Ruleset

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Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Villagers shall obey it. Section One consists of the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering basic proposal mechanics; Section Two contains the rules of the current dynasty; and Section Three contains the appendix, which exists solely to clarify the remainder of the ruleset.

The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset.

Villagers 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”.

If the Ruleset does not properly reflect all legal changes that have been made to it, any Villager may update it to do so.

Villagers

Any human may apply to join BlogNomic (if they are not already a Villager) by registering at http://blognomic.com via the Register link in the sidebar, and then making a post making clear their wish to be a Villager. An Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment they become a Villager.

A Villager may cease to be a Villager at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A human who has ceased to be a Villager in this way may not become a Villager again within the following two weeks. A Villager may only change their name as a result of a proposal approving the change.

Some Villagers are Admins, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Villagers 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. New admins shall be given the GNDT configuration password when they become admins.

Idle Villagers

Some Villagers are Idle, and shall be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Villagers”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play” and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Villagers are not counted as Villagers.

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

When a Villager 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 Villager Idled in a different dynasty), the Villager is given the default value for new Villager, if such a value exists.

An Admin may render a Villager Idle if that Villager has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Villager has not posted an entry or comment in the last seven days. In the latter case, the Admin must announce the idling in a blog post. Admins may render themselves Idle at any time, but should announce it in a post or comment when they do so. An Admin may Unidle a Villager if that Villager has asked to become Unidle in an entry or comment from the past four days, and Idle Admins may Unidle themselves at any time, unless the Villager who would be Unidled asked to become (or rendered themselves) Idle within the previous four days, and within the current dynasty.

Admins who are unidling themselves should, in their first vote following each unidling, highlight their changed idle status and any changes to quorum to have come about as a result of it.

Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single Villager, known as the Doctor. If there is no Doctor, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.

Votable Matters

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

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

Votable Matters can either be Pending, Enacted, or Failed. When a Votable Matter is first put forward, it is considered Pending.

Whenever an Admin resolves a Votable Matter, they must also mark their name, and report the final tally of Votes (or the fact that it was self-killed or vetoed). Comments cannot be made on Enacted or Failed Votable Matters.

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules in its application to Calls for Judgement or Declarations of Victory.

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

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

If a Villager other than the Doctor casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Doctor. When the Doctor has a valid Vote other than VETO on a Proposal, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL on that Proposal are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Doctor's Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified.

Resolution of Proposals

The oldest pending Proposal may be enacted by any Admin (by updating the Ruleset and/or Gamestate to include the specified effects of that Proposal, and then setting that Proposal's status to Enacted) if either of the following is true:

  • It has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, and has not been Vetoed or Self-Killed.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, it has more than 1 valid Vote cast on it, more valid Votes cast on it are FOR than are AGAINST, and 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 has been Vetoed or Self-Killed.
  • The number of Villagers who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

If a proposal somehow ends up being pending for more than 7 days, it is ignored for the purpose of calculating the oldest pending proposal, and can be failed by any Admin.

Calls for Judgement

If two or more Villagers actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Villager feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Villager may raise a Call for Judgement (abbreviated CfJ) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgement” category.

A Pending CFJ may be Resolved by an Admin if it has a Quorum of FOR Votes, a Quorum of AGAINST Votes, or if it has been open for voting for more than 48 hours. When a CFJ is Resolved, it is to be Enacted if it has more FOR Votes than AGAINST Votes and Failed otherwise. When a CFJ is Enacted, the Admin Enacting it shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct the GNDT and other gamestate tracking entities, as specified in the CFJ.

Any CfJ that specifies neither changes to the Gamestate or Ruleset nor corrections to any gamestate tracking entities may be failed by any Admin.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a Villager (other than the Doctor) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they may make a post to the Blognomic weblog in the Declaration of Victory category, detailing this.

Upon doing so, the game immediately goes into Hiatus, if it hasn’t already. During this time, the only game actions that may be taken are those covered by Rules “Villagers”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Villager may cast Votes on that DoV to indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty.

A Pending DoV may be enacted if any of the following is true:

  • It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and either the Doctor has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 24 hours, has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and has a number of AGAINST Votes lesser than half of Quorum, rounded down.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, has a number of Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and more than half of its valid Votes are FOR.

A DoV may be failed if any of the following are true:

  • It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, and the number of Villagers who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

When a DoV fails and there are no pending DoVs, Hiatus ends.

When a DoV is enacted, all other active DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins with the Villager who made the DoV as its Doctor. That Villager may pass this role to another Villager at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new Doctor makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the Doctor's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Villager and Doctor will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire ruleset, and/or a number of dynastic rules to keep. Upon posting such an Ascension Address, the Ruleset is updated to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed.

A DoV may not be started in the period between an enacted DoV and that DoV’s Ascension Address. When a DoV is failed, if it had at least one AGAINST vote, the Villager who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was failed.

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules as it relates to Declarations of Victory, but can be overruled in other matters.

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 Villager'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.

  • A single person should not control more than one non-Idle Villager within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Villager and any Idle Villagers.
  • A Villager 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 Villager should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
  • A Villager should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Villager.
  • A Villager should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
  • A Villager should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
  • A Villager should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an ascension address).

Seasonal Downtime

Blognomic goes into hiatus every year on December 24th, and remains in hiatus until December 27th. During this time no game actions may be taken except those described in the rules entitled “Votable Matters,” “Gamestate Tracking” and “Call for Judgement”.

Dynastic Rules

Atomic Actions

When a Villager performs an Atomic Action, they must complete all its steps; they must complete them in order; and they may not take any other action defined in the Ruleset until all such steps are complete. In addition, the Villager performing an Atomic Action should perform its steps as quickly as they are able.

If an hour has passed since a Villager began an Atomic Action, but they have not completed it, all its steps are considered illegal and may be reverted by any Villager, and the Atomic Action is not considered to have been performed.

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.

Diseases

Each Villager has zero or more Diseases, tracked privately by the Doctor. Each Disease has a number of Symptoms, listed in order from earliest to latest.

The Diseases a Villager may have are:-

  • Ague. Symptoms: Headache. This disease is Contagious.
  • The Black Death. Symptoms: Headache, Sore Throat, Cough, Death. This disease is Contagious.
  • The Pox. Symptoms: Mouth Pain, Sore Throat, Cough.
  • Toothache. Symptoms: Mouth Pain.
  • Lycanthropy. Symptoms: Back Hair, Headache, Wolf Form.

A Villager may privately contact the Doctor announcing that they have Seen a Rat. In response, the Doctor should give that Villager the Black Death and privately inform them of this.

If a villager would gain a new Symptom of the Black Death while they are displaying the Symptom of Wolf Form, they do instead not gain that new Symptom.

Symptoms

Each Villager exhibits zero or more Symptoms, and some of those Symptoms may be Visible. A Villager’s Visible Symptoms are tracked in the GNDT, and their non-Visible Symptoms are tracked privately by the Doctor. Symptoms and their effects are:-

  • Cough. Visible. A Villager exhibiting a Cough should include the string “*cough*” in every blog comment they make.
  • Headache.
  • Mouth Pain.
  • Sore Throat.
  • Death. Visible.
  • Confusion. Visible. A Villager exhibiting a Confusion should include a string which is minimum 10 characters long, comprised of “H” and “A” characters in any order and amount that the Villager chooses, in every blog comment they make.
  • Back Hair.
  • Wolf Form. Visible. If a Villager would gain this Symptom while at Home, or on a day other than Friday, they instead do not gain this Symptom.

When the Doctor tracks that a Villager has started or ceased to exhibit a non-Visible Symptom, the Doctor must privately inform that Villager of this fact.

A Villager who unidles immediately gains the symptom “dead”. This does not give the villager any diseases, and occurs even if they have the symptom “Wolf Form”.

A villager who becomes part of a Spirit-Spiritmaster relationship immediately gains the symptom “confusion”.

Suicide is a common way of dealing with the horrible circumstances that surround Zahndorf. A Villager may grant themselves the symptom “Death” at any time.

Death

A Villager who is exhibiting the symptom of Death is considered to be Dead.

A Dead Villager who is not the Doctor may not take actions defined by dynastic rules, except those in the rule “Spectral Actions”.

If the Doctor is Dead, he may not take actions defined in the rule “Locations”.

A Villager who unidles immediately gains the symptom “dead”. This does not give the villager any diseases, and occurs even if they have the symptom “Wolf Form”.

Locations

Each Villager has a Location, tracked in the GNDT and defaulting to the Road. (A value of “Home” may be tracked as “-”.) Valid Locations are:-

  • Town Square: As a daily action, a Villager in the Town Square may add multiple units of Well Water to their inventory.
  • The Church:
  • The Forest: As a daily action, a Villager in the Forest may add a random plant (Mandrake, Nightshade, Red Cap, Silver Bark or Wolfsbane) to their inventory.
  • The Market: A Villager at the Market may swap two units of the same Remedy in their inventory (other than Well Water) for a single unit of any Remedy, at any time.
  • The Surgery: If a Villager is alone in the Surgery, as a daily action, they may add up to three Remedies of their choice to their inventory.
  • The Road: A Villager on the Road is not counted as a Villager for the purposes of the rule “Endgames”. When a Villager unidles, their location is set to the Road.
  • Home

A Villager who is not on the Road or who has at least one visible symptom, or both, may change their own location once per day.

Two Villagers are considered to be Near to one another if they share a Location, and if that Location is not “Home” or “The Road”.

Endgames

If all but one Villager is exhibiting Death, then the Villager who is not exhibiting Death is Remembered.

Whenever a Villager catches the Black Death, all Villagers Near to them who already had the Black Death gain one Memento Mori. (Memento Mori are tracked privately by the Doctor.) If all Villagers are exhibiting Death, the Villager with the most Memento Mori is Remembered. (Any ties for this are broken according to fewest Symptoms.)

If the date is on or after the 28th of December 2016 and a single Villager is Remembered, then that Villager has achieved victory.

Remedies

For generations, the people of Zahndorf have used a variety of traditional, locally-sourced Remedies to treat their illnesses, namely:-

  • Leeches
  • Mandrake
  • Nightshade
  • Red cap
  • Salt
  • Silver bark
  • Well water
  • Wolfsbane

Each Remedy has the potential to Cure one Disease and the potential to Cause one Disease, tracked secretly by the Doctor, and each defaults to doing neither. When a Remedy is Tested, there is a 50% chance that the Remedy now Cures a random Disease, and an additional and separate 50% chance that it now Causes a random Disease. (These random selections are made privately using a method of the Doctor’s choosing.)

Each Villager carries between zero and three Remedies, listed in the GNDT, and a Villager may carry more than one of the same Remedy. Carrying more than one of the same remedy counts as multiple remedies, e.g., Carrying Well water, Well water, Well water, Silver bark counts as carrying four remedies. A Villager may give a Remedy they are carrying to another Villager who is Near to them, at any time.

A Villager may remove a Remedy they are carrying from their inventory to use it on a Villager (either themselves or a Villager who is Near to them), by making a blog post (which may not be edited) announcing this. The Villager it is used on is known during this process as "the Taker". The Doctor may respond to such a post by confirming that the Remedy has taken effect: upon doing so, if that Remedy cures a Disease the Taker has then the Taker loses that Disease; then, if it causes a Disease that the Taker does not have, the Taker catches that Disease.

A villager can choose to combine any number of the remedies they carry directly before using them by announcing those two actions in the same blogpost. Any opposing effects of two ingredients will cancel each other out if they are combined in equal measure, if one is greater, the effect of that remedy prevails. A combined remedy must be administered in the same action, otherwise all used remedies are lost and must be removed from the inventory.

Mandrake, Nightshade, Red Cap, Silver Bark and Wolfsbane are Plants; other Remedies are not. When a Villager is the Taker of a Plant, or of a combination Remedy containing a Plant, they are considered to have Eaten at that time.

