Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Explorers 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.

Explorers 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 Explorer may update it to do so.

Explorers

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Admin may render an Explorer Idle if that Explorer has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Explorer 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 an Explorer if that Explorer 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 Explorer 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 one or more Explorers, known as the Expedition Leaders. If there is no Expedition Leader, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.

Votable Matters

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

Each Explorer 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. An Explorer’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-Explorer never has a Vote, even if they were an Explorer 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 Explorer may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the Explorer already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).

Special Proposal Voting

When an Explorer 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. Any Expedition Leader may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a proposal; when an Expedition Leader casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if that Expedition Leader later changes their Vote.

If an Explorer other than the Expedition Leaders casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Expedition Leaders. When a quorum of Expedition Leaders has the same valid Vote other than VETO on a Proposal, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL on that Proposal are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Vote of the quorum of Expedition Leaders with the same valid 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 Explorers 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 Explorers actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if an Explorer feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Explorer 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 an Explorer (hereafter referred to as the Victor) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, either individually, or collectively with other Explorers (hereafter referred to as the co-Victors), then that Explorer may make a post to the Blognomic weblog in the Declaration of Victory category, detailing this, and specifying all the co-Victors, if applicable.

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 “Explorers”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Explorer 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 a quorum of Expedition Leaders 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 Explorers 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 Victor, and the co-Victors if there are any, as its Expedition Leaders. At this point, the Victor may pass this role to another Explorer by making a post to that effect, if they wish, provided they have achieved victory individually; and any of the Victor and co-Victors may step down from the role, by making a post to that effect, provided they have achieved victory collectively. If all Victor and co-Victors step down in this way, the new Dynasty is a Metadynasty. The Hiatus continues until either of the following happens:

one of the new Expedition Leaders makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify a chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Explorer and Expedition Leader 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.
all the Victor and co-Victors have stepped down and there is no longer an Expedition Leader - when this happens, all dynastic rules 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 Explorer 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 an Explorer's behaviour or actions are otherwise deemed unacceptable (socially or otherwise), a proposal or CfJ may be made to reprimand or punish the perpetrator or, in cases of extreme or repeated violations, remove them from the game and bar them from rejoining.

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

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”.

Atomic Actions

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

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

For instance if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a die in the GNDT and then doing steps based upon it’s result the Explorer 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.

If the Atomic Action was illegal due to a die that was wrong in the GNDT (for example, rolling a 1 on a DICE6 gives that Explorer a point and the rest do nothing and the Explorer rolls a DICE5 in the first one) and in redoing the Atomic Action they get the same effect as before (i.e. rolling an incorrect die and getting result X but then rolling the correct die and still getting result X) then the steps that depended upon that result are valid and don’t need to be redone. Steps that depend upon multiple dice which were done incorrectly must have each incorrect die have the same effect to be considered valid.

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.

Dynastic Rules

Combos

Anytime that an Explorer wants to do 5 or more actions within an hour they may choose in lieu of doing all of those actions separately, which potentially causes confusion as to what is happening, to make a “Combo” blog post that cannot be edited after posting. The gamestate may be changed to reflect the results of the Combo once all of the actions are completed.

A Combo post is a numbered list of the actions taken, the first action is #1 each subsequent number of actions is increased by one. Each action and the portion of the gamestate changed from that action are kept on their own line. An Atomic action has lettering of it’s steps, refer to the example and note the curly braces vs the parenthesis.

   Example Combo
   1 [action one] ([gamestate before action] -> [gamestate after action])
   2 [action two] ([gamestate before action] -> [gamestate after action])
   3 [atomic action] {[gamestate before atomic action]}
   3a [first atomic substep] ([gamestate before substep] -> [gamestate after substep])
   3b [second atomic substep] ([gamestate before substep] -> [gamestate after substep]) {[gamestate after atomic action]}
   4 [action four] ([gamestate before action] -> [gamestate after action])
   etcetera . . .

If any actions require a die roll or other random event that is visible to the public, Explorers must make those rolls before posting the combo with a note stating which step the roll is for and what action they are taking and the title of their Combo. Explorers may not make multiple rolls in the GNDT for the same step. Explorers cannot have two or more rolls in the GNDT with Combo titles that are different unless all but one of the Combo titles have been posted and include that roll.

Each action of a Combo happens in their own second, substeps of an Atomic Action happen all at the same second as the parent step. The first action happens at the time the Combo is posted.

If there is a mistake in the summary of the gamestate in a combo and that mistake doesn’t make it impossible for the stated actions to have happened, the author of that combo may correct those mistakes by making a comment along the format “[# of step]: [corrected gamestate summary]”.

Camps

There are Camps. Camps along with their state are tracked on the wiki page called “Camps”. Each Camp has an amount of Supplies and a Latitude. Latitude is an angle which ranges from 66° to 90° (both inclusive). In addition, each section tracking a Camp can have a Description, which is a subsection of their Section on the “Camps” page.

Every Explorer has a Location, which can be either a Camp or a Latitude. The Location of every Explorer is tracked in the GNDT and defaults to “Base Camp”.

Camps have temperatures tracked on the Camps wikipage. The default temperature for a Camp is 20°C

As a daily Outdoors action, an Explorer may take X Supplies from the Camp they are located at. If they do, their Debt increases by X.

An Explorer may exit a Camp by setting their Location to their current Camp’s Latitude, as an Outdoors action. An Explorer who is not currently in a Camp may enter a Camp by setting their Location to the name of that Camp if they have the same Latitude as that Camp.

Explorers at the locations Base Camp and Mountain Camp are considered to be Hexproof.

Camping

An Explorer which is not located in a Camp may establish a new Camp by doing the following Outdoors Atomic Action:

Spending 3 of their supplies.
Create a new Camp on the Camps wikipage.
Add the name of the new Camp. It must end in ” Camp” and must be two words long and can’t be the same as any existing Camp.
Add a description. The description is of the choice of the Camp establisher.
Set the Latitude of the new Camp to their current Location.
Set any other values of the newly created Camp to their defaults.
Set their Location to the newly established Camp.

Camp Rules

Each Dynastic rule is located in a Camp. This is tracked on the Camps wikipage. The default Camp for a rule is Base Camp. The Temperature of a Dynastic Rule is the same as the Location that it is located in.

Camp doors

Every Camp either has closed doors or open doors. Camps with open doors decrease their temperature by 10 degrees every 12 hours. Camps that are at -25°C or less do not decrease their temperature in this way. If an Explorer is located in a Camp they may set that Camps door state to open or closed, as an Outdoors action. The state of a Camp’s door is tracked on the Camps wikipage.

Fire

As an Outdoors action an Explorer may spend X, where X is 1 or greater, supplies to create a Fire of size X in the location they are in. This is tracked on the Camps page with the text “fire (Y)”, where Y is the Fire’s size. If a Fire has a size of 0 or lower, it ceases to exist.

Et ignem regunt numeri

As a daily communal action, any Explorer may observe temperature changes, as the following atomic action:

Increase by 30°C (to a maximum of 25°C) the temperature of every Location which has a Fire.
Decrease by 20°C (to a minimum of -25°C) the temperature of every Camp which has no Fire and which has open Doors.
Decrease by 20°C (to a minimum of -25°C) the temperature of every Latitude which has no Fire.
Decrease the size of all Fires by 2, to a minimum of zero.
Post a blog entry summarising these changes.

Temperature

All Dynastic Rules have a Temperature. Temperature is a value in degrees Celsius, which is an integer which can be negative. References to “°C” are considered to refer to degrees Celsius.

The default Temperature for any entity that has Temperature is -25°C.

The list of entities which have Temperature are:

Dynastic Rules
Camps
Latitudes

A Temperature of -50°C or lower is Extremely Cold. A Temperature of -25°C or lower is Very Cold.

Rules which are only Very Cold have the text ” V.” at the end of their title. Rules which are Extremely Cold have the text ” E.” at the end of their title.

