Wiki formatting

These are some unofficial tips on how to make wiki rules pages display in a readable way on the BGA site beneath a game, with some notes on elements which do not work as expected, and useful elements which don't appear to be documented anywhere. Many tags and methods of formatting are completely stripped out by the BGA website when displaying wiki ruleset, but there are some workarounds. Note also that some elements display differently depending on whether you're reading the rules at the bottom of a live game page, or on the game's "about" page.

Feel free to add additional issues and advice.

(This page was created as a result of this forum thread.)

Bullet points

The BGA rules display strips all bullet points, if the regular wiki bullet markup of asterisks is used.

A common solution seems to be to add bullet-point unicode symbols, or hyphens. This also requires lines to be separated by paragraph breaks or <br/> tags, or to be used in addition to asterisked bullet points, otherwise all the points appear on the same line.

• Draw

• Play

• Discard

• Draw<br/>
• Play<br/>
• Discard

*• Draw
*• Play
*• Discard

In the first two cases a blank line should be left between the start of the list and the end of the previous paragraph, otherwise the first point is merged into the previous paragraph.

Relevant bug reports:

• Bullet points not visible on game help, open since April 2020

Definition list

;Term: Definition wiki markup lists don't bold the terms or indent the definitions in the game view, making them much harder to read.

A workaround is to additionally bold each term, e.g.:

;'''Pair of boats''': take another turn<br/>
;'''Pair of fish''': draw a card from the deck<br/>
;'''Shark + swimmer''': steal a random card from another player's hand

Which displays in-game as:

Pair of boats: take another turn
Pair of fish: draw a card from the deck
Shark + swimmer: steal a random card from another player's hand

Headings

When viewed during a game: A level two heading ("==") will appear with a box around it on the BGA view, and be uppercased. A level three heading ("===") is formatted identically and is indistinguishable from a level two heading, except that it slightly overlaps the text above it. A level four heading ("====") is displayed within the box of the level three heading, and bolded. Level five headings are displayed as regular unbolded text.

For example, if a game has a level two heading of "End of game scoring", with four level three headings for the different scoring categories, the final of these ("Scientific structures") containing a level four heading "Sets of identical symbols", it will look like this:

When viewed on a game's about page, all such rules appear in a single box, with level two through four headings both being bold fonts in their original cases. Level two headings are slightly larger than the other two.

People seem to be independently realising this and writing rules using a level two heading ("==") for each section, and a level four heading ("====") for its subheadings, skipping level three entirely. I've also seen rule writers add extra blank lines to the ends of each section (eg. at Gamehelpturingmachine), which may be to avoid the headings overlapping the text.

Relevant bug reports:

• Ruleset h2/h3 headings not being nested
• Rule section headings overlapping the text

Icons

Some game rules, including Gamehelpjumpdrive and Gamehelpspacestationphoenix, use keywords such as [METAL] and [PLANET].

When a player reads these rules during a BGA game, these tags get converted into icons. When the player reads the rules on the game panel page or the wiki, they remain as text.

This feature seems to be undocumented, and has been confirmed as a custom option that a developer can choose to create for a game.

Images

Upload an image

Attempting to specify an image size in image markup (eg. [[File:Marrakech example.jpg|300px]]) will work in the wiki view, but will cause the image to appear blank in the BGA view (as it tries to display a resized image which does not exist in the directory it's referencing).

A solution is to display images at the default size (meaning that they must also be uploaded at the size you want them to appear), eg:

[[File:Marrakech example.jpg]]

It's also possible to add rollover text if desired:

[[File:Marrakech example.jpg|Example move]]

Also, external links will also work within BGA if you want the image to link to a URL:

[[File:Versions.png|link=https://lumberjacks-studio.com/en/project/trek-12_en/]]

Infoboxes

These are only used by a few game pages, but Template:InfoBox, Template:InfoBoxes and Template:InfoBoxes3 allow game information to be displayed in one, two or three coloured boxes, in a way that also works in the BGA view. They look like this:

Example

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Click through to the templates above for usage instructions.

In-article links

As of May 2023, linking to a section within a rules page (eg. [[#endgame|the Endgame phase]]) does not work when the page is viewed on BGA, either during a live game or on the gamepanel page. In both cases, a link like #endgame is converted to https://boardgamearena.com/doc#endgame, an index of games rules. A player who clicks such a link during a game will be taken away from the game they are playing, and not given the information that they expected.

Numbered lists

Like bullet points, a numbered list in wiki markup (with a "#" before each line) doesn't display correctly: all of the numbers are stripped out.

Workarounds are to write out the numbers by hand, with either paragraph breaks or <br/> tags between them:

1. Draw

2. Play

3. Discard

1. Draw<br/>
2. Play<br/>
3. Discard

Game pieces

Category:GamePieceTemplates

Generic game pieces including:

• Chess pieces
• Go stones
• Reversi tokens
• Draughts
• Dice

Dice

Six-sided dice can be displayed using a template, eg. {{whiteDie|=6}}.

See GameHelpDudo for examples.

Dice are available in four colours: whiteDie, yellowDie, orangeDie and blackDie:

​ ​ ​ ​

Meeples

Meeple icons can be displayed with eg. {{meeple|red}} for ​

Available colours are currently red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white and grey.

Game boards

Category:GameBoardTemplates

There are a few customisable game boards available:

• Template:Chessboard
• Template:Goboard9
• Template:Quoridorboard

Playing cards

Category:Card_templates

Template:Card can be used to display playing card icons.

