Difference between revisions of "Ruleset"

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Piece of art from Rounds 5 and earlier may never be revealed as forgeries.
 
Piece of art from Rounds 5 and earlier may never be revealed as forgeries.
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==Installation==
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The Installer Directory is a list of Brokers, tracked publicly. Brokers on this list are called Installers. Any Broker may add themselves to the list at any time before Round 13 begins, if they are not already on it.
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If the current Round is 14, the Installer(s) with the lowest Kudos should arrange for some kind of physical copy of a piece of art from the dynasty to be delivered to the Installer(s) with the highest Kudos.
  
  

Revision as of 15:43, 4 June 2021

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Brokers 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 Broker may update it to do so.

Brokers

The process of applying for access to the BlogNomic blog is outlined in the FAQ. A human with access to the blog who is not already a Broker may make a blog post making clear their wish to be a Broker (plural form Brokers); in response, an Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment they become a Broker.

A Broker may only change their name as a result of a Proposal approving the change.

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

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

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

When a Broker 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 Broker Idled in a different Dynasty), the Broker is given the default value for new Brokers, if such a value exists.

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

An Interregnum is the period between dynasties, after a DoV has been enacted and before an Ascension Address has been posted. During an Interregnum the game is in hiatus; additionally, no DoVs may be made, and no Broker may achieve Victory. However, dynastic actions that are specifically permitted to be carried out during an Interregnum may be carried out.

Votable Matters

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

Votes

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

If a Broker other than the Collector casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Collector. When the Collector 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 Collector’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 Brokers 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.

Tags

Votable Matters have zero or more tags. Tags are represented in the title of a Votable Matter with the format “[X]” (e.g. “[Core] Wording Fix”, where “[Core]” is the tag). Votable Matters require the “[Core]” tag in order to make changes to the Core Rules, the “[Special Case]” tag in order to make changes to the Special Case Rules and the “[Appendix]” tag in order to make changes to the Appendix Rules. Votable Matters other than DoVs require the “[Victory]” tag in order to grant victory to a Broker.

If a Votable Matter would make a modification to the rules and it does not have the tag to make that modification, that Votable Matter will still be able to make that specific modification if any of the following on the following list are true:

  • The modification is preceded or followed immediately by an unambiguous statement of which section of the ruleset it takes place.
  • The modification specifically states a rule using its number or the name of the stated rule only occurs once in the ruleset.

Proposals

Any Broker may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the Broker already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).

Special Proposal Voting

When a Broker 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 Collector may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Collector casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Collector 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 Brokers actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Broker feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Broker 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 a Broker (other than the Collector) 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 Broker 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 Collector 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 Broker 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, the Broker who posted the DoV becomes Collector, and the game enters an Interregnum. When a DoV is enacted then all game actions that led up to it are considered to be upheld.

If the game is in an Interregnum then the new Collector must either Pass the Mantle, by making a post naming another Broker - in which case the Collector ceases to be the Collector and the Broker so named becomes the Collector - or start a new dynasty by completing the following Atomic Action:

  • Make an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category. This should specify the Collector’s chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and it may optionally specify new dynasty-specific terms as outline in the rule "Synonyms", and/or list a number of dynastic rules to keep (if none are specifed then the entire Dynastic Ruleset is repealed).
  • Update the Ruleset to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed.

Once this Atomic Action has been completed the Interregnum ends and the new dynasty begins.

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 Broker’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. Brokers 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 Broker within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Broker and any Idle Brokers.
  • A Broker 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 Broker should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
  • A Broker should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Broker.
  • A Broker should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
  • A Broker should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
  • A Broker 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 Broker 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. A Broker must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
  • A Broker should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
  • A Broker should not use a core, special case or appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly cause a Broker to achieve victory.

Dynastic Rules

Rounds

The game is split into a number of rounds. Rounds are performed in numerical increasing order starting with round 1, then round 2, etc… Rounds may be refered to by both phrases of the form “Round n” and “The nth Round”

If the current time is after the Expiration Date of the previous round (or that has been no previous round this dynasty), the Collector may start a round.

Starting A Round

To start a round, the Collector first makes a comment on the previous Round Post (if there is one from this dynasty) declaring the Round to be over. After this point, no more submissions for that round may be made. Then they perform the following atomic action, known as the Round Summary

  • Begin a new story post to the blog titled “Round [x]” where x is one more than the previous round number (or 1, if it is the first round of the dynasty). This is known as the Round Post
  • If the new Round is less than or equal to Round 12, determine a word or phrase to be the round’s Theme and declare what the new theme is in the Round Post. (Later Rounds do not have a Theme, and as such Art Submissions may not be made during them)
  • For each valid sale submissions, if the corresponding piece of art appears in the collection of the Broker who made the bid, move it from that Broker’s collection to the Collector’s Vault (at the end of the list) and then increase the Broker’s Cash by the piece of art’s Price.
  • For each valid Courier Submission made during the previous round: if it named a piece of Art which appears in the Collection of the Broker who made the Submission, move it to the Recipient’s Collection; if it named an amount of Cash and the Broker who made the Submission has that much Cash, move that much Cash from the Broker who made the Submission to the Recipient.
  • Appreciate the art in all collections
  • Process the Purchase Attempts made during the previous round by each Broker in a secret random order.
  • If the new Round is at least 3, perform the Atomic Action known as Totaling Votes
  • If the new Round is less than or equal to Round 13, perform the Atomic Action known as Unveiling Art. (Later Rounds do not have a Gallery, and as such Ballot Submissions may not be made during them)
  • Determine the Round’s Expiration Date by doing the following, and declare what the Expiration Date is on the Round Post
    • If the current time is before 17:00 UTC, set the new Round’s Expiration Date to be two calendar days later at 15:00 UTC (So if it is Thu 13/05/21--03:30 UTC, the expiration date will be Sat 15/05/21--15:00 UTC)
    • If the current time is at or after 17:00 UTC, set the new Round’s Expiration Date to be three days later at 15:00 UTC (So if it is Thu 13/05/21--23:30 UTC, the expiration date will be Sun 15/05/21--15:00 UTC)
  • If the current Round is Round 14, pick the Broker with the most Kudos of all Brokers (breaking ties by highest Assets - a Broker's Assets being the total of their Cash and the Prices in their Collection - and if still tied, at random) as the Star Broker and share their name on the Round Post. The Star Broker has achieved Victory in the current dynasty.
  • Submit the Round Post to the Blog

Unveiling Art

Unveiling Art can only be performed as part of the Round Summary, and is itself an atomic action with the following steps:

  • Create a new blog post titled “Gallery [x] - [theme]” where where [x] is the round number of the previous round, and [theme] is the previous round’s theme. Such a post is known as a Gallery Post. Only the collector may comment on Gallery Posts.
  • Secretly put each valid Art Submission sent in the previous round in a random order
  • Reupload each image submitted in the previous round to a third party image sharing site which can be embedded on the blog, scaling the image down if it poses any file size requirements so that it can be uploaded
  • In the the secretly assigned order, make a comment on that blog post for each entry. The comment should consist of the entry's title, followed by the reuploaded image url, followed by any provided source. If multiple pictures have the same title, they should be given postfixes of (1), (2), (3), etc… in order to disambiguate them such that every entry in the game has a different title
  • Add a link to the newly created Gallery Post to the new Round Post, the contents of which reiterate what the previous round’s theme was

Totaling Votes

Totaling Votes can only be performed as part of the Round Summary, and is itself an atomic action with the following steps:

