List of fool's errands
A collection of things that don't need to happen because that would be a waste of time, both for you and for the eventual reader.
Not everything needs to be defined (explicitly)
- Sub-essay by Tantusar
English has this really nice feature called the attributive verb, the upshot of which is this: There are words that implicitly exist in the rules in relation to an action that don't need defining unless you want them to mean something else.
For example: If a rule exists that says, “Individuals may Punch a Spaceman on Friday," then it is perfectly reasonable to refer to the Individual who is Punching as the Punching Individual, or to the Spaceman who is Punched as the Punched Spaceman, all with no further definition.
In fact, forget attributive verbs, those are perfectly valid words, period. The rules state, "A keyword defined by a rule supersedes the normal English usage of the word," and, as derivative verbs are... Well... Derivative, defining Punch also defines the verbs (and any adjective forms of) Punching, Punches and Punched, the noun Puncher, and almost certainly a number of other words I haven't thought of. Don't overthink it. It just works.
Free text can't be constrained case-by-case
- Sub-essay by Kevan
Sometimes dynasties will allow players to write free text directly into the gamestate or ruleset, but include a list of constraints to attempt to prevent abuse of this.
A player can spend a token to add a sentence to this rule, but this sentence can't be more than five words, or grant a player victory, or refer to a player by name, or generate tokens, or overrule this sentence, or...
As a functional rule in a larger game, trying to maintain such a list will always be fool's errand. With all of the English language to play with, a little lateral thinking can give a new angle that avoids the previous constraints, and maybe gives a direct route to victory. If it doesn't quite get there, a scammer can try proposing an innocuous-seeming change to another rule to set things up, first.
This can turn the game into a minefield dynasty where the majority of player focus is drawn to the free text mechanic, and whether anyone is manoeuvring to exploit it.