Out Damn Lawyer!
As of late I've become a massive Rules Lawyer. Say what? A guy who has never read the Call of Cthulhu or Stormbringer rulebooks in their entirety (and how may games have I run of each?) is saying that he's become a Rules Lawyer?
Well, yep...
You see in Mash's Deadland's game, I have been the worst rules 'n@zi' going around. Telling everyone what to roll, the bonuses' they should get and, worse than anything, telling Mash the 'rules'. What an @-hole I am!
Let's be honest I've never really been one for rules, hell I played 20-odd sessions of Star Wars with Luke and almost lost my character in the final encounter because I had no idea what basic actions I could do (i.e. using one of the three, major, standard or minor - b*gger I still don't know which one - to move extra spaces on the map!). That, and for the most part I learn games by osmosis, i.e. playing them.
But I know where this rule's mongering streak came from - and I'm going to blame Luke (no, not really). You see in the short Fireborn campaign he ran, I actually read a few of the rules in the book, and discovered that by aiming I could do a greatly increased amount of damage. This, as it turned out, became vital in the final battle of the game, where my aimed shot took out the 'big bad' in basically one shot (bullet to the forehead do that I suppose). It was like a light going off in my head (or perhaps it was just a few more brain cells dying), that you could actually 'use' the rules to get benefits in the game (duh, who would have thought that!?!).
Anyway, the result is that I actually take time to read the rules sets I play or run now...
Still I don't need to, and shouldn't be, a rules lawyer. When I'm running I prefer people to forget the rules and focus on the actions and plot of the characters and story, so why the hell can't I do the same?
I suppose this should also be an apology to Mash and the Friday Night group - sorry all!