| abstract
| - Rules Lawyers come in different flavors; from Lawful Evil to Lawful Good, although the term usually carries a negative connotation. What both versions have in common is a nigh-encyclopedic knowledge of every single aspect of the rules within the game system. The difference between the two is largely down to attitude and how it effects the overall game. Lawful Evil Rules Lawyers manipulates the rules to give themselves advantages even if it ruins the game for everyone else, while Lawful Good Rules Lawyers play by the rules even if that puts them at a disadvantage, and generally try to use the rules to make things more fun for everyone. The Lawful Evil Rules Lawyer is a particularly annoying kind of player who believes that because he can find a rule about some action in one of the manuals, the Game Master is bound to allow him to take that action, even if it doesn't make sense, or would screw with what's going on. He's convinced that, with the power of the rules, he can outmaneuver the GM and get what he wants. He will attempt to employ every loophole, every odd circumstance, and every footnote he can. Expect the Rules Lawyer to have pored over most of the manuals, even those that players aren't supposed to read. And most annoyingly, he seems to remember only the parts that support whatever he's doing at that moment, intentionally ignoring whatever doesn't support his own case. (And insists on Exact Words.) Usually, the first rule the Rules Lawyer conveniently "forgets" while making his arguments is Rule Zero: that the GM is always right. Squashing him with this early is the best bet; attempting to argue about rules with him only encourages his behavior. If invoked, he might dare to argue that Rule Zero is an unwritten rule, despite it being a foundation of good play. One of the basic tactics of Munchkins everywhere, and part of the reason some games in fact have a Metagame. They are among the few people who Read the Fine Print. See My Rule Fu Is Stronger Than Yours for the argument that is going to happen with the GM at some point. If a rule in a book ever seems to be written rather verbosely, or explain things that seem like common sense, it's the writers trying to stop these guys. However, this trope does come in a positive variant referred to as the Lawful Good Rules Lawyer: they always stick to the rules, no matter how bad it might be for them personally. And they'll point out exactly the proper rules that state that, no, they didn't escape the deathtrap, they died. Conversely, in a tabletop setting, the rules are the Player Characters' primary means of interacting with the world, and if a GM is constantly changing the rules mid-game, the players cannot play. Gaming groups must, by necessity, be a mutually policing force. Sometimes a Rules Lawyer is necessary when the GM is repeatedly sending waves and waves of homebrewed mooks who are immune to everything except the powers of that one super duper archmage the GM has been writing a novel about for the last seven years and if you try to fight them without the archmage GMPC, you die. No save. In this instance, the Rules Lawyer is one check against GM misbehavior, as in a healthy gaming group, the GM is answerable to the players as much as the players are answerable to the GM, because it is everybody's game. A Lawful Good Rules Lawyer can also be a valuable thing to have in your gaming group if one or more of the players in your gaming group cheats or doesn't RTFM. Even when the rest of the group is on the level, the fact that a Rules Lawyer will, by definition, know all of the rules can make them useful for a gaming group. Examples of Rules Lawyer include:
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