Ruleset

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Sailors 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; Section Three contains rules which apply in special cases; and Section Four 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.

Sailors 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”.

If the Ruleset does not properly reflect all legal changes that have been made to it, any Sailor may update it to do so.

Sailors

Any human may apply to join BlogNomic (if they are not already a Sailor) 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 Sailor. An Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment they become a Sailor.

A Sailor may cease to be a Sailor at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A human who has ceased to be a Sailor in this way may not become a Sailor again within the following two weeks. A Sailor may only change their name as a result of a proposal approving the change.

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

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

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

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

An Admin may render a Sailor Idle if that Sailor has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Sailor 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 a Sailor if that Sailor is Idle and 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 Sailor 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 vote following each unidling, highlight their changed idle status and any changes to quorum to have come about as a result of it.

Idle Admins can enact and fail Votable Matters.

Dynasties

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

Votable Matters

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

Votes

Each Sailor 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 Sailor’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-Sailor never has a Vote, even if they were a Sailor previously and had cast a valid Vote.

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

A Votable Matter is Popular if any of the following are true:

• It has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, it has more than 1 valid Vote cast on it, and more valid Votes cast on it are FOR than are AGAINST.

A Votable Matter is Unpopular if any of the following are true:

• The number of Sailors who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
• It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and it is not Popular.

Enacting and Failing

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 should mark their name, and are highly encouraged to report the final tally of Votes (or the fact that it was self-killed or vetoed). Comments cannot be made on Enacted or Failed Votable Matters.

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

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a Sailor casts a vote AGAINST their own Proposal (which is not in the form of a DEFERENTIAL vote), this renders the Proposal Self-Killed, even if the author later changes their Vote. The Narrator may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a proposal; when the Narrator casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Narrator later changes their Vote.

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 all of the following are true:

• It is Popular.
• It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours.
• 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 is Unpopular.
• It has been Vetoed or Self-Killed.

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

A Pending CfJ may be Enacted by any Admin if all of the following are ture:

• It is Popular.

A Pending CfJ may be Failed by any Admin if any of the following are true:

• It is Unpopular.
• It specifies neither changes to the Gamestate or Ruleset nor corrections to any gamestate tracking entities.

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.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a Sailor (other than the Narrator) 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.

If the game is not already in Hiatus and there is a pending DoV, 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 “Sailors”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Sailor 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 by any Admin if any of the following is true:

• It is Popular, it has been open for at least 12 hours, and either the Narrator has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
• It is Popular, and it has been open for at least 24 hours.

A Pending DoV may be Failed by any Admin if any of the following are true:

• It is Unpopular, and it has been open for at least 12 hours.

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

When a DoV is enacted, all other pending DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins with the Sailor who made the DoV as its Narrator. That Sailor may pass this role to another Sailor at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new Narrator makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the Narrator's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Sailor and Narrator 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 had at least one AGAINST vote, the Sailor 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 Sailor'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 non-Idle Sailor within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Sailor and any Idle Sailors.
• A Sailor 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 Sailor should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
• A Sailor should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Sailor.
• A Sailor should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
• A Sailor should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
• A Sailor should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an ascension address).
• A Sailor should not roll dice in the GNDT that are clearly associated with a particular action in the Ruleset, but with the intention to not use these rolled values to the best of their ability to resolve that action.

Dynastic Rules

Positions

Each Sailor holds a Position on the whaling ship Haniver, tracked in the GNDT and taken from the following list, defaulting to Deckhand (which may be tracked as “-”).

• Captain
• Chief Mate
• Second Mate
• Third Mate
• Cook
• Blacksmith
• Carpenter
• Steward
• Navigator
• Deckhand
• Passenger
• Prisoner

A Sailor may assign themselves a free Position other than Captain, at any time. (A Position is free if it is held by no Sailor, or if the Position is Deckhand.)

The Captain may change any non-Narrator Sailor’s Position to any other Free Position. This action can only be performed up to 10 times a day.

A Sailor may not voluntarily become a Prisoner. The captain may assign Prisoners as normal. A Prisoner may not voluntarily change their position.

Only the Narrator may hold the Position of Passenger.

If none of the three positions Chief Mate, Second Mate and Third Mate are free, and a blog entry exists which is less than 48 hours old and which features comments from all Sailors who are Chief, Second or Third Mate all including the phrase “I serve X”, where X is the name of the same Sailor, then any Sailor may make the named Sailor the Captain. (If there is an existing Captain when this happens, that Captain becomes a Deckhand.)