Explorers

Explorers without COLD WEATHER CLOTHING must spend 1 Supplies each time they take an Outdoors Action in a Location which is below 0°C. If an Explorer without COLD WEATHER CLOTHING has zero or less Supplies, they cannot take Outdoors Actions in Locations which are below 0°C.

Debt

Each Explorer has a Debt value, which starts at 0 and is tracked in the GNDT under “Debt”.

Portable Rules

Each Explorer may hold 1 Dynastic rule for each Dogsled that they have, tracked in the GNDT under RulesHeld in a comma separated list. The temperature of a Rule that is held by an Explorer is the same as the temperature of the location that Explorer is in. An Explorer may pick up a rule by adding one rule to their RulesHeld if that rule is in their current location and it is not held by another Explorer. An Explorer may remove a Rule from their RulesHeld and the location of that Rule changes to the same as the Explorer removing the Rule and that Rule's location is then tracked on the Camps wikipage until it is picked up by another Explorer. Explorers that hold a rule are considered to have COLD WEATHER CLOTHING for actions defined in the rule they are holding.

Using Supplies

Every Explorer has a number of Dog Sleds and a number of Supplies, both of which are tracked in the GNDT. The number of Dog Sleds defaults to 2, the number of Supplies defaults to 10.

The maximum amount of Supplies an Explorer can have is ten times the amount of Dog Sleds they have.

Explorers may transfer supplies or dog sleds to the other Explorers at the same camp, as an Outdoors Action. Explorers may transfer supplies to their current camp, as an Outdoors Action.

Exploring

If an Explorer’s Location is a Latitude they may spend 1 supply to increase or decrease their Location X degrees where X is a positive integer equal to or less than the number of Dog Sleds they have, as an Outdoors action.

If an Explorer has one or more Dog Sleds, they may change their camp to any camp adjacent to their current camp, by spending 1 Supplies as an Outdoors action. They cannot take this action if they have zero or less supplies. A pair of camps are adjacent if they are at the same latitude, or if there are no camps at any latitudes between them.

Madness

Explorers have Insanity tracked on the GNDT. Explorers with an Insanity of greater than 10 are insane. Insane Explorers cannot utilize their Background powers.

An explorer with the background of cultist who is insane may make a public blog post declaring that they are HIDEOUSLY TRANSFORMED. The Expedition Leader may certify that this explorer is, in fact, a cultist by posting a comment containing the word “fnord”.

A Cultist that is insane may pay 2 supplies to shout a MAD RAVING.

Going Insane

An Explorer gains 1 Insanity each time one of the following happens to them:

The first time that an Explorer is in the same location as a Horror that they have not gained insanity from previously
Is in the same location as a Cultist and that Cultist shouts a MAD RAVING.

An Explorer located in a Camp which contains a Fire and at least one other Explorer may lose 1 Insanity (to a minimum of zero) as a weekly action.

Background

Each Explorer (which isn’t the Expedition Leader) has none or two Backgrounds, which is privately tracked by the Expedition Leader, and Explorers default to having no Backgrounds. The Backgrounds an Explorer may have, and the powers (if any) that they have for having such a Background are the following:

Handyman: When a Handyman would spend a number of Supplies to perform an action, they may instead spend half that number of Supplies (rounding up) to perform it. (This ability may not be used more than once per action.)
Adventurer: The Adventurer, once ever in the dynasty but at-will, may make a public post indicating that they WRESTLE A BEAR. The Expedition Leader shall then be Amazed by making a reply comment to that post in a timely fashion. At that point, the Adventurer is considered to Have COLD WEATHER CLOTHING (and by default don’t have that). Adventurers with COLD WEATHER CLOTHING are immune to cost-increasing effects described in the Temperature Rule and may at-will ENCOURAGE other Adventurers.
Scholar: The Scholar is well researched into obscure literature and the occult. Each Scholar knows one word of the Creed. Which word is secretly randomly determined by the Expedition Leader. A Scholar may request that word from the Expedition Leader. Scholars can deduce what a Mission’s Secret Treasure will be based on their research. Therefore, they also know what any Mission’s Secret Treasure is (and can request this information privately from the Expedition Leader). Scholars have institutional access to the weekly Annals of Eldritch Studies (AES). As a weekly action, the Expedition Leader may publish an issue of AES. Publishing an issue of AES consists of randomly choosing one word of the Secret Creed and privately messaging that word to all Explorers with institutional access to AES.
Military: A Military Explorer may make a public post indicating that they DRAW THEIR WEAPON. The Expedition Leader shall then confirm that the Explorer has drawn their weapon, at which point the Military Explorer is considered to be Armed (and by default, is not). If a Military Explorer is Armed, they may hold an Explorer in the same Location as them at Gunpoint, or may stop holding an Explorer at Gunpoint, by making a post announcing this. (If one Explorer is holding another at Gunpoint, this is tracked by having the first Explorer’s Location GNDT field list the second Explorer’s name. If an Explorer is being held at Gunpoint by an Explorer who is at a different Location, they stop being held at Gunpoint.) An Explorer who is being held at Gunpoint may not change their own Location, take Supplies or use Background powers.
Spy: A Spy may, once only, during this Dynasty private message the Expedition Leader that they spy on a particular Explorer, the Expedition Leader then tells the spy a random background of the person they are spying on.
Cultist: When a Cultist becomes such, or upon private request to the Expedition Leader for a reminder, the Expedition Leader shall privately communicate to them the Secret Creed in a timely fashion.
The Secret Creed contains one number and five words. For example: “13, copper explain ill-fated truck neat”. The content of the Secret Creed is privately tracked by the Expedition Leader. A Cultist Explorer (even if they are Insane) may privately contact the Expedition Leader announcing that they have SEEN THE TRUTH, as a weekly action. In response, the Expedition Leader should set the Cultist Explorer’s Insanity to zero.

If an Explorer has no Backgrounds, they can, at-will but once ever during this Dynasty, privately request the Expedition Leader their Backgrounds. The Expedition Leader then can and shall grant them two (secretly random and different) Backgrounds in a timely fashion, and privately communicate to the requesting Explorer what their new Backgrounds are.

If any non-Adventurer Explorer makes a post which is in the format of a WRESTLE A BEAR post, or any non-Handyman Explorer makes a post in the format of a GATHER THEIR TOOLS post, the Expedition Leader shall reply to such a post with comment stating that such a post is Shenanigans and remove 1 Dog Sled from them for wasting the expedition’s time.

The Expedition Leader cannot publicly or privately reveal the Backgrounds of any Explorer unless instructed to do so by a rule.

An Explorer may opt to not have any Backgrounds assigned to them by privatly communicating this to the Expedition Leader. 72 hours after 03 Jun 2017 16:56:25 UTC, the Expedition Leader assigns Backgrounds to each Explorer that has not opted out of having Backgrounds.

If an Explorer has unidled or joined and the Expedition Leader has not received a private message from them up to 12 hours since they joined or unidled stating they opt out of having Backgrounds, the Expedition Leader assigns them 2 Backgrounds in a timely manner.

Expedition Leading

There is a wiki page called “Mission Status”. This tracks all Missions and their content (except for “Secret Treasure”), and also contains (tracks) “Amount of Missions Completed”, which defaults to 0.

Each Mission has the following:

Title: A flavor-appropriate name for the Mission
Synopsis: A flavor-appropriate description of the Mission
Goal: An unambiguous description of a certain gamestate pattern. This must also state a certain amount of Participants (Explorers). For example, “Three Explorers are at South Camp. These Explorers are the Participants”.
Status: This can have a status of “Pending”, “Completed” and default to “Pending”.
Reward: A certain profit or penalty, for example, more Supplies or Dog Sleds.
Secret Treasure: This can be “Unknown”, “Double Reward”, “Eldritch Horror” or “None”, defaulting to “Unknown”. If a Mission has an Unknown Secret Reward, the Expedition Leader may assign it any secretly randomly determined value other than “Unknown”.

When a Mission’s Goal has been met, any Explorer (who is a Participant of that Mission’s Goal) can set that Mission’s Status from “Pending” to “Completed” with a “Mission Hand-in” public blog post, which must state the Mission and Participants involved.

