Ruleset 200

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Maestro Team Members 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.

If the Ruleset does not properly reflect all legal changes that have been made to it, any Maestro Team Member may update it to do so.

Maestro Team Members

The process of applying for access to the BlogNomic blog is outlined in the FAQ. A human with access to the blog who is not already a Maestro Team Member may make a blog post making clear their wish to be a Maestro Team Member (plural form Maestro Team Members); in response, an Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment they become a Maestro Team Member.

A Maestro Team Member may only change their name as a result of a Proposal approving the change.

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

If a Maestro Team Member is Idle, this is tracked by their name being removed or concealed in the list of currently active Maestro Team Members in the Sidebar. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding the core and appendix Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Maestro Team Members”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play”, "Mentors" and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Maestro Team Members are not counted as Maestro Team Members. The combined term “Idle Maestro Team Member” can be used to refer to Maestro Team Members who are Idle even in rules that do not treat them as Maestro Team Members.

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

When a Maestro Team Member 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 Maestro Team Member Idled in a different Dynasty), the Maestro Team Member is given the default value for new Maestro Team Members, if such a value exists.

An Admin may render a Maestro Team Member Idle if that Maestro Team Member has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), or if that Maestro Team Member has not posted an entry or comment in the past 168 Hours (7 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 Maestro Team Member if that Maestro Team Member is Idle and has asked to become Unidle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), and Idle Admins may Unidle themselves at any time, unless the Maestro Team Member who would be Unidled asked to become (or rendered themselves) Idle within the past 96 hours (4 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 resolve Votable Matters as if they were not idle.

Dynasties

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

An Interregnum is the period between dynasties, after a DoV has been enacted and before an Ascension Address has been posted. During an Interregnum the game is in hiatus; additionally, no DoVs may be made, and no Maestro Team Member may achieve Victory. However, dynastic actions that are specifically permitted to be carried out during an Interregnum may be carried out.

Votable Matters

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

Votes

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

If a Maestro Team Member other than the Space Maestro casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Space Maestro. When the Space Maestro 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 Space Maestro'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. Exception: Proposals which would change the text of a Core, Special Case or Appendix rule if enacted cannot be Popular on this basis.

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

• The number of Maestro Team Members 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 have a status, which can either be Pending, Enacted, Failed, or Illegal. When a votable matter is first put forward it is considered Pending (which is tracked as having no status in the current blog software), and it remains Pending until it is Resolved.

A votable matter is resolved by an admin setting its status through use of the “status” field in the blog post editing form. When 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 withdrawn or vetoed). Comments cannot be made on resolved Votable Matters.

A votable matter may not be resolved except as directed by the ruleset, and the status of a resolved votable matter, once resolved, is determined by the votes cast upon it, as assessed by the rules that govern the specific kind of votable matter (as well as any other considerations regarding the legality of the votable matter, such as the stipulations put forward in the Appendix rule Official Posts). When a Failed proposal has been Vetoed it may optionally have the Vetoed status upon resolution, which is considered to be the same as Failed for the purposes of all other rules.

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

Tags

Votable Matters have zero or more tags. Tags are represented in the title of a Votable Matter with the format “[X]” (e.g. “[Core] Wording Fix”, where “[Core]” is the tag). 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 a Maestro Team Member.

If a Votable Matter would make a modification to the rules and it does not have the tag to make that modification, that Votable Matter will still be able to make that specific modification if any of the following on the following list are true:

• The modification is preceded or followed immediately by an unambiguous statement of which section of the ruleset it takes place.
• The modification specifically states a rule using its number or the name of the stated rule only occurs once in the ruleset.

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a Maestro Team Member casts a vote AGAINST their own Proposal (which is not in the form of a DEFERENTIAL vote), this renders the Proposal Withdrawn, even if the author later changes their Vote. The Space Maestro may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Space Maestro casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Space Maestro later changes their Vote.

Resolution of Proposals

The oldest Pending Proposal may be Enacted by any Admin 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 Withdrawn.

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 Withdrawn.

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.

When a Proposal is Enacted, its stated effects are immediately applied in full; the Admin Enacting it shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct any gamestate-tracking entities, as specified in the Proposal.

Calls for Judgement

If two or more Maestro Team Members actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Maestro Team Member feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Maestro Team Member 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 a Maestro Team Member (other than the Space Maestro) 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 Maestro Team Member 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 Space Maestro 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 Maestro Team Member 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, the Maestro Team Member who posted the DoV becomes Space Maestro, and the game enters an Interregnum. When a DoV is enacted then all game actions that led up to it are considered to be upheld.

If the game is in an Interregnum then the new Space Maestro must either Pass the Mantle (by making a post naming a Maestro Team Member who was not the last dynasty’s Space Maestro, in which case the passing Maestro Team Member ceases to be the Space Maestro and the Maestro Team Member so named becomes the Space Maestro) or start a new dynasty by completing the following Atomic Action:

• Make an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category. This should specify the Space Maestro's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and it may optionally specify new dynasty-specific terms as outline in the rule "Synonyms", and/or list a number of dynastic rules to keep (if none are specifed then the entire Dynastic Ruleset is repealed).
• Update the Ruleset to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed.

Once this Atomic Action has been completed the Interregnum ends and the new dynasty begins.

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 Maestro Team Member’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. Maestro Team Members 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 Maestro Team Member within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Maestro Team Member and any Idle Maestro Team Members. This extends to exerting full control over the actions of another Maestro Team Member, defined here as the controlled Maestro Team Member’s game behavior being functionally indistinguishable from if the controlling Maestro Team Member was logged into their account and playing through it, over a period of more than a day.
• A Maestro Team Member 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 Maestro Team Member should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
• A Maestro Team Member should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Maestro Team Member.
• A Maestro Team Member should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
• A Maestro Team Member should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
• A Maestro Team Member 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 Maestro Team Member 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. A Maestro Team Member must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
• A Maestro Team Member should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
• A Maestro Team Member should not use a Core, Special Case, or Appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly cause a Maestro Team Member to achieve victory.
• A Maestro Team Member should not trade actions in BlogNomic for favors or compensation outside of BlogNomic, nor trade actions in any other game for favors within BlogNomic.

All Maestro Team Members and idle Maestro Team Members should be aware of the BlogNomic Community Guidelines. The contents of this page are not ruletext and are nonbinding as pertains to the ruleset, but Maestro Team Members are encouraged to commit to upholding them to whatever extent is possible.

Dynastic Rules

Parallel BlogNomic [0]

Each Dynasty of BlogNomic numbered between 101 (“The Third Machine of scshunt”) and 200 (“The Seventeenth Dynasty of Josh”) - referred to as the Prime Dynasties - may have up to one parallel dynasty. These are publicly tracked. Each dynasty of BlogNomic numbered between 1 and 100 is referred to as a Locked Dynasty.

Each parallel universe dynasty must have a number (which is the same as the number of the Prime Dynasty it is associated with), an ordinal (a non-negative ordinal integer defaulting to First), an Emperor, a Victory Style (which may only be one word from the set {Conventional, Scam, Pooling}), and a theme, which is flavour text. All of these are publicly tracked.

The Paralleliser is a tool used by Maestro Team Members to divine the properties of parallel dynasties; it can be found here: https://textsynth.com/playground.html. Some actions might instruct you to generate something by Using the Paralleliser with a given seed list. To do so, open the Paralleliser. Set the Model to GPT-NeoX, the top-k to 400, the top-p to 0.9, the temperature to 1.0 and the max tokens to 200, leaving the ‘stop at’ field blank. Paste the seed list from the Dynasty Data page into the text box and repeatedly hit ‘Generate’ until the Paralleliser returns a list of five or more items that bear a resemblance to the items on the input list. Choose six distinct items from among those generated by the Paralleliser (ignoring the text in bold, which simply replicates your initial input, and any item after the last comma); randomly select one of these choices to be the generated item.

As a Daily Action, a Maestro Team Member may learn of a parallel universe dynasty, which is an atomic action with the following steps:

• Select the numerically first Prime Dynasty with no existing parallel dynasties; set the number of the parallel dynasty being discovered to the number of that Prime Dynasty.
• Use the Paralleliser with a seed list of Emperors (101-199) list from the Dynasty Data page to generate a name. Set that name to be the Emperor of the parallel dynasty being discovered.
• Set the ordinal for the discovered parallel dynasty as follows: if the name in the Emperor field for this parallel dynasty has appeared before, either in another preceding parallel dynasty or in a Locked Dynasty, then the ordinal for this dynasty is one higher than it was in the most recent such other dynasty in which that name appears as Emperor (e.g. if the name for a new parallel dynasty is Dibjutor, and there is a pre-existing dynasty with an ordinal of third, then the new dynasty will have an ordinal of fourth); otherwise it is the default.
• Use the Paralleliser with a seed list of Themes (101-199) list from the Dynasty Data page to generate a theme. Set that theme to be the theme of the parallel dynasty being discovered.
• Randomly select the Dynasty’s Victory Style.
• Add the name of the Maestro Team Member performing this action to the Temporal footprint of the parallel dynasty being discovered.
• Set the number of qubits of the parallel dynasty being discovered to its Variance.

If a sentence of text in the gamestate was generated by the Paralleliser, and does not include any of the words that were present in the starting text used to generate it, then that text is considered Pure. (Flavour text may be considered to be English text with no meaning in game terms, for the purposes of checking whether it contains Pure sentences.)

Each Parallel Dynasty has a Winner, which is publicly tracked and set to a null string by default. For any given Parallel Dynasty, if at any time the subsequent Parallel Dynasty to it exists and has a named Persona (i.e. any value other than ‘None’) as its Emperor, set the Winner of it to be that Persona.

Parallel Dynastic Histories

Each parallel dynasty may have a dynastic history page on the wiki. A Maestro Team Member may create a history page for a parallel dynasty by linking to an empty, appropriately-titled wiki page (which should, if possible, have a title that takes the format of “The xth parallel dynasty of y” where xth is the dynasty’s ordinal and y is the dynasty’s emperor) from that parallel dynasty’s entry in gamestate tracking; once they have done so, that page becomes gamestate.

A parallel dynasty’s history page may contain some, none or all of the following elements: an Ascension Text, a list of active Players in that dynasty, up to three Key Proposals, a short paragraph summarising how that dynasty was won, and some Player Recollections. None of these elements may be added to the page except as described by the Ruleset. Apart from the list of active Players in a dynasty, all content on a parallel dynasty’s history page is flavour text.

A parallel dynasty’s history page may also contain the terms synonymous with “Emperor” and “Player” for that dynasty.

As a weekly action, a Maestro Team Member may perform the following atomic action known as Ascension Research

• Pick a parallel dynasty they are not associated with which does not have an Ascension Text
• Use https://textsynth.com/playground.html with the same settings when using the Paralleliser and with starting text of “Welcome to XXX.” where “XXX” is the selected dynasty’s theme. Set the Ascension Text of the chosen dynasty to be the result (including the bolded text).
• Pick appropriate “Emperor” and “Player” terms for the chosen dynasty and set the synonymous terms for that dynasty accordingly
• Add the name of the Maestro Team Member performing this action to the Temporal footprint of the selected parallel dynasty.

Parallel Player Lists

If a parallel dynastic history page doesn’t have a list of players (a ‘parallel list’) then any Maestro Team Member may add it, by carrying out the following atomic action:

• Add the Emperor of that parallel dynasty and the Emperor of the subsequent parallel dynasty to the player list;
• If the Prime Dynasty with the same number as that parallel dynasty has a player list on its dynastic history page (the ‘prime list’), roll DICE10 for each player named in that list; add each player whose result was not a 1 to the player list;
• For each player from the Prime list omitted from the parallel list in the second stage of this atomic action, randomly select one extant parallel player and add them to the parallel list.
• Optionally, add one or two new parallel players to the parallel list, by Using the Paralleliser with the existing list compiled so far in this atomic action as the seed list.

Whenever a Maestro Team Member sets a Parallel Dynasty as their Focus they must add themselves to the parallel list for that dynasty. They may, if they wish, augment their entry on the parallel list with a disguise, which is a short (no more than ten words) statement fully enclosed in curly braces immediately after their name explaining how they have concealed their identity. Any such disguise statement is flavour text and may not introduce any new formating elements to the wiki page on which it is contained.

Temporal Footprints

Each parallel universe dynasty has a Temporal Footprint which is a publicly tracked list of names of (possibly idle) Maestro Team Members, and by default is empty.

A Maestro Team Member is said to be associated with a parallel universe dynasty if their name appears as an entry in that dynasties Temporal Footprint.

Multidimensional Personhood

All Maestro Team Members and idle Maestro Team Members may be referred to, collectively, as Prime Players. Any entity who is named as a player or Emperor in a parallel dynasty who has never played in a Prime or Locked dynasty may be referred to as a Parallel Player.

Dynastic Discretion

If the use of the Paralleliser leads to a random selection which is judged to be in poor taste, offensive or of a format which bears no resemblance to the items on the input list, the Maestro Team Member may redo the random selection step in question to produce an alternative outcome.

SCP Ratings [0]

Each Persona has a publicly-tracked SCP Rating, consisting of a publicly-tracked string of three numerals which defaults to 000. This represents the Persona’s playing style and skill at Nomic in the parallel universe: the first digit represents the player’s Inclination for Scams, the second their Inclination for Conventional Play, and the third their Inclination for Pooling.

If a Maestro Team Member’s SCP Rating is 000, they may change it to any three non-negative integers which add up to 3.

A Persona cannot set their own Cresi Cube to Powered if their Inclination for Conventional Play is zero.

A Persona cannot change their Alliance to a number of names which is greater than their Inclination for Pooling, or have their name added to an Alliance if it is already in a number of Alliances equal to their Inclination for Pooling.

A Persona which is not a Maestro Team Member has an SCP rating which is calculated as follows; That Persona starts with an SCP rating of 000, then for each of the Parallel Dynasties in which the persona is an emperor:

• Add one to the first digit of that persona’s SCP rating if the dynasty’s victory style is Scamming
• Add one to the second digit of that persona’s SCP rating if the dynasty’s victory style is Conventional Play
• Add one to the third digit of that persona’s SCP rating if the dynasty’s victory style is Pooling

As a Weekly Action, any Maestro Team Member may decrease one digit of their SCP Rating by 1, and increase one digit of their SCP Rating by 1.

Personas [0]

Every Maestro Team Member is a Persona. A Persona also exists for each uniquely named Emperor (other than 'None') among the parallel dynasties, where that Emperor’s name is not an empty string and is not the name of a Maestro Team Member.

All Personas may have an Alliance and be included in Alliances as if they were Maestro Team Members.

Maestro Missions [0]

Each Maestro Team Member may have a Focus, which is publicly tracked, defaults to blank, and which much otherwise be a single parallel dynasty. A Maestro Team Member may change their Focus as a Cresi action.

A Maestro Team Member who selects as a Focus any Parallel Dynasty in which their name appears, either on the player list on the history page or as Emperor, risks creating a quantum paradox and erasing themselves from the prime universe. If and only if the Focus of a given Maestro Team Member is any such Parallel Dynasty, then that Maestro Team Member is Disobedient.

Maestro Team Members interact with parallel dynasty energy by use of a device each of them possess called a Cresi Cube, which may be powered or unpowered (which is publicly tracked, and which defaults to powered). Some actions are Cresi Actions; a given Cresi Action may be undertaken no more than once every 48 hours, and only when the user’s Cresi Cube is powered. Carrying out any Cresi Action sets its user’s Cresi Cube to unpowered. A Maestro Team Member may set their Cresi Cube to powered once every 72 hours.

The date and time each Maestro Team Member last performed a Cresi Action is publicly tracked. A Maestro Team Member is In Line if they have performed a Cresi Action and their Cresi Cube is unpowered. If there is an In Line Maestro Team Member, the one who least recently performed a Cresi Action is In Front (otherwise no one is In Front). If there is an In Front Maestro Team Member, any Maestro Team Member who is not that Maestro Team Member may as a daily action set the In Front Maestro Team Member’s Cresi Cube to be powered.

Paradox

Each Maestro Team Member has a measurable amount of Paradox from the prime universe, which is a nonnegative real number, and which is publicly tracked.

If a Maestro Team Member has the highest Paradox score among Persona, then that Member is Unstable. If a Maestro Team Member would achieve victory while Unstable, they instead do not achieve it.

As a Daily Action, the Space Maestro may either multiply by 1.5 the Paradox of each Disobedient Maestro Team Member, or increase each Disobedient Maestro Team Member’s Paradox by the Variance of the Parallel Dynasty which is that Team Member’s Focus.

Variance [0]

Each Parallel Dynasty has a Variance score, which is publicly tracked.

A Parallel Dynasty’s Variance score is defined as follows:

• Each Parallel Dynasty has a starting Variance score of zero;
• 1 is added if it has a different Emperor from the Prime Dynasty it varies from;
• 1 is added if a different player wins that parallel dynasty, compared to the Prime Dynasty it varies from (where “winning” the parallel dynasty here is defined as “is the Emperor of the subsequent parallel dynasty”)
• 1 is added if the theme is different from the Prime Dynasty it varies from
• 1 is added if the Parallel Dynasty has a negative qubit value
• 1 is subtracted if the Parallel Dynasty has a qubit value of zero. (This cannot make the Variance less than zero.)

Persistence

Each dynastic rule has a score for Persistence, which is a non-negative integer that defaults to zero. The Persistence of a dynastic rule is shown next to its title, in brackets, but is not considered to be a part of its title for the purposes of referring to that rule. The Persistence of a rule applies to all of its subrules; a subrule does not have a distinct Persistence from its parent rule.

Whenever a Maestro Team Member has a non-blank Focus, any dynastic rule whose Persistence is higher than the Variance of the parallel dynasty that is their Focus are Intangible for that Maestro Team Member. If a Maestro Team Member has a blank Focus, all dynastic rules with a non-zero Persistence are Intangible for that Maestro Team Member.

Only dynastic rules may be Intangible. When a rule is Intangible for a Maestro Team Member, that Maestro Team Member may not undertake any actions defined by that rule, and any provisions of that rule that would restrict any of their own actions do not apply. However, an Intangible rule does not cease to exist or become flavour text for any Maestro Team Member, and its instructions must be obeys as applied to any Maestro Team Member or Persona for whom it is not Intangible.

Dharma [2]

Each Maestro Team Member has a Dharma, which is a publicly-tracked text string. It is not flavour text.

At any time, a Maestro Team Member may change their Dharma to any Pure sentence from the dynastic history page of the Parallel Dynasty which is their Focus.

Qubits [3]

All personas and all parallel dynasties have a publicly tracked numeric value called qubits which can be any integer (including negative integers). By default, the qubit value starts at 0 unless the starting value is stated otherwise by another rule.

As a daily action, you can transfer any positive integer of qubits from yourself to a persona or to a parallel dynasty which is not your Focus, so long as this integer is not greater than the number of qubits you hold.

As a Cresi Action, a Maestro Team Member may increase the paradox of all Maestro Team Members holding qubits by 1.

Qubit Mining

If a Maestro Team Member’s name is included in the parallel list for the Parallel Dynasty which is their Focus, and if that Focus has more than zero qubits, the Maestro Team Member may perform a daily atomic action called Qubit Mining as follows:

• Increase the qubits of all other Maestro Team Members who share a focus with you by 1 qubit. Reduce the qubits on the Focus by the total amount of qubits gained by Maestro Team Members as a result of this step.
• If your Focus has a positive number of qubits remaining, gain that many qubits and set the number of qubits on the focus to zero.
• If the Focus has less than zero qubits at this point, all Maestro Team Members who gained qubits as a result of this action gain 1 paradox.

Distilled Possibility

A Maestro Team Member may take the Distil Possibilities action to change one aspect of the tracked information (Ordinal, Emperor, Theme or Style) about a Parallel Dynasty. The Distil Possibilities action is an atomic action with the following steps:

• Identify the Change Cost of the change to be made. The Change Cost of a change is 1, plus the Variance of the Parallel Dynasty to which the change is being applied, plus the Paradox of the Maestro Team Member carrying it out, minus the acting Maestro Team Member’s Inclination for Style of that Parallel Dynasty, minus three if the Parallel Dynasty in question is Abstracted, to a minimum of 1.
• Spend the Change Cost in Qubits
• Make the identified change

Escalated Mining

When you have a focus, you may choose to perform Escalated Mining as a weekly action. When you do so, take the following steps:

• Increase your Paradox by the Variance of your focus
• Transfer 1 qubit from the qubit value of your Focus to your own. The qubit value of your Focus is permitted to become negative as a result of this

If you have performed Escalated Mining today, you cannot perform Qubit Mining. If you have performed Qubit Mining today, you cannot perform Escalated Mining.

Multiversal Collision [0]

During Interregnum, if there is at least one parallel dynasty, the Space Maestro must select a parallel dynasty before they may complete the Atomic Action that starts a new dynasty. The theme of the parallel dynasty that is selected in this way will be the theme of the new dynasty. If the Space Maestro Passes the Mantle after selecting a parallel dynasty, the new Space Maestro cannot and does not need to select a new parallel dynasty.

Chicken Dinner [0]

The Winner of Parallel Dynasty 200 has achieved Victory.

Qubit Conservation [0]

The Qubit Pool is a publicly tracked integer value (which may be negative) that defaults to 0. Whenever the number of Qubits owned by a Persona or Parallel Dynasty is increased, decrease the Qubit Pool by that number. Whenever the number of Qubits owned by a Persona or Parallel Dynasty is decreased, increase the Qubit Pool by that number. (This does not apply when the number of Qubits belonging to a Persona or Parallel Dynasty are first set.)

If the Qubit Pool is positive, any Maestro Team Member with a nonzero inclination for Pooling may perform a daily atomic action known as Pool Extraction as follows:

• Increase the qubits of each other Maestro Team Member with a inclination for Pooling equal to or greater than yours by 1 qubit.
• If any Maestro Team Member gained qubits as a result of the previous step, increase your number of qubits by your inclination for Pooling.
• If the Qubit Pool is less than zero at this point, all Personas who gained qubits as a result of this action gain 1 paradox.

Scam Rating [1]

A Maestro Team Member may choose to perform an action as a Scammed Action. To do so, they must do the following:

• They choose an action in a rule which is Intangible for them.
• They increase their Paradox by the difference between the Variance of their Focus and the Persistence of the rule that the action belongs to.
• They perform the action, and the rule is not considered to be Intangible for the duration of this action.

If an action would not be eligible to be performed even if the Maestro Team Member had a high enough Variance on their Focus (whether due to unpaid costs or otherwise), then they are not able to perform the action as a Scammed Action. A Maestro Team Member is only able to perform Scammed Actions a number of times per week less than or equal to their Inclination for Scams as defined in their SCP rating. This limit is considered collectively between all actions that they perform as a Scammed Action, rather than being a per-action limit.

Parallel Parallel Dynasties [3]

As a Cresi Action, a Maestro Team Member who is Focused on a Dynasty may perform an atomic action called Dynasty Duplication with the following steps:

• Create a copy of the Dynasty which is your Focus.
• Set its number to the number of the numerically first Prime Dynasty with no existing parallel dynasties
• Set the ordinal for the duplicated parallel dynasty as follows: if the name in the Emperor field for this parallel dynasty has appeared before, either in another preceding parallel dynasty or in a Locked Dynasty, then the ordinal for this dynasty is one higher than it was in the most recent such other dynasty in which that name appears as Emperor (e.g. if the name for a new parallel dynasty is Dibjutor, and there is a pre-existing dynasty with an ordinal of third, then the new dynasty will have an ordinal of fourth); otherwise it is the default.
• Add, remove, or change one letter in the new Dynasty’s Theme. The new theme must obey the following three properties:
  • 1. It may not already be contained within the list of Parallel Dynasties
  • 2. All words appearing in it must be valid English words or BlogNomic terms
  • 3. If the original theme contained the words “The” and/or “Dynasty” the new theme must contain those words as well.
• Add the name of the Maestro Team Member performing this action to the Temporal footprint of the parallel dynasty being discovered (if the Temporal Footprint did not already contain that name).

Effects of High Variance [4]

The Dharma of any Maestro Team Member that has a Focus with a Variance of at least 4 is considered to be rules text.

When a Maestro Team Member changes Focus, and either the Focus they are changing from or the Focus they are changing to has a Variance of at least 4, then they must increase their Paradox by the greater of either the Variance of the Parallel Dynasty that they are changing their focus from, or the Variance of the Parallel Dynasty they are changing their focus to.

Special Case

Special Case Rules can be Active or Inactive. If the title of a Special Case Rule includes "[X]", where X is either Active or Inactive, then its status is X. Otherwise, its status is its Default Status.

Special Case Rules have a Default Status, which can be Active or Inactive. If the title of a Special Case Rule includes "[Rare]", its Default Status is Inactive, otherwise, its Default Status is Active.

When a new Dynasty is started, the Ascension Address may list any number of existing Special Case Rules to be set to a status other than their respective Default Status. All other Special Case Rules are set to their respective Default Status.

The text of a Special Case Rule that is Inactive is flavour text.

Seasonal Downtime [Active]

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

Dormancy [Active]

If there are fewer than five Maestro Team Members, BlogNomic is on Hiatus.

Imperial Deferentials [Active]

If the Space Maestro has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Maestro Team Members have a valid FOR vote on that Proposal than have a valid AGAINST vote on it) or AGAINST (in all other cases). However, in either case, votes of DEFERENTIAL made by other Maestro Team Members on the same Proposal are not considered to be valid.

Dynastic Distance [Active]

For the purposes of dynastic rules which do not deal with voting, the Space Maestro is not a Maestro Team Member.

Malign Emperors [Inactive] [Rare]

The Space Maestro may be recipient of the Mantle, as if they were a Maestro Team Member, during an Interregnum, as per the rule Victory and Ascension. The Space Maestro may not cast a vote of VETO on any Proposal whose effect is limited to the dynastic rules or gamestate; any such vote is disregarded for the purposes of proposal resolution.

If the Special Case rule “No Collaboration” is Active, any Maestro Team Member may set it to Inactive. (The combo is too strong.)

Dynastic Tracking [Active]

The gamestate tracking page for this dynasty is the BN Wiki Main page page of the wiki. Unless otherwise stated, all publicly tracked gamestate information is tracked on it. An Space Maestro may change the wiki page referred to in this rule to a different page as part of their Ascension Address, provided that page did not exist at the time the Ascension Address was posted and does not begin with the word “Ruleset”.

No Collaboration [Inactive] [Rare]

If “Dynastic Distance” is also active, the Space Maestro is not considered a Maestro Team Member for the purposes of this rule.

Maestro Team Members may not privately communicate with each other about dynastic gameplay or votable matters that affect the dynastic ruleset or gamestate. Private communications are considered to be anything that any other Maestro Team Member could not reasonably be privy to, perceive, or understand. Discussion conducted in plain English on the BlogNomic wiki and blog, and Discord channels, are not considered to be private communication. Idle Maestro Team Members (or people who are not yet Maestro Team Members) also face the same restrictions if they intend to become an active Maestro Team Member during the course of the dynasty. The use of creative strategies to circumvent this rule may be considered to be a scam for the purposes of determining whether an infraction of Fair Play has taken place.

A mentor and mentee may still privately converse with each other, but should keep their conversations away from discussing specific gameplay strategy.

If information which was not allowed to be discussed is still privately discussed, the Maestro Team Members who were part of the conversation should make a post to the blog disclosing what information was discussed as their earliest convenience.

Mantle Limitations [Active] [Rare]

The mantle may not be passed. (Maestro Team Members should also not make deals based on being made Emperor of the next dynasty by other means than achieving victory or being passed the mantle.)

Alliances [Active] [Rare]

Each Maestro Team Member may have an Alliance, which is publicly tracked, and consists of the distinct names of no more than two other Maestro Team Members; a Maestro Team Member’s Alliance defaults to an empty set. A Maestro Team Member may change their Alliance as a daily action.

If "Mantle Limitations" is also active, and if a Maestro Team Member has achieved victory in this dynasty, has posted a Declaration of Victory which has been enacted, and did not change their Alliance for at least the 48 hours immediately prior to the posting time of their Declaration of Victory: then that Maestro Team Member may pass the Mantle to a Maestro Team Member who was named in their Alliance at the posting time of their Declaration of Victory.

If “No Collaboration” is active, it does not apply to communications between Maestro Team Members who each have the other’s names in their Alliance, nor does the prohibition on deals in “Mantle Limitations” (if it is active) apply to Maestro Team Members who have each other’s names in their Alliance.

Event Types [Active]

An Event is an official post that meets a type definition in the dynastic rules, if and only if that type definition is specified as defining a type of Event; the type definition must include the following:

• A type name, such as “Auction” or “Quest”. A post with the Event type’s name as a tag is an Event of that type, provided it was (legally) posted while the type had a complete definition.
• A Response Format, the format by which a comment on that type of Event is classified as a Response for that Event. While other comments are allowed on an Event, only those comments which conform to its type’s Response Format are officially considered Responses. Whether or not a comment is currently considered a Response may change according to circumstances, but comments submitted on an Event while it is Ended can never be considered Responses.

An Event type definition may also optionally stipulate:

• Creation Condition(s). Unless they are met, an Event of that type may not be posted. They may include a format for the body of the post.
• Ending Condition(s). Unless they are met, an Open Event of that type may not be Ended.
• Ending Action(s). A Maestro Team Member must do these when they End an Open Event of that type.

An Event is either Open or Ended, defaulting to Open. Except as otherwise specified, any Maestro Team Member may post or may End an Event. To End an Event is to make it Ended by submitting a comment on that post saying it is Ended or is being Ended, and then immediately taking its Ending Action(s), if any. Once an Event has been Ended, it may not become Open again, nor may any Maestro Team Member End it again.

Bounties [Rare][Active]

A Bounty Notice is a post in the Story Posts category which broadly requests a single mechanical or ruleset change. A Bounty Notice may be Open or Closed, being Open by default and being when set to the ‘Closed’ category in the post backend.

This sentence names, at the end of this sentence after a colon, a single dynastic resource or variable, which is the Bounty Reward Variable for this dynasty: Qubits

The Space Maestro may post a Bounty Notice, close an open Bounty Notice, or change the Bounty Reward Variable in this rule at any time.

If the Space Maestro believes that an enacted votable matter satisfies the demand of an open Bounty Notice then they may iterate the Bounty Reward Variable of that votable matter’s author by a single step (unless that author was themselves) and set that Bounty Notice to closed.

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.)

Imperatives

Can

“is able to”

Shall

“is required to”

Should

“is recommended that”

Time

Daily Action

If a game action is a Daily Action, each Maestro Team Member 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 Maestro Team Member 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.

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 Maestro Team Member 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 Maestro Team Member per week.

Other

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 Maestro Team Members.

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)

A Maestro Team Member’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Maestro Team Member’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Maestro Team Member’s Vote on that Votable Matter.

Commentary

When posting a blog entry, a Maestro Team Member 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.

Discord

The BlogNomic Discord can be accessed at https://discord.gg/J7kP9KuHQK and is also linked to on the sidebar. Maestro Team Members, as well as people who are not Maestro Team Members but are interested in learning more about BlogNomic, may join the Discord by clicking the button in the sidebar.

Discord Channel

A Discord Channel is any channel on the BlogNomic Discord in the BlogNomic Discussion category. All Maestro Team Members who are in the Discord should have the ability to access all of these channels. To reference a Discord Channel, use a hash (#) followed by the name of that channel (e.g. #random).

Flavour Text

If a part of the ruleset or gamestate is defined as being “flavour text”, it retains its context, but is not considered to have any meaning beyond being a string of characters. Maestro Team Members 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 (except where the rule defining the action explicitly requires it to be taken during Hiatus), 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 Maestro Team Members is half the number of Maestro Team Members in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Maestro Team Members it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Maestro Team Members.

Resolve/Resolution

If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the word “Resolve” means to perform the act, as an Admin, of enacting, failing, or marking illegal 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. The resolution of a votable matter is tracked by reference to its status in the blog post edit form. If otherwise legally applied, the application of any status through the blog post editing form is sufficient to consider that votable matter to have been correctly resolved, but a resolved votable matter should have the correct status wherever possible; if any admin believes that a resolved votable matter has an incorrect status then they may correct it.

Rule

Each individually numbered and titled block of text (using the wikimedia section heading formatting) of the Ruleset is a rule, including rules that are subrules of other rules; with the exception that the top-level headings defined as ‘sections’ in the rule “Ruleset and Gamestate” are considered sections but not rules themselves.

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 hierarchically ordered beneath another rule. Rules and proposals that refer to a rule do not also refer to its subrules, unless otherwise specified.

Table of Contents

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

Uphold

To Uphold an illegal action is to retroactively declare the attempt to take it to have been successful, and to declare that all attempted game actions taken after it were attempted as if the Upheld action had been successful.

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.

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 Maestro Team Member 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. Dynastic rules cannot define posts in the “Call for Judgement” category to be a type of official post other than a Call for Judgement, and this restriction cannot be overridden by dynastic rules.

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 4 hours old and either no Maestro Team Member 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, except that a votable matter’s illegal resolution may be overturned. 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 Maestro Team Member 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 Maestro Team Member is defined as a Maestro Team Member who has been a Maestro Team Member for fewer than seven days or a Maestro Team Member that has unidled in the past seven days after being idle for at least 3 months.

Any post that is or is made illegal as a result of an infraction against any of the prohibitions set out in this rule, except for a votable matter’s illegal resolution that has been overturned, continues to be an Official Post but may no longer have any effect on the ruleset or the gamestate. If it is a Votable Matter then it is Unpopular, regardless of any other performance against criteria set out in the core rules. When it is resolved it may be marked as Illegal by the resolving admin. A post that is illegal in this manner cannot subsequently be made legal by any means, except for the legal enactment of a CFJ. An illegal CFJ cannot cause itself to become legal.

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 a Maestro Team Member’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 Maestro Team Member may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Maestro Team Member feels that a representation of the gamestate (such as a wiki page) does not match the gamestate, they may either:

• Undo the effects of any alteration that led to it, if that alteration did not follow the rules at the time it was made.
• Alter the representation to match what they believe to be the correct application of an incorrectly-applied alteration. This may include completing incomplete actions on behalf of the original Maestro Team Member, if doing so would not require the correcting Maestro Team Member to make any decisions on behalf of the original Maestro Team Member.

Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, Maestro Team Members are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgement.

The historical fact of the occurrence of a defined game action is itself considered to be gamestate, tracked in the history of whatever resource is used to track the gamestate modified by that action, where possible, or in the wiki page Gamestate Modifications if this is not possible.

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.

A Maestro Team Member 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.
• The CARD command will return a card with a random suit (either Hearts, Diamonds, Spades or Clubs) and a random value (either Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King). A card with a value that is either Jack, Queen or King is a face card.
• A list of comma-separated values in curly brackets (eg {x,y}) will return one of the values at random.

Any changes to the potential outcomes of the Dice Roller’s random result commands must be made by Votable Matter.

If a Votable Matter proposes a change to this rule that would require server-level access to the BlogNomic site to fully enact its effects, that Votable Matter must name a Maestro Team Member with such access. Only a Maestro Team Member with such access may Enact that Votable Matter. If that Votable Matter does not name a Maestro Team Member with such access, that Votable Matter is Illegal.

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 roll in the Dice Roller, unless otherwise specified, and which value the roll result corresponds to must be reasonably inferable from the nature of the roll and any comments supplied by the Maestro Team Member making the roll before or while making the roll. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Maestro Team Member making this determination may do so using a private method of their choosing, instead of the Dice Roller.

Atomic Actions

An Atomic Action combines otherwise separate game actions into a single action.

• All steps of an Atomic Action are considered one action, including the steps of an Atomic Action that is itself a step of a parent Atomic Action.
• When a Maestro Team Member 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 the steps are complete.
• If a rule allows the Maestro Team Member performing an Atomic Action to skip some of its steps, the skipped steps are considered to have been completed.
• If a Maestro Team Member arrives at a step in an Atomic Action and they cannot perform that step, they undo all the steps they have performed of that Action and are considered never to have performed that Action.
• If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the Maestro Team Member must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Maestro Team Member uses any legal steps that have already been completed in the illegal Atomic Action and only redoes the illegal ones. (For example, if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a dice and then doing steps based upon its result, the Maestro Team Member 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 they rolled the dice correctly but took an illegal step later on, the result of the original dice roll would still be used in the redone step.)
• 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.

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,” “pay” 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” or “pay” 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, paid, lost, gained, or transferred, a Maestro Team Member can spend or pay from only their own values, and a rule that allows Maestro Team Members to transfer or pay a numeric value to another Maestro Team Member only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to that other Maestro Team Member (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
• If a Dynastic Action is defined as having a cost X of numeric value V, or defines a requirement to spend, pay, or lose X of numeric value V to accomplish an effect or multiple effects, then the arithmetic effects of spending or payment and the act of carrying out those effects are considered to be subsequent steps in an Atomic Action, with the spending or payment step taking place before the effects step unless stated otherwise.
• A Maestro Team Member 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 a default value but no defined starting value, then its default value should also be considered a starting value. If a game variable has neither a default value nor a starting value, then both may be considered to be 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”).
• If the rules that define a game variable are amended, and some previously valid values become invalid as a consequence, any existing variables whose current values would become invalid are instead set to their starting value.
• 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.
• If a piece of information is described as being tracked secretly or privately by the Space Maestro (including secretly random selections), then that information may only be revealed by the Space Maestro when the ruleset allows it. If a Maestro Team Member should already know such a piece of information (in that the Space Maestro has already told them it, or vice versa, and there is no way that the information could have been changed since then), the Space Maestro may repeat it to them.

Rules and Votable Matters

• If a new rule is created by a Votable Matter and its location is not noted in that Votable Matter, that new rule is to be placed in the Dynastic Rules.
• If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a Votable Matter enacting, that page shall – unless otherwise specified – be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that Votable Matter’s submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked).
• Where a Votable Matter would amend the effects of Votable Matter Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (e.g. a Votable Matter proposing that enacted Votable Matters 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 Votable Matter reaches a step which cannot be applied immediately (e.g. “two days after this Votable Matter enacts, Maestro Team Member A gains 1 point”), that step is ignored for the purposes of enactment. Once a Votable Matter has been enacted, it can have no further direct effect on the gamestate.
• If a dynastic rule has no text and no subrules, any Maestro Team Member may delete it from the ruleset.
• A rule may be accompanied by one or more illustrations, and an illustration may have a caption. In all situations, unless otherwise explicitly stated, an illustration and a caption to an illustration must be treated as flavour text.

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.
• A Maestro Team Member 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 and formatting

• 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.
• Maestro Team Members may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Votable Matters at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they”.
• A Maestro Team Member may reformat a list of items in the dynastic ruleset to have bullet points or other appropriate list markup, if doing so would not change the order of that list, nor how any rules interpreted its content.

Names

• Within the Ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a Maestro Team Member if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Maestro Team Member’s name.
• If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead given the name of the Votable Matter that created it, or (if this is not possible) the name “Unnamed Rule”.
• The names of rules and wiki pages (other than the Ruleset) are flavour text.
• 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 Votable Matter, the name used in reference to a specific Votable Matter may be simplified by not including braces and any text between the opening and closing braces. i.e. a Votable Matter named “Changes [Core]” could instead be referred to by the name “Changes”.
• When referring to a Rule, the name used in reference to a specific Rule may be simplified by not including braces and any text between a pair of opening and closing braces, as long as such a reference would be unambiguous.
• Where a Votable Matter refers to a second Votable Matter by name, it is assumed to refer to the most recently posted Votable Matter of that name which pre-dates the first Votable Matter.
• When changing their name or joining the game for the first time, a Maestro Team Member’s (or prospective Maestro Team Member’s) new name must be between 4 and 30 characters in length, and may only include the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, numbers, underscores, hyphens, full stops and apostrophes.

Prioritisation

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

1. The Appendix has precedence over any other Rule;
2. If a Core Rule explicitly says it cannot be overruled by a Dynastic Rule, that Core Rule has precedence over a Dynastic Rule, otherwise a Dynastic Rule has precedence over that Core Rule;
3. If a Special Case Rule explicitly says that it cannot be overruled by a Dynastic Rule, that Special Case Rule has precedence over a Dynastic Rule, otherwise a Dynastic Rule has equal precedence as that Special Case Rule;
4. If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies (e.g. if the rules “Maestro Team Members may Kick each other” and “Maestro Team Members may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Maestro Team Members may not Kick each other);
5. If two contradicting parts have the same scope, or have scopes that only overlap where they contradict each other, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “Maestro Team Members may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Maestro Team Members may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Maestro Team Members may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Archives

This document is considered to be, in effect, the only Ruleset for BlogNomic, so long as it is located at at the URL https://wiki.blognomic.com/index.php?title=Ruleset.

Mentors

A Maestro Team Member may have another Maestro Team Member as a Mentor. Maestro Team Members who are willing to act as a Mentor are listed on the Mentorships wiki page, and are said to be “Tenured”. An Admin may add or remove their own name, or the name of a Maestro Team Member who has requested a change on their own behalf, from this list at any time.

If an unmentored Maestro Team Member requests a Mentor, or a new Maestro Team Member has joined the game and has no Mentor, the Space Maestro should select a Tenured Maestro Team Member and ask them to take that Maestro Team Member on as a Mentee; if they accept, then such a Mentorship is established. The members and starting dates of all active Mentorships are tracked on the Mentorships wiki page, and whenever a new Mentorship is established, the Space Maestro should announce it in a blog post. The Space Maestro should take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor.

A relationship between a mentor and a mentee is a Mentorship. A Maestro Team Member may dissolve a Mentorship they are part of at any time, by announcing this in a blog post.

If there is no Space Maestro, any Maestro Team Member who has been active in at least three previous dynasties may act as Space Maestro for the purposes of this rule.

Things that a mentor must do

A mentor must do the following:

• Make pro-active contact with their mentee when appointed, and explain the dynamics of the Mentorship system;
• Be available to answer any questions that their mentee may have about the game, including explaining the rules, common standards and etiquette of play, proofreading posts and clarifying game events;
• Introduce their mentee to the various platforms of the game, including the wiki, Discord, and end-of-dynasty notifications through the Facebook group or Twitter;
• If possible, give their mentee a nudge if it appears that they are at risk of becoming Idle;
• If they themselves go idle, communicate with their mentee to either continue to support them as an idle Maestro Team Member or arrange a handover to another mentor if requested.

Things that a mentor should do

The following sets out suggested best practice for Mentorship relationships:

• The Mentorship lasts for four weeks or until the next Ascension Address, whichever occurs latest. It can continue informally for longer but after this threshold the mentor is no longer bound by any of the conditions set out in the parent rule to this rule, or any of its subrules.
• The mentor can and should advise the mentee on how to proceed in the mentee’s own best interests. This can include making connections with other Maestro Team Members.
• The mentor should consider copying the mentee in on private, game-related communications, where it does not unfairly prejudice their own interests. The mentee should keep this information private without explicit consent from the mentor.
• The mentor and mentee may work together to achieve victory. If a mentor achieves victory with support of their mentee then they should, if the mentee wishes it, pass the baton to the mentee.

Things that a mentor should not do

The following sets out a list of things that a mentor should not do in their relationship with their mentee. All of these are considered to be Fair Play rules, as per the rule Fair Play.

• The mentor should not sock-puppet, bully, coerce or otherwise manipulate the mentee into performing any game actions.
• The mentor should not seek to dissuade the mentee from pursuing other alliances.
• A former mentor should not seek to use the fact of a prior Mentorship to influence the former mentee on an ongoing basis.

Synonyms

A dynasty may provide extra theming by using alternative terms for words like “Maestro Team Member” and “Space Maestro”.

Each term in this list is synonymous with the term in parentheses

• Maestro Team Member (Player)
• Space Maestro (Emperor)

When a new Dynasty is started, the Ascension Address may specify new terms for each entry in the above list, provided the newly chosen term does not appear anywhere in the ruleset outside of this rule (though if it only appears in rules which are being removed as part of the Ascension Address, it is fine), and that doing so would not cause two terms in the above list to become synonymous with each other. Doing so causes the old corresponding value (including regional spelling variations) to be replaced by the new value everywhere in the ruleset except in any of the parentheses in the above list.