Obvious Rule Patch: Difference between revisions

** An even clearer example would be the times MTG has had to give cards errata; it is currently not their policy to reword a card for simply being too powerful, but there are quite a few cards that have different wordings due to rules changes, or interactions that literally break the game (as in, "create situations that the rules don't cover"). This was exacerbated with two major rules changes ('96 and '09). Other cards used to often be the subject of errata which prevent them operating the way the card text might imply them to, sometimes again even ''before the card is released'', although this has been phased out over time.

*** The old errata policy allowed cards to be errata'd for power reasons, but this has since been reverted. Overpowered cards are now banned. For example, [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=642 Time Vault] has been errata'd multiple times with various awkward wording to ensure there was ''no way'' to easily untap it and gain infinite [[Extra Turn|extra turns]]. The latest errata, while much simpler than even the original card, makes the card obviously broken in half (and banned almost everywhere).

*** Before [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=131 Time Walk] was released, it was phrased "Target opponent loses next turn", which itself needed to be rewritten after people started misinterpreting it as "[[Game Over]], you lose". (It's still massively overpowered though.)

** The standard Constructed Deck construction rules of today (at least 60 cards, no more than 4 copies of any non-basic card) are a major obvious rules patch. Originally, the only rule was a minimum of 20 cards per player in the game, theoretically allowing for decks that could win on the first turn nearly 100% of the time (assuming somebody willing to hunt down the requisite number of rare cards to make them work).

* This is common in logical puzzles placed in RPGs. You want perfect glue and indestructible rope and disintegration runes so that the players can figure out a clever solution to your logical puzzle - but you don't want them to use those items on anything ''[[Combinatorial Explosion|other]]'' than that puzzle. The cheap solution is to make them work only in a specific place, or on specific objects, or only once.

** In the most recent version of the [[Tomb of Horrors]], the scepter and crown of disintegration (put the crown on your head, touch one end of the scepter to it, you disintegrate) cannot be removed from the room they're in by any means (the description goes to [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|great lengths to cover any eventuality]]). Earlier versions of the Tomb had no such rule at all. The reason eventually emerged during a conversation on a message board: One of the artists working on an earlier copy of the module was invited to a session of the Tomb DMed by none other than [[Word of God|Gary Gygax himself.]] The artist took the scepter and crown from the room, then eventually placed the crown on the {{spoiler|fake skull}} of Acererak and touched the scepter to it, disintegrating the lich instantly. Gygax was stunned, as the eventuality had never occurred to him. The artist, on the other hand, [[Chekhov's Gun|thought that's what they were there for.]] The artist was quite surprised when he was later informed of the rule change.

** There are spells like Polymorph that are one paragraph of explaining what the spell does, and roughly eleven paragraphs of explaining what the spell cannot do.

** One of the most basic Obvious Rule Patch is the rule that bonuses of the same types don't stack - only the largest one takes effect (with the exception of dodge bonuses to AC in third edition). This has led to many rule patching to give untyped bonuses types so they couldn't be so easily stacked.

* In most ''D&D''-like games, you can't wear more than one or two magical items of a certain "slot" and benefit from all their powers. While it makes sense that you can't wear multiple pairs of, say, boots, there's no reason for the usual "two rings, one amulet" rule other than balance issues. This is usually justified with a contrived excuse that the magic items will interfere with each other. Even though you can often wear a helmet, armor, and a neck slot item, or gloves, bracers, possibly armor (which probably has gauntlets of some sort included), and a ring.

** In the Fourth Edition, shields count as taking up the magic items arms slot ''and'' a wielding-in-hand slot. It means you can't use bracers+shield or two shields and get the magical effects of both.

** The Quick Draw feat allows you to draw any item from your pack as a free action... except flasks of alchemist's fire or acid. You also cannot [[Back Stab|sneak attack]] with such items, unlike all other weapons. These changes were obviously put in place due to volleys of flasks being popular among 3.5e rogues as a means to fight enemies resistant to physical damage or vulnerable to fire.