Playing card template examples for a BGA wiki page

Type	{{club}}	{{spade}}	{{heart}}	{{diamond}}	{{cardBack}}	{{card|=A}}	{{club|=A}}	{{club|=A|colour=green}}
Result	​♣	​♠	​♥	​♦	🟔		​♣	​♣

Template:Cardholder can display suitless cards (designed for GameHelpHanabi) in a "holder", with "clue" notes. See the linked template for further documentation.

Tables

Table borders are stripped by the BGA display. They can be added back by adding a fixed width border= to the image markup, eg:

{| class="wikitable" style="width:auto;text-align:center;" border="2"
|-
!0-90
|⭐
|-
!91-110
|⭐⭐
|-
!111-125
|⭐⭐⭐
|}

will display as:

0-90	⭐
91-110	⭐⭐
111-125	⭐⭐⭐

Tables default to 100% width on the BGA view: if you want to override that, you can do so by adding something like style="width:10%" after the border="2".

style="width:auto;text-align:center;":

1. width:auto; fits column width to the contents
2. text-align:center; centres the contents

Option grids

Where a game has multiple interdependent options, it can be useful to have a visual option grid.

Not for the faint-hearted, but with a lot of inline css, it is possible to create a nice aesthetic and intuitive grid that is responsive to screen size. For example for GameHelpPente:

Training mode only

Default

Other

# of players

2

3

4

Free-for-all

Team

All options win

Align exactly 5 stones in a row

Align exactly 4 stones in a row

Overline win

May align more than 5 stones in a row

May align more than 4 stones in a row

Capture win

Make 5 captures

Make 4 captures

Capture three

May capture two or three stones (Keryo Pente)

Self-capture

No effect: a stone may be placed in a capture position

Self-capture: results in self-capture! (Poof Pente)

Forbidden: a stone may not be placed in a capture position

Overtime capture

Break the line: may capture to break a winning line (Boat Pente)

Capture the line: may capture an entire winning line

Mixed capture

Enabled: May capture stones of mixed colour

Disabled: Captures of one colour only

<div style="display:flex;flex-flow:row wrap;max-width:max-content;border:0.1rem solid #aaa;">
 <div style="box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #f0f;background:#fef;padding:0.5rem;width:max-content;">Training mode only</div>
 <div style="box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #0f0;background:#efe;padding:0.5rem;width:max-content;">Default</div>
 <div style="box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;width:max-content;">Other</div> 
</div>

<div style="display:grid;max-width:50rem;border:0.1rem solid #aaa;">
 <div   style="grid-area: 1 / 1 /  3 / 2;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;"># of players</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 1 / 2 /  3 / 3;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;font-size:1.2rem;">2</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 1 / 5 /  3 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;font-size:1.2rem;">3</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 1 / 3 /  2 / 5;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;font-size:1.2rem;">4</div>
   <div style="grid-area: 2 / 4 /  3 / 5;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #0f0;background:#efe;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;">Free-for-all</div>
   <div style="grid-area: 2 / 3 /  3 / 4;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;">Team</div>
 <div   style="grid-area: 3 / 1 /  4 / 2;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #0f0;background:#efe;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;">All options win</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 3 / 2 /  4 / 4;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">Align exactly <b>5</b> stones in a row</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 3 / 4 /  4 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">Align exactly <b>4</b> stones in a row</div>
 <div   style="grid-area: 4 / 1 /  5 / 2;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #0f0;background:#efe;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;">Overline win</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 4 / 2 /  5 / 4;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">May align more than <b>5</b> stones in a row</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 4 / 4 /  5 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">May align more than <b>4</b> stones in a row</div>
 <div   style="grid-area: 5 / 1 /  6 / 2;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #0f0;background:#efe;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;">Capture win</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 5 / 2 /  6 / 4;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">Make <b>5</b> captures</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 5 / 4 /  6 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">Make <b>4</b> captures</div>
 <div   style="grid-area: 6 / 1 /  7 / 2;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;">Capture three</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 6 / 2 /  7 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">May capture two <b>or three</b> stones (Keryo Pente)</div>
 <div   style="grid-area: 7 / 1 / 10 / 2;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #0f0;background:#efe;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;">Self-capture</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 7 / 2 /  8 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #0f0;background:#efe;padding:0.5rem;">No effect: a stone may be placed in a capture position</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 8 / 2 /  9 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">Self-capture: results in <b>self-capture!</b> (Poof Pente)</div>
  <div  style="grid-area: 9 / 2 / 10 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">Forbidden: a stone may <b>not</b> be placed in a capture position</b></div>
 <div   style="grid-area:10 / 1 / 12 / 2;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;">Overtime capture</div>
  <div  style="grid-area:10 / 2 / 11 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">Break the line: may capture to break a winning line (Boat Pente)</div>
  <div  style="grid-area:11 / 2 / 12 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">Capture the line: may capture an entire winning line</div>
 <div   style="grid-area:12 / 1 / 14 / 2;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #0f0;background:#efe;padding:0.5rem;font-weight:bold;">Mixed capture</div>
  <div  style="grid-area:12 / 3 / 13 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #0f0;background:#efe;padding:0.5rem;">Enabled: May capture stones of mixed colour</div>
  <div  style="grid-area:13 / 2 / 14 / 6;box-shadow:inset 0 0 0 0.1rem #ddd;background:#fff;padding:0.5rem;">Disabled: Captures of one colour only</div>
</div>