Rough Ruleset 2

1 - Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Players must obey it.

Any information which the Ruleset allows the creation or alteration of (such as Gold, or the blog colour scheme) is considered to be part of the Gamestate.

The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be changed when a Rule specifically permits their being changed.

Admin Staff may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset at any time. Undesired corrections may be challenged through a Call for Judgment.

2 - Players

Anyone who maintains an active weblog may apply to join BlogNomic by contacting any of the Admin Staff, giving a contact email address and the URL of the weblog that they wish to use in BlogNomic. They will be signed up as a member of the BlogNomic weblog, and will be considered a Player from the moment that they first appear on the player roster in the sidebar.

Within 24 hours of joining the game, and only once, a Player may nominate a single (other) Player as being responsible for their joining - the nominated Player gains 50 Gold, and the new Player gains 25 as a reward for nominating.

Some Players are Admin Staff, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Any Admin Staff may confer Admin status onto another Player at any time, and update the sidebar appropriately.

A Player may leave the game at any time by declaring this intention in an entry.

Some Players are Idle, and should be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of all other rules, Idle Players are not counted as Players. Admin may render a Player Idle if that Player has failed to vote for more than a week, or if that Player has asked to become Idle. Admin may un-Idle a Player who has asked to become un-Idle.

3 - Proposals

Any Player may propose a change to the Ruleset or gamestate, provided that Player has fewer than two non-trivial Proposals pending, by posting an entry which begins with the paragraph "Proposal : [Title]" in bold text (where [Title] is a title of their choosing), and describes the changes they wish to make.

A Player can state in his Proposal that the Proposal is Trivial. Trivial Proposals score Gold as if they were declared Trivial in voting. A Player can submit any number of Trivial proposals at a time.

Proposals can either be Pending, Enacted, Failed or Expired. When a Proposal is first put forward, it is considered Pending.

A Board Player may state that their proposal is a Game Board Proposal. Game Board Proposals may only be voted on by Board Players. Only proposals that deal solely with the Game Board, and have no relevance to the main BlogNomic game (i.e. creating a prize that would give Board Players Gold would be unacceptable, but changing the way a move is made on the Game Board would be) can be designated Game Board Proposals. For the purposes of Game Board Proposals, quorum is one half of Board Players, rounded down, plus one. Game Board Proposals follow all other rules of Proposals

4 - Voting

Any Player may cast their vote on a Pending Proposal by declaring it in the comments of the entry. Valid votes are FOR, AGAINST, and IMPERIAL, which may be represented by appropriate icons.

A vote of IMPERIAL is a vote of no opinion, or of faith in the decision of the Emperor. The vote will count as the same as the Emperor's vote. The Emperor cannot cast a vote of IMPERIAL.

FOR Votes may be marked as 'Trivial' if the voter considers the Proposal to be of minor effect, or to make amendments already discussed by other players, or to be otherwise unworthy of reward.

If there exists more than one Vote from a single Player on a single Proposal, only the most recent of those Votes is counted.

If the Player who made a Proposal has not cast an explicit Vote on it, their Vote is counted as FOR.

Only Board players may vote on Proposals specifically designated as Game board Proposals.

5 - Enactment

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

If a pending Proposal's FOR votes exceed or equal Quorum, and if either no earlier Proposals are still pending, or the Proposal makes no changes to the Ruleset, then any Admin Staff may update the Ruleset and/or gamestate to include the specified effects of the Proposal, and mark that Proposal as Enacted.

If a pending Proposal has enough AGAINST votes that it could not be Enacted without one of them being changed, or if all Players have voted on a Proposal and it still cannot be Enacted, or if the Player whose Proposal it was has voted AGAINST it, then any Admin Staff may mark that Proposal as Failed.

For the purposes of the Enactment or Failure of a proposal, only Votes cast by current Players are counted.

For Proposals that are designated as Game board Proposals, Quorum for Game Board Proposals is one half of Board Players, rounded down, plus one.

When a Proposal is enacted, its proposer (if a current player) gains 10 Gold (or 2 Gold, if most of that Proposal's FOR votes were marked Trivial). When a Proposal fails, its proposer (if a current player) loses 2 Gold.

Whenever an Admin Enacts a non-Trivial Proposal, they may claim 5 Gold. Whenever they Fail a Proposal or Enact a Trivial Proposal, they may claim 2 Gold.

6 - Calls for Judgment

If two or more Players actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, any Player may raise a Call for Judgment by posting an entry which begins with the paragraph "Call for Judgment" in bold text, and goes on to describe the disagreement, and measures that should be taken to correct it.

All Players may add votes of agreement or disagreement in comments to this entry, using appropriate voting icons. If more than half of the Players' votes (their later votes overriding their earlier) are in favour, the Gamestate and Ruleset should be amended as was specified. If more than half disagree, the CFJ fails and may have no further effect.

7 - Time Out

If a Proposal or Call for Judgment has been pending for a week, any Admin Staff may mark that Proposal or Call for Judgment as Expired. Expired items have no further effect on the game.

If a Proposal has been pending for more than 48 hours, any Player who has been a Player for 48 hours, who has not yet cast a vote on that Proposal may be fined 10 Gold, by any Player, provided that they have not already been fined 10 Gold for not voting on that Proposal.

8 - The GNDT

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

All updates to the GNDT are logged - if a Player feels that an alteration goes against the Rules (as they were at the time of the alteration), he or she may simply undo the effects of that alteration. If such an undoing is disputed, a Call for Judgment should be raised.

Players shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

9 - Gold

All new players start with the lowest score amongst the active players, or zero, whichever is greater. Returning players start with the lowest score amongst the active players, or their score when they left, whichever is lower. Scores may be either positive or negative.The Admin who sets up a new Player receives 10 Gold.

Any player with a positive amount of Gold may give any number of that Gold to another player, provided it does not take the giving player below 0.

A Player may award themselves five Gold for the first entry they post to their weblog, for a given day (this Gold must be claimed within 12 hours of the entry being posted).

11 - Karma

Each Player has a Karma score, which may be positive or negative. When a Player joins the game for the first time, they have their Karma set to zero. Players rejoining the game continue at their previous Karma value.

Players are able to award or deduct Karma from other Players at any time, in response to particularly good or bad blog entries, or behaviour within the game (explanatory comments must be given in the GNDT). A single Player may adjust up to 10 Karma points per day.

Any Player may, if no other Player has done so during the current week, calculate the average of the Players' Karma scores (including Idle Players, and rounding towards zero), and then deduct that amount from every Player's Karma score (again, including the Idle). The GNDT comment on these alterations should be 'averaging'.

13 - The Game Board

The Game Board is part of the Gamestate and will serve as an abstract environment in which objects (that the Rules have specified as belonging on the board) can interact. The Game Board is located here.

The Rules of Play on the Game Board are as follows:

To make changes to the Game Board, register an account here and notify Erik (or another Player with appropriate privileges) to add permissions to your account.

Every action made on the board must be documented in the "Notes and Revisions" portion of the Game Board

Each Player may have a Colour (indicated in a key beneath the Board), and each Square on the Board may have a Colour (Squares which match a Player's Colour are considered to be "owned" by that Player).

If a Player has a Colour, they are known as a Board Player. A Board Player may take one Turn each day. A Board Player may take multiple Turns in one day if at least two thirds of the other Board Players have taken a Turn since the Board Player's previous Turn. (A Board Player may take their first Turn at any time.)

When taking a Turn, a Board Player may either:-

Change any Square on the Board to match their own Colour, provided that it is adjacent to a Square of the Player's Colour, or a path of adjacent white Squares can be traced between it and a Square of the Player's Colour. (If claiming a non-white Square, the claimer must simultaneously change one of their own Squares to white.) Change any white Square on the Board to match their own Colour, if they own no other Squares. Do nothing, but declare that they have taken a Turn. Give one of his/her own squares to another Board Player by changing its color. Move out of a square by changing its color to white. Block a square from being purchased by another Board Player by placing the text "X-[blocked Board Player's name]" in the square to be blocked. A block can be placed on any white square, or any square owned by the Board Player. A block costs 1/4 of the Gold of the Player to be blocked. Multiple blocks can be placed on each square. When claimed by a non-blocked Board Player, all blocks on a square are removed. Two Squares are adjacent if they share an edge.

If a Player owns a group of more than 15 connected Squares (that is, it is possible to move between any two of those Squares along a path of adjacent Squares which the Player also owns), that Player wins the Game Board Game; they are awarded 200 Gold, and all Squares are turned to white.

14 - You Don't Talk About BlogNomic

Although players are encouraged to include a link to BlogNomic from their weblog, and may include a generic warning that any weird content may be due to the game, they should not specifically explain that a given entry was made for the purposes of BlogNomic. (Anyone breaking this rule may be fined 20 Gold.)

15 - A Stitch In Time

Whenever another Rule specifies a time-limit for an action (eg. "claim Gold within half an hour of posting an entry"), that time-limit is extended by up to 24 hours if the Player attempts to make the action within the time-limit and is prevented by connection difficulties (eg. the comment server or the GNDT server being down).

17 - The Imperial Lottery

Any Player may buy a Lottery Ticket for one Gold, at any time. These Tickets are tracked in the GNDT.

No more than once per week, the Grand Vizier (if one exists) may declare the Calling of the Lottery. The Grand Vizier selects a Ticket at random from all those in circulation (using any random decision-making tool of their choice, such that each Ticket is equally likely to be chosen), and the holder of that Ticket receives one Gold for every Ticket in circulation. All Tickets are then declared void, and destroyed.

18 - Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Rounds, referred to as Dynasties. Each Dynasty has a single Emperor or Empress (the two terms may be used interchangeably, although the Ruleset may be updated to reflect the gender of the new leader, at the dawn of a new Dynasty), and is named according to the number of times which that Player has been Empress (eg. "The First Dynasty of Myke").

Players other than the Emperor are known as Subjects.

The Emperor may veto any Proposal, provided that the post of Grand Vizier (handler of the imaginary veto paperwork) is filled. A vetoed Proposal immediately fails.

Imperial Favor is a numerical rating that reflects the current Emperor's view of an individual Subject. The Emperor may update any Subject's "Imperial Favor" rating, at his or her whim. Values can be negative, positive, zero, and as large or small as the Emperor deigns. (The Emperor's Imperial Favor is always left blank.)

Each Dynasty may have a single Grand Vizier, responsible for overseeing certain aspects of the game.

If a Dynasty has no Grand Vizier, the Emperor may appoint any Player as Grand Vizier for that Dynasty, by posting such a declaration to the BlogNomic blog. A Grand Vizier may resign at any time by posting a message of resignation to the BlogNomic blog.

19 - Ascension

When a new Dynasty begins, its Emperor may perform the following actions within the first three days of that Dynasty:-

They may post an Ascension Address to the BlogNomic blog. (These addresses will be linked historically from the sidebar.) They may change the BlogNomic header and color scheme to reflect their new Dynasty. Create a new Imperial Seal for use in the header and as the graphic for an Imperial Veto.

20 - Teams

Players may form two-Player Teams, if they desire - such Teams are announced and dissolved by having one member post such a message to the BlogNomic Blog, and the other responding to it within 24 hours.

Teams are listed in the sidebar, although they take effect the moment they are declared. (Admin may claim 2 Gold whenever they update the Team sidebar to reflect the Teams in existence.)

Whenever a Player gains or loses Gold (except by this rule), their Team partner automatically gains or loses half of the same amount (rounding away from zero).

21 - Imperial Bankruptcy

If each and every Subject possesses more Gold than the Emperor, then the Emperor's Dynasty collapses into bankcruptcy and comes to an end. A new Dynasty begins with the richest Subject as its Emperor (resolve ties by having the previous Emperor choose).

24 - Glossary

This Rule is always at the end of the Ruleset. Its only effect can be to clarify ambiguity. When a Call for Judgement is resolved, any Admin may make an appropriate addition or alteration to this rule based on the result of the Call for Judgement.

The terms "weblog", "blog" or "journal" shall be taken to mean "weblog or journal" throughout the Ruleset. For the purposes of the game, a Player's weblog is the one that they chose to use when they joined. References to "a day" (as an entity rather than a duration, eg. "Sunday") refer to that day in the timezone to which the Player's blog conforms, if blog-related; otherwise to the timezone of the BlogNomic blog. References to a "week" refer to the period of time between the start of a Monday and the end of the following Sunday. Any Rules based on the text of a blog entry refer only to the always-visible and non-automated text, ie. excluding mouseover text, datestamps, comment links and similar constructions. It is noted that 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 writer a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own writer, when enacted). Appropriate Icons: For use in voting, a check box shall represent a vote FOR, an X shall represent a vote AGAINST, an I shall represent a vote of IMPERIAL, and an Imperial Seal (currently ) shall represent the Imperial Veto. When the game refers to the "subject" of a blog entry, blogs which do not normally support subject lines shall have the first sentence of an entry treated as that entry's subject.