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”, "Mentors" 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. Regulation.
Wrench. Blunt object, Regulation.
Bone Scanner. Regulation.
Magnetic Gloves. Regulation.
Fire Extinguisher. Regulation.
Rocket Fuel. Single-Use. Regulation.
Canister of Glarsh. Single-Use. Regulation.
Rappel Cords: Blunt object. If a Pathfinder is carrying Rappel Cords, all Items they are carrying are considered to have zero Encumbrance for them.
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 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.
Probe. Single use. Blunt object.
Loaded Probe: Single use. Blunt object
Shelter. Infrastructure. If they have not done so since the most recent Sunrise, a pathfinder sharing a location with a base containing a Shelter in its gear may gain 1 stamina.
Power Source. Infrastructure
Campfire. Infrastructure. If they have not done so since the most recent Sunrise, a pathfinder sharing a location with a base containing a Campfire in its gear may gain 1 stamina
Pod. Infrastructure, Single Use, Blunt Object. Encumbrance 4.

Equipment Effects
Discovery	Gamma Pistol	Bone Scanner	Magnetic Gloves	Fire Extinguisher	Rocket Fuel	Canister of Glarsh	Blunt Objects
Deltarite	Damaging			Restorative		Harmless
Sudorite	Restorative		Harmless
Vertorite	Harmless	Harmless
Gregite			Harmless	Deadly			Harmless
Trabite
Iterium	Productive	Productive	Damaging	Productive	Productive	Productive
Priora populum	Restorative		Deadly
Arcti sordia	Productive		Annoying	Restorative	Productive	Productive
Mundium	Restorative		Damaging	Restorative			Damaging
Tremadon	Restorative	Annoying
Teret necria	Damaging			Restorative
Opisthos	Deadly
Celera alphum			Harmless
Tricha heliia		Productive
Stenium	Restorative
Onera accipitrum		Deadly
Turba cirrum
Lampus			Deadly
Fricos				Restorative
Collos	Restorative	Productive
Steatos

Some pieces of Equipment are Blunt Objects: for any particular Discovery, the Effects of all Blunt Objects on it are the same, and are tracked by a separate “Blunt Objects” column of the Equipment Effects table, instead of by name there.

Pathfinders may carry up to three Items, and default to carrying none. The Items they carry are tracked in the Mission Log wiki page.

Pieces of Equipment and Products are items.

Some equipment is infrastructure. Infrastructure may only be crafted by a pathfinder sharing a location with a base, by default is a blunt object, and a pathfinder carrying infrastructure may not change their location

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. If the Discovery is an Animal, add it as a Hazard to the Location of the applying Pathfinder.
Damaging. If this Discovery is a Mineral, the reaction damages the equipment: the Applying Pathfinder must lose the applied Equipment, or another Item they are carrying if the one applied was Single-Use. If the Discovery is an Animal or a Vegetable, the results are frightening: the Applying Pathfinder must lose one of their Items. In both cases, if the Pathfinder no longer has any Items, this Effect does nothing.
Deadly. Add the Discovery as a Hazard to the Location of the applying Pathfinder. If this Discovery is a Mineral, it emits toxic gases: the Applying Pathfinder must set their Stamina to zero and lose all Items they are carrying.
Restorative. If this Discovery is a Hazard in the Location of the applying Pathfinder, and is a Mineral or Animal, remove it as a Hazard there.
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

By paying 1 Stamina, 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 four steps and the last step
Prepare a list of Likely Effects of the Equipment: this list consists of every Effect once, followed by each Effect listed in that Equipment’s column in the Equipment Effects table. (The list can contain the same Effect multiple times, and Effects of Unknown are omitted from it.)
Randomly select one of these Likely Effects, naming the Equipment and the Discovery in the die roll comment
Update the Equipment rule to include the effect of that Equipment on that Discovery in the corresponding cell in the table
Gain 1 Prestige
If the Equipment applied is Single-Use, cease carrying one instance of it.
If the Equipment is a Gamma Pistol or a Bone Scanner, optionally pay 1 Stamina to use it with precision: if the Equipment’s effect on that Discovery is Damaging, apply the Consequence (if any) of it being Productive instead.
If no Stamina was paid during the previous step, apply the Consequence (if any) of the Equipment’s effect on that Discovery.
If a Hazard was created or a Product set during this atomic action, post a blog entry announcing it

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 [→ Product]”) are:-

Deltarite [Mineral, General] A powdery orange rock. [→ Unknown]
Sudorite [Mineral, General] A faintly glowing silver metal. [→ Unknown]
Vertorite [Mineral, General] A glittering dark grey stone. [→ Unknown]
Gregite [Mineral, Distinct Cortex Desert] A greenish crystalline structure. [→ Unknown]
Trabite [Mineral, Distinct Qualifier Hills] A porous black igneous rock. [→ Unknown]
Iterium [Mineral, Distinct Cresci Glacier] A frozen, acrid-smelling liquid. [→ Unknown]
Priora populum [Vegetable, Distinct Interu Hills] A small yellow flower that carpets a wide area. [→ Unknown]
Arcti sordia [Vegetable, Distinct Colle Rainforest] A tangled mass of vines with a single main trunk. [→ Raw Edible Mass]
Mundium [Mineral, Distinct Branchin Mountains] A uniform grey rock. [→ Unknown]
Tremadon [Animal, Distinct Felicu Savannah] A towering and apparently herbivorous sauropod. [→ Unknown]
Teret necria [Vegetable, Distinct Cuneg Taiga] A densely patterned silver fern. [→ Unknown]
Opisthos [Animal, Distinct Hormi Hills] A large fur-covered mammal that travels in herds. [-> Unknown]
Celera alphum [Vegetable, Distinct Trecenta Mountains] A tall plant with thick, fibrous stalks. [-> Unknown]
Tricha heliia [Vegetable, Distinct Campa Savannah] A low, clumping plant with wide, bristly leaves.[-> Hallucinogenic Substance]
Stenium [Mineral, Distinct Trepi Forest] A heavy brown clay. [-> Unknown]
Onera accipitrum [Vegetable, Distinct Heteru Grassland] A tall grass with swaying, sharply-hooked seed heads. [-> Unknown]
Turba cirrum [Vegetable, Distinct Physiy Forest] A tall, bulbous tree with circular leaves. [-> Unknown]
Lampus [Animal, Distinct Quindene Forest] A flying insect with a glowing blue abdomen. [-> Unknown]
Fricos [Animal, Distinct Acari Hills] A large species of snail with an elaborately patterned shell. [-> Unknown]
Collos [Animal, Distinct Phryni Desert] A hulking lizard with quills along its spine. [-> Toxic Spines]
Steatos [Animal, Distinct Geosynchronous Rig] The perfect organism. [-> Unknown]

A Discovery is considered to be in a Location if that Location has a dense or moderate concentration of the Discovery.

The Computer may change the Description of any Discovery at any time, to a single sentence of no more than twenty words.

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 (in lowercase), 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. If no Pathfinder has done so in the last 72 hours, a Pathfinder may Sunrise, granting each Pathfinder 7 Stamina (or setting it to 10, if it’s at more than 3), then decreasing each Pathfinder’s Stamina by the total Encumbrance of the Items that Pathfinder is carrying (to a minimum of zero). Whenever a Pathfinder Sunrises they must also add 2 to the number of Pods held in the Gear of the Base on the Geosynchronous Rig.

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 Log wiki page.

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, and vice versa.
Zero or more Hazards, being a list of Discoveries.

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: Spend 2 Stamina to roll DICE8. If the result is higher than the number of Locations that are Linked to their current Location, then they may create a new Location with the characteristics set out above, change their location to the new location, and gain 2 Prestige.
Create a new Link: Spend X Stamina and pick a location that can be reached by traveling X+1 times from their current location. Roll DICE8. If the result is higher than the number of Locations Linked to their current Location, and higher than the number of locations linked to the selected location, create a new Link from their current Location to the selected location and gain 1 Prestige.

A Pathfinder can Travel, changing their Location to another which is Linked to their current Location, by paying the following cost:-

If the new Location contains an Animal Hazard and the Pathfinder is not carrying a piece of Equipment which has an Annoying, Damaging or Deadly Effect on that Animal, the cost is 5 Stamina.
Otherwise, if the new Location contains a Mineral Hazard and the Pathfinder is not carrying a piece of Equipment which has a Restorative Effect on that Mineral, the cost is 3 Stamina.
Otherwise, if the new Location contains a Vegetable Hazard and the Pathfinder is not carrying a piece of Equipment which has a Damaging Effect on that Vegetable, the cost is 2 Stamina.
Otherwise, the cost is 1 Stamina

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 = Conductive Wire
Rocket Fuel + Canister of Glarsh = Energy Drink
Long Fibers or Conductive Wire + Wrench = Rappel Cords
Ingot and Conductive Wire + Rocket Fuel = Probe
Structural Beam or Waterproof Sheet + Wrench = Shelter
Radioactive Brick and Conductive Wire + Magnetic Gloves = Power Source
Long Fibers or Structural Beam + Rocket Fuel = Campfire
Flammable Liquid + Oily Secretion = Rocket Fuel

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 add one Regulation Item to any Computer-owned Base.

Products

Mineral Products are:

Ingot
Flammable Liquid
Radioactive Brick: Encumbrance of 7.
Conductive Wire

Animal Products are:

Raw Edible Mass
Waterproof Sheet
Toxic Spines
Long Fibers

Vegetable Products are:

Raw Edible Mass
Oily Secretion
Structural Beam: Encumbrance of 3.
Hallucinogenic Substance

Bases

Bases are tracked on the Mission Log wiki page. Bases have the following attributes:

An owner, which is either none, the computer, or a pathfinder, defaulting to none
A Location
Gear, which is a list of items

A pathfinder who is not the owner of a base and is at a location without a base and not linked to a location with a base may spend 3 stamina to create a base.

A pathfinder sharing a location with a base owned by themselves or the Computer may remove an item from the base’s gear to start carrying it, and may stop carrying an item to put it in the base’s gear.

Each base’s usefulness is calculated as follows:

The minimum number of links from the base’s location to the location of a base owned by the computer
+2 if the base’s location has a topology no other base’s location has, or +1 if it shares a location topology with only one other base
+1 for each dense or moderate discovery at the base’s location with a product that is not unknown
+0.5 for each known Equipment Effect on each Distinct Discovery present at that Location
+1 for each distinct infrastructure equipment in the base’s gear

If there is a Computer-owned Base in the Cortex Desert, it may be referred to as the ISV Jenny Haniver.

If they have not done so since the most recent Sunrise, a Pathfinder may perform Research, increasing their Prestige by the Usefulness of a Base that they are the owner of, and which they share a Location with.

The Probaliser

A Pathfinder whose Location in the Cortex Desert and who is carrying a Probe may use the Probaliser.

When a Pathfinder uses the Probaliser, they must carry out the following atomic action:

Spend 1 Stamina and 1 Probe
Roll 2DICEX, where X is the number of Locations.
If the result matches the index number of a Location, create a Base there owned by the Computer. If there is an existing Base in that Location then it is destroyed and any Gear that it contained is lost.
If the result does not match the index number of a Location, create a new Location with no links, and create a Base there.

Automation

When creating a new Location and its associated Distinct Discovery, a Pathfinder may use the generator located at https://repl.it/repls/TealFewResources (without editing its source code) to make random choices instead of rolling for each separately. This is done by rolling DICE54321, pressing “Run” on the generator page and inputting the result of the roll. The values printed by the generator must then be used instead of making separate rolls.

The generator may not be used if it is Obsolete. The generator is not Obsolete. The Computer may replace the string “is not Obsolete” with “is Obsolete”, and vice versa, in the previous sentence, at any time.

Understanding

If at least 40 cells of the Equipment Effects table have been filled in with an Effect other than Unknown, then New Ganymede is Understood; otherwise it is not.

If New Ganymede is Understood, and it has been 48 hours since the last sunrise, and if one Pathfinder has a higher Prestige than each other Pathfinder and if that Pathfinder is at the Cortex Desert, then that Pathfinder is promoted to Trailblazer and has achieved victory.

Frontier Science

A Researcher may spend X Stamina, where X is the Stamina cost for moving into their current Location, to take an Examination Action. The following are Examination Actions: General Searching, Product Scan.

When General Searching a Pathfinder performs the following Atomic Action:

Roll DICE6. If the result is lower than the number of Distinct Discoveries with a dense concentration in that Location then skip the rest of this action.
Generate a new Distinct Discovery in that Location. The Examining Pathfinder may optionally spend an additional 1 Stamina to set the new Distinct Discovery’s Classification to the valid value (Animal, Vegetable or Mineral) of their choice.
Gain 1 Prestige.

When conducting a Product Scan a Pathfinder performs the following Atomic Action:

Roll DICE2. If the result is lower than the number of Distinct Discoveries with a dense concentration in that Location that have a known Product then skip the rest of this action.
Randomly select a Distinct Discovery that has a dense concentration in that Location and a piece of regulation Equipment. If the selected Equipment’s effect on the selected Discovery is anything other than unknown, repeat this step.
Set the effect of the selected Equipment on the selected Discovery to Productive.

Sub-orbital Insertion

The ISV Jenny Haniver is powered and kept connected to the Interstellar Comms Array by a Geosynchronous Rig held in position in high Ganymedian orbit above the Cortex Desert. The Rig has been offline for maintenance since the arrival of the Haniver on New Ganymede but has just come back online.

There is a Location called the Geosynchronous Rig with a blank Index and a reciprocal space elevator Link to the Cortex Desert. No other Location may Link to the Geosynchronous Rig or be Linked to from there. No Discoveries are present in any density on the Geosynchronous Rig. No actions that require the expenditure of Stamina (except those defined in this rule) may be undertaken while on the Geosynchronous Rig.

A Pathfinder who is located in the Geosynchronous Rig may spend 2 Stamina and a Pod to set their Location to any Location that contains a base. A Pathfinder who is located in a Location that contains a Base may spend 2 Stamina and a Pod to set their Location to the Geosynchronous Rig.

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) does not match the gamestate, they may either:

Undo the effects of any alteration that led to it, if that alteration did not follow the rules at the time it was made.
Alter the representation to match what they believe to be the correct application of an incorrectly-applied alteration. This may include completing incomplete actions on behalf of the original Pathfinder, if doing so would not require the correcting Pathfinder to make any decisions on behalf of the original Pathfinder.

Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, Pathfinders are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement.

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

A Pathfinder may have another Pathfinder as a Mentor. Pathfinders who are willing to act as a Mentor are listed on the Mentorships wiki page, and are said to be “Tenured”. A Pathfinder may add or remove their own name from this list at any time.

If an unmentored Pathfinder requests a Mentor, or a new Pathfinder has joined the game and has no Mentor, the Computer should select a Tenured Pathfinder and ask them to take that Pathfinder on as a Mentee; if they accept, then such a Mentorship is established. The Computer should take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor.

A relationship between a mentor and a mentee is a Mentorship. The members 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. A Pathfinder may dissolve a Mentorship they are part of at any time, by announcing this 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.

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 180

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