Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all CICs shall obey it. Section One consists of the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering basic proposal mechanics; Section Two contains the rules of the current dynasty; and Section Three contains the appendix, which exists solely to clarify the remainder of the ruleset.

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

CICs 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”.

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

CICs

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

A CIC may cease to be a CIC at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A human who has ceased to be a CIC in this way may not become a CIC again within the following two weeks. A CIC may only change their name as a result of a proposal approving the change.

Some CICs are Admins, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. CICs 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. New admins shall be given the GNDT configuration password when they become admins.

Idle CICs

Some CICs are Idle, and shall be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “CICs”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play” and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle CICs are not counted as CICs.

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

When a CIC 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 CIC Idled in a different dynasty), the CIC is given the default value for new CIC, if such a value exists.

An Admin may render a CIC Idle if that CIC has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that CIC 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 CIC if that CIC 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 CIC 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.

Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single CIC, known as the UNSG. If there is no UNSG, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.

Votable Matters

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

Votes

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

If a CIC other than the UNSG casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the UNSG. When the UNSG 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 UNSG'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 CICs who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours 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 must also mark their name, and 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 CIC may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the CIC already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).

Special Proposal Voting

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

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 the GNDT and other gamestate tracking entities, as specified in the CFJ.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a CIC (other than the UNSG) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they may make a post to the Blognomic weblog in the Declaration of Victory category, detailing this.

Upon doing so, the game immediately goes into Hiatus, if it hasn’t already. During this time, the only game actions that may be taken are those covered by Rules “CICs”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every CIC may cast Votes on that DoV to indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty.

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

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

When a DoV fails and there are no pending DoVs, Hiatus ends.

When a DoV is enacted, all other active DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins with the CIC who made the DoV as its UNSG. That CIC may pass this role to another CIC at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new UNSG makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the UNSG's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms CIC and UNSG will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire ruleset, and/or a number of dynastic rules to keep. Upon posting such an Ascension Address, the Ruleset is updated to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed.

A DoV may not be started in the period between an enacted DoV and that DoV’s Ascension Address. When a DoV is failed, if it had at least one AGAINST vote, the CIC who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was failed.

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules as it relates to Declarations of Victory, but 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 CIC'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.

A single person should not control more than one non-Idle CIC within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle CIC and any Idle CICs.
A CIC 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 CIC should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
A CIC should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other CIC.
A CIC should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
A CIC should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
A CIC 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 CIC should not roll dice in the GNDT 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.

Seasonal Downtime

Blognomic goes into hiatus every year on December 24th, and remains in hiatus until December 27th. During this time no game actions may be taken except those described in the rules entitled “Votable Matters,” “Gamestate Tracking” and “Call for Judgement”.

Atomic Actions

When a CIC performs an Atomic Action, they must complete all its steps; they must complete them in order; and they may not take any other action defined in the Ruleset until all such steps are complete. In addition, the CIC performing an Atomic Action performs its steps as quickly as they are able.

If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the CIC must redo the Atomic Action. In redoing an Atomic Action, the CIC uses any legal steps that were already completed in the illegal Atomic Action and only redoes the illegal ones.

For instance if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a die in the GNDT and then doing steps based upon it’s result the CIC would have to reroll the die if they rolled the wrong one if the first place and any steps that depended upon the result of that die; however if all they did was take an illegal action later on, the die is still used in the redone action.

If the Atomic Action was illegal due to a die that was wrong in the GNDT (for example, rolling a 1 on a DICE6 gives that CIC a point and the rest do nothing and the CIC rolls a DICE5 in the first one) and in redoing the Atomic Action they get the same effect as before (i.e. rolling an incorrect die and getting result X but then rolling the correct die and still getting result X) then the steps that depended upon that result are valid and don’t need to be redone. Steps that depend upon multiple dice which were done incorrectly must have each incorrect die have the same effect to be considered valid.

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.

Dynastic Rules

Combos

Anytime that a CIC wants to do 5 or more actions within an hour they may choose in lieu of doing all of those actions separately, which potentially causes confusion as to what is happening, to make a “Combo” blog post that cannot be edited after posting. The gamestate may be changed to reflect the results of the Combo once all of the actions are completed.

A Combo post is a numbered list of the actions taken, the first action is #1 each subsequent number of actions is increased by one. Each action and the portion of the gamestate changed from that action are kept on their own line. An Atomic action has lettering of its steps, refer to the example and note the curly braces vs the parenthesis.

Example Combo

1 [action one] ([gamestate before action] -> [gamestate after action])
2 [action two] ([gamestate before action] -> [gamestate after action])
3 [atomic action] {[gamestate before atomic action]}
3a [first atomic substep] ([gamestate before substep] -> [gamestate after substep])
3b [second atomic substep] ([gamestate before substep] -> [gamestate after substep]) {[gamestate after atomic action]}
4 [action four] ([gamestate before action] -> [gamestate after action])
etcetera . . .

If any actions require a die roll or other random event that is visible to the public, CICs must make those rolls before posting the combo with a note stating which step the roll is for and what action they are taking and the title of their Combo. CICs may not make multiple rolls in the GNDT for the same step. CICs cannot have two or more rolls in the GNDT with Combo titles that are different unless all but one of the Combo titles have been posted and include that roll.

Each action of a Combo happens in their own second, substeps of an Atomic Action happen all at the same second as the parent step. The first action happens at the time the Combo is posted.

If there is a mistake in the summary of the gamestate in a combo and that mistake doesn’t make it impossible for the stated actions to have happened, the author of that combo may correct those mistakes by making a comment along the format “[# of step]: [corrected gamestate summary]”.

Command Actions

Actions

If they have not done so since the most recent Tick, a CIC may take up to six Command actions by communicating privately to the UNSG which Command actions they take.

Missiles

Each CIC, except for the UNSG, is either targeting missiles at, or not targeting missiles at, each other CIC. The CICs at which a CIC is targeting missiles may be referred to as that CIC’s “targets”, defaulting to none, and is tracked privately by the UNSG.

As a Command action, a CIC may target another CIC that they are not currently targeting as long as the new number of targeted CICs does not exceed the amount of Missile resources.

As a Command action, a CIC may cease targeting a CIC that they are currently targeting.

When a CIC unidles, if any CICs were targetting it immediately prior to its most recent idling, those CICs resume targetting it.

Politicians

Each CIC has a number of politicians that are either agitating, smoothing, or squabbling. If the total of agitating, smoothing, and squabbling politicians exceeds the amount of politician resources of a CIC, the politicians from that CIC have no effect on the tick phase.

As a Command action a CIC may reassign all of their politicians, giving an explicit number to be assigned to each of agitating, smoothing, and squabbling (with any omitted assumed to be zero).

Techs

As a Command action a CIC may assign or unassign (but not both) any number of their techs to or from supporting one other resource. The indicated resource is considered to equal to its base number plus the assigned techs for as long as the techs are assigned to it.

Spies

As a Command action a CIC may reassign all of their spies, naming each CIC that should be spied on and how many spies are assigned to spy on that CIC. All spies from one specific CIC spying on another specific CIC constitute an espionage mission.

Esteem

A new CICI or unidling CIC shall default to an IE of the average of the IE of all non-UNSG CIC’s, rounded up, even if they had an IE before they idled

Ticks

A Tick is an Atomic Action performed by the UNSG that consists of resolving the following:

If there are not more politicians are agitating than smoothing, every Progressive CIC receives two IE. (A CIC is Progressive if there is no other CIC in their Bloc with a higher number of squabbling Politicians.)

