In praise of the rules lawyer

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't know if I am one or not, but I'll admit it's possible. However, if I am one, I tend to restrain myself for the most part- the only times I really get into it is when I think it matters. That means I'm either trying to help out a fellow player or trying to get a DM to make the right adjudication: mainly, it's about finding the right page for reference or keeping things consistent (with other, prior rulings or with a mechanic's or setting's internal logic).

To that end, I've been the one who rattles off the page number for TWF rules in 3Ed or 3.5Ed when someone else is looking for it, or correcting another player on how his 4Ed Fighter's Mark worked (he was underutilizing it and thought it sucked).

I don't think I've been involved in more than a handful of major rules debates at the table in 33 years, though.

 

[Wiseblood]

I have a rules lawer. He happens to actually be a lawyer. I would put him in the category of rules expert because he does not argue. Once the DM has spoken he moves on. His actual talent is his ability to frame an argument so that his point seems to be the most logical and satisfactory.

It's frickin' magic like some sort of diplomacy ray. I catch myself nodding stupidly. The moment he leaves it's like the magic wears off and I'm like...HEY!

 

[El Mahdi]

...It's frickin' magic like some sort of diplomacy ray. I catch myself nodding stupidly. The moment he leaves it's like the magic wears off and I'm like...HEY!

I have this problem myself sometimes. But it's usually less about an overwhelming Diplomacy skill, than it's a very underwhelming Wisdom score on my part...

 

[Diamond Cross]

Actually, yes.

I had a GM who didn't know the rules to many White Wolf games we played. The biggest probolem with the GM is that he feels that it's okay to take over a player's character and change that character into what he wants it to be. In other words, he has to have full control of the characters. Which to me is a bad thing and why I stopped gaming with him.

And, whenever somebody corrected him on a rule, he called them a rules lawyer and ignored them. Often, that player was right and really was just trying to be helpful.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Has anybody here ever found a rules lawyer to be helpful?

I am that rules lawyer. My group loves me, because I am fair and consistent in my rules-quibbling. I don't twist the rules to my or anyone else's advantage; they just are what they are.

 

[nedjer]

I am that rules lawyer. My group loves me, because I am fair and consistent in my rules-quibbling. I don't twist the rules to my or anyone else's advantage; they just are what they are.

Dear Vegepygmy I've used your avatar to make the voodoo doll for the top half of your body but I can't see your legs. Guess I'll just have to go with that.

This is because, in a TRPG the rules are not the rules; the so-called rules are guidelines. Treating RPG rules as rules is fantasy wargaming, which is bearly a hop and a skip away from dressing up as Napoleon and running an Austerlitz simulation

 

[karlindel]

If you define rules lawyer as only including the negative aspects, then you remove anything that could be praiseworthy. I consider a rules lawyer to be someone who knows the rules and the various interpretations thereof, and prefers for the rules to be used properly.

I am usually a rules expert, and think of myself as a rules lawyer. I sometimes need to actively work not to point out errors people are making, even if the errors don't really matter in the particular circumstances. If I am a player and I have an ability that is ambiguous, I will ask the GM how they interpret it before the question comes up, so that there won't be a discussion that will bog down the game.

I find a rules lawyer that know the rules can save time, as it is easier to ask how something works than it is to look it up in the books. Most GMs were gratified to have me at a table so that I could help them with rules questions so that they could focus on other aspects of the game.

 

[amerigoV]

Dear Vegepygmy I've used your avatar to make the voodoo doll for the top half of your body but I can't see your legs. Guess I'll just have to go with that.

This is because, in a TRPG the rules are not the rules; the so-called rules are guidelines. Treating RPG rules as rules is fantasy wargaming, which is bearly a hop and a skip away from dressing up as Napoleon and running an Austerlitz simulation

It all depends on the group. Some groups are pretty good at the "guidelines" and the GM knows the system well enough to deviate in a fair way. The other place a rules lawyer pops up is when the DM likes to "wing things", including how the system works. If the GM is too lazy to understand the system, I have no problem quoting line and verse to them.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This is because, in a TRPG the rules are not the rules; the so-called rules are guidelines. Treating RPG rules as rules is fantasy wargaming, which is bearly a hop and a skip away from dressing up as Napoleon and running an Austerlitz simulation

Nedjer, please!

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I'm a rules lawyer myself. Rather thankless "job," I have to say. Even when you're totally 100% right on caling the DM on a mistake, even when you call him on it politely, even when it's to the benefit of someone else in the party, I've gotten the evil eye. God forbid when I try to protect my own character's interests with the rules I thought we were using when I signed up for the game.