Stories

Every family in Zahndorf has its own encouraging or cautionary tale about folk medicine. If they have not yet done so during the current dynasty, a Villager may privately contact the Doctor asking to recall such a story. In response, the Doctor should select a secretly random Remedy, and then select either its “Cure” or “Cause” quality in a secretly random manner (even if it cures or causes nothing): the Doctor then privately informs the Villager of that quality.

Dormancy

If there are fewer than five Villagers, then BlogNomic is Dormant. While BlogNomic is Dormant, actions defined by dynastic rules may not be taken, and proposals may not be submitted.

The Doctor's Rounds

As a daily and atomic action which may only be taken on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the Doctor may make his Rounds by taking the following actions in sequence (with all random decisions and chances being secretly random):-

  • Making any Villager who has not yet been Inspected during this dynasty Inspected: when a Villager becomes Inspected, they have a 10% chance of catching a random Disease.
  • Selecting two different Locations at random (other than Home), then moving to whichever of them has the fewest Villagers with Contagious Diseases (resolving ties randomly).
  • Gaining a remedy from his current Location, if possible, resolving any decisions about this at random.
  • For each Disease a Villager has which they do not already exhibit all the Symptoms of, rolling a 6-sided die: Unless the roll is a 6, that Villager gains the earliest Symptom of that Disease which they do not already exhibit.
  • For each Villager with a Contagious disease, giving that Disease to every Villager who is Near to that Villager.
  • For each Symptom exhibited by a Villager which does not belong to any Disease that Villager has, and which is not Death, removing that Symptom from that Villager.
  • For each Remedy which has never been Tested, Testing it.
  • Inform any Villager displaying the symptom of Confusion of one random property pertaining to one remedy. This remedy must be chosen at random by the Doctor from the remedies currently carried in the location of that villager.
  • If the current date is after the 13th of February 2017: For every non-Dead Villager who has neither Eaten nor been on the Road during the previous two Intervals, giving that Villager the symptom "Death".
  • Making a blog post announcing that the Doctor has made his Rounds.

If the Doctor is exhibiting Death, he skips the second and third bullet points of this list.

The Doctor may only take actions in the “Locations” rule when required to as part of his Rounds.

The period between two consecutive Doctor's Rounds is known as an Interval.

Doctor Deferentials

If the Doctor has voted DEFERENTIAL on a proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more players have voted FOR the proposal than have voted AGAINST it) or AGAINST (in all other cases).

Spectral Actions

A Villager who is exhibiting the symptom of Death is considered to be Dead.

As a daily action, a Dead Villager may move a Remedy from one Villager’s inventory to another Villager’s inventory.

A dead villager in any location but the Road may change their location to the Church.

Zahndorf’s church has a sacred, mysterious ritual which villagers may perform, which allows to create a bond between themselves and the dead, creating a special guardian spirit relationship. A not dead villager and a dead villager may become a Spirit Master (also referred to as “Spiritmaster”) and a Spirit respectively to each other if they both privately communicate so to the Doctor, and if the not-dead Villager was in the Church at the time of their communication. The doctor should reply to such requests with a confirmation that the Spiritmaster-Spirit bond has been created (thus, the live villager becomes the “Spiritmaster” and the dead villager the “Spirit”). When the Spirit master dies (acquires death), or the Spirit becomes alive again (loses death), the Spirit-Spiritmaster relationship is broken. Any Villager who is already in a Spiritmaster-Spirit bond may not opt to be in another one.


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. (eg. 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.)

