Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Pactmakers 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.

Pactmakers 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 Pactmaker may update it to do so.

Pactmakers

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Admin may render a Pactmaker Idle if that Pactmaker has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past four days, or if that Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker if that Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker 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 Pactmakers, known as the Seraphims. If there is no Seraphim, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.

Votable Matters

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

Votes

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

If a Pactmaker other than the Seraphims casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Seraphims. When a quorum of Seraphims has the same valid Vote other than VETO, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL on that Votable Matter are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Vote of the quorum of Seraphims with the same valid Vote.

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

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

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

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

Enacting and Failing

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

Whenever an Admin resolves a Votable Matter, they 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 Pactmaker may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the “Proposal” category that describes those changes (unless the Pactmaker already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).

Special Proposal Voting

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

Resolution of Proposals

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

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

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

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

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

Calls for Judgement

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

A Pending CfJ may be Enacted by any Admin if all of the following are ture:

It is Popular.

A Pending CfJ may be Failed by any Admin if any of the following are true:

It is Unpopular.
It specifies neither changes to the Gamestate or Ruleset nor corrections to any gamestate tracking entities.

When a CfJ is Enacted, the Admin Enacting it shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct the GNDT and other gamestate tracking entities, as specified in the CFJ.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a Pactmaker (hereafter referred to as the Victor) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, either individually, or collectively with other Pactmakers (hereafter referred to as the co-Victors), then that Pactmaker 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 “Pactmakers”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgement”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

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

A Pending DoV may be Enacted by any Admin if any of the following is true:

It is Popular, it has been open for at least 12 hours, and either a quorum of Seraphims has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
It is Popular, and it has been open for at least 24 hours.

A Pending DoV may be Failed by any Admin if any of the following are true:

It is Unpopular, and it has been open for at least 12 hours.

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

When a DoV is enacted, all other active DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins, with the Victor, and the co-Victors if there are any, as its Seraphims. At this point, the Victor may pass this role to another Pactmaker 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 Seraphims 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 Pactmaker and Seraphim will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire ruleset, and/or a number of dynastic rules and/or pending proposals to keep. Upon posting such an Ascension Address, the Ruleset is updated to reflect any changed terms, any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed and any pending proposals not listed are failed.
all the Victor and co-Victors have stepped down and there is no longer an Seraphim - 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 Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker'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 Pactmaker within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Pactmaker and any Idle Pactmakers.
A Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
A Pactmaker should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Pactmaker.
A Pactmaker should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
A Pactmaker should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
A Pactmaker should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an ascension address).
A Pactmaker 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 a Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker must redo the Atomic Action. In redoing an Atomic Action, the Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker a point and the rest do nothing and the Pactmaker 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 a Pactmaker 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 its 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, Pactmakers 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. Pactmakers may not make multiple rolls in the GNDT for the same step. Pactmakers 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]”.

Pact Magic

Pactmakers can, at-will, create Promises for themselves, which are strings of text. Each Promise possesses a number (the “Promise’s Number”) - the first Promise created has a number of 1, and the second one 2, and the third one 3, etc, with all Promise numbers following that pattern. Pactmakers should not break their own Promise/s, and for greater clarity, Promises don’t “bind” anyone except the Pactmaker which made the Promise. All Promises (along who they belong to) are tracked on The Pact Magic Records.

If a Pactmaker believes that another Pactmaker’s action has broken a Promise, and if that action has not already been the subject of a Magic Backlash or a Mea Culpa, they may raise a Magic Backlash Official Post about it. Those posts are Votable Matters, and should provide information which allows to determine that such a Pactmaker has broken their Promise, because if passed, such a Pactmaker will acquire Extreme Seizures.

A Pending Magic Backlash may be Enacted by any Admin if all of the following are true:

It is Popular.

A Pending Magic Backlash may be Failed by any Admin if any of the following are true:

It is Unpopular.

If a Pactmaker posts a comment of “Mea Culpa” in relation to an action they have taken which they believe breaks one of their own Promises, then that Pactmaker immediately acquires Extreme Seizures with regard to that Promise and action.

While a Pactmaker is undergoing Extreme Seizures, they cannot perform dynastic actions nor post any DoVs. Extreme Seizures last for 96 hours (4 days) since the last time granted.

While a Pactmaker is undergoing Extreme Seizures for having broken a Promise, they may invalidate that Promise (this overrides the restriction of Dynastic Actions while seizing). Invalidated promises are indicated by adding “[Broken]” to the end of the promise.

The time and date at the which a Pactmaker’s Extreme Seizures will end (if any, otherwise its blank) is tracked in the GNDT under “E.S. Expiration”.

Scorn

A Pactmaker can Scorn any Promise made by another Pactmaker (unless that other Pactmaker is undergoing Extreme Seizures, is the subject of a Magic Backlash Official Post, or the Promise is Invalidated): upon doing so, the Scorned Pactmaker gains 1 Mana. Scorn is tracked by appending “[Scorned by Name]” to the end of the Promise, where “Name” is the Scorner’s name.

While a Pactmaker is undergoing Extreme Seizures as a result of a broken Promise, all Scornings of that Promise are Satsifed.

All Scornings of an invalidated promise are Satisfied.

Once a Scorning is Satisfied, its Scorner gains 3 Mana and the Scorning may be removed by the Scorner.

Mana

Pactmakers have an amount of Mana, which is an integer value which defaults to 0 and is tracked in the GNDT. Pactmakers can transfer any integer amount of their mana to any other Pactmaker in the same Square as them.

Pactmakers can gain mana by doing Favors to otherworldly patrons, listed in the rule “Available Favors”. Once a Favor is completed, that Pactmaker gains an amount of mana according to that Favor’s payout (which is in brackets).

Mana-eater

“Mana-eaters”(Or Manaphages) is a generic term for entities (often lesser beings) that feed off mana. Mana-eaters are on a square of the Ibiza map or none. Mana-eaters are tracked on the Ibiza map. Pactmakers, if they at the same square as a certain Mana-eater’s square, can pay them 1 mana to make that Mana-eater move 1 square (to a square adjacent to that Mana-eater’s original position). Each Mana-eater has a species, which is one of the following (with the Mana-eater having additional abilities depending on their species as listed):

Imp:
Succubus:
Behemoth:
Stray Cherub:

Channeling

A Pactmaker can Channel one of their Promises at will by paying 1 mana and marking it with [Channeling since X], where X is the date when they started Channeling that Promise. After a Promise has been Channeled for a week (168 hours), a Pactmaker can stop Channeling it. When that happens, they gain mana equal to twice the amount of Scorns that Promise currently has. If a Promise with a Channeling is broken, that Channeling is removed.

Ibiza

Ibiza is a town, represented by a 7x7 grid of squares tracked in the wiki page “Ibiza”.

For row n and column k in the grid of squares, the location shall be known as (n-4,k-4). For example, the top left corner would be (-3,-3), and the bottom right corner would be (3,3). The location of explorers defaults to (0,0), and is tracked in the GNDT.

The Pact Magic Records are a subsection within the Ibiza wikipage.

Ibiza Town

Each Pactmaker is at a Square (Squares being cells in the Ibiza map grid), defaulting to D4. A Pactmaker can pay 2 Stamina to move to a square which is adjacent to their current square.

Each of Ibiza Town’s squares contains a Feature. Each Feature has a name (or none). Features and certain special effects related to that Feature are the following:

Town Hall:
Cathedral:
Hospital:
Night Club:
Bar:
Hotel:
Beach:
Exotic:
Casino:
Residential:
Fields (tracked as a nameless green square): Often open and easy to drive (or run) through, Pactmakers only pay 1 Stamina instead of 2 for moving onto a Fields Square.
Water (tracked as a nameless blue square): Pactmakers cannot move onto Water squares.

Map Naming

Up to 48 hours after the proposal that added this ruletext has been enacted, any Pactmaker can change the name of a Square at-will, provided that the square still contains the name of the type of Feature that it is (For example, “Casino” to “John Doe’s Casino”). The Seraphim can change the name of a Feature at any moment.

Available Favors

[7] Promising that every Sunday, they will return to one particular square of Ibiza, chosen at the time of the promise.
[5] Promising “I will give the Seraphim 6 mana within 96 hours of making this Promise.”

Stamina

Each Pactmaker has an amount of Stamina between 0 and 20, tracked in the GNDT, defauting to 0. As a weekly action, a Pactmaker may take up to 14 Stamina.

Imp (Mana-eater)

A Pactmaker may "summon" an imp mana-eater to the Ibiza square on which they currently occupy if the following conditions are satisfied:

The Pactmaker is not undergoing Extreme Seizures and is not the subject of a Magic Backlash Official Post.
The Pactmaker does not already own a summoned imp mana-eater
The Pactmaker has at least 5 unique promises which are scorned by one or more Pactmakers.

Once an imp is summoned, it is displayed on the Ibiza square under the name "[Pactmamker]'s Imp" If the summoning Pactmaker no longer has at least 5 scorned promises, the imp is "unsummoned" and is removed from the Ibiza square.

A Pactmaker may command an Imp Mana-eater they have summoned to Torment another Pactmaker by expending 3 mana if the following is true:

The commanding Pactmaker is not undergoing Extreme Seizures and is not the subject of a Magic Backlash Official Post.
The targeted Pactmaker has Scorned one or more of the commanding Pactmaker's Promises.
The commanded Imp is not currently Tormenting another Pactmaker.

Once a Pactmaker is undergoing Torment, the tormenting Imp Mana-eater is moved to the square of the targeted Pactmaker and the Imp's name is changed to "[Pactmaker]'s Imp tormenting [Target]". The targeted Pactmaker then suffers the following effects:

The tormented Pactmaker may not expend stamina to change locations on the Ibiza board. If the tormented Pactmaker's location changes on the Ibiza board for any other reason, the tormenting Imp's location changes to the same location.
The tormented Pactmaker may not expend mana to change the location of any Mana-eater on the Ibiza board.

Torment may be ended in the following ways:

The commanding Pactmaker ends the Torment by changing the tormenting Imp's name on the Ibiza board.
The tormenting Imp becomes unsummoned
The tormented Pactmaker no longer Scorns any Promises of the commanding Pactmaker

Gnosis

Each Pactmaker has a ‘Gnosis’ value, which is a non-negative integer that defaults to zero. Whenever a Pactmaker gains 100 or more mana in a 12-hour period, they can do the following steps as an Atomic Action:

Set their mana to zero
Promise to never use again any method/s (as in the full pathway, partial uses of the pathway of the method wouldn’t break the promise) they used to gain mana during that 12-hour period
Gain 1 Gnosis.

Whenever a Pactmaker has 5 or more Gnosis, they can become a Deity by making a Story Post for this purpose.

The first person to become a Deity will achieve Victory unless someone else has achieved Victory by another method.

Golem

A Golem is an automaton created from the Earth, animated by Pact Magic. For the purpose of Dynastic Rules, they count as a Pactmaker.

A Pactmaker may create a Golem by, as an atomic action:

Spending 3 Mana and 7 Stamina.
Giving the Golem a name, which must be a single word beginning with the letter G, and not the name of any Pactmaker.
Engraving at least one Promise into the Golem. The Golem is then considered to have made those Promise(s).
Making a public post about the Golem’s creation, indicating the Golem’s name and promise(s).

At the time of its creation, the position of a Golem in Ibiza is that of its creator; its Mana is 1, and its Stamina is 5.

At any time, a Pactmaker on the same square as a Golem may Activate that Golem.

A Golem that has a Gnosis value of -1 is considered to be destroyed. Any Pactmaker may set a destroyed Golem’s Gnosis value to -1.

When a Golem is Activated, it attempts to keep all of its Promises. If there is ambiguity in how the Golem should resolve keeping its Promises, the Activator may choose how to resolve it.

If a Golem is the subject of a Magic Backlash post that is Enacted, it is destroyed instead of undergoing Extreme Seizures.

An Admin may add newly-created Golems or remove destroyed Golems from the GNDT.

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 Pactmakers.

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

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

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

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. Pactmakers 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 Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker 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 a Pactmaker who has been a Pactmaker 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 Pactmaker may update any Pactmaker's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.

All updates to the GNDT are logged. For gamestate which is tracked in a specific place (such as the GNDT or a wiki page), any alteration of that gamestate as a result of a Pactmaker’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 Pactmaker may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Pactmaker 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, Pactmakers are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead. Pactmakers shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

Random Generators

The GNDT can be used to generate random results.

The DICEN command can be used to generate a random number between 1 and N.
The FRUIT command will return a random result from the following options: Lemon, Orange, Kiwi, Grape, Cherry, Tangelo.
The COLOUR (or COLOR) command will return a random result from the following: White, Red, Green, Silver, Yellow, Turquoise, Magenta, Orange, Purple, Black.

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

If a number or other game variable is selected 'at random' or 'randomly' from a range of possible values, its value shall always be taken from a uniform probability distribution over the entire range of possible values, unless otherwise specified. This value must be determined by an appropriate DICE roll in the GNDT, unless otherwise specified. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Pactmaker making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the GNDT.

Clarifications

Numbers and Variables

If a set of valid values is not specified in their definition, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers. Any action that would set those values below zero is an illegal action unless explicitly otherwise stated in the ruleset.
Any situation which would require a roll of DiceX when X is zero or lower always yields a value of 0 unless stated otherwise.
All numbers, unless stated otherwise by a rule, are in base ten.
Unless otherwise specified, to “spend” or “lose” an amount X of a numeric value “V” means to subtract X from V; to “gain” X of a numeric value “V” means to add X to V; and to “transfer” X of a numeric value “V” from A to B means to subtract X from A’s V and add X to B’s V. Unless otherwise specified, only positive amounts can be spent, lost, gained, or transferred, and a rule that allows Pactmakers to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Pactmaker (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
A Pactmaker who has a choice in whether to take an action defined by a dynastic rule may not take that action if both of the following conditions are true: a) the action's effects are limited to changing values tracked in the GNDT and/or similar gamestate-tracking entities (such as a wiki page), and b) the action would change one or more of those values to an illegal value.
If a rule implies that the result of any calculation should be an integer (for instance, by attempting to store that result in, or add it to, a gamestate variable that can only hold integers), the result of the calculation is instead the result rounded towards 0.
If a game variable has no defined starting value, then that starting value is the nearest legal value to zero that it may take (for numerical variables, defaulting to positive if tied), blank (for a text string or list that may be blank), the alphabetically earliest legal text string it may take (for a text string which may not be blank, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”), or the list which is alphabetically earliest from the set of lists with the fewest elements (for lists which may not be blank, and considering each list to be a single unpunctuated text string, with the digits 0 through 9 considered to precede “A”).
Invalid values for game variables can never be used, even if the values stored in the GNDT remain valid. (for example, if X appears in a formula referring to a value that is a non-negative integer, X must be used as a non-negative integer)
DICEN cannot be rolled in the GNDT if N is 22 or more digits long.

Rules and Proposals

If a new rule is created by a proposal and its location is not noted in that proposal, that new rule is to be placed in the Dynastic Rules.
If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a proposal enacting, that page shall - unless otherwise specified - be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that proposal's submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked).
Where a Proposal would amend the effects of Proposal Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (eg. a proposal proposing that enacted proposals earn their author a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own author, when enacted).
Rules which trigger upon the Resolution of a Votable Matter are the responsibility of the Admin who Resolves it.
Unless otherwise specified, a new Dynastic rule shall be placed at the end of the Dynastic Rules.
If 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, Pactmaker 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 a Pactmaker if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Pactmaker'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 “Pactmakers may Kick each other” and “Pactmakers may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Pactmakers may not Kick each other.)
If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Pactmakers may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Pactmakers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Pactmakers may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)

Ruleset 149

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