Are puzzle suggestions on topic?

Question

I've looked at the Help Center but I am still unsure about this one:

Is a question that asks for suggestions on puzzles of a specific kind on topic here?

As an example, the question I have in mind is:

For a game theory class I am prepping, I am looking for mathematical puzzles that can be presented as one-shot 2-players simultaneous games in which one of the players has a dominant strategy. The puzzle is to find the dominant strategy.

Note: If I was actually asking the question on the Puzzling's main site, I would be more precise about what "one-shot 2-players simultaneous games" and "dominant strategies" are.

My goal is to interactively illustrate how "games are not equal in the face of dominant strategies": Although standard game theory predicts that players will play dominant strategies when they have one, dominant strategies can be more or less easy to identify in different games, which may lead players to play dominant strategies more often in some games than others.

If questions like the one above are not on topic here, which other SE would be most appropriate (Math, Econ,...)?

Answer 1

Stack Exchange in general takes the approach that questions should be of the type for which a definitive best answer can be given. This means that on almost every site, this one included, "list questions" are off topic - these are questions that look for a list of something, be it places to find something, or shopping recommendations, or suggestions for what to try or use or buy or play or whatever: no relevant answer is demonstrably better or more useful than any other, so the question just ends up collecting a list of alternatives that are all suitable answers.

The question it sounds like you're wanting to ask feels like it'd end up being a list question. If you have a starting point and are looking for help in how to flesh out specific ideas into a workable complete puzzle, that would be more likely to be appropriate and to be able to be answered here.

If you just want to ask "I want puzzles that work roughly like <some explanation here>", that's not really going to work. Similarly, "Where can I find puzzles like <this one>" is technically off-topic as well, unless it's a very specific type of puzzle with very limited source(s).

If you have an example of something you like, asking "What kind of puzzle is this?" or "Who made this, and do they have a website or books with more like it?" are on-topic questions.

Basically, the more specific your question, the more likely it will be (a) answerable and (b) on-topic.

Good luck with your class!

Answer 2

No need to ask; we have plenty of those!

Check the tags game, strategy, game-theory, nim and chess (among others, I'd believe). The first three tags should be self-explanatory, and in the latter tags there are many puzzles based on unusual variations of the rules there, so maybe they'd also count as "one-shot" for your purposes.

(I'm not really sure if the "simultaneous" qualifier applies to the last two, but the others will certainly have those, too. Rock-paper-scissors is probably a good search term, come to think of it.