Ruleset 116

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Survivors shall obey it. Section One consists of the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering basic proposal mechanics; Section Two contains the rules of the current dynasty; and Section Three contains the appendix, which exists solely to clarify the remainder of the ruleset.

The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset.

Survivors may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Proposals at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they”.

Survivors

Any human may apply to join BlogNomic (if they are not already playing) by registering at http://blognomic.com via the Register link in the sidebar, and then making a post making clear their wish to be a Survivor. An Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment they become a Survivor.

A Survivor may leave the game at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A Survivor may not rejoin the game within two weeks after having left. A Survivor may only change their name as a result of a proposal approving the change.

Some Survivors are Admins, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Survivors who wish to become Admins may sign up with a username for the Ruleset Wiki, and submit a Proposal to make themselves Admins. Existing Admins may be removed from their posts by Proposal, CfJ, or voluntary resignation. New admins shall be given the GNDT configuration password when they become admins.

Idle Survivors

Some Survivors are Idle, and shall be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Survivors”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play” and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Survivors are not counted as Survivors.

If a Proposal contains a provision that targets a specifically named Idle Survivor, then that Idle Survivor is considered to be Unidle solely for the purposes of enacting that specific provision

When a Survivor is unidled, if they went Idle in the same dynasty, their personal gamestate retains the last legally endowed values it had, if they are still valid. Otherwise (including if a value is invalid, does not exist, or the Survivor Idled in a different dynasty), the Survivor is given the default value for new Survivor, if such a value exists.

An Admin may render a Survivor Idle if that Survivor has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Survivor has not posted an entry or comment in the last seven days. In the latter case, the Admin must announce the idling in a blog post. Admins may render themselves Idle at any time, but should make a post announcing it when they do so. An Admin may Unidle a Survivor if that Survivor has asked to become Unidle in an entry or comment from the past four days, and Idle Admins may Unidle themselves at any time, unless the Survivor who would be Unidled asked to become (or rendered themselves) Idle within the previous four days, and within the current dynasty.

Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single Survivor, known as the Captain. If there is no Captain, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.

Votable Matters

A Votable Matter is a post which Survivors may cast Votes on, such as a Proposal, a Call for Judgement or a Declaration of Victory.

Each Survivor may cast one Vote on a Votable Matter by making a comment to the Official Post that comprises that Votable Matter using a voting icon of FOR, AGAINST, or DEFERENTIAL. Additional voting icons may be permitted in some cases by other rules. A valid Vote is, except when otherwise specified, a Vote of FOR or AGAINST. A Survivor’s Vote on a Votable Matter is the last valid voting icon that they have used in any comment on that Votable Matter. Additionally, if the author of a Votable Matter has not used a valid voting icon in a comment to the post, then the author’s Vote is FOR. A non-Survivor never has a Vote, even if they were a Survivor previously and had cast a valid Vote.

Votable Matters can either be Pending, Enacted, or Failed. When a Votable Matter is first put forward, it is considered Pending.

Whenever an Admin resolves a Votable Matter, they must also mark their name, and report the final tally of Votes (or the fact that it was self-killed or vetoed).

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules in its application to Calls for Judgement or Declarations of Victory.

Proposals

Any Survivor may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the Survivor already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).

Special Proposal Voting

When a Survivor casts an explicit vote AGAINST their own Proposal, this renders the Proposal Self-Killed, even if the author later changes their Vote. The Captain may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a proposal; when the Captain casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Captain later changes their Vote.

If a Survivor other than the Captain casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Captain. When the Captain has a valid Vote other than VETO on a Proposal, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Captain's Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified.

Resolution of Proposals

The oldest pending Proposal may be enacted by any Admin (by updating the Ruleset and/or Gamestate to include the specified effects of that Proposal, and then setting that Proposal's status to Enacted) if either of the following is true:

• It has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, and has not been Vetoed or Self-Killed.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, it has more than 1 valid Vote cast on it, more valid Votes cast on it are FOR than are AGAINST, and it has not been Vetoed or Self-Killed.

The oldest pending Proposal may be failed by any Admin, if any of the following are true:

• It has been Vetoed or Self-Killed.
• The number of Survivors who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

If a proposal somehow ends up being pending for more than 7 days, it is ignored for the purpose of calculating the oldest pending proposal, and can be failed by any Admin.

Calls for Judgement

If two or more Survivors actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Survivor feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Survivor may raise a Call for Judgement (abbreviated CfJ) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgement” category.

