Difference between revisions of "Ruleset"

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(Undo revision 17392 by Kevan (talk) enacted this early, Brendan's DEF doesn't resolve)
Tag: Undo
(enacting "Punks Don’t Follow Rules")
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The notorious Punk-Neo-mutualist insurrectionist Katelyn Dubose has entered the building with the rest of her revolutionary cell, with a view towards securing it for herself.
 
The notorious Punk-Neo-mutualist insurrectionist Katelyn Dubose has entered the building with the rest of her revolutionary cell, with a view towards securing it for herself.
  
Katelyn Dubose is an entity who has a location and an inventory, both of which are tracked as if she was a Citizen, and may have a Doppelganger. Whenever a proposal causes Time to Advance, Katelyn Dubose moves into the bottommost floor of the Zone directly above the Zone she was inhabiting immediately before that Proposal was enacted. She leaves members of her Cell in every Floor that she has previously occupied; the presence of Punk-Neo-mutualists is tracked in the same way as Copbot Swarms.
+
Katelyn Dubose is a Citizen, for the purposes of Dynastic Rules, with a Floor and an Inventory. She may also have a Doppelganger. Floors may contain Punk-Neo-mutualists, which are tracked like Copbot Swarms.
  
Katelyn Dubose and her Punk-Neo-mutualists cannot exist in the same location as a Copbot Swarm. If Katelyn Dubose would move into a Zone that contains a Copbot Swarm without an EMP Grenade in her inventory, she instead does not, and gains an EMP Grenade. If Katelyn Dubose would move into a Zone that contains a Copbot Swarm with an EMP Grenade in her inventory then she moves into that Zone and the Copbot Swarm in that Zone is destroyed. If a Copbot Swarm would be added to a Zone that contains Punk-Neo-mutualists then both the Copbot and the Punk-Neo-mutualists in that location are destroyed.
+
Katelyn Dubose and her Punk-Neo-mutualists cannot exist in the same location as a Copbot Swarm. If a Copbot Swarm ever shares a Zone with Katelyn Dubose or a Punk-Neo-mutualist, that Copbot Swarm is destroyed.
  
Any Citizen that occupies or moves into any Zone (other than those represented by the rules Infirmary or Earthlink) containing Katelyn Dubose or Punk-Neo-mutualists is immediately moved to the Infirmary.
+
Any Citizen (other than Katelyn Dubose) that occupies or moves into any Zone (other than those represented by the rules Infirmary or Earthlink) containing Katelyn Dubose or Punk-Neo-mutualists is immediately moved to the Infirmary, and is Harmed.
  
 
If ever Katelyn Dubose’s location is the Zone represented by the rule Earthlink then she and her Punk-Neo-mutualists attempt to invade Earth; any Citizen whose location is the same Zone and who possesses at least one Toolbox or EMP Grenade has achieved Victory.
 
If ever Katelyn Dubose’s location is the Zone represented by the rule Earthlink then she and her Punk-Neo-mutualists attempt to invade Earth; any Citizen whose location is the same Zone and who possesses at least one Toolbox or EMP Grenade has achieved Victory.
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* Endanger all Citizens who are occupying Floors that contain a Copbot Swarm and do not have at least one Blaster.
 
* Endanger all Citizens who are occupying Floors that contain a Copbot Swarm and do not have at least one Blaster.
 
* Randomly select a Current and set its Breaker to a randomly selected floor.
 
* Randomly select a Current and set its Breaker to a randomly selected floor.
 +
* Move Katelyn Dubose to the bottommost floor of the Zone directly above her current Zone. If that Zone contains a Copbot Swarm, and Katelyn Dubose doesn’t already have an EMP Grenade, instead of moving her add one to her inventory. If she moved, add a Punk-Neo-mutualist to the floor she previously occupied.
  
 
===Surveillance Systems [8-12]===
 
===Surveillance Systems [8-12]===

Revision as of 07:51, 12 October 2021

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Citizens 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 Citizen may update it to do so.

