Rules Lawyer? Not me!

For those that have watched my After Action Report videos, they will quickly realise that I forget rules all the time. I will try to put a caption on the video when I see that I did something very wrong, but obviously a lot slips through the net, even when I am editing the video. After I have published, what follows, invariably, is a string of comments on the video telling me exactly when and what I did incorrectly! I certainly don't mind these comments and I try to answer each one as civilly as I can. However, the game probably took place at least a fortnight previously and I haven't watched the video AAR since editing it shortly afterwards, so asking me to remember an exact point from a game long cleared away and finished from my point of view is a bit of a fool's errand. The best I can answer is 'yeah, I probably made a mistake there.' But why does this happen in the first place? 

Well, largely because I don't consider myself a 'rules lawyer'. This is someone who has memorised the entire ruleset and can draw on this esoteric knowledge to challenge a move made during a game. "The corner of my figure's base is touching that woodland and according to rule 3.14 (para b.) I can claim cover from the woods and all those sixes you rolled are negated." You know the type... whilst necessary in tournament game where getting g the rules right means the difference between wining and losing for a prize, this miniscule knowledge of a game system can be detrimental to the enjoyment gained from just playing a game with some mates.  

I play games primarily for fun, when I am playing a game against my friends, we all play for fun. None of us are what you would call tournament gamers and as much fun as winning a game can be, losing a game can be equally fun if you are playing with the right people. What this means is that none of my small group can remember every single line of the rules and after each game there is a run of text messages saying things like 'When we rolled for a five, it should have been six, and with eight dice, instead of twelve... I've just checked the rules again...' Yet, our lack of committing the rules to heart has never lessened the enjoyment of the game whilst it was being played. 

This carries over into my AAR videos, although I check the rules before filming a particular shot, things will always slip through. Especially when it is a rule that I think I am quite familiar with, and in these cases I won't check the rules but will proceed as I think it works. However, pouring over the rulebook to find the single line that explains why an AT rifle will hit on a 9 rather than a 5 takes time and I want to enjoy the game as I am playing, even when filming for the Youtube channel, so I will err on the side of caution that I remember the rule and just play it as I remember. Which leads to the mistakes made during the game. 

The point I am making here is that although it is great to stay within the 'allowed' boundaries set out by the rules, which in turn have gone through months and sometimes years of playtesting, writing, rewriting, checking and counterchecking, it is also allowed to not follow them too closely. This will be anathema to tournament players, but if your game is fun and the bending or breaking of the rules is not egregious enough to completely unbalance the game in one player's favour, then where is the harm? Even if you should have rolled fives instead of sixes, would it really have changed the game's outcome that much? Just concentrate on the fun you had during the game and remember the mistake, so as not to make it again the next time. Although, with my mates, there will be plenty of other mistakes we make in the next game...