Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Groups 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 Group may update it to do so.

Groups

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 Group may make a blog post making clear their wish to be a Group (plural form Groups); in response, an Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment they become a Group.

A Group may only change their name as a result of a Proposal approving the change.

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

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

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

When a Group 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 Group Idled in a different Dynasty), the Group is given the default value for new Groups, if such a value exists.

An Admin may render a Group Idle if that Group has asked to become Idle in an entry or comment from the past 96 hours (4 Days), or if that Group 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 Group if that Group 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 Group 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 a non-idle admin would.

Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single Group, known as the Proprietor. If there is no Proprietor, 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 Group 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 Groups may cast Votes on, such as a Proposal, a Call for Judgement or a Declaration of Victory.

Votes

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

If a Group other than the Proprietor casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Proprietor. When the Proprietor 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 Proprietor'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 Groups 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.

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a Group 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 Proprietor may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a Proposal; when the Proprietor casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Proprietor 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 Groups actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Group feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Group 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 Group (other than the Proprietor) 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.

A Group's vote on a DoV is encouraged to reflect whether or not they agree 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 has a number of FOR Votes greater than 2/3rds of the number of Groups, it has been open for at least 12 hours, and either the