39,327
edits
Loads and Loads of Rules: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (categories and general cleanup) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 5:
Games are made out of rules. A good game needs rules to define what players can and cannot do, and to reliably evaluate whether they have succeeded or failed.
This is not much of an issue if you are playing Solitaire, where the only action is moving cards, or [[Super Mario Bros.]], where the bulk of the game can be reduced to running and jumping. But if you are playing a [[Tabletop RPG]], or some other game where the players should have a great deal of freedom, you need to deal with all sorts of [[Combinatorial Explosion|unusual special cases]].
Clever game designers will [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|design a set of fundamental mechanics that are flexible enough to handle all sorts of unpredictable action]]. Naive and/or ambitious game designers will attempt to [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|construct a new rule for every possible case]]. Thus, even an apparently simplistic game system can develop [[Loads and Loads of Rules]].
Line 15:
== [[Card Games]] ==
* The ''card game'' named ''[[Munchkin (
** It says in the rules that "When the cards disagree with the rules, follow the cards. Any other disputes should be settled by loud arguments among the players, with the owner of the game having the last word", only adding to the chaos that is ''[[Munchkin (
* Any sufficiently long game of ''[[Mao]]'' will end up with this. The hilarious part of the game is that you're not allowed to be told what any of these rules are.
== [[Collectible Card Game|Collectible Card Games]] ==
* ''[[Magic:
** An older version of the Comprehensive Rules, when printed and bound in A4-sized paper, took well over 150 pages, [[Obvious Rule Patch|most of it being devoted to individual card errata and rulings.]]
** The Golden Rule of the game is: If a card says it can do something that's against the official rules, ''the card wins''. So, each individual card can be considered an addition to the rules. As of mid-2012, there are over eleven thousand cards.
Line 60:
*** One large exception is ''Panzer Grenadier''. The basic rulebook is something like 25 pages, with a few tables. It's actually possible to learn to play it without years of study.
*** A ''small'' exception is [[Steve Jackson]] Games's (long out of print) ''One Page Bulge'' - a decent, if not particularly deep, wargame whose rules are contained on a single 8.5"x11" sheet of paper. Many other SJG products from the time, along with its [[Spiritual Predecessor]] (sort of) Metagaming, and even a few TSR products (''They've Invaded Pleasantville'', ''Revolt on Antares'', and so on), are almost as simple.
** ''[[
* Likewise, ''[[Star Fleet Battles]]'' has a rulebook larger than the Manhattan phone directory once all its myriad expansions are added, and additional reference materials (a page for each individual ship) that take up several other large binders. A common joke among players: "Legal officer, please report to [[The Bridge]]."
** The combined rulebooks/expansions/supplements package is known collectively as "The Doomsday Edition."
Line 74:
* ''[[Warhammer]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' both have core rulebooks. These rulebooks do not contain any of the stats or rules for any of the actual armies - those have their own books. This means that there are, in essence, ''a dozen rulebooks'' for each game.
** That thing up there is the Imperator Titan datacard from ''Titan Legions''. There are actually ''more'' rules than will fit on there, along with a whole set of counters and STOP RUNNING AWAY YOU COWARD
** The best way to describe [[Warhammer
* ''[[Phoenix Command]]''. The game used real ballistics tables for calculating damage. Its hit location table had ''twelve tables inside of it''. This was apparently deliberate; the creators didn't want to compromise on realism.
* ''[[Arkham Horror]]''. The game is about wandering around a city, investigating, and hopefully defeating the servants of an [[Eldritch Abomination]]. During the game you can fight monsters, cast spells, go crazy, go shopping, get lost between dimensions, [[Running Gag|go crazy]], join the police, watch the stores close as people leave town, and [[Rule of Three|go crazy]] before being eaten by an alien super-being. The expansions add more rules to the game to boot, including adding a [[The Dragon|Dragon]] to work against you or allowing for [[Deal
* The board game ''Cosmic Encounters'' has so many rule variants that it is possible to play it a dozen times or more and never play the same game twice.
* German tabletop RPG ''[[The Dark Eye]].'' Let's see - as of the latest edition, you have the core rulebook (which becomes rather unnecessary once you get to the other ones), the character creation book, the book on skill use and combat maneuvers, the book on magic of all kinds (except for magic items), and the book on divine powers. All of these books are massive - the one on magic clocks in at over 400 pages -, and we haven't even gotten started on the incredibly in-depth descriptions of the setting (fifteen books on different regions of Aventuria, anyone?).
Line 85:
* [[Civilization]] provides an in-game spreadsheet to help you keep track of the various statistics on your cities. If you want to understand how those statistics will change in some number of turns, you'll need to make your own spreadsheet.
** Alpha Centauri is along the same lines, and includes a bunch of other complicated rules like Nerve Stapling and terraforming commands like Boreholes.
** ''[[
** Dominions 3's rulebook doesn't even include stats for the units, and still clocks in at 300 pages, half of which is a compact listing of the game's spells.
*** In reality though, a massive amount of those spells are summons, stats included. The independent unit stats are listed too.
Line 97:
== Miscellaneous ==
* Nomic often winds up this way. Depending on the rules about rule numbers, it can look even worse than it really is; [http://www.agoranomic.org/ Agora Nomic] has rule numbers well into the 2000s, but due to repealing old rules when the players get tired of them, the total number of rules at any one time tends to hover around 150 or so.
* [[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
** But not between 7AM and 7:45AM on Sunday, otherwise you'll violate Montgomery's Principle and up in Nidd, putting you off the line until a diagonal switch becomes available.
*** Unless it's Easter.
| |||