The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermTabletop term

Rule zero

The unwritten first rule of many roleplaying games: the Game Master has final say and may change any rule for the good of the game. It underwrites Homebrew and ends many rules arguments.

The unwritten first rule of many roleplaying games: the Game Master has final say and may change any rule for the good of the game. It underwrites Homebrew and ends many rules arguments.

Quick answers

What does "Rule zero" mean?
The unwritten first rule of many roleplaying games: the Game Master has final say and may change any rule for the good of the game. It underwrites Homebrew and ends many rules arguments.

Nearby in the archive

Homebrew

Tabletop term

Rules, monsters, classes, settings or adventures made by players themselves rather than bought from a publisher. Homebrew is as old as the hobby, since early D&D practically required referees to invent, and today it thrives on platforms such as D&D Beyond and in communities built around open licenses.

Game Master

Tabletop term

The player who runs the game: describing the world, voicing every Non-player character, adjudicating rules and deciding what the dice mean. Different games give the role different names, such as Dungeon Master in D&D, Storyteller in Vampire: The Masquerade and Keeper in Call of Cthulhu. The role descends from the neutral umpire of refereed wargames.

Rules lawyer

Tabletop term

A player who argues the letter of the rules, often to their own advantage, and treats the rulebook as a legal code. Every table has one; sometimes it is the Game Master.

Rules as written

Tabletop term

Reading a rule strictly by its text (RAW), as opposed to what its designers meant (RAI, rules as intended). D&D designer Jeremy Crawford has written that ideally the two align, but the words on the page do not always communicate the designers' intent.