70
votes
Accepted
What's a frame challenge?
A frame challenge is where an author answers a question in a wholly different way the querent never asked for, or potentially expressly forbade, but in a way the author feels will actually solve the ...
- 36.6k
54
votes
Accepted
Should users refrain from answers (or partial answers) in comments?
You should not answer in comments.
Not partial answers, not full answers. Not "leads on" an answer. Not "I would answer but I'm tired/just woke up/am drunk so I'll just say this...&...
- 176k
44
votes
How can I ask a good homebrew review question?
1. State what you want to achieve, and why you want a review.
In order to give you feedback on whether your material is functioning well at its purpose, we need to know what that purpose is. Please ...
38
votes
Accepted
Does "Ask the DM / GM" equate to "Primarily opinion based?"
They're not the same
This is a common equivalence that I've seen applied too, but it's a false equivalence. The idea seems to be that every GM could rule differently, so the answer is as diverse as ...
- 244k
36
votes
Accepted
I've been told my question is better suited to a forum, but where should I go?
General RPG discussion forums
Roleplaying Games SE's main chat room
It's not actually a forum, but can sometimes be useful for questions that need quick back-and-forth discussion to sort out.
Pros:
...
34
votes
Should users refrain from answers (or partial answers) in comments?
I'll step in and provide some background here -- the reason why you see things that resemble "partial answers" in other Stacks is because troubleshooting is an iterative process. "Try turning it off ...
- 11.1k
31
votes
What are the citation expectations of answers on RPG Stack Exchange?
Stack Exchange is a rigorous Q&A community with a mission to build up a reliable knowledge base for future readers. It's sort of like Wikipedia in that regard. To accomplish this mission we need ...
30
votes
Accepted
If an answer to question A can be found in question B, should we close A as duplicate of B?
We close Question A as a duplicate of Question B only when all of the following is true:
It's the same question, or Question A is already covered obviously as a subset of Question B. “Obvious” here ...
- 36.6k
29
votes
Accepted
Is there a style guide for posts?
We don't have a local style guide because we don’t have a house style to encourage.
There are a few common practices that we inherit from a few different sources though, which are practical matters ...
- 244k
23
votes
Why are site comments being deleted?
In the interests of visibility, I'll say I'm (part of) the reason comments are being deleted.
In my year on the site I've flagged comments ~230 times for deletion. I'd estimate based on my "helpful" ...
- 102k
23
votes
Are questions about rule intent on-topic? [2022]
Designer Reasons questions are on-topic
Four years on from the initial ban, we’re somewhat tentatively opening the gates again. That means asking designer-reasons questions is allowed. The community ...
Someone_EvilMod
- 48.8k
21
votes
Eek! A troll in the Stack! What do I do?
You may have met a troll (intentional or not). Don't worry, the Stack's got you covered.
This is actually really easy: you do nothing. Nothing different to normal, that is. All the habits you've ...
- 102k
20
votes
Why is an answer being downvoted without any comments?
If someone hasn't explained their downvote, chances are there's nothing much helpful they can say, or their comment would be the kind that historically causes problems. Or, they just haven't gotten ...
- 36.6k
19
votes
Accepted
How should we use Community Wiki? [2016]
Community Wiki seems pointless.
After reading through the history of CW on RPG.SE, and the blog post about CW, it seems like there really isn't much use for Community Wiki here. The main arguments ...
- 48.9k
19
votes
Accepted
What should I do when a question does not specify the game system being used?
The “Don’t Guess the System” policy was repealed under the platform “Let experts make expert decisions”, and what we want to do here is put to paper some of the ways an expert can identify the system ...
- 153k
18
votes
Why are site comments being deleted?
A tidy site is safer from trolls
Another, way less obvious reason to ruthlessly remove comments used for anything other than managing Q&A posts: innocent but chatty comments would provide “weeds” ...
- 244k
18
votes
Accepted
When a Question Changes Completely, Should it be a New Question?
Yes
Questions can be clarified, but new questions aren't clarifications and should be posted as separate, new questions.
The correct course of action is to revert to the last version that wasn't a ...
- 244k
17
votes
A question has some facts majorly wrong: should I be correcting them in comments or an answer?
I suggest the guideline of asking yourself this question: to what extent is correcting the errors itself solving the problem they're facing?
If you're substantially solving their problem by ...
- 36.6k
17
votes
Accepted
What is an "edit war" and is it ever appropriate?
What is an edit war?
Edit Warring is when two (or more) users disagree about something (generally whether something should have a specific edit) and uses their privileges to do and undo that edit ...
Someone_EvilMod
- 48.8k
12
votes
Accepted
Use real headers instead of fake headers
The fix
Fake headers are easily fixed. When you want to make a header, there are three ways to create one:
Click the Heading editor button:
Select the heading text and type ctrlh.
Manually type the ...
12
votes
How should we use Community Wiki? [2016]
I agree totally with DuckTapeAl's proposals. CW's just about pointless for questions and answers, shouldn't be used, and CW material should be held to the same standards as anything else. However, CW-...
- 36.6k
11
votes
How is the [system-agnostic] tag supposed to be used?
System-Agnostic: The System Tag Meaning "Not System-Specific"
The system-agnostic tag is for questions where the asker is looking for answers that are not tied deeply to a specific game ...
- 176k
9
votes
Why are site comments being deleted?
You, Dear Reader, are deleting many of the comments!
The last few years SE staff have provided us with Year in Moderation summary statistics. (Recall that "moderation" includes both elected ...
- 102k
9
votes
How is the [system-agnostic] tag supposed to be used?
I've been struggling with this one for a couple of years, personally, now. So I'm going to give it a go. (This answer, like mxy's, doesn't stand as a "mod-team answer"--it's just the answer ...
- 102k
8
votes
Is there a style guide for posts?
I'm going to come at this from a slightly different direction, addressing the writing style rather than the presentation style...
Answer the question quickly and obviously.
There's a lot that goes ...
- 102k
8
votes
Are "choose your own adventure" questions on topic?
CYOA books are at least nearly on topic, as solo RPGs are barely on-topic (example of solo RPG stuff I think we would want to be on-topic). Embarrassingly, Lone Wolf Game Books are explicitly on ...
- 67.8k
7
votes
How is the [system-agnostic] tag supposed to be used?
The tag facilitates finding questions/answers that aren't tied to a system.
Where the mods or the OP did not intend the question to be system dependent. It makes finding these easier instead of ...
- 34.5k
7
votes
Accepted
MathJax guide for RPG.SE: How to format pretty tables and equations?
Note that MathJax will make a page slower to load and can be jarring if there's a lot of inline equations (note that typeface and size is different). For superscript in normal text, say for footnotes, ...
Someone_EvilMod
- 48.8k
6
votes
Is there a functional purpose to putting things in code text here?
Code has just few valid aplications for RPG, it should not be used for others:
proper code in a programming language
by extent command code for a plugin/program/page such as anydice
pseudocode isn'...
- 45.6k
6
votes
Why is an answer being downvoted without any comments?
I know most of you will see this as a rant if I wrote it, so I would like to just offer some ideas and maybe you can craft a non-ranty addition to the existing answer:
RPG.SE has a community working ...
- 23.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible