rules bloat

"Rules bloat can also result from the design and writing process itself. Cogitating about in-game causes can transform itself, at the keyboard, into a sort of Exploration of its own, which results in very elaborate rules-sets for situational modifiers, encumbrance, movement, technology, prices of things, none of which is related to actual play of the game with actual people. During the writing process, 'what if' meets 'but also' and breeds tons of situational rules modifiers. . . . Don't spin your wheels defending your design against some other form of play."

-Ron Edwards, from "Simulationism: The Right to Dream"