Difference between revisions of "Ruleset"

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* '''Cleanup''': Make a Story Post summarizing the Battle’s events (it is recommended that this include changes to Unit Size, and any other changes to dynastic variables), and remove the selected Battle from the list of Ongoing Battles.
 
* '''Cleanup''': Make a Story Post summarizing the Battle’s events (it is recommended that this include changes to Unit Size, and any other changes to dynastic variables), and remove the selected Battle from the list of Ongoing Battles.
  
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==Break==
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BlogNomic is in Hiatus.  If it is August 7th or later, any General may remove this rule from the ruleset.  This action must be done during Hiatus.
 
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Revision as of 08:53, 4 August 2021

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Generals 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 General may update it to do so.

Generals

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 General may make a blog post making clear their wish to be a General (plural form Generals); in response, an Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment they become a General.

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

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

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

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

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

An Admin may render a General Idle if that General has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), or if that General has not posted an entry or comment in the past 168 Hours (7 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 General if that General is Idle and has asked to become Unidle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), and Idle Admins may Unidle themselves at any time, unless the General who would be Unidled asked to become (or rendered themselves) Idle within the past 96 hours (4 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 General, known as the Leader. If there is no Leader, 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 General 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 Generals may cast Votes on, such as a Proposal, a Call for Judgement or a Declaration of Victory.

Votes

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

If a General other than the Leader casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Leader. When the Leader 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 Leader’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 Generals 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 have a status, which can either be Pending, Enacted, Failed, or Illegal. When a votable matter is first put forward is considered Pending (which is tracked as having no status in the current blog software), and it remains Pending until it is Resolved.

A votable matter is resolved by an admin setting its status through use of the “status” field in the blog post editing form. When 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 resolved Votable Matters.

A votable matter may not be resolved except as directed by the ruleset, and the status of a resolved votable matter, once resolved, is determined by the votes cast upon it, as assessed by the rules that govern the specific kind of votable matter (as well as any other considerations regarding the legality of the votable matter, such as the stipulations put forward in the Appendix rule Official Posts). When a Failed proposal has been Vetoed it may optionally have the Vetoed status upon resolution, which is considered to be the same as Failed for the purposes of all other rules.

This rule cannot be overruled by any other rule 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 General.

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a General 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 Leader may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Leader casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Leader later changes their Vote.

Resolution of Proposals

The oldest Pending Proposal may be Enacted by any Admin 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.

When a Proposal is Enacted, its stated effects are immediately applied in full; the Admin Enacting it shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct any gamestate-tracking entities, as specified in the Proposal.

Calls for Judgement

If two or more Generals actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a General feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any General 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 General (other than the Leader) 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 General 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 Leader 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 General 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 General who posted the DoV becomes Leader, 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 Leader must either Pass the Mantle, by making a post naming another General - in which case the Leader ceases to be the Leader and the General so named becomes the Leader - 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 Leader’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 General’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. Generals 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 General within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle General and any Idle Generals.
  • A General 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 General should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
  • A General should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other General.
  • A General should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
  • A General should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
  • A General 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 General 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 General must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
  • A General should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
  • A General should not use a core, special case or appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly cause a General to achieve victory.

Dynastic Rules

Two Leaders

This Dynasty is considered to be the First Coregency of Jumble and lemonfanta and is headed by both Jumble and lemonfanta, who are both Leaders of this Dynasty. Jumble holds the imperial title of Chancellor of Tribuna and lemonfanta holds the imperial title of Ashen Queen, in addition to their classification as Leaders. While more than one Leader exists, votes of DEFERENTIAL only resolve to FOR or AGAINST if all EVCs posted by Leaders on that Votable Matter contain that valid vote.

The Leaders may share privately tracked information between themselves.

The Tribunan-Ashen Divide

The War Table contains a publicly tracked map of the area between the Kingdom of Tribuna and the Ashen Concord, called “Tribunan-Ashen Divide”. The map consists of an 8 wide by 10 high grid of cells (also known as “Territories”), each by default containing no text and having a background colour of #798, with the letters A-J on the left hand side and the numbers 1-8 along the top. Each Territory may be individually referred to by these grid coordinates. North is towards the top of this map. The southmost row is known as the Tribunan Home Row; the northmost row is known as the Ashen Home Row.

The Kingdom of Tribuna and the Ashen Concord may be referred to as ‘factions’ or ‘sides’, and are always the opponent relative to each other.

Units

A Unit is a battalion of soldiers armed and ready to participate in warfare; each Unit has a Name (a string of flavour text which defaults to blank), a Commander (the name of a General or Leader which defaults to Jumble), a Mobility (a text string which defines how far and in what ways the Unit can move across the map), a Size value (a number which defaults to 1), an Arms value (a number which defaults to 1), an Armour value (a number which defaults to 1), and a Supply value (a number which defaults to 0). Each existing Unit and all of its attached variables are publicly tracked. When the rules state that a Unit can perform an action, that action can be performed on its behalf by that Unit’s Commander.

By default, a Unit is a Tribunan Unit; Units whose Commander is the Ashen Queen are Ashen Units instead. A rule that specifically names Tribunan Units does not include Ashen Units, and vice versa.

When a Unit’s Name is contained within a map cell, that Unit is considered to be located in that Territory. Any number of Units may be within a single Territory at once.

Resupply

The last time a Resupply occurred is publicly tracked for convenience. If it has been at least 20 hours since the last Resupply action, or if all Units have 0 Supply, either Leader may Resupply by setting the Supply of every Unit with less than 2 Supply to 2 Supply. Resupplies cannot happen if there are no Units.

Battles

There is a publicly tracked list of Ongoing Battles; for each Battle on the list, the following information is tracked: the Battle Start Time (the time and date at which the Battle's Site came to contain units of both factions, or the time and date of any other event that triggers a Battle according to a rule), the Site (the map coordinates of the territory in which the battle is taking place), the Forces (a list of all units that are participating in the battle, which is, by default, all units present in that Territory), and a Cusp (which is by default a date and time exactly 12 hours after the time at which the Battle started) .

When a single Territory contains at least one Ashen Unit and at least one Tribunan Unit, that Territory is the Site of a Battle. Any General or Leader may add a currently-occurring Battle to the Ongoing Battles list.

Each Battle has a status, which is not tracked but which is an emergent property based on its Cusp; when the current date and time is before the Battle's Cusp it is Hot; when the current date and time is after the Battle's Cusp it is Cooling. When a Battle is Cooling, the Battle, any Unit involved in the Battle and the Territory in which the Battle is taking place may not be the subject or target of any dynastic action except the Resolve a Battle action.

A Leader may carry out the Resolve a Battle action on a Battle that is Cooling at any time.

Resolve a Battle is an atomic action with the following steps:

  • Privately notify the other Leader that the Battle is in process of resolution, to prevent duplication of effort.
  • Determine the outcome:
    • Calculate the Tribunan and Ashen Strength scores for this Battle, which are (respectively) the total Arms of all Units for the relevant faction that are engaged in the battle plus DICEX, where X is the number of that faction's Units that are engaged in the Battle.
    • Calculate the Tribunan and Ashen Defence scores for this Battle, which are (respectively) the total Armour of all Units for the relevant faction that are engaged in the battle.
    • For each faction: calculate their Losses, which is their opponent's Strength score minus their own Defence; then select a Unit of that faction at random and roll DICEY, where Y is that faction's Losses, and reduce their Size by that amount, to a minimum of zero, and reduce that faction's Losses by the same amount; repeat this step until that faction's Losses are zero.
    • Destroy all Units in the Battle with a Size of 0 or lower.
  • Retreats: If the Territory still has at least one Tribuban and one Ashen Unit, all Units in the Territory retreat: Tribunan Units move one Territory to the south while Ashen Units move one Territory to the north. This may create a new Battle, or impact an existing one; if so, amend the Ongoing Battles list accordingly. If a faction cannot retreat for any reason (because their retreat direction is the edge of the map, for example, or because their retreat territory is contains a Cooling Battle) then its Units stay in their current Territory; if this occurs for both Factions then a new Battle with that Territory as its Site and a Start Time of the time of this Atomic Action must be started as part of this Atomic Action.
  • Cleanup: Make a Story Post summarizing the Battle’s events (it is recommended that this include changes to Unit Size, and any other changes to dynastic variables), and remove the selected Battle from the list of Ongoing Battles.

Break

BlogNomic is in Hiatus. If it is August 7th or later, any General may remove this rule from the ruleset. This action must be done during Hiatus.

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 core rules titled “Generals” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.

Dormancy [Active]

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

Imperial Deferentials [Inactive]

If the Leader has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Generals 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 Generals on the same Proposal are not considered to be valid.

Dynastic Distance [Active]

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

The Traitor [Inactive]

The Traitor for a particular Dynasty may be a General (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 Leader, and the Leader should not share this information with Generals other than the Traitor.

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

Dynastic Tracking [Active]

The gamestate tracking page for this dynasty is the The War Table page of the wiki. Unless otherwise stated, all publicly tracked gamestate information is tracked on it. A Leader 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 Leader is not considered a General for the purposes of this rule. The Leader is always permitted to inform the Traitor of their role if the Special Case rule “The Traitor” is active.

Generals 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 General 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 Generals (or people who are not yet Generals) also face the same restrictions if they intend to become an active General 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 Generals 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 Leader to another General, the Leader must make this rule active.

While this rule is active, Generals can grant one another Favours via the methods defined in Dynastic Rules. Favours are resources unique to the individual who granted them (referred to as the Favour’s ‘lender’), but a given General 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 Leader Passes the Mantle, any existing Favour for which they are the lender is turned into a Favour for which the new Leader is the lender.

The list of Favours each General 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 General may at any time choose to release any or all of the Favours they hold, losing them and gaining nothing in return. A General 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 Leader, the claiming General immediately gains a single point of any tabular 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 Leader, who should be generous if possible.
  • If the lender is an active General who is not the Leader, the lender immediately gives to the claiming General (even if it could not normally be transferred) a single point of any tabular resource of the claiming General’s choosing, so long as the lender has at least one point of that resource to give.
  • If the lender is idle, the claiming General immediately gains an unripe Favour with the lender as its lender.

A resource is tabular if the only Rules that it is described in are Dynastic Rules, and if it is being publicly tracked as a number, in a table that contains one row corresponding to each General.

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 General 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 General 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 General 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 General 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 Generals.
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 General’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that General’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that General’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
Commentary
When posting a blog entry, a General 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 or gamestate is defined as being “flavour text”, it retains its context, but is not considered to have any meaning beyond being a string of characters. Generals 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 Generals is half the number of Generals in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Generals it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Generals.
Resolve/Resolution
If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the word “Resolve” means to perform the act, as an Admin, of enacting, failing, or marking illegal 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. The resolution of a votable matter is tracked by reference to its status in the blog post edit form. If otherwise legally applied, the application of any status through the blog post editing form is sufficient to consider that votable matter to have been correctly resolved, but a resolved votable matter should have the correct status wherever possible; if any admin believes that a resolved votable matter has an incorrect status then they may correct it.
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. Generals 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 General 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. Dynastic rules cannot define posts in the “Call for Judgement” category to be a type of official post other than a Call for Judgement, and this restriction cannot be overridden by dynastic rules.

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 4 hours old and either no General 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 General 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 General is defined as a General who has been a General for fewer than seven days or a General 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 General’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 General may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If a General 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 General, if doing so would not require the correcting General to make any decisions on behalf of the original General.

Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, Generals 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 General 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 General with such access. Only a General with such access may Enact that Proposal. If that Proposal does not name a General 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, and which value the roll result corresponds to must be reasonably inferable from the nature of the roll and any comments supplied by the General making the roll before or while making the roll. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the General 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 General 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.
  • If a rule allows the General performing an Atomic Action to skip some of its steps, the skipped steps are considered to have been completed.
  • If a General 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 General must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the General 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 General 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,” “pay” 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” or “pay” 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, paid, lost, gained, or transferred, a General can spend or pay from only their own values, and a rule that allows Generals to transfer or pay a numeric value to another General only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to that other General (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
  • If a Dynastic Action is defined as having a cost X of numeric value V, or defines a requirement to spend, pay, or lose X of numeric value V to accomplish an effect or multiple effects, then the arithmetic effects of spending or payment and the act of carrying out those effects are considered to be subsequent steps in an Atomic Action, with the spending or payment step taking place before the effects step unless stated otherwise.
  • A General 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.
  • If a piece of information is described as being tracked secretly or privately by the Leader (including secretly random selections), then that information may only be revealed by the Leader when the ruleset allows it. If a General should already know such a piece of information (in that the Leader has already told them it, or vice versa, and there is no way that the information could have been changed since then), the Leader may repeat it to them.

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, General 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 General 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 General 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.
  • Generals 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 General if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a General’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 “Generals may Kick each other” and “Generals may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Generals may not Kick each other);
  5. If two contradicting parts have the same scope, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “Generals may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Generals may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Generals may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Mentors

A General may have another General as a Mentor. Generals 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 General who has requested a change on their own behalf, from this list at any time.

If an unmentored General requests a Mentor, or a new General has joined the game and has no Mentor, the Leader should select a Tenured General and ask them to take that General on as a Mentee; if they accept, then such a Mentorship is established. The Leader 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 Leader should announce it in a blog post. A General may dissolve a Mentorship they are part of at any time, by announcing this in a blog post.

If there is no Leader, any General who has been active in at least three previous dynasties may act as Leader 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 General 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 Generals.
  • 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 “General” and “Leader”.

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

  • General (Player)
  • Leader (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.