The rules lawyer retires

Hobby Corner · Board games

Every game group has one. They read the whole rule book, twice, and they have read the one sentence on page 14 that nobody else noticed. Last Saturday it finally happened: a rule dispute that outlasted the game.

We have agreed on a house rule. The rule book is a draft and the group is the editor.

Saturday evening, in minutes

Setting up

40

Reading the rules aloud

25

Disputing one sentence of the rules

55

Actually playing

20

The new house rules

• A rule that needs more than two minutes to settle is replaced by a coin.
• Page 14 is decorative.
• The person who wins the argument does not also get to win the game.

A rule book is a suggestion that has been given a table of contents.