I think you’re missing my point, though I didn’t really emphasise it. Rule systems are artificial constructs designed for a purpose. Game rules in particular are designed with strong consideration towards balance. Both the examples you gave would be considered design failures in their respective games. The reason they are noteworthy is because the designers have done a good job of eliminating most other avenues of allowing a player character to become game-breakingly overpowered.
You ask “is this evidence that randomized rule systems that are complicated enough to be interesting are also likely to allow some sort of drastic increase in effective abilities using some sort of loopholes?” Most rule systems aren’t randomised; if they were they probably wouldn’t do anything useful. They’re also not interesting on the basis of how complicated they are, but because they’ve been explicitly designed to engage humans.
My D&D heyday was 2nd ed, where pretty much any three random innocuous magic items could be combined to make an unstoppable death machine. They’ve gotten better since then.
I think you’re missing my point, though I didn’t really emphasise it. Rule systems are artificial constructs designed for a purpose. Game rules in particular are designed with strong consideration towards balance. Both the examples you gave would be considered design failures in their respective games. The reason they are noteworthy is because the designers have done a good job of eliminating most other avenues of allowing a player character to become game-breakingly overpowered.
You ask “is this evidence that randomized rule systems that are complicated enough to be interesting are also likely to allow some sort of drastic increase in effective abilities using some sort of loopholes?” Most rule systems aren’t randomised; if they were they probably wouldn’t do anything useful. They’re also not interesting on the basis of how complicated they are, but because they’ve been explicitly designed to engage humans.
Ah, I see. I didn’t understand correctly the first time. Yes, that seems like a very valid set of points
My D&D heyday was 2nd ed, where pretty much any three random innocuous magic items could be combined to make an unstoppable death machine. They’ve gotten better since then.