Atomica Ruleset

Section One consists of the "laws" of blognomic, covering basic Player and proposal mechanics; Section Two contains the "rules" of the current round, and Section Three contains the glossary, which exists to clarify the remainder of the Ruleset.

Laws

Ruleset and Gamestate

if a Player wants the Ruleset to apply to em, e must obey the Ruleset.

no Player may do anything.

if two Rules contradict each other, the Rule further in the Ruleset takes precedence.

*BlogNomic is the game of nomic running at blognomic.com.

any post on the blognomic.com weblog is a *Post. to make a Post on the weblog is to *Submit a Post.

the *Ruleset for BlogNomic is this document.

*Laws are items in this section.

*Rules are items in the Ruleset. a Law is a Rule, but a Rule is not necessarily a Law.

the *Gamestate is the set of all things that are *Official.

the Ruleset is Official.

all data in the GNDT is Official.

all data in the sidebar, including names of the Players and which Players are Admins, is Official.

the Gamestate may not be altered.

any Admin may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset.

Players

any entity capable of registering and Voting is a *Player.

all Players, at all times, are either *Registered, *Pre-Registered, or *Unregistered.

all Registered Players, at all times, are either *Active or *Idle.

any Player, if e is Unregistered, may become Pre-Registered by registering at http://blognomic.com via the register link in the sidebar and Submitting a Post announcing that e has done so.

any Admin may add any Pre-Registered Player to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment the Pre-Registered Player becomes Registered and Active.

any Player may become Unregistered by Submittng a Post announcing so.

an *Admin is a Player responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset.

an existing Admin may stop being an Admin at any time e wishes. if a Player wishes to become an Admin, e should Submit a Proposal to this effect.

if a Player has not Voted for more than a week or if e has asked to become Idle, then that Player is Idle.

any Admin may make any Idle Player Active at the Idle Player's request.

a single person may not control more than one Active Player. if anybody is suspected of controlling more than one Active Player, then a CfJ may be Submitted to make any of those Active Players Idle or un-Registered, and to bar the Player from becoming Active or Registered.

any Registered Player may Submit a Post.

Proposals

a *Proposal is an Post that suggests any number of changes to the Ruleset or Gamestate.

any Active Player may Submit a Post here with a Proposal as the text and under the category of "Proposal"; to do so is to *Submit that Proposal.

a new Proposal is immediately *Pending.

all Proposals are Official.

a Proposal is either Pending, Closed, Self-Killed, or Vetoed until it is Elect, *Enacted, Pre-Failed, or *Failed, whenupon it cannot again become any of the former four.

a Player may not Submit a Proposal if e already has Submitted 2 Proposals that are Pending. a Player may not Submit a Proposal more than 3 times in one day.

Voting

all Active Players may comment on a Post.

this is the Symbol representing FOR.

this is the Symbol representing AGAINST.

this is the Symbol representng DEFERENTIAL. all of these are *Symbols.

if an Active Player comments on a Post, and the comment contains a Symbol, that comment is a *Vote on that Post.

if a Vote has only one Symbol in it, that Vote is *Valid. a Valid Vote with the Symbol representing X is called a Vote of X or an X Vote.

if there exists more than one Vote from a single Player on one Post, only the most recent of those Votes is Valid.

if a Player is Idle or Unregistered, none of eir Votes on Posts are Valid.

all DEFERENTIAL Votes on a Post are equivalent to the Vote from the Emperor on that Post.

a Vote of DEFERENTIAL from the Emperor is not Valid.

there is always a FOR Vote on a Proposal from the Player who Submitted a Proposal.

Enactment

if the number of FOR Votes on the oldest Pending Proposal exceed or equal Quorum and that Proposal has been Pending for at least 12 hours, then that Proposal is *Elect.

if the oldest Pending Proposal has been Pending for over 48 hours and more than half of the Valid Votes on it are FOR Votes, then that Proposal is Elect.

an Admin may make an Elect Proposal Enacted and change the Ruleset and Gamestate as specified in that Proposal.

if there is a Vote on a Proposal from the Player who submitted it containing the Symbol for AGAINST, that Proposal is *Self-Killed.

if there are enough AGAINST Votes on the oldest Pending or Self-Killed Proposal that it could not become Elect without a Vote on it becoming non-Valid or becoming a non-AGAINST Vote, it immediately becomes *Pre-Failed.

if there exists a Valid Vote on the oldest Pending or Self-Killed Proposal from all Active Players and it still cannot become Elect, it immediately becomes Pre-Failed.

if the oldest Pending or Self-Killed Proposal has been Pending for at least 48 hours and half or fewer of the Valid Votes on it are FOR Votes, it immediately becomes Pre-Failed.

if the oldest Pending or Self-Killed Proposal is Self-Killed, it immediately becomes Pre-Failed.

an Admin may make any Pre-Failed Proposal Failed.

when an Admin marks a Proposal as Enacted or Failed e must report the following information on the Proposal:

• the final counts of FOR Votes and AGAINST Votes, whether the proposal was Self-Killed prior to becoming Pre-Failed, or whether the Proposal was Vetoed.
• the time of Enactment or Failure
• the identity of the Enacting or Failing Admin

Calls for Judgment

if two or more Active Players disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if an Active Player feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then the game is in *Dispute.

a *Call for Judgement (or *CfJ) is a Post that describes the disagreement or aspect of the game that needs attention made.

a new CfJ is immediately *Pending.

if the game is in Dispute, an Active Player may Submit a CfJ in the "Call for Judgment" category.

a Player may Submit a CfJ anonymously. (by choosing "Call for Judgment" from the author drop-down menu on the OPTIONS tab.)

the *Timeout of a CfJ is two days after it is Submitted if the game is in Hiatus, or four days after it is Submitted if the game is not in Hiatus.

If more than half of the Valid Votes on a CfJ are FOR Votes, that CfJ is *Supported.

If the number of FOR Votes on a CfJ exceeds Quorum or the Timeout of a CfJ has been reached and the CfJ is Supported, the CfJ is *Enacted and no longer Pending.

an admin may change the Ruleset and Gamestate as specified in an Enacted CfJ.

If there is a Quorum of AGAINST Votes on a CfJ or the Timeout of a CfJ has been reached and the CfJ is not Supported, the CfJ is *Failed and no longer Pending.

Gamestate Tracking

if a Post follows the format specified by a Rule, that Post is Official.

if no Player has commented on it, an Official Post may be altered or removed.

an Admin may change the Admin field of a Post.

a non-Official Post may not become Official.

Gamestate data may be tracked by the *Generic Nomic Data Tracker (or *GNDT) (at http://blognomic.com/gndt/generic.cgi?nomic=blog). All updates to the GNDT are logged.

if a Player feels that a change to the Gamestate is not allowed by the Ruleset at the time of the change, e may undo that change.

if an undoing is disputed, the game is in Dispute.

Players shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they become Registered.

Dynasties

at all times BlogNomic is in a *Dynasty.

each Dynasty may have an *Emperor.

if a Dynasty has an Emperor, it is named according to the number of times which that Emperor has been Emperor. (eg. "The First Dynasty of Myke").

the Emperor may make any Proposal Pre-Failed (or *Vetoed) by commenting on that Proposal using the VETO icon. if this is thought excessively unreasonable, the game is in Dispute.

the Emperor may change the BlogNomic header, the colour scheme, and the voting icons whenever e likes.

A page of Dynasty Records is kept on a separate weblog, recording events that took place during past Dynasties, noting eir themes, eir Emperor or equivalent, interesting rules, large arguments, the winning move, etc. A Dynasty record must accurately reflect the Dynasty it refers to. Players may submit Dynasty Records to the Emperor.

Metadynasties

if there is no Emperor, any Proposal may suggest that BlogNomic become in a *Metadynasty. a Metadynasty is a Dynasty with no Emperor.

Metadynasties are named according to the number of Metadynasties that have occured (eg. "Third Metadynasty").

a Proposal may suggest a name change for a Metadynasty.

when BlogNomic is in a Metadynasty, a Proposal may suggest a new header, colour scheme, Metadynasty name, and/or voting icons.

when BlogNomic is in a Metadynasty, a DEFERENTIAL Vote is not Valid.

A Metadynasty ends when a Player becomes Emperor.

Victory and Ascension

if a Player has achieved *Victory, e may Submit a Post entitled "Declaration of Victory". this Post is a *Declaration of Victory (or *DoV).

Victory must be defined by Rules that are not Laws.

a new DoV is immediately *Active.

when a DoV has been Submitted, the game becomes in *Hiatus and all Pending Proposals become Closed.

if the game is in Hiatus, the game is no longer in Hiatus if there are no Pending CfJs and no Active or Passed DoVs.

no Player may do anything if the game is in Hiatus except take actions described in the sections "Players", "Calls for Judgement", and "Victory and Ascension".

if an Active DoV is 12-24 hours old, there exist a Quorum of Valid Votes on it, and there is a Valid Vote on it from the Emperor, the DoV is *Closed.

if an Active DoV is over 24 hours old, it is Closed.

if an Active, Closed DoV has a Quorum of Valid Votes on it, and more than half of the Valid Votes on it are FOR Votes, the DoV is *Passed and no longer Active; otherwise, it is *Failed and no longer Active.

when a DoV becomes Passed, the Player who Submitted that DoV is *Victorious, and all other Active DoVs become Failed and no longer Active.

if a Player is Victorious, e may *Pass the Mantle to another Player.

if the Victorious Player Passes the Mantle and the passee accepts, the passee becomes Victorious and the passer is no longer Victorious.

When a Player becomes Victorious, all Players' GNDT stats are reset to zero or blank.

an *Ascension Address is a Post that specifies a theme for a new Dynasty, identification of any number of rules to be repealed, and words to replace "Player" and "Emperor" in the Gamestate.

the Victorious Player must either Submit an Ascension Address or Pass the Mantle.

when a Victorious Player Submits eir Ascension Address, e may change the Gamestate as specified in eir Ascension Address; at this point the game is in a new Dynasty, the Victorious Player becomes Emperor, and the game is no longer in Hiatus.

an Emperor may not declare victory in eir own Dynasty.

Rules

...

Glossary

this is always at the end of the Ruleset. its purpose is to clarify ambiguity and define conventions to be used in the ruleset.

where a Proposal would change the effects of Proposal Enactment, the changes in the Proposal do not apply to its own Enactment unless explicitly stated. (eg. a proposal proposing that enacted proposals earn their writer a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own writer, when enacted).

rules which trigger on Enactment or Failure of a Proposal are the responsibility of the acting Admin, who is responsible to check if Quorum is met at the moment of the Enactment.

a Keyword defined by a rule supersedes the normal english usage of the word. A Keyword defined in this glossary supersedes that defined by a rule. (eg. A rule specifying "Bananas are Blue" cannot be overruled by posting a dictionary definition or a photo of a banana, and a rule specifying "every day is Sunday" will be overruled by the glossary entry below.)

unless otherwise specified, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers, and any action that would set those values below zero instead sets them to zero.

any situation which would require a roll of DICEX when X is zero or lower always yields a value of 0 unless stated otherwise.

superficial differences between the spelling of geographic versions of english, e.g, british english, american english, australian english, etc. shall be construed as irrelevant for the purposes of play.

Typographic Conventions

italicized text is not considered part of the Ruleset and may be used to clarify rules with examples, notes and flavor text. For example, this italicized text provides an example of the use of italicized text.

a capitalized word (a Keyword) carries a definition defined by the Ruleset rather than an english definition. it is recommended that where a Keyword is defined it is used in bold and prefixed with an asterisk, but this is not necessary. asterisks are not considered to be part of the Ruleset, but they are Official.

a single capitalized letter represents a dummy variable that applies only within the text of the rule in which it is found. (e.g., X or Y)

Timespans

a Day (as an entity rather than a duration, eg. "Sunday") is a day in the timezone of the BlogNomic blog, which is considered to be GMT for all purposes.

a Week is the period of time between the start of a monday and the end of the following sunday.

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.

an action which may be taken Often may be taken once per day, but not more than once every six hours.

an action which may be taken Occasionally may be taken once per week, but not more than once per twenty-four hours.

Keywords

Quorum is equal to half the number of Active Players, rounded down, plus one.

Dice

a YDICEX is the sum of the rolls of Y X-sided dice. a DICEX is the roll of an X-sided die. to roll dice, post DICEX in the comments field of a post, replacing X with the number of sides on the die you wish to roll.

Spivak

• the spivak pronouns used in Blognomic are:
  • subject case: "e";
  • object case: "em";
  • possessive adjective case: "eir";
  • possessive pronoun case: "eirs";
  • reflexive case: "emself".

IEEE

• the iEEE auxiliary verbs used in Blognomic are:
  • is required to: “shall”;
  • is recommended that: “should”;
  • is permitted to: “may”;
  • is able to: “can”.