  • Give one Kudos to each Scrupulous Broker. (A Broker is Scrupulous if they submitted a valid Ballot Submission in the previous round, and also provided a Source for any art they submitted in the round previous to that.) (All art submitted in rounds 1-3 is considered to have had a Source provided, for the purposes of this bullet point.)
  • Set the Round Score for each Broker and idle Broker to zero
  • For each valid Ballot Submission in the previous round, increase the Round Score of the Broker or idle Broker who submitted the corresponding piece of art ranked 1st by 5
  • For each valid Ballot Submission in the previous round, increase the Round Score of the Broker or idle Broker who submitted the corresponding piece of art ranked 2nd by 3
  • For each valid Ballot Submission in the previous round, increase the Round Score of the Broker or idle Broker who submitted the corresponding piece of art ranked 3rd by 1
  • Order all Brokers by their Round Score in descending order, breaking ties secretly randomly
  • Give the 1st Broker in that list 3 Kudos, plus 3 additional Kudos if it is Round 14, and Display that Broker’s Art with a Price of $5000
  • Give the 2nd Broker in that list 2 Kudos, plus 2 additional Kudos if it is Round 14, and Display that Broker’s Art with a Price of $3000
  • Give the 3rd Broker in that list 1 Kudos, plus 1 additional Kudos if it is Round 14, and Display that Broker’s Art with a Price of $1000
  • Add a comment to the gallery page from the round before the most recent one which specifies the names of each Broker (or Idle Broker) who submitted each piece of art on that page and which pieces of art they submitted
  • Include in the Round Post a summary of what each Broker’s Round Score (or Idle Broker whose Round Score was greater than 0) was and the titles of all the pieces they submitted in the round before the most recent one (or that they didn’t submit one), in the order generated in previous steps.

To Display a Broker’s Art, the Collector first determines which piece of art should be displayed by considering all pieces of art submitted by the Broker in the round before the previous one, and then taking the piece of art which contributed the most to their Round Score for the current round, breaking ties secretly randomly. (If a Broker did not submit any art in the round before the previous one, Displaying their Art does nothing). Once the piece of art has been determined, the Collector determines its Buyer and adds it to that Broker’s Collection with the Price specified. A piece of art’s Buyer is the Broker who ranked it highest in Ballot Submissions for the relevant round (resolving ties in favour of the Broker with lowest total of Prices in their Collection, and at secretly random if still tied).

Submissions

Submissions are private messages which may be sent from Brokers to the Collector. The types of Submissions which can be made are subrules of this rule.

If the Collector is Clucky, direct messages with the Slack user named Clucky (UserID U0VQTMGUW) count as a valid means of communication with the Collector, and may be used in place of private messages. Any communication on the slack must clearly indicate which Broker is doing the communicating, and impersonating another Broker is in violation of fair play.

Submissions may be made at any time, provided the current round has not been closed. Any submission of a given type for a given round overrides previous submissions of that type made by the same Broker that round. Brokers may also partially amend their submissions ("Such as change the title of my Art Submission to ___")

If a Submission requires a Broker to refer to the title of a piece of art, any title which clearly and unambiguously indicates which piece of art the Broker is referring to may be used (although Brokers are encouraged to use the full title). If the title they use does not clearly or unambiguously indicate a single piece of art (out of the pieces of art that are valid to be targeted in the submission), the submission is not valid and the collector should inform the Broker of this fact at their earliest convince.

Art Submissions

A Broker may submit an image, known as a piece of art, which they believe matches the current Round's chosen Theme by messaging the Collector with a link to an image (or the an uploaded version of the image, if sent via slack) as well as a title for the piece. If an piece of art was taken from another source on the internet, a Broker is also encouraged to provide this source as part of their Art Submission. If a piece of art was their own work, a Broker is encouraged to state this as its source. The entirety of an art submission including the title, image contents, and source is considered to be flavor text.

Art submissions which the collector cannot load are not valid. If the Collector deems an Art Submission is not valid, they should at their earliest convenience inform the Broker who submitted it that the piece of art so that they may submit a different piece.

Ballot Submissions

If the current Round is 2 or later, a Broker may submit a Ballot Submission.

A Ballot Submission consists of the titles of three different pieces of art from the gallery for the previous round, ranked, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, signifying which pieces they wish to praise. The Collector encourages Brokers to take into account creativity, originality, artistic beauty and adherence to the theme when determining which pieces to praise. A ballot submission may not include the title of a pieces of art which were submitted by the Broker making the ballot submission.

If a ballot submission does include such a piece, or if it does not include the titles of three different pieces of art from the previous round clearly ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd, then it is invalid.

Sale Submissions

A broker may make a Sale Submission, which consists of a title of a piece of art in their collection and a clear indication the Broker would like to sell that piece of art to the collector. The same Broker may make multiple sale submissions during a single round. Sale Submissions may be modified to indicate the Broker no longer wishes to sell that piece at which point it no longer becomes a sale submission.

Purchase Submissions

If the current Round is 6 or later, a Broker may submit a Purchase Submission.

A Purchase Submission consists of an ordered list of Purchases. A Purchase consists of the type of purchase, taken from the below list, as well as any information required for that purchase as specified by the purchase type

Each Purchase Type has a Name, which is flavor text used to reference the purchase type, a positive integer cost, a list of information that needs to be specified when making the purchase request, and an effect,

The valid purchase types are listed here:

  • Extra Gallery Space. Cost: $2000. Extra Information: the same information as included in an Art Submission. Effect: This counts as a valid art submission for the round the purchase was made, made by the Broker who made this purchase, in addition to any other art submissions they've made.
  • Secret Ballot. Cost: $1000. Extra Information: The name of a broker. Effect: When Totaling Votes for the current round, after round scores are reset to 0, the round score of the named Broker is increased by 1
  • Spyglass. Cost: $1500. Extra Information: The name of a broker. Effect: After the Unveiling Art action for the current round, the Collector must privately inform you of the title of a random piece of art which the named Broker submitted in the previous round (or that no such art was submitted). If a given Broker uses multiple spyglasses to target the same broker in a given round, subsequent random art selections should exclude titles of art already revealed to the broker making the submission in this manner.

When a Purchase Submission is resolved, the Collector starts with the first purchase in the list. If the Cost exceeds the Broker who made the submissions total Cash, or if it did not specify the necessary information needed to apply the effect, nothing more happens for that purchase. Otherwise, that Broker's Cash is reduced by the given Purchase's Cost, its effect is applied. In either case, the Collector then moves to the next item Purchase Submissions list, repeating this process for all items.

Courier Submissions

A Broker may make a Courier Submission, which consists of the name of a Broker (as the Recipient), and either the title of a piece of Art in their own Collection or an amount of Cash. The same Broker may make multiple Courier Submissions during a single round. Courier Submissions may be retracted by their submitter during the same round they were made in, by notifying the Collector of this, at which point they cease to be Courier Submissions.

Kudos

Each Broker has an integer amount of Kudos, which defaults to 0.

Private Collections

Each Broker has a publicly tracked Collection, being a list of art Titles and their Prices, each Price being written in brackets after the corresponding Title. A Price is a number of dollars.

There is also a collection known as the Collector’s Vault, which is also a list of art Titles and their Prices.

When a piece of art Appreciates, its price is increased by 5% (rounded down), or 8% (rounded down) if it is a part of a Set.

Each Broker also has an amount of Cash, which is tracked publicly, and is a positive integer and defaults to $5000 (Cash may be written with a $ before it).

Sets

At any time, a Broker may combine three different Pieces of Art in their Private Collection into a Set, which is defined later in this rule. A Set is shown in a Broker’s Private Collection using the following format: {‘Piece of Art #1’ [Price], ‘Piece of Art #2’ [Price], ‘Piece of Art #3’ [Price]}, where each instance of ‘Piece of Art #n’ is replaced with the corresponding name of a Piece of Art, and each instance of Price is the corresponding price to the Piece of Art listed directly before it. When Pieces of Art are combined into a set, the individual Pieces of Art are removed from their Owner’s collection before the Set is added to the Owner’s private collection. If doing so is impossible, the Owner of the Pieces of Art may not combine them into a Set. At any time, a Broker who has a Set in their Private Collection may choose to separate that set. If they choose to do so, the Set is removed from the Owner’s Collection and the Pieces of Art that were in that Set are returned to being shown separately. A Set is defined as one of the following:

  • 3 Pieces of Art that were all posted as part of the same round
  • 3 Pieces of Art that were all submitted to be part of a round by the same Broker or Idle Broker

The Owner of a Set or Piece of Art is the Broker or Idle Broker for whom that Set or Piece of Art is in the Private Collection of.

Mantle Limitations

During an Interregnum, the Mantle may not be passed to another Broker (the Protege) if there exists another Broker, who has not been Collector, with higher Kudos than the Protege.

The Bulletin Board

There exists a publicly tracked Bulletin Board which a list of pairs of names of Brokers (the Seller) and positive integer values (the Price)

A Broker may remove any entry from the Bulletin Board for which they are the Seller at any time. If they are not already the Seller for five entries on the Bulletin Board, a Broker may add a new entry to the Bulletin Board with their name and any positive integer value they choose at any time.

When a Broker goes idle, all entries for which they are the Seller are removed from the Bulletin Board.

At any time, as an atomic action a Broker (the Buyer) may choose an entry on the Bulletin Board where they are not the Seller, reduce their Cash by that entry’s Price, increase the Seller’s cash by that entry’s Price, and remove the entry from the Bulletin Board. This grants the Buyer one favour lended by the Seller. (Note that this action may not be performed by a Buyer if it would set the Buyer’s Cash below zero, or cause the Buyer to have too many favours)

Forgeries

Any Broker may contact the Collector privately to decry a piece of art as the work of notorious forger Magistrelli, if they believe its image to contain a depiction of a spider.

If the Collector agrees that such a spider is easily and clearly discernable in the artwork’s image when pointed out (such that an uninvolved third party would, if asked what the relevant detail was, be able to recognise it as a spider), the Collector should make a blog post announcing that the art in question is a forgery: upon doing so, if that piece of art is in a Collection or Vault it has its Price reduced to $0 there.

Piece of art from Rounds 5 and earlier may never be revealed as forgeries.

Installation

The Installer Directory is a list of Brokers, tracked publicly. Brokers on this list are called Installers. Any Broker may add themselves to the list at any time before Round 13 begins, if they are not already on it.

If the current Round is 14, the Installer(s) with the lowest Kudos should arrange for some kind of physical copy of a piece of art from the dynasty to be delivered to the Installer(s) with the highest Kudos.



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 "[Rare]", 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 “Brokers” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.

Dormancy [Active]

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

Imperial Deferentials [Inactive]

If the Collector has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Brokers have voted FOR the Proposal than have voted AGAINST it) or AGAINST (in all other cases). However, in either case, votes of DEFERENTIAL made by other Brokers on the same Proposal are not considered be valid.

Dynastic Distance [Active]

For the purposes of dynastic rules which do not deal with voting, the Collector is not a Broker.

The Traitor [Active]

The Traitor for a particular Dynasty may be a Broker (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 Collector, and the Collector should not share this information with Brokers other than the Traitor.

If there is no Traitor for the current Dynasty, and BlogNomic is not on Hiatus, the Collector may secretly randomly select a Broker (other than the Collector) 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 Brokers, nor to tell the truth to them, and is encouraged to betray other Brokers in order to achieve victory.

Dynastic Tracking [Active]

The gamestate tracking page for this dynasty is the Gallery page of the wiki. Unless otherwise stated, all publicly tracked gamestate information is tracked on it. A Collector may change the wiki page referred to in this rule to a different page as part of their Ascension Address, provided that page did not exist at the time the Ascension Address was posted and does not begin with the word “Ruleset”.

No Collaboration [Active] [Rare]

If “Dynastic Distance” is also active, the Collector is not considered a Broker for the purposes of this rule. The Collector is always permitted to inform the Traitor of their role if the Special Case rule “The Traitor” is active.

Brokers may not privately communicate with each other about dynastic gameplay or votable matters that affect the dynastic ruleset or gamestate. Private communications are considered to be anything that any other Broker could not reasonably be privy to, perceive, or understand. Discussion conducted in plain English on the BlogNomic wiki and blog, and the #currentdynasty or #general channels of the BlogNomic slack, are not considered to be private communication. Idle Brokers (or people who are not yet Brokers) also face the same restrictions if they intend to become an active Broker during the course of the dynasty. The use of creative strategies to circumvent this rule may be considered to be a scam for the purposes of determining whether an infraction of Fair Play has taken place.

A mentor and mentee may still privately converse with each other, but should keep their conversations away from discussion specific gameplay strategy.

If information which was not allowed to be discussed is still privately discussed, the Brokers who were part of the conversation should make a post to the blog disclosing what information was discussed as their earliest convenience.

Favours [Active]

When a new dynasty starts, if at any point during the most recent dynasty any new favours were added which were owed by the new Collector to another Broker, the collector must make this rule active.

While this rule is active, Brokers can grant one another Favours via the methods defined in the Dynastic rule called “Granting Favours”, if such a rule exists. Favours are resources unique to the individual who granted them (referred to as the Favour’s ‘lender’), but a given Broker cannot hold more than five Favours at a time regardless of their lenders. Favours have a ripeness, which defaults to unripe. Immediately after an Ascension Address is posted, all ripe Favours disappear and then all unripe Favours become ripe. If a Collector Passes the Mantle, any existing Favour for which they are the lender is turned into a Favour for which the new Collector is the lender.

The list of Favours each Broker has is tracked in the wikipage Favours. When this rule is changed from Inactive to Active, the Favours that were tracked the last time this rule was Active remain.

A Broker may at any time choose to release any or all of the Favours they hold, losing them and gaining nothing in return. A Broker who has a ripe Favour may at any time claim it, spending it to gain a benefit based on the status of that Favour’s lender:

  • If the lender is the Collector, the claiming Broker immediately gains a single point of any resource of their choosing that is described only in the Dynastic Rules. Any details the gained resource has apart from quantity are chosen by the Collector, who should be generous if possible.
  • If the lender is an active Broker who is not the Collector, the lender immediately gives to the claiming Broker (even if it could not normally be transferred) a single point of any resource of the claiming Broker’s choosing, so long as it is described only in the Dynastic Rules and the lender has at least one point of that resource to give.
  • If the lender is idle, the claiming Broker immediately gains an unripe Favour with the lender as its lender.

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.)

Imperatives

Can
“is able to”
Shall
“is required to”
Should
“is recommended that”

Time

Daily Action
If a game action is a Daily Action, each Broker 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 Broker 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.
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 Broker 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 Broker per week.

Other

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 Brokers.
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)
A Broker’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Broker’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Broker’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
Commentary
When posting a blog entry, a Broker 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. Brokers 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 (except where the rule defining the action explicitly requires it to be taken during Hiatus), 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 Brokers is half the number of Brokers in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Brokers it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Brokers.
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.
Slack
The BlogNomic Slack is located at blognomic.slack.com. Brokers 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.
Uphold
To Uphold an illegal action is to retroactively declare the attempt to take it to have been successful, and to declare that all attempted game actions taken after it were attempted as if the Upheld action had been successful.
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.
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 Broker 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 Broker 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 Broker 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 Broker is defined as a Broker who has been a Broker for fewer than seven days or a Broker 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 a Broker’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 Broker may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Broker feels that a representation of the gamestate (such as a wiki page) does not match the gamestate, they may either:

  • Undo the effects of any alteration that led to it, if that alteration did not follow the rules at the time it was made.
  • Alter the representation to match what they believe to be the correct application of an incorrectly-applied alteration. This may include completing incomplete actions on behalf of the original Broker, if doing so would not require the correcting Broker to make any decisions on behalf of the original Broker.

Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, Brokers are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement.

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.

A Broker 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.
  • A list of comma-separated values in curly brackets (eg {x,y}) will return one of the values at random.

