How to Have an Intelligent Rules Debate (part II)Appendix A: Common Argument Mistakes
”In my experience, if you can not say what you mean, you can never mean what you say. The details are everything.” - Centauri Minister of Intelligence Durano, Babylon 5A-1. Misquoting a Rule
Exact wording is important. If the exact wording of a rule doesn’t support your premises or conclusion, it’s going to be pretty simple for the opposing side to refute. A-2. Forgetting That the Specific Overrules the General
The rules are written so that a more specific rule supercedes a general rule. If your argument fails to take more specific rules into account, then your argument is flawed.
i.e. the general rule states that units cannot regroup if below 50%. But space marines follow And They Shall Know No Fear, which allows them to regroup even when below 50%. That rule is more specific because it applies to a smaller group or more specific situation. A-3. Drifting Off the Topic at Hand
It’s important to stay on topic, because while similar situations are interesting and sometimes worthy of note, they have no inherent ability to support or refute this type of argument. If you do reference a related, but different, situation, be sure to note that they are merely conversation.
i.e. Farseers from Codex: Eldar are independent characters that fight in assault separately from their retinue or any squad they have joined. It does no good to point out that Farseers in an Ulthwe Seer Council do not fight separately, because Ulthwe Farseers are not Independent Characters, and thus not germane to the topic of Independent Characters fighting in assault.A-4. Offering Up Something That is Not a Rule as a Rule
What is a rule? This is an area where people commonly get confused. Rules are limited to:
• The Big Red Book (BRB) (40K Main Rulebook/Assault on Black Reach Rulebook)
• Army Codices
• 40k V5 FAQs published on the website:http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=600005&pIndex=1&aId=3400019&start=2
• Anything with a Chapter Approved Stamp not marked Trial, Experimental, etc.
• Other Official Rulebooks
What isn’t a rule? Lots of things seem like rules, but really are not. Here’s some of them:
• Rulezboyz do not create rules. GW doesn't pay someone to be a "Rulezboy," they pay someone to stock shelves, or take phone orders. In their spare time they answer the Rulesboyz e-mail account. They're not experts on the rules. They're often wrong. And if you ask them the same question three or four times, it’s not unheard of to get three or four different answers. If your argument includes any reference to a Rulezboy, you’ve just refuted yourself. Redshirts (i.e. staff at GW stores) fall into this same category.
• Posts from the Eye of Terror (or any other forum on the Internet, for that matter) are not official. They’re interesting and there’s nothing wrong with following them in common practice, but they are not rules, regardless of the alleged source. A-5. Intent Arguments
While interesting, discussing the “Designers’ Intent” will never help you in a rules discussion. Why? First, intent of a single designer and what may actually end up in print are never guaranteed to be the same. GW has no policy against routinely changing the same rule back and forth repeatedly. Second, it’s impossible to know intent. Unless you’ve got ESP, or the rule’s author is in the discussion, you’re just guessing at intent. Intent can be very simply refuted with an, “I don’t agree,” and the conversation ends, as neither side can prove its case for intent.A-6. Conflicts With Another Rule
If you’ve provided a set of premises that support your argument, but they are in conflict with another rule, your argument will not hold. It’s important to remember to Break No Rule.
i.e. Raptors can be given the Infiltrate veteran skill. However, in a mission that includes Escalation, although the rules say that models with Infiltrate may deploy after all other units have deployed, Raptors are classified as Jump Infantry, and thus may not deploy due to the Escalation rule.A-7. ”The rules don’t say I can’t!”
This is the most annoying argument ever made. If you’ve been forced to resort to it, your argument is immediately false. The rules don’t say I can’t place my models back on the board after you’ve killed them and use them next turn, but that doesn’t mean I can do it. The rules system is permissive: this means you may only do things you are expressly allowed to do or that the rules imply you can do. You are not allowed to do anything else. A-8. ”That’s Not How it Works in the Real World!”
Real world arguments are immediately irrelevant. This is a game of abstractions, and whether or not those abstractions make any sense, the rules depend on them to function. As an aside, these arguments are often flimsy at best anyway. These are games of Science Fiction and Magic. To make arguments that ray guns and mind bullets would work in a certain manner in the real world is silly. A-9. Committing a Logical Fallacy
A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning. Basically, if an argument includes a logical fallacy, the premises do not support the conclusion reached. Some logical fallacies are specified above, but using any logical fallacy will weaken and facilitate the refutation of your argument. For more information on logical fallacies, here are some websites that examine them in greater detail.Appendix B: What to Do When the Rules Don’t Cover It?
”Foolproof systems don't take into account the ingenuity of fools.” - Gene Brown
At this point we are in uncharted territory, and there may in fact be no definitive answer. But since we are playing a game, we’ll need an answer that provides us with enough functionality to actually play the game. So we must strive for a solution, but we must also realize that the solution we find does not have the weight of the rules behind it.
When the rules don’t actually give us an answer, you can’t create a deductive, rules based argument on how something should be played. In this case, strive to follow the ideal of “Break No Rule.” Find a way of playing out the situation that doesn’t actually break any rules. This may require doing something the rules don’t specifically outline, but if the game will stop without taking some action, then this is probably the best course of action.
But what if this can’t be done? What if you can’t follow all the rules because they conflict on a point? In this case, you must simply strive to find a solution that makes the most sense and causes the least amount of disagreement. Thankfully, these cases are rare, and can usually be resolved either by mutual agreement, or by rolling a d6 and playing on.Appendix C: On Rules Ethics
“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” - Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
When we discuss rules, it may not always be clear which argument has weight. If you have any question, or you have any doubt in a claim, there is a simple system to follow to ensure you get yourself into the least amount of trouble and make the least amount of people unhappy:
If there is equal weight, choosing the option that gives the action taker less advantage is the more ethical choice.
So if the rules may or may not allow you to take a specific action that has an impact on the game, don’t take it. But it’s important that this is only reserved for situations where there is a legitimate grey area. Simply because some people might not see or understand an argument doesn’t make that argument false, so you must choose carefully when this applies. And remember, the onus is on the person taking the action. If you don’t stop your opponent from taking advantage of a shaky rule, or at least discuss it, then you’re just letting yourself be taken advantage of. But if he's got a good argument, be prepared to let him take the action.
“Arguing is one of life's great pleasures, even if you have to argue with yourself. Course, I could enjoy the other side of that argument, too.” - Walter Slovotsky, as written by Joel Rosenberg
Remember, the ultimate goal is not to win more games or find rules to exploit. It’s simply to determine what the rules actually say so that we can feel confident that we aren’t breaking any of them.
(From DakkaDakka: Written by Mauleed. Edited/Revised by Centurian99)http://www.dakkadakka.com/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/15/postid/6158/view/topic/Default.aspx** updated 7-3-9 tga (removed dead links an updated some of the text) ** ** updated 8-21-7 tga **** updated 5-22-6 tga **