A rules lawyer is a term used to describe a participant in a rules-based environment who attempts to use the
letter of the law without reference to the spirit, usually in order to gain an advantage within that environment. The term is commonly used in
wargaming
A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to st ...
and tabletop
role-playing game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...
communities,
often pejoratively, as the "rules lawyer" is seen as an impediment to moving the game forward. The habit of players to argue in a legal fashion over rule implementation was noted early on in the history of ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
''. Rules lawyers are one of the "player styles" covered in ''Dungeon Master for Dummies''. The rules of the game ''
Munchkin
A Munchkin is a native of the fictional Munchkin Country in the Oz books by American author L. Frank Baum. Although a common fixture in Germanic fairy tales, they are introduced to modern audiences with the first appearance in the classic c ...
'' include various parodies of rules lawyer behavior.
Related terms
* In the US military, "
sea lawyer" is used in the
navy
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
and "barracks lawyer" in the
army
An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...
.
* The term "language lawyer" is used to describe those who are excessively familiar with the details of programming language syntax and semantics.
* On
English Wikipedia
The English Wikipedia is the primary English-language edition of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on 15 January 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition.
English Wikipedia is hosted alongside o ...
, a "wikilawyer" is a contributor who attempts to use the wording of policies to win disputes rather than reaching the goal of the policy.
See also
*
Gaming the system
The letter of the law and the spirit of the law are two possible ways to regard rules or laws. To obey the "letter of the law" is to follow the literal reading of the words of the law, whereas following the "spirit of the law" is to follow t ...
*
Letter and spirit of the law
The letter of the law and the spirit of the law are two possible ways to regard rules or laws. To obey the "letter of the law" is to follow the literal reading of the words of the law, whereas following the "spirit of the law" is to follow th ...
*
Malicious compliance
Malicious compliance (also known as malicious obedience) is the behavior of strictly following the orders of a superior despite knowing that compliance with the orders will have an unintended or negative result. It usually implies following an ord ...
*
Nomic
Nomic is a game created in 1982 by philosopher Peter Suber, the of which include mechanisms for changing those rules, usually beginning by way of democratic voting. The game demonstrates that in any system where rule changes are possible, a situa ...
References
External links
* — Loke advocates Games Masters using rules lawyers to their advantage, by turning the other players against them.
* — a description of two “rules-lawyer traps": always insisting upon following the rules and believing that there should always be a rule to cover every situation
* {{cite web, access-date=2005-12-30, url=http://www.nocturne.org/jason/mgs/rules_lawyer.php, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927192829/http://www.nocturne.org/jason/mgs/rules_lawyer.php, archive-date=2007-09-27, title=The Rules Lawyer, work=Meta-Gaming Strategies — which lists the rules lawyer's two weapons as “an onslaught of evidence, textual readings, precedent, and reasoning” and the “dreaded filibuster”.
Role-playing game terminology