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I recently asked What challenges arise from playing a Chaotic Evil character in a heroic party? which has been voted to be closed 4 times as of this writing for being primarily opinion based. However, the question was written specifically to ask for experience-based answers.

After reviewing Are questions about alignment on topic?, it does appear to follow all guidelines for alignment-based questions.

Did I miss something in the guidelines, or is this question truly primarily opinion-based, when taken as a whole?

Nearly all of the reasons for the votes were quickly answered by pointing to sections of the question itself.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Unfortunately this question does seem to be opinion based. I can see no practical way for voters to choose which makes a good answer. "When I allowed a CE character this happened..." is just going to generate a list of opinions that are all equally valid. There is no experience based way of listing all the potential issues you may have, because that would involve having experience every potential issue. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin Mod
    Jul 10, 2019 at 3:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ All right... bit of a stretch in my mind, but how should it be re-worded in order to avoid that issue? It's a popular topic, and also a hard one to ask the right question about. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brandon Olson
    Jul 10, 2019 at 4:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ Correct it is a hard topic to ask a good question about. One of the other problems is you are asking about potential issues you might have, rather than a real issue you currently have. It is a lot easier to answer "How do I solve this issue caused by having a CE player" than it is to guess what issues you might have. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin Mod
    Jul 10, 2019 at 4:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ Instead you could ask "I am concerned about these issues if I allow a CE character, am I right to be concerned and how can I mitigate them?" or similar. Where you detail exactly the issues that actually concern you. Experience based answers would then only need to have dealt with the issue you are asking about rather and an infinite list of potential issues. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin Mod
    Jul 10, 2019 at 4:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ All right... I'll give it some more thought and then ask a new question. I'll delete the linked one as soon as I make the new one. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brandon Olson
    Jul 10, 2019 at 4:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ You could also come to Role-playing Games Chat to discuss your question. Others have already mentioned it there. It's a less structure place where we can give you some feedback on how to make your question work. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin Mod
    Jul 10, 2019 at 4:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ That did give some good advice, thank you. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brandon Olson
    Jul 10, 2019 at 4:51
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    \$\begingroup\$ I voted to close because it's a survey question sailing under flag of 'experience.' What it would likely become is a pile of anecdotes which are superficially experience (by definition) but which we (and at this moment you) have no way of knowing are relevant to whatever player/PC you try to draw through this process. On that basis, I'm not convinced this can be reworked properly. \$\endgroup\$
    – Novak
    Jul 10, 2019 at 7:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ What specifically led me to that conclusion was that you asked about a specific topic (chaotic evil) but then had to carefully back off, not define it, and pre-emptively accept ANY 'reasonable' definition of the term. That's rather contradictory, and undercuts any way of knowing what is and is not relevant. \$\endgroup\$
    – Novak
    Jul 10, 2019 at 7:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ The new version of the question, for future reference: How can I integrate a Chaotic Evil character into a Good-aligned party without disrupting the party dynamics? \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Jul 12, 2019 at 3:08

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It is too broad. From What types of questions should I avoid asking?:

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

This question you've asked is the second kind of question. It is not actually a question with a single best solution or answer available, but instead it is a prompt for a discussion, or a survey of peoples' thoughts. It is a good prompt and might lead to quite a great discussion! It just produces a question that is not very viable in Stack Exchange's Q&A format.

This warning also applies:

To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where …

  • every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite ______?”

It is almost certain that this question would attract an endless list of answers, all equally valid, by people listing one or more challenges basically forever. Very few would be better or more correct than any other, because they are all people listing challenges, which is what was asked for. This is what makes it a survey.

It makes matters a bit worse that you are trying to collect all possible challenges in all possible reasonable interpretations of “chaotic evil” in all possible games that provide anything like that kind of thing, but even if you scoped it down to just one game and edition (e.g. D&D 5e) it would still remain a survey and would be closed as too broad.

Instead I recommend asking this question on one of these forums we'd recommend and come to us when you have a specific game with specific problems with a specific chaotic evil character (or player who wants to play one).

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for the explanation of how it appears. I know how I intended it to come across, but intent and presentation don't always match up. I'm working on a better-worded version now, but... landmines aplenty for this type of question. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brandon Olson
    Jul 11, 2019 at 5:05
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    \$\begingroup\$ @BrandonOlson Just as a heads up: any version of "tell me all the issues that might come up with chaotic evil" is probably not going to work regardless of the wording. A more workable approach: focus on a specific concrete scenario you're experiencing or have experienced, describe the problem, describe the outcome you want (e.g. “I want them to be able to play a chaotic evil character without trampling over everyone's fun by being the classic omnidirectional jerk and nuisance”), and ask us how you can achieve your outcome. (Avoid “what are some ways to...”, say “how do I...”) \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener
    Jul 11, 2019 at 11:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ Re asking about a past scenario you've experienced: we've had some questions in the past that were basically “I had this scenario, and I handled it this way, but that didn't work out well, and I want to know how I could have handled it better to achieve this specific goal.” Those worked well. \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener
    Jul 11, 2019 at 11:43

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