Purist

In the context of Mornington Nomic: One who prefers to change the rules as little as possible, and clarify them into general principles (preferably without specific exceptions) as much as possible, and as far as possible to apply the same conventions in Mornington Nomic as in standard Mornington Crescent (and, in many cases, vice versa.)

To bring an unnecessary collection of stereotypes into the matter, Purists tend to believe that Rule Inventors, no matter how well-meaning, bring unnecessary complexity to the game, and often bring in too many special-case scenarios, and that Gadgeteers are just plain silly. (But if they can engineer an amendment that turns a Rule Inventor's special-case scenario into a general principle, or a Gadgeteer's new idea actually passes muster and doesn't get repealed in disgust within two weeks, in either case the change will become part of the Standard Game as far as the Purist is concerned, and any attempt to modify the new rule will be met with as much scorn as the new rule itself received when it was first proposed.)

When two Purists have a disagreement over what should, or should not, be considered 'standard', the result is not a pretty sight but can be well worth watching from a safe distance. This being said, if two Purists can ever be found who don't disagree with each other on something, it is possible that the entire Universe will spontaneously combust, disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre. This has clearly not happened yet and quite possibly never will.

[JLE]

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