History Main / LoadsAndLoadsOfRules

* Quidditch in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has over 700 fouls, including, among others, not being allowed to release 200 vampire bats from underneath one’s robes. Why this needed to be made a rule is anyone’s guess.

* Quidditch in HarryPotter has over 700 fouls, including, among others, not being allowed to release 200 vampire bats from underneath one’s robes. Why this needed to be made a rule is anyone’s guess.

* ''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), [[IncrediblyLamePun 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.

** 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 are 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 Trump 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.

* ''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.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

*** As an example, to have access to everything in the Tyranid army you'll need ''Codex: Tyranids'', all three ''Leviathan'' supplements, the ''Shield of Baal: Deathstorm'' mini-booklet, the ''Shield of Baal: Leviathan'' campaign book (distinct from the three previous ''Leviathan'' books), the datasheets missing from ''Shield of Baal: Leviathan'' which consist of six different pages printed across four different issues of ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf''... and if you want to use any Bio-Titans or stuff from GW's Forge World subsidiary, you're looking at additional ''Imperial Armour'' books. Oh, did we mention that all of this will be rendered obsolete every few years, whenever a new edition and codex roll around?

** ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', the successor to ''Warhammer'', has a very simple core system - too simple for many fans of the original, who took exception to the "eyeball it" balancing system - but has a great many units that fill similar battlefield roles but have quite different rules. For example, Wood Elf Glade Guard and High Elf Lothern Seaguard are fairly similar - hybrid melee and ranged units with bows and melee weapons. You'd think they'd be fairly similar, right? Well, no, actually. Their bows are different ranges; the Glade Guard standard increases Bravery when in cover while the Seaguard one increases it when near other units; both can re-roll for run distances, but Seaguard can only reroll 1's while Glade Guard can reroll all the time; both get re-rolls on 1's to hit when they have 20 or more models, but the Seaguard get them all the time on both melee and ranged attacks while the Glade Guard only get it while shooting from a safe distance away from the enemy and so on. The only mercy is that ''generally'' the effects of a banner or musician upgrade are fairly consistent within an army, but even that's not necessarily true - an Orcs and Goblins army can have somewhere in the neighborhood of four different kinds of banner, five if you brought Ruglud's Armoured Orcs.

* 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''.

** There's also an ''in-universe'' example in the form of Xorvintaal, which is a maddeningly complicated game played solely by ancient and very bored dragons. (While in the fluff it has rules which are followed, to reinforce how convoluted it is, the DM is encouraged to play it as a form of chess-based {{Calvinball}} just to reinforce how no-one with less than a thousand years to study it can have any idea how to play let alone what's going on).
* ''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 hardcovers, 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.
* One of the many criticisms of ''TabletopGame/{{FATAL}}'', whose creator thought you might really need to know the number of words your character can say in a minute... Or what volume of cargo you can pack should you ever decide to become a cocaine mule... Or an entire chart for "anal circumference"... Why on earth would they think that?

--->'''2.2401 GUN DUELS''': Vs a non-concealed, non-Aerial DEFENDER's declared Defensive First Fire attack on it, a vehicle may attempt to Bounding First Fire (D3.3) its MA (/other-FP, including Passenger FP/SW) at that DEFENDER first, provided the vehicle need not change CA, is not conducting an OVR (D7.1), its total Gun Duel DRM (i.e., its total Firer-Based [5.] and Acquisition [6.5] TH DRM for its potential shot) is < that of the DEFENDER, and the DEFENDER's attack is not Reaction Fire (D7.2). Neither the +1 DRM for a Gyrostabilizer nor the doubling of the lower dr for other ordnance in TH Case C4 (5.35) is included in the Gun Duel DRM calculation. The order of fire for non-ordnance/SW is determined as if it were ordnance [EXC: TH Case A can apply to non-ordnance/SW only if mounted-on/aboard a vehicle that is changing CA; all such non-turret-mounted fire is considered NT for purposes of TH Case C, and A.5 applies to any type of FG]. If the ATTACKER's and DEFENDER's total Gun Duel DRM are equal, the lower Final TH (or non-ordnance IFT) DR fires first—and voids the opponent's return shot by eliminating, breaking, stunning or shocking it. If those two Final DR are equal, both shots are resolved simultaneously. Any CA change the DEFENDER requires in order to shoot (5.11) is made before the ATTACKER's shot if the DEFENDER's total Gun Duel DRM is ≤ the ATTACKER's; otherwise its CA changes (if still able to) after the ATTACKER's shot. After the initial Gun Duel has been fully resolved, and if otherwise able and allowed to, that DEFENDER may announce another attack vs that ATTACKER who in turn may declare another Gun Duel; this time the printed ROF of one firing weapon on each side may be included as a negative DRM in that side's Gun Duel DRM calculation. Only the ATTACKER may declare a Gun Duel [EXC: not if the DEFENDER has done so as per 5.33].

