Ruleset 125

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Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Crewmembers 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.

Crewmembers 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”.

Crewmembers

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Admin may render a Crewmember Idle if that Crewmember has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Crewmember 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 Crewmember if that Crewmember 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 Crewmember 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 Crewmember, known as the Ship's Computer. If there is no Ship's Computer, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.

Votable Matters

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

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a Crewmember 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 Ship's Computer may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a proposal; when the Ship's Computer casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Ship's Computer later changes their Vote.

If a Crewmember other than the Ship's Computer casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Ship's Computer. When the Ship's Computer 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 Ship's Computer'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 Crewmembers 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 Crewmembers actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Crewmember feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Crewmember may raise a Call for Judgement (abbreviated CfJ) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgement” category.

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

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

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a Crewmember (other than the Ship's Computer) 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 “Crewmembers”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

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

The Ship's Computer

The ISV Jenny Haniver is operated by the Ship’s Computer. It may be referred to as simply “the Computer”. For the purposes of all dynastic rules, the Ship’s Computer is not considered to be a Crewmember and cannot cast votes on Missions or Trials.

If an enacted Votable Matter would require the Ship’s Computer to reveal or change information that it is tracking privately, and if the Computer did not vote FOR that Votable Matter, then it may choose not to reveal or change that information.

Command Quorum is the Quorum of all Crewmembers who are not Disabled.

Androids

Each Crewmember may either be a Human or an Android, defaulting to Human. This is tracked privately by the Ship’s Computer. If there are more than five Crewmembers and fewer than two Androids, the Computer may convert a randomly-selected Human to an Android and privately inform that Crewmember that their sense of humanity had been simulated up to this point.

The Computer maintains a private list of scanned Crewmembers. If a Crewmember has never been Scanned, the Computer may Scan them by privately rolling a ten-sided die. On a roll of 1 or 2, the Crewmember becomes an Android and is privately informed of this fact. After the Computer Scans a Crewmember, it shall make a blog post saying who they scanned.

Sabotage

An Android may Sabotage a Proposal by sending a Private Message to the Ship’s Computer informing it of this intention. A proposal can only become Sabotaged if it is pending, or if it enacted less than 24 hours previously. If a pending Proposal is Sabotaged, the Computer should veto it, stating that it has been Sabotaged. If an enacted Proposal is Sabotaged, the Computer should undo the effects of its enactment as it sees fit, and post a blog entry announcing this.

Any Crewmember may prepare to Sabotage a specific Mission by sending a Private Message to the Ship’s Computer informing it of this intention.

Demands

Androids may submit Demands to the Ship’s Computer: Demands are drafts of Proposals. When the Computer receives a Demand from an Android, it should post it as a Proposal, marked with “[Demand]” in the title. Proposals posted in this way are known as Demand Proposals, do not count towards the Computer’s Proposal limit, and can be made even if the Computer has 2 Proposals pending or has made 3 that day. A Demand Proposal may not be made if another Demand Proposal is Pending.

Androids may submit Tickertapes to the Ship’s Computer, being comments intended in response to specific posts. At the Computer’s Discretion, it may post a Tickertape as a comment to the post in question, in its own name, and clearly flagged as a Tickertape. The Computer may make whatever edits to the text it wishes. Tickertapes which appear to be outside the scope of responding to a post or its comments, or which attempt to cast votes or take other game actions, should be ignored.

Phasers

Each Android has a silenced, one-shot Phaser concealed in their casing.

An Android may send a Private Message to the Ship’s Computer informing it of their intention to stun a named Crewmember, if they have sent no Private Messages of this nature so far this dynasty. Upon receiving such a Message, the Computer shall give the named Crewmember the “Disabled” Condition.

Tampering

Any Crewmember may Tamper by sending a PM to the Ship’s Computer with the subject line “Tamper: xxx”, where xxx is the name of a System as listed in the rule entitled Missions.

Upon receiving a Tamper message from a Crewmember, the Ship’s Computer should Alert the crew to a Pending Mission that takes place in the named System.

An individual Crewmember may not Tamper with a system more than once every 48 hours.

Emotions

Each Crewmember has zero or more Emotions, tracked in the GNDT as a text string and defaulting to blank. Valid Emotions are listed below, grouped by their Nature, with each group listed progressively from High to Low.

  • Angry, Stressed, Calm, Listless.
  • Reckless, Careless, Cautious, Paranoid.
  • Euphoric, Happy, Unhappy, Depressed.
  • Alert, Tired, Fatigued, Exhausted.

A Crewmember may also have zero or more Conditions, which are tracked as if they were Emotions. Valid Conditions are Injured and Disabled. If a Crewmember’s Condition Worsens, and they have no Condition listed in the GNDT, they gain the Condition Injured. If a Crewmember’s Condition Worsens, and they have the Condition Injured, they gain the Condition Disabled. If a Crewmember’s Condition Worsens, and they have the Condition Disabled, then no effect takes place. If a Crewmember has a particular Emotion or Condition, they may be described with that adjective.

A Crewmember may at any time give themselves any Emotion, so long as they do not already have an Emotion of that Nature, and that the new Emotion is neither the Highest nor the Lowest of that Nature. If a Crewmember has two Emotions of the same Nature, any Crewmember may remove the Highest of those two Emotions from that Crewmember.

“Increasing” an Emotion means replacing it with the Emotion immediately higher than it within the same Nature; “decreasing” an Emotion means replacing it with the Emotion immediately lower within the same Nature. When an effect Wearies a Crewmember, it decreases that Crewmember’s Emotion of Alert, Tired or Fatigued, or makes them Tired if they have no Emotion of that Nature. An Exhausted Crewmember may not Weary themselves.

If a Crewmember is not Tired, Fatigued or Exhausted they may gain the Alert Emotion. A Crewmember may Weary themselves to increase or decrease any of their Emotions that has a different Nature.

Changing one’s own Emotions is Cerebral.

If a single Emotion (ignoring Alert, Tired, Fatigued and Exhausted) appears in more Crewmembers than any other Emotion in its Nature, then that Emotion is part of the Atmosphere. If no Emotion meets this criterion, there is no Atmosphere.

Injuries

An Injured Crewmember may not take any action under a dynastic rule that a rule declares Strenuous. A Disabled Crewmember may not take any action under a dynastic rule, nor cast votes on Missions or Trials, except for actions that a rule declares to be Cerebral.

If an action would otherwise be declared both Cerebral and Strenuous, it is Strenuous but not Cerebral.

Paranoia

When a Proposal is Sabotaged, the Crewmember who proposed it gains the Emotion Paranoid, if they did not have that Emotion already.

Side Effects

If a Crewmember is Listless and Euphoric at the same time, they become Happy instead of Euphoric.

If the Atmosphere contains Careless, whenever a Mission would be processed, there is a 10% chance it fails as though Unattended, regardless of whether it’s Attended.

If the Atmosphere contains Euphoric, Humans may submit Demand proposals, which are treated as though they were Androids. When the Computer posts a Demand submitted while the Atmosphere contains Euphoric, it shall clearly label it as a Demand of uncertain origin.

If the Atmosphere contains Unhappy, Trials require one fewer FOR vote to be enacted. If the Atmosphere contains Depressed, Trials require one more FOR vote to be enacted.

Fitness for Duty

A Crewmember’s Fitness for Duty is equal to six, minus one for each of their Emotions which is either the Highest or the Lowest of its Nature (excluding Alert and Exhausted). If two Crewmembers have the same Clearance and a different Fitness for Duty, any Crewmember may increment the Clearance of whichever of those two Crewmembers has the highest Fitness for Duty.

Command Roles

Some Crewmembers have a Command Role, tracked in the GNDT as a text string and defaulting to blank. No more than one Crewmember at a time may be assigned a given Command Role. A Crewmember who has a Command Role may have special Daily Actions that only they can take, or other persistent effects related to their status in the game.

The valid Command Roles are Pilot, Doctor, Mediator, Diplomat, Stim Dealer and Engineer.

If there is a Command Role with no Crewmember assigned to it, and there are at least two active Crewmembers with no Command Role, the Ship’s Computer may pick a random Crewmember using the GNDT DICE function (where each Command Role-free Crewmember is assigned a number in a GNDT comment before DICE is called) and assign that Command Role to the Crewmember so selected.

On Demands and Trials, votes of DEFERENTIAL are considered to be the same as the Mediator’s Vote. Should the Mediator vote FOR a Demand or Trial that succeeds or passes, or AGAINST a Demand or Trial that fails, their Clearance is increased by x, where x is the number of EVCs of DEFERENTIAL on that Demand or Trial. Should the Mediator vote AGAINST a Demand or Trial that succeeds or passes, or FOR a Demand or Trial that fails, their Clearance is decreased by x in the same way.

On Proposals where the Ship’s Computer has voted DEFERENTIAL, votes of DEFERENTIAL are considered to be the same as the Mediator’s Vote, rather than the Computer’s Vote.