The Captain

If the Haniver has more than one Sailor holding the Position of Captain, then any rule which refers to “the Captain” is taken to refer to the single Captain with the highest Prestige. (If there is no such Captain, then no Sailor is considered to be a Captain for the purposes of any usage of the phrase “the Captain”.)

When the Captain has a valid Vote on a Votable Matter, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL on that Votable Matter are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Captain’s Vote.

Stats

Each Sailor has Stats, which are non-negative integers which are 10 by default unless otherwise stated and tracked in a GNDT column called “Stats”. The Narrator’s Stats represents the Haniver’s Stats instead of their own.

The following are the stats that Sailors have:

• Health Points: Defaults to 3. When a Sailor’s Health Points is 0, they are Dead. Otherwise, they are Alive. A Dead Sailor cannot perform any Dynastic Action except for Clinging to Life as a Daily Action. When a Dead Sailor Clings to Life, they roll a DICE10. If they roll a 1, they gain 1 Health Point.
• Hunger: Defaults to 0.
• Sickness: Defaults to 0.
• Gold: Defaults to 0
• Lore: Defaults to 0

The Prestige of a Sailor is equal to the total of their Health Points, Gold and Lore.

These are tracked in the GNDT as “AHP, BH, CS, DG, EL” in the Stat column, where A is their Health Points, B their Hunger and C their Sickness, D their Gold, and E their Lore. If a Sailor’s Stat other than Health Points is zero, it may be tracked by omitting it from the list in this column.

A Sailor with Health Points equal to zero, or Hunger higher or equal to 10, or Sickness higher or equal to 10, is Weakened. A Weakened Sailor is unfit for duty and may not perform Job Actions, Encounter Actions or Gam Actions. Any Sailor may set a Weakened Sailor’s Position to Deckhand, at any time (unless that Weakened Sailor is a Prisoner).

The following are the stats of the Haniver:

• Structural Integrity: Defaults to 100. If the Structural Integrity is above 0, the Haniver is Afloat. Otherwise, it is Sunk. A Sunk Haniver cannot have its Structural Integrity rise above 0.
• Weight: Defaults to 100
• Cleanliness: Defaults to 100

These are tracked in the GNDT as “XSI, YW, ZC” in the stat Column, where X is its Structural Integrity, Y is its Weight and Z its Cleanliness.

Job Activity

Sailors can perform a Job Action as a weekly action. The following are Job Actions, and the Position that can perform them:

• Scrub the Decks [Any Position]: If the Cleanliness of the Haniver is below 100, increase it by up to 10, but not to above a total of 100.
• Cooking Duties [Cook]: Remove as many Provisions from the Haniver’s hold as there are Sailors, to Lower the Hunger of all Sailors by 3. If this would attempt to set it to below 3 for a certain Sailor, set it to 0 for them instead.
• Treat the ill [Steward]: Set the Sickness of a Sailor which isn’t yourself, to 0.
• Do Repairs [Blacksmith or Carpenter]: If the Structural Integrity of the Haniver is below 100, increase it by up to 20, but not to above a total of 100.
• Forge [Blacksmith]: Add a Harpoon to the Haniver’s hold.

At any time, a Sailor holding the position of Cook, Carpenter, or Blacksmith may set a sailor or no sailor as their Target by informing the narrator of this via a private message. A sailor’s Target defaults to no sailor. Sailor’s targets are tracked privately by the Narrator. A Sailor may request the Narrator to inform them of their current target via PM and shall receive an accurate answer via PM

At any time a sailor who is The Navigator may specify in a private message to the narrator a creature with an uncommonness of between 0 and 10, or no creature, as their Quarry. Sailor’s Quarries are tracked privately by the Narrator, and default to creatures with uncommonness 0. A sailor may request the Narrator to inform them of their current quarry via PM and shall receive an accurate answer via PM

Goals

Each Sailor has one or more secret Goals, tracked privately by the Narrator. Each Goal has a Name, a Definition and a Worth, and may also specify a Target. Valid Goals are:-

