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The tag has no usage guidance or tag wiki, but it's currently being used on 11 questions about a variety of systems:

  • 4 of them are tagged as being about Fate Core
  • 1 is tagged for Fate and the Dresden Files RPG
  • 1 is generically tagged as science fiction and GM techniques
  • 1 is tagged as Shadowrun 5th edition
  • 1 is more broadly tagged as Shadowrun
  • 1 is tagged as D&D 3.5e
  • and 2 are tagged as Pathfinder

"Teamwork" seems to be the name of a specific concept in Fate, and the name of a feat in Pathfinder. However, these are different things, and the term "teamwork" is also generic enough that it's getting used to refer to working with other players or characters in any capacity.

Two other tags that relate to inter-party dynamics and working with other characters are , whose tag wiki says it refers to:

mechanics whereby one character can help (aid, assist) another and grant the recipient some sort of mechanical benefit

...and , whose usage guidance says it's for:

questions about composition or interplay of a character party in-game

The tag seems to be getting used interchangeably with both of these concepts.

How is the tag meant to be used, and how is it different from and ?

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2 Answers 2

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The tag was originally created by me for Fate Core questions about using its teamwork mechanic. The mechanic was called teamwork, so I tagged them [teamwork].

Shadowrun also appears to have a mechanic called teamwork tests, which one of those Shadowrun questions (Teamwork on matrix actions) is asking about using. The other (I'm the Teamleader (not GM) and one of my Team members is a total jerk) is just asking about people generally working together as a team.

It should not really also describe "people working together as a team" in the general sense.

Given the number of things the word can mean, I would be comfortable making this a namespaced tag: , , .

how is it different from and ?

The Fate and Shadowrun mechanics both seem to be in the vicinity of "give mechanical benefit to allies". Helping seems to get used to refer to Aid Another or Help actions in Pathfinder and D&D 5e respectively. They seem to all be in roughly the same mechanical area.

No real relation to [party] except that the tag has been adopted to also mean "working together in a party" sometimes.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for clarifying! I'd agree with making those namespaced tags as well if they're going to remain. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Aug 13, 2018 at 0:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ Probably shouldn't just use a naked term like "teamwork" to mean this. "Teamwork-mechanics" or "teamwork-mech" would probably be less prone to misuse as the literal meaning. \$\endgroup\$
    – The Nate
    Oct 13, 2018 at 17:48
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If the tag is meant to be system-specific, then its usage guide and tag wiki should state it. For example, based on the format from :

For questions about the Teamwork mechanic in Fate Core. For questions about generally working together with a team instead, use the [party] or [helping] tags.

Without a usage guide, I'm not surprised people tagging their own questions would find it and use it assuming it's intended in the general sense of the word.

Note that this is only a reasonable solution if we don't want tags for the other systems with mechanics named "teamwork". Since those only have 1 question each I think it's reasonable to not include them, but separating them into more explicitly system-specific tags is also valid, in which case each tag should be named appropriately as in doppelgreener's answer.

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