A Pending CFJ may be Resolved by an Admin if it has a Quorum of FOR Votes, a Quorum of AGAINST Votes, or if it has been open for voting for more than 48 hours. When a CFJ is Resolved, it is to be Enacted if it has more FOR Votes than AGAINST Votes and Failed otherwise. When a CFJ is Enacted, the Admin Enacting it shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct the GNDT and other gamestate tracking entities, as specified in the CFJ.

Any CfJ that specifies neither changes to the Gamestate or Ruleset nor corrections to any gamestate tracking entities may be failed by any Admin.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a Survivor (other than the Captain) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they may make a post to the Blognomic weblog in the Declaration of Victory category, detailing this.

Upon doing so, the game immediately goes into Hiatus, if it hasn’t already. During this time, the only game actions that may be taken are those covered by Rules “Survivors”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Survivor may cast Votes on that DoV to indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty.

A Pending DoV may be enacted if any of the following is true:

• It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and either the Captain has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
• It has been open for voting for at least 24 hours, has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and has a number of AGAINST Votes lesser than half of Quorum, rounded down.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, has a number of Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and more than half of its valid Votes are FOR.

A DoV may be failed if any of the following are true:

• It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, and the number of Survivors who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

When a DoV fails and there are no pending DoVs, Hiatus ends.

When a DoV is enacted, all other active DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins with the Survivor who made the DoV as its Captain. That Survivor may pass this role to another Survivor at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new Captain makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the Captain's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Survivor and Captain will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire ruleset, and/or a number of dynastic rules to keep. Upon posting such an Ascension Address, the Ruleset is updated to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed.

A DoV may not be started in the period between an enacted DoV and that DoV’s Ascension Address. When a DoV is failed, if it has a number of AGAINST Votes that exceed Quorum, the Survivor who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was failed.

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules as it relates to Declarations of Victory, but can be overruled in other matters.

Fair Play

The following are BlogNomic’s rules of fair play. If any of these rules are found to have been broken, or if a Survivor's behaviour or actions are otherwise deemed unacceptable (socially or otherwise), a proposal or CfJ may be made to reprimand or punish the perpetrator or, in cases of extreme or repeated violations, remove them from the game and bar them from rejoining.

• A single person should not control more than one Survivor within BlogNomic.
• A Survivor should not “spam” the BlogNomic blog. What counts as spamming is subjective, but would typically include posting more than ten blog entries in a day, more than ten blog comments in a row, or posting a blog entry of more than 1000 words.
• A Survivor should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
• A Survivor should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Survivor.
• A Survivor should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
• A Survivor should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
• A Survivor should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an ascension address).

Seasonal Downtime

Blognomic goes into hiatus every year on December 24th, and remains in hiatus until December 27th. During this time no game actions may be taken except those described in the rules entitled “Votable Matters,” “Gamestate Tracking” and “Call for Judgement”.

Dynastic Rules

Memory

All Survivors, except the Captain, have an amount of Recollection, which is an integer between 0 and 100, inclusive. Recollection is tracked in the GNDT and defaults to 30.

Brain Overdrive

If a Survivor takes a daily or weekly action that requires a die roll, they may choose to use Brain Overdrive before taking that action. If a Survivor uses Brain Overdrive, they may perform any die roll required by an action thrice and choose any one of the three rolls to use for the action. Furthermore, using Brain Overdrive decreases the Recollection of the Survivor by two.

Studying

As a weekly action, a Survivor may Study by rolling DICE3. If the result is a 1, they gain 5 Recollection. If the result is a 3, the Food is reduced by 2.

Health

All Survivors have a Vitality, tracked in the GNDT. Valid Vitalities are Optimal, Healthy, Fatigued, Famished, Wounded, and Disabled. Vitality defaults to Fatigued.

A Survivor’s Vitality may be Increased or Decreased. When it is Increased, it becomes the entry to the left of the Survivor’s vitality in the above list (e.g. Wounded becomes Famished), or remains at Optimal if it is already Optimal. When it is Decreased, it becomes to the entry to the right of the Survivor’s Vitality (e.g. Wounded becomes Disabled), or remains at Disabled if it already Disabled.

A Survivor cannot achieve victory while his Vitality is “Disabled”.