Citizens

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

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

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

If a Citizen is Idle, this is tracked by their name being removed or concealed in the list of currently active Citizens in the Sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding the core and appendix Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Citizens”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play”, "Mentors" and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Citizens are not counted as Citizens. The combined term “Idle Citizen” can be used to refer to Citizens who are Idle even in rules that do not treat them as Citizens.

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

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

An Admin may render a Citizen Idle if that Citizen has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), or if that Citizen 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 Citizen if that Citizen 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 Citizen 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 resolve Votable Matters as if they were not idle.

Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single Citizen, known as the Drone. If there is no Drone, 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 Citizen 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 Citizens may cast Votes on, such as a Proposal, a Call for Judgement or a Declaration of Victory.

Votes

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

If a Citizen other than the Drone casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Drone. When the Drone 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 Drone’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. Exception: Proposals which would change the text of a Core, Special Case or Appendix rule if enacted cannot be Popular on this basis.

A Votable Matter is Unpopular if any of the following are true:

  • The number of Citizens 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 it 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 withdrawn 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 Citizen.

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a Citizen casts a vote AGAINST their own Proposal (which is not in the form of a DEFERENTIAL vote), this renders the Proposal Withdrawn, even if the author later changes their Vote. The Drone may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Drone casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Drone 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 Withdrawn.

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 Withdrawn.

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

All Citizen and idle Citizens should be aware of the BlogNomic Community Guidelines. The contents of this page are not ruletext and are nonbinding as pertains to the ruleset, but Citizens are encouraged to commit to upholding them to whatever extent is possible.

Dynastic Rules

Earthlink [58-62]

If this rule is not at the top of the Dynastic Ruleset, any Citizen may move it there at any time.

The Earthlink is a massive vertical, linear dark matter accelerator designed to fire and pierce a hole in spacetime - a wormhole, to Earth.

The Earthlink is Stable or Unstable, and is by default Stable. This is publicly tracked. If every Floor in this Zone is Shorted Out, the Earthlink is always Unstable and cannot be made Stable. If every Floor in this Zone is a different Current’s Breaker, the Earthlink is always Stable and cannot be made Unstable.

Each first time a Citizen changes Floor after the Earthlink becomes Unstable, their Doppelganger appears at their former Floor. Each subsequent time a Citizen changes Floor, their Doppelganger’s Floor is set to the previous Floor the Citizen was occupying. Each Doppelganger’s Floor is publicly tracked in a manner which unambiguously communicates which Citizen each Doppelganger belongs to. For rules other than this one, a Citizen with a Doppelganger is considered to be occupying their Doppelganger’s Floor in addition to their own.

While the Earthlink is Stable, all Doppelgangers are removed and cannot be in play.

Accelerator: A Citizen with a Toolbox can spend a Taser or Flashlight to Jerry Rig the Earthlink to set it to Stable or Unstable.

Floors [53-57]

Earthlink Tower has a number of Floors: 64 above ground (numbered 1 through 64 in sequence) and 8 below ground (numbered B1 through B8 in sequence). The top floor of the Tower is Floor 64, and the bottom is Floor B8, with Floor 1 being directly above Floor B1. Each floor may contain items. The list of items on a given floor is publicly tracked and is known as its contents.

Each Citizen is on a Floor of Earthlink Tower, defaulting to Floor 1. A Citizen’s Floor is publicly tracked.

A Proposal which would modify the text of any dynastic rule (or subrule of a dynastic rule) if enacted is Unpopular (and not Popular) if any Citizen is both occupying the Zone associated with that rule and has a valid Vote of AGAINST on that Proposal.

Each Citizen has a publicly tracked Goal, which may be blank (trackable as a single hyphen), or any number of the following:

  • The numbers of up to three Floors that they wish to travel to.
  • The names of up to three Zones that they wish to travel to.
  • The names of up to three Items that they wish to obtain.
  • The names of up to three Citizens that they wish to follow.

A Citizen may update their Goal at any time. Proposals are discouraged from referencing Goals directly (eg. “move every Citizen to the Floor stated in their Goal”), for timing reasons, but are encouraged to do so indirectly (eg. “move the following Citizens to the following Floors, as these were their Goals at the time of writing”).

Zoning [48-52]

For the purposes of this rule, a subrule to a dynastic rule is considered to be distinct from its parent, and vice-versa.

Each dynastic rule or subrule may be referred to as a Zone. Each Zone represents a number of Floors. A Citizen is said to be occupying a Zone if their current Floor is represented by that Zone.

A Zone represents floors as follows:

  • The 72 Floors are represented from the bottom of the dynastic ruleset up; so Floor B8 will always be in the bottommost Zone.
  • Each Zone represents a number of Floors equal to 72/n, rounded down, where n is the number of Zones.
  • Any Floors not allocated to a Zone as a result of this calculation are instead allocated to the Debris Zone. No dynastic rule can be called Debris; if any game action would cause a dynastic rule to be called Debris, it is instead skipped.

The Floors represented by each Zone may optionally be tracked by appending their numbers to the end of the title of those Zones in square brackets (eg Floors [B8-64]); these appendages may be referred to as Floor Markers. Floor Markers are not a part of the title of any Rule and are flavour text; any Citizen may update them at any time if they are not currently accurate.

Breach: Citizens who occupy this Zone automatically gain a Heat Signature, which lasts even after they cease to occupy it. Whether or not a Citizen has a Heat Signature is publicly tracked.

Floors may also contain Copbot Swarms; these are publicly tracked in the same place as the locations of Citizens are tracked.

Security [43-47]

The notorious Punk-Neo-mutualist insurrectionist Katelyn Dubose has entered the building with the rest of her revolutionary cell, with a view towards securing it for herself.

Katelyn Dubose is a Citizen, for the purposes of Dynastic Rules, with a Floor and an Inventory. She may also have a Doppelganger. Floors may contain Punk-Neo-mutualists, which are tracked like Copbot Swarms.

Katelyn Dubose and her Punk-Neo-mutualists cannot exist in the same location as a Copbot Swarm. If a Copbot Swarm ever shares a Zone with Katelyn Dubose or a Punk-Neo-mutualist, that Copbot Swarm is destroyed.

Any Citizen (other than Katelyn Dubose) that occupies or moves into any Zone (other than those represented by the rules Infirmary or Earthlink) containing Katelyn Dubose or Punk-Neo-mutualists is immediately moved to the Infirmary, and is Harmed.

If ever Katelyn Dubose’s location is the Zone represented by the rule Earthlink then she and her Punk-Neo-mutualists attempt to invade Earth; any Citizen whose location is the same Zone and who possesses at least one Toolbox or EMP Grenade has achieved Victory.

Engineering [38-42]

Each dynastic rule may contain a special Zone Rule, which is identifiable by being the text in a rule that is fully included within the Zone Rule template. Any Citizen who is not occupying a Zone may not take any actions on the basis of that Zone’s Zone Rule; Citizens who are occupying that Zone treat the Zone Rule as normal ruletext.

Defence Control

Earthlink Tower’s defence grid is able to override drone control in the airspace around it. If a proposal includes the [Defence] tag and would not directly amend any Core or Appendix rules, it is a Defensive Proposal. The Drone may not cast a vote of DEF or AGAINST on a Defensive Proposal, and should vote FOR it.

If a Defensive Proposal was posted by a Citizen who was not located in Defence Control at the time of its posting, the Drone should cast a vote of VETO on it.

Household Unit [33-37]

All Citizens who share the same floor are Floormates with each other. A Citizen with a Blaster or Taser may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal created by another Citizen with whom they are Floormates at the time the vote is cast, if that proposer does not have a Smoke Grenade; this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Citizen who made the VETO vote later changes their Vote or changes floors.

Supply Requisitions [28-32]

Each player has a publicly tracked Inventory. An Inventory is a list which may contain a list of Items, and defaults to empty. A Citizen may destroy an item by removing it from their inventory at any time. A Citizen may drop an item by removing it from their inventory and adding it to the contents of the floor they currently occupy. Likewise, a Citizen may pick up an item from the floor they are currently on by removing it from that floor’s contents and adding it to their inventory.

The following items are Afflictions, and may not be removed from a player’s inventory except by a rule which specifically permits the removal of Afflictions: Unpleasant memory, Wound.

A Zone Rule may contain a cache, which is a list of items with each Item assigned a range of numbers within 1 and 100 inclusive, known as that Item’s Range. Each Item’s range of numbers may not overlap within a single Cache and the entirety of all Items ranges must as written include all numbers in between 1 and 100, inclusive.

Items have no effect, and their names are Flavour Text, unless they are described in this rule.

Items:

Storage Unit: This Zone has a Cache containing:
  • 1-70: Flashlight
  • 71-96: Toolbox
  • 97-100: Taser

Trading Post [23-27]

A Citizen may trade items with another Citizen by making a Story Post with the prefix “Trade Offer:” which unambiguously specifies the items they would like to offer, another Citizen to act as a trade partner, and the items they would like to receive from that Citizen.

At any point while the offer is valid, the trade partner may accept the offer by making a comment on the post with a FOR voting icon, at which point either Citizen must update both Citizens’ inventories to reflect the item transfer.

A trade offer is considered valid only if all of the following are true:

  • Both the offering Citizen and the trade partner have the required items in their inventory.
  • The offering player and the trade partner are on the same floor.
  • Neither of the involved Citizens have left a comment on the Trade Offer which includes an AGAINST voting icon.

Armoury [18-22]

When a Floor contains a Copbot Swarm, a Citizen without a Blaster may not have their Floor changed to that Floor; any action that would result in such an outcome instead keeps them in their status quo ante location.

Gun Rack: This Zone has a Cache containing:
  • 1-50: Blaster
  • 51-75: Taser
  • 76-95: Smoke Grenade
  • 96-100: EMP Grenade

The Clock [13-17]

When a proposal enacts that includes the sentence “Advance Time.”, the enacting admin must perform the following atomic action known as “Chiming the Hour” as part of its enactment, immediately after marking the Proposal’s status as Enacted:

  • For each Citizen in a Zone which has a Cache, take the result of a DICE100: that Citizen gains an instance of the corresponding Item from the Cache, unless they already have an instance of that Item, in which case they gain the earliest-listed Item from the Cache that they do not already have (if any such items exist). If a Citizen is on a Dark Floor and does not have their own Flashlight, however, a roll which is a multiple of 10 yields no Item here.
  • Remove Heat Signatures from all Citizens who are occupying only Floors with “B” in their designation.
  • Add a Copbot Swarm to each Floor that is occupied by a Citizen with a Heat Signature, and which does not already contain a Copbot Swarm.
  • Endanger all Citizens who are occupying Floors that contain a Copbot Swarm and do not have at least one Blaster.
  • Randomly select a Current and set its Breaker to a randomly selected floor.
  • Move Katelyn Dubose to the bottommost floor of the Zone directly above her current Zone. If that Zone contains a Copbot Swarm, and Katelyn Dubose doesn’t already have an EMP Grenade, instead of moving her add one to her inventory. If she moved, add a Punk-Neo-mutualist to the floor she previously occupied.

Surveillance Systems [8-12]

Every Dynastic Action and Dynastic Proposal that has happened since the time prior to the second to last activation of the atomic action in the rule “The Clock” (if there is not one, consider it to have happened at the beginning of the dynasty) and the most recent activation of the atomic action in the rule “The Clock” is considered to be a Significant Event.

As long as it has not been done since the last time that the atomic action in the rule “The Clock” has been performed and that atomic action has been performed at least once this dynasty, any Citizen may choose to post a story post titled “Camera Feed N”, where N is the number of Camera Feeds that have been posted plus 1. A Camera Feed should be a summary of posts and actions that are currently Significant Events. As a Camera Feed does not affect the state of the game, it does not need to have every Significant Event, however all Significant Events that it does include should be reported in a way that does not misinterpret those Significant Events.

If multiple Camera Feeds are posted with the same title, then all but the one which was posted first chronologically should be deleted. If it is impossible to tell which one came first, it is decided randomly among the ones which are tied which one is deleted.

Infirmary [3-7]

When a Citizen is Endangered, they are forced into one of the Floors directly above and below their own (selected randomly), excepting Floors which, if moved to, would also immediately result in their being Endangered. If, when Endangered, there are no valid Floors to move to, or the Citizen remains on the same Floor, that Citizen is Harmed.

A Citizen who is Harmed has one randomly-selected non-Wound Item from their Inventory replaced with a Wound (or has a Wound added to their Inventory if no such Items exist), then is moved to an individually determined random Floor that is represented by the zone Infirmary.

If any Floor represented by this rule would be caused to contain a Copbot Swarm, that Copbot Swarm is assigned to another, randomly selected Floor. Citizens occupying this Zone may not achieve victory, even if another rule would allow them to.

Medicine Cabinet: This Zone has a Cache containing:
  • 1-75: Medical supplies
  • 76-95: Unpleasant memory
  • 96-100: Tinfoil hat

Electrical [B3-2]

If this rule is not at the bottom of the Dynastic Ruleset, any Citizen may move it there at any time.

The Breaker Panel is a publicly tracked list of Currents and their attached variables. There exist eleven Currents, labeled respectively by the letters A through K. Each Current has a Breaker, which is either a single Floor of Earthlink Tower or blank (defaulting to blank). A Floor is Lit if it is a Breaker, otherwise it is operating on minimal emergency lighting and is Dark.

If two or more Currents’ Breakers are the same Floor, that floor immediately becomes Shorted Out, and all Currents cease to have that Floor as a Breaker. Each Citizen on that Floor is Harmed and any Copbot Swarms on that Floor are removed from the game. The responsibility for these updates lies with the person whose action most immediately led to the floor becoming Shorted Out.

The list of Floors that are Shorted Out is publicly tracked. A Floor that is Shorted Out cannot become the Breaker of a Current. If a clause in a Proposal would make a Floor that is Shorted Out the Breaker of one or more Currents, that clause has no effect.

Tool Room: This Zone has a Cache containing:
  • 1-50: Flashlight
  • 51-100: Toolbox

Breaker Access [B8-B4]

If this subrule is not at the bottom of the rule Electricity, any Citizen may move it there at any time.

Switch Control: A Proposal which would modify the status of any Currents and/or their Breakers if enacted is Unpopular if any Citizen is both occupying this Zone and has a valid Vote of AGAINST on that Proposal. This does not apply to Proposals which would cause such changes only by virtue of containing the phrase “Advance Time.”


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 “Citizens” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.

Dormancy [Active]

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

Imperial Deferentials [Active]

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

Dynastic Tracking [Active]

The gamestate tracking page for this dynasty is the Earthlink Tower page of the wiki. Unless otherwise stated, all publicly tracked gamestate information is tracked on it. A Drone 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 [Inactive] [Rare]

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

Citizens 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 Citizen 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 Citizens (or people who are not yet Citizens) also face the same restrictions if they intend to become an active Citizen 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 discussing specific gameplay strategy.

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


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 Citizen 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 Citizen 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 Citizen 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 Citizen 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 Citizens.
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 Citizen’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Citizen’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Citizen’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
Commentary
When posting a blog entry, a Citizen 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.
Discord
The BlogNomic Discord can be accessed at https://discord.gg/J7kP9KuHQK and is also linked to on the sidebar. Citizens, as well as people who are not Citizens but are interested in learning more about BlogNomic, may join the Discord by clicking the button in the sidebar.
Discord Channel
A Discord Channel is any channel on the BlogNomic Discord. To reference a Discord Channel, use a hash (#) followed by the name of that channel (e.g. #random).
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. Citizens 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 Citizens is half the number of Citizens in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Citizens it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Citizens.
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, except that the sections listed as comprising the ruleset in the rule “Ruleset and Gamestate” are considered sections but not rules themselves.
Slack
The BlogNomic Slack is located at blognomic.slack.com. Citizens 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 Citizen 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 Citizen 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, except that a votable matter’s illegal resolution may be overturned. 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 Citizen 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 Citizen is defined as a Citizen who has been a Citizen for fewer than seven days or a Citizen 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, except for a votable matter’s illegal resolution that has been overturned, 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, except for the legal enactment of a CFJ. An illegal CFJ cannot cause itself to become legal.

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 Citizen’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 Citizen may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

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

Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, Citizens 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 Citizen 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 Votable Matter.

If a Votable Matter proposes a change to this rule that would require server-level access to the BlogNomic site to fully enact its effects, that Votable Matter must name a Citizen with such access. Only a Citizen with such access may Enact that Votable Matter. If that Votable Matter does not name a Citizen with such access, that Votable Matter 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 Citizen making the roll before or while making the roll. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Citizen 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 Citizen 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 Citizen performing an Atomic Action to skip some of its steps, the skipped steps are considered to have been completed.
  • If a Citizen 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 Citizen must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Citizen 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 Citizen 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 Citizen can spend or pay from only their own values, and a rule that allows Citizens to transfer or pay a numeric value to another Citizen only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to that other Citizen (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 Citizen 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 Drone (including secretly random selections), then that information may only be revealed by the Drone when the ruleset allows it. If a Citizen should already know such a piece of information (in that the Drone has already told them it, or vice versa, and there is no way that the information could have been changed since then), the Drone may repeat it to them.

Rules and Votable Matters

  • If a new rule is created by a Votable Matter and its location is not noted in that Votable Matter, that new rule is to be placed in the Dynastic Rules.
  • If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a Votable Matter enacting, that page shall – unless otherwise specified – be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that Votable Matter’s submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked).
  • Where a Votable Matter would amend the effects of Votable Matter Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (e.g. a Votable Matter proposing that enacted Votable Matters 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 Votable Matter reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (e.g. “two days after this Votable Matter enacts, Citizen A gains 1 point”), that step is ignored for the purposes of enactment. Once a Votable Matter has been enacted, it can have no further direct effect on the gamestate.
  • If a dynastic rule has no text and no subrules, any Citizen 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 Citizen 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 and formatting

  • 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.
  • Citizens may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Votable Matters at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they”.
  • A Citizen may reformat a list of items in the dynastic ruleset to have bullet points or other appropriate list markup, if doing so would not change the order of that list, nor how any rules interpreted its content.

Names

  • Within the Ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a Citizen if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Citizen’s name.
  • If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead given the name of the Votable Matter 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 Votable Matter, the name used in reference to a specific Votable Matter may be simplified by not including braces and any text between the opening and closing braces. i.e. a Votable Matter 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 Votable Matter refers to a second Votable Matter by name, it is assumed to refer to the most recently posted Votable Matter of that name which pre-dates the first Votable Matter.

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 “Citizens may Kick each other” and “Citizens may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Citizens may not Kick each other);
  5. If two contradicting parts have the same scope, or have scopes that only overlap where they contradict each other, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “Citizens may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Citizens may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Citizens may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Mentors

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

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

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

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

  • Citizen (Player)
  • Drone (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 parentheses in the above list.