As a Daily Action, the Doctor may Examine any Crewmember other than themself by posting a comment to this effect in the GNDT, and increasing or decreasing their Clearance by 1. The Doctor may not Examine the same Crewmember more than once per week.

If the Diplomat’s Condition is due to Worsen then their condition instead does not Worsen.

Should a Crewmember’s Clearance be reduced to below 0, that Crewmember is stripped of any Command Roles assigned to them.

Subroutines

The Ship’s Computer operates more effectively when the parameters of its operation are defined. The total number of Dynastic Rules (excluding Subrules) is referred to as the Ship Computer’s Organisation Index (or OI).

The Computer privately tracks a queue of Subroutines and corresponding Subjects, which may be empty. Each Subroutine in the queue is marked as being Signed by a particular Crewmember or idle Crewmember. Possible Subroutines are listed below with the following Designations, Thresholds and effects.

  • MD1C - Threshold: 6 OI. An adjective is chosen at random from the Subject’s Emotions and Conditions (excluding "Alert" or “Disabled”), if they have any, and is removed from them.
  • ASUM - Threshold: 8 OI. The subject of this subroutine is immediately given the Command Role of Diplomat. Any other Crewmembers with a Command Role of Diplomat loose their Command Role.
  • S33R - Threshold: 9 OI. The Subject is privately sent a copy of the current queue of Subroutines, not including who Signed each Subroutine.
  • L0GS - Threshold: 9 OI. If one of the four most recently processed subroutines was another L0GS, nothing happens. Otherwise, the Subject is privately sent the names of the Crewmembers who Signed the five most recently processed subroutines, but not information about who signed which Subroutine.
  • M4RK - Threshold: 9 OI. This subroutine has no effect.
  • TRAK - Threshold: 11 OI. If the subject of this subroutine has Tampered with a System in the 48 hours preceding the execution of this subroutine, then the Crewmember who signed this subroutine is notified of that Crewmember’s identity by the Ship’s Computer.
  • B3LY - Threshold: 12 OI. All Subroutines signed by the Subject are discarded from the queue.
  • SP0F - Threshold: 14 OI. For the next seven subroutines, XP0S treats the Subject as Human regardless of whether they are Human or Android.
  • XP0S - Threshold: 15 OI. The Ship’s Computer picks a random Crewmember, and tells the Subject whether that Crewmember is Human or Android.
  • P1NG - Threshold: 15 OI. The Ship’s Computer makes a blog post revealing the current number of active Androids. If fewer than five Crewmembers have been Scanned since the 30th of January 2015, or since the last time this Subroutine was processed, this instead has no effect.

If the Computer receives a Private Message containing only the text “EXECUTE SUBROUTINE XXXX YYYY” (where XXXX is the Designation of a Subroutine and YYYY is the name of a Crewmember), and if the Threshold of that Subroutine is less than or equal to the OI, and if the queue contains no Subroutines signed by the Crewmember who sent the message, then the Computer may add a Subroutine of that Designation to the end of its queue with the named Crewmember as its Subject, and signed by the Crewmember who sent the message.

As a daily action, the Computer may process the Subroutine at the start of its queue: it posts a blog entry naming the Subroutine but not its Subject or the Crewmember who signed it, and then removes that Subroutine from the queue.

Trials

A Trial is a Votable Matter, and consists of a blog post with a title beginning with “Trial:” and the comments on that post. No Crewmember may post a Trial if they have posted a Trial in the last 48 hours. No Crewmember may post a Trial unless the Atmosphere contains Angry or Paranoid. No Crewmember may post a Trial if there is a pending Trial in which they are being accused.

The Crewmember posting a Trial must accuse a single Crewmember of being an Android in the body of the post. A post that accuses no Crewmembers, or names multiple Crewmembers, is not a valid Trial. The oldest pending Trial may be enacted if the following is true:

  • It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours and has a number of FOR Votes that exceeds Command Quorum.

The oldest pending Trial 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 Crewmembers who are voting AGAINST it exceeds or equals Command Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

If a Trial has 2 or more votes and has more FOR votes than AGAINST votes, then if the accused Crewmember goes idle, the Trial is enacted before that Crewmember goes idle.

If a Trial is enacted, the enacting Admin must give the Crewmember accused within it the “Disabled” Condition. Should a Trial succeed, the Crewmember accused within it has their Clearance set to 0.

When a Crewmember is accused in a Trial they may add the emotion Angry to themselves and lose all other emotions of the same nature.

Missions

The ISV Jenny Haniver, under the Polaris protocol, requires Crewmember participation in the maintenance and operation of essential ship systems. The Computer may, not more than once every 48 hours (unless directed to as a result of Tampering), Alert the crew to a new Pending Mission by posting a Votable Matter that specifies the Mission's System and Team Size and that has a unique title beginning with "Alert:". Each Mission’s System is chosen at random, and its Team Size is an integer equal to the number of Subroutines in the Computer’s queue when the Mission is created. If the Team Size would be zero, it is instead one, and if the Team Size would be greater than the number of non-disabled Crewmembers, it is instead equal to the number of non-Disabled Crewmembers.

The Responder Team for a Mission is a group of Crewmembers equal to the Team Size. When a Mission begins, the Computer should select a number of random non-Disabled Crewmembers equal to the Team Size (those who happen to be nearest to the problem), and announce it in a comment to the post: this is the Responder Team for the Mission. In comments to the post, Crewmembers may vote FOR or AGAINST the Responder Team. If the post has a Command Quorum of FOR votes, including votes from every non-Idle member of the Responder Team, the Responder Team is approved: the Computer may process the Mission as Attended. If a Mission is more than 72 hours old and cannot be processed as Attended, the Computer may process it as Unattended.

At any time, the Pilot may post a comment (known as a “Roster Comment”) to the post listing a number of Crewmembers equal to the Team Size: if he or she does so, this group becomes the Responder Team for the Mission and all votes on that post made previously to that Roster Comment are ignored for the purposes of this rule.

When a Mission is processed, the following steps are taken in order:

  • If the Mission is Attended and any of its Responder Team are Exhausted, Injured or Disabled, the Mission becomes Unattended.
  • If the Mission was created by a Tamper message and the Crewmember who sent that message is among its Responder Team, the Mission becomes Unattended.
  • All members of the Responder Team are Wearied.
  • If the Mission is Attended, and if any Crewmember among its Responder Team has prepared to Sabotage the Mission, then any M4RK Subroutines currently in the Ship’s Computer’s queue that have such a Crewmember as a Subject are removed from the queue; the Mission fails; and the Severity of its System is incremented twice.
  • If the Mission is Attended and the previous condition was not met, then the Mission succeeds.
  • If the Mission Succeeded and the Engineer is among its Responder Team, then the Severity of its System is decremented once.
  • If the Mission is Unattended, then the Mission fails, and the Severity of its System is incremented once. If this would cause any Crewmember to lose 3 Clearance, it instead causes them to lose 1 Clearance.

The Mission is then over, and no further actions can be taken on it.

Each System has an associated Severity, tracked in this rule. Mission Systems and their current Severities are:

  • Energy (None)
  • Life Support (Critical)
  • Propulsion (Moderate)
  • Scanning (None)

Valid Severities are:

  • None
  • Minor
  • Moderate
  • Critical
  • Catastrophic

When a System's Severity is incremented, the Severity changes to the next one down on this list, if it exists. When a System’s Severity is decremented, the Severity changes to the previous one on this list, if it exists.

System Failure

If the Energy System is Catastrophic, Subroutines may not be processed.

If the Life Support System is Catastrophic, Strenuous actions cannot be taken by Humans.

If the Propulsion System is Catastrophic, Unattended Missions have their Severity incremented one additional time when processed.

If the Scanning System is Catastrophic, the determination of a new Mission’s System is made privately by the Computer, and is not revealed until the time at which the Mission is processed.

Drugs

All actions in this rule are Strenuous.

An Android may attempt to Drug any Crewmember as a weekly action. To do so, they send a private message to the Ship Computer containing exactly one phrase of the form "Drugging XXX to feel YYY" where XXX is a Crewmember (the Target) and YYY is an Emotion. If the Target is an Android and is not the Drugger, drugging them has no effect. Otherwise, the Ship Computer shall, within 24 hours of reading the message, make a blog post announcing that the Target has been Drugged, at which point the Target gains the named Emotion and loses all other Emotions with the same Nature.

As a weekly action, the Doctor may Inject any Crewmember by sending a private message to the Ship’s Computer with the text “Inject XXX with YYY” where XXX is the Crewmember to be Injected and YYY is either Saline or Mercury. The Computer should process such a request as soon as it can, and as follows: if an Android is injected with Saline or a Human is injected with Mercury, that Crewmember becomes Injured; if an Android is injected with Mercury or a Human is injected with Saline, that Crewmember has a 50% chance of becoming Injured.

As a Daily Action, the Stim Dealer may Boost any Crewmember other than themself who is Tired, Fatigued or Exhausted. To do so, the Stim Dealer updates the GNDT to replace that Crewmember’s Emotion of Tired, Fatigued or Exhausted with Alert. The Stim Dealer shall then roll 1DICE6; on a result of 1, that Crewmember gains the Emotion Paranoid as well, or if they were already Paranoid, gains the Emotion Angry.

Clearance

All of the Human crew are sick of Jupiter patrol and want to be reassigned to Earth; the Android crew simply wish to commandeer the vessel. Each Crewmember other than the Ship’s Computer has a Clearance level. This is represented as an integer, tracked with a field called Clearance in the GNDT. If a Crewmember has never had their Clearance level set, it defaults to 5.

When a Crewmember is part of the Responder Team for a Mission that succeeds, their Clearance increases by 2. When a Crewmember is part of the Responder Team for a Mission that fails, their Clearance decreases by 3. If the Pilot posted a Roster Comment on a Mission, none of those Clearance changes happen for that Mission; instead, when a Mission succeeds for which the Pilot posted a Roster Comment, then the Pilot’s Clearance increases by 3.

If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Androids are Disabled, the Human with the lowest Clearance is reassigned to Earth and is Triumphant. If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Humans are Disabled, the Android with the highest Clearance assumes command and is Triumphant. While more than one Crewmember meets these conditions, instead, none of them are Triumphant. If any Crewmember is Triumphant, the Computer shall make a blog post announcing this and that Crewmember has achieved victory.

The Airlock

Each Crewmember can Mark up to one other Crewmember. This is tracked in the GNDT, and may be changed as a Cerebral action.

If a Proposal is enacted that includes the phrase “Flush the Marks”, then the procedure for Flushing Marks should be followed as detailed in the bullet points below:

  • The enacting Admin shall, at the time of resolution, send a private message to the Ship’s Computer notifying them that this procedure has been initiated. The Ship’s Computer should then follow the remaining steps of this procedure at their first opportunity.
  • The Ship’s Computer examines the subroutine queue for any M4RK subroutines.
  • The Ship’s Computer evaluates which Crewmember carries the most Marks, and Worsen their Condition. A Crewmember carries a Mark if they are the subject of a M4RK subroutine that is currently in the subroutine queue or if they are named as another Crewmember’s Mark in the GNDT (and that Crewmember is neither Injured nor Disabled). If there is a difference between a Crewmember’s Mark as listed in the GNDT and the the subject of a M4RK subroutine signed by that Crewmember, the subject of the subroutine is considered to be that Crewmmeber’s Mark. If there is a tie between the Crewmembers with the most Marks then no Crewmember’s condition is Worsened as a result of this process.
  • The Ship’s Computer removes all M4RK subroutines from the subroutine queue.
  • The Ship’s Computer makes a post announcing that the Marks have been Flushed, specifying the identity of the Crewmember whose Condition was Worsened, if there was one.
  • The Ship’s Computer removes all Marks currently set in the GNDT.


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 Crewmembers.
Daily Action
If a game action is a Daily Action, each Crewmember able to perform it may take that action once each day, but not more than once every ten hours.
Day
References to a “day” as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “Sunday”, “The day after performing this action”, or “August 2nd”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a day beginning at and including 00:00:00 UTC, ending when the next day begins. It can never be 2 different days at the same instant.
Dice
References to "YDICEX" refer to Y X-sided dice, rolled within the GNDT. To roll dice, post DICEX in the comments field of the GNDT, replacing X with the number of sides on the die you wish to roll.
Dynastic Proposal
A Proposal which mandates changes that, even if conditionally, are limited to the creation, deletion, and/or amendment of dynastic rules and/or gamestate defined by dynastic rules.
Effective Vote Comment (EVC)
A Crewmember’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that Crewmember’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Crewmember’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
Flavour Text
When posting a blog entry, a Crewmember 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 Crewmembers is half the number of Crewmembers in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Crewmembers it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Crewmembers.
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 Crewmember 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 Crewmember 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 Crewmember 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 Crewmember has commented on it, or if the only comments on it begin with “Note:” and contain no voting icons, 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 Crewmember may update any Crewmember'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 Crewmember may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Crewmember 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, Crewmembers are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Crewmembers 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 Crewmember 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 Crewmembers to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Crewmember (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
  • A Crewmember 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, 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)

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 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, Crewmember 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 Crewmember if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Crewmember'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 “Crewmembers may Kick each other” and “Crewmembers may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Crewmembers may not Kick each other.)
  4. If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Crewmembers may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Crewmembers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Crewmembers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)