As a weekly action, a Survivor may Attempt First Aid. When a Survivor Attempts First Aid, they pick another Survivor in the same Location as them and roll a DICE5. If the result is a 1, the chosen Survivor has their Vitality increased.

As a weekly action, a Survivor may Attempt Self-Medication. When a Survivor Attempts Self-Medication, they roll a DICE6. If the result is a 1, they have their Vitality increased.

A Survivor who is Disabled may not take any Daily or Weekly actions.

Hippocratic Oath

If a Survivor takes an action that causes another Survivor’s Health to change from Disabled to any status other than Infected, the former gains 5 Recollection.

Communal Resources

There is a communal quantity of Food tracked in the Captain’s row of the GNDT in a column called Food, defaulting to six times the number of Survivors.

There is a communal quantity of electrical Power tracked in the Captain’s row of the GNDT in a column called Power, defaulting to 0.

There is a communal quantity of Supplies tracked in the Captain’s row of the GNDT in a column called Supplies, defaulting to 0.

Modules

The ship has various modules. if a module has a Required Power attribute, it is considered Operational if and only if the communal Power is at least as high as the Required Power attribute.

List of modules

Infirmary

Required Power: 100

If this module is active, Survivors may Care For Sick as a weekly action. When a Survivor Cares For Sick, they pick another Survivor with a Vitality of “Famished” or lower and roll a DICE4. If the result is a 1, the chosen Survivor has their Vitality set to “Fatigued”. Regardless of the result of the dice roll, the communal Power is reduced by 5.

If this module is active, Survivors may Rest In Infirmary as a weekly action, under two conditions: a) They have not yet taken a weekly action that week b) Their Vitality is “Famished” or lower When a Survivor Rests in Infirmary, they roll a DICE5. If the result is a 1, they have their Vitality set to “Fatigued”. Regardless of the result of the dice roll, the communal Power is reduced by 5, and they cannot take another weekly action that week.

Evil A.I.

Required Power: 200

If this module is active, Survivors may Recover Logs as a weekly action. When a Survivor Recovers Logs, they roll a DICE4. If the result is a 1, that Survivor gains 10 Recollection.

After performing a successful Recover Logs action and gaining Recollection, a survivor must roll an additional DICE4. If the result is 1, the Survivor is now considered Evil. Evil Survivors do not perform the additional DICE4 evil roll. Evil Survivors may perform the Recover Logs twice per week. An Evil Survivor may not achieve victory if the Evil A.I. module is not operational.

Subspace Transceiver

Required Power: 300

Specialists

Each Survivor has a single Specialization tracked in the GNDT in a column called Specialization, which is “None” by default. As a weekly action a Survivor may Respec. When a Survivor Respecs, their Specialization becomes “None”. Legal Specializations and their effects on dynastic actions are listed below:

• None: When a Survivor with Specialization of None Respecs, they may instead set their Specialization to any Legal Specialization which is not Commander Raichu and is not on the Crew Manifest.
• Hunter: A Safe Hunter in a Green Location adds 3 to the communal Food during the first step of Taking Stock.
• Doctor: When a Survivor with Specialization of Doctor Attempts First Aid, they roll a DICE4 instead of DICE5. When they Attempt Self-Medication, they roll a DICE5 instead of DICE6
• Technician: A Safe Technician in Location 0 adds 4 to the communal Power during the first step of Taking Stock.
• Scavenger: A Safe Scavenger in a Yellow Location adds 3 to the communal Supplies during the first step of Taking Stock.
• Commander Raichu: Commander Raichu has no special abilities.
• Lt Helle: If Lt Helle is Safe, the communal Food is increased by 3 during the first step of Taking Stock.
• Lt Monsen: If Lt Monsen is Safe and in a Green Location, the communal Food is increased by 5 during the first step of Taking Stock.
• Dr Prestrud: When Dr Prestrud Attempts First Aid, they roll a DICE3 instead of DICE5.
• Dr Larsen: When Dr Larsen Attempts First Aid, if the result is a 1 then the Survivor has their Vitality increased twice; if the result is 5, the Survivor has their Vitality decreased.
• Engineer Galti: If Engineer Galti is Safe, the communal Power is increased by 6 during the first step of Taking Stock.
• Engineer Bock: If Engineer Bock is Safe and in Location 0, the communal Power is increased by 8 during the first step of Taking Stock.
• Lt. Casey: If Lt. Casey is Safe, add DICE12 to the communal Supplies during the first step of Taking Stock.

