Hey all. As some of you may know, I'm only a friendly player. I don't enter tournaments, I haven't even brought my army to a game store and played with people I don't know.
I was however at my local gaming store and there were several games going on, and I decided to watch in on a few, essentially to learn more, and to see armies that my buddies and I don't have in action. These were all non-tournament games, just friendly practice games or whatever. Nothing at stake. A few rules discussions started, and as a good bystander, I stood by, precisely keeping my mouth shut.
I believe after studying this game for over a year now and being pretty active here, that I've learned a great deal about the game and its basics and the general flow of the game. Well the great Gate of Infinity rule debate began. You all know the one. GoI to move out of combat.
There seemed to be two factions. It came down to 1) The rules don't say X can be done. 2) The rules don't say I can't do X.
Now regardless of the actual rule in question here, fundamentally #2 is what I'd like to touch on. I've actually seen it used here, on both sides(right and wrong) of the same rule.
Rules are defined as a set of principles or regulations governing conduct, action, procedure, arrangement, etc.: the rules of Warhammer 40k. Another clarifying definition is: A generalized statement that describes what is true in most or all cases.
Rules can and should only spell out what can be done. When an exception is present a rule will then state what cannot be done. But it is an impossibility to list out everything that cannot be done in every given circumstances.
The debate was getting way out of control, and the younger member had the stronger argument rules-wise. Then the older participant used the phrase, "The rules don't say, I can't do ....", which made my right eye twitch. As I was thinking about it, I kinda just blurted out, "The rules don't say I can't slap you." Now I don't really condone physical altercations, but I was just being funny. And the older participant was getting a little confrontational. Everyone laughed, and it lightened the mood. Now engaged, I explained what I meant by that, and finally they just decided to roll off for it.
Didn't mean to ramble on, but for debating rules, I thought the situation might shed some light on some of the sensitive subjects.
I was however at my local gaming store and there were several games going on, and I decided to watch in on a few, essentially to learn more, and to see armies that my buddies and I don't have in action. These were all non-tournament games, just friendly practice games or whatever. Nothing at stake. A few rules discussions started, and as a good bystander, I stood by, precisely keeping my mouth shut.
I believe after studying this game for over a year now and being pretty active here, that I've learned a great deal about the game and its basics and the general flow of the game. Well the great Gate of Infinity rule debate began. You all know the one. GoI to move out of combat.
There seemed to be two factions. It came down to 1) The rules don't say X can be done. 2) The rules don't say I can't do X.
Now regardless of the actual rule in question here, fundamentally #2 is what I'd like to touch on. I've actually seen it used here, on both sides(right and wrong) of the same rule.
Rules are defined as a set of principles or regulations governing conduct, action, procedure, arrangement, etc.: the rules of Warhammer 40k. Another clarifying definition is: A generalized statement that describes what is true in most or all cases.
Rules can and should only spell out what can be done. When an exception is present a rule will then state what cannot be done. But it is an impossibility to list out everything that cannot be done in every given circumstances.
The debate was getting way out of control, and the younger member had the stronger argument rules-wise. Then the older participant used the phrase, "The rules don't say, I can't do ....", which made my right eye twitch. As I was thinking about it, I kinda just blurted out, "The rules don't say I can't slap you." Now I don't really condone physical altercations, but I was just being funny. And the older participant was getting a little confrontational. Everyone laughed, and it lightened the mood. Now engaged, I explained what I meant by that, and finally they just decided to roll off for it.
Didn't mean to ramble on, but for debating rules, I thought the situation might shed some light on some of the sensitive subjects.