The Expedition Leader may then Stamp a Mission Hand-in post, by making a comment to that post with the text "STAMP" and increasing Amount of Missions Completed by one. When this happens, all Participants gain the Reward each. If the completed Missions “Secret Treasure” value is “Double Reward”, they each gain twice the Reward instead. If the completed Missions “Secret Treasure” value is “Eldritch Horror”, the Expedition Leader selects one of its Participants in a secretly random manner, and that Participant gains an Artefact.

The Ancient one is an entity who has Satisfaction, which defaults to 0. This value is publically tracked on the “Mission Status” wiki page.

Hint

As a weekly action, the Expedition Leader should make a blog post that lists - for each Background except “Cultist” - the number of Explorers who have that Background.

Conspiracies

An Explorer who is a Cultist or a Scholar may Conspire to convert another Explorer by sending a private message to the Expedition Leader with this intention. At any time when two or more Explorers are conspiring against the same Explorer, the Expedition Leader may resolve the effects of all such Conspiracies, in sequence:

Any Conspiracies which target an Explorer who is both a Cultist and a Scholar are skipped for the remainder of this list.
If two or more Scholars are conspiring against the same Cultist, that Cultist becomes a Scholar instead of a Cultist.
If two or more Cultists are conspiring against the same Scholar, that Scholar becomes a Cultist instead of a Scholar.
If two or more Explorers are conspiring against the same Explorer, and that Explorer is neither a Scholar nor a Cultist, then all of these Conspiring Explorers become Untrustworthy.

When one or more Explorers become Untrustworthy, the Expedition Leader must announce this in a blog post. If an Explorer is Untrustworthy, they may no longer Conspire against other Explorers.

Upon the Expedition Leader resolving Conspiracies, the Leader must post a blog entry announcing this, and privately inform any Explorers if their Backgrounds have changed. Upon the blog entry being posted, all Explorers cease Conspiring.

An Explorer may spend 4 Supplies to make themselves Hexproof by painting runes on themselves and smoking plenty of incense, as per a ritual the University has discovered. While Hexproof, that Explorer cannot be targeted by Conspiracies, but if that Explorer changes Location, they lose their Hexproof status. An Explorer, by default, is not Hexproof.

Unmasked

After a DoV or DoA has passed the Expedition Leader makes an “Unmasked” post in a timely manner containing the following information: The backgrounds of each Explorer along with the date and time they received those backgrounds. If an Explorer used a secret power (such as the spy’s power), include what time and date they used it at and what information they received from using such a power.

Artefacts

Each Explorer carries zero or more Artefacts, and this is tracked privately by the Expedition Leader. Whenever an Explorer gains an Artefact, the Expedition Leader should privately inform them of this.

An Explorer may give an Artefact they are carrying to another Explorer in the same Location by privately informing the Expedition Leader of this. An Explorer who is not a Cultist may destroy an Artefact they are carrying by privately informing the Expedition Leader of this; upon doing so, the Explorer stops carrying it.

Bunk Inspection
An Explorer (the inspector) may inspect another Explorer’s (the inspectee, who must be in the same location as the inspector) bunk by making a Story Post (the Inspection) indicating so. The Expedition Leader may resolve the oldest unresolved Inspection post by posting the resolution of the Inspection as a comment on the post. (If an Inspection post has been deleted, it is no longer an Inspection post.) If the inspector is Untrustworthy, the Inspection becomes invalid and nothing happens. If the inspectee is carrying no Artefacts, the inspector becomes Untrustworthy. If instead the inspectee is carrying more than zero Artefacts, the inspectee becomes Untrustworthy, and the resolution of the Inspection should also publicly declare one randomly-chosen background of the inspectee.

Victory

If any explorer who is not HIDEOUSLY TRANSFORMED is the only explorer who is not insane, they have achieved victory.

If an explorer is HIDEOUSLY TRANSFORMED, and has had their post to that effect certified by the Expedition Leader, and all explorers are insane, that explorer has achieved victory.

If a Cultist has a number of Artefacts equal to a quorum of Cultists, and is at the Mountain Camp, and is not at Gunpoint, then that Cultist has achieved victory.

If three Artefacts have been destroyed, then the Explorer to have destroyed the most Artefacts (breaking ties in favour of the Explorer to have destroyed an Artefact most recently) has achieved victory.

At any time, a Cultist may Unveil by posting a Story Post containing the word “Unveiling” in its title. In that post, they must declare one of the following:

that they are the only Cultist;
that there are exactly two Cultists, in which case the post must also specify the name of the other Cultist;
that there are at least three Cultists, in which case the post must also specify the names of at least two other Cultists.

Diary Entries

Any Explorer may send a Diary Entry to the Expedition Leader via private message, to be found embedded in the snow and ice a hundred years from now. A Diary Entry must list each Explorer (except the Expedition Leader) exactly once, and suspect exactly two different Backgrounds for each of those Explorers.

A suspected Background is correct if the Explorer it refers to has that Background, and false otherwise. A Diary Entry’s score is equal to the number of correct suspected Backgrounds that it contains. If a single Explorer submits multiple Diary Entries, all of those Diary Entries beyond the first instead have a score of zero.

If the date is on or after the 12th of July 2017, or if the Expedition Leader has received a Diary Entry from every other Explorer, then the Expedition Leader should make a blog post listing the scores of all Diary Entries received. Upon doing so, the Explorer who sent the Diary Entry with the single highest score achieves victory. (If this is tied, the tied Explorer to have made a proposal earliest in the current dynasty achieves victory.)

Eternal Torment

The Explorer named Cuddlebeam may not make Combo posts or Calls for Judgment.

Void

If no Explorer has done so in the last 48 hours, any Explorer can add 1 Insanity to all Explorers via this rule.

Secret Voting

This rule may be repealed by any Explorer when a valid Ascension Address has been posted for the First Dynasty of Sphinx. Explorers other than the Expedition Leader may make a vote of :Sphinx: on a DoV. A vote of :Sphinx: becomes the same as the vote of the Expedition Leader when the Expedition Leader has a valid vote on that DoV.

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 Explorers.

Daily Action: If a game action is a Daily Action, each Explorer 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 Explorer 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): An Explorer’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that Explorer’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Explorer’s Vote on that Votable Matter.

Flavour Text: When posting a blog entry, an Explorer 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 Explorers is half the number of Explorers in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Explorers it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Explorers.

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. Explorers 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, 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 Explorer 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 Explorer 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 Explorer 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 six hours old and either no Explorer 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.

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

Specific parts of the Gamestate data shall be tracked by the Generic Nomic Data Tracker at http://blognomic.com/gndt/generic.cgi?nomic=blog. Any Explorer may update any Explorer'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 an Explorer’s action is (and can only be) applied by editing that data in that place. One GNDT or wiki update may contain one or more alterations, or one alteration may be split over multiple updates, as long as it is clear what is happening and the alterations are otherwise legal. The GNDT merely represents the Gamestate, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and the GNDT are different, any Explorer may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

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

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 an Explorer if it is explicitly stated that it refers to an Explorer'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 Core Rules, or if both of them are Dynastic Rules, the part with more limited scope applies. (e.g. if the rules “Explorers may Kick each other” and “Explorers may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Explorers may not Kick each other.)
If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Explorers may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Explorers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Explorers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)

Ruleset 148

Contents

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

Explorers

Idle Explorers

Dynasties

Votable Matters

Proposals

Special Proposal Voting

Resolution of Proposals

Calls for Judgement

Victory and Ascension

Fair Play

Seasonal Downtime

Atomic Actions

Dynastic Rules

Combos

Tags

Camps

Camping

Camp Rules

Camp doors

Fire

Et ignem regunt numeri

Temperature

Explorers

Debt

Portable Rules

Using Supplies

Exploring

Madness

Going Insane

Background

Expedition Leading

Hint

Conspiracies

Unmasked

Artefacts

Victory

Diary Entries

Eternal Torment

Void

Secret Voting

Appendix

Keywords

Gamestate Tracking

Random Generators

Clarifications

Numbers and Variables

Rules and Proposals

Time

Spelling

Names

Prioritisation

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