Crew Manifest

The fire-damaged ship’s computer lists the Crew Manifest as:-

• Dr Prestrud
• Dr Larsen
• Engineer Galti
• Engineer Bock
• Lt Helle
• Lt Monsen
• Lt. Casey

If a Survivor’s Recollection is 40 or more, they may, as a Weekly Action, Recall their previous identity onboard the ship, by choosing any name on the Crew Manifest which is not currently taken as the Specialization of a Survivor with higher Recollection; upon doing so, this becomes their Specialization, and any other Survivor with that name as their Specialization has it set to “None”.

Epiphanies

The Captain has an ordered list of Epiphanies, consisting of short messages, coupled with a number called a Threshold. If a Survivor has had an amount of Recollection higher than the Threshold of an Epiphany, the Captain should send that Epiphany to the Survivor in a private message, if the Captain has not done so already. If a Survivor has received an Epiphany and no Survivor has Revealed that particular Epiphany yet, they may Reveal it by posting a Story Post highlighting this fact and adding the Epiphany to the wiki page “Epiphanies” in a bulleted list.

Movement

Every Survivor has a Location, which is a colored region on the “MaroonedMap”. Locations are tracked in the GNDT as integers between 0 and 16 (inclusive), corresponding to the Locations as shown on the Map, and defaulting to 0. Each Location has a Color, which can be Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, or Grey. The color of a Location is defined by its color on the MaroonedMap page. The MaroonedMap page cannot be altered except by Proposals or Call for Judgements.

Any Survivor, if they have not done so in the past 24 hours, and if their Vitality is not Wounded or Disabled, may Walk. They do so by changing their Location to one adjacent to the Location they are in, as shown on the Marooned Map. A Survivor with a Vitality of Wounded may Walk if they have not done so in the past 72 hours. Immediately after doing so, they must roll DICE3. If the result is a 3, their Vitality is Decreased. No Survivor may Walk to any Blue Location.

Taking Stock

A Survivor is Safe if they are not Disabled or Infected.

If at least 4 days have passed since Stock was last Taken, any Survivor may Take Stock by performing the following, in order:

1. For each Safe Survivor, the communal resources are increased by the amount corresponding to their Specialisation.
2. Increase the Food by {G}DICE9, where {G} is the total number of Safe Survivors in a Green Location.
3. Decrease the Food by 2 times the number of Safe Survivors in Location 0 and 3 times the number of Safe Survivors not in Location 0. If this would set it below 0, instead it is set to 0.
4. If the Food is 0, Decrease every Safe Survivor’s Vitality.
5. Increase the Power by 8 times the number of Safe Survivors in Location 0.
6. Increase the Supplies by (3*Y)DICE3, where Y is the total number of Safe Survivors in a Yellow Location.
7. Move The Alien by subtracting (3DICE3)-4 from the number of its current Location. If this would place The Alien at a Location smaller than 0 or greater than 16, it is placed at 0 or 16, respectively.
8. Increase the recollection of any survivors with a Vitality of Healthy by 1 and those with a Vitality of Optimal by 2.

Survivors may not perform actions governed by Dynastic Rules while Stock is being Taken. If a Survivor begins Taking Stock but leaves the action incomplete, another Survivor may finish it.

The Alien

There is an entity, called The Alien by the Survivors, that has been seen stalking around the site of the crash. The Alien’s Location is tracked in its own GNDT row, with all other columns blank.

If a Survivor is ever in the same Location as The Alien, that Survivor's Vitality is set to Infected. If an Infected Survivor's Vitality would be Increased, instead nothing happens. If an Infected Survivor's Vitality is Decreased, it is set to Disabled. The Infected Vitality is otherwise considered to be at the same level as Fatigued.

If an Infected Survivor walks to a different Location on the MaroonedMap, he should roll a DICE6 for every non-Infected Survivor in the new Location. If the result is 1, that Survivor becomes Infected.

If a non-Infected Survivor walks to a different Location on the MaroonedMap and there is an Infected Survivor in the new Location, he should roll a DICE8. If the result is 1, he becomes Infected.

Victory

If the Subspace Transceiver is Operational, the non-Disabled, non-Evil, non-Infected Survivor (or Survivors, in case of a tie) with the highest Recollection has achieved Victory.

If exactly one Survivor is not Disabled, and that Survivor is Evil, they have achieved Victory.

