Ruleset 120

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Assassins 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.

Assassins 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”.

Assassins

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 an Assassin. An Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment they become an Assassin.

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

Some Assassins are Admins, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Assassins 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 Assassins

Some Assassins 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”, “Assassins”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play” and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Assassins are not counted as Assassins.

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

When an Assassin 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 Assassin Idled in a different dynasty), the Assassin is given the default value for new Assassin, if such a value exists.

An Admin may render an Assassin Idle if that Assassin has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Assassin 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 announce it in a post or comment when they do so. An Admin may Unidle an Assassin if that Assassin 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 Assassin who would be Unidled asked to become (or rendered themselves) Idle within the previous four days, and within the current dynasty.

Admins who are unidling themselves should, in their first EVC following each unidling, highlight their changed idle status and any changes to quorum to have come about as a result of it.

Dynasties

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

Votable Matters

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

Each Assassin 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. An Assassin’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-Assassin never has a Vote, even if they were an Assassin 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 Assassin may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the Assassin already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).

Special Proposal Voting

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

If an Assassin other than the Referee casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Referee. When the Referee 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 Referee'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 Assassins 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 Assassins actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if an Assassin feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Assassin 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 an Assassin (other than the Referee) 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 “Assassins”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Assassin 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 Referee 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 Assassins 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 Assassin who made the DoV as its Referee. That Assassin may pass this role to another Assassin at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new Referee makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the Referee's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Assassin and Referee 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, the Assassin 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 an Assassin'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 Assassin within BlogNomic.
• An Assassin 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.
• An Assassin should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
• An Assassin should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Assassin.
• An Assassin should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
• An Assassin should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
• An Assassin 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

Impartial Observer

For the purposes of Dynastic Rules, the Referee is not considered to be an Assassin unless explicitly stated otherwise.

The Referee may use methods other than the GNDT to select random values.

The Referee should process all actions that require their intervention at their earliest convenience. If an Assassin feels that the Referee has neglected to perform an action that was required of them, they are encouraged to privately inform the Referee of this fact.

Target

Each Assassin may have a Target, which can only be a single other Assassin. If an Assassin has no Target (or if their previous Target is no longer an Assassin), the Referee may select a random other Cunning Assassin (an Assassin is Cunning if they are Alert or carrying a Gadget), if any exist, to be their Target and privately inform the former of the identity of their new Target.

If an Assassin Kills their Target, the latter ceases to be the Target of the former, but only after all other results of the Kill have been resolved.

When an Assassin is Killed, they cease to have a Position and cease to be Wanted.

Points

Each Assassin has a number of Points, tracked in the GNDT and defaulting to 5. Some Assassins are Wanted, and their identities are tracked by the Referee in this paragraph. (Currently Wanted Assassins are: nobody.)

Whenever an Assassin is Killed (and has at least one Point), they lose a Point.

Whenever an Assassin Kills their Target, the killer gains two Points if their Target was Alert or carrying a Gadget, and one Point otherwise.

Whenever an Assassin Kills a Wanted Assassin, the killer gains one Point.

Whenever an Assassin Kills another who is not their Target and is not Wanted, the killer becomes Wanted.

If an Assassin has 9 or more Points and no other Assassin has more points than them, that Assassin has achieved victory.

Position

The Town is represented as an 8x8 Cartesian grid. Each Location in the Town is indicated by a letter (A-H) and number (1-8) coordinate system, e.g. “C5”. Some Locations contain Buildings of note, as shown on the map below.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
A	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
B	-	Church @	-	-	@	-	Tavern	-
C	-	@	-	-	-	-	@	-
D	-	-	-	Gunpowder Shop	-	Clocktower	-	-
E	@	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
F	-	-	@	-	-	-	-	-
G	-	Blacksmith @	-	-	-	-	Guildhall	-
H	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	@

Two Positions are Adjacent if they touch one another orthogonally or diagonally. Each Assassin may have a Position, which may be any legal Location and is tracked secretly by that Assassin and the Referee. If an Assassin’s Position also contains a Building, the Assassin is considered to be in that Building.

When a Location Explodes, all Buildings in that Location are removed and the Location is marked with the string 'XXX'. Any action that would place an Assassin in a Location that has Exploded instead does nothing.

Street and Urchin Actions

Street Actions available to the Assassins are, with their effects:-

• Arrive in Town (specifying a Location): If the Assassin has no Position, the specified Location becomes their Position.
• Walk (specifying a Location): If the Assassin’s Position is adjacent to the specified Location, the specified Location becomes their new Position. Stealthed Assassins may not Walk diagonally.
• Rent Horse (specifying a Location): the specified Location becomes the Assassin’s Position and the Assassin, if Stealthed, ceases to be so. This action Gives Away the Assassin’s Position.
• Knife (specifying another Assassin as the Victim): if the Assassin has a Position and shares that Position with the Victim, the Assassin Kills the Victim. Knifing is Fast.
• Stealth: the Assassin becomes Stealthed.
• Expose Position (specifying a Location and another Assassin as the Victim): if the Victim’s Position is the specified Location, the Victim’s Position is Given Away, as per “Sightings”, and the Victim, if Stealthed, is automatically un-Stealthed. If the Victim’s Position is not the specified Location, the acting Assassin’s Position is Given Away, and the acting Assassin, if Stealthed, is automatically un-Stealthed.
• Pick Up Gadget (specifying a Gadget): if the Assassin is in a Building, and the specified Gadget is Available in that Building, the Assassin gains that Gadget (and loses any other Gadget they were previously carrying).
• Double-Back (optionally specifying to Evade): the Referee privately informs the acting Assassin whose Urchins they are currently Tailed by, if any. If the acting Assassin specifies to Evade, then they cease being Tailed by other Assassins' Urchins. Doubling Back is Fast.
• Block (specifying another Assassin as the Threat): if the Assassin has a Position and shares that Position with the Threat, and if the Threat has not had any Notes processed during the current Tolling, then the Threat’s Notes are removed from the Note sequence and the Threat is privately informed that they were blocked by the Assassin who took this action. Blocking is Fast.
• Search: the Referee informs the Assassin of the identities of all other Assassins in their Position, and whether or not those Assassins are Stealthed.
• Shoot (specifying a Location): if the specified Location is adjacent or equal to the Assassin’s Position, the Assassin Kills a random other Assassin in the specified Location (if at least one is present there).
• Spot (specifying a Location): If the Assassin is in the Clocktower, then the Referee privately informs the acting Assassin of any Assassins who have the chosen Location or a Location adjacent to it as their current Position, excepting Assassins who are Stealthed or in a Building.
• Bomb (specifying a Location): If the acting Assassin is carrying a Bomb and their Position is adjacent or equal to the specified Location, every Assassin in the specified Location is Killed by the acting Assassin, the specified Location Explodes and the acting Assassin loses their Bomb.

Urchin Actions available to the Assassins are, with their effects:-

• Tail (specifying another Assassin as the Target): If the acting Assassin shares a Position with the Target, the Victim becomes Tailed by the acting Assassin's Urchins (tracked secretly by the Referee).
• Report: The Referee privately informs the acting Assassin of the current Position of any Assassins currently Tailed by the acting Assassin's Urchins.
• Scout (specifying a Location) The Referee privately informs the acting Assassin of any un-Stealthed Assassins who have that Location as their current Position.
• Reject Contract (optionally specifying an Assassin): The acting Assassin ceases to have a Target. If the acting Assassin is in the Guildhall and specified an Assassin other than themselves, then that Assassin becomes their target.

Whenever a Stealthed Assassin performs an Urchin Action, they cease to be Stealthed.

Notes

Any Private Message sent through the blog’s ExpressionEngine system from an Assassin to the Referee which specifies the performance and necessary details of exactly one Street Action and/or exactly one Urchin Action is known as a Note. When a Note is Discarded, it ceases to be a Note.

Assassins are either Alert or Careless; this is tracked privately by the Referee. All Assassins default to Careless.

If the Referee has a Note from every Alert Assassin and the Bell has not Tolled in the previous 8 hours, or if the Bell has not tolled in the previous 48 hours, the Referee may Toll the Bell. Upon doing so, the Referee must take the following actions in order:

1. If the Referee has multiple notes from a particular Assassin, all Notes from that Assassin apart than the most recent one are Discarded.
2. Each Assassin who the Referee has a Note from becomes Alert; all others become Careless.
3. The Notes are arranged in order, starting with those that included a Fast Street Action and no Urchin Action (in a random order) followed by all other Notes (in a random order).
4. Each Note is then processed according to that sequence: for each Note, the effects of the specified Urchin Action (if any) are applied, followed by the effects of the specified Street Action (if any).
5. All Notes are then discarded.
6. Any Assassin who has no Position is assigned a random Position by the Referee, and is privately informed of this.
7. If multiple Assassins’ Positions are the same Location, the Referee privately alerts each of those Assassins of the names of all of the other Assassins in that Location who are not Stealthed. If an Assassin in that Location is carrying a Candle, the Referee shall further alert them to the number of Stealthed Assassins in that Location, if that number is greater than zero.
8. The Referee removes all “@” symbols from the map, then adds an “@” symbol to every Location on the map which is the Position of one or more Assassins.
9. The Referee then posts a blog entry announcing that the Bell has Tolled. This blog entry shall include the names and Positions of all Assassins whose Position was Given Away as a result of the Tolling.

Gear

Each Assassin may carry a single Gadget, tracked secretly by that Assassin and the Referee. Each Gadget is available in one or more Buildings, indicated in parentheses after their names.

When an Assassin is Killed, they lose any Gadget they carried.

The Gadgets are:

• Throwing Knife (Blacksmith): An Assassin who carries a Throwing Knife also succeeds in the Knife Secret Action if the Victim is orthogonally adjacent to them.
• Cloak (Church): An Assassin with a Cloak may walk diagonally even if Stealthed.
• Candle (Guildhall): Allows the carrying Assassin to be aware of the amount of Stealthed Assassins that share their Position. Prevents the carrier from using the Street Action Stealth. If the carrier is Stealthed, they shall cease being Stealthed at the next Bell Toll.
• Whistle (Tavern): An Assassin who carries a Whistle may include two Urchin Actions in their Note. When this Note is processed, these Urchin Actions are carried out in the order in which they appear in the Note.
• Bomb (Gunpowder Shop): When an Assassin carrying a Bomb is Killed, their Position Explodes and the Assassin Kills all other Assassins in that Location.

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 Assassins.

Daily Action

If a game action is a Daily Action, each Assassin 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)

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

Flavour Text

When posting a blog entry, an Assassin 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 Assassins is half the number of Assassins in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Assassins it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Assassins.

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 Assassin able to perform it may take that action once each week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.

Weekly Communal Action

A Weekly Communal action is a Weekly Action that can only be performed by one Assassin per 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 Assassin 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 Assassin 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 Assassin may update any Assassin'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 Assassin may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If an Assassin 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, Assassins are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Assassins 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 Assassin 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 Assassins to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Assassin (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
• An Assassin 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. This value must be determined by an appropriate DICE roll in the GNDT, unless otherwise specified.
• If a game variable has no defined starting value for new Assassins, or for existing Assassins 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 an Assassin if it is explicitly stated that it refers to an Assassin'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 Core Rules, or if both of them are Dynastic Rules, the part with more limited scope applies. (e.g. if the rules “Assassins may Kick each other” and “Assassins may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Assassins may not Kick each other.)
4. If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Assassins may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Assassins may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Assassins may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)