up vote 7 down vote favorite

What is the site's position on "make a character/party" questions like:

share

4 Answers

up vote 9 down vote

The answer to "make me a character" is like 5 pages long, which is barely tolerable. "Make me a whole party" goes way over the line to intolerable by that measure IMO - it's not a question, it's a work request. I'll note "write my program for me" is frowned on on SO as well. I'm not against people building CharOp guides, but this probably isn't the best site to host them.

As an addition to the "Office" and "Adventure Time" build questions - this site isn't for discussion or spitballing. It is for getting answers to actual questions you have or problems you face with running or playing RPGs. A focused question on "I'm making a Pathfinder samurai archer, how do I balance that with thing X" is fine. A "make Batman! In all game systems!" is crap and no amount of meta complaining will keep the mods from nuking it. Be advised.

share
Agreed. The Warlock question reads like the questioner did some initial research and halted because it was too overwhelming and went looking for someone else to do it for him. It was awesome of Brian to do it for him, but the answer is overwhelming and I question how many people are going to take the time to read it, plug the builds into Character builder to give it a whirl in order to properly test it. – Pat Ludwig Feb 17 '12 at 6:56
8  
@PatLudwig: So it's the fault of the question when a user decides to invest several hours to write up a massive answer like Brian did in the warlock question? I wanted to answer the question myself but in a much smaller scale before Brian dropped his MOA² (Mother of all answers ;-) ). The warlock question didn't ask for mathematical proof or fully worked out characters - that was alone the answerer's decision and should imho not be discouraged. – arotter Feb 17 '12 at 8:19
up vote 6 down vote

From a pragmatic perspective, "help with character-build, party-build" questions are OK:

  • They're a common question on forums
  • They can have good, objective, answers (so long as they give real requirements, but that's a question quality issue)
  • They're a common search question when people are looking for a "better X"
  • Some systems (Ars) can generate a fair number of fiddly character-help questions

I understand that they're not particularly "wide" in scope, but they're answerable and a draw to the site. We'd do better if we had collapsable indicators so that people don't have to stare at character sheets though.

share
up vote 5 down vote

I think demanding that a charachter or party be made is bad form and should be discouraged. However, asking about what background or theme or feat would go well with a certain charachter is a perfectly reasonable question, along with a party. What the person is asking is for someone who knows the breadth of the rules better than them, to bring up or mention ideas and powers that might otherwise be overlooked.

share
up vote 3 down vote

I think for some questions the actual stating becomes too prescriptive and for a lot of poster too longwinded to follow, and a simple short sweet descriptive answer is sometimes all that's needed.

It would help people link the concept to functionality which some people (I included) struggle with for some games.

Perhaps some other functionality is needed whereby character sheets could be uploaded and viewed separate to the Q&A functionality?

Or full blown break downs of character building could form blog posts on the site?

Essentially, there seems to be a desire for this on RPG.SE and shutting it down with no discussion is going to drive some people away.

share
2  
We're sorry and we know that the SE format is not for everyone. However there is no value to having the front page filled with forum style "thought exercise" questions - build me Batman, build me Harry Potter, build me Darth Vader. That's stock RPG.net fodder along with "sell me on..." and "What if I were to mash up X and y?" It's not that those are bad topics, it's just that they are not topics in the scope of this site. Real questions to help with real games only. – mxyzplk♦ Feb 25 '12 at 14:23
You're doing a brave job of reworking the question somewhat into that format, but it's still very marginal from our POV - how do we make this not the gateway to infinite crap? Help us help you. – mxyzplk♦ Feb 25 '12 at 14:25

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged