Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Individuals shall obey it.

It comprises four Sections: 1) the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering the essential elements of gameplay; 2) the rules of the current Dynasty; 3) rules which apply in special cases; and 4) the appendix, which complements and clarifies the Ruleset.

The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset.

Individuals 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 Individual may update it to do so.

Individuals

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

An Individual may only change their name as a result of a Proposal approving the change.

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

Idle Individuals

If an Individual is not listed in the Sidebar in the section “Current Active Players” or only appears there in a comment, they are Idle. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Individuals”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play” and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Individuals are not counted as Individuals.

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

When an Individual 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 Individual Idled in a different Dynasty), the Individual is given the default value for new Individuals, if such a value exists.

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

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

Idle Admins can enact and fail Votable Matters.

Dynasties

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

Votable Matters

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

Votes

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

If an Individual other than the Director casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Director. When the Director has a valid Vote other than VETO on a Votable Matter, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL on that Votable Matter are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Director’s Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified.

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

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

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

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

Enacting and Failing

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

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

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

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

When an Individual casts a vote AGAINST their own Proposal (which is not in the form of a DEFERENTIAL vote), this renders the Proposal Self-Killed, even if the author later changes their Vote. The Director may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Director casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Director 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 Individuals actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if an Individual feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Individual may raise a Call for Judgement (abbreviated “CfJ”) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgement” category.

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

It is Popular.

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

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

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

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If an Individual (other than the Director) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they may make a Declaration of Victory (abbreviated “DoV”) detailing this, by posting an entry in the “Declaration of Victory” category.

Every Individual may cast Votes on that DoV to indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty. If there is at least one pending DoV, BlogNomic is on Hiatus.

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

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

If a DoV is Failed and it had at least one AGAINST vote, the Individual who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was Failed.

When a DoV is Enacted, all other pending DoVs are Failed, and a new Dynasty begins in which the Individual who made the DoV becomes the Director. That Individual may pass the role of Director to another Individual by making a post to that effect, provided they haven’t yet made an Ascension Address for the new Dynasty. Between the enactment of the DoV and the posting of the Ascension Address, no new DoV may be made and BlogNomic is on Hiatus.

The new Director will make an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category. This should specify the Director’s chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and it may optionally specify that the terms Individual and Director will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire Ruleset, and/or list a number of dynastic rules to keep. When such an Ascension Address is posted, the Ruleset is updated to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed.

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules as it relates to Declarations of Victory, but it 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 Individual’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. Individuals should vote against any DoV that relies on having broken a fair play rule.

A single person should not control more than one non-Idle Individual within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Individual and any Idle Individuals.
An Individual 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 Individual should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
An Individual should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Individual.
An Individual should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
An Individual should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
An Individual 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 Individual should not roll dice 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. An Individual must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
An Individual should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
An Individual should not use a core, special case or appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly achieve victory.

Dynastic Rules

Researchers and Collectors

Each Individual is either a Researcher, a Collector or an Outsider, defaulting to being an Outsider. This quality is known as an Individual’s Pursuit. An Outsider may become a Collector at any time.

Each Individual has a Location, which is either a Place or Unknown, defaulting to Unknown.

An Individual’s Pursuit and Location are tracked in a wiki page called “Individuals”.

If an Individual ceases to be an Individual, all Artefacts they are carrying and in their Collection have their Location set to Unknown.

Places

Several significant places are being observed by the Institute.

Public Places

An Individual may Travel to any Public Place at any time by updating their Location to this effect. Whenever an Individual Travels to or from a Public Place, they must gain 1 Damage.

Jerez
Kielce
Rennes
Eindhoven
Bergen
Norwich

Secure Places

A Researcher may Travel to any Secure Place at any time by updating their Location to this effect.

The Institute
The Containment Facility

Esoteric Places

Esoteric Places may only be Travelled to or from by methods defined in their descriptions, even if Travelling to a Place would otherwise be allowed.

The Warp
- An Individual may enter The Warp by the use of an Artefact that allows it.
- An Individual in The Warp can Swim Out of It to Travel to any Public Place by gaining 1 Damage.

The Cathedral
- This Place is also a Public Place.
- This Place can be Travelled to, but only from Jerez. An Individual in The Cathedral can Travel, but only to Jerez.
- A Individual whose Damage is greater than the mean average all Individuals’ Damage cannot enter The Cathedral.

Artefacts

Each Artefact has a Name, a Description, a Location, a Protocol and an Effect. Artefacts that exist are listed as subrules of this rule, with their Name as the name of the subrule. An Artefact’s Protocol defines Institute policy on how Researchers should and should not interact with it. An Artefact’s Effect defines what it does and how this may occur. An Artefact’s Description is flavour text.

When an Individual Focuses, they must gain one Damage Token.

An Artefact’s Location may be either a Place, an Individual, a Collection, or Unknown. If an Artefact’s Location is an Individual, it is said to be carried by that Individual, and all Individuals should, for the purposes of its effect or any actions taken, consider its Location to be the Location of the Individual who is carrying it. If an Individual shares a Location with an Artefact that is not being carried by another Individual, they may pick it up by setting its Location to themselves. If an Individual is carrying an Artefact, they may drop it by setting its Location to their own Location. An Individual may be carrying no more than two artefacts at any time.

Individuals and Artefacts with Unknown Locations are never considered to share a Location with any other Individuals or Artefacts.

If a Researcher fails to follow the recommendation of a Protocol they are considered to have Breached it. If a Researcher (the “Transgressor”) has Breached the Protocol for an Artefact within the past 48 hours, any Researcher may set the Transgressor’s Pursuit to Outsider and (if the Transgressor is in a Secure Place) change the Location of all Artefacts carried by the Transgressor to The Containment Facility, and change the Transgressor’s Location to Unknown.

“Carrying” an Artefact and “holding” an Artefact are synonymous. An Individual can only Focus up to 4 times a day.

The Pencil

Description: A 19cm hexagonal HB pencil with a black-painted body and no manufacturer’s name. Its lead is sharp and it appears unused.
Location: The Individual named Darknight
Protocol: None
Effect: An Individual carrying the Pencil may Focus to erase from the ruleset any Artefact (except the Pencil) that they share a Location with.

The Tiepin

Description: A small silver clip engraved with roses and thorns. Attaching it to clothing gives the wearer the appearance of a non-specific person from any desired profession.
Location: Cuddlebeam's Collection
Protocol: A Researcher should not carry this Artefact in a Public Place.
Effect: An Individual carrying the Tiepin may Focus to change their Pursuit to Researcher, Collector or Outsider at any time.

The Lego Brick

Description: A yellow lego brick.
Location: Tantusar's collection
Protocol: None
Effect: Whenever an Individual Travels from not being in the same Location as this Artefact, to being in the same Location as this Artefact, they gain 1 Damage. This Artefact is Alive.

The Satchel

Description: A battered leather satchel with two brass buckles.
Location: The Individual named The Duke of Waltham
Protocol: A Researcher should not carry this Artefact while in The Containment Facility.
Effect: When an Artefact is being recovered, if the carrier of the Satchel is in the selected Location, no die roll is made to determine the Individual who will carry the Artefact: the Satchel carrier gains it instead. The Location of an Individual carrying the Satchel is always considered to be a Public Place for the purposes of recovery rolls.

The Paperclip

Description: A standard Gem-type 0.75g paper clip, bearing a few small rust spots.
Location: Tantusar's collection
Protocol: None
Effect: If there is more than one Individual who is a Collector, and one specific Collector has a number of Damage Tokens that is greater than zero and greater than that of every other Collector, then an Individual carrying the Paperclip may Focus to perform the following Atomic Action:

Change the Pursuit of that specific Collector to Researcher;
Change the Pursuit of any Individual who is a Researcher to Collector;
And set the Location of the Paperclip to Unknown.

The Switchcomb

Description: A novelty comb that is attached to a switchblade handle. It looks cheaply made, the sort of junk you would see at a tourist trap in a mall.
Location: Cuddlebeam's Collection
Protocol: Whenever you enter a Place, use this Artefact on another Individual with at least 2 Artefacts if such an Individual exists in that Place.
Effect: An Individual carrying the Switchcomb may Focus to target at least one [REDACTED] in a Place they are located in. If the Target is not a Researcher, they drop a random Artefact they are carrying, if they have at least 2 Artefacts.

The Marble

Description: A simple marble, it seems to roll in such a way that it is easy to lose.
Location: Tantusar’s collection
Protocol: To not use this Artefact.
Effect: An Individual carrying the Marble may Focus to gain 1 Damage, set the Marble’s Location to Unknown and set another Artefact’s Location from Unknown to their Location.

The Bottle of Gin

Description: A bottle of own-brand supermarket gin. It cannot be opened, either by unscrewing the cap or by breaking the glass. The liquid glows with a bluish-purple hue under ultraviolet light.
Location: Cuddlebeam’s Collection
Protocol: None.
Effect: If an Individual carrying the Bottle of Gin would receive [REDACTED] Damage, they receive an equal amount of [REDACTED] Damage instead.

The Goggles

Description: A pair of novelty glasses with what appears to be beer in the lenses. It is branded with the logo of a well-known internet search company.
Location: Cuddlebeam’s Collection
Protocol: None
Effect: None.

The Picture Frame

Description: A 2m diameter metallic ring with arms and legs.
Location: The Individual called Cuddlebeam
Protocol: None
Effect: This Artefact is Alive. As its Behavior it will set the Location all Individuals that share Location with it, to The Warp. An Individual holding the Frame may Focus to send an Individual of their choice at their Location to The Warp.

The Security Pass

Description: A top-level Institute security pass, with lanyard, hologram and various psychic reflectors.
Location: The Individual called Josh
Protocol: A Researcher should never drop this Artefact.
Effect: A Researcher carrying this Artefact in the Containment Facility may ignore that Location’s restriction on picking items up there. They may also Travel to any Secure Place at any time by updating their own Location to this effect.

The Lunchbox

Description: A small child’s lunchbox, decorated with Pokémon colours. Dented, with the colours starting to wear off.
Location: Cuddlebeam's Collection
Protocol: If a Researcher has the means to destroy this Artefact then they must do so within 24 hours of having gained the capability to do so.
Effect: An Individual carrying the Lunchbox may, as a daily action, Focus to carry out the Effect of an Artefact in their Collection as if they were carrying it.

The Left Shoe

Description: A patent leather brogue, tan, EU 42 / US 9.5. Brand new, not broken in.
Location: Cuddlebeam’s Collection
Protocol: None
Effect: The Individual carrying the Left Shoe may Focus to throw it. Once the Left Shoe has been thrown, the Individual who threw it should randomly select a Place (including Unknown, the Warp, and all Individuals’ Collections). The Left Shoe’s Location is set to that Place. Any other Artefacts at that Place are then also relocated to Places at random.

The Right Shoe

Description: A plimsol in pale blue. EU 38 / US 7.5. Sole is worn through at the toe.
Location: The Individual called Duke of Waltham
Protocol: None
Effect: If ever the Left Shoe and the Right Shoe are in the same Location, any Individual may remove both Artefacts from the ruleset.

The Glove

Description: A size 8½ brown leather driving glove with light scorch marks.
Location: Unknown
Protocol: A Researcher should not use this Artefact in the Containment Facility.
Effect: An Individual carrying the Glove may Focus to take 4 Damage and set the Location of a Nearby Artefact to themselves. An Artefact is Nearby an Individual if it is in their Location, or in the Collection of a Individual in the same Location as them. (Setting an Artefact’s Location in this way is not considered to be picking it up.)

The Attendant

Description: A traveller of ambiguous appearance, never fully glimpsed by Institute surveillance but suspected to be visiting from either the past or the future.
Location: Bergen
Protocol: A Researcher should not Clash with this Artefact.
Effect: The Attendant is Alive. The Attendant is considered to be an Individual for the purposes of all dynastic rules. The Director may cause the Attendant to perform any action that it could perform as an Individual, but only if a person (who is neither an Individual nor the Director) has privately suggested this to the Director.

The Taffy

Description: A block of taffy that is extraordinarily sticky, but can't be wrapped: any attempt to contain it in paper or plastic fails as it simply sloughs off the material.
Location: Cuddlebeam's Collection
Protocol: None
Effect: As a Daily Action, if the Individual carrying the Taffy is in a Public Place, they can Focus to Stick the Taffy. When an Individual Sticks the Taffy they must immediately Travel to a different Public Place, ensuring that the comment field in the wiki changelog contains the words "Sticking the Taffy". For the subsequent 72 hours the source and destination locations are considered to be the same location for all dynastic rules.

The Sequin Brooch

Description: A piece of plastic costume jewellery that is studded with sequins.
Location: card's collection
Protocol: None
Effect: This Artefact is Alive. As its Behaviour it will move to a random Public or Secure Location. If the Sequin Brooch is in the Containment Facility then the rule entitled "Containment" is considered to be flavour text. This effect takes priority over the provisions of the rule entitled "Containment".

The Cuppa

Description: It’s a porcelain mug with a seemingly endless supply of tea.
Location: Unknown
Protocol: None
Effect: An Individual at Norwich holding this item may as a Daily Action perform a Focus to remove 2 Damage Tokens (neither of which is a token) from themselves.

The Transistor Radio

Description: A small AM transistor radio with a silver plastic casing and General Electric branding, circa 1955. Any spoken or sung audio picked up by the radio will occasionally have its words altered to a list of numbers, delivered in the transmitted voice. Some such messages have been decoded to produce geographic coordinates or short sentences.
Location: Unknown
Protocol: None.
Effect: Idle Individuals and the Director are encouraged to privately send the carrier of the Transistor Radio their thoughts on possible loopholes in the ruleset.

Incandescent Injection

Description: A mysterious, stillborn item from The Warp.
Location: Cuddlebeam's Collection
Protocol: None
Effect: This Item is Alive and begins with 10 Damage. The holder of this item may focus to Remove 4 Damage Tokens from an Individual at their Location and grant this item 1 Damage. If this item has 13 or more Damage, it is removed from the Ruleset. This is a Fetal Artefact.

The Soap Bar

Description: A very slippery bar of soap that is hard to hold onto.
Location: Unknown
Protocol: None.
Effect: The Location of this Artefact is set to a random Public Location whenever an Individual that is holding it or that has it in their Collection changes Location.

The Clock

Description: A small clock
Location: Unknown
Protocol: None.
Effect: An Individual that is holding this Artefact can Focus to set their Damage, Artefacts held and in their Collection and Location to the values it had at some point within 72 hours in the past, and then remove The Clock from the Ruleset.

Damage

Individuals can have Damage Tokens (AKA simply “Damage”), tracked on the Individuals wikipage. Not having any of a certain Damage Token is tracked by its absence. The following are the kinds of Damage Tokens and their effects at having a certain amount of that kind of Damage Token (if any):

Flesh (): When you have 5 or more Damage Tokens, you cannot Travel. If you have 10 or more Damage Tokens, you cannot perform Dynastic Actions except Second Wind.
Soul ():
Reality (): When you have 10 or more Damage Tokens, set all of your amounts of other kinds of Damage Tokens to a random amount between 0 and 10 for each, then set your Damage tokens to 0.
Spatial (): If an Individual has 7 or more Damage, whenever they Travel, their Location is immediately after set to a random Public Place. If an Individual has 10 or more Damage, their Location becomes the Warp whenever it is a Location other than the Warp.

If (and only if) an Individual has had 10 or more Damage Tokens for the last 72 hours or more, they can perform Second Wind: Lose Damage Tokens until you have 9, then gain Damage Tokens equal to that amount of Damage Tokens lost.

If an Individual or other game object (such as an Artefact) has more than one of a certain type of Damage Token, all of that type may instead be represented by one token followed by the relevant number. (For example, "x13 x4" would be an acceptable representation of an Individual's Damage Tokens.)

An Individual can Grit to lose 1 Damage and gain 3 Damage.

Collections

Each Individual has a Collection. As a daily action, an Individual may put an Artefact that they are carrying into their Collection by changing its Location to read “x’s Collection”, where x is their own name. Artefacts in Collections are never considered to share a Location with any other Individuals or Artefacts. Individuals may reclaim Artefacts from their Collection as a daily action by Focusing.

As a Daily Action, a Collector may add one Damage Token to every Collector whose Collection contains fewer items than their own.

If a Researcher adds an Artefact to their Collection, this act is considered to be a Breach of Protocol for that Artefact (regardless of whether it has a Protocol).

Locating Artefacts

If no Individual has changed Location in the past 16 hours and if an Artefact’s Location is Unknown, any Individual may (as a daily communal action) attempt to recover a lost Artefact by selecting a Public Place with at least one Individual and an Artefact with an Unknown Location (each at random) and applying the following:

If any Collectors are in the selected Place, one of them is selected at random to become the Artefact’s Location;
Otherwise if any Individuals are in the selected Place, one of them is selected at random to become the Artefact’s Location

Alive Artefacts

Artefacts can be Alive, and are by default not Alive. Alive Artefacts can have Damage Tokens, and these are tracked on the Individuals page. An Alive Artefact with seven or more Damage Tokens is considered Incapacitated.

If an Alive Artefact is not Incapacitated, it cannot be picked up.

As a Weekly Communal Action, an Individual or the Director can cause a Roaming. This causes each not-Incapacitated Alive Artefact (in the order they appear in the ruleset) to change its Location to a random Public Place (unless it is in a Secure Place), and then (if it is not now in the Containment Facility) to perform its Behavior (if any) as described in its Effect. The Director is encouraged to perform a Roaming whenever possible.

An Individual may choose to Clash with an Alive Artefact that they share a Location with, by making a die roll which mentions the Artefact and which randomly determines the type of an Attack Token (which may be either or ) and of a Retaliation Token (which may be either or ): upon doing so, the Artefact gains a Damage Token of the Attack type and the Individual gains a Token of the Retaliation Type.

Containment

If an Artefact’s Location is the Containment Facility, then its Effect is considered to be flavour text.

An Individual may not pick up an Artefact in the Containment Facility, unless they are carrying the Security Pass.

Fetal Artefacts

An Individual in the Warp can Begin Diving by gaining 1 Damage, and are now considered to be Diving until they perform a Dynastic Action. If an Individual has been Diving during the last 48 hours they can Retrieve a Fetal Artefact. The status of being Diving or not is tracked in the Damage column as “” for being Diving, and its absence for not being Diving.

When an Individual retrieves a Fetal Artefact, they add to the Ruleset’s list of Artefacts (subrules of the rule “Artefacts”) a new Artefact as per the following:

Name: X

Description: A mysterious, stillborn item from The Warp.

Protocol: None

Location: Z

Effect: Y

X is a string formed as “A B”, where B is a random word from this this: “Potion, Elixir, Ether, Pill, Panacea, Injection, Cream, Suppository” and A is a random word from: “Magical, Glowing, Incandescent, Frigid, Sparkling, Dark, Shining, Putrid, Transparent, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Shimmering”

Y is a string formed as “This Item is Alive and begins with 10 Damage. The holder of this item may focus to C and grant this item 1 Damage. If this item has 13 or more Damage, it is removed from the Ruleset. This is a Fetal Artefact.”, where C is a random string from the following list:

Remove 3 Damage Tokens of their choice from themselves
Remove 3 Damage Tokens of their choice from an Individual that shares a Location with them, other than themselves.
Set the Location of a random Artefact you own to The Warp.
Remove all Damage Tokens from an Individual at their Location.
Remove all Damage Tokens from an Individual at their Location.
Remove all Damage Tokens from an Individual at their Location.
Remove 4 Damage Tokens from an Individual at their Location.
Grant 3 Damage Tokens to an Alive Artefact at their Location.

Z is “The Individual named D”, where D is the name of the Individual that Retrieved this Artefact

If an Artefact with the name X already exists, remove three Damage from that Artefact instead.

As a daily communal action, any Individual may add 1 Damage to all Fetal Artefacts.

An Individual, as a Daily Action, can Nurture a Fetal Artefact they are carrying to remove 1 Damage token from it.

Redaction

Certain aspects of the Institute’s research are classified, and blotted out of their written records. While a sentence in the Protocol or Effect of an Artefact contains the string “[REDACTED]”, that sentence is considered to be flavour text.

At any time, the Director may decide (and privately record) the Secret of any “[REDACTED]” string which appears in the Protocol or Effect of an Artefact: that Secret may be any single word or number that appears in the dynastic ruleset, such that the sentence would make grammatical sense if the “[REDACTED]” string were replaced with it. (The Director’s choice of each Secret should be made by choosing a secretly random word from a list of possible words that occur to them as being usable in the redacted space.) Upon determining such a Secret, the Director should select a secretly random Researcher and inform them of the Secret, and the string that it corresponds to.

At the request of the Individual who was told its Secret, the Director may replace the string “[REDACTED]” in the Protocol or Effect of an Artefact with its Secret.

Attainment

An Individual’s Attainment score is a number which measures their success in this world, and which may be negative.

If an Individual is a Researcher, then their Attainment score is five times the number of Artefacts in Secure Places, plus three times the number of Artefacts they are carrying, minus the number of Damage tokens they currently have.

If an Individual is a Collector, then their Attainment score is ten times the number of Artefacts in their Collection, plus three times the number of Artefacts they are carrying, minus the number of Damage tokens they currently have.

If an Individual is an Outsider, then their Attainment score is five minus the number of Damage tokens they currently have.

The Endpoint is the 5th of February 2020 at 12:00 UTC. If the time is after the Endpoint, and if no Individual has Focused in the previous half hour, and if one Individual (the “Attainer”) has more Attainment than each other Individual, then the Attainer has achieved victory.

Institute Proposals

If a proposal has the “[Institute]” tag and its effects are confined to one or more of the Agenda Points below, it is an Institute Proposal.

Agenda Points are:-

Making an Outsider into a Researcher, or vice versa
Moving an Artefact from the Institute or from a Researcher to the Containment Facility
Moving an Artefact from the Containment Facility to the Institute or to a Researcher. (This is a High-Risk Agenda Point.)
Setting the Protocol of an Artefact to “None”
Setting the Protocol of an Artefact to be the same as the Protocol of another Artefact
Initiate a Capture with a code number (between 1 and 9999) which has been used by no other Investigations. (This is a High-Cost Agenda Point.)

An Institute Proposal may not contain more than one High-Cost Agenda Point.

Votes from Outsiders and Collectors are ignored, on Institute Proposals. Votes of FOR, DEFERENTIAL and AGAINST from the Director are ignored, on Institute Proposals. An Institute Proposal with no High-Risk Agenda Points is considered Popular if more than half of the Researchers are voting FOR it. An Institute Proposal with one or more High-Risk Agenda Points is considered Popular if three or more Researchers are voting FOR it. An Institute Proposal is considered Unpopular if at least half of the Researchers are voting AGAINST it.

Captures

For any Capture which has been Initiated in the previous 48 hours:

Any Researcher (who has not already done so for that Capture) may privately contact the Director naming a single Artefact to be the subject of that Capture;
Any Collector (who has not already done so for that Capture) may privately contact the Director naming a single Artefact they suspect that the Capture is searching for.

If a Capture has been Initiated more than 48 hours ago and not been closed, the Director may close it by performing the following atomic action:

Determine the Capture’s Objective in a secretly random manner, from among all Artefacts named as its subject by Researchers under this rule;
If the Objective is Alive and not Incapacitated, add 7 Damage to it.
If any Collectors named the Objective as their suspicion, and if the Objective’s Location is Unknown: change the Objective’s Location to the Collection of a secretly random one of those Collectors;
If the Objective’s Location is still Unknown: change the Objective’s Location to the Containment Facility
Announce that the Capture has been closed

Magnetism

Any Individual Travelling from an Unknown Place to any other Place for the first time in this Dynasty may, at the same time, randomly select one Artefact whose Location is Unknown and move it to a random Public Place.

Special Case

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

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

Tags [Active]

Votable Matters have zero or more tags. Tags are represented in the title of a Votable Matter with the format “[X]” where [X] is the tag, for example “[Core] Wording Fix”. Votable Matters require the [Core] tag in order to make changes to the Core Rules, the [Special Case] tag in order to make changes to the Special Case Rules and the [Appendix] tag in order to make changes to the Appendix Rules. Votable Matters other than DoVs require the [Victory] tag in order to grant victory to an Individual.

Atomic Actions [Active]

When an Individual performs an Atomic Action, they must complete all its steps; they must complete them in order; and they may not take any other dynastic action, or achieve victory, until all such steps are complete. All of the steps of an Atomic Action are considered one action, as well as the steps of an Atomic Action that is itself a step of a parent Atomic Action.

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

If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the Individual must redo the Atomic Action. In redoing an Atomic Action, the Individual 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 dice and then doing steps based upon its result, the Individual would have to reroll the dice only if they rolled the wrong one in the first place, and would then have to repeat any steps that depended upon the result of that dice; however, if all they did was take an illegal step later on, the result of the original dice roll would still be used in the redone step.

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

For the purposes of determining the ordering or legality of game actions, the time of an Atomic Action shall be the time that it is completed. For Atomic Actions that are redone, the time of completion is the last redone step.

This rule cannot be overruled by the Dynastic Rules.

Seasonal Downtime [Active]

On the 24th, 25th and 26th of December, BlogNomic is on Hiatus. In addition, game actions defined by the rules titled “Individuals” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.

Dormancy [Active]

If there are fewer than five Individuals, BlogNomic is on Hiatus.

Imperial Deferentials [Active]

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

Dynastic Distance [Active]

For the purposes of dynastic rules which do not deal with voting, the Director is not an Individual.

The Traitor [Active]

The Traitor for a particular Dynasty may be an Individual (including an idle one), or may be nobody, and it defaults to being nobody. The Traitor’s identity in the current Dynasty is tracked privately by the Director, and the Director should not share this information with Individuals other than the Traitor.

If there is no Traitor for the current Dynasty, and BlogNomic is not on Hiatus, the Director may secretly randomly select an Individual (other than the Director) and privately inform them that they are the Traitor for the current Dynasty.

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

Appendix

Keywords

A keyword defined by a rule supersedes the normal English usage of the word. A keyword defined in this glossary supersedes that defined by a rule. (e.g. 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 Individuals.

Daily Action: If a game action is a Daily Action, each Individual 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 Individual 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 “DICEX” or “YDICEX” refer to X-sided dice and Y amount of X-sided dice, rolled using the Dice Roller.

Dynastic Action: An action that is defined in the Dynastic rules.

Dynastic Proposal: A Proposal which mandates changes that, even if conditionally, are limited to the creation, deletion, and/or amendment of dynastic rules and/or gamestate defined by dynastic rules.

Effective Vote Comment (EVC): An Individual’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Individual’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Individual’s Vote on that Votable Matter.

Commentary: When posting a blog entry, an Individual 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.

Flavour Text: If a part of the ruleset is defined as being “flavour text”, it is gamestate and remains part of the ruleset document, but is not considered to have any meaning beyond being a string of characters. Individuals are not required to obey flavour text and may not perform any action defined by it, and any statements that flavour text makes about gamestate are ignored.

Gamestate: Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of. All wiki pages that the Dynastic Rules explicitly mention (except for dynastic histories and discussion pages) and any images or Templates contained within those Wiki Pages are assumed to be Gamestate.

Hiatus: If BlogNomic is on Hiatus, Dynastic Actions may not be taken, and Proposals may not be submitted or Resolved. If multiple rules require BlogNomic to be on Hiatus at any given time, BlogNomic will continue to be on Hiatus until no rules require it.

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

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 subrules 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. Individuals 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 (e.g. #random).

Story Post: A Story Post is an entry in the “Story Post” category.

Subject: The “subject” of a blog entry is the part of the Title of an entry which is after the first colon. If the Title does not contain a colon, then the whole Title is the subject. Any entry whose subject is “” (i.e. an empty string) is not valid.

Subrule: A subrule is a type of rule that is nested within another rule. A Proposal that specifically affects a rule affects all of its subrules; a Proposal that specifically affects a subrule does not affect its parent rule or any other subrule of that rule, unless they are also explicitly cited as being affected by that Proposal.

Table of Contents: The directory of section headings that is generated by the MediaWiki software for most pages in the wiki.

TOC: Table of Contents.

Vote: The word “Vote”, used as a noun, means a Vote that is cast in accordance with Rule “Votable Matters”. The word “Vote”, used as a verb, means the act of casting such a Vote.

Voting Icons: For use in voting, a check box http://blognomic.com/images/vote/for.gif shall represent a Vote FOR, an X http://blognomic.com/images/vote/against.gif shall represent a Vote AGAINST, a DEF http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, and a crossed-out circle http://blognomic.com/images/vote/seal.gif shall represent a vote to VETO.

Week: References to a week as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “At the beginning of each week”, or “already happened this week”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a period of time between the beginning of a Monday and the end of the following Sunday.

Weekly Action: If a game action is a Weekly Action, each Individual 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 Individual per week.

Wiki: The BlogNomic Wiki at http://wiki.blognomic.com

Gamestate Tracking

Official Posts

Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.com. Any Individual may post to the blog at any time, but may only make official posts to the blog when the Ruleset allows it. Posts following the format specified by a rule are considered official posts. Any single official post cannot be of two different types of official post unless a rule explicitly states otherwise.

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

A non-official post may not, through editing of the blog or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following two exceptions: Firstly, whilst a non-official post has been posted for less than fifteen minutes and has no comments, the author may change the categories as they wish. Secondly, if a post by a New Individual is not in any category but follows the wording of a Proposal, in that it has written changes the gamestate and or Ruleset, and if it has been posted for less than six hours, then any Admin may change it to be in the Proposal category. A New Individual is defined as an Individual who has been an Individual for fewer than seven days or an Individual that has unidled in the past seven days after being idle for at least 3 months.

Representations of the Gamestate

For gamestate which is tracked in a specific place (such as a wiki page), any alteration of that gamestate as a result of an Individual’s action is (and can only be) applied by editing that data in that place. One 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 wiki merely represents the Gamestate tracked there, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and its representations are different, any Individual may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If an Individual feels that a representation of the gamestate (such as a wiki page) was altered such that it no longer matches the gamestate (such as by performing an action which was against the Rules as they were at the time of the alteration, or by any other means), they may simply undo the effects of that alteration. Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, Individuals are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement instead.

Orphan Variables

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

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

Random Generators

The Dice Roller at https://blognomic.com/dice/roll.php 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 Dice Roller’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 Individual 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 Dice Roller, unless otherwise specified. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Individual making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the Dice Roller.

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, an Individual can spend only their own values, and a rule that allows Individuals to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Individual (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
An Individual 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 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 a gamestate-tracking entity 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 Dice Roller if N is greater than one million.

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 (e.g. a Proposal proposing that enacted Proposals earn their author a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own author, when enacted).
Rules which trigger upon the Resolution of a Votable Matter are the responsibility of the Admin who Resolves it.
Unless otherwise specified, a new Dynastic rule shall be placed at the end of the Dynastic Rules.
If the Admin enacting a Proposal reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (e.g. “two days after this Proposal enacts, Individual A gains 1 point”), that step is ignored for the purposes of enactment. Once a Proposal has been enacted, it can have no further direct effect on the gamestate.

Time

For the purpose of all rules, time in BlogNomic is in UTC.
All references to time must be either specific or defined within the Ruleset to be considered achievable in the gamestate. Abstract concepts of time (e.g. “dinnertime”, “twilight”) cannot be achieved until they fulfil one of these criteria.
Where the month, day and/or year of a calendar date are ambiguous (e.g. “04/10/09”), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.
An Individual may not take more than one dynastic game action at the same time (excluding any actions which have been ongoing for more than three hours).

Spelling

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

Names

Within the Ruleset, a word only refers to the name of an Individual if it is explicitly stated that it refers to an Individual’s name.
If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead named “Unnamed Rule”.
The names of rules are not themselves rule text and have no effect other than being rule names.
Subrules can be referred to by a name which incorporates name of the rule they are a subrule of. Example: a subrule of the rule “Gin” is a “Gin Rule”, however the rule “Gin” is not a “Gin Rule” because it’s not a subrule of the rule “Gin”.
When referring to a Proposal, the name used in reference to a specific Proposal may be simplified by not including braces and any text between the opening and closing braces. i.e. a Proposal named “Changes [Core]” could instead be referred to by the name “Changes”.

Prioritisation

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

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

Ruleset 174

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