History Main / LoadsAndLoadsOfRules

*** ''FullFrontalNerdity'' once joked that a full, every-rule D&D computer game would never be released because [[LogicBomb the contradictions cause computers to explode.]]

* ''HEROSystem''

** Subverted with physics in that, while the rules are hard to figure out and often very counterintuitive, it's believed that they're quite simple.

[[AC:CollectibleCardGames]]

* German tabletop RPG TheDarkEye. 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?).

** The best way to describe {{Warhammer 40K}} is that it appears to be a pretty simple game at first - it's just all of the [[GuideDangIt little exceptions and special rules]] that all of the factions bring to the table that make it quite complicated. And to properly build your army, you need to take all of those into account. [[CrackIsCheaper Let's hope you have money!]]

* The ''card game'' named ''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Game/Munchkin Munchkin]]'' can suffer from this if you try to play with a bunch of expansions at once. Since the game is about rules-lawyering, this seems appropriate.

** In that case, every CollectibleCardGame qualifies. Even Pokémon. Hmm. Well, Magic moreso than most, since every new expansion comes with a couple of new mechanics that have names you need to learn. Magic is also quite fond of cards that have extremely specialized effects.
** One of the most famous examples was the most well-known StarWarsCustomizableCardGame, from the genre's height; some people can't hear the word "attrition" without curling up into a ball. The glossary was about ''four times'' the length of the core rulebook. That said, the rules did provide a very solid, balanced, even briefly popular game once you wrapped your head around them.
*** For the (morbidly) curious: "attrition" was a minimum total of the "forfeit value" of the character and vehicle cards "forfeited" (discarded from play) after a battle, and it was determined, if the total "ability" was four or greater (i.e., one Jedi or trainee, one major character and one {{Mook}}, two {{Mauve Shirt}}s, or four {{Mook}}s), by "drawing destiny," i.e., choosing a random card and looking at a number - just for these and some other pseudo-dicerolls - generally inversely proportional to how much of a powerhouse the single card was (to encourage more balanced decks). These forfeits also counted toward "battle damage," sustained only by the losing side based on the difference in "power," plus the "destiny" drawn above, which could also be paid one point at a time by discarding from the hand or deck (although attrition could not be), and had to be paid in full even if all the characters in the battle were gone; also characters hit by a weapon, unless the weapon said otherwise, also counted toward both. Finally, many, ''many'' characters were "immune to attrition (< x)" where, if all the other cards were gone, and the initial (not just remaining) attrition had been less than x, remaining attrition (but not battle damage) could be ignored. This is all assuming there are no cards with less common effects mucking things up, of course, which there usually ''were''.
*** Alternate definition: ''amount of brain cells lost due to trying to read the above TLDR.''
*** Also, just to give you an idea what the glossary was like, one entry dealt with how, precisely, to interpret a card (appropriately called "Brainiac") with a destiny of pi and a power of ''sqrt(3(number of cards in opponent's hand - number of cards in your hand) + 2(gauge of opponent's strategic strength from battlefields in play - gauge of yours) + pi)'', but always at least 1. Yeah.
*** [[FlatWhat What, What.]]

** Or what volume of cargo you can pack [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean should you ever decide to become a cocaine mule.]] [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer I wish I was joking.]] [[BeyondTheImpossible I wish that that was as squicky, sexist, racist, and childish as it gets, too.]]

** 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 ''((Game/Munchkin}}''.

* The ''card game'' named ''{{Game/Munchkin}}'' can suffer from this if you try to play with a bunch of expansions at once. Since the game is about rules-lawyering, this seems appropriate.

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' in its various editions gets a lot of this, though it doesn't necessarily show up during actual gameplay. As you level up your character, though, the options for advancement get a bit staggering, and they frequently change the previously-established rules somehow.
** The computer games adapted from it are, from the programmer's point of view, worse, since they have to code a program that will accurately use the rules constantly. This, however, actually makes the games somewhat more accessible for players.
*** ''FullFrontalNerdity'' once joked that a full, every-rule D&D computer game would never be released because [[LogicBomb the contradictions cause computers to explode.]]
** The first version of D&D Miniatures had a very small core rulebook, almost a pamphlet. Each new set added creatures with new special abilities, however, which invariably required clarification. By the 14th set, the supplemental rules were easily twice the length of the core. Star Wars Minis, by the same company, has managed to avoid this by not going overboard with new special abilities (so far).
* No matter how unlikely the situation, there is at least one {{GURPS}} sourcebook with a rule to handle it.
** It has rules for ''sliding down banisters'', including the [[GroinAttack consequences of not taking due care when you get to the bottom.]]
** Though at least {{GURPS}} has the (potential) excuse of being ''for'' those rules, since it's actually designed to be compatible with other games (and thus fill their loopholes).

* On a related note, the ''card game'' named ''{{Game/Munchkin}}'' can suffer from this if you try to play with a bunch of expansions at once. Since the game is about rules-lawyering, this seems appropriate.
** 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 ''((Game/Munchkin}}''.
* ''DwarfFortress'' has [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything rules]] to govern the dwarves' psychology, the geological processes of the planet, and vomit, to name a few. ''And the creator isn't done yet.''
* ''NetHack''. Each individual item in the game has [[BeyondTheImpossible Over Nine Thousand]] ways of interacting with other items, and [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything the dev team coded every single one]].

* Non-game example: [[http://www.fantasycomic.com/index.php?p=c553 This strip]] of ''ChasingTheSunset''.
* RealLife: There are people whose entire job it is to figure out what the rules are. They're called "Scientists" and "Lawyers". Scientists figure out the rules the universe set up, and lawyers try to figure out the rules that we humans set up.
** To quote JerrySeinfeld: "We're all just moving around the board and lawyers are the people who have read the inside cover of the box." There's a reason some people are called RulesLawyers.
** The difference being scientist figure out rules that people have no choice but to comply with, while lawyers figure out rules that ''other lawyers came up with in the first place.''
*** There are several hundred thousand federal laws on the books, so many that nobody knows exactly how many laws we have. Ignorance is still no excuse.

* {{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.
** ''MasterOfOrion 3'' obliges, since its massive heaps of rules are literally stored as Excel spreadsheets.
*** The whole game was basically spreadsheets and charts, much more than the previous games. Yes it was dull.
*** Not to mention time-consuming, since the options are to either a) supervise ''every single one'' of dozens of construction queues yourself or b) find yourself the proud owner of roughly one billion (really expensive) troop transports and zero (0) actual combat vessels.
** 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.
* 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.

* In one episode of ''{{Rugrats}}'', the adults play an insanely complicated board game called ''Neurosis'', with such rules as "Player 1 may only move counterclockwise when all other players are frozen behind the penalty line."

* Most modern sports have turned into this, usually due to some form of LoopholeAbuse or GameBreaker that players have stumbled upon, some of them changing the game only slightly and some of them making the old form almost unrecognizable. Baseball is an example of the first, with the [[http://www.baseball-almanac.com/rule11.shtml first set of rules]], while much shorter, isn't too much different from the [[http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/foreword.jsp current set of rules]]. Basketball is an example of the second -- [[http://www.usabasketball.com/rules/naismith_original_rules.html the original rules]] didn't even allow a player to dribble the ball up the court, one of many major changes making the oldest version of the game look almost nothing like what a modern fan would recognize (modern rules [[http://www.nba.com/analysis/rules_index.html here]].
** ''CricketRules''

* A fictional example is 'Dragon Poker' from Robert Aspirin's ''MythAdventures'' series. Variables based on almost everything; rulebooks tend to be published per dimension, at most.
* 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.
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*** ''FullFrontalNerdity'' once joked that a full, every-rule D&D computer game would never be released because the contradictions cause computers to explode.

* ''MagicTheGathering'' has been getting new editions for more than ten years, and ''every single one'' comes with a few new rules, and a ton of weird special cases that need arbitrary rulings.
** An older version of the Comprehensive Rules, when printed and bound in A4-sized paper, took well over 150 pages, most of it being devoted to individual card errata and rulings.

* On a related note, the ''card game'' named {{Game/Munchkin}} can suffer from this if you try to play with a bunch of expansions at once. Since the game is about rules-lawyering, this seems appropriate.
** 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.

** Or what volume of cargo you can pack [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean should you ever decide to become a cocaine mule.]] I wish I was joking. I wish that that was as squicky, sexist, racist, and childish as it gets, too.
** Someone should look in FATAL for Table Describing Number Of Justifications Needed To Justify FATAL.

*** 21-40: The creators are insane, plain and simple. You should just try not to think about it.

** With the way the game works, no players can do anything in a turn except untap their permanents, draw one card, and play one land per turn, ''unless a card says otherwise''. So, each individual card can be considered an addition to the rules...and there are over ten thousand cards. SoYeah.