Can
"is able to"
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 Villagers.
Daily Action
If a game action is a Daily Action, each Villager 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 Villager 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.
Dice
References to "YDICEX" refer to Y X-sided dice, rolled within the GNDT. To roll dice, post DICEX in the comments field of the GNDT, replacing X with the number of sides on the die you wish to roll.
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 Villager’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that Villager’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Villager’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
Flavour Text
When posting a blog entry, a Villager 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.
Gamestate
Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of. All GNDT columns that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention are assumed to be Gamestate, as are all Wiki Pages that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention except for dynastic histories and discussion pages.
IRC Channel
The Blognomic IRC channel is located at #nomic on the slashnet network (irc.slashnet.org).
May
"is permitted to"
May not
"is not permitted to"
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 Villagers is half the number of Villagers in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Villagers it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Villagers.
Resolve/Resolution
If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the word “Resolve” means to perform the act, as an Admin, of enacting or failing a Votable Matter. The world “Resolution” means then the act of doing so. If used in any other context, the meaning of both “Resolve” and “Resolution” is the standard English meaning of these words
Rule
Each individually numbered section of the ruleset is a rule, including sections that are sub-rules of other rules.
Shall
"is required to"
Should
"is recommended that"
Sibling Rule
Two rules are “siblings” of each other if they are both direct subrules of the same rule.
Slack
The BlogNomic Slack is located at blognomic.slack.com. Villagers 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. (For example, #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.
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, an IMP http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, and an Imperial Seal http://blognomic.com/images/vote/seal.gif shall represent the Imperial Veto.
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 Villager 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 Villager per week.
Wiki
The BlogNomic Wiki at http://wiki.blognomic.com

Gamestate Tracking

Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.com. Any Villager 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.

If no Villager has commented on it, or if the only comments on it begin with “Note:” and contain no voting icons, an official post may be altered or removed by its author; 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.

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 Villager who has been a Villager for fewer than seven days contains the word “Proposal” in its title, but is not a Proposal, and if it has been posted for less than an hour, then any admin may change it to be in the Proposal category.

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

All updates to the GNDT are logged. For gamestate which is tracked in a specific place (such as the GNDT or a wiki page), any alteration of that gamestate as a result of a Villager’s action is (and can only be) applied by editing that data in that place. One GNDT or 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 GNDT merely represents the Gamestate, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and the GNDT are different, any Villager may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Villager feels that the GNDT was altered such that it no longer matches the gamestate (such as by performing an action which was against the Rules (as they were at the time of the alteration), or by any other means), they may simply undo the effects of that alteration. Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed GNDT update, Villagers are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Villagers shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

Random Generators

The GNDT 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 VEGGIE command will return a random result from the following: Potato, Carrot, Triffid, Pumpkin.

Any changes to the potential outcomes of the GNDT’s random result commands must be made by proposal; and any proposal that seeks to nominate a change to this rule must first identify an active Villager with server-level access to the BlogNomic site who is able to perform the changes, and must also update this rule to reflect the new potential outcomes.

Clarifications

Numbers and Variables

  • If a set of valid values is not specified in their definition, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers. Any action that would set those values below zero is an illegal action unless explicitly otherwise stated in the ruleset.
  • Any situation which would require a roll of DiceX when X is zero or lower always yields a value of 0 unless stated otherwise.
  • All numbers, unless stated otherwise by a rule, are in base ten.
  • Unless otherwise specified, to “spend” or “lose” an amount X of a numeric value “V” means to subtract X from V; to “gain” X of a numeric value “V” means to add X to V; and to “transfer” X of a numeric value “V” from A to B means to subtract X from A’s V and add X to B’s V. Unless otherwise specified, only positive amounts can be spent, lost, gained, or transferred, and a rule that allows Villagers to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Villager (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
  • A Villager 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 the GNDT and/or similar 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 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 DICE roll in the GNDT, unless otherwise specified. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Villager making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the GNDT.
  • If a game variable has no defined starting value, then that starting value is 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”).
  • Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in the GNDT 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)

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 (eg. 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 a rule would ever have no name, it is instead named “Unnamed Rule”.
  • The names of rules are not themselves rule text and have no effect other than being rule names.
  • If the admin enacting a proposal reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (eg. “two days after this proposal enacts, Villager 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.

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 (eg. "04/10/09"), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.

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.

Names

  • Within the ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a Villager if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Villager's name.

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 Rule;
  2. A Dynastic Rule has precedence over a Core Rule, unless that Core Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
  3. If both contradicting parts are Core Rules, or if both of them are Dynastic Rules, the part with more limited scope applies. (e.g. if the rules “Villagers may Kick each other” and “Villagers may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Villagers may not Kick each other.)
  4. If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Villagers may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Villagers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Villagers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)