BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/BattleTech Style Guide

Description

As BattleTech has its own specific format and style for many words found within its universe. Our wiki attempts to uses this specific format style for many of the words found within its articles, as well as an overall aesthetic that attempts to match that of Catalyst Game Labs' Classic BattleTech. This style guide details stylistic elements that all editors should incorporate to help present a uniform style for articles. This is separate from the policy of style for the entire wiki.

Guidelines

As BattleTech writer style guides have changed over the past four decades, It can be sometimes hard to understand which writing style to use, when past examples are different than current. With that said the general guideline to follow is the most recent example.

BattleTech-specific names

These words retain their capitalization wherever within a sentence they are used. The following words always appear in the form shown below:

• BattleMech
• BattleTech
• DropPort
• DropShip
• IndustrialMech
• JumpShip
• 'Mech
• MechWarrior
• OmniMech
• OmniFighter
• ProtoMech
• WarShip

House vs State

In writing about the fates and fortunes of the characters from the various Great Houses, it is to be understood (by the reader) the state and ruling family are separate entities. When referring to a House, the characters that belong to that specific family will be the focus of the statement; the state's name will specifically reference the nation, its government, and its collective people.

Ex: House Davion refers to Lucien Davion and his progeny; the Federated Suns refers to the Successor State founded by him.

Military Commands

• When military command article titles involve numbers, the text should always be represented as a number.

Ex: 1st Davion Guards, 304th Assault (Clan Ghost Bear)

• When writing about military commands in the body of an article, the numerical portion of the command's title should be spelled out, unless it is higher than one hundred.

Ex: First Davion Guards, 304th Assault (Clan Ghost Bear)

• The full name of a command should be used rather than an abbreviation, however common.

Ex: Valexa Capellan March Militia instead of Valexa CMM.

• All Clan commands should have the Clan name after the title in parenthesis.

Ex: Golden Keshik (Clan Wolf-in-Exile)

Titles

• In generic use, apply lower case to words such as president, professor, and emperor. Exceptions are made for non-English words and specific titles that incorporate a number into the title, such as "First Prince".

Ex:

- Edmund Davion served in the role of president for just over thirteen years. He, however, was never a First Prince.

- Stefan Amaris envisioned himself a galactic emperor.

• Directly juxtaposed with the person's name, such words begin with a capital letter.

Ex:

- Coordinator Yama Von Rohrs served in that role from 2470 to 2508.

- Professor Emeritus Dietrich Mathers was a professor from the Lyran Alliance.

• Standard or commonly used names of an office are treated as proper names. Royal styles are capitalized; exceptions may apply for particular offices.

Ex:

- Daniel Calderon was Protector of the Realm.

- "His Majesty, the first of his name, Lord of..."

Italics

Italics apply throughout an article, to include the opening, main body, infoboxes and references.

The following should generally appear italicized:

• Model names for BattleMechs, DropShips, ProtoMechs, JumpShips, WarShips, Space Stations and aerospace fighters (eg. Atlas, Stuka, Scout, Union), but not those of conventional vehicles nor battle armor;
  • but note that ’Mech and aerospace fighter variant/configuration designations, such as AS7-K and STU-K15, are not italicized.
• Specific vehicle & vessel names (eg. Oceans of the Stars, Liberator, Yen Lo Wang);
  • but note that a prefix such as SLS is not part of the name proper, and thus is not italicized (eg. "SLS Prinz Eugen", not "SLS Prinz Eugen").
• All foreign language and ranks (with the exception of the Federated Suns or Lyran ranks) (ex: ja, Kommandant, Tai-sho, Sergeant Major)
• traditional Clan words (ex: surat, chalcas)

Words that should appear non-italicized

The following words should generally appear non-italicized:

• BattleMech
• OmniMech
• ’Mech
• MechWarrior
• BattleTech
• DropShip
• JumpShip
• WarShip
• Aerospace/Vonventional fighter
• OmniFighter
• ProtoMech
• Variant/Configuration designations (ex: AS7-K, STU-K15)
• Vehicles (ex: Indra, Swift Wind)
• Infantry (ex: Jump, Rifle)
• Battle armor (neither the word nor classes; ex: Elemental, Nighthawk)

Epigraphs

Epigraphs (the location and date stamp seen in chapter headers) are italicized as well, as are quotations taken out of the body text and placed as a header. Names of publications (such as for books, stories, magazines, films, box sets, etc.) should also be italicized, though sections from within a publication should not be; instead, they are highlighted by quotations (ex: "Advanced Rules", "Active Probes"). The exception is a work of fiction, or short story, within a publication, which would be italicized.

Notes

• This policy is based on BattleCorps' Classic BattleTech Style Guide.
• Contents were borrowed from a similar guide being built by Admin Mbear, among others.
• All sections of this guide are adaptable, as new terms are introduced—in a stylistic way—with new products.