** ''TabletopGame/BrikWars'' is a Lego-based wargame that is actually designed to have too many rules, on the grounds you should just [[CalvinBall go make everything up]] like little kids do when they make toys fight.

** The combined rulebooks/expansions/supplements package is known collectively as "The Doomsday Edition." Originally a joke because it seemed that it was never going to come. In the late 1980s, a series of issues, not limited to the fact that the game was starting to strangle on the tangle of rules changes that had been allowed, more or less forced the game to be redesigned once and for all. The fact that the game continues to tick along with the same edition for more than half the history of the game speaks to how well thought out the redesign was.
** And, yes, it has rules for every little thing you might want to try, and what can make it succeed or fail, from ramming your opponent at high warp to knocking his shields down with your phasers and beaming marines onto his bridge to take his captain hostage. Or just beaming in an armed photon torpedo.

** This is the result of a game designed by two guys who's day job was military intelligence officers at the Pentagon. Each published play scenario also counts as a rule and has various sub-rules, some running to several pages. That being said, the rules are extremely well organized. Finding the section that covers some particular situation is usually quite easy.

* 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.

* 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'', 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.

* The whole plot of Iain M Banks ''Literature/ThePlayerOfGames'' concerns the hyper-complicated game of Azad in the Empire of Azad. The game and the Empire are synonymous, and it is meant to reflect absolutely every single aspect of it. Your skill at the game determines your position in the Empire, up to and including becoming Emperor. Thats the official version at least - the system is intentionally weighed in favor of the upper classes.

* ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' seems to have gotten into this territory in the 21st century. Three Toss-Ups, of which the second and third respectively determine who starts rounds 1 and 4. Two "½ Car" tags that can be claimed to win a car. Mystery wedges in Round 2, which can be left as-is or flipped to see if they contain a [[{{Whammy}} Bankrupt]] or $10,000 Prize. A Prize wedge. A gift tag. A Wild Card, which lets you call an extra letter on any turn, or in the bonus round. Free Play, which lets you do ''anything'' within that turn without penalty. A Million Dollar Wedge which, if the player makes it to the bonus round, replaces the usual $100,000 top prize with $1,000,000 — and even ''that's'' a 1/24 shot. Round 3 has an "Express" wedge, on which you can choose to call letters for $1,000 a pop without spinning again or pass up to continue playing as normal.
* Kirk invented a card game on ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' to confused his mobster jailers. He called it Fizzbin and made it as silly and hard to understand as possible.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Squad_Leader Advanced Squad Leader]] has hundreds of pages of rules, carried around in a three ring binder. Jokingly called 'more complex than actual warfare. Either you see a [[https://i.imgur.com/oMLxA9G.png table like this]] and run screaming or you go "sweet, there goes my weekend!"

* Most wargames (games meant to simulate combat closely) are exceedingly complex, to the point where it'd be easier to list wargames with simple rules than it would to list complex ones. They often have rules for individual units and battalions, and can include everything from latrines to morale to food and water rations. Often they are as much an exercise in historical study as they are in traditional gaming, as players will study them and follow the logic actual historical commanders used, seeing the factors that drove their decisions like dwindling ammo, collapsing morale, and vulnerable supply lines. "Victory" is often determined by comparison to historical outcome (since few historical battles are 'balanced' in a game sense).
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* While less complex than many on this list, Dominant Species is no slouch. It is said to be the inspiration for [[ParksAndRecreation Cones of Dunshire]], and seeing it set up [[https://boardgamegeek.com/image/939323/dominant-species it's not hard to see the resemblance.]] Often met with some mix of "oh my god I love it" and "oh my god that game".

