Q: What's the purpose of the RPGDL?

A: The RPGDL was created in order to pit RPG characters against each other, and to determine who wins based on battle prowess. It was inspired by the RPGP (RPG Playoffs), a similar tournament run several years ago.

Questions about Helping the RPGDL or Joining the Community

Q: Is there a way I can become more involved with either the community or the workings of the site?

A: The forum is an excellent place to visit if you are interested in mingling with the makers of the site, or if you even want to help. We have several fun board tournaments, stat topics to help refresh your memory on the workings of nearly all ranked RPGs, discussions on rankings, and a thriving social board. New forum members are always welcome.

Q: What are found in the main subsections of the board?

A: The four main subsections are: the DL Discussion board, the Policy Board, the Stat Topics, and the Tournament Forum.

• The DL Discussion Board is where we discuss current DL matches, and it's also where ranking takes places. Bonus match ideas and assorted DL trivia can also be found here.
• The Policy Board is where we discuss issues regarding site maintenance, the directions in which we want to take rankings, and some theorizing about how convert odd features of games into a more friendly DL views.
• The Stats Forum is a collection of all the notes we've gathered on what duelers can do. This includes many ranked and unranked games, and many board members use this to remind themselves about the full abilities of the duelers.
• The Tournament Board is where members can run their very own side tournaments. This includes team tournaments, a variety of fun ranking tournaments, or tournaments deciding the best character, villain, or music.

Q: Why is X so highly rated? Why don't we rank on site?

A: Ratings are determined democratically on the forum. Any forum member is free to vote, so ratings are the averages of the scores of the forum members.

For ranking on site: we don't do it because ranking is a very important process in DL maintenance, and the ability to rank anonymously might lead to people to unfairly skew their votes. Additionally, people might choose to rank a game that they haven't played if it was done anonymously. However, anyone is free to participate in the ranking process in the Forums.

Q: I can't seem to find the Terms of Service for the forums. Where are they?

A: We don't have strict rules (generally just be courteous to people and you'll be fine) but the rough guidelines we've agreed to can be found in the Announcements board.

Q: I have an idea/improvement to the design/piece of writing/way this site could be better. Will you use it?

A: Quite possibly; post it on the forums or contact us on IRC. The RPGDL is run democratically and anybody can join in.

Q: I've heard talk of IRC chats on the board. What is that, and can I get involved?

A: IRC is a chat client that the DL uses to host chats. These chats go on 24 hours a day, although the level of activity varies depending on the time of the day (or the day, really). We also roll up new seasons and have fun RPG-based dueling games on the chats. These chats are open to anyone who wants to participate. Check the stickied IRC help topic in the General Chat section of the forums, or PM our resident IRC guru Halbarad to get help setting up the program.
If you have an IRC client (such as mIRC or XChat installed, you can try this link to get connected.

Questions about Rules for Voting

Q: Are there any rules for voting?

A: There are, but they're pretty simple:

1. This is about who you think would win in a fight, not who you like more.
2. Focus on abilities characters demonstrate within actual battles, and not within the plot - e.g. Phantasy Star 1's Odin is a "Legendary Warrior" but easily the weakest character of his cast in-battle.
3. Attack animations are just there to look pretty; sure, Sephiroth can blow up the Sun multiple times a battle, but that's not even enough to kill the ragtag gang of humans he fights. FFT's Olan has Galaxy Stop, which looks like it stops the universe, but in reality "Shadow Stitch" from the Assassins is better in a duel, despite being much less flashy.
4. Please don't vote unless you have seen the battle abilities of the both characters participating in a duel. If you haven't played one of the games, or you can't remember one of the characters, then don't vote. Even if you know one character is really strong, it can happen that the opponent is stronger.
5. "Uniqueness": Focus on what stands out about a character.
   Just consider how easy the item/ability/spell is to get (from storebought at a reasonable price, to stupidly impossible random drop) and compare that to what percentage of characters can use it - e.g. Cloud in FF7 can use the Ultima Weapon, only Yuri in Shadow Hearts can use his transforms, and only Yumei from Valkyrie Profile starts with Frigid Damsel etc. These should definitely be considered in their battles.
   On the other hand, everyone from FFT can use a Reflect ring, and everyone from FF7 can use Knights of the Round, and everyone from BoFV can halve all damage and block all statuses. These probably should not be considered.
   In between there's a gray area. Most, but not all people allow Terra and Celes from FF6 to use the Minerva since it's a semi-unique equip.
6. Don't take the above rules too literally. Use your own judgment. Some people are more lenient on status protection accessories, even though those aren't necessarily unique. Some people allow FF7 characters to get their limit earlier or VP characters to build up PWSes over several turns. Some people allow semi-unique magic, like certain basic spells in FF1. The views are vastly different from person to person, and that's also part of the DL experience.
7. Have Fun!!!
   This is by far the most important rule. Follow it to the letter!

Questions about the history of the DL and other voting sites

Q: What were the origins of the RPGDL?

A: The DL got much of its inspiration from Bobbin Cranbud and his old RPGP site. This was an old RPG voting site, and many of our members met on his forum. He closed after running the site for 23 seasons, but we like to think that we carry on the torch.

Q: Are there any other similar voting sites?

A: There have been several others over the course of the years, but the only other one that is currently active is the RPGTL, which allows participants to sponsor a character.