Ruleset 142

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Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Hunters 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.

Hunters 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 Hunter may update it to do so.

Hunters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dynasties

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

Votable Matters

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

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

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

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

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

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

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

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

Resolution of Proposals

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

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

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

  • It has been Vetoed or Self-Killed.
  • The number of Hunters who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

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

Calls for Judgement

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

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

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

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

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

When a DoV is enacted, all other active DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins with the Hunter who made the DoV as its Pirate. That Hunter may pass this role to another Hunter at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new Pirate makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the Pirate's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Hunter and Pirate 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 Hunter 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 Hunter'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 Hunter within BlogNomic.
  • A Hunter 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 Hunter should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
  • A Hunter should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Hunter.
  • A Hunter should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
  • A Hunter should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
  • A Hunter 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

Gold

Each Hunter has a integer number of Pieces o’ Eight, “Pieces” for short, which tracked in the GNDT in a column called “Pieces”. New Hunters start with 8 Pieces. The Pirate starts with 88 pieces.

Unless otherwise specified, no Hunter may take an action that either causes their Pieces to become negative, or causes another Hunter’s pieces to become negative.

Ruin

While a Hunter’s Pieces is negative, they are considered Ruined. Ruined Hunters may not perform any action outlined in the Dynastic Rules that isn’t marked as Inclusive or otherwise explicitly allows Ruined Hunters to perform it.

A Ruined Hunter may increase their Pieces by X, where X is the minimum of: the number of days since they last became ruined; the number of days since they last performed this action; and 3. If this would cause their Pieces to become greater than 0, they are instead set to 0.

Burying

A Chest is an object located at an Island, containing one or more Pieces, and having one or more Keepers. Chests are tracked as a list on The Golden Archipelago wiki page.

As a daily action, a Hunter may Bury Treasure by losing X Pieces (where X is at least 1): upon doing so, a Chest is created at their current location, containing X Pieces and with a list of Keepers chosen by the Hunter. (If any other Hunters share the Hunter’s location, the list must include all of those Hunters.)

As a daily action, a Hunter may Dig Up Treasure if they are located at an Island which has a Chest of which they are one of the Keepers: upon doing so, the Hunter gains a number of Pieces equal to those in the Chest, and the Chest is removed from play.

A Hunter located at The Island of the Barbary Coast may buy a Map by paying 1 Piece. Upon doing so, they should create a Chest on a random Island, with DICE3 Pieces inside, and with themselves and one random other Hunter as its Keepers.

Islands

The Golden Archipelago is a group of 25 Islands, arranged in a 5x5 grid. Each Island has a name, listed below: the first letters of the final two words of an Island’s name are its Code, and determine its position in the grid. The grid is demonstrated at (but not defined by) this wiki page.

  • The Island of Auld Anchorage
  • The Island of Azure Bay
  • The Island of the Abyssal Caves
  • The Island of the Arid Dunes
  • The Island of the Amber Estuary
  • The Island of the Broken Arch
  • The Island of Barnacle Beach
  • The Island of the Barbary Coast
  • The Island of Bucky’s Doom
  • The Island of the Blunt Escarpment
  • The Island of the Cursed Atoll
  • The Island of the Coral Barrier
  • The Island of the Crumbling Cliff
  • The Island of Cape Disaster
  • The Island of Crab Edge
  • The Island of Deadman’s Acre
  • The Island of the Drifting Breakers
  • The Island of Dredger Cove
  • The Island of Doubloon Delta
  • The Island of Deep End
  • The Island of Endless Ashes
  • The Island of Emerald Bluffs
  • The Island of the Ebon Caldera
  • The Island of Execution Dock
  • The Island of the Eagle’s Eyrie

Each Hunter is on one Island, which is said to be their location. This is tracked in the GNDT, in the column “Island”, as the Code of the Island a Hunter is on.

Hunters shall be initially placed on an Island by the following process: DICE5 is rolled, twice, in a comment to the GNDT. The first result is converted to the letter that occupies that position in the English alphabet; ie., 1 is A, 2 is B, 3 is C, 4 is D, and 5 is E. The second result is converted into a letter by the same process, and concatenated to the first; That Hunter’s location is the Island which has the resulting string as its Code.

Landmarks

Each Island has zero or more Landmarks which rumours say may indicate the location of the Pirate’s Hoard. The Landmarks of each Island are tracked privately by the Pirate. Those Landmarks are:

  • The lone palm tree
  • The skull-shaped rock
  • The cave
  • The source of the river
  • The ruins
  • The highest peak
  • The shipwreck

One Landmark of one Island may be the location of the Pirate’s Hoard. This is tracked privately by the Pirate.

Treasure

Each Island has a positive integer Treasure Rating, which ranges between 1 (meaning the island has almost no treasure) and 10 (meaning the island is abundant in treasure). The Treasure Rating for each Island is listed after each Islands entry on the Golden Archipelago wiki page.

As a Daily Action, but no more than three times during a Week, a Hunter may Raid the Island where they are located. To do so, they roll a DICE10. If the die roll is less than or equal to the Treasure Rating of that Island, they gain DICE3 Pieces and reduce the Treasure Rating of the Island by the number of Pieces gained (to a minimum of 1).

At the start of each week, the Treasure Rating of each island increases by 1 (to a maximum of 10). A Hunter should update the Golden Archipelago wiki page to reflect this, and no hunter may perform a Raid if the Golden Archipelago wiki page has not been updated for that week.

Seeking the Hoard

A Hunter may Seek the Hoard at their current location by posting a blog entry to this effect, naming one or more types of Landmarks that they intend to search, and losing 1 Piece for each Landmark so named. (A Hunter may not name more Landmarks in this way than they have Pieces.)

The Pirate should respond to that post with a comment saying whether or not any of the Landmarks named by it are (on the Island in question) the location of the Pirate’s Hoard: if one of them is, then the Hunter who made the post achieves victory.

Ships

Each Hunter has a Ship, which is tracked in the GNDT in a column called ‘Ship’. Each Ship has a Name, and a Class, and is stored in the GNDT in the form “N (C)” where N is the Name and C is the Class.

Possible classes of ship are listed as sub rules to this rule. Each class must have a Name, which is the title of the subrule, a Cost, which is a positive integer.

As an Inclusive action, a Hunter may buy a new ship by gaining three quarters of the Cost of their current ship in Pieces (rounding up), then spending the Cost of the new ship in Pieces and setting the Class of their ship to the name of the Class, and optionally setting the name of their ship to “Unnamed”.

As an Inclusive action, if a Hunter’s ship’s name is “Unnamed” then they may set its name to any string of two or more capital letters which appears in the “Prefix” column of a table at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ship_prefix&oldid=732570722, followed by a space, followed by any single single-word adjective which is listed as a synonym, antonym or related word at http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brave.

The default name for a Hunter’s ship is “Unnamed” and the default class is “Sloop”

If a Hunter’s Pieces is greater than the Hold Size of their Ship, their Pieces are set to equal the Hold Size of their ship.

Raft

Cost: 1, Hold Size: 5, Speed: 1, Cannon: 0

Sloop

Cost: 5 Hold Size: 10 Speed: 2 Cannon: 1

Brigantine

Cost: 12 Hold Size: 20 Speed: 3 Cannon: 2

Barque

Cost: 25 Hold Size: 30 Speed: 4 Cannon: 3

Galleon

Cost: 25 Hold Size: 40 Speed: 3 Cannon: 4

Sailing

As a daily action, a Hunter may set sail on the Golden Archipelago, changing their location to an Island whose distance from their current location is less than or equal to their ship’s Speed. The distance between two Islands is defined as X + Y - min(X,Y)/2, rounded down, where X and Y are the absolute differences between the two Islands’ first and second coordinates on the grid, respectively, and where min(X,Y) is the minimum value of X and Y.

Exploring

A Hunter may Explore their current Location by posting a blog entry to this effect. The Pirate should react to such an exploration by Describing the Island, if they have not done so already for that exploration action: upon doing so, they reduce the Hunter’s Pieces by 1 (this reduction may cause that number to become negative) and privately message the Hunter a list of all the Landmarks on the explored Island.

A Hunter located at Auld Anchorage may tip off the Navy to a shipwreck at a particular Island by posting a blog entry to this effect. The Pirate should react to such a tipoff by Scouting the Island, if they have never Scouted that Island before: upon doing so, they respond to the blog entry with a blog comment listing all Landmarks on the scouted Island. If a shipwreck appears in that list, the Pirate increases the Hunter’s Pieces by 1; otherwise they decrease the Hunter’s Pieces by 1 (this reduction may cause that number to become negative).

A Hunter cannot Explore at an Island if there is another Ship located at that Island with a Cannon value equal to or greater than the Hunter’s own. The Navy cannot be tipped off to a shipwreck at an Island if there is a Galleon there.

Piratical Tales

A Hunter who is located at the same Island as the Pirate may Parley by posting a blog entry to this effect, and specifying how many Pieces they wish to gift to the Pirate. A single Parley post may contain multiple requests to Parley, from that Hunter.

The Pirate should react to a request to Parley by Telling a Tale, if they have not done so already for that request: upon doing so, they reduce the Hunter’s Pieces by the value specified in the post (this reduction may cause that number to become negative) and privately message the Hunter a Tale to that value, as listed below.

  • A Tale of value 1 names a random interesting Island which is not home to the Pirate’s Hoard.
  • A Tale of value 2 names a random interesting type of Landmark which is not home to the Pirate’s Hoard.
  • A Tale of value 3 names a random interesting row or column of the Archipelago which is not home to the Pirate’s Hoard.
  • A Tale of value 6 names a random interesting type of Landmark from those which appear on the Island which is home to the Pirate’s Hoard.

Where the Pirate makes a random interesting decision for a Tale, they may do so using any method they wish. If the Pirate is Sober when relating a Tale to a Hunter, then a game aspect is only interesting if the Pirate has never named it to that Hunter before in a tale. If the Pirate is Drunk when relating a Tale, all game aspects are interesting. If the Pirate is unable to name something because no interesting examples of it exist, then the Pirate’s Tale is instead a message to this effect.

The Pirate is either Drunk or Sober, and this is tracked in the following sentence. The Pirate is currently Sober. A Hunter who is located at the same Island as the Pirate may Offer Rum to the Pirate by giving the Pirate 3 Pieces and posting a blog entry to this effect: upon doing so, the Pirate becomes Drunk.

Ever the braggart, the Pirate cannot resist offering occasional, hubristic clues to the Hunters. As a weekly action to be taken as soon as possible during each week, the Pirate should make a blog post containing three Tales of value 1, two Tales of value 2 and one Tale of value 3. For the purpose of resolving random Tales under this rule, a feature is only interesting if the Pirate has never named it to any Hunter before in a Tale.

Combat

A Hunter may engage in Combat if an NHC (A non-Hunter ship not controlled by a human, except the Pirate) or Hunter Attacks them. An Attack may only be made where a rule clearly states as much. Upon any Hunter being engaged in Combat, the first Hunter to notice (the “Noticing Hunter) may, once, carry out the Fight. A Fight consists of the following steps, in order:

1. The noticing Hunter must multiply the Attacked Hunter’s Ship’s Cannon by 4, then subtract DICE4. Save the result (the Attacked Hunter’s “ValueA”). 2. The Noticing Hunter must multiply the NHC/Hunter that made the Attack (The Attacker)‘s Cannon by 4, then subtract DICE5. Save the result (The Attacker’s “ValueB”). 3. Compare the ValueA and ValueB. If ValueA is greater or equal to ValueB, the Attacked Hunter Wins the Fight. If ValueB is greater, the Attacker Wins the fight.

If an entity that was Engaged in a Fight has not Won said fight, they are said to have Lost.

Charts

At any point on or before the 18th of September 2016, any Hunter who has not already done so may create a Chart by privately sending the Pirate an ordered list of any number of Dig Sites that appear on that Chart, where each Dig Site is defined as a Landmark on an Island (even if that Island does not have that Landmark). A Chart's Accuracy is the position in the Chart's list at which the location of the Pirate's Hoard appears, counting upwards from the bottom. (If the Hoard's location does not appear in a Chart's list, that Chart's Accuracy is zero.)

On or after the 19th of September 2016, the Pirate should discard all Charts with an Accuracy of zero. (A discarded Chart is no longer considered to be a Chart.) The Pirate must then discard any Chart if it lists more Dig Sites than any other Chart. The Pirate must then discard any Chart if it has a lower Accuracy than any other Chart. After this, if only one Chart remains, the Hunter who submitted it achieves victory; if multiple Charts remain, the Pirate must select a Hunter from their submitters at random, and that Hunter achieves victory.

A Hunter may not submit a Chart if they unidled or became a Hunter after the proposal to enact this rule was made.


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 Hunters.
Daily Action
If a game action is a Daily Action, each Hunter 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 Hunter per day.
Day
References to a “day” as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “Sunday”, “The day after performing this action”, or “August 2nd”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a day beginning at and including 00:00:00 UTC, ending when the next day begins. It can never be 2 different days at the same instant.
Dice
References to "YDICEX" refer to Y X-sided dice, rolled within the GNDT. To roll dice, post DICEX in the comments field of the GNDT, replacing X with the number of sides on the die you wish to roll.
Dynastic Proposal
A Proposal which mandates changes that, even if conditionally, are limited to the creation, deletion, and/or amendment of dynastic rules and/or gamestate defined by dynastic rules.
Effective Vote Comment (EVC)
A Hunter’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that Hunter’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Hunter’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
Flavour Text
When posting a blog entry, a Hunter may use the “Commentary or flavour text” field of the blog publishing form to add their own comments or description of their post. For the purposes of all other rules, such text is not considered to be part of the post.
Gamestate
Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of. All GNDT columns that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention are assumed to be Gamestate, as are all Wiki Pages that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention except for dynastic histories and discussion pages.
IRC Channel
The Blognomic IRC channel is located at #nomic on the slashnet network (irc.slashnet.org).
May
"is permitted to"
May not
"is not permitted to"
Post
A blog post published to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.com
Private Message
A message sent via Blognomic’s Private Messages system at blognomic.com.
Quorum
Quorum of a subset of Hunters is half the number of Hunters in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Hunters it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Hunters.
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. Hunters may request an invite to the Slack while logged in by clicking the button in the sidebar.
Slack Channel
A Slack Channel is any channel on the BlogNomic Slack. To reference a Slack Channel, use a hash (#) followed by the name of that channel. (For example, #random.)
Story Post
A Story Post is an entry in the “Story Post” category.
Subject
The "subject" of a blog entry is the part of the Title of an entry which is after the first colon. If the Title does not contain a colon, then the whole Title is the subject. Any entry whose subject is "" (i.e. an empty string) is not valid.
Subrule
A subrule is a type of rule that is nested within another rule. A proposal that specifically affects a rule affects all of its subrules; a proposal that specifically affects a subrule does not affect its parent rule or any other subrule of that rule, unless they are also explicitly cited as being affected by that proposal.
Vote
The word “Vote”, used as a noun, means a Vote that is cast in accordance with Rule “Votable Matters”. The word “Vote”, used as a verb, means the act of casting such a Vote.
Voting Icons
For use in voting, a check box http://blognomic.com/images/vote/for.gif shall represent a Vote FOR, an X http://blognomic.com/images/vote/against.gif shall represent a Vote AGAINST, an IMP http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, and an Imperial Seal http://blognomic.com/images/vote/seal.gif shall represent the Imperial Veto.
Week
References to a week as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “At the beginning of each week”, or “already happened this week”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a period of time between the beginning of a Monday and the end of the following Sunday.
Weekly Action
If a game action is a Weekly Action, each Hunter 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 Hunter 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 Hunter may post to the blog at any time, but may only make official posts to the blog when the Ruleset allows it. Posts following the format specified by a rule are considered official posts. Any single official post cannot be of two different types of official post unless a rule explicitly states otherwise.

If no Hunter has commented on it, or if the only comments on it begin with “Note:” and contain no voting icons, an official post may be altered or removed by its author; otherwise this can only be done as allowed by the Ruleset. However, despite this, official posts can never be changed from one category to another, or changed to be a different sort of official post, if they have been posted for more than fifteen minutes. The Admin processing an official post is allowed to append to the post to reflect its new status. Anything appended to a post in this way must be placed in the Admin field of the post, and the post's Status must be changed to reflect its status.

A non-official post may not, through editing of the blog or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following 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 Hunter may update any Hunter'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 Hunter may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Hunter 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, Hunters are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Hunters 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 Hunter 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 Hunters to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Hunter (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
  • A Hunter who has a choice in whether to take an action defined by a dynastic rule may not take that action if both of the following conditions are true: a) the action's effects are limited to changing values tracked in the GNDT and/or similar gamestate-tracking entities (such as a wiki page), and b) the action would change one or more of those values to an illegal value.
  • If a rule implies that the result of any calculation should be an integer (for instance, by attempting to store that result in, or add it to, a gamestate variable that can only hold integers), the result of the calculation is instead the result rounded towards 0.
  • If a number or other game variable is selected 'at random' or 'randomly' from a range of possible values, its value shall always be taken from a uniform probability distribution over the entire range of possible values, unless otherwise specified. This value must be determined by an appropriate DICE roll in the GNDT, unless otherwise specified.
  • If a game variable has no defined starting value, then that starting value is the nearest legal value to zero that it may take (for numerical variables, defaulting to positive if tied), blank (for a text string or list that may be blank), the alphabetically earliest legal text string it may take (for a text string which may not be blank, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”), or the list which is alphabetically earliest from the set of lists with the fewest elements (for lists which may not be blank, and considering each list to be a single unpunctuated text string, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”).
  • Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in the GNDT remain valid. (for example, if X appears in a formula referring to a value that is a non-negative integer, X must be used as a non-negative integer)

Rules and Proposals

  • If a new rule is created by a proposal and its location is not noted in that proposal, that new rule is to be placed in the Dynastic Rules.
  • If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a proposal enacting, that page shall - unless otherwise specified - be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that proposal's submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked).
  • Where a Proposal would amend the effects of Proposal Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (eg. a proposal proposing that enacted proposals earn their author a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own author, when enacted).
  • Rules which trigger upon the Resolution of a Votable Matter are the responsibility of the Admin who Resolves it.
  • Unless otherwise specified, a new Dynastic rule shall be placed at the end of the Dynastic Rules.
  • If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead named “Unnamed Rule”.
  • The names of rules are not themselves rule text and have no effect other than being rule names.
  • If the admin enacting a proposal reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (eg. “two days after this proposal enacts, Hunter A gains 1 point”), that step is ignored for the purposes of enactment. Once a proposal has been enacted, it can have no further direct effect on the gamestate.

Time

  • For the purpose of all rules, time in Blognomic is in UTC.
  • All references to time must be either specific or defined within the ruleset to be considered achievable in the gamestate. Abstract concepts of time (e.g. "dinnertime", "twilight") cannot be achieved until they fulfil one of these criteria.
  • Where the month, day and/or year of a calendar date are ambiguous (eg. "04/10/09"), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.

Spelling

  • Superficial differences between the spelling of geographic versions of English, e.g, British English, American English and Australian English shall be construed as irrelevant for the purposes of play.

Names

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

Prioritisation

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