shown thus: A > K > Q … or A (high) K Q …
• Cards with special names: prefer title case e.g. the Black Maria or the Beggar King
• Suit names: prefer lower case e.g. hearts or clubs.
• Player names: prefer lower case e.g. eldest hand, forehand, dealer.
• Bonuses: prefer lower case e.g. pinochle, royal marriage.
• Bids or Announcements: either title case or lower case, e.g. Null or null, Grand or grand.
• Points: prefer numerals e.g. 7 points, not seven points
• Sets: prefer words for quantity and numerals for pip cards e.g. four 7s.
• Tricks: prefer words e.g. four tricks, not 4 tricks.

In all cases, consistency should be maintained within an article.

Terminology

Use the terminology appropriate to the game, e.g. eldest hand for Whist, but forehand for Skat. A lists of generic card game terms may be found her at the glossary of card game terms. In addition a few games or families of games have enough of their own specific terminology to warrant their own glossaries:

• Blackjack. See the glossary of Blackjack terms.
• Bridge. See the glossary of Contract Bridge terms which covers Contract Bridge, Duplicate Bridge, and Auction Bridge; some of the terms are also used in Whist, Bid Whist, and other trick-taking games.
• Patience or Solitaire. See the glossary of Patience terms.
• Poker. See the glossary of Poker terms.
• Schafkopf. See Schafkopf language.
• Skat. See the glossary of Skat terms.

Rules

The rules of many card games are simple enough that they can be described in sufficient detail to play the game, however rules should:

• Not be copied verbatim from sources for copyright reasons
• Be based on cited sources and not how "we play it around here."

If the rules have changed over time, it is useful to summarise changes under "History" and to give separate, cited descriptions in this section of the two or three main stages, typically including the earliest and current rules. A detailed account of many rule sets should be avoided. If more than one rule set is described, subsequent ones only need to cover the differences. If the rules are highly complex, they should be summarised and, if necessary, broken out into a separate article. Rules should be based on a specific source or sources, and not consist of a general amalgam of several rule sets with no citations. The rules section may be subdivided into sections on: Preliminaries, Dealing, Bidding/Auction, Contracts, Bonuses, Playing, Winning and Scoring.

Strategy

Observations on game strategy must not be drawn from the analysis or experience of the editor; to do so is considered original research. Descriptions of strategy should be based on verifiable sources.

If a strategy section seems to be based purely on an editor's experience, it may be tagged with the {{OriginalResearch}} template. Better still, try and find citations or rewrite it based on the sources.

If you would like to share more extensive information, consider Wikiversity, which hosts the Simulations and Gaming Archive and has a Portal called Game design for people who want to develop open educational resources outside the scope of Wikipedia. In addition, the website www.pagat.com is the place to send details of how games are actually played today as opposed to how they are recorded in books.

External links

Consider adding these links to games articles:

• Its entry at pagat.com and/or BoardGameGeek if they meet the criteria of WP:EL.
• For commercially released games, a link to the official site of the game from its publisher(s), or the publisher's website in lieu of an official game site.
• Links to any official full descriptions of the rules.
• Links to the website(s) of any governing bodies of the game.

Categories

Games should be categorised by:

• National origin if known
• Type of pack or deck
• Number of players
• Year, decade or century first recorded, if known
• Card family or group