* Construction rules in ''[[BattleTech]]'' often have restrictions that often seem arbitrary. For example, Protomechs (not-so [[Humongous Mecha]]) cannot mount Plasma Cannons. This seems to make no sense, as, being only three tons, they seem like perfect weapons to mount on one. Then you think about just how badly five Plasma Cannons would roast any given Battlemech in a single turn.

** There was also an instance where Battle Armor riding on an Omni Mech can be shot off of the 'mech by shots that land on the torso. Doesn't seem too bad, but given that there is no weight penalty for carrying Battle Armor, the [[Human Shield|Battle Armor were always the first to take hits]], and [[Mundane Utility|the 'mech's torso wouldn't begin to take damage until all the Battle Armor were shot off]]... it's understandable why the next rulebook created fixed locations for each Battle Armor.

** "Under no circumstances can any [necron] make more than one teleport move in a single turn... There are no exceptions to this, no matter how clever your logic."

** "Please note that it is ''not'' possible to master-craft grenades!" <ref>However, ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'' has an item (and ''Space Marine'' a Perk) that disagrees with that rather blatantly.</ref>

** Don't forget [[That One Boss|Absolute Virtue]], who is for all intents and purposes totally invincible due to his ability to use the most powerful abilities of every job, as well as cast high-level black magic that players don't even have access to instantaneously and frequently, wiping out alliances of players in seconds. Every time a method is discovered to defeat him, Square-Enix will immediately squash it by [[New Powers as the Plot Demands|giving Absolute Virtue new resistances and powers as his flaws were discovered]].

*** When players killed him by attacking him from areas he couldn't fight back, the developers gave him the ability to draw players to him if they got too far away.

*** A theoretical method of defeating him involved using the Scholar's Helix line of spells, which deal a fairly large amount of damage over time. The helix was placed on the enemy, and then a group of Scholars simultaneously use a job ability that doubles the damage dealt by the next tic of damage while halving its overall duration. The result is that most enemies in the game will drop dead immediately, although execution requires very precise timing (and, in most cases, botting). As soon as people discussed how it could be used to defeat Absolute Virtue, "certain notorious monsters" were given a resistance to the use of the JA. Guess who was at the top of the priority list?

* [[Pokémon]] had constant problems with the pokemon Wobbuffet. It's supposed to be a pokemon that cannot directly attack but is streamlined to take advantage of damage reflecting attacks, but instead of being forced to attack, an opponent can just simply switch out his current pokemon over and over until Wobbuffet runs out of PP. To prevent that, in Generation III Wobbuffet and its newly introduced pre-evolution Wynaut were both equipped with the Shadow Tag ability, which prevents the opponent from switching Pokémon in a battle against Wobbuffet/Wynaut until they were either recalled or knocked out or if the foe has some other trap-cancel ability that allows them to flee. Fair enough, except for in a competitive battle where both you and your opponents have Wobbuffet (or the much-less-common Wynaut) who are both equipped with Leftovers and facing each other. You can't fight back because Wobbuffet and Wynaut are only able to counter attacks, not dish them out. Their Shadow Tag abilities will also prevent either of them from switching out, and even if the two were to wear themselves down enough to use Struggle (the only move Wynaut/Wobbuffet knows that deals damage), Leftovers would cancel out what horrendously low damage their moves do, resulting in a draw by eliminating any chance that either of the two will faint. From Diamond and Pearl onwards, Shadow Tag was changed so that any Pokémon who has the Shadow Tag ability who is locked into battle with a foe who also has said ability can negate the effect and switch out without problems. Also, Struggle now always takes away 25 percent of the user's ''maximum'' hit points, not 25 percent of the hit point damage the user did to the other guy, so that even if two trainers wound up with Wobbuffet as each person's last Pokémon, once Struggling began the match would end in 5 turns or less (because the 25 percent rounds down, someone with an HP amount that can be divided by 4 with a remainder of 1 could last 1 more turn).

[[Category:Collectible Card Game]]

[[Category:Game Tropes]]