I keep seeing these referred to and have no idea what they are. and a search revealed so many results that reference them but still doesn't say what exactly they are. any help would be awesome thanks in advance

Rules as Written - This is where we strictly follow the rules as stated in the verbiage used in the rulebook/RRG/etc. A strict reading of the rules which does not allow for any information that is not in an official rules source.

Rules as Intended - This is where we take into account statements made by the game developers, information from the lore source material, etc. A more open interpretation of the rules which does allow for information from a non-official rules source (such as a statement made by Alex Davy on a live-stream event), as well as from non-rules sources.

Essentially, the letter of the law vs the spirit of the law.

On 10/8/2018 at 3:37 PM, JJ48 said:

Essentially, the letter of the law vs the spirit of the law.

Yes. The debate typically arises because game developers tend to write their rules in a conversational tone (likely a function of the fact that they've repeated those rules many, many times to playtesters) rather than with a legalese level of discipline.