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sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
2020-05-19 19:38:35

At the very least I think you need minimum 3 tropes for any character you put on a character page.

WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
2020-05-19 19:41:20

^ Not necessarily, some characters are bit characters but that doesn't mean they should be ignored.

It's more of a judgement call, honestly. When I split into a characters page, it's usually when the character tropes seem to be taking up a lot of the space on the main page.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
SamCurt Since: Jan, 2001
2020-05-20 06:20:01

May I propose this? For an entire work, "three of three", i.e. at least three characters having at least three tropes each. For example, 4 characters with 3 of them having an ample number of tropes and the fourth having done is fine.

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova
RallyBot2 (Elder Troper)
2020-05-20 06:58:00

A character needs at least one valid trope to be listed on a Characters page; a Characters page needs at least two characters (unless it's a hard split from another page.) Anything beyond that is merely a recommendation.

Adept MOD (Holding A Herring)
2020-05-20 07:07:04

^ Is that an official policy? Because that seems way too little. That's a total of two tropes in a single page.

Unless the work has a Minimalist Cast and the characters are so Flat they only have one trait (in which case they don't need a Character subpage), that amount of content seems to lack any effort.

^^ Seems like a decent number.

RallyBot2 (Elder Troper)
2020-05-20 07:33:51

^ It's de facto policy, though I'm pretty sure it isn't actually written down anywhere. (Besides, it's better to allow too much than too little.)

If you want to try and push for a rule, I'm not against one.

Piterpicher (Series 2)
2020-05-20 13:09:50

Agreed that a character should have at least one valid trope to have an entry, though I'd suggest a fairly high barrier before a work actually gets a char page, like 24 entries. That way, I think it'd actually be clear that the work has enough material to deserve a Characters/ subpage (so for example, I wouldn't make an article like Characters.Progressbar 95 because that game has 2-3 characters who'd only get like 3-5 examples each).

Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods Of Incremental)
MichaelKatsuro Since: Apr, 2011
2020-05-20 13:15:22

Personally, I feel that since a Character page helps keep things neat, it's always better to have one than not to. In fact, I'd say the best question is "How few character tropes can we have listed before the convenience of having a character page isn't worth it?"

WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
2020-05-20 14:03:49

I'd disagree that character pages are always better (A lot of them are in horrid condition and are made very lazily) but that's a debate for another time and place, I guess.

Personally, there are tons of times where I need to clean up a characters page that is so ZCE-filled, it gets to the point where it's better to just merge the good examples to the main page and cut it, rather than have a page that barely has any useful content on it. Character pages are okay to have when they're done well, but they shouldn't be a necessity. It's best to treat them like any other split-off and do it when you have enough examples to make a good page out of.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
XFllo Since: Aug, 2012
2020-05-20 14:21:59

See Administrivia.How To Create A Character Page.

Two important rules: each character needs to have a description and a list of tropes (i.e. at least one trope listed).

You'd be surprised how many times people create character sheets without tropes.

wingedcatgirl MOD (Holding A Herring)
2020-05-20 15:52:05

Oh, there is a relevant administrivia page, then! That helps a lot.

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
RallyBot2 (Elder Troper)
2020-05-20 17:04:14

^^ Descriptions are very very strongly recommended, but you can get away with single sentences that barely describe the character, while tropes do require actual context. I'll sometimes remove character entries for not having tropes, but I'll never remove them for not having a description.

(If we were going to strictly follow the rules as written, we wouldn't be allowing multiple characters in a folder, but that's beyond pedantic.)

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