History Main / LoadsAndLoadsOfRules

* German tabletop RPG ''TabletopGame/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 or spells), 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?), rule books for spells, weapons, flora and fauna, magic items, alchemical stuff, three for all the [[WizardSchool schools for guild mages]] and a couple for themes like dungeons, the sea, dungeonmastering, demons or elementals or other stuff. To be fair, about 3/4 of that is fluff, but its still about 5000 pages. There are other settings with way less rules and fluff, about 1000 pages for the most described one, one other will be officially released soon, with about 500 more, and then theres the totally fan made one with a couple of hundred pages.

[--[[caption-width-right:319:'''[[Literature/{{Discworld}} “REMIND ME AGAIN, HOW THE LITTLE HORSE-SHAPED ONES MOVE.”]]''']]--]

[[caption-width-right:319:[[AC:[[Literature/{{Discworld}} “REMIND ME AGAIN, HOW THE LITTLE HORSE-SHAPED ONES MOVE.”]]]]]]-]

[-[[caption-width-right:319:[[AC:“REMIND ME AGAIN, HOW THE LITTLE HORSE-SHAPED ONES MOVE.”]]]]-]

[[quoteright:350:[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Imperator_Titan_Datacard-sm_5926.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Twelve counters for your ''Emperor''-class [[AMechByAnyOtherName titan]]'s [[GatlingGood Hellstorm]] [[UpToEleven Cannon]] ammo supply, twelve counters to track its [[DeflectorShields void shields]], more Plasma tokens to generate and allocate from its reactor, 25 slots for infantry squads to garrison, and we haven't even given it orders yet.]]

Clever game designers will [[DevelopersForesight 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 construct a new rule for every possible case. Thus, even an apparently simplistic game system can develop Loads And Loads Of Rules.

Unless making the same generic skill checks over and over is your idea of fun, extra rules are often necessary to keep a game interesting when it shifts focus from, say, combat to politics. This trope is about games that include far ''more'' rules than are necessary to keep it interesting. Even then, a game with Loads And Loads Of Rules can be lots of fun if you're willing to do the work (and reading) to understand how to play--as long as the rules are ''good''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', it takes Jake two hours to explain basicially the basics of ''Card Wars''.

* The ''card game'' named ''TabletopGame/{{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''.

** The current page picture is the Imperator Titan datacard from the old ''Titan Legions'' game, a large-scale, small-model spin-off of ''Warhammer 40,000''. It gets several pages all to itself in the basic rulebook, and most sections for more general rules contain a paragraph explaining how they pertain to this one specific mega-unit.

** This goes double for countries that have a [[UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw common-law system]] (i.e. much of the English-speaking world), where some judgments are based on previous decisions made in similar cases rather than from what's written "in the books." This is known as "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precedent legal precedent]]," and it is why so many lawyers spend so much time citing other cases in their arguments. (We should note, however, that most--not all, but most--of the common law boils down to something that is either immediately common sense to everyone, or perfectly commonsensical once you've realized that other ways of doing things just wouldn't work, with the legal language simply being used to express this clearly.[[note]]For instance, in contract law, we say that a contract is formed when there is mutual assent and consideration. Mutual assent consists of an offer by one person and acceptance by another. That's just common sense. "Consideration" is a slightly complicated concept, but it basically means that each side has to give something to get something--the idea being that if everything anyone agreed on was an enforceable promise, we'd get stupid cases clogging the courts. "Tell Mommy she has to give me the [[Film/AChristmasStory BB gun]] for Christmas because she promised and I accepted that promise!" "Tell Obama he can't be president because my brother and I agreed he wouldn't be president!"[[/note]])

[[folder:CardGames]]
* The ''card game'' named ''TabletopGame/{{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 ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}''.
* Any sufficiently long game of ''TabletopGame/{{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.
* TabletopGame/{{Fluxx}} starts out with two simple rules-- draw one card, play one card. However, if the game goes on very long, it can get quite complicated.

[[folder:{{Collectible Card Game}}s]]

[[folder:{{Comics}}]]
* A UsefulNotes/WorldWarI wargame in ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' features these. It came in a genuine military surplus footlocker, features ''at least'' three different table-sized maps and has enough rules and variable factors to choke a small horse. The entire game cost $400, which was split between ten or so players who would be in on the first game with the winner getting to keep it for himself. Four years later (i.e. as long as the actual war), ''the first game is still going''. (though only Weird Pete and Brian and still actively playing). The game itself is [[UpToEleven an exaggerated]] ''(though not by much)'' version of [[TabletopGame/AdvancedSquadLeader Advanced Squad Leader]], requiring over twelve hours to play a single turn involving two players with such factors as weather, politics, population growth, food supplies, and so forth. And that's only what's shown on screen.

