Ruleset

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Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Wizards 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; Section Three contains rules which apply in special cases; and Section Four 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.

Wizards 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 Wizard may update it to do so.

Wizards

Any human may apply to join BlogNomic (if they are not already a Wizard) 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 Wizard. An Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment they become a Wizard.

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

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

Some Wizards 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”, “Wizards”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play” and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Wizards are not counted as Wizards.

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

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

An Admin may render a Wizard Idle if that Wizard has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Wizard 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 Wizard if that Wizard is Idle and has asked to become Unidle in an entry or comment from the past four days, and Idle Admins may Unidle themselves at any time, unless the Wizard who would be Unidled asked to become (or rendered themselves) Idle within the previous four days, and within the current dynasty.

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

Idle Admins can enact and fail Votable Matters.

Dynasties

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

Votable Matters

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

Votes

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

If a Wizard other than the King casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the King. When the King 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 King's Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified.

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

  • It has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, it has more than 1 valid Vote cast on it, and more valid Votes cast on it are FOR than are AGAINST.

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

  • The number of Wizards who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and it is not Popular.

Enacting and Failing

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

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

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

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

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

Resolution of Proposals

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

  • It is Popular.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours.
  • It has not been Vetoed or Self-Killed.

The oldest Pending Proposal may be Failed by any Admin, if any of the following are true:

  • It is Unpopular.
  • It has been Vetoed or Self-Killed.

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

Calls for Judgement

If two or more Wizards actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Wizard feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Wizard 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 the GNDT and other gamestate tracking entities, as specified in the CFJ.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a Wizard (other than the King) 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.

If the game is not already in Hiatus and there is a pending DoV, 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 “Wizards”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Wizard 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 by any Admin if any of the following is true:

  • It is Popular, it has been open for at least 12 hours, and either the King 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.

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

When a DoV is enacted, all other pending DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins with the Wizard who made the DoV as its King. That Wizard may pass this role to another Wizard at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new King makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the King's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Wizard and King 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 Wizard 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 Wizard'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. Wizards 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 Wizard within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Wizard and any Idle Wizards.
  • A Wizard 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 Wizard should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
  • A Wizard should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Wizard.
  • A Wizard should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
  • A Wizard should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
  • A Wizard 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 Wizard should not roll dice in the GNDT 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 Wizard should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
  • A Wizard should not use a core, special case or appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly achieve victory

Dynastic Rules

Creature

A creature is a creature type proceeded by a list of zero or more qualities. Two creatures with the same qualities (not considering order) and creature type are considered to be Equivalent. A Creature may not have more than one of the same Quality.

The following atomic action is known as breeding a creature and may be done at any time by a Wizard

  1. That wizard (known as the breeder) selects a creature (known as the stock) in a stable belonging to another wizard (known as the proprietor)
  2. creates a new creature (known as the whelp) exactly one more or one less quality than the stock
  3. spends food equal to the stock’s upkeep (unless the Whelp has the Spectral quality or the stock’s upkeep is a negative value)
  4. Adds the whelp in their stable, optionally removing a creature from their stable as normal.

A quality has a name, which is a string, and an Upkeep, which is an integer. The following is a list of all valid qualities, written as [name]([Upkeep]):

  • Giant (3)
  • Winged (3)
  • Fire breathing (2)
  • Obedient (2)
  • Leaping (2)
  • Armored (2)
  • Venomous (2)
  • Digging (2)
  • Stealthy (1)
  • Swimming (1)
  • Ferocious (1)
  • Sure-footed (1)
  • Swift (1)
  • Horned (1)
  • Fanged (1)
  • Gaudy (0)
  • Wild(-1)
  • Spectral (0)
  • Merging (1)
  • Mechanical (2)
  • Mutant (3)

The Upkeep of a creature is the sum of the Upkeeps of its qualities.

A Creature with the Wild quality cannot have the Obedient quality added to it and vice versa.

A Spectral Creature cannot be selected as Stock, nor can it be removed from a Stable by the owner of that Stable. A Stable cannot contain more than one Spectral Creature.

Creatures with one of a set of incompatible qualities may not have another quality from that set added to it.

