I'm looking at building a Settlers of Catan board this year, but I'm not sure if asking questions about specifically constructing the board is on-topic here. Would someone please clarify whether or not a question such as this is considered on-topic on Board & Card Games?
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Maybe this is a good time to migrate my question to math.se– user1873Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 2:33
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2 Answers
Think of it this way: who do you want answers from?
- If you want answers from expert crafters, then perhaps the home improvement Stack Exchange is a better place to ask. (There isn't a Stack Exchange for carpentry, 3D printing, or papier-mache yet; if you want to ask a more specialized/skilled group, find a forum that caters to the type of work you want to do.)
- This would be for questions about the proper way to join, sand, stain, debug your 3D printing script, or whatever else goes into the construction of a board.
- If you want answers from expert board gamers, ask here!
- This would be marvelous for figuring out a good design for your board, or working out what additional features you want to add to the board.
If you ask the B&CG Stack Exchange about how to do a seamless join, most of us are incapable of giving that answer; we just don't have the expertise. (There are exceptions among us, but the vast majority of the members here can't help with carpentry. There's a reason that this question about computational complexity doesn't have a good answer yet, even though there's a board game in the question.)
So, what kind of questions do you want to ask? Can people who are expert at playing board games help you?
(Also, what kind of construction are you doing? A bunch of us make our own board games from plastic, cardboard, playing cards, and/or custom printing, both professional and otherwise. I made the brash assumption that you were doing high-skill construction, such as carpentry.)
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Good points; if I understand you correctly, you mention 'figuring out a good design for your board' in terms of how to improve the game itself and how that's B&CG's cup of tea (and not "which color looks better for the ocean: light blue or royal blue"). Is that correct? Commented Jan 16, 2014 at 23:19
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Yes. A question about what color to use isn't answerable definitively. When you're asking questions, try to couch them so they have "real" answers: not "what should I add to the board", but "I hate the X board, for Y reasons. What can I add/change/spindle/fold/mutilate to fix Y?" Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 0:41
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I'd add that simultaneous cross-posting is probably not good, but if you ask a question and don't get any good answers after a few days or a week, try another related Stack Exchange. Commented Jan 18, 2014 at 2:40
Yes, board construction (and board game design and implementation in general) is on-topic, but the usual rules apply (answerable, not opinion-based, not bad subjective, etc.). See for example
- Specific standard measurements and info necessary for making a standard Shogi set (board and koma) (this one is about building a board)
- What is a good way to make Water Effects in Terrain? (constructing terrain for tabletop wargames)
- Where to buy or how to cut blank hexes for own game prototype?