Why close this instead of protecting? How to fix it?

Question

Re: European Medieval Fantasy RPG with an appropriate setting, minimal bookkeeping, random characters, and simple rules?

This question has several upvoted answers that explicitly address the concerns and requirements stated in the post. The author asks for a “rules light” recommendation and defines exactly what he means by “light”: as little bookkeeping, character optimization, and subtle rules interaction as possible. The original post even gave an example of an RPG that would suit the author if only it had the right setting.

The question also has had a few answers that did not follow the game-recommendation guidelines at all, from lower-reputation posters. Some of them were improved through editing, others deleted. In any case, they shouldn’t be taken as an indication of the question’s quality, just its popularity. Usually, I see answers like this as a sign that a question should be protected, not put on hold, especially since it spent time on the Hot Questions list.

But the question was put on hold as Unclear What You’re Asking with a note that all of the existing answers were terrible – even though the original poster stated that he “received some very good suggestions from the community” on meta. Next, the original poster and a few other contributors worked on improving the question so that it could be reopened, and it acquired at least 4 reopen votes. But now the question is closed again as Too Broad, voiding the reopen votes and blocking us from voting again. So now this question will require at least 9 votes to re-open, plus now we have no guidance as to what we can do to further improve the question. The moderator comments still mainly point to the low quality of answers, rather than how to improve the question.

If the main problem is quality of answers, then why was the question put on hold instead of protected? And why was the question closed again, voiding all the reopen votes, instead of letting the voting process work as designed?

And, presuming that the question should be on hold, what should we do to get it in shape for reopening? And what’s the procedure for reopening when several people can’t re-vote?

Answer 1

I reclosed it because of the significant edits. The first problem was that the question was asking for maid RPG like rulesets that can apply to swords & sorcery and was unclear on the requirements of what "maid rpg like rulesets" meant.

The new edits make it entirely too broad, as the set of games with less rules than 3.5 in a fantasy setting is impossible to have a single best answer to. We have asked for the querent to improve their question, and when they do such that some answers can be deemed better than others without attracting the usual cohort of systems, I'll reopen.

For locking it, it locks down too many things, including comments, which would absolutely preclude it from being improved.

Answer 2

Because it is not yet a good game recommendation question. So every mod is going to close it, until it improves. Answers are not good, by definition, with a bad question.

See Are game recommendation questions on topic? and How to deal with questions that just don't understand the scope of the RPG landscape? to understand the game-rec question rules on the site. They exist so that game-recs will be allowed at all because the format is inherently problematic and is banned on most other SEs.

The sum total of the requirements in this question is "I’m looking for an RPG in a fantasy medieval setting that is light on rules, bookkeeping, character optimization, and system interactions, but with all the trappings of something like Pathfinder or D&D." And that's not sufficient. It describes pretty much every other D&D-like game of the last 10 (more, really) years besides 3.5e, Pathfinder, and 4e. Everyone's trotting out the same list of games for all the other questions like that, of which some have been closed and some have snuck by. Every OSR game, SW, FAE and every other FATE variant, DW, Mouse Guard, DCC, every other actual D&D version (Basic, 5e, 2e, 1e)...

And look at those games. Not very similar, are they? You have storygamey mechanics. You have old school mechanics. All because the question author isn't explaining what he really wants out of the game experience (besides "not D&D"). It's not sufficient and so it's not a good question, so it will be closed by mods till it is.

Does he want something better for short form or long form? Strong storygame elements and narrative mechanics or lighter sim mechanics? The original question mentioning Maid was very interesting, because Maid is a significantly different game experience than the storygames, it's more like Icons/Paranoia in terms of rules content and intent. Maybe even Numenera. It's not at all like DW or 13th Age.

Game-recs are not here to be a popularity contest. The more broad they are to where everyone just lists all the usual suspects and everyone votes on them so you can see "people love FATE!" - the worse they are. They must be tightly scoped to where you know what you want, and others can help you get exactly what you want.

Answer 3

I've done my best to address these concerns in a recent edit of the question by adding a new list of criteria. They include:

• Rules that are not strict
  
  • A strong focus on the narrative built between GM and player
  • Reduced dice rolling. Preferably only requiring a single type of die or type of check to perform actions.
  • Fantasy creatures, including particularly elves and dwarves, and if possible bird-like humanoids (Tengu).
  • Combat being possible, with resolutions met by dice-based challenges. Preferably with a single die roll.
  • Simple character generation, randomized if possible, with character generation options that allow for different races, backgrounds and skill sets, but not with a mandatory background for characters.
  • Character sheets should not take up more than a single page to write a sheet even if 'maxed-out' on levels (if levels even exist in said system).
  • Simple NPC generation in particular, to ease the burden on the DM.
  • Flexible encounters, so that fights and diplomacy use the same rules to resolve.

Note: Because I've been asked, I'm attempting to narrow this down even further. This is the most recent set of criteria I've made

If this is insufficient, please let me know and I can try to further narrow down my question. Some of these elements are taken from the Maid RPG, but I wanted to avoid a direct connection to that game because I felt like it was making it too confusing for people who were unfamiliar with the system, or who were trying to figure out what aspects of the system I was referring to. Hopefully this is a more clear-cut set of criteria.

Answer 4

Here’s my suggestion for rewriting the end of Zibbobz’s question based on the feedback I’ve seen so far. My hope is that this both represents Zibbobz’s needs well and is sufficiently specific to request game recommendations.

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I’m looking for an RPG with a fantasy medieval setting that is extremely simple, has a unified conflict resolution mechanic (diplomacy is only fighting by another name), doesn’t really worry about bookkeeping and number-crunching, and has most of the thematic trappings of D&D’s high fantasy settings.

Flexible, narrative-friendly rules: I want rules that help me resolve conflicts, but can be ignored and let the group tell the story they want. I want all conflicts to use the same resolution mechanism which can scale by the conflict’s importance, regardless of whether it’s for combat, diplomacy, exploration, crafting, or whatever. I would like to resolve simple, unimportant conflicts with one die roll and move on, but have the option of more complex resolution for important conflicts and competitions between players.

Minimal bookkeeping and number-crunching: I’d like it if the players and GM could jump into play quickly, with minimal prep-work and fuss over characters. I would like the option of different races, backgrounds, and skill sets, but character generation should be simple and streamlined, especially for the GM. Quick, randomized character generation should be possible. Even the most complex character sheets should easily fit on a single sheet of paper, and reference tables should be kept to a minimum too – it’s not the end of the world if we miss a modifier or two. Encounter design should be simple and make fighting or diplomacy equally viable.

Medieval fantasy elements: The game should include a medieval European fantasy setting. I’m specifically interested in elves, dwarves, and bird people (tengu in D&D). Minimal prep-work is important here – I don’t want to invest a lot in adapting the RPG to fantasy or converting D&D material to the other game. Otherwise, I’d just adapt a game that I already like (e.g., Maid RPG) that satisfies the other requirements.