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I came across We can rebuild him… this morning, and honestly it doesn't seem like a good question. There's more back and forth on the page clarifying the intent, and the highest voted answer is saying "This isn't a valid question".

Should we allow "Build the character questions"? What about more tightly scoped questions like Effective Light Armor Fighter?

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I think that

So the way to handle it, I think, is by voting it down.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I agree, it's a bad question, too broad and subjective. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Dec 1, 2010 at 17:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think the separation of "questionness" and "appropriateness" is important... "We Can Rebuild Him" is appropriate, but is not a good question \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Withers
    Dec 1, 2010 at 21:58
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SimonWithers "appropriate" doesn't really mean anything. There are a short list of reasons to close on SEs. "off topic" is one (which may be what you mean by appropriate), "not a real question" and "subjective and argumentative" are two others, both of which "We Can Rebuild Him" falls afoul of IMO. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Dec 1, 2010 at 23:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @mxyzplk Makes sense. I was thinking of appropriateness as being something like the combination of topic, tone and expected tone of responses, so appropriate would be "on topic and non-argumentative" \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Withers
    Dec 2, 2010 at 2:45
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I don't think the lack of answers is really a valid thing to hold against the question. Most of the other SR4 questions have a low answer count at the moment (probably due to low population of SR4 players), and character tweaking requires quite a lot of effort.

In the general case, "How do I create a character that..." seems like a pretty straight forward question. It's the kind of question where there are many possible answers, but the answers can be judged against one another and upheld with experience.

"How do I create the best character given..." is a little fuzzier, in that it isn't something that people should actually use. It has some value to game designers and game masters, but players abusing that sort of information could hurt themselves. Still, answers can be judged against one another and backed up by rules citations and personal experience.

I guess my take on it is that I don't mind seeing them from time to time, but I'd be annoyed if I saw a lot of them.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The question in question asks for the best character, and for a very wide range of criteria. I'm not sure that's the same thing as asking "How do I create a character that..." \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Ross
    Dec 1, 2010 at 14:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ @C.Ross That question falls under the heading "How do I create the best character given..." in the third paragraph of my answer. Like I said, it's fuzzier than "How do I create a character that...". \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Dec 1, 2010 at 15:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/2682/… is a decent example of a "how do I build a character that..." question \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Withers
    Dec 1, 2010 at 21:57

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