Rules lawyer

A rules lawyer is a player in a game who for whatever reason attempts to use an often encyclopedic knowledge of the rules of a subject to gain an advantage, to annoy or to ingratiate himself with other players, to amuse themselves in a round of banter with others, or to test a rule's solidity. [cite book|last=Fine|first=Gary Alan|authorlink=Gary Alan Fine|title=Shared Fantasy|publisher=University of Chicago Press|date=1983 [2002] |pages=109-113|isbn=0226249441] Often this term is used pejoratively, as the "rules lawyer" is seen as an impediment to moving the game forward. [cite book|last=Kaufman |first=Daniel|coauthors=Kestrel, Gwendolyn F. M.; Selinker, Mike; Williams, Skip |title=Book of Challenges: Dungeon Rooms, Puzzles, and Traps|publisher=Wizards of the Coast|date=2002|pages=123|isbn=9780786926572] The use is most common in wargaming and role playing games.cite journal|last=Beattie|first=Scott|date=2007|title=Voicing the Shadow: Rule-playing and Roleplaying in Wraith: The Oblivion|journal=Law, Culture and the Humanities|volume=3|issue=3|pages=477-492|issn=1743-9752|accessdate=2008-09-19] The term may have originated in military service, with (in the Navy) [cite book|last=Garner|first=Bryan A.|title=A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1995|pages=512|isbn=9780195142365] and "barracks lawyer" in the United States Army. [cite book|last=Herbert|first=Don|title=63 Days and a Wake-Up: Your Survival Guide to United States Army Basic Combat Training|publisher=Basic Training Book|date=2007|pages=82|isbn=9780595425112] Nevertheless, the habit of players to argue in a legal fashion over rule implementation was noted early on in the history of Dungeons and Dragons. [cite journal|last=Swanson|first=Mark|date=January, 1979|title=Trapped Four Years in the Gilded Hole|journal=Different Worlds|issue=1|pages=15-17] [cite web|url=http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/20/|title= A Hard Look at Dungeons and Dragons|last=Edwards|first=Ron|authorlink=Ron Edwards|work=The Forge|accessdate=2008-09-19]

See also

* Gaming the system
* Letter and spirit of the law
* Playing nomic

References

External links

* — Loke advocates Games Masters using rules lawyers to their advantage, by turning the other players against them.
* — a description of two “rules-lawyer traps": always insisting upon following the rules and believing that there should always be a rule to cover every situation
* — which lists the rules lawyer's two weapons as “an onslaught of evidence, textual readings, precedent, and reasoning” and the “dreaded filibuster”.