If every Survivor who is not Disabled is Infected, The Alien achieves Victory. In this case, all Dynastic Rules are repealed and a new Dynastic Rule is created with the name “Glorious Overlord” and the text “The Alien is an entity that is treated as a Survivor for all purposes. The Alien may never be idled.” Then, a new Dynasty begins with The Alien as Captain.

Equipment

Survivors may possess Equipment. The Equipment a survivor possesses is tracked as a comma separated list in the GNDT, under Equipment.

A non-Disabled Survivor may transfer Equipment to another Survivor in the same location as themselves by removing the Equipment from their list and appending to the other Survivor’s list. A non-Disabled Survivor may transfer Equipment from a Disabled Survivor in the same location to themselves with the same method.

The possible types of Equipment are listed as subrules to this rule. Each Equipment has a Supply Cost.

Spear

Name: Spear Supply Cost: 5 Effect: Any Safe Survivor in a Green Location with a Spear adds 1 to {G} when Stock is Taken. Multiple spears possessed by the same Survivor do not increase this effect. A non-Disabled Survivor with a Spear may as a daily action attempt to stab another Survivor in the same location with a spear by rolling a DICE5. If the roll is a 1, the stab is successful and the stabbed survivor’s vitality is decreased. Multiple Spears do not allow multiple stabbing attempts.

Anti-Spore Mask

Name: Anti-Spore Mask Supply Cost: 10 Effect: A Survivor with an Anti-Spore Mask may not become Infected.

Battery

Name: Battery Supply Cost: 20 Effect: A non-Disabled Survivor at Location 0 with a battery may increase the communal Power by 10 by removing the Battery from their Equipment. A non-Disabled Survivor may explode the battery by removing it from their Equipment. When they do so, all Survivors in the same Location have their vitality decreased.

Requisitioning

Any Safe Survivor at Location 0 may suggest a distribution of supplies by making a Story Post with “Requisition” in the title. This is a Votable Matter, which only Safe Survivors at Location 0 may vote in.

A Requisition post must contain a list of any number of Survivors at Location 0, and for each, a list of new Equipment to be given to them.

After 48 hours, or reaching a Quorum of FOR or AGAINST votes, any Admin may resolve it. If there are more FOR than AGAINST votes the Requisition post passes, each Survivor listed receives the Equipment listed, and the communal Supplies are reduced by the Supply Cost of each Equipment distributed. If the total cost would be more than the supplies, or there are equal or fewer FOR votes than AGAINST votes, the Requisition post is failed instead, and nothing happens. If a listed Survivor has idled or is no longer at Location 0, the Equipment is not given to them, and the supply cost of that equipment is not subtracted from the communal Supplies.

Theft

Any Evil Survivor, as a Weekly Action, may Steal from the Supplies, by adding an Equipment to their Equipment list and reducing the communal Supplies by the Supply Cost of the Equipment. If the new Equipment’s Supply Cost would be greater than the communal supplies, it may not be stolen.

Appendix

Keywords

A keyword defined by a rule supersedes the normal English usage of the word. A keyword defined in this glossary supersedes that defined by a rule. (eg. A rule specifying "bananas are blue" cannot be overruled by posting a dictionary definition or a photo of a banana, and a rule specifying "every day is Sunday" will be overruled by the glossary entry below.)

Can

"is able to"

Comment

A blog comment published to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.com

Core Proposal

A Proposal which mandates changes that, even if conditionally, are limited to the creation, deletion, and/or amendment of core rules and/or the glossary, and/or renaming, banning, and/or the granting or removing of admin status from one or more Survivors.

Daily Action

If a game action is a Daily Action, each Survivor able to perform it may take that action once each day, but not more than once every ten hours.

Day

References to a “day” as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “Sunday”, “The day after performing this action”, or “August 2nd”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a day beginning at and including 00:00:00 UTC, ending when the next day begins. It can never be 2 different days at the same instant.

Dice

References to "YDICEX" refer to Y X-sided dice, rolled within the GNDT. To roll dice, post DICEX in the comments field of the GNDT, replacing X with the number of sides on the die you wish to roll.

Dynastic Proposal

A Proposal which mandates changes that, even if conditionally, are limited to the creation, deletion, and/or amendment of dynastic rules and/or gamestate defined by dynastic rules.

Effective Vote Comment (EVC)

A Survivor’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that Survivor’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Survivor’s Vote on that Votable Matter.

