User:Ion frigate/Guide to writing guides

The goal of this is to provide exactly that, a guide to writing guides. Specifically, I'm going to start with a list of things to avoid when writing guides:

• Overspecificity: I cannot stress this enough, this is the single largest problem with most guides. First-time guide writers often write from experience, that is, they ascend a specific character, and, based on that game, write a guide. The problem is, the next person is not only going to be subject to different whims of the RNG, they're also going to have a slightly different style. If a guide is too specific, they may just dismiss it as useless. Some things to avoid:
  • Specifying exact skill levels: There are no magic numbers when it comes to how far you should train skills. Moreover, it is important to remember that skills do not directly affect your survival. It's not your Dodging skill that saves your butt, it's your EV. It isn't how much Unarmed you have, it's how quickly you can kill that stone giant.
    • So instead of specifying skill levels, specify goals: Do you want to have Haste at a comfortable success rate? Do you want to be able to cast Mephitic Cloud at a reasonable power? Do you want to be able to Confuse orc warriors? Then, give a ballpark figure of how much skill you need to get to that goal. The point is, throwing opaque numbers at people will make their eyes glaze over and quite possibly make them stop reading your guide. Giving a reason for the numbers will engage them.
  • Specifying exact numbers in general: The wording of the above examples is intentional. Do not tell players they need to have Haste at a 3% fail rate, or a <1% fail rate. How much "chanciness" a player is willing to risk is purely a matter of style. Getting a feel for how much risk you can take before dying is an acquired skill, but it is not acquired by being given exact numbers. Moreover, giving exact numbers isn't going to help a player who can't judge the worthiness of risks: there will arise situations that your guide doesn't account for. This leads to the next point:
  • Trying to account for every situation: By all means, try to make your guide account for common situations (the ring of vault guards on Vaults:8, for example). But don't try to include everything. Try to generalize situations. Don't tell a player how to handle a D:10 dragon, tell them how to handle scary monsters in general. In general, unless a specific situation is guaranteed to occur (like the aforementioned vault guards), try to generalize it.
  • Giving advice that's dependent on getting something from the RNG: A guide to how to build a spellcaster that has a staff of channeling in the early game is all well and good, but completely inapplicable to most players. A variant of this is seen in guides that claim the player "needs" a certain item/resistance for a certain area. For newer players, this may be true (i.e., doing Snake/Spider without rPois requires a lot of skill), but it is easy to overstate the necessity. Just because there are can be titans on Vaults:8 doesn't mean you can't do the area without rElec; you don't need rF+++ to deal with orbs of fire - rF++ is enough, and you can get by with rF+.