Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Pathfinders shall obey it.

It comprises four Sections: 1) the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering the essential elements of gameplay; 2) the rules of the current Dynasty; 3) rules which apply in special cases; and 4) the appendix, which complements and clarifies the Ruleset.

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

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

Pathfinders

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

A Pathfinder may only change their name as a result of a Proposal approving the change.

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

Idle Pathfinders

If a Pathfinder is Idle, this is tracked by their name being removed or concealed in the list of currently active Pathfinders in the Sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Pathfinders”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play” and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Pathfinders are not counted as Pathfinders.

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

When a Pathfinder 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 Pathfinder Idled in a different Dynasty), the Pathfinder is given the default value for new Pathfinders, if such a value exists.

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

Votable Matters

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

Votes

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

If a Pathfinder other than the Computer casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Computer. When the Computer 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 Computer’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 Pathfinders 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 Pathfinder may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the Pathfinder already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).

Special Proposal Voting

When a Pathfinder 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 Computer may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Computer casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Computer 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 Pathfinders actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Pathfinder feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Pathfinder 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 true:

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 any gamestate-tracking entities, as specified in the CfJ.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a Pathfinder (other than the Computer) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they may make a Declaration of Victory (abbreviated “DoV”) detailing this, by posting an entry in the “Declaration of Victory” category.

Every Pathfinder may cast Votes on that DoV to indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty. If there is at least one pending DoV, BlogNomic is on Hiatus.

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

It is Popular, it has been open for at least 12 hours, and either the Computer 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.

If a DoV is Failed and it had at least one AGAINST vote, the Pathfinder who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was Failed.

When a DoV is Enacted, all other pending DoVs are Failed, and a new Dynasty begins in which the Pathfinder who made the DoV becomes the Computer.

The new Computer will make an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category. This should specify the Computer’s chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and it may optionally specify that the terms “Pathfinder” and “Computer” will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire Ruleset (where the replacement terms are different, and neither includes any words in a form in which they already appear in the non-dynastic Ruleset), and/or list a number of dynastic rules to keep. When such an Ascension Address is posted, the Ruleset is updated to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed. Between the enactment of the DoV and the posting of the Ascension Address, no new DoV may be made and BlogNomic is on Hiatus.

Before an Ascension Address has been posted for a new Dynasty, the Computer may pass the role of Computer to another Pathfinder by making a post to that effect.

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules as it relates to Declarations of Victory, but it 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 Pathfinder’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. Pathfinders should vote against any DoV that relies on having broken a fair play rule.

A single person should not control more than one non-Idle Pathfinder within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Pathfinder and any Idle Pathfinders.
A Pathfinder 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 Pathfinder should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
A Pathfinder should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Pathfinder.
A Pathfinder should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
A Pathfinder should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
A Pathfinder 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 Pathfinder should not roll dice 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. A Pathfinder must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
A Pathfinder should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
A Pathfinder should not use a core, special case or appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly achieve victory.

Dynastic Rules

Equipment

The types of Equipment brought on this mission, and their known effects on the Discoveries of this planet, are as follows:-

Gamma Pistol. Limited (10). Regulation. Harmless when applied to Vertorite. Damaging when applied to Deltarite.
Wrench. Regulation.
Bone Scanner. Limited (0). Regulation. Harmless when applied to Vertorite.
Magnetic Gloves. Regulation. Harmless when applied to Sudorite.
Fire Extinguisher. Regulation.
Rocket Fuel. Limited (6). Single-Use. Regulation.
Canister of Glarsh. Limited (11). Single-Use. Regulation.
Ingot: A certain amount of processed metal. Artificial. Mineral.
Rappel Cords: A system of cables and zip lines to facilitate transport. A Pathfinder Travelling or Dragging to or from a Location with Rappel Cords doesn’t need to spend Stamina to do so. Artificial. Mineral.
Energy Drink: A non-Twitchy Pathfinder carrying this can Consume it, spending it to set their Stamina to 10, but making them Twitchy, tracked as a an asterisk next to their Stamina value. Twitchy Pathfinders don’t recover Energy from a Sunrise, and lose their Twitchy status immediately after a Sunrise. Artificial. Single-Use.

Pathfinders may carry up to three Items, and default to carrying none. The Items they carry are tracked in the Mission Log wiki page. A Pathfinder with a location of Cortex Desert carrying fewer than three Items may start carrying any piece of Regulation Equipment, at any time.

Pieces of Equipment and Products are items.

Some Items are limited to a certain number in the supply crate, and are tracked in the list entry for that Item as “Limited (X).”, where X is the number remaining. When a Pathfinder uses an action in this rule to start carrying a Limited Item, they must reduce its number remaining. If a Limited Item has zero remaining, Pathfinders cannot start carrying it.

Effects

Jovian technology is largely untested in this part of the galaxy. Each piece of Equipment has a single defined Effect against each Discovery, defaulting to “Unknown”, and tracked in the Equipment rule (where Unknown effects are implicit and should not be noted).

Valid Effects (and their Consequences, if any) are:-

Unknown.
Harmless.
Annoying.
Damaging.
Deadly.
Restorative.
Productive: If this Discovery has a Product of Unknown, set this Discover's Product to a random value from the Product list corresponding to this Discovery's Classification, and the Applying Pathfinder may gain 1 of the Discovery's Product. Otherwise, the Applying Pathfinder may gain 1 of the Discovery's Product

If something would become Annoying to a Mineral, it instead becomes Harmless to it.

Application

As a weekly action, a Pathfinder may take the following atomic action, known as “Applying”:-

Choose a piece of Equipment from among those they are carrying, and a Discovery in the PathFinder’s current Location
If the Equipment’s effect on that Discovery is not Unknown, skip the next three steps
Randomly select an Effect (excluding “Unknown”), naming the Equipment and the Discovery in the die roll comment
Update the Equipment rule to list the effect of that Equipment on that Discovery
Gain 1 Prestige
If the Equipment applied is Single-Use, cease carrying one instance of it.
Apply the Consequence (if any) of that Effect
Post a blog entry summarizing what just happened

Animals, Vegetables and Minerals

Numerous Discoveries exist on this planet. Each Discovery has the following characteristics, where the Name and Description of each Discovery is always flavour text:

A Name
A Classification: Each Discovery must be either an Animal, Vegetable or Mineral.
A Dispersal: A Discovery can be either General or Distinct [x], where x is the name of the Location with which it is associated.
A Description: A brief description of what the Discovery looks like.
A Product: which defaults to unknown.

Those discovered so far (listed as “Name [Classification, Dispersal] Description”) are:-

Deltarite [Mineral, General] A powdery orange Mineral.
Sudorite [Mineral, General] A faintly glowing silver Mineral..
Vertorite [Mineral, General] A glittering dark grey Mineral.
Gregite [Mineral, Distinct Cortex Desert] Description Unknown
Trabite [Mineral, Distinct Qualifier Hills] Description Unknown

Making New Distinct Discoveries

Whenever a Pathfinder is called upon to create a new Distinct Discovery, they must do so by carrying out the following atomic action:

Give it a Classification, which must be either Animal, Vegetable or Mineral, at random.
Generate a valid Name for it, and give it that Name
Set its Dispersal to Distinct [x], where x is the name of the Location where it was created.
Set its Description to “Description Pending”.
Add the Discovery to the list in the rule Animals, Vegetables and Minerals.

Prefixes are those in the List of Latin and Greek prefixes wiki page (their hyphens ignored).

To generate a valid Name for an Animal: Select a random Prefix, then add either “on”, “os”, “ox” or “us” at random (if the prefix ends in a consonant) or “don”, “raptor”, “saur” or “tops” at random (if the prefix ends in a vowel) to the end.
To generate a valid Name for a Vegetable: Select a random Prefix, add an “a” to the end if it ends in a consonant, then add a space and another random Prefix, then add “ia” or “um” (chosen at random) to the end.
To generate a valid Name for a Mineral: Select a random Prefix, add an “s” to the end if it ends in a vowel, then add “ite” or “ium” (chosen at random) to the end.

If a generated Name would exactly match the Name of an existing Discovery, add the prefix “mega” or “ultra” (selected at random) to the generated Name.

Stamina

Stamina is tracked at the “Mission Log”. Pathfinders have an amount of Stamina, defaulting to 7 and with a maximum of 10. As a weekly communal action, a Pathfinder may Sunrise, granting each Pathfinder 7 Stamina (or setting it to 10, if it’s at more than 3).

Location

The Pathfinders have landed on a region of New Ganymede that they have named the Cortex Desert on the Haniverian Continent. There are a number of Locations within the Haniversian Continent; these are tracked on the Mission Control wiki page. The Mission Control wiki page also contains a visual depiction of the continent.

A Location has the following characteristics:

An index number, which is the lowest positive integer that has not been used by another Location
A topology, which is randomly selected from the following: forest, rainforest, savannah, grassland, lake, desert, hills, mountains, taiga, glacier
A name, which is a string, and which when created is formed from a random Prefix followed by a random vowel (if the Prefix ends in a consonant) or a random consonant (if it ends in a vowel), followed by a space, followed by the location’s Topology (re-rolling if the result is currently in use in the name of another Location)
A Distinct Discovery, generated as per the process set out in the rule Making New Distinct Discoveries. A Location is said to have a Dense concentration of its Distinct Discovery, a moderate concentration of the Distinct Discoveries of any Location to which it is Linked and any General Discovery, and a sparse concentration of any other Distinct Discovery.
Any number of Links to other Locations. When a Location is created, it is Linked to the Location of the Pathfinder who created it. Whenever a Link is created it may be assumed that it is created reciprocally (i.e. that a link from A to B also creates a link from B to A).

Each Pathfinder has a Location, which defaults to The Cortex Desert.

Pathfinders may make Location Actions. Available movement actions are as follows:

Create a new location: Daily action. Roll DICE8. If the result is higher than the number of Locations that are Linked to their current Location, then they may spend 2 Stamina to create a new Location with the characteristics set out above, and gain 2 Prestige.
Create a new Link from their current Location to a Location that is no more than one Location removed from it by spending 1 Stamina, and gain 1 Prestige.

Whenever a Pathfinder successfully completes a Location Action they should then download, amend and re-upload the map on the Mission Control page to show the location and links of the new Location.

A Pathfinder can Travel by paying 1 Stamina, changing their Location to another which is Linked to their current Location.

The Computer can change a Location’s name at any time by generating a new one as per the criteria above.

At all times (including the creation of a new Location and the renaming of Locations), no two Locations may share the same name.

Crafting

Some Equipment can be Crafted in the field by Pathfinders. Each Craft recipe has Materials, Tools and Output, listed below as “Materials + Tools = Output”:

Ingot + Wrench and Magnetic Gloves = Rappel Cords
Rocket Fuel + Canister of Glarsh = Energy Drink

A Pathfinder who is carrying both the Materials and Tools for a Craft recipe can spend 1 Stamina to stop carrying its Materials and start carrying its Output. If any of the Tools are Single-Use, the Pathfinder also stops carrying them, as if they were Materials.

Prestige

Each Pathfinder has an amount of Prestige, which is a non-negative integer that is tracked on the Mission Log page of the wiki.

If one Pathfinder has the most Prestige then they are the Leader. If there is a Leader and one Pathfinder has the the second-most Prestige then that Pathfinder is the Second in Command.

The Leader can Call In Supplies by spending 1 Stamina, and the Second in Command can Request Supplies by spending 2 Stamina. Either action allows them to increase the Limit (the X) of a Limited Equipment by 1.

Products

Mineral Products are:

Ingot
Flammable Liquid
Radioactive Brick
Conductive Wire

Animal Products are:

Raw Edible Mass
Waterproof Sheet
Toxic Spines
Long Fibers

Vegetable Products are:

Raw Edible Mass
Oily Secretion
Structural Beam
Hallucinogenic Substance

Special Case

Special Case Rules can be Active or Inactive. If the title of a Special Case Rule includes "[X]", where X is either Active or Inactive, then its status is X. Otherwise, its status is its Default Status.

Special Case Rules have a Default Status, which can be Active or Inactive. If the title of a Special Case Rule includes an asterisk, (*) its Default Status is Inactive, otherwise, its Default Status is Active.

When a new Dynasty is started, the Ascension Address may list any number of existing Special Case Rules to be set to a status other than their respective Default Status. All other Special Case Rules are set to their respective Default Status.

The text of a Special Case Rule that is Inactive is flavour text.

Seasonal Downtime [Active]

On the 24th, 25th and 26th of December, BlogNomic is on Hiatus. In addition, game actions defined by the rules titled “Pathfinders” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.

Dormancy [Active]

If there are fewer than five Pathfinders, BlogNomic is on Hiatus.

Imperial Deferentials [Active]

If the Computer has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Pathfinders have voted FOR the Proposal than have voted AGAINST it) or AGAINST (in all other cases).

Dynastic Distance [Active]

For the purposes of dynastic rules which do not deal with voting, the Computer is not a Pathfinder.

The Traitor [Active]

The Traitor for a particular Dynasty may be a Pathfinder (including an idle one), or may be nobody, and it defaults to being nobody. The Traitor’s identity in the current Dynasty is tracked privately by the Computer, and the Computer should not share this information with Pathfinders other than the Traitor.

If there is no Traitor for the current Dynasty, and BlogNomic is not on Hiatus, the Computer may secretly randomly select a Pathfinder (other than the Computer) and privately inform them that they are the Traitor for the current Dynasty.

A Traitor is under no obligation to honour any informal promises they have made with other Pathfinders, nor to tell the truth to them, and is encouraged to betray other Pathfinders in order to achieve victory.

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. (e.g. 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 Pathfinders.
Daily Action: If a game action is a Daily Action, each Pathfinder 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 Pathfinder 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 “DICEX” or “YDICEX” refer to X-sided dice and Y amount of X-sided dice, rolled using the Dice Roller.
Dynastic Action: An action that is defined in the Dynastic rules.
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 Pathfinder’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Pathfinder’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Pathfinder’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
Commentary: When posting a blog entry, a Pathfinder 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.
Flavour Text: If a part of the ruleset is defined as being “flavour text”, it is gamestate and remains part of the ruleset document, but is not considered to have any meaning beyond being a string of characters. Pathfinders are not required to obey flavour text and may not perform any action defined by it, and any statements that flavour text makes about gamestate are ignored.
Gamestate: Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of. All wiki pages that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention (except for dynastic histories and discussion pages) and any images or Templates contained within those Wiki Pages are assumed to be Gamestate.
Hiatus: If BlogNomic is on Hiatus, Dynastic Actions may not be taken, and Proposals may not be submitted or Resolved. If multiple rules require BlogNomic to be on Hiatus at any given time, BlogNomic will continue to be on Hiatus until no rules require it.
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 Pathfinders is half the number of Pathfinders in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Pathfinders it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Pathfinders.
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 subrules 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. Pathfinders 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 (e.g. #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.
Uphold: To Uphold an illegal action is to retroactively declare the attempt to take it to have been successful, and to declare that all attempted game actions taken after it were attempted as if the Upheld action had been successful.
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, a DEF http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, and a crossed-out circle http://blognomic.com/images/vote/seal.gif shall represent a vote to 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 Pathfinder 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 Pathfinder per week.
Wiki: The BlogNomic Wiki at http://wiki.blognomic.com

Gamestate Tracking

Official Posts

Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.com. Any Pathfinder 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 Pathfinder 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 Pathfinder 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 Pathfinder is defined as a Pathfinder who has been a Pathfinder for fewer than seven days or a Pathfinder that has unidled in the past seven days after being idle for at least 3 months.

Any post that is or is made illegal as a result of an infraction against any of the prohibitions set out in this rule continues to be an Official Post but may no longer have any effect on the ruleset or the gamestate. If it is a Votable Matter then it is Unpopular, regardless of any other performance against criteria set out in the core rules. When it is resolved it may be marked as Illegal by the resolving admin. A post that is illegal in this manner cannot subsequently be made legal by any means.

Representations of the Gamestate

For gamestate which is tracked in a specific place (such as a wiki page), any alteration of that gamestate as a result of a Pathfinder’s action is (and can only be) applied by editing that data in that place. One 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 wiki merely represents the Gamestate tracked there, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and its representations are different, any Pathfinder may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Pathfinder feels that a representation of the gamestate (such as a wiki page) 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 alteration, Pathfinders are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead.

The historical fact of the occurrence of a defined game action is itself considered to be gamestate, tracked in the history of whatever resource is used to track the gamestate modified by that action, where possible, or in the wiki page Gamestate Modifications if this is not possible.

Orphan Variables

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

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

Random Generators

The Dice Roller at https://blognomic.com/dice/roll.php 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 CARD command will return a card with a random suit (either Hearts, Diamonds, Spades or Clubs) and a random value (either Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King). A card with a value that is either Jack, Queen or King is a face card.

Any changes to the potential outcomes of the Dice Roller’s random result commands must be made by Proposal.

If a Proposal proposes a change to this rule that would require server-level access to the BlogNomic site to fully enact its effects, that Proposal must name a Pathfinder with such access. Only a Pathfinder with such access may Enact that Proposal. If that Proposal does not name a Pathfinder with such access, that Proposal is Illegal.

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 Dice Roller, unless otherwise specified. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Pathfinder making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the Dice Roller.

Atomic Actions

An Atomic Action combines otherwise separate game actions into a single action.

All steps of an Atomic Action are considered one action, including the steps of an Atomic Action that is itself a step of a parent Atomic Action.
When a Pathfinder 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, or achieve victory, until all the steps are complete.
An Atomic Action may direct the Pathfinder performing it to skip some of its steps, which the Pathfinder must do and in which case the skipped steps are considered completed for this rule.
If a Pathfinder arrives at a step in an Atomic Action and they cannot perform that step, they undo all the steps they have performed of that Action and are considered never to have performed that Action.
If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the Pathfinder must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Pathfinder uses any legal steps that have already been completed in the illegal Atomic Action and only redoes the illegal ones. (For example, if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a dice and then doing steps based upon its result, the Pathfinder would have to reroll the dice only if they rolled the wrong one in the first place, and would then have to repeat any steps that depended upon the result of that dice; however, if they rolled the dice correctly but took an illegal step later on, the result of the original dice roll would still be used in the redone step.)
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.

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, a Pathfinder can spend only their own values, and a rule that allows Pathfinders to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Pathfinder (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
A Pathfinder 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 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 a default value but no defined starting value, then its default value should also be considered a starting value. If a game variable has neither a default value nor a starting value, then both may be considered to be 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”).
If the rules that define a game variable are amended, and some previously valid values become invalid as a consequence, any existing variables whose current values would become invalid are instead set to their starting value.
Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in a gamestate-tracking entity 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 Dice Roller if N is greater than one million.

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 (e.g. 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 (e.g. “two days after this Proposal enacts, Pathfinder 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.
If a dynastic rule has no text and no subrules, any Pathfinder may delete it from the ruleset.

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 (e.g. “04/10/09”), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.
A Pathfinder may not take more than one dynastic game action at the same time (excluding any actions which have been ongoing for more than three hours).

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.
The terms “Pathfinder” and “Player” are synonyms.
Pathfinders 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”.

Names

Within the Ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a Pathfinder if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Pathfinder’s name.
If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead given the name of the proposal that created it, or (if this is not possible) the name “Unnamed Rule”.
The names of rules are flavour text.
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”.
When referring to a Rule, the name used in reference to a specific Rule may be simplified by not including braces, any text between a pair of opening and closing braces, and, in the case of Special Case Rules, any asterisks, as long as such a reference would be unambiguous.
Where a proposal refers to a second proposal by name, it is assumed to refer to the most recently posted proposal of that name which pre-dates the first proposal.

Prioritisation

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

The Appendix has precedence over any other Rule;
A Dynastic Rule has precedence over a Core Rule, unless that Core Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
A Special Case Rule has equal precedence as a Dynastic Rule, unless that Special Case Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies (e.g. if the rules “Pathfinders may Kick each other” and “Pathfinders may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Pathfinders may not Kick each other);
If two contradicting parts have the same scope, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “Pathfinders may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Pathfinders may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Pathfinders may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Mentors

Whenever a new Pathfinder joins the game, the Computer should select an active Pathfinder who has indicated their willingness to act as a mentor and ask them to take that new Pathfinder on as a mentee. The Computer should wherever possible take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor. The approached prospective mentor may decline to act as a mentor, in which case the Computer should continue to approach other prospective mentors until one agrees or there are no available candidates who have not declined. If there are no available candidates then the Computer may act as the new Pathfinder’s mentor themselves, or the new Pathfinder must go without a mentor.

A relationship between a mentor and a mentee is a Mentorship. The Pathfinders and starting dates of all active Mentorships are tracked on the Mentorships wiki page, and whenever a new Mentorship is established, the Computer should announce it in a blog post.

If there is no Computer, any Pathfinder who has been active in at least three previous dynasties may act as Computer for the purposes of this rule.

Pathfinders who are willing to act as a Mentor are listed on the Mentorships wiki page. A Pathfinder may add or remove their own name from this list at any time.

Things that a mentor must do

A mentor must do the following:

Make pro-active contact with their mentee when appointed, and explain the dynamics of the Mentorship system;
Be available to answer any questions that their mentee may have about the game, including explaining the rules, common standards and etiquette of play, proofreading posts and clarifying game events;
Introduce their mentee to the various platforms of the game, including the wiki, Slack, and end-of-dynasty notifications through the Facebook group or Twitter;
If possible, give their mentee a nudge if it appears that they are at risk of becoming Idle;
If they themselves go idle, communicate with their mentee to either continue to support them as an idle Pathfinder or arrange a handover to another mentor if requested.

Things that a mentor should do

The following sets out suggested best practice for Mentorship relationships:

The Mentorship lasts for four weeks or until the next Ascension Address, whichever occurs latest. It can continue informally for longer but after this threshold the mentor is no longer bound by any of the conditions set out in the parent rule to this rule, or any of its subrules.
The mentor can and should advise the mentee on how to proceed in the mentee’s own best interests. This can include making connections with other Pathfinders.
The mentor should consider copying the mentee in on private, game-related communications, where it does not unfairly prejudice their own interests. The mentee should keep this information private without explicit consent from the mentor.
The mentor and mentee may work together to achieve victory. If a mentor achieves victory with support of their mentee then they should, if the mentee wishes it, pass the baton to the mentee.

Things that a mentor should not do

The following sets out a list of things that a mentor should not do in their relationship with their mentee. All of these are considered to be Fair Play rules, as per the rule Fair Play.

The mentor should not sock-puppet, bully, coerce or otherwise manipulate the mentee into performing any game actions.
The mentor should not seek to dissuade the mentee from pursuing other alliances.
A former mentor should not seek to use the fact of a prior Mentorship to influence the former mentee on an ongoing basis.

Ruleset

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