Obedient and Wild are a set of incompatible qualities. Winged and Leaping are a set of incompatible qualities. Digging and Winged are a set of incompatible qualities.

If a Wizard has not done so in the previous 24 hours they may submit a Portrait post to the blog, which contains the word “Portrait” in the title, an animal which exists in a stable and has not appeared in a portrait post before and a link to an image of the animal of the Wizard’s own rendition. When a Wizard makes a Portrait post, they may gain 1 Food.

Mechanical, Mutant and Merging are Miraculous Qualities. A Mechanical Creature cannot be selected as Stock. A Mutant Creature can be selected as Stock by the Wizard that owns that creature, bypassing the normal restriction for Stock selection. A Merging Creature adds its Strength value to the Strength of the creature slot listed above itself in a Battle, and for the purpose of calculating its win or the opposing win against an opposing creature during a Battle, it has 0 Strength.

Stables

Each wizard has a Stable, which is a list of up to five creatures, tracked in the GNDT as a semicolon separated list.

A wizard may not add a creature to their stable if an Equivalent creature is in another wizard’s stable.

A wizard with zero creatures in their stable may create a creature with up to one quality and a creature type of an animal name chosen from the list of animals which has not been already chosen by another Wizard for this rule during this Dynasty..

When a wizard adds a creature to their stable, they may remove a creature from their stable.

Food

Each Wizard has an amount of Food stockpiled for their creatures, tracked in the GNDT and defaulting to zero. As a weekly action, the King may increase every Wizard’s Food by 10, and the food of the wizards allied to the chamberlain or treasurer by an additional 3 for each. If a Wizard’s Stable is not empty, their increase from this is decreased by the total Upkeep of every Creature in their Stable. If a Wizard’s Underling Type is not blank, their increase from this is decreased by the Upkeep of their Underling Type.

A Wizard can Visit the Soup Kitchen. A Wizard who Visits the Soup Kitchen receives 7 Food per each time that the King has performed the weekly action of increasing every Wizard’s Food described above but didn’t alter that Wizard’s (the one who is Visiting the Soup Kitchen) Food during that action. A Wizard can Visit the Soup Kitchen once per dynasty.

Underlings

Each Wizard may have an Underling Type, which is tracked in the GNDT as a string which is either blank or the name of a valid creature quality from among those listed in the rule “Creature.” By default, a Wizard’s Underling Type is blank.

As a Weekly Action, a Wizard may set their Underling Type to any creature quality by spending Food equal to three times the absolute value of that quality’s listed Upkeep. As long as a Wizard’s Underling Type is a given quality, for that Wizard, the Upkeep of that quality is considered to be 0.

Battlefields

A Battlefield has a name and exactly three battle effects.

Valid Battle Effects are:

  • aquatic
  • walled
  • desert
  • forest
  • frozen
  • rich
  • poor
  • level
  • sloped
  • underground
  • farflung
  • nearby

Scoring

A creature’s Strength on a battlefield is calculated by adding together the following:

  • +2 if the creature has winged and the battlefield does not have underground or forest
  • +2 if the creature has winged and the battlefield has walled or aquatic
  • -2 if the creature has winged and the battlefield has underground
  • +3 if the creature has giant
  • +3 if the creature has fire breathing and the battlefield does not have frozen
  • +2 for each of the following the creature has: venomous, armored
  • +4 if the creature has swimming and the battlefield has aquatic
  • -1 if the creature has swimming and the battlefield does not have aquatic
  • +2 if the creature has surefooted and battlefield has sloped, desert, forest or underground
  • +2 if the creature has swift and the battlefield has farflung or level
  • +1 for each of the following the creature has: Fanged, Horned, Obedient, Ferocious
  • +3 if the creature has leaping and the battlefield has walled or sloped
  • +3 if the creature has Digging and the battlefield has walled, sloped or underground
  • +2 if the creature has Stealthy and the battlefield has forest, farflung, underground, or sloped

Current Battlefields

These are the current Battlefields, with their respective battle effects:

  • City Gates: nearby, walled, level
  • Mushroom Mines: rich, underground, forest
  • Ice Floes: aquatic, aquatic, frozen
  • Ice Caves: underground, aquatic, frozen
  • The Royal Swamp: Nearby Aquatic Forest
  • The Worthless Mountains: poor, poor, sloped
  • The Caravan City: Nearby Walled Desert

Battle

A battle has a battlefield and two forces. A force has a commander, which may be a Wizard, the King, or the Armies to the West. A force also has 5 creature slots numbered 1 to 5, which may be a valid creature, or empty.

The Strength of an occupied creature slot is determined by that creature’s Strength given the battle’s battlefield. An empty creature slot is given a Strength of 0. A force’s wins in a battle is given by the number of N in the range 1-5 such that their Nth creature slot has a higher Strength than the opposing force’s Nth creature slot. In the case that the forces have an equal number of wins, an additional win will be awarded to one force by way of a random DICE2 roll in the GNDT. The force that has the most wins is the battle’s Triumphant.

Duel

Any Wizard may announce a duel, if they have not done so in the previous 96 hours, by posting a blog entry with a title including the word “Duel”. A Wizard who announces a duel is that duel’s challenger. The challenger specifies the duel’s battlefield from the list of current battlefields. Battles conducted during this duel have the duel’s battlefield as their battlefield. The challenger may further specify a list of valid opponents, defaulting to a list of all Wizards, and a list of valid judges, defaulting to a list of all Wizards and the King. Any valid opponent may become the opponent by stating such intention in a comment on the blog entry. Likewise, any valid judge may become the judge by stating such intention in a comment on the blog entry. The judge, opponent, and challenger must all be different. The challenger and opponent are the two duelists.

At the time that the judge, opponent, and challenger are all assigned, the duel begins. The duelists must submit a plan by sending a private message to the judge specifying which duel the message is for and listing an ordered list of 5 elements, each being either a creature or left empty. Any creature listed must be in the duelist’s Stable, and no creature may be listed twice in the same duel.

If 48 hours have passed since the start of the duel and only one of the duelists has submitted a valid plan, that duelist is the Triumphant. If 48 hours have passed and neither duelist submitted a valid plan, a Triumphant is decided by way of a random DICE2 roll in the GNDT.

Once both players submitted a valid plan, a battle takes place. The first force is the challenger, and the second force is the opponent. Their creature slots are the lists submitted to the judge. The judge must then post a comment on the duel’s blog entry detailing the creature slots, Strengths, wins, and which duelist was the Triumphant. The Triumphant of the duel’s battle is the Triumphant of the duel.

The Triumphant’s favour increases by the mean average Strength for that Battle of the other duelist’s creature slots, rounding up.

Court Politics

Each wizard has Courtly Favor, which is an integer tracked in the GNDT under “Favor”

Each wizard has zero or more court allies, tracked in a GNDT column named “Allies”. Each Court Ally has an identity (a string) and a trust (a number), and is written as [identity]([trust]). Only one wizard may have a court ally with any given identity at a time. A wizard may “associate” with a court ally by selecting an identity, spending an amount of favor greater which is both greater than zero and greater than the trust of any court allies in the GNDT with that identity, removing any courtly allies in the GNDT with that identity, and adding to their court allies an ally with the chosen identity and a trust equal to the court favor spent.

A wizard with a court ally with an identity may said to be allied with that identity.

If a Wizard allied to the Royal Mistress or Queen would receive courtly favor, they receive that much favor plus 1 favor instead. This does not apply to favor created or altered by this rule.

The following are the possible identities of Court Allies:

  • Queen
  • Treasurer
  • Chamberlain
  • Northern General
  • Southern General
  • Most Eligible Courtier
  • Royal Mistress
  • ArchBishop
  • His Majesty
  • Ambassador

A Wizard who is allied with the ArchBishop may as a weekly action name a quality to be considered Unholy. This type is tracked in the GNDT under the ArchBishop’s entry in the Wizard’s allies section, with the format ArchBishop([trust])([quality]). An unholy quality has its upkeep increased by 1.

The War

Any time there is no open campaign, the King may “Go on Campaign” as an atomic action with the following steps:

  • Create three battlefields with randomly selected battle effects and names chosen by the king.
  • Make a blog post listing the battlefields generated, and the campaign number, which for the first campaign is 1 and goes up by 1 for each subsequent campaign. This post is known as a campaign.

Battlefields created in this way are also added to the list of current Battlefields in rule “Battlefields”.

Any Wizard may participate in an open campaign by making a comment on the campaign in which they:

  • Choose a battlefield from among those created for the campaign, and
  • Submit an ordered list of 5 elements, each being either a unique creature from in their Stable, or left empty. Any creature thus listed cannot be removed from their Stable or used by the participating Wizard (such as in a duel or a campaign) until the closing of the campaign.

The kingdom has a military situation, tracked in the GNDT field of the king for courtly favor, with the set of all integers as it’s valid values.

If a wizard has been allied to His Majesty for more than 48 hours and the military situation has been greater than 3 for 48 hours, that wizard has achieved victory. If a wizard has been allied to the ambassador for more than 48 hours and the military situation has been less than negative 3 for 48 hours, that wizard has achieved victory.


Closing a Campaign

If an open campaign has been posted for 72 hours, any Wizard may close it by making a comment on the campaign with an ordered list of five random numbers, generated as up to 2N+4, where N is the campaign number. Doing so creates a force with five creatures in the slots, of type Emu1 through Emu5, in order, each with a Strength (on any battlefield) equal to the number generated for its place in the order. The force is called the Western Force, and its commander is the Armies to the West. (Any previous Western Force, with its creatures, is replaced by the new one.)

When a campaign is thus closed, one battle is created for each participating Wizard, on the battlefield they chose in participating, between a new force generated from their list submitted to this campaign (they become its commander) and the Western Force. If the Wizard becomes the Triumphant, they gain Courtly Favor equal to 5 plus the campaign number.

Regardless of their outcome, battles in the Western War are likely to have casualties. If a single creature in the Western Force has a higher Strength than every other creature in that force, it destroys the creature in the same slot number of each opposing force (excluding creatures which are Armored or forces commanded by Wizards who are allied with the Southern General). Creatures destroyed in this way are removed from any Stable they were in.

If closing a campaign generates at least one battle for each battlefield in it in which a wizard is the triumphant, that campaign is said to be successful. Increase the military situation by 1. Otherwise, decrease the military situation by 1.

If a campaign was not successful, decrease the Favor of each wizard who did not fight in a battle in that campaign by 2, to a minimum of 0.

The Druid

There exists an entity called The Druid, tracked in the GNDT. The Druid counts as a Wizard for the purposes of dynastic rules, except that:

  • The King generally controls (ie. performs actions on behalf of) The Druid.
  • The Druid cannot achieve victory, has zero favour, and cannot have court allies.
  • The Druid’s Underling type is always Wild.
  • The Druid’s creatures gain +1 Strength in Forest Battlefields.
  • The Druid cannot participate in campaigns.
  • If The Druid’s stable is not full, as a weekly communal action any Wizard may breed a creature on The Druid’s behalf.
  • If The Druid announces a duel with a list of one valid opponent, that opponent is deemed to automatically accept the challenge (but has 72 hours to submit a plan). If The Druid wins a duel, The King must as an atomic action remove a creature from The Druid’s stable, remove another creature from any Wizard’s stable, and add that creature to The Druid’s stable (this is an atomic action). If The Druid loses a duel, their opponent may add a free quality to one of their creatures, in addition to the normal rewards.

The Druid’s raison d’etre is to restore harmony to nature by battling unnatural forces. For the purposes of the rules, this means that the King should as frequently as possible cause The Druid to announce Duels with a list of any one valid opponent. The King should also cause The Druid to accept challenges of Wizards they deem to be particularly unnatural. The King should consider The Druid’s flavour whenever performing actions on behalf of The Druid.

The Druid is pals with the Most Eligible Courtier. Consequently, the Druid may not take action against a Wizard who is allied with the Most Eligible Courtier.

Tactics

When a Wizard submits their list of Creatures for a Battle (Duel, Campaign, etc), they may instead fill one of that list’s Creature slots with a Tactic. A Tactic has 0 Strength unless otherwise stated. A Wizard’s Panache is equal to the Upkeep of the Quality of their Underling. If their Underling is Blank, their Panache is 0. A Wizard can only use Tactics with a Panache Requirement that is equal to their Panache value, or their Panache value +/- 1.

The following is a list of all valid Tactics, written as [name]([Panache Requirement])[Effect]:

  • Druid’s Concoction (-2): All Creatures with more than 5 Strength during this Battle are instead considered to have 5 Strength.
  • Stealth Tactics (-1): All of your Stealthy Creatures gain +3 Strength
  • Bait X (0): Clearly name a Creature Type for the purpose of this Tactic when submitting this. If the opposing Creature to this Tactic has the named Creature Type, all enemy Creatures with that Creature Type during the Battle have -5 Strength.
  • Outmaneuver (1): Clearly name a Tactic for the purpose of this Tactic when submitting this. If the opponent uses the named Tactic during the Battle, this Tactic has 10 Strength.
  • Pack Hunting X (2): Clearly name a Creature Type for the purpose of this Tactic when submitting this. All Creatures on your side during that Battle with that Creature Type gain +3 Strength
  • Proud Trumpeting (3): Double the Strength of what is in the slot listed below this Tactic, after all other bonuses and maluses.
  • Combat Wizard (4): This Tactic, for the Battle, is considered to be a Creature, with Creature Type being the submitting Wizard’s name, with a Quality that is their Underling’s Quality, and +5 Strength. This Tactic can only be submitted by an eligible Player up to once per Battle.

A Wizard allied with the Northern General can use (submit for a Battle) any Tactic, regardless of Panache Requirement.



Special Case

Special Case Rules can be active or inactive and default to active. The status of a Special Case rule is notated in the title of that rule ending in ”[X]” where X is the word Active or Inactive, denoting that Rule’s status. When a new dynasty is started, the Ascension Address may state any existing Special Case Rules that are set to inactive; any Special Case Rules not set in the Ascension Address become Active.

The text of Special Case Rules that are inactive shall be interpreted, for the purpose of play, to mean nothing.

Tags [Active]

Votable matters have zero or more tags. Tags are added by adding it to the title of a votable matter with the format “[X]” where [X] is the tag, for example “[Core] Wording Fix”. 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 Wizard.

Atomic Actions [Active]

When a Wizard 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 such steps are complete. All of the steps of an Atomic Action are considered one action, as well as the steps of an Atomic Actions that is itself a step of a parent Atomic Action.

An Atomic Action may direct the performer to skip some of its steps, which the performer should do and in which case the skipped steps are considered completed for this rule.

If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the Wizard must redo the Atomic Action. In redoing an Atomic Action, the Wizard uses any legal steps that were already completed in the illegal Atomic Action and only redoes the illegal ones.

If a Wizard arrives at a step in an Atomic Action and they cannot perform that step, they undo all the steps that they performed of that action and are never considered to have performed that action.

For instance if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a die in the GNDT and then doing steps based upon it’s result the Wizard would have to reroll the die if they rolled the wrong one if the first place and any steps that depended upon the result of that die; however if all they did was take an illegal action later on, the die is still used in the redone action.

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.

This rule cannot be overruled by the Dynastic Rules.

Seasonal Downtime [Active]

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”.

Dormancy [Active]

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

No Orphan Variables [Active]

An Orphan Variable is a dynastic gamestate variable which has neither a location in which it’s tracked, nor a manner in which it it can be determined from other gamestate variables, specified in the Ruleset.

A Wizard may not take any dynastic actions that are contingent on the specific value of an Orphan Variable.

Imperial Deferentials [Active]

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

Dynastic Distance [Active]

For the purposes of dynastic rules which do not deal with voting, The King is not a Wizard.

The Traitor [Active]

The Traitor for a particular dynasty may be a Wizard (including an idle one), or may be nobody, and it defaults to being nobody. The Traitor’s identity in the current dynasty is tracked privately by the King.

If there is no Traitor for the current dynasty, the King may secretly randomly select a Wizard and privately inform them that they are the Traitor for the current dynasty.

A Traitor is under no obligation to honour any informal promises they have made with other Wizards, nor to tell the truth to them, and is encouraged to betray other Wizards in order to achieve victory.


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 Wizards.
Daily Action
If a game action is a Daily Action, each Wizard 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 Wizard 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 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 Wizard’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that Wizard’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Wizard’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
Flavour Text
When posting a blog entry, a Wizard 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) and any images contained within those Wiki Pages.
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 Wizards is half the number of Wizards in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Wizards it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Wizards.
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. Wizards 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.
Table of Contents
The directory of section headings that is generated by the MediaWiki software for most pages in the wiki.
TOC
Table of Contents.
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.
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 Wizard 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 Wizard 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 Wizard may post to the blog at any time, but may only make official posts to the blog when the Ruleset allows it. Posts following the format specified by a rule are considered official posts. Any single official post cannot be of two different types of official post unless a rule explicitly states otherwise.

An official post may only be removed as allowed by the Ruleset. An official post may be altered by its author if it is less than two hours old and either no Wizard has commented on it or (if it is a Votable Matter) if all comments on it contain no voting icons; otherwise this can only be done as allowed by the Ruleset. However, despite this, official posts can never be changed from one category to another, or changed to be a different sort of official post, if they have been posted for more than fifteen minutes. The Admin processing an official post is allowed to append to the post to reflect its new status. Anything appended to a post in this way must be placed in the Admin field of the post, and the post's Status must be changed to reflect its status. An official blog post that has the status of Enacted or Failed cannot change categories. An official blog post’s status may never be altered except in accordance with the rules that define that official post.

A non-official post may not, through editing of the blog or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following two exceptions: Firstly, whilst a non-official post has been posted for less than fifteen minutes and has no comments, the author may change the categories as they wish. Secondly, if a post by a New Wizard 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 Wizard is defined as a Wizard who has been a Wizard for fewer than seven days or a Wizard that has unidled in the past seven days after being idle for at least 3 months.

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 Wizard may update any Wizard'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 Wizard’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 and wiki merely represent the Gamestate, and are not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and its representations are different, any Wizard may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Wizard feels that a representation of the gamestate (such as the GNDT or the wiki) 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 alteration, Wizards are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Wizards 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.

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 a Wizard 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.

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 Wizard making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the GNDT.

Clarifications

Numbers and Variables

  • If a set of valid values is not specified in their definition, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers. Any action that would set those values below zero is an illegal action unless explicitly otherwise stated in the ruleset.
  • Any situation which would require a roll of DiceX when X is zero or lower always yields a value of 0 unless stated otherwise.
  • All numbers, unless stated otherwise by a rule, are in base ten.
  • Unless otherwise specified, to “spend” or “lose” an amount X of a numeric value “V” means to subtract X from V; to “gain” X of a numeric value “V” means to add X to V; and to “transfer” X of a numeric value “V” from A to B means to subtract X from A’s V and add X to B’s V. Unless otherwise specified, only positive amounts can be spent, lost, gained, or transferred, a Wizard can spend only their own values, and a rule that allows Wizards to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Wizard (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
  • A Wizard 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 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)
  • DICEN cannot be rolled in the GNDT if N is 22 or more digits long.

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 the admin enacting a proposal reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (eg. “two days after this proposal enacts, Wizard 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.
  • A Wizard may not take more than one dynastic game action at the same time (excluding any actions which have been ongoing for more than three hours).

Spelling

  • Superficial differences between the spelling of geographic versions of English, e.g, British English, American English and Australian English shall be construed as irrelevant for the purposes of play.
  • The terms "Wizard" and "Player" are synonyms.

Names

  • Within the ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a Wizard if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Wizard's name.
  • 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.
  • Subrules can be referred to by a name which incorporates name of the rule they are a subrule of. Example: a subrule of the rule “Gin” is a “Gin Rule”, however the rule “Gin” is not a “Gin Rule” because it’s not a subrule of the rule “Gin”.
  • When referring to a proposal, the name used in reference to a specific proposal may be simplified by not including braces and any text between the opening and closing braces. i.e. a proposal named “Changes [Core]” could instead be referred to by the name “Changes”.

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 “Wizards may Kick each other” and “Wizards may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Wizards may not Kick each other.)
  4. If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Wizards may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Wizards may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Wizards may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)
  5. Special Case Rules have equal precedence as Dynastic Rules, unless that Special Case Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule.