Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Captains 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.

Captains 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”.

Captains

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

A Captain may leave the game at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A Captain may not rejoin the game within two weeks after having left. A Captain may only change their name as a result of a proposal approving the change.

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

This rule may not be overridden by dynastic rules.

Idle Captains

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

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

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

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

Dynasties

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

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a Captain casts an explicit vote AGAINST their own Proposal, this renders the Proposal Self-Killed, even if the author later changes their Vote. The Potentate may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a proposal; when the Potentate casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Potentate later changes their Vote.

If a Captain other than the Potentate casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Potentate. When the Potentate has a valid Vote other than VETO on a Proposal, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Potentate’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 could not be Enacted without either one of the Votes AGAINST it being changed, or the set of Captains being changed, or by awaiting the passage of time.
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.

Votable Matters

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

Each Captain 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 Captain’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-Captain never has a Vote, even if they were a Captain 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).

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

Calls for Judgement

If two or more Captains actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Captain feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Captain 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 Captain (other than the Potentate) 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 “Captain”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Captain 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 Potentate 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 it could not be Enacted without either at least one of the Votes AGAINST it being changed, or the set of Captains being changed, or by awaiting the passage of time.
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 Captain who made the DoV as its Potentate. That Captain may pass this role to another Captain at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new Potentate makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the Potentate's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Captain and Potentate 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 has a number of AGAINST Votes that exceed Quorum, the Captain 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 Captain'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 Captain within BlogNomic.
A Captain 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 Captain should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
A Captain should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Captain.
A Captain should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
A Captain should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
A Captain 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

Spaceships

Each Captain has a Ship Class, tracked in the GNDT under the column “Class” and defaulting to “-”. The valid values of Ship Classes are “Scout”, “Fighter”, “Freighter”, “Space Station”, “Shuttle” and “-”. A Captain may, as a Weekly Action, change their Ship Class to any valid value. Whenever a Captain’s Ship Class changes, their Specifications are set to the default values for their new Class and all their Resources are destroyed.

Additionally, each Captain has one section on the wiki page entitled "The Hangar” to track aspects of their Ship. The heading of every section in the Hangar consists of a Captain’s name followed by a colon and one word, the latter being the name of the Ship.

Specifications

Each Captain has a number of Specifications (Specs) that describe the capabilities of their Ship. The Specs are tracked separately in the GNDT. When a Captain’s Ship Class changes, their Specifications are set to the default values for their new Ship Class. If a Captain ever has an undefined Spec, it is set to the default value for that Captain’s Ship Class.

The Specs and their default values are:

Speed	Firepower	Hold
Scout: 3	Scout: 3	Scout: 10
Fighter: 2	Fighter: 8	Fighter: 10
Freighter: 1	Freighter: 5	Freighter: 30
Space Station: 0	Space Station: 12	Space Station: 100
Shuttle: 2	Shuttle: 3	Shuttle: 5

The Ship Class of “-” has a default value of 0 for all Specs.

Space Stations

While a Captain’s class is “Space Station”, a Captain may, at any time, make a story post entitled “Trade Rates: [Name of Sector the captain is currently located]”. In the post, the Captain should list the resources they are willing to trade and the rate at which they are willing to trade those resources. The Captain may also include a Refueling fee. To Refuel, a Captain must transfer the Resources named in the Refueling Cost associated with a Space Station to the Captain who controls that Space Station, increase their Energy by 5, and decrease the Space Station’s Energy by 1. No Captain may Refuel at a Space Station whose owner has not specified a Refueling Cost or if Refueling would reduce the Space Station’s Energy below 0. A captain with the ship class “space station” can not gain energy by refueling. Any other Captain who shares their location with a Space Station may trade resources with or refuel at the Space Station according to the rates posted by the Captain of the Space Station, limited by the resources and energy available in the Space Station. The exception to this rule is that, upon attacking a Space Station, a Captain loses their ability to trade with or refuel at the Space Station they attacked. This loss of trading and refueling ability lasts until the Space Station is disbanded (the Captain who owns the Space Ship changes their ship’s class) or until the attacker pays the fine set by the attackee (recorded at the end of the Trade Rates story post).

If a Captain shares the same position of another Captain whose ship class is "Space Station", they may request to dock by PMing or otherwise contacting the owner of the Space Station. The owner of the Space Station may request resources in return for this action. When both parties are in agreement about the terms, and the Captain of the Space Station agrees to let the Captain dock, then update the following:

The Captain requesting to dock changes their position to "X - Station", where X is the name of the captain of the Space Station. The terms agreed upon are enacted, and thus any resources agreed upon are transferred at that point. The Fire Power of the Space Station increases by the Fire Power of the ship that is now docked.

A docked ship may not be attacked. If a Space Station is destroyed, then any ships docked in it are released from bay and are not destroyed. A Captain may at any time un-dock their ship (resulting in the Space Station's loss of the Fire Power that they added).

When a Captain makes a request to dock, as part of this request they may also optionally request Collection Clearance. The terms under which Collection Clearance will be granted may then be negotiated with the owner of the Space Station. If Collection Clearance is not explicitly requested by the docking Captain, or if any party does not agree to the terms under which it will be granted, it is automatically denied for the duration over which the docking Captain is docked at this Space Station. An unsuccessful negotiation of terms for Collection Clearance does not preclude successful negotiation of terms for the action of docking. Collection Clearance is automatically revoked upon un-docking from a Space Station.

If Collection Clearance is granted, the Captain to whom it has been granted does not add the Firepower of the docked Ship to the Firepower of the Space Station, nor do they subtract Firepower from the Space Station when un-docking. A Captain to whom Collection Clearance has been granted denotes this by appending the string “[C]” to their Position once they have docked and deletes this string from their Position once they have un-docked.

As part of the collection clearance agreement, the Captain and the space station should agree whether the Captain will be collecting resources or credits. Additionally, the Captain and the Space station should agree how often collection will happen. As an Activity, a Captain whose Ship Class is Space Station must, in accordance with their agreements with the collecting Captains, do the following: For each Ship “S” docked at that Space Station whose Captain has been granted Collection Clearance by the owner of the Space Station and who agreed to collect resources, they (the owner of the Space Station) may gain 1 Resource of any type produced by the Sector they currently occupy (as defined by the mapping from Spectral Colours to Resources in Rule 2.3). If they do, the Captain of Ship “S” also gains 1 Resource of the same type, provided that it is possible for them to accommodate the extra Resource with their current Hold.

For each Ship “S” docked at that Space Station whose Captain has been granted Collection Clearance by the owner of the Space Station and who agreed to collect credits, they (the owner of the Space Station) may gain 2 credits. If they do, the Captain of Ship “S” also gains 2 credits.

No Captain may grant Collection Clearance to any Commander they control.

Energy

Each Captain has a stat “Energy”, tracked in the GNDT and defaulting to zero. As a Weekly Action, a Captain may set their Energy to 10. A Captain may spend 1 Energy to perform an Activity, but may not perform the same Activity more than twice in a 24-hour period.

The Final Frontier

The wiki page ‘Galaxy Map’ contains the Galaxy Map. The Galaxy Map is an undirected graph, the structure of which is defined by the diagram on the “Galaxy Map” wiki page.

Vertices in this graph are called Sectors and may be referred to by the names given in the diagram. Edges in this graph are called Starlanes.

Each Captain has a Position, tracked in the GNDT under the column “Position” and defaulting to “Earth”. A value for Position that does not correspond to the name of a Sector in the Galaxy Map is not a legal value. To Jump is to alter one’s Position to another Sector that is joined to one’s current Position by a Starlane. As an Activity, A Captain may Jump a number of times no greater than their Speed and may not perform any other actions (aside from those defined by the core rules) before completing this action.

Every Spectral Class Black Sector is considered to have Starlanes to every other Spectral Class Black Sector.

Spectroscopy

Every Sector has a Spectral Type, which is indicated by its color on the Galaxy Map and is one of the following: White, Red, Green, Silver, Yellow, Turquoise, Magenta, Orange, Purple, Black. A Sector with Spectral Type White has not yet been visited, meaning its actual Spectral Type is currently unknown. Earth’s Spectral Type is Green.

Within 6 hours of Jumping to a Sector with Spectral Type White, a Captain may use the GNDT random COLOR generator to Measure its actual Spectral Type, retrying if they get the result of White. They must then update the Galaxy Map with the new Spectral Type, or add a line of text under the Galaxy Map that explains the change that must be made.

Resources

Each Captain has access to 5 different resources: Tritanium (T), Dilithium (D), Gold (G), Silver (S), and Aluminum (A). The amount of each of these resources that is possessed by each Captain is tracked in GNDT. A Captain can only have as many resources as their ship has Hold.

Every Sector except for Earth will produce resources in accordance of it’s spectroscopic color in the following fashion:

Red: Tritanium
Green: Dilithium
Silver: Silver
Yellow: Gold
Turquoise: Aluminum
Black: Aluminum
Orange: Tritanium and Dilithium
Purple: Gold and Silver
Magenta: -
Brown: -

While on a Sector that produces resources, a Captain may, at any time, purchase the resources produced by the planet by trading 2 of any of their resources for 1 of any of the resources produced by the Sector.

When a Captain Measures a Sector’s Spectral Type, they gain one of each of the Sector’s Resources.

A Captain may transfer Resources to another Captain within the same Fleet at any time, provided they share a Position.

Supply and Demand

Captains whose ship Class is Space Station may perform the following actions, depending on their Position:

In a Red Sector: spend 1 Dilithium to obtain 2 Tritanium.
In a Green Sector: spend 1 Aluminum to obtain 2 Dilithium.
In a Silver Sector: spend 1 Tritanium to obtain 2 Silver.
In a Yellow Sector: spend 1 Silver to obtain 2 Gold.
In a Turquoise Sector: spend 1 Gold to obtain 2 Aluminum.
In a Black Sector: as an Activity, gain 2 Aluminum.
In a Orange Sector: spend 4 Gold to obtain 5 Dilithium and 5 Tritanium.
In a Purple Sector: spend 4 Aluminum to obtain 5 Silver and 5 Gold.
In a Magenta Sector: spend 1 Resource to obtain 1 of any Resource.

Class Trades

As an Activity, a Scout may gain one Resource produced by any Sector they have Jumped to that day. As an Activity, a Freighter may trade up to three Resources to a Sector to gain the same amount of Resources of any type, excluding Weapons.

Combat

As an Activity, a Captain (the Attacker) may Raid another Captain (the Defender) who has the same Position as them, if they aren’t in a Spectral Class Green Sector, by rolling M=DICEA and N=DICEB, A being their own Firepower and B being the Defender’s Firepower. If the Defender is part of a Fleet, half of the Firepower of every member of the same Fleet who share their Position is added to theirs for the purposes the Raiding action. Only the end result is rounded down, not the individual contributions. If the Attacker’s Ship Class is “Space Station” then A is reduced by half their firepower, rounded down.

If M exceeds N by 5 or more, the Defender’s Class is set to “-” and the Attacker may transfer any amount of the Defender’s Resources to themself and destroy the rest. If N exceeds M by 5 or more, the Attacker’s Class is set to “-” and their Resources are destroyed.

Otherwise, If M is greater than N, the Attacker may transfer up to (M-N) Resources from the Defender to themself. If N is greater than M, the attack is repelled and the Attacker must destroy (N-M) of their own Resources or all their Resources, whichever is smaller.

Economical Benefits

As an Activity, a Captain in a Yellow sector may post a Trade Offer, which is a Story Post whose title contains the words “Trade Offer” and whose text indicates the sector that the Captain occupied at that time and that contains a nonempty Want list and a nonempty Have list. Each entry in the lists shall be one of the following:

A quantity and type of Resource.

The Captain posting the Trade Offer must possess everything listed in the Have list when they post the offer; the contents of the Have list are deducted from that Captain’s inventory when they do so. The sector indicated in the Trade Offer (the sector occupied by the Captain who posted it at the time of posting) is its Market Sector.

A Trade Offer is Open, Canceled, Completed, or Reclaimed. A Trade Offer is initially Open. A Trade Offer is said to be Active if it is Open or Completed. A Captain may not post a Trade Offer if they are located in a sector that is already the Market Sector of another one of their Active Trade Offers.

A Trade Offer may be Canceled by its author posting a comment to that effect to it if they are in its Market Sector. When a Trade Offer becomes Canceled, the contents of its Have list are returned to the Captain’s inventory.

A Captain (the Claimant) other than the author of a Trade Offer, if in that Offer’s Market Sector, may Complete the Trade Offer by posting a comment to it indicating that they are Completing it. To do so, they must possess the contents of the Trade Offer’s Wants list. Upon doing so, the contents of the Wants list are deducted from the Claimant’s possession and the contents of the Haves list are given to the Claimant.

When a Trade Offer is Completed, its author may, when in in its Market Sector, Reclaim the Offer by posting a comment to that effect to the Offer. Upon doing so, they receive the contents of the Wants list of the Trade Offer.

Arms Trade

Endor and Castor are on the brink of a massive conflict; both sides are enlisting the aid of smugglers to transport weaponry from the factories in sector Bellatrix. Weapons (W) are resources that cannot be traded according to the mechanics set out in the rule "Resources" and its subrules. As a Weekly Action, a Captain whose position is Bellatrix may add up to 5 Weapons to their resources. A Captain whose Position is Castor may spend a positive number X Weapons to gain (X-1) resources of the type(s) of their choice. A Captain whose Position is Endor may spend 5 Weapons to increase their Firepower by 2.

The negatronic currents that power the ion propulsion streams in Bellatrix's weapon systems are sensitive to the gravitational fluxes found near black holes. Whenever a Captain jumps from one Black Sector to another, they lose half of their Weapons, rounded up.

Modules

Each Ship may have Modules Installed in it, tracked in The Hangar. Every Module has a name, a Size, Assembly Instructions, and zero or more Effects. A Captain can, as an Activity, Install a Module into their Ship by following the Assembly Instructions of the Module if their Ship's Class is not "-". A Captain cannot Install a Module into their Ship if doing so would make [the sum of the Sizes of all Modules Installed on their Ship] greater than [their Ship's Hold]. Whenever a Ship's Class changes, all of the Modules Installed on the Ship are lost. A Captain can Activate any Module installed on their Ship to perform one of its Effects by following the procedure specified in the Effect description. If the Assembly Instructions for a Module include an Cost of Assemblage, that cost must be transferred to a Captain whose Class is Space Station and who has the same Position as the Captain who Installs the Module, in addition to any other actions specified in the Assembly Instructions.

The available Modules are listed as subrules to this rule. The title of each subrule is the name of the corresponding Module.

Warp Drive

Size: 3
Assembly Instructions: You may not Install this Module if your Ship Class is “Space Station”. You may not Install this Module if you have already Installed a Module named “Warp Drive”. Cost of Assemblage: 2 Resources and 1 Dilithium.
Effect: This Effect can only be Activated as an Activity. You may not Activate this Effect if you are unable to Jump, either because you have already Jumped that day or because of some other effect that prevents you from Jumping. To Activate this Effect, you must pay 1 Dilithium. When you Activate this Effect, you may immediately Jump as though your Ship’s Speed Specification was 1 greater than its current value.

Evasive Thrusters

Size: 0
Assembly Instructions: A Captain with Scout as their Ship Class must spend 1 Tritanium and 1 Silver to install this Module. A Captain may not have more than one of this Module. Cost of Assemblage: 2 Gold.
Effects: Whenever a Captain with this Module is Raided, the value of M (rolled with the Attacker's Firepower) is reduced by 2, to a minimum of 0, after the DICE roll.

Photonic Destabiliser

Size: 3
Assembly Instructions: A Captain must spend 2 Aluminum and 1 Dilithium to install this Module.
Effects: As a Weekly Action, Measure the Spectral Type of your Position as if that Sector were White.

Gravitational Shields

Size: 5
Assembly Instructions: A Captain must spend 2 Tritanium to install this Module. Cost of Assemblage: 2 Silver.
Effects: A Captain who has this Module installed does not lose Weapons by jumping from one Black Sector to another.

Incinerator

Size: 1
Assembly Instructions: A Captain must spend 1 Dilithium and 1 Tritanium to install this Module.
Effect: A Captain with this Module Installed may, at any time, destroy and lose any Resource that they have.

Polymorphic Drive

Size: 0
Assembly Instructions: This Module has a Cost of Assemblage of 3 Gold and 2 Tritanium.
Effect: Remove the Polymorphic Drive from the ship to change your Ship Class to any valid value, retaining your other Modules and Resources. Your Specs are set to the default values for the new Ship Class.

High-Yield Missile Battery

Size: 2
Assembly Instructions: A Captain must spend 3 Aluminum to install this Module. Cost of Assemblage: 2 Tritanium.
Effects: Your Firepower is treated as if it were 5 points higher for the purposes of Raiding Sectors.

Nonbaryonic Annihilator

Size: 10
Assembly Instructions: A Captain must spend 2 Aluminum and 2 Tritanium to install this Module.
Effects: Spend 1 Dilithium to either increase or decrease the DMC by 5, to a minimum of zero.

Credits

Every Captain has a nonnegative real number of Credits, with no more than 3 decimal places, tracked in the GNDT, and defaulting to 0. As an Activity, a Captain whose class is not “Space Station” may give up 10 credits for 1 of any other resource.

Fleets

Captains may control one or more Commanders. A Commander is a gameplay entity that is treated as a Captain for the purposes of all Dynastic Rules except for this rule. The set of a Captain and the Commanders they control may be referred to as a Fleet. A Captain whose Fleet contains three or more Commanders is an Admiral. A Captain may perform any action (governed by the dynastic rules) on behalf of a Commander they control. If a Commander’s Ship Class is ever “-”, that Commander is deleted. If a Captain’s Ship class becomes “-”, their fleet disperses and all Commanders controlled by that Captain are deleted. As a Weekly Action, a Captain may Hire a new Commander by making a post to that effect and spending 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Aluminum, 1 Dilithium and 1 Tritanium. This post may (and should) be processed by an admin once by adding the new Commander to the GNDT under the hiring Captain’s name, appended with a number. The Commander starts in the same Position as the hiring Captain with a Ship Class of Shuttle, with default values for all other variables. After the post is processed the hiring Captain may begin performing actions for the new Commander.

A Commander may not change their Ship Class through the method set out in the rule entitled "Spaceships".

Planetary Assaults

Sectors may be Raided as if they were Captains at their Position. For the purposes of Raiding, Sectors have a Firepower of 2DICE5 (rolled separately for each Raiding instance) and infinite resources of the type(s) they produce. If Sector's Ship Class would change to "-" due to a Raid, instead its Spectral Type is set to Brown. The Captain who caused this change should update the Galaxy Map with the new Spectral Type, or add a line of text under the Galaxy Map that explains the change that must be made.

Victory

If an Admiral controls a Fleet that contains a Captain or Commander of every Ship Class, that Admiral has achieved victory.

If the Dark Matter Concentration ever becomes zero, the Captain who caused this to happen (if there is one) has achieved victory.

If a Commander achieves victory, the Captain who controls them also achieves victory.

Dark Matter

There is a value called the Dark Matter Concentration (DMC) that is a nonnegative integer tracked in its own GNDT row with name “DMC”. The DMC defaults to ten times the current number of Spectral Type Black Sectors. The DMC must be updated according to the following items no more than 6 hours after the corresponding action is taken:

When a Sector is Measured to be a Spectral Type other than Black, the DMC is decreased by 3.
When a Sector is Measured to be Spectral Type Black, the DMC is decreased by 1.
When a Sector’s Spectral Type becomes Brown, the DMC is increased by 15.
When a Captain takes the weekly action of setting their Energy to 10, the DMC is increased by 3.
When a Captain’s Ship Class becomes “-”, the DMC is increased by 15.

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 Captains.

Daily Action: If a game action is a Daily Action, each Captain able to perform it may take that action once each day, but not more than once every ten hours.

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 Captain’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that Captain’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Captain’s Vote on that Votable Matter.

Flavour Text: When posting a blog entry, a Captain 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.

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 Captains is half the number of Captains in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Captains it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Captains.

Resolve/Resolution: If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the world “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.

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 Captain able to perform it may take that action once each week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.

Weekly Communal Action: If a game action is a Weekly Communal Action, it can be performed by any Captain, but only if it has not been performed (by any Captain) already in the same week.

Wiki: The BlogNomic Wiki at http://blognomic.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

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 Captain 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. No entry may be more than one of the following official types of post: Votable Matters, and Idling Post.

If no Captain has commented on it, 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 exception: 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.

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 Captain may update any Captain's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.

All updates to the GNDT are logged. Actions that change gamestate directly (defined in other rules) can normally be performed simply by applying their effects to the GNDT, which updates the gamestate accordingly, unless another rule specifies some other method of performing them; one GNDT update may contain one or more actions, or one action may be split over multiple GNDT updates, as long as it’s clear what is happening and the actions 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 Captain may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Captain 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, Captains are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Captains 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 Captain 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 Captains to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Captain (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
A Captain 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.
If a game variable has no defined starting value for new Captains, or for existing Captains upon the variable’s creation, then that starting value is zero (for numerical variables) or blank (for a text string or list).
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.
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.

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 Captain if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Captain's name.

Prioritisation

If two parts of the Ruleset contradict each other, precedence shall be construed in the following order:

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

Ruleset 109

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