Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Amnesiacs 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 Amnesiac may update it to do so.

Amnesiacs

Any human may apply to join BlogNomic (if they are not already an Amnesiac) 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 Amnesiac (plural form Amnesiacs). An Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment they become an Amnesiac.

An Amnesiac may only change their name as a result of a Proposal approving the change.

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

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

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

When an Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac Idled in a different Dynasty), the Amnesiac is given the default value for new Amnesiacs, if such a value exists.

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

Votable Matters

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

Votes

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

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

Special Proposal Voting

When an Amnesiac 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 Past Memory may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Past Memory casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Past Memory 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 Amnesiacs actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if an Amnesiac feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Amnesiac 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 an Amnesiac (other than the Past Memory) 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 Amnesiac 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 Past Memory 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 Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac who made the DoV becomes the Past Memory.

The new Past Memory will make an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category. This should specify the Past Memory’s chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and it may optionally specify that the terms Amnesiac and Past Memory will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire 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 Past Memory may pass the role of Past Memory to another Amnesiac 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 an Amnesiac’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. Amnesiacs 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 Amnesiac within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Amnesiac and any Idle Amnesiacs.
An Amnesiac 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.
An Amnesiac should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
An Amnesiac should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Amnesiac.
An Amnesiac should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
An Amnesiac should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
An Amnesiac should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an Ascension Address).
An Amnesiac 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. An Amnesiac must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
An Amnesiac should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
An Amnesiac should not use a core, special case or appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly achieve victory.

Dynastic Rules

What Am I?

Each Amnesiac has a Role, tracked privately by the Past Memory, which they are trying to remember. Whether they remember their Role is tracked in the Amnesiacs table of the “Community” wiki page as either Remembered or Forgotten, defaulting to Forgotten. An Amnesiac’s Role is a descriptor of who they were in the time before the storm, and may inform them of what their goals are on this once island paradise. The Past Memory may assign a Role to an Amnesiac, if such has not already been done for that Amnesiac this Dynasty, by secretly randomly choosing one from the list of possible Roles, if possible first choosing from the Roles that have not been assigned.

The list of possible Roles are: Mayor, Sheriff, Deputy, Gardener, Carpenter, Private Eye, Hunter, Fisherman, Impostor, Vandal, Arsonist, and Burglar.

An Amnesiac who has Forgotten their Role cannot achieve Victory.

Mayor, Sheriff, Deputy, and private eye are considered to be civic roles. Vandal, Arsonist, and Burglar are considered to be criminal roles. Gardener, Carpenter, Hunter, and Fishermen are considered to be civilian roles.

Declarations

Each Amnesiac has a Posture, tracked on the Community wiki page and defaulting to blank. This represents a Role they claim to possess. An Amnesiac’s Posture may be a Role, or may be blank.

An Amnesiac may change their own Posture at any time.

Recollections

Once per Act, an Amnesiac may Recall a Memory somewhere by sending the Past Memory a message indicating their attempt to Recall a Memory, and the Building the action is occurring at.

The Past Memory should then randomly pick (in a secret manner) an Amnesiac who has a Role which the specified Building is Familiar to and reply to the message with the name of that Amnesiac. If no Amnesiac has any of the listed Roles, the Past Memory should instead randomly pick (also in a secret manner) the name they send from the list of all Amnesiacs. The Past Memory should not indicate which process was used to select the chosen name.

Mementoes

Each Amnesiac may openly carry zero or more Mementoes, tracked in the “Community” wiki page. Each Memento has a list of Owners.

The Mementoes and their Owners are:-

Badge. Owned by Sheriffs and Deputies.
Pistol. Owned by Sheriffs, Deputies, Hunters and Private Eyes.
Knife. Owned by Gardeners, Hunters, Fishermen and Vandals.
Hammer. Owned by Carpenters, Vandals and Burglars.
Binoculars. Owned by Private Eyes, Hunters and Burglars.
Lighter. Owned by Carpenters, Private Eyes and Arsonists.

(Additionally, all Mementoes are also owned by Impostors.)

An Amnesiac with no Mementoes who does not have a pending post to Search their Pockets may publicly Search their Pockets by making a blog post to that effect. A post to Search their Pockets is Pending if the Past Memory has not replied to it. If the Amnesiac’s Role is an Owner of at least one Memento, The Past Memory should make a single comment on that post naming a secretly random such Memento: upon doing so, that Amnesiac begins to openly carry that Memento if they aren’t already doing so. Otherwise, the Past Memory should make a single comment on that post indicating that no such Memento exists.

Recognition

Once per Act, the Past Memory may trigger a Flashback for every Amnesiac, by selecting (at secretly random) one of the Amnesiacs who the Amnesiac undergoing the Flashback Recognises, and privately informing them of the Recognised Amnesiac’s name. If the Amnesiac experiencing a Flashback Recognises nobody, they are instead told this.

Recognition is determined as follows:

All Sheriffs and Deputies recognise all Sheriffs and Deputies.
The Mayor recognises all Sheriffs.
The Burglar recognises all Sheriffs and Deputies.
The Vandal recognises all Deputies.
All Gardeners recognise all Carpenters, and vice versa.
All Hunters recognise all Fishermen, and vice versa.
The Private Eye recognises everyone.
Everyone recognises the Mayor.

(An Amnesiac is not considered to Recognise themselves.)

Playing Cards

Each Amnesiac has a hand of cards, which defaults to empty and is tracked in the Community page of the wiki.

Once per Act, an Amnesiac may generate cards by using the CARD command in the Dice Roller until a card is generated that is not already in a hand, then put that card into their hand.

Ace may be abbreviated as A, 10 as T, Jack as J, Queen as Q, and King as K.

You Look Familiar

Each Amnesiac has a Usual Hideout, tracked privately by the Past Memory. The Past Memory may assign a Usual Hideout to an Amnesiac, if such has not already been done for that Amnesiac this Dynasty, by secretly randomly choosing one from the Buildings which are familiar to them, if any such Buildings exist, or from the set of all Buildings otherwise.

Once per Act, an Amnesiac may Reminisce by sending the Past Memory a message indicating their attempt to Reminisce and a card in their hand of cards, called the Souvenir.

The Past Memory should remove the Souvenir from the Amnesiac’s hand.

Then, if at least one other Amnesiac began the current Act with a card that is the same suit as the Souvenir, the Past Memory should then randomly pick (in a secret manner) one such Amnesiac, and reply to the message with the Usual Hideout of that Amnesiac. Otherwise, the Past Memory should instead reply with a random Building.

Buildings

There are several buildings tracked on the Community wiki page. Each building has a name and a state, which is one of burning, tagged, under construction, public, or secure, defaulting to public.

Some Buildings are Familiar to particular Roles:-

The Lodge is Familiar to all Civilian Roles and Mayors
City Hall is Familiar to all Civic Roles and Vandals
Jail is Familiar to all Criminal Roles and Sheriffs
The Docks are Familiar to Fishermen, Hunters, Vandals, Arsonists and Private Eyes
The Tavern is familiar to everyone except the Imposter
The Grand house is familiar to Mayors, Sheriffs, Carpenters, Gardeners, and Burglars
The General Store is familiar to Carpenters, Hunters, Arsonists, Vandals, and Deputies

If a game action performed by an Amnesiac is said to happen “somewhere”, then when it is performed the Amnesiac performing it must nominate a Building. The action is considered to have been performed “at” that Building. Actions cannot be performed at Burning Buildings. Only an Amnesiac with the Posture of Sheriff or Deputy can perform actions at a Secured Building.

Reputation

Each Amnesiac has an integer Reputation, which defaults to 0 and is privately tracked by the Past Memory.

As a Daily Action, if an Amnesiac (the Accuser) believes another Amnesiac (the accusee) performed an Role Action which is not allowed by the Accusee’s actual Role, the Accuser may send the Past Memory an Accusation. An Accusation must be sent within 24 hours of the original action being performed, and an Amnesiac may only send an Accusation once for each instance of an action being performed. After receiving an Accusation, the Past Memory should Resolve the Accusation by giving the Accuser two Reputation and causing the Accusee to lose one Reputation (if the Accusee's actual Role at the time the action was performed did not allow them to perform the Role Action), or giving the Accusee one Reputation and causing the Accuser to lose two Reputation (if the Accusee's actual Role at the time the action was performed did allow them to perform the Role Action).

Once per Act, the Past Memory should make a story post to the blog naming the Amnesiac with the highest Reputation (or that no such Amnesiac exists), and the Amnesiac with the lowest Reputation (or that no such Amnesiac exists). If named, then for the rest of the week the Amnesiac with the highest Reputation is the Hero and the one with the lowest Reputation is the Villain.

Role Actions

Amnesiacs may perform a Role Action of any Role that matches their own Posture. The act of carrying out any Role Action is a daily action, and each individual Role Action is a weekly action, unless otherwise stated. When performing a Building Action, the Amnesiac who performed it must make a Story Post to the blog detailing their posture, the building they are setting the state of, the state they are setting it from, and the state they are setting it to. When performing a Counter Action, the Amnesiac who performed it must make a Story Post to the blog detailing their posture, the building they are setting the state of, the Amnesiac whose Building Action they are countering, and that Amnesiac’s role at the time of that Building Action.

Counter Actions may only be carried out if the action that they Counter has been carried out in the preceding 48 hours. Counter Actions never revert the action that they Counter; where a Counter Action states that its effect is to ‘undo’ the effect of another Action, that means that it carries out a subsequent action that has an opposite and neutralising effect on the gamestate from the action being Countered.

Role	Building Action	Counter Action	Ground Action
Mayor	Set the state of any building which is tagged to public	-	-
Sheriff	Set the state of any building which is public to secure or which is secure to public	-	At the Jail, gain 1 Evidence.
Deputy	-	Undo the Vandal or Arsonist's Role Action	At a Secured Building, gain 1 Evidence.
Gardener	Set the state of any building which under construction or tagged to public.	-	-
Carpenter	Using a Hammer, set the state of any building which under construction to public, or which is burning to under construction.	-	-
Private Eye	-	-	Using Binoculars, gain 1 Evidence.
Hunter	Set the state of the Lodge to secured or public.	-	-
Fisherman	Set the Docks to any state other than secured.	-	-
Impostor	-	-	Spend 3 Evidence to start openly carrying a Memento of your choice.
Vandal	Set the state of any building which is public to tagged	-	-
Arsonist	Using a Lighter, set the state of any building which is not secure to burning	-	-
Burglar	set the state of any building which is secure to public	-	Choose an Amnesiac with 2 or more Evidence and reduce their Evidence by 1, to gain 1 Evidence.

If a role action is said to be “using” a Memento, then an Amnesiac who is not openly carrying that Memento may not perform it.

Building Actions, Counter Actions and Ground Actions are types of Role Action.

Epistemic Knowledge

Once per Act, an Amnesiac may Confront the Past Memory by sending them a Private Message, detailing the single Role that they think they have and the justification for that belief.

If the following are all true:

The named Role is the Role held by that Amnesiac;
The justification for their belief is internally logically consistent;
The justification for their belief is entirely based on information originating from the Past Memory;
The justification for their belief leaves no possibility for their Role to be anything other than the Role named in the private message:

Then the Past Memory should change the Community page to note that that Amnesiac’s Role is Remembered.

Evidence

Each Amnesiac has an amount of Evidence about the history of the town and the events of the storm. This is tracked as a number in the Community wiki page, and defaults to zero.

Acts

The story of the town takes place through several Acts, the number of the current Act being tracked in the next sentence. The current Act is Act 1.

If they have not done so in the past four days, and if they have no outstanding dynastic “should” actions to perform, and they have not performed any such “should” actions in the past 24 hours, the Past Memory may increase the Act number by one, and post a blog entry announcing that this has happened.

If an action is defined as happening “once per Act”, each Amnesiac able to perform it may take that action only once during each Act.

Act I began at 00:01 on Monday the 18th of May 2020. Any Amnesiac may remove this sentence and the previous one from the ruleset, during Act II.

Forensic Investigation

As a Daily Action, any Amnesiac with at least 5 Evidence can Interrogate the Evidence by reducing their Evidence by 5 and sending a private message to the Past Memory to that effect, including the name of a single Role. The Past Memory should then, at their first opportunity, respond with the names of three Amnesiacs, with one being chosen because they have the named role and the other two being selected at random. If no Amnesiacs have the named role then the Past memory should name three Amnesiacs at random.

Denouement

The Past Memory may not take dynastic actions.

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 “Amnesiacs” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.

Dormancy [Active]

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

Imperial Deferentials [Active]

If the Past Memory has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Amnesiacs 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 Past Memory is not an Amnesiac.

The Traitor [Active]

The Traitor for a particular Dynasty may be an Amnesiac (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 Past Memory, and the Past Memory should not share this information with Amnesiacs other than the Traitor.

If there is no Traitor for the current Dynasty, and BlogNomic is not on Hiatus, the Past Memory may secretly randomly select an Amnesiac (other than the Past Memory) 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 Amnesiacs, nor to tell the truth to them, and is encouraged to betray other Amnesiacs 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 Amnesiacs.

Daily Action: If a game action is a Daily Action, each Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac 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): An Amnesiac’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Amnesiac’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Amnesiac’s Vote on that Votable Matter.

Commentary: When posting a blog entry, an Amnesiac 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. Amnesiacs 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 Amnesiacs is half the number of Amnesiacs in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Amnesiacs it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Amnesiacs.

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. Amnesiacs 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.

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 Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac is defined as an Amnesiac who has been an Amnesiac for fewer than seven days or an Amnesiac 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 an Amnesiac’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 Amnesiac may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If an Amnesiac 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, Amnesiacs 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.

An Amnesiac 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 an Amnesiac with such access. Only an Amnesiac with such access may Enact that Proposal. If that Proposal does not name an Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac 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 an Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac performing it to skip some of its steps, which the Amnesiac must do and in which case the skipped steps are considered completed for this rule.
If an Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Amnesiac 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 Amnesiac 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, an Amnesiac can spend only their own values, and a rule that allows Amnesiacs to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Amnesiac (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
An Amnesiac 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 no defined starting value, then that starting value is the nearest legal value to zero that it may take (for numerical variables, defaulting to positive if tied), blank (for a text string or list that may be blank), the alphabetically earliest legal text string it may take (for a text string which may not be blank, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”), or the list which is alphabetically earliest from the set of lists with the fewest elements (for lists which may not be blank, and considering each list to be a single unpunctuated text string, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”).
Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in 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, Amnesiac A gains 1 point”), that step is ignored for the purposes of enactment. Once a Proposal has been enacted, it can have no further direct effect on the gamestate.

Time

For the purpose of all rules, time in BlogNomic is in UTC.
All references to time must be either specific or defined within the Ruleset to be considered achievable in the gamestate. Abstract concepts of time (e.g. “dinnertime”, “twilight”) cannot be achieved until they fulfil one of these criteria.
Where the month, day and/or year of a calendar date are ambiguous (e.g. “04/10/09”), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.
An Amnesiac 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 “Amnesiac” and “Player” are synonyms.
Amnesiacs 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 an Amnesiac if it is explicitly stated that it refers to an Amnesiac’s name.
If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead named “Unnamed Rule”.
The names of rules are not themselves rule text and have no effect other than being rule names.
Subrules can be referred to by a name which incorporates name of the rule they are a subrule of. Example: a subrule of the rule “Gin” is a “Gin Rule”, however the rule “Gin” is not a “Gin Rule” because it’s not a subrule of the rule “Gin”.
When referring to a Proposal, the name used in reference to a specific Proposal may be simplified by not including braces and any text between the opening and closing braces. i.e. a Proposal named “Changes [Core]” could instead be referred to by the name “Changes”.
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.

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 “Amnesiacs may Kick each other” and “Amnesiacs may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Amnesiacs may not Kick each other);
If two contradicting parts have the same scope, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “Amnesiacs may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Amnesiacs may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Amnesiacs may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Mentors

Whenever a new Amnesiac joins the game, the Past Memory should select an active Amnesiac who has indicated their willingness to act as a mentor and ask them to take that new Amnesiac on as a mentee. The Past Memory 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 Past Memory 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 Past Memory may act as the new Amnesiac’s mentor themselves, or the new Amnesiac must go without a mentor.

A relationship between a mentor and a mentee is a Mentorship. Whenever a new Mentorship is established, the Past Memory should announce it in a blog post.

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 Amnesiac 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 should last for at least four weeks or until the next Ascension Address, whichever occurs latest. It can continue 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 Amnesiacs.
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 178

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