• Avenge Nature (X worth) Targetting a number from 1 to 10: Be alive at the time of death of a creature of an uncommonness equal to this Goal’s Target - this Goal’s Worth is equal to that Target value. This is a Dire Goal.
• Advance (2 worth) Targeting a Position: Hold that Position at the end of the Story.
• Hunt (2 worth) Have at least 10 barrels of oil aboard the Haniver at the end of the Story.
• Acquire (2 worth) Have at least 10 gold at the end of the Story.
• Survive (1 worth) Be alive at the end of the Story.
• Die (1 worth) Be dead at the end of the Story. This is a Dire Goal
• Stay Afloat (1 worth) Have the Haniver afloat at the end of the Story.
• Abandon Ship (1 worth) Have the Haniver sunk at the end of the Story. This is a Dire Goal
• Protect a Friend (1 worth) Targetting a single Sailor other than themselves: Have that Sailor be alive at the end of the Story.
• Avenge an Enemy (1 worth) Targetting a single Sailor other than themselves: Have that Sailor be dead at the end of the Story. This is a Dire Goal
• Religious (1 Worth): Have no Dire Goals at the End of the Story.

A Sailor with one or more Goals is Driven; a Sailor with no Goals is Aimless.

An Aimless Sailor may send a private message to the Narrator listing any number of Goals from the list above (including multiples of the same Goal so long as they all have Targets, and those Targets are different) and specifying any choices of Target. IIf the total Worth of those Goals is no higher than 10, and they do not list an Advance goal targeting the position of Deckhand, the Narrator may then set that Sailor’s Goals to those specified.

If a Sailor has any Dire Goals, they should lie about their Goals when discussing them with other Sailors, and deny having any Dire ones.

For the purpose of Goals, the last legal value/s that an entity had (even if that entity is no longer part of the game) is the one that counts.

For example, if John Doe was Alive immediately before Idling and never unidles after that, after that Idling and at the End of the Story, the Goal “Protect a Friend, Target: John Doe” would still be fulfilled.

When a new Goal bullet point is added to the list this rule, that Goal is considered Novel to all Sailors who were already Driven at the time of its addition. A Driven Sailor may send a private message to the Narrator requesting that one or more of their own Goals be removed and replaced by a specific Goal which is Novel to them (also specifying any choices of Target for it) and which has the same Worth as the total Worth of the removed Goals. Then, the Narrator shall and can perform these changes requested in a timely fashion. Upon such a replacement being made, all Goals cease to be Novel to that Sailor.

Any Goal that has been Novel for a Sailor for more than 7 days (168 hours) ceases to be Novel for them.

The Passenger's Log

The Narrator will periodically make blogposts that update various information about The Haniver called a Log. These posts will have a super-title of "Passenger's Log: " and are posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

For each Log, the narrator should randomly determine events in private, until a gam or an uncommon creature event is determined and follow the effects for each determined event.

• Gam: Another whaling vessel is nearby until the next Log, and so the two vessels will meet. The narrator shall make a blog post announcing that another whaling vessel is in the area.
• Uncommon Creature: a creature with a uncommonness of 2DICE10-10 + (the Navigator’s Lore) shall be in the area until the end of the current week. If the uncommonness of the creature would be over 10, the Navigator’s quarry shall be in the area instead. If the uncommoness of the creature would be negative, no uncommon creature is in the area. The narrator shall privately roll a ten-sided die for each Lookout, and for each roll which is less than the Vision Threshold, privately message that Sailor to inform them they may have spotted a Creature. (The Vision Threshold is 8 if a Creature is in the area, and 3 otherwise.)
• Accident: The narrator shall randomly pick a position that can prevent the accident, between cook, carpenter, blacksmith and none. If the chosen position is not free, the target of the sailor who holds the chosen position has an accident. Otherwise, a randomly chosen Aimless sailor (if any exist) will have an accident, and the narrator shall make a blog post declaring that the sailor had an accident, and what position would have prevented it. If the chosen position to prevent the accident is “none”, the narrator shall lie and randomly select from cook, carpenter, and blacksmith, and say that position could have prevented the accident. When a sailor has an accident, they lose DICE3 Health Points (to a minimum of zero).
• Man Overboard: A random Aimless Sailor (if any exist) has their Sickness set to 10.

When posting a Log, the following effects occur once each, in sequence:

1. If a Hunt has been declared since the previous Log, and if any Creatures are in the vicinity of the Haniver, then the Narrator announces these Creatures in the Log and a separate Encounter begins with each of them, with only the Sailors who joined the Hunt being at it.
2. For any Angry Creature in the vicinity of the Haniver which is not already the Fast-Fish of an Encounter, the Narrator rolls a DICEX for it, where X is that Creature’s Speed. On a result of 5 or more, an Encounter begins with that Creature as its Fast-Fish, with all Sailors being at it.
3. The Narrator decreases the Haniver’s Structural Integrity (to a minimum of zero) by X, where X is equal to 100 minus the Haniver’s Cleanliness.
4. The Narrator decreases the Haniver’s Cleanliness (to a minimum of zero) by the number of Sailors.

All randomly chosen results in this rule may be made by the Narrator using a private method of his choosing, instead of the GNDT.

Items

Each Sailor can hold one Item (tracked in the GNDT), and are by default holding none. The Haniver can hold an unlimited amount of items, and the items it has is tracked at the Narrator's Item column in the GNDT. These are the items that exist, their effects (if any) and their default amount at the Haniver:

• Harpoon: (50 at the Haniver by default)
• Provision: (100 at the Haniver by default) If a Sailor has a Hunger above 1, they may remove a Provision they are holding from the game to lower their own Hunger by 1.
• Barrel of Oil: (0 at the Haniver by default)
• Empty Barrel: (30 at the Haniver by default)
• Oar: (30 on the Haniver by default)
• Telescope: (10 on the Haniver by default)

A Sailor, if they have no items, can take an item from the Haniver. A Sailor can leave an item they are holding to the Haniver.

A Sailor holding a Harpoon is known as a Harpooneer. A Sailor holding a Telescope is known as a Lookout.

Mutiny

At any time, if there is a Captain, a Sailor that is not the Captain or a Prisoner may attempt a Mutiny by creating a story post to that effect. Other sailors can vote on that post, and 48 hours after the post is made, and admin may resolve the mutiny by making the necessary changes in the GNDT.

If, at resolution, a quorom of Sailors voted For the Mutiny, the mutiny has succeeded. The Captain becomes a Prisoner, and the chief mate, second mate and third mate become a Prisoner if they did not vote For the mutiny.

Otherwise, every sailor who voted For the mutiny at any point (even if they changed their vote later) becomes a Prisoner.

Creatures

A Creature has a name, a speed, a danger, a yield, a disposition and an uncommonness. The disposition can be either benign or angry. The name is a text string.

Whales are creatures with a name of “Whale”, a speed of 3, a danger of 1, a yield of 2, a disposition of benign and an uncommonness of 0.

If an uncommon creature has no name, the narrator shall:

• Set its speed to 3 + (its uncommonness modulo 3)
• Set its danger to 1 + (its uncommonness /3, rounded down)
• Set its yield to 2 if its uncommonness is odd, 3 if its uncommonness is even
• Assign it a name as he sees fit
• Randomly determine its disposition

If a Creature’s Danger is lowered by half of it’s original amount, to a minimum of 1, it’s disposition is set to angry.

Hunts

If nobody has done so since the most recent Passenger’s Log, a Sailor holding the Position of Captain may declare a "Hunt" by making a blogpost whose first words are "Lower the Boats". Each Sailor may join in the hunt by declaring "I join the hunt" as part of a comment on the Blogpost that first declared the hunt, and increasing their hunger by 1.

The maneuver of a Hunt is equal to the number of Sailors that join it divided by 3 and rounded down. The power of a Hunt is equal to the number of Sailors holding the Position of Harpooneer that join it.

Encounter

Each Encounter has a single Creature as its Fast-Fish.

The Sailors who are at the Encounter have a common pool of Maneuver Energy and Power Energy for that Encounter, which both start equal to that Hunt’s Maneuver and Power respectively. Per Sailor at the Hunt that is holding a Harpoon, they start with an extra 1 Power Energy.

When an Encounter begins, the Narrator selects a random Sailor at that Encounter as its Leader. Each Sailor can only have one Turn per Encounter, and an Encounter’s Leader must decide the order for these Turns before Turns can be taken on that Encounter.

A Sailor at an Encounter can perform an Encounter Action at it by making a comment to that effect on the Passenger’s Log post that announced the Encounter, but only during their Turn on that Encounter. If a Sailor is at multiple Encounters, they must specify which Encounter the action is being taken at. The following actions are Encounter Actions, and their cost:

• Flanking [1 Maneuver Energy]: The boat gets around the Fast-Fish, putting it in a more vulnerable position. Lower its Speed by 1.
• Recover a Harpoon [3 Maneuver Energy]: Gain 1 Power Energy. This action can only be performed once per Attack action that has been performed this Encounter.
• Attack [1 Power Energy]: You use a Harpoon to spear the Fast-Fish. Roll a DICE5 and remove a Harpoon you are holding from the game: if you roll a number higher than the Fast-Fish’s Speed, you lower its Danger by 1.
• Waste Time [1 Maneuver Energy]:
• Distract Hunt [1 Power Energy]:
• Skip Turn [0 Maneuver Energy]:
• Flee [X Maneuver Energy, where X is the Fast-Fish’s Speed]: The Encounter Ends.

If during an Encounter, the Fast-Fish’s Danger is lowered to 0 or lower, the Fast-Fish is Defeated and the Encounter ends.

If all available turns for the Hunt has been used up, but the Danger of the Encounter’s Fast-Fish is above 0, then the Hunt is Defeated: they each lose Health equal to the Fast-Fish’s Danger. If this would attempt to set it to a value below 0, it sets it to 0 instead. Immediately after those losses of Health, the Encounter ends.

When a Fast-Fish is defeated its death occurs, a number of Empty Barrels equal to the Fast-Fish’s yield are changed into Barrels of Oil, a number of Harpoons equal to the number of Attack actions taken as part of the Encounter with that Fast-Fish are added to the Haniver’s hold, and the ship’s Cleanliness is reduced by the the yield of the Fast-Fish * 10.

Gams

If the most recent Passenger’s Log announces the presence of another ship and a Sailor with the Position of Captain has replied to that Log with a comment including the word “ahoy”, a Sailor make take one Valid Gam Action during the Gam event by making a comment on that Passenger's Log containing the string "I <X> during the Gam", where <X> is the name of a valid Gam Action.

Valid Gam Actions Are:

• Trade Posessions: A Sailor who performs this action increases their Gold by 1
• Talk about the Trade: A Sailor who performs this action increases their Lore by 1
• Gossip: If a Sailor gossips during a Gam, the Narrator shall randomly select a sailor other than the sailor who gossiped, randomly select a goal of the sailor selected, and inform the Sailor who gossiped of the Sailor and Goal selected via Private Message.

Epilogue

Before the 15th of June, the Narrator shall secretly select a random integer between 0 and 48 inclusive. That number shall be referred to as Ending Uncertainty Factor, or EUF.

The Story ends EUF hours after the 15th of June of 2018, 08:22:00 UTC. Within 3 days of the Story ending, the Narrator shall announce the end of the Story, including the time when it ended, in a blog post.

Special Case

Special Case Rules can be active or inactive and default to active. The status of a Special Case rule is notated in the title of that rule ending in ”[X]” where X is the word Active or Inactive, denoting that Rule’s status. When a new dynasty is started, the Ascension Address may state any existing Special Case Rules that are set to inactive; any Special Case Rules not set in the Ascension Address become Active.

The text of Special Case Rules that are inactive shall be interpreted, for the purpose of play, to mean nothing.

Tags [Active]

Votable matters have zero or more tags. Tags are added by adding it to the title of a votable matter with the format “[X]” where [X] is the tag, for example “[Core] Wording Fix”. Votable Matters require the [Core] tag in order to make changes to the Core Rules, and the [Appendix] tag in order to make changes to the Appendix Rules. Votable Matters other than DoVs require the [Victory] tag in order to grant victory to a Sailor.

Atomic Actions [Active]

When a Sailor performs an Atomic Action, they must complete all its steps; they must complete them in order; and they may not take any other dynastic action until all such steps are complete. In addition, the Sailor performing an Atomic Action performs its steps as quickly as they are able.

If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the Sailor must redo the Atomic Action. In redoing an Atomic Action, the Sailor uses any legal steps that were already completed in the illegal Atomic Action and only redoes the illegal ones.

For instance if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a die in the GNDT and then doing steps based upon it’s result the Sailor would have to reroll the die if they rolled the wrong one if the first place and any steps that depended upon the result of that die; however if all they did was take an illegal action later on, the die is still used in the redone action.

If the Atomic Action was illegal due to a die that was wrong in the GNDT (for example, rolling a 1 on a DICE6 gives that Sailor a point and the rest do nothing and the Sailor rolls a DICE5 in the first one) and in redoing the Atomic Action they get the same effect as before (i.e. rolling an incorrect die and getting result X but then rolling the correct die and still getting result X) then the steps that depended upon that result are valid and don’t need to be redone. Steps that depend upon multiple dice which were done incorrectly must have each incorrect die have the same effect to be considered valid.

For the purposes of determining the ordering or legality of game actions the time of an Atomic Action shall be the time that it is completed. For Atomic Actions that are redone, the time of completion is the last redone step.

A Sailor may not take more than one Atomic Action at the same time.