If more politicians are agitating than smoothing,
- For each unique pair of CICs (A and B), excluding the UNSG:
  - If A and B are both not targeting each other, nothing happens.
  - If A is targeting B, but B is not targeting A, A gains one IE and B loses one IE.
  - If B is targeting A, but A is not targeting B, B gains one IE and A loses one IE.
  - If A and B are both targeting each other, rolling DICE20. If it is 1 through 10, A and B are each Nuked by the other. When a CIC is Nuked, they lose 1/8 IE for each IE that CIC has at the beginning of the Tick, rounded randomly to a whole IE. For each IE a CIC loses this way, they gain 5 Recovery. A whole number W with a fractional part N/D is “rounded randomly” to W+1 if DICE(D) is less than or equal to N, or to W if it is greater than N.
Making a public post containing, at least:
- Whether more politicians were agitating than smoothing.
- Which CICs were Nuked, by whom, and how many IE they lost because of it.
- The text of any Articles submitted by CICs since the previous Tick, and the names of the CICs who submitted them. (An Article is a piece of text with a headline and body of text privately communicated to the UNSG, and which is identified by the poster as being an Article. The UNSG can overwrite any Article content with “[Redacted]” at any time.)
Roll 1DICE20 for each espionage mission. For each roll, if the result is less than or equal to twice the number of spies in the espionage mission, the CIC whose espionage mission it is learns by PM from the UNSG the politician assignments of the CIC being spied on.

If no Ticks have been performed in the previous 46 hours, then the UNSG may perform a Tick.

Stats

Each CIC’s support staff, available infrastructure and the talent of the CIC themselves all coalesce into Stats. A CIC may increase any of their Stats at any time, unless doing so would cause their Stats to exceed 100 in total. If they have not done so since the most recent Tick, a CIC may reduce their stats by a total sum of up to 20. Stats are all 0 by default, are tracked in the GNDT, and are the following:

Military: Measure of how much of a threat by force you are. Tanks, infantry - overall, these contribute a CIC’s “Military” stat.
Intel: Measure of how much of a threat by guile you are. Spies, radars, etc all contribute to this number.
Charisma: Measure of how much of a threat by charisma you are. This number measures a CIC’s available social capital.
Science: Measure of how strongly the nation is investing in scientific research.
Recovery: Measure of how heavily the nation is recovering from recent crises and attacks.

The value of each Stat directly affects the following Resources as described:

Missiles- the number of missiles (and prerequisite military tech needed to launch said missiles) is a equivalent to a CIC’s Military Stat divided by 5 (rounded down)
Spies- the number of covert agents available to field clandestine operations is equivalent to a CIC’s Intel Stat divided by 5 (rounded down)
Politicians- the number of loyal politicians able to influence global matters through negotiation and cooperation is equivalent to a CIC’s Charisma Stat divided by 5 (rounded down)
Techs - Innovative teams able to boost the efforts of others. Equivalent to a CIC’s Science Stat divided by 10.

These counts represent a base amount of resources, not an upper limit, which may be increased or decreased by other means.

If a CIC’s Stats total more than 100, any CIC may remove 1 from each of that CIC’s Stats which is above zero (excluding Recovery).

Perks

Perks are advantages that CICs may acquire when their stats have reached a certain amount, and have a name, effect and Stat Requirement. A CIC’s Perks are tracked in the GNDT field “Perks”, as a space-separated list of Perks (omitting everything except the names’ uppercase letters). A Perk’s Stat Requirement is listed below in brackets - if a CIC’s stats is at least that requirement, they may gain that Perk and become subject to its effect. If a CIC’s stats is no longer at least a Perk’s Stat Requirement, they lose that Perk if they have it. Perks, their name, effects and Stat Requirement are the following:

[50 Military]: Shock and Awe: Any CIC with less than 3 Missiles is not considered to be Targeting you with Missiles during a tick.
[50 Charisma]: First Among Equals: Any CIC with fewer than 3 Politicians is not considered to be Targeting you with Missiles during a tick.
[50 Intel]: Stealth Tech: Any CIC with fewer than 3 Spies is not considered to be Targeting you with Missiles during a tick.
[40 Charisma] Revolution: If you were to gain IE, you gain twice that amount instead. If you were to lose IE, you lose twice that amount instead. This effect doesn’t apply to gains or losses already affected by this Perk.
[30 Recovery]: Panic: When taking Command actions, you may take any number of them.
[10 Military]: War Footing. Whenever a die roll would be made to see whether you exchange missiles with another CIC, the result of that roll is instead taken to be 1.
[20 Intel, 20 Science]: Satellite Imagery: If you have not done so since the last tick, as a command action, you may make an Imaging request to the UNSG that names another CIC. The UNSG should reply to an Imaging request with whether or not that named CIC is targeting you.
[20 Military, 40 Science]: Missile Defense System: If you are Nuked, you lose 1/16th IE for each IE you had at the beginning of the Tick, rather than 1/8th. The loss is still rounded randomly to the nearest whole IE.

Blocs

Each CIC is a member of the Eastern or Western Bloc, which shall be tracked in the GNDT.

When a CIC joins or unidles, the admin processing this shall assign them to the Bloc with the least amount of CICs, breaking ties randomly. A CIC with at least 2 IE may defect to another Bloc at any time by making a blog post to this effect, and losing 2 IE.

UNSG

The UNSG’s stats are always zero.

UN Resolutions

If a Proposal has the tag [UN Resolution], then it is a UN Resolution. A UN Resolution may not also have the [Core] tag, and any portions of a UN Resolution that change Core rules have no effect.

The Support of a UN Resolution is equal to the total IE of all CICs who are voting FOR it; the Opposition of a UN Resolution is equal to the total IE of all CICs who are voting AGAINST it. UN Quorum is equal to the total IE of all CICs, divided by two.

A UN Resolution is only Popular if it has a Support that equals or exceeds UN Quorum, and is only Unpopular if it has an Opposition that equals or exceeds UN Quorum, or if it has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and is not Popular.

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. (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.)

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 CICs.

Daily Action: If a game action is a Daily Action, each CIC 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 CIC 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 "YDICEX" refer to Y X-sided dice, rolled within the GNDT. To roll dice, post DICEX in the comments field of the GNDT, replacing X with the number of sides on the die you wish to roll.

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 CIC’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that CIC’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that CIC’s Vote on that Votable Matter.

Flavour Text: When posting a blog entry, a CIC 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.

Gamestate: Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of. All GNDT columns that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention are assumed to be Gamestate, as are all Wiki Pages that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention except for dynastic histories and discussion pages.

May: "is permitted to"

May not: "is not permitted to"

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 CICs is half the number of CICs in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of CICs it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all CICs.

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 sub-rules 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. CICs 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. (For example, #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, an IMP http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, and an Imperial Seal http://blognomic.com/images/vote/seal.gif shall represent the Imperial 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 CIC 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 CIC per week.

Wiki: The BlogNomic Wiki at http://wiki.blognomic.com

Gamestate Tracking

Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.com. Any CIC 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 six hours old and either no CIC 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.

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 CIC who has been a CIC for fewer than seven days contains the word “Proposal” in its title, but is not a Proposal, and if it has been posted for less than an hour, then any admin may change it to be in the Proposal category.

Specific parts of the Gamestate data shall be tracked by the Generic Nomic Data Tracker at http://blognomic.com/gndt/generic.cgi?nomic=blog. Any CIC may update any CIC's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.

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

If a CIC feels that the GNDT 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 GNDT update, CICs are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. CICs shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

Random Generators

The GNDT 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.

Any changes to the potential outcomes of the GNDT’s random result commands must be made by proposal; and any proposal that seeks to nominate a change to this rule must first identify an active CIC with server-level access to the BlogNomic site who is able to perform the changes, and must also update this rule to reflect the new potential outcomes.

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

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, and a rule that allows CICs to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another CIC (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
A CIC 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 the GNDT and/or similar 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 the GNDT 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 GNDT if N is 22 or more digits long.

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 (eg. 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 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.
If the admin enacting a proposal reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (eg. “two days after this proposal enacts, CIC 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.
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”.

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 (eg. "04/10/09"), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.

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.

Names

Within the ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a CIC if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a CIC's name.

Prioritisation

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

The Appendix has precedence over any 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;
If both contradicting parts are Core Rules, or if both of them are Dynastic Rules, the part with more limited scope applies. (e.g. if the rules “CICs may Kick each other” and “CICs may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, CICs may not Kick each other.)
If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “CICs may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “CICs may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then CICs may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)

Ruleset

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