Plays

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Revision as of 15:41, 6 July 2018 by Cuddlebeam (talk | contribs) (Removed "Interdynastic Voltron", added Black Knight and White Knight (which came up last dynasty))
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In BlogNomic, like in many other games, there are "plays". This is an informal attempt at a list, based on a 2017 comment thread about common game events. Most of these terms have never been used in-game. See also BlogNomic Jargon.

Cuddlebeam's note: I'm adding perhaps way too much, but better to have a lot and then trim down/reorganize, than to have the same but less.

Proposals

Bampam
(Benefiting a Majority/Punishing a Minority). Proposals that benefit a majority that includes yourself and/or punishes a minority that doesn't include yourself. It's based on the voting system, because quorum is required to make a proposal pass, and the benefit you would share with your majority works as incentive/bribe to get the proposal (and therefore benefit for yourself) passed.
Filibuster
A proposal that is really long such that the voters may not read all of it before voting on it. Probably won't pass unless what it introduces are simple definitions or rules that don't effect the core mechanics of a dynasty's rules.
(Free) Handout
Immediate grant of a resource.
Gerrymandering (in the context of Bampam)
The art of choosing which will be the majority/minority for a Bamdam play.
Hail Mary play
Last-ditch efforts during an endgame, when victory by another player seems imminent.
Lockdown
Voting on a proposal or on another official votable matter so that the post can't be edited.
One-off
A proposal that contains a rule which removes itself.
Provking
The making of an absurd proposal to highlight an issue in the game. The idea is to get someone else to make a rule change.
Spring Cleanup
Making a proposal that doesn’t change the effect of any of the rules, but redefines them in a way that is more comprehensible and takes up less space to write. Based on Bamdam, as the players who are comfortable with esoteric writing of the rules will tend to be a minority, and more clarity will make playing the game (and therefore making winning plays) more easy (and enjoyable) for the majority.
Stub
Incomplete and often function-less proposal, designed to be expanded by other proposals (typically from other players).
Sub-vote
A proposal where the votes can do something in the comments to change what the proposal does. For instance it could have a line that says "If the majority of valid For votes have the text "X" in them then ..." and then do something different in the proposal. It doesn't always work as intended.
Swap-kill (Admin)
Self-killing a proposal that's at the top of the queue, failing it and then making a new proposal right after. Usually used when that Admin has 2 proposals out already.
Variable
A proposal that contains a variable in the proposal which is replaced upon its enactment. Example: "Replace each instance of VOTE with the number of voting icons in the comment section of this proposal" or "Replace TIME with the time this proposal is enacted."
Trojan (Proposal)
A fairly common proposal play. Consists of posting certain mechanical changes, to then use silence or misleading rhetoric to conceal the true consequences it would have (granting yourself an advantage). Often painted as "good for the game" or "fair for everyone", hence the Trojan nature.
Drilled Proposal
A proposal with deliberate loopholes.
Example: The First Dynasty of Tantusar, Josh's Drilled Proposal allowed him to declare victory
Rider
An additional feature that a proposal does which has little to no relation to other portions of the proposal. Best way is to make the rider small in effect, so that players won't mind voting for the proposal. This just thrown in for good measure, since it's a practice used in real life government, most prominently used in the US. Also since people can't add to others proposals (other than through another proposal which would be limited in effectiveness to the pending proposals and probably wouldn't be passed) only the author of a proposal can add riders.

Distractions

Actively defensive plays based on consuming other player's attention span or IRL time economy, to prevent them from using that time or attention on countermeasures against you.

Air keyboarding
Making complex proposals when you’re about to win, to make it look as if you think the game is ongoing.
Chaff
Making deliberately flawed or controversial proposals to move the focus away from others in the queue, or from game actions you’re taking.
Coin-on-a-string
Humbly making a proposal to remove an advantage in your favour, but self-killing it before it enacts so that players will have to start the fix process from scratch again.

Metagame

Coin-flip victory
Two or more players agreeing to assist one of their number to victory, in exchange for that player promising to randomly select a member of the group to pass the victory mantle to. (If two players both feel that they have a lower-than-50% chance of winning alone, working together for an exactly 50% chance of victory can make some sense.)
Example: In the Second Dynasty of Brendan, two zombie players idled so that the third zombie could trigger the "last remaining zombie" victory condition.
Invasion
Getting a large amount of players to join for the purpose of creating your own Cabal with them.
Meatpuppet
Real life person whose nomic actions are in control of another player.
Example: In The First Dynasty of ais523, Bucky suspected that DDA was "employing metapuppets from outside the nomic"
Puppetry
Privately asking an idle player to unidle and perform a few simple actions (typically which would allow the asking player to win immediately).
Tactical Enactment (Admin)
The enactment of a proposal at a timed moment to grant yourself an advantage and/or thwart another player/s.
White Knight (Emperor)
Emperor who proactively changes the gamestate/ruleset according to a certain policy of good faith. For example, a Emperor that routinely proposes changes to rules to eliminate bugs from them.
Black Knight
Player whose strategy relies on a game pattern which is easily harmed by a White Knight's actions, such as a bug/loophole in the core system of the dynasty's main subgame.
Voting Gameplan
When for the whole dynasty a player does not take any voluntary actions aside from those listed in the Appendix or Core Rules.

Rhethoric

Picking lesser evils
Useful when attempting to contest a rule interpretation that favors an opponent. When the relevant rule/s at hand have multiple interpretations, picking an interpretation that allows "less evil" to be made to your interests (such choosing those that disarms the opponent's approach).

Gamestate

Cabal
Alliance of players with a common goal to employ Bampam with each other, often in secret.
Fool’s Gold
A resource which is stockpiled by a minority of players before any use is proposed for it, meaning that the majority will probably never want to give it a use.
Consensus Reality
Nomic doesn't run on formal space like mathematics does, but instead on the reality created by the consensus of the players. For example, if, in formal space, A=B is true, but all players believe or are willing to vote for that A=B isn't true, then A=B isn't true in the context of the BlogNomic, regardless of formal truth.
Admin Advantage
The mechanical advantage an admin has over a non-admin player, especially in regards to performing timing scams (because they possess enactment, failing, etc powers).
In the Mornington Crescent dynasty, Lilomar deliberately enacted a "create a new rule" proposal in a legal but perverse way that added a new rule halfway through the ruleset, changing some rule numbers and preventing a proposal later in the queue from having any effect, to Lilomar's own advantage.