Flavour Text

When posting a blog entry, a Survivor may use the “Commentary or flavour text” field of the blog publishing form to add their own comments or description of their post. For the purposes of all other rules, such text is not considered to be part of the post.

Gamestate

Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of, including all Wiki Pages, or GNDT columns, which the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention.

IRC Channel

The Blognomic IRC channel is located at #nomic on the slashnet network (irc.slashnet.org).

May

"is permitted to"

May not

"is not permitted to"

Post

A blog post published to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.com

Private Message

A message sent via Blognomic’s Private Messages system at blognomic.com.

Quorum

Quorum of a subset of Survivors is half the number of Survivors in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Survivors it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Survivors.

Resolve/Resolution

If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the world “Resolve” means to perform the act, as an Admin, of enacting or failing a Votable Matter. The world “Resolution” means then the act of doing so. If used in any other context, the meaning of both “Resolve” and “Resolution” is the standard English meaning of these words

Rule

Each individually numbered section of the ruleset is a rule, including sections that are sub-rules of other rules.

Shall

"is required to"

Should

"is recommended that"

Sibling Rule

Two rules are “siblings” of each other if they are both direct subrules of the same rule.

Story Post

A Story Post is an entry in the “Story Post” category.

Subject

The "subject" of a blog entry is the part of the Title of an entry which is after the first colon. If the Title does not contain a colon, then the whole Title is the subject. Any entry whose subject is "" (i.e. an empty string) is not valid.

Subrule

A subrule is a type of rule that is nested within another rule. A proposal that specifically affects a rule affects all of its subrules; a proposal that specifically affects a subrule does not affect its parent rule or any other subrule of that rule, unless they are also explicitly cited as being affected by that proposal.

Vote

The word “Vote”, used as a noun, means a Vote that is cast in accordance with Rule “Votable Matters”. The word “Vote”, used as a verb, means the act of casting such a Vote.

Voting Icons

For use in voting, a check box http://blognomic.com/images/vote/for.gif shall represent a Vote FOR, an X http://blognomic.com/images/vote/against.gif shall represent a Vote AGAINST, an IMP http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, and an Imperial Seal http://blognomic.com/images/vote/seal.gif shall represent the Imperial Veto.

Week

References to a week as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “At the beginning of each week”, or “already happened this week”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a period of time between the beginning of a Monday and the end of the following Sunday.

Weekly Action

If a game action is a Weekly Action, each Survivor able to perform it may take that action once each week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.

Weekly Communal Action

If a game action is a Weekly Communal Action, it can be performed by any Survivor, but only if it has not been performed (by any Survivor) already in the same week.

Wiki

The BlogNomic Wiki at http://blognomic.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Gamestate Tracking

Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.com. Any Survivor may post to the blog at any time, but may only make official posts to the blog when the Ruleset allows it. Posts following the format specified by a rule are considered official posts. No entry may be more than one of the following official types of post: Votable Matters, and Idling Post.

If no Survivor has commented on it, an official post may be altered or removed by its author; otherwise this can only be done as allowed by the Ruleset. However, despite this, official posts can never be changed from one category to another, or changed to be a different sort of official post, if they have been posted for more than fifteen minutes. The Admin processing an official post is allowed to append to the post to reflect its new status. Anything appended to a post in this way must be placed in the Admin field of the post, and the post's Status must be changed to reflect its status.

A non-official post may not, through editing of the blog or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following exception: Whilst a non-official post has been posted for less than fifteen minutes and has no comments, the author may change the categories as they wish.

Specific parts of the Gamestate data shall be tracked by the Generic Nomic Data Tracker at http://blognomic.com/gndt/generic.cgi?nomic=blog. Any Survivor may update any Survivor's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.

All updates to the GNDT are logged. Actions that change gamestate directly (defined in other rules) can normally be performed simply by applying their effects to the GNDT, which updates the gamestate accordingly, unless another rule specifies some other method of performing them; one GNDT update may contain one or more actions, or one action may be split over multiple GNDT updates, as long as it’s clear what is happening and the actions are otherwise legal. The GNDT merely represents the Gamestate, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and the GNDT are different, any Survivor may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Survivor feels that the GNDT was altered such that it no longer matches the gamestate (such as by performing an action which was against the Rules (as they were at the time of the alteration), or by any other means), they may simply undo the effects of that alteration. Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed GNDT update, Survivors are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Survivors shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

Random Generators

The GNDT can be used to generate random results.