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]
* A fictional example is 'Dragon Poker' from Robert Aspirin's ''Literature/MythAdventures'' series. Variables based on almost everything; rulebooks tend to be published per dimension, at most.
* One of ''TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' novels gives the short version of the rules for Brockian Ultra-Cricket, and a mention that the only time anyone ever compiled a ''complete'' set of rules, it immediately underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* ''TabletopGame/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.

** {{TableTopGame/Pathfinder}} is a re-balanced version of D&D 3.5 made after the 4th Edition D&D. As of Late May 2016, Paizo has managed to put out two small (32-64 pages) supplements a month out, a new major rule book (about 300-500 pages) every 4-6 months, and a bit over a hundred Adventure Path books - which contain new monsters, items, and systems. That's about twenty 300-500 page hard covers, a bit over a hundred adventure paths, and dozens of soft-cover supplements. The Core Rules alone are not the most intimidating thing in this section, but a no-book-barred Pathfinder game would rival early-edition D&D for rules bloat.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' is a game that has this is a mission statement. The core rule books for 4th Edition is 450 pages long with only 10 devoted to the vaguely defined {{Multiverse}} setting. Splat books inevitably add rules for specific situations that show up in the setting or genre they describe.
** 3e had rules for ''sliding down banisters'', including the [[GroinAttack consequences of not taking due care when you get to the bottom.]]
** In fact GURPS often has multiple (nonoverlapping) rules for the same action depending on the setting.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' both have core books that contain the games' standard rules, and each faction has an Army Book or Codex that will tell you how to use them on the tabletop, so at the very minimum you just need those two books. But if you're trying to get a sense of what your opponents are capable of, that will involve buying up to sixteen other army rulebooks. However, this doesn't account for campaign books, expansions or variant game type rulebooks that introduce additional units, datasheets, characters, wargear or formations, or rules that only appeared in a specific issue of ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' magazine. And then you'll have to track down [=FAQs=] or rulings that correct or clarify issues with the above rule sources. And then you argue over anything not covered by those official rulings, and whether it's better to read the Rules As Intended or Rules As Written.

* German tabletop RPG ''TabletopGame/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 or spells), 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?), rule books for spells, weapons, flora and fauna, magic items, alchemical stuff, three for all the [[WizardSchool schools for guild mages]] and a couple for themes like dungeons, the sea, dungeonmastering, demons or elementals or other stuff. To be fair, about 3/4 of that is fluff, but its still about 5000 pages. There are other settings with way less rules and fluff, about 1000 pages for the most described one, one other will be officially released soon, with about 500 more, and then theres the totally fan made one with a couple of hundred pages.

* Having grown from an 80s beer-and-pretzels game for reasonably detailed and flavorful duels and skirmishes between HumongousMecha into a fully-featured futuristic wargame by organically adding bits and pieces on a case-by-case basis, ''{{TabletopGame/BattleTech}}'' has a pretty solid case of this. It's not quite literally true that (for example) ''every'' piece of equipment that might be encountered and every critical hit that could happen have their own special-case rules...but it does get pretty close, and that's just using the "standard" tournament rules without going into the additional options offered by such further tomes as ''Tactical Operations''. Rules for [[SpacePlane aerospace fighers]] and [[MileLongShip WarShips]] (in the ''Aerotech'' spinoff) are infamous for being nightmarishly complicated (''especially'' with the optional zero-SpaceFriction rules) with [[SubsystemDamage hugely complicated record sheets]] and requiring things like rotation, height, and motion of travel having to be recorded or calculated every turn.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:WebComics]]
* [[http://www.fantasycomic.com/index.php?p=c553 This strip]] of ''ChasingTheSunset''.

[[folder:WebOriginal]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

[[folder: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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:RealLife]]

*** This goes double for countries that have a [[UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw common-law system]] (i.e. much of the English-speaking world), where some judgments are based on previous decisions made in similar cases rather than from what's written "in the books." This is known as "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precedent legal precedent]]," and it is why so many lawyers spend so much time citing other cases in their arguments. (We should note, however, that most--not all, but most--of the common law boils down to something that is either immediately common sense to everyone, or perfectly commonsensical once you've realized that other ways of doing things just wouldn't work, with the legal language simply being used to express this clearly.[[note]]For instance, in contract law, we say that a contract is formed when there is mutual assent and consideration. Mutual assent consists of an offer by one person and acceptance by another. That's just common sense. "Consideration" is a slightly complicated concept, but it basically means that each side has to give something to get something--the idea being that if everything anyone agreed on was an enforceable promise, we'd get stupid cases clogging the courts. "Tell Mommy she has to give me the [[Film/AChristmasStory BB gun]] for Christmas because she promised and I accepted that promise!" "Tell Obama he can't be president because my brother and I agreed he wouldn't be president!"[[/note]])
*** In the US, 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... which is why you generally have the right to call in your own RulesLawyer for help.

* 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]].\\
\\
Let's actually go ahead and give examples: here's the page counts for the official rules of these sports based on a major governing body chosen ''mostly'' at random: [[http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2011/Official_Baseball_Rules.pdf MLB Baseball - 123]], [[http://www.usabasketball.com/rules/official_fiba_rules_2004.pdf International Basketball Federation - 79 pages]], [[http://www.amazon.com/2010-Official-Rules-Triumph-Books/dp/1600784178 NFL (American) Football - 304 pages!]], [[http://www.nhl.com/ext/0708rules.pdf NHL Hockey - 232]], [[http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/81/42/36/lawsofthegame_2010_11_e.pdf FIFA Football - 140]], [[http://www.amazon.com/USA-Boxing-Official-Rules-Book/dp/B00114T14A USA Boxing - 250+]], [[http://www.fencingofficials.org/documents/rules/USA%20Fencing%20Rules%20-%20September%202010.pdf USFA Fencing - 226]], and [[http://www.lords.org/data/files/laws_of_cricket_2003-8685.pdf Cricket - 115]]. Obviously font-size and verbosity figure in to the specific numbers... but brother, none of them are ''short''.
* The US Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess (6th edition, which is the current one) is 416 pages. The world chess organization FIDE somehow manages to get by with just a couple of fairly large (but not excessively so) web pages.

** For bonus points, all of the Palladium books are supposed to be compatible with Rifts, so you can theoretically include any of those other systems in it. Except for the minor issue that they're ''almost'' compatible, with key rules differing subtly across each system.

* 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.

This is not much of an issue if you are playing Solitaire, where the only action is moving cards, or SuperMarioBros, where the bulk of the game can be reduced to running and jumping. But if you are playing a TabletopRPG, or some other game where the players should have a great deal of freedom, you need to deal with all sorts of [[CombinatorialExplosion unusual special cases]].

* 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]].
** UsefulNotes/CricketRules:
** Let's actually go ahead and give examples: here's the page counts for the official rules of these sports based on a major governing body chosen ''mostly'' at random: [[http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2011/Official_Baseball_Rules.pdf MLB Baseball - 123]], [[http://www.usabasketball.com/rules/official_fiba_rules_2004.pdf International Basketball Federation - 79 pages]], [[http://www.amazon.com/2010-Official-Rules-Triumph-Books/dp/1600784178 NFL (American) Football - 304 pages!]], [[http://www.nhl.com/ext/0708rules.pdf NHL Hockey - 232]], [[http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/81/42/36/lawsofthegame_2010_11_e.pdf FIFA Football - 140]], [[http://www.amazon.com/USA-Boxing-Official-Rules-Book/dp/B00114T14A USA Boxing - 250+]], [[http://www.fencingofficials.org/documents/rules/USA%20Fencing%20Rules%20-%20September%202010.pdf USFA Fencing - 226]], and [[http://www.lords.org/data/files/laws_of_cricket_2003-8685.pdf Cricket - 115]]. Obviously font-size and verbosity figure in to the specific numbers... but brother, none of them are ''short''.
** Water polo is probably a runner [[http://www.fina.org/project/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48&Itemid=119 too]].

* Pick a GameShow created by Creator/JayWolpert. Any show created by him is bound to have an insanely complex rule sheet. ''{{Whew}}'' in particular is a major offender.

* ''VideoGame/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.'' Even on a pretty good modern gaming rig, ProceduralGeneration of a new world takes upwards of an hour.
* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', each individual item in the game has CombinatorialExplosion potential from interacting with other items, and [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything the dev team coded every single one]].

* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2'' when released in 1998, had incredibly complex rules - but mostly "under the hood" (it was only "mildly" complex to the actual player). Since then, the v1.13 project has made the rules far more complex, adding hundreds of new features, each with its own rules, and revamped existing features to be more complex than before (and usu. more realistic).

* SpaceStation13, especially the Goon Station version, is notorious for the complexity and depth of interactions it supports. The source code is said to be so complex that by rights it should not compile on the platform.

* Played as far as they can go with the town of Facade in ''{{Nier}}'', which has over 120,000 rules...''and counting.''

*** A ''small'' exception is Steve Jackson Games' (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 SpiritualPredecessor (sort of) Metagaming, and even a few TSR products (''They've Invaded Pleasantville'', ''Revolt on Antares'', and so on), are almost as simple.

* The game ''{{Rolemaster}}'' is jokingly called "Rulemonster" and "Rollmaster" among the gaming community because of this. And because it has a vast number of tables to roll on for things like damage from an attack —- one for each weapon, for starters.

* Take the frictionless combat from BT and multiply it times 100 and you get Attack Vector Tactical. The rulebook is very heavy.

Clever game designers will [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything 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 construct a new rule for every possible case. Thus, even an apparently simplistic game system can develop Loads And Loads Of Rules.

Games that fit this trope tend to be favorites of [[RulesLawyer Rules Lawyers]]. They will often require [[ObviousRulePatch Obvious Rule Patches]]. See also ThatOneRule, a localized version of this, UsefulNotes/CricketRules for a trope dealing with this and {{Calvinball}} which is a dynamic version of this trope in action.

* 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.

* ''MagicTheGathering'' has been getting an average of four new sets a year since 1993, and ''every single one'' comes with a few new rules. While recently they've been surprisingly good at avoiding [[ObviousRulePatch arbitrary rulings for weird cases]], 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. More recent editions of the CR are about 200 pages long, even though it no longer contains ruling for specific cards (those are now part of the Oracle/Gatherer system, but can be derived directly from the rules for someone who knows them well enough). As of mid-2014, there are over fourteen thousand unique cards.

* ''HackMaster'' does this on purpose, as it's an AffectionateParody of first-edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

* 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 or spells), 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?), rule books for spells, weapons, flora and fauna, magic items, alchemical stuff, three for all the [[WizardSchool schools for guild mages]] and a couple for themes like dungeons, the sea, dungeonmastering, demons or elementals or other stuff. To be fair, about 3/4 of that is fluff, but its still about 5000 pages. There are other settings with way less rules and fluff, about 1000 pages for the most described one, one other will be officially released soon, with about 500 more, and then theres the totally fan made one with a couple of hundred pages.

** Similarly, the card [[http://magiccards.info/som/en/176.html Mindslaver]] ended up creating an entirely new section of the rules dictating on how to take over an opponent's turn. To date, only it, [[http://magiccards.info/m12/en/109.html Sorin Markov]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=380528 Worst Fears]] uses said rules, although a very old card ([[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202591 Word of Command]]) that kind of didn't make sense with the rules was "fixed" using part of this section as well.
** Finally, there is also a section of the rules devoted to restarting the game, which can only be done by one card, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214350 Karn Liberated]].

** {{TableTopGame/Pathfinder}} is a re-balanced version of D&D 3.5 made after the BaseBreaker of 4th Edition D&D. As of Late May 2016, Paizo has managed to put out two small (32-64 pages) supplements a month out, a new major rule book (about 300-500 pages) every 4-6 months, and a bit over a hundred Adventure Path books - which contain new monsters, items, and systems. That's about twenty 300-500 page hard covers, a bit over a hundred adventure paths, and dozens of soft-cover supplements. The Core Rules alone are not the most intimidating thing in this section, but a no-book-barred Pathfinder game would rival early-edition D&D for rules bloat.

* A WorldWarI wargame in ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' features these. It came in a genuine military surplus footlocker, features ''at least'' three different table-sized maps and has enough rules and variable factors to choke a small horse. The entire game cost $400, which was split between ten or so players who would be in on the first game with the winner getting to keep it for himself. Four years later (i.e. as long as the actual war), ''the first game is still going''. (though only Weird Pete and Brian and still actively playing). The game itself is [[UpToEleven an exaggerated]] ''(though not by much)'' version of [[TabletopGame/AdvancedSquadLeader Advanced Squad Leader]], requiring over twelve hours to play a single turn involving two players with such factors as weather, politics, population growth, food supplies, and so forth. And that's only what's shown on screen.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' is simple at first glance, but its battle system is actually extremely complicated under-the-hood. There are hundreds of moves, some with very complex rules governing exactly how they work in certain situations (Substitute and Baton Pass, to name a few), ditto for Abilities. Then you have ElementalRockPaperScissors, held items, Effort Values and IVs, how the game handles draws (who wins or loses depends on what move caused the DoubleKO, and it varies from game-to-game), official rule options like Sleep Clause... and that's ''before'' you get into competitive HouseRules such as those created by Smogon. Even the [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Damage#Damage_formula formula for calculating damage]] is insanely complicated.