Plays

In BlogNomic, like in many other games, there are "plays". This is an informal attempt at a list, based on a 2017 comment thread about common game events. Most of these terms have never been used in-game. See also BlogNomic Jargon.

Cuddlebeam's note: I'm adding perhaps way too much, but better to have a lot and then trim down/reorganize, than to have the same but less.

Josh's note - I'm separating this out into terms that are actually used rather than terms that are theorised or proposed.

In use

Beggar-thy-neighbour or Bampam

(Benefiting a Majority/Punishing a Minority). Proposals that benefit a majority that includes yourself and/or punishes a minority that doesn't include yourself. It's based on the voting system, because quorum is required to make a proposal pass, and the benefit you would share with your majority works as incentive/bribe to get the proposal (and therefore benefit for yourself) passed.

Vote-locking or Lockdown

Voting on a proposal or on another official votable matter so that the post can't be edited.

Cleanup

Making a proposal that doesn’t change the effect of any of the rules, but redefines them in a way that is more comprehensible and takes up less space to write. Based on Bamdam, as the players who are comfortable with esoteric writing of the rules will tend to be a minority, and more clarity will make playing the game (and therefore making winning plays) more easy (and enjoyable) for the majority.

Invasion

Getting a large amount of players to join for the purpose of creating your own Cabal with them.

Puppetry

Privately asking an idle player to unidle and perform a few simple actions (typically which would allow the asking player to win immediately).

Tactical enactment (Admin)

The enactment of a proposal at a timed moment to grant yourself an advantage and/or thwart another player/s.

Consensus reality

Nomic doesn't run on formal space like mathematics does, but instead on the reality created by the consensus of the players. For example, if, in formal space, A=B is true, but all players believe or are willing to vote for that A=B isn't true, then A=B isn't true in the context of the BlogNomic, regardless of formal truth.

Proposed

Drilled Proposal

A proposal with deliberate loopholes.

Example: The First Dynasty of Tantusar, Josh's Drilled Proposal allowed him to declare victory

Face-eating-leopard proposal

(from the Twitter joke) An overly-aggressive proposal (such as "the player in the lead loses half their points") where despite it being in a majority's personal interest to see it enacted, they each vote it down on the reasonable grounds that they wouldn't want it to be proposed against them later in the game (with the weight of precedent and the first victim's grudge behind it), if they were to become that leading player.

Filibuster

A proposal that is really long such that the voters may not read all of it before voting on it. Probably won't pass unless what it introduces are simple definitions or rules that don't affect the core mechanics of a dynasty's rules.

(Free) Handout

Immediate grant of a resource.

Gerrymandering (in the context of Bampam)

The art of choosing which will be the majority/minority for a Bamdam play.

Hail Mary play

Last-ditch efforts during an endgame, when victory by another player seems imminent.

One-off

A proposal that contains a rule which removes itself.

Provoking

The making of an absurd proposal to highlight an issue in the game. The idea is to get someone else to make a rule change.

Sub-vote

A proposal where the votes can do something in the comments to change what the proposal does. For instance it could have a line that says "If the majority of valid For votes have the text "X" in them then ..." and then do something different in the proposal. It doesn't always work as intended.

Swap-kill (Admin)

Self-killing a proposal that's at the top of the queue, failing it and then making a new proposal right after. Usually used when that Admin has 2 proposals out already.

Timeskip

Proposing the gamestate to reflect the effects of a set number of moves, which would have ordinarily taken much longer real time to achieve.

Trojan (Proposal)

A fairly common proposal play. Consists of posting certain mechanical changes, to then use silence or misleading rhetoric to conceal the true consequences it would have (granting yourself an advantage). Often painted as "good for the game" or "fair for everyone", hence the Trojan nature.

Variable

A proposal that contains a variable in the proposal which is replaced upon its enactment. Example: "Replace each instance of VOTE with the number of voting icons in the comment section of this proposal" or "Replace TIME with the time this proposal is enacted."

Distractions

Actively defensive plays based on consuming other player's attention span or IRL time economy, to prevent them from using that time or attention on countermeasures against you.

Air keyboarding

Making complex proposals when you’re about to win, to make it look as if you think the game is ongoing.

Chaff

Making deliberately flawed or controversial proposals to move the focus away from others in the queue, or from game actions you’re taking.

Coin-on-a-string

Humbly making a proposal to remove an advantage in your favour, but self-killing it before it enacts so that players will have to start the fix process from scratch again.

Metagame

Timezoning

The advantage/disadvantage granted by real world timezones. Due to people living in different areas of the world, the activity of some players during the day can group together during certain hours if they live in the same or nearby timezones, while the activity of another player might be separate from all of the others or just have significantly less activity.

Example: In The First Dynasty of Derrick, card was often able to react to dealing before anyone else, granting a rather large advantage.

Voting Gameplan

When for the whole dynasty a player does not take any voluntary actions aside from those listed in the Appendix or Core Rules.

Rhethoric

Picking lesser evils

Useful when attempting to contest a rule interpretation that favors an opponent. When the relevant rule/s at hand have multiple interpretations, picking an interpretation that allows "less evil" to be made to your interests (such choosing those that disarms the opponent's approach).

Fool's uranium

Related to fool's gold, but where only a small minority of players have a stockpile of a resource after it is given a use. The remaining majority will naturally avoid giving it any additional uses, and may even choose to diminish its value.