No More Jockeys house rules

Basic rules

Summarised from Alex Horne's original 2009 writeup of No More Women:

• Take turns to name a (typically famous) person, and to eliminate a category that person belongs to (eg. "Salvador Dali: No more artists."). Once a category is eliminated, players can no longer name any people who belong to it.
• A player may challenge another player's move, if they think it named a person who belongs to a forbidden category. If the challenged player concedes, they are eliminated.
• A player may be asked to "name another", if opponents suspect a category may only contain a single person. If they player is unable to name a second person, they are eliminated.
• Last player standing wins.

Rules from YouTube

The game was refined over video calls on the No More Jockeys YouTube channel between Alex Horne, Tim Key and Mark Watson in 2020. The following rules are stated or very obviously apparent from play:

• Any player can challenge a move.
• Only the most recent move can be challenged.
• A challenge can only be made only after the full move (both name and "no more X" category) has been called.
• A player's third incorrect challenge results in them being eliminated.
• If only a name has been called, it can be safely retracted and changed.
• Categories can be clarified after being called, but not changed significantly.
• A retracted name call can be replaced with a challenge.
• If the named category does not actually apply to the named person (eg. if the player was mixing them up with someone else), the move may be corrected to avoid a challenge
• If a move is successfully challenged and a player eliminated, their move is invalidated: the category that they called during that move has no effect on the game.
• If a category refers to the players of the game as a group, once a player is eliminated they are no longer counted as part of it
• Online research is permitted to support a challenge, but may only be performed after the challenge has been made.
• A person's "name" is often the version of their name that they're most commonly known by, but not always

Unstated but implicit rules:

• A "name another" doesn't have to be a valid move in itself at that point in the game.
• Eliminated players can still talk about the game, but can no longer issue challenges. However, they cannot give any comment on the validity of a name while others are deciding whether to challenge it, nor suggest or warn against possible challenges.

House rules for BlogNomic Slack

Some house rules and clarifications have been agreed for playing No More Jockeys on the BlogNomic Slack channel, given that the game is asynchronous and that players will be from different social backgrounds and countries. Those rules are currently:

• If no game is in progress, any player may start a game by playing a move. Others may join the game by responding with a move, if they haven't already played a move in the game. At any time the first player may play their second move: this locks in the established playing order, which must now be followed.
• If a player isn't familiar with a person that's been called, they are permitted to google the name and view the first page of results without clicking through any links, to establish some context and decide whether to challenge.
• Online research is permitted before naming a person you have in mind, but may not be done entirely speculatively. (Searching for a picture of Stanley Lebor to check if he has a moustache is allowed, as is searching for "the actor who played Howard in Ever Decreasing Circles" if you can't think of his name, but you're not allowed to google more broadly for men in 1980s sitcoms with moustaches because you need one for your move but can't think of any.)
• For the purposes of the game, a person's "name" is always the version of their name that they're most commonly known by, and in the Anglosphere. Where the person has a Wikipedia page, the title of that page is considered to be their common name.
• A category can't leave zero people remaining (eg. "No more living people" followed by "No more people who aren't alive"). Worded more strictly: a player only wins the game if, given an additional turn after all other players had been eliminated, they would still be able to name a person.

These house rules are open to negotiation.