Sparse List of Rules

Order 4: In the event of the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) being incapacitated, overall GAR command shall fall to the vice chair of the Senate until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified as outlined in Section 6 (iv).
Order 5: In the event of the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) being declared unfit to issue orders, as defined in Section 6 (ii), the Chief of the Defense Staff shall assume GAR command and form a strategic cell of senior officers (see page 1173, para 4) until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified.
Order 37: Capture of a single wanted individual through the mass arrest and threatened execution of a civilian population. Follow-up directives include scenarios for body disposal of civilian casualties and suppression of communications.

— contingency orders for the Grand Army of the Republic, Star Wars Legends: Republic Commando -- True Colors

Characters in fiction frequently have a set of basic principles to live by. But sometimes, authors want to give the impression of a complex system of principles with a lot of thought put into it, without actually spending the time and mental effort to design the system.

One common way to do this is to declare that there are a large number of such rules, and then quote a few of them, in order to give the audience the general idea of what the rules are about. This trope is frequently employed in a TV series or a long book or series of books, so that the author(s) can add new items to the list as time goes by. Rule #1 from the list is inevitably mentioned at some point, usually early on, though it's not always the first rule to be revealed.

The name comes from "sparse list", a technique used by computer programmers to efficiently manage large numbered lists with many elements missing.

May incorporate Obvious Rule Patches and be counteracted through Loophole Abuse. Characters may use these to Bother by the Book. See also the Great Big Book of Everything, or its subtrope, the Big Book of War, either of which may be where the characters are quoting rules from. This trope may be used for a game of Calvinball.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The anime adaptation of Seitokai Yakuindomo has a Once an Episode gag of Shino announcing a new (often weird or nonsensical) Ousai Academy Student Council Rule.

Fan Works

• The Pokéumans community has one called "Things Not To Do In A Pokeumans Base", an Affectionate Parody of Skippy's List. This list is sparse in that as readers submit suggestions it builds with each successive update.
• Worffan 101's Star Trek Online fics, including Peace Forged in Fire, have the Words of Glorious Odo'Ital, religious maxims quoted by the Odo-worshipping Jem'Hadar Omek'ti'kallan. He quotes them out of order throughout the stories. Some highlights from Peace:
  "It would be wise to allow the Human to finish. For doth not the Thirteenth Word of Odo'Ital state that 'Information is key to any endeavour'?"
  "Science Bekk Min'tak'allan, it would be wise to exercise some caution in this enterprise. For doth not the Twenty-Ninth Word of Odo'Ital say 'The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy—no more, no less.'?"
  "I recommend giving this mission your all, Admiral. For doth not the Seventeenth Word of Odo'Ital say 'You can't know that you can't do something until you've given it your very best effort.'?"
  "Admiral, remember your therapy. For the Sixth Word of Odo'Ital sayeth 'Every life is precious. Do not spend your own save to spare another.'"
  "They appear to have made a tactical miscalculation by underestimating our numbers and strength, though. This will be their undoing. For doth not the Miscellaneous Words of Odo'Ital state "When possible, avoid attacking targets that outnumber or otherwise prove stronger than you."?"
• In the Star Wars/Mass Effect/Borderlands Massive Multiplayer Crossover Origins, the Trans-Galactic Republic's "Standardized Regulations of Military Law" serve as important plot-points, having been derived from the Real Life UCMJ but otherwise is not fleshed out or given any body beyond what is necessary for the plot.

Films — Animation

• In The Great Mouse Detective, Ratigan pulls out a Long List of decrees after declaring himself king. Only item 96 is read onscreen.
• Phil from Hercules has a large set of rules on being a hero. He only mentions a handful, but the numbers do go into the hundreds.

Films — Live-Action

• Subverted in Zombieland where only a handful of rules ("Cardio, Cardio, Cardio") are brought up, but a whole lot more were presented via internet in short promotional clips leading up to the film's release.
• In Phantom of the Paradise, the contract that Winslow Leach signs with Swan is presented as a thick paper manuscript. Winslow only asks about one or two of the entries, including the all encompassing "All articles that are excluded shall be deemed included."
• Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: Order 66, the order for Grand Army of the Republic to turn on its Jedi generals, comes from a list of at least 150 contingency orders. Only four others are known, all of which come from the Republic Commando Series by Karen Traviss. Also never shown are the various other items cited in the known orders.
• In the Men in Black films Agent Kay is given to quoting chapter and verse of MIB regulations at Jay when he does something questionable.
• Wedding Crashers has a large list of rules for crashers, which the main characters quote throughout the movie.

Literature

• In the fifth Captain Underpants book, the school reveals it has the Big Book O' Rules, with nearly 8000 rules. The reader only hears two: "Rule 411: Don't kick school property into space", and "Rule 7,734: Don't transform into big, flying robots during afternoon recess."
• The Assassin's Guild School in the Discworld series has quite a list of rules, as one might expect, but only certain ones are listed, such as rules regarding boys and girls being restricted to their own dormitories (and various patches to deal with Loophole Abusers and Rules Lawyers), and Rule 16 and its subrules forbidding keeping a crocodile in one's bedroom. Or the basement.
• There are 700 ways to commit a foul in Quidditch in the Harry Potter universe, but the readers only learn a small selection of them and then mostly through the side book Quidditch Through the Ages. This is mainly because these are far and away the most common fouls: most of the rest are Obvious Rule Patches such as, "It is illegal to attack your opponent with an axe." And about 90% of the list is apparently rendered redundant by the general ban on using one's wand against other players. The full list is not even known in-universe except by the referees, on the grounds of not wanting to give people ideas.
• The only sections of the Deneb Accords, the laws governing interstellar warfare in the Honor Harrington series, that have been revealed in the series are the sections concerning prisoners of war, since they're plot points in In Enemy Hands. They're the sections State Sec head Cordelia Ransom subjects to severe Rules Lawyering in order to try and have Honor executed.
• Journey to Chaos: The Dragon's Lair Charter has a number of rules governing mercenary behavior but as far as Looming Shadow, only the fourth one has been mentioned: "Never kill the client".

Live-Action TV

• The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There are canonically 285 rules, though less than 100 of them are actually mentioned in the show. The first Rule was actually devised by the first Grand Nagus, and named "The 162nd Rule of Acquisition" as a marketing ploy to create demand for the first 161. Rule #1: "Once you have their money, never give it back."
• Gibbs' Rules from NCIS, a list of rules said agent has come up with for how to run a successful investigation. This fansite catalogs the whole list so far. Rule #1? "Never screw over your partner."
• Red Dwarf has the Space Corps Directives that Kryten would often quote. Rimmer ended up quoting directives back but always being wrong. In one episode they show the book of directives and it's rather small despite the high numbers mentioned complete with multiple subcategories for each one, and rules for every situation including performing oral sex in a zero-g environment.
• How I Met Your Mother:
  • The Bro Code is quoted often by Barney, yet only a few rules are ever given onscreen. A few more appear as vanity plates on syndication. It was eventually Defictionalized and made available in full on bookstores.
  • Same thing goes for Barney's playbook. Only a few plays are ever divulged, but the book itself is shown to be a Doorstopper.
• Doctor Who: The Caretakers' rule-books in "Paradise Towers," which are improbably compact for the amount of rules they're said to have. Only a few rules are ever actually mentioned on screen, and the Caretakers themselves probably don't look at their own handbooks anyway. The Doctor guesses as much, and bluffs his way out of capture by making up a few dozen rules. It takes them a few minutes to realize that he's just tricked them!
• Porridge: According to the prison warden, there are only two rules in Slade Prison. The first is that you do not write on the walls. The second is that you obey all the rules.

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer 40,000
  • Some storylines and fluff use the Codex Astartes like this, for example in an early mission of Dawn of War's single-player campaign where Captain Gabriel Angelos notes what the Codex's recommended course of action in response to the Orks' tactics is.
  • Whatever was decreed for the Ecclesiarchy following the Age of Apostasy, the only notable rule that comes up a lot in fluff is the "No Men Under Arms", which is the origins story for the Sisters of Battle, and that they are the official Imperial-sanctioned cult.
  • Averted with the Imperial Guard Infantry Uplifting Primer, which has been published in full detail. The only reason that it got this distinct honor is because much of the rules in there are Hollywood Tactics even by the standards of the setting!

Video Games

• In the Halo series, the Cole Protocol is the most important Naval code to humanity's fleet, since it lists the actions they are not allowed to do to prevent the Covenant from discovering Earth. However several rules are often ignored because they're just technicalities. We only hear one of those, Subsection 7: "No captured Covenant vessel can be brought back to human space without a thorough search for tracking devices." (Useless because the Covenant self-destruct all their vessels in danger of capture.)
• From Star Wars: Republic Commando's loading screens: "Rule number one: kill them before they kill you." "Rule seventeen: always make sure they're dead." "Rule thirty-nine: never say no to bacta." Several other rules are also quoted, but no actual strategies or tactics are mentioned. What list they're quoting from is also never stated.
• Suzerain: The Sordish constitution, naturally. We don't see it in full, but do get an idea of some of its articles when relevant:
  • Article 6 designates that every citizen of Sordland, regardless of their ethnic background, is a "Sord" under the law. Article 7 gives every Sord equal protection under the law.
  • Article 17 gives sole authority to the Supreme Court to impeach the President.
  • Article 82 deals with the President's power of legislative veto.
  • Article 100 defines the President's ability to use emergency powers to govern.

Webcomics

• Schlock Mercenary brings us "The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries," of which only 35 are known so far. Maxim #1 is, "Pillage, then burn." This may eventually become an aversion. New Maxims are constantly being introduced and more importantly starting in 2012 the author started releasing calendars featuring 1 Maxim per month in numeric order (up to #36 as of the 2014 calendar). This could present a problem for an eventual 2017 calendar which will presumably finish the list with the entry for October.
  • Of course, back when the list was named "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates," there were already well over seven. So even when this becomes an aversion at some future date, it might still not quite.
  • A full text of the Seventy Maxims was published as an incentive bonus for the Kickstarter campaign that Howard Tayler launched for the Planet Mercenary RPG'. There are currently both a clean version simulating an unread copy, and a 'defaced' version featuring annotations by characters from the strip.
• High School Lessons is built on this. There's apparently well over 9000 rules, so it's unlikely we'll see them all.

Web Original

• Rule 34 had that name before the other Rules of the Internet were written.
• Creepypasta:
  • Several stories revolve around the protagonist finding such a list at their new job (or, more rarely, their new home), with dire consequences for them if the rules are broken.
  • There also exist "Games," occult rituals whose steps are presented as, well, a game, often with a reward for doing it right, such as the player's heart's desire. If the player fails, either they can never try again or they get Dragged Off to Hell or "go missing".

Western Animation

• The Fairly Oddparents
  • Fairy Godparents are restricted to a large list of rules listed in a gigantic book titles 'Da Rules'. Cosmo and Wanda would pull out the rule book any time Timmy plans on making a wish that would break the rules. It's never said how many rules there are, but new ones are mentioned frequently.
  • Timmy once managed to screw up so badly by wishing every day was Christmas that a new rule was made up just to prevent it from happening again. Jorgen, on one occasion, also took out a sticky note about a rule that he had forgotten to put in, allowing Timmy to proceed with the wish due to it technically not being an official "rule" yet. Cosmo also mentioned that they discuss new rules at Fairy Conventions.
  • Amusingly, every time the rules are cracked open they flip to the absolute center of the book, despite having already broken a few hundred rules (each one apparently taking up a whole page). This means that unless the rulebook specifically displays the relevant rule being broken (and the rest of the pages are just for show), Timmy has only scratched the surface of the amount of existing rules.
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command has the Space Ranger Mission Manual. A few of the mentioned rules include the following:
  • Section 6, Subsection Gamma: No Ranger is allowed to go into action without backup. (In the pilot movie, Buzz insists that he doesn't have to follow this rule because he wrote half of the rules and because it is too dangerous for anybody to be his partner after his last one died.)
  • Section 6, Subsection Delta contains the dress code, of which the only rule mentioned is that Rangers can't have nose rings.
• The Junior Woodchuck Guidebook from DuckTales (2017) has at least 1118 different rules, though we only hear twenty of them over the course of the series. Rule 1 (which is revealed in the Grand Finale) is "Always expect the unexpected."

Real Life

• The Thirty-Six Stratagems of ancient China are thought to have originated as one, as the first concrete reference to them mentions only the very last one ("When all else fails, retreat").

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