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 a Broker with such access. Only a Broker with such access may Enact that Proposal. If that Proposal does not name a Broker 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 roll in the Dice Roller, unless otherwise specified. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Broker 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 a Broker 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 Broker performing it to skip some of its steps, which the Broker must do and in which case the skipped steps are considered completed for this rule.
  • If a Broker 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 Broker must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Broker 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 Broker 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, a Broker can spend only their own values, and a rule that allows Brokers to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Broker (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
  • A Broker 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 a default value but no defined starting value, then its default value should also be considered a starting value. If a game variable has neither a default value nor a starting value, then both may be considered to be 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”).
  • If the rules that define a game variable are amended, and some previously valid values become invalid as a consequence, any existing variables whose current values would become invalid are instead set to their starting value.
  • 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, Broker 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.
  • If a dynastic rule has no text and no subrules, any Broker may delete it from the ruleset.
  • A rule may be accompanied by one or more illustrations, and an illustration may have a caption. In all situations, unless otherwise explicitly stated, an illustration and a caption to an illustration must be treated as flavour text.

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.
  • A Broker 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.
  • Brokers 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 a Broker if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Broker’s name.
  • If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead given the name of the proposal that created it, or (if this is not possible) the name “Unnamed Rule”.
  • The names of rules and wiki pages (other than the Ruleset) are flavour text.
  • 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 and any text between a pair of opening and closing braces, as long as such a reference would be unambiguous.
  • Where a proposal refers to a second proposal by name, it is assumed to refer to the most recently posted proposal of that name which pre-dates the first proposal.

Prioritisation

  • If two parts of the Ruleset contradict each other, precedence shall be construed in the following order:
  1. The Appendix has precedence over any other Rule;
  2. If a Core Rule explicitly says it cannot be overruled by a Dynastic Rule, that Core Rule has precedence over a Dynastic Rule, otherwise a Dynastic Rule has precedence over that Core Rule;
  3. If a Special Case Rule explicitly says that it cannot be overruled by a Dynastic Rule, that Special Case Rule has precedence over a Dynastic Rule, otherwise a Dynastic Rule has equal precedence as that Special Case Rule;
  4. If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies (e.g. if the rules “Brokers may Kick each other” and “Brokers may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Brokers may not Kick each other);
  5. If two contradicting parts have the same scope, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “Brokers may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Brokers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Brokers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Mentors

A Broker may have another Broker as a Mentor. Brokers who are willing to act as a Mentor are listed on the Mentorships wiki page, and are said to be “Tenured”. An Admin may add or remove their own name, or the name of a Broker who has requested a change on their own behalf, from this list at any time.

If an unmentored Broker requests a Mentor, or a new Broker has joined the game and has no Mentor, the Collector should select a Tenured Broker and ask them to take that Broker on as a Mentee; if they accept, then such a Mentorship is established. The Collector should take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor.

A relationship between a mentor and a mentee is a Mentorship. The members and starting dates of all active Mentorships are tracked on the Mentorships wiki page, and whenever a new Mentorship is established, the Collector should announce it in a blog post. A Broker may dissolve a Mentorship they are part of at any time, by announcing this in a blog post.

If there is no Collector, any Broker who has been active in at least three previous dynasties may act as Collector for the purposes of this rule.

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 Broker 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 lasts for four weeks or until the next Ascension Address, whichever occurs latest. It can continue informally 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 Brokers.
  • 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.

Synonyms

A dynasty may provide extra theming by using alternative terms for words like “Broker” and “Collector”.

Each term in this list is synonymous with the term in parentheses

  • Broker (Player)
  • Collector (Emperor)

When a new Dynasty is started, the Ascension Address may specify new terms for each entry in the above list, provided the newly chosen term does not appear anywhere in the ruleset outside of this rule (though if it only appears in rules which are being removed as part of the Ascension Address, it is fine), and that doing so would not cause two terms in the above list to become synonymous with each other. Doing so causes the old corresponding value (including regional spelling variations) to be replaced by the new value everywhere in the ruleset except in any of the parenthesis in the above list.