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_I_Stand_(boardgame) Here I Stand]] is a 2-6 player historical game that covers the war of reformation from 1517 to 1555. As you might expect from that description, there's a lot of content in there, with the rulebook running to 48 pages, covering everything from seiges to exploring the New World.

* One of the most famous examples was the ''TabletopGame/StarWarsCustomizableCardGame'', from the genre's height; some people for whom ''[=M:tG=]'' is breakfast, lunch, and dinner still 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, and underground circles persist to this day.
** 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''.
** Also, just to give 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. How, then? Well, to start, it insists that these values ''not'' be rounded...

* 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'', 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.

* The very short-lived Creator/BobStewart game show ''Series/WinningStreak'', which was very confusing and contained a near-impossible to win top prize, replacing the much simpler ''Series/ThreeOnAMatch''.
* ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' seems to have gotten into this territory in the 21st century. Three Toss-Ups, of which the second and third respectively determine who starts rounds 1 and 4. Two "½ Car" tags that can be claimed to win a car. Mystery wedges in Round 2, which can be left as-is or flipped to see if they contain a [[{{Whammy}} Bankrupt]] or $10,000 Prize. A Prize wedge. A gift tag. A Wild Card, which lets you call an extra letter on any turn, or in the BonusRound. Free Play, which lets you do ''anything'' within that turn without penalty. A Million Dollar Wedge which, if the player makes it to the bonus round, replaces the usual $100,000 top prize with $1,000,000 — and even ''that's'' a 1/24 shot. Round 3 has an "Express" wedge, on which you can choose to call letters for $1,000 a pop without spinning again, or pass up to continue playing as normal.
* Kirk invented a card game on ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' to confused his mobster jailers. He called it Fizzbin, and made it as silly and hard to understand as possible.

** The degree to which this applies can depend on the number of source books allowed by the DM, since each adds more potential rules and exceptions.

** 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).

* ''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.

* Likewise, ''TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles'' has a rulebook larger than the Manhattan phone directory once all its myriad expansions are added, and additional reference materials (a page for each individual ship) that take up several other large binders. A common joke among players: "Legal officer, please report to TheBridge."
** The combined rulebooks/expansions/supplements package is known collectively as "The Doomsday Edition." Originally a joke because it seemed that it was never going to come. In the late 1980's, a series of issues, not limited to the fact that the game was starting to strangle on the tangle of rules changes that had been allowed, more or less forced the game to be redesigned once and for all. The fact that the game continues to tick along with the same edition for more than half the history of the game speaks to how well thought out the redesign was.

** {{God}} help you if you shoot an enemy unit on one of the "corners" between its shields. The rules for determining which of the two neighboring shields was hit span several pages.
** This is the result of a game designed by two guys who's day job was military intelligence officers at the Pentagon. Each published play scenario also counts as a rule, and has various sub-rules, some running to several pages. That being said, the rules are extremely well organized and finding the section that covers some particular situation is usually quite easy.

* A good way to describe Creator/GamesWorkshop's tabletop games is that they appear simple at first, it's just all of the [[GuideDangIt little exceptions and special rules]] that all of the possible factions bring to the table that make them quite complicated. To properly build your army, you need to take all of those into [[StealthPun account]], [[CrackIsCheaper and that will cost you more than shelf space for rulebooks.]]
** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' 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.

** ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', the successor to ''Warhammer'', has a very simple core system - too simple for many fans of the original, who took exception to the "eyeball it" balancing system - but has a great many units that fill similar battlefield roles but have quite different rules. For example, Wood Elf Glade Guard and High Elf Lothern Seaguard are fairly similar - hybrid melee and ranged units with bows and melee weapons. You'd think they'd be fairly similar, right? Well, no, actually. Their bows are different ranges; the Glade Guard standard increases Bravery when in cover while the Seaguard one increases it when near other units; both can re-roll for run distances, but Seaguard can only reroll 1's while Glade Guard can reroll all the time; both get re-rolls on 1's to hit when they have 20 or more models, but the Seaguard get them all the time on both melee and ranged attacks while the Glade Guard only get it while shooting from a safe distance away from the enemy and so on. The only mercy is that ''generally'' the effects of a banner or musician upgrade are fairly consistent within an army, but even that's not necessarily true - an Orcs and Goblins army can have somewhere in the neighbourhood of four different kinds of banner, five if you brought Ruglud's Armoured Orcs.

** Arkham Horror is a typical example of a "sage game". You need at least one guy who knows EVERYTHING for the game to be completed in an ok matter. Otherwise you forget just how many monsters are allowed to roam the outskirts of town or just which color of monsters moves and which don't or exactly what 3 things happen after the terror level rises. It can be frustrating without one as the game is prone to ruleread-paralysis.
*** One of the major selling points for the new game ''Eldritch Horror'' has been "Arkham Horror, but streamlined, more fast paced and globe-trotting" and taking half the playtime (meaning it still clocks in at around 2-4 hours).

** At least partly this is because in CE, players draw an "alien" card (sometimes more than one, but let's not get ahead of ourselves) to determine which race they're playing as. Each race's "[[Main/PlanetOfHats hat]]" is the ability to break the rules in a particular and unique way.
* 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 [[WizardingSchool 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.

* ''[[{{VideoGame/Dominions}} 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. In reality though, a massive amount of those spells are summons, stats included. The independent unit stats are listed too.

* Otto from ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'' tries to make a new altered hockey game to remedy his friends' boredom. To their ever growing chagrin, the new hockey game becomes a daunting task on itself as Otto kept adding lots of nonsensical rules to it just to avoid losing in it to the point it was almost UnwinnableByDesign. Even ''he'' kept forgetting his own rules.

** The difference being scientists figuring out rules that people have no choice but to comply with, while lawyers are figuring out rules that either non-lawyers agreed to vote on, then forgot, or ''other lawyers came up with in the first place.''
** 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 Trump he can't be president because my brother and I agreed he wouldn't be president!"[[/note]])

* Defied by noted game show creator Creator/MarkGoodson, who once said that any good show should have a concept that can be explained in one sentence.

* One of the many criticisms of ''TabletopGame/{{FATAL}}'', whose creator thought you might really need to know the number of words your character can say in a minute... Or what volume of cargo you can pack should you ever decide to become a cocaine mule... Or an entire chart for "anal circumference"... Why on earth would they think that? Roll 1d100:
** 1-20: No justification.
** 21-40: The creators are insane. Roll to determine which mental illnesses you think they have. ''See chapter 5: Mind''
** 41-60: You come up with a justification but were lost soon to madness upon comprehending it
** 61-80: While trying to come up with a justification, you remember the game's treatment of rape, and just decide to get pissed off about that instead.
** 81-100: Well it is an excellent source of SnarkBait.

** The difference being scientists figure out rules that people have no choice but to comply with, while lawyers figure out rules that either non-lawyers agreed to vote on, then forgot, or ''other lawyers came up with in the first place.''

** The difference being scientist figure out rules that people have no choice but to comply with, while lawyers figure out rules that either non-lawyers agreed to vote on, then forgot, or ''other lawyers came up with in the first place.''

* The same company, Decipher Inc., also made the ''Franchise/StarTrek Collectible Card Game'', which was a lot less complicated... at first. The First Edition of the game started out with only eight different types of cards: [[VariablePlayerGoals Missions]], [[PlotTwist Dilemmas]], [[GameBreaker Artifacts]], [[CoolStarship Ships]], [[CommandRoster Personnel]], [[AppliedPhlebotinum Equipment]], and Events and Interrupts. The first edition ''ended'' with ''nineteen'' card types, most of which turned out to be completely unnecessary: the game's {{reboot}}ed Second Edition started out with only seven (Artifacts were folded into Equipment) and remains that way to this day.