• The DICEN command can be used to generate a random number between 1 and N.
• The FRUIT command will return a random result from the following options: Lemon, Orange, Kiwi, Grape, Cherry, Tangelo.
• The COLOUR (or COLOR) command will return a random result from the following: White, Red, Green, Silver, Yellow, Turquoise, Magenta, Orange, Purple, Black.
• The VEGGIE command will return a random result from the following: Potato, Carrot, Triffid, Pumpkin.

Any changes to the potential outcomes of the GNDT’s random result commands must be made by proposal; and any proposal that seeks to nominate a change to this rule must first identify an active Survivor with server-level access to the BlogNomic site who is able to perform the changes, and must also update this rule to reflect the new potential outcomes.

Clarifications

Numbers and Variables

• If a set of valid values is not specified in their definition, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers. Any action that would set those values below zero is an illegal action unless explicitly otherwise stated in the ruleset.
• Any situation which would require a roll of DiceX when X is zero or lower always yields a value of 0 unless stated otherwise.
• All numbers, unless stated otherwise by a rule, are in base ten.
• Unless otherwise specified, to “spend” or “lose” an amount X of a numeric value “V” means to subtract X from V; to “gain” X of a numeric value “V” means to add X to V; and to “transfer” X of a numeric value “V” from A to B means to subtract X from A’s V and add X to B’s V. Unless otherwise specified, only positive amounts can be spent, lost, gained, or transferred, and a rule that allows Survivors to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Survivor (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
• A Survivor who has a choice in whether to take an action defined by a dynastic rule may not take that action if both of the following conditions are true: a) the action's effects are limited to changing values tracked in the GNDT and/or similar gamestate-tracking entities (such as a wiki page), and b) the action would change one or more of those values to an illegal value.
• If a rule implies that the result of any calculation should be an integer (for instance, by attempting to store that result in, or add it to, a gamestate variable that can only hold integers), the result of the calculation is instead the result rounded towards 0.
• If a number or other game variable is selected 'at random' or 'randomly' from a range of possible values, its value shall always be taken from a uniform probability distribution over the entire range of possible values, unless otherwise specified.
• If a game variable has no defined starting value for new Survivors, or for existing Survivors upon the variable’s creation, then that starting value is zero (for numerical variables) or blank (for a text string or list).
• Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in the GNDT remain valid. (for example, if X appears in a formula referring to a value that is a non-negative integer, X must be used as a non-negative integer)

Rules and Proposals

• If a new rule is created by a proposal and its location is not noted in that proposal, that new rule is to be placed in the Dynastic Rules.
• Unless explicitly stated otherwise, a wiki page shall be blanked when it becomes gamestate.
• Where a Proposal would amend the effects of Proposal Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (eg. a proposal proposing that enacted proposals earn their author a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own author, when enacted).
• Rules which trigger upon the Resolution of a Votable Matter are the responsibility of the Admin who Resolves it.
• Unless otherwise specified, a new Dynastic rule shall be placed at the end of the Dynastic Rules.
• If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead named “Unnamed Rule”.
• The names of rules are not themselves rule text and have no effect other than being rule names.
• If the admin enacting a proposal reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (eg. “two days after this proposal enacts, Player A gains 1 point”), that step is ignored for the purposes of enactment. Once a proposal has been enacted, it can have no further direct effect on the gamestate.

Time

• For the purpose of all rules, time in Blognomic is in UTC.
• All references to time must be either specific or defined within the ruleset to be considered achievable in the gamestate. Abstract concepts of time (e.g. "dinnertime", "twilight") cannot be achieved until they fulfil one of these criteria.
• Where the month, day and/or year of a calendar date are ambiguous (eg. "04/10/09"), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.

Spelling

• Superficial differences between the spelling of geographic versions of English, e.g, British English, American English and Australian English shall be construed as irrelevant for the purposes of play.

Names

• Within the ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a Survivor if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Survivor's name.

Prioritisation

• If two parts of the Ruleset contradict each other, precedence shall be construed in the following order:

1. The Appendix has precedence over any Rule;
2. A Dynastic Rule has precedence over a Core Rule, unless that Core Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
3. If both contradicting parts are a Core Rule, or if both of them are a Dynastic Rule, the part with more limited scope applies. (e.g. if the rules “Survivors may Kick each other” and “Survivors may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Survivors may not Kick each other.)
4. If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Survivors may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Survivors may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Survivors may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)