This rule cannot be overruled by the Dynastic Rules.

Seasonal Downtime [Active]

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”.

Dormancy [Active]

If there are fewer than five Sailors, then BlogNomic is Dormant. While BlogNomic is Dormant, actions defined by dynastic rules may not be taken, and proposals may not be submitted.

No Orphan Variables [Active]

An Orphan Variable is a dynastic gamestate variable which has neither a location in which it’s tracked, nor a manner in which it it can be determined from other gamestate variables, specified in the Ruleset.

A Sailor may not take any dynastic actions that are contingent on the specific value of an Orphan Variable.

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 Sailors.

Daily Action

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

Daily Communal Action

A Daily Communal Action is a Daily Action that can only be performed by one Sailor per day.

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

Flavour Text

When posting a blog entry, a Sailor 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. All GNDT columns that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention are assumed to be Gamestate, as are all Wiki Pages that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention except for dynastic histories and discussion pages.

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

Resolve/Resolution

If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the word “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.

Slack

The BlogNomic Slack is located at blognomic.slack.com. Sailors may request an invite to the Slack while logged in by clicking the button in the sidebar.

Slack Channel

A Slack Channel is any channel on the BlogNomic Slack. To reference a Slack Channel, use a hash (#) followed by the name of that channel. (For example, #random.)

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.

Table of Contents

The directory of section headings that is generated by the MediaWiki software for most pages in the wiki.

TOC

Table of Contents.

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 Sailor 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 Sailor per week.

Wiki

The BlogNomic Wiki at http://wiki.blognomic.com

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 Sailor 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. Any single official post cannot be of two different types of official post unless a rule explicitly states otherwise.

An official post may only be removed as allowed by the Ruleset. An official post may be altered by its author if it is less than two hours old and either no Sailor has commented on it or (if it is a Votable Matter) if all comments on it contain no voting icons; 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. An official blog post that has the status of Enacted or Failed cannot change categories. An official blog post’s status may never be altered except in accordance with the rules that define that official post.

A non-official post may not, through editing of the blog or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following two exceptions: Firstly, 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. Secondly, if a post by a New Sailor is not in any category but follows the wording of a Proposal, in that it has written changes the gamestate and or ruleset, and if it has been posted for less than six hours, then any admin may change it to be in the Proposal category. A New Sailor is defined as a Sailor who has been a Sailor for fewer than seven days or a Sailor that has unidled in the past seven days after being idle for at least 3 months.

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 Sailor may update any Sailor's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.

All updates to the GNDT are logged. For gamestate which is tracked in a specific place (such as the GNDT or a wiki page), any alteration of that gamestate as a result of a Sailor’s action is (and can only be) applied by editing that data in that place. One GNDT or wiki update may contain one or more alterations, or one alteration may be split over multiple updates, as long as it is clear what is happening and the alterations 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 Sailor may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Sailor 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, Sailors are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Sailors 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.

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 a Sailor 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.

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 selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Sailor making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the GNDT.

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 Sailors to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Sailor (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
• A Sailor 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 game variable has no defined starting value, then that starting value is the nearest legal value to zero that it may take (for numerical variables, defaulting to positive if tied), blank (for a text string or list that may be blank), the alphabetically earliest legal text string it may take (for a text string which may not be blank, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”), or the list which is alphabetically earliest from the set of lists with the fewest elements (for lists which may not be blank, and considering each list to be a single unpunctuated text string, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”).
• 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)
• DICEN cannot be rolled in the GNDT if N is 22 or more digits long.

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.
• If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a proposal enacting, that page shall - unless otherwise specified - be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that proposal's submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked).
• 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 the admin enacting a proposal reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (eg. “two days after this proposal enacts, Sailor 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 Sailor if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Sailor's name.
• 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.
• Subrules can be referred to by a name which incorporates name of the rule they are a subrule of. Example: a subrule of the rule “Gin” is a “Gin Rule”, however the rule “Gin” is not a “Gin Rule” because it’s not a subrule of the rule “Gin”.
• When referring to a proposal, the name used in reference to a specific proposal may be simplified by not including braces and any text between the opening and closing braces. i.e. a proposal named “Changes [Core]” could instead be referred to by the name “Changes”.

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 “Sailors may Kick each other” and “Sailors may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Sailors may not Kick each other.)
4. If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Sailors may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Sailors may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Sailors may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)
5. Special Case Rules have equal precedence as Dynastic Rules, unless that Special Case Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule.