this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
158 points (94.9% liked)
RPGMemes
11824 readers
1002 users here now
Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The rule of cool: I don't give a crap about internal consistency
Okay just this once, sure why not: I can't be bothered to actually know the rules and I am sure that players will never ever reference this one instance when they ask for something impossible next time.
In my eyes, the Rule of Cool is best used as the opposite of the Air Bud Clause. (For those who don't know; the "Air Bud Clause" refers to a rule in basketball that basically says "it's not allowed just because there's no rule against it".) TTRPGs are imperfect systems, and you are going to run into a scenario that isn't covered in the rules. Rule of Cool is best used here, rather than to bypass rules that do exist.
But also; some systems can be really crunchy, and a lot of the time it can be more fun for everyone involved if you just say "you know what, that's cool, let's do it" than to pause for five minutes to leaf through some rulebook (because seriously; you can't always know the entire rulebook by heart) trying to determine if and why they can't.
Of course, doing this too much is dangerous. Hence "in moderation".
This is a reasonable take.
Yep, there are instances where rules lawyering way too hard can be detrimental in a situation where the rules... just fundamentally do not well handle a rather niche situation.
And likewise there are situations where disregarding the rules too often, in too many scenarios... well it can just destroy the entire point of playing a 'game', feels unfair, you might as well just be doing a collaborative creative writing session at that point.
...
If you find yourself frequently running into the first situation, perhaps come up with some modified homebrew rules, made clear to all players before hand, or switch over to a different game, a different ruleset that is better tuned to your players/playstyle.
If you find yourself frequently in the second situation, find a new DM/GM, or stop being a DM/GM, and just be a creative writer... or just make your own entirely new ruleset/game.
If either of these situations only occur rarely, you're probably doing a good job of being a DM with the given ruleset and given players.
If you put internal consistency above fun then what's the point?
Because some people enjoy playing a game with fair and consistent rules, and find playing calvinball to be frustrating bullshit that is very often obviously biased towards certain kinds of actions, decisions, player builds, even just outright biased toward specific players.
Calvinball! is that a C&H reference? ive never seen that particular joke in the comic strip but i feel like i instantly get what the reference means
Yes.
Calvinball is a convoluted game where Calvin amd Hobbes constantly and arbitrarily introduces new rules and addendums and exceptions to existing rules, on the spot, whenever something they don't like happens, so that the outcome will always bend toward what they want it to be, ie, the rule composer winning.
The strips are basically a storyboarded out version of the concept of 'moving the goalposts'.
EDIT:
I got some details wrong:
There are are multiple short and longer strips that mention or are fully based around calvinball.
Hobbes is actually usually the one more successful at rembering the current, but also ever shifting set of rules, and is also usually better at making up rules that overtly benefit himself.
Some of the strips seem to involve rules being made up that are more just chaos for the sake of chaos, other strips more clearly feature biased, weaponized rules.
So... sometimes its chaotic neutral, sometimes it is chaotic evil that is based around chaotic rule making, so perhaps thats lawful evil...
I've always found this particular 'loophole' kind of problematic and nonsensical with the DnD alignment chart of lawful v neutral v ~~evil:~~ chaotic:
There are many real world systems where complex codes, rulesets, laws, are in fact so complex, contentious, inconsistently modified or interpreted that... chaotic evil and lawful evil begin to merge.
Just because it would be cool doesn't imply that it would be fun (for everyone involved)?
And just because it isn't consistent doesn't mean it isn't fun for everyone either.
The point of playing games is to have fun, the rest is secondary. This includes rules.
And the rules allows interesting situations and fun to emerge.
sv_cheats 1 may be fun for one but not others.
Edit:
I don't have a problem with bending the rules and going whacko from time to time but it has to be declared in session zero so that everyone is on board.