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$\begingroup$

But first... required reading, a question asked two days into private beta.

We have come a long way since then and I think that we need to have a serious talk about what really means. Because when we first created this tag, we had it was intended to say "Magic be here, begone with your science and your logic, for we are wizards and we tell the universe what to do.". This was eventually followed up with a large number of discussion about magic and technology, soft science fiction (space-fantasy) vs hard sci fi and various other nebulous things.

What is important to take away from this is that became that tag. has become a mess. It is too broad and doesn't actually add anything to any of the questions I've looked at. The tag description itself defines fantasy as fantasy..

Fantasy is a genre of stories that involves things that aren't normal in this world. These can be anything from strange creatures to magic to other worlds. In fact, all of these things are common in fantasy stories.

I've been through the fantasy-based questions by votes. Below are the ones with 10 votes or above and my first attempt at explaining why I don't think we need this tag.

I think its time to burninate because it is too broad and being applied with no real rhyme or reason and we have outgrown it, what do you guys think?


Seems like they wanted to use science based, question not about fantasy.

How do centaurs get enough calories to live?
Hammer-proof armor
Can you simply scale up animals?
A more powerful bow
Consistency of Giant Spider Webs

Calls for reality check - one of these is about an alternative building material, the other is about how a "small group" defeated a large groups, and actually used historical examples

How could a group of 6 people destroy an army?
Would it be possible to smelt and craft things from salt

Adds nothing about equipment, not fantasy

What would be favoured weapons and weapon styles of a four-armed human?
How do I encourage fully armored knights to carry a shield

Discuss supernatural creatures or abilities or events. Mythical-creatures tag is more specific for these, as its tag description is about non-existant creatures

How effective would Dragon-Dragoons be?
How to Defeat a Precognitive Warrior?
What happens if the sun disappears and then reappears some days later?
What would a sentient, intelligent, but very small bird use as a ranged weapon against human or larger armored targets?
Burning down a mountain

The impact of magic on one aspect of the world, magic tag

What are the societal effects of an easily available resurrection service?
Would we see cannons in a magic-using society?
What would poverty be like if there was an infinite supply of food?
Why would you build underground defensive structures in an an alternate world medieval europe?
Solving the difficulties of a world based on harmonics

alternative world (we have a tag for that)

Unsettled continent

society - more about alternative populations or rule of government (and now we have a feudalism tag)

How to promote nationalism for a multi-racial kingdom, against other such multi-racial kingdoms
How would I limit Feudalism?

Actually about fantasy.. and fantasy-based is can be removed with no loss

Why would a magic world be stuck in medieval times?

creature-design, we have this tag

Pack animals for forests
How to make a realistic 'giant'
Negating the negative effects of childbearing

$\endgroup$
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    $\begingroup$ I'm inclined to agree, I don't think this tag adds anything meaningful. $\endgroup$
    – Tim B
    Commented Mar 1, 2015 at 14:42
  • $\begingroup$ The centaur and 4-armed-people questions might be creature-design, too. And the sentient bird with arms. Basically, questions asking "how can I make such-and-such creature have thus-and-such ability" seem to be design. But that's fine-tuning; I agree with the broad idea and most of your suggestions, and thank you very much for doing the work of digging through ~80 questions to make recommendations! $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 1:20
  • $\begingroup$ Well. only a little over 25. I decided I would go mad if I had to look through them all. So, burn it then? $\endgroup$
    – Mourdos
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 2:10
  • $\begingroup$ You have my vote too. $\endgroup$
    – Linkyu
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 10:09
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I would think that fantasy-based means you expect logical answers to illogical or hand-wavey premises, basically avoiding people telling you it wouldn't happen. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 3, 2015 at 19:58
  • $\begingroup$ How do we actually burn it, mods, or go through and remove the tag from each question? $\endgroup$
    – Mourdos
    Commented Mar 3, 2015 at 22:35
  • $\begingroup$ As a person guilty of more than one of the above questions, I guess I have to agree. I seem to have misunderstood what the tag really stood for, and simply applied it as long as it was for a fantasy setting. Maybe we could adjust its scope? $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 7, 2015 at 3:06
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @FeaurieVladskovitz The problem is that "fantasy setting" is a really broad meta-ish tag $\endgroup$
    – Mourdos
    Commented Mar 7, 2015 at 21:36
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Done $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868 Mod
    Commented Mar 30, 2015 at 21:45

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