I really hate whenever I try to explain how some bad rules can be abused and immediatelly get someone say shit like “If this happens in your group, change it” as if that would solve the problem. And whenever it is not soemthing you witnessed personally, then it means it never happens and could never happen.
If nothing has happened, then nothing needs to be done. I sometimes float exploits in the rules past my friends for various games, but make it clear I have no intention of playing that way.
I even tested something in Terraforming Mars this past weekend. I made it clear with the group ahead of time that I wanted to try something, what the strategy was, and how I would be playing. They were all fine with it, and it turned out the strategy was broken as hell. Won by 12 points against a fairly experienced group. It’s also a boring way to play that game and I wouldn’t care to do it again.
That’s also how I know that it’s fruitless to expect rules to avoid these situations entirely. They must be handled socially. Any other tool is inadequate.
Prevention is better than cure, dude. Take your vaccine so you don’t get the disease. Set up a fire escape so you don’t burn to death. Lock your door so people don’t walk in and steal your TV. Avoid Stabby Johnson so he doesn’t stab you.
And if you notice a flaw in a game system, do what you can to fix it.
If you are aware of a potential problem and do nothing to stop it, then you are responsible for it if it happens. You can’t expect to avoid tragedy entirely, but you reduced the risk of THAT tragedy by a good amount, and that’s not worthless. A seatbelt won’t always save you, but you’re absolutely fucked without one.
For someone trying to keep all options on the table, you sure are quick to remove all options from the table.
What are you even on about? If there’s a flaw in the system, the best that can be done is make it clear to the group that we shouldn’t abuse this, and hope the official rules are changed at some point.