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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7628736" data-attributes="member: 4937">The thing is, a rules lawyer as we've defined the term goes hand and hand with cheating.If you don't cheat, and you don't consider arguing with the DM part of the resolution process of the game, then you are not a Rules Lawyer.The term for someone who exploits the rules but is not cheaty about it is an Optimizer.And Optimizers are OK.  I mean, they make great play testers, I'll give them that.  They will find the points in your rules where you've left loopholes, exploits, and so forth.  And if they are actually pretty good at it, what they give you is some amount of insurance against a TPK, because they can often win through even bad luck.   And I expect all players to do at least some sort of optimization, because it's not fair to deliberately play a weak link in the team.However, it's a short step from Optimizer to Rules Lawyer, and that step is simply this: you decide that your rules interpretation of some ambiguous language has precedence over the DM's interpretation, and that the DM is just trying to screw you over.   That decision tends to mean that you are springing on the DM your loophole with the expectation of validation, or else playing under your own rulings without confirmation by the DM.  And both of those things get pretty 'cheaty', and examples of that have been discussed in this thread.And the problem that I have with your profession is that if you just told me that you were basically an Optimizer, I would assume that you were the sort of person who wouldn't blow things out of proportion and if the DM didn't agree with you over some matter you'd take it in stride.   But you've also told me you are a Drama Queen, so essentially what you are telling everyone on these boards is that you are a dysfunctional person who blows small things out of proportion.It's hard to understand hos you consider that statement anything but a profession of weakness and guilt, to be accompanied by a litany of "mi culpa, mia maxima culpa".UPDATE: There has been a quibble about my language.  If you don't like the word 'Optimizer', feel free to substitute the term of art 'Power Gamer' in the above discussion.  For my purposes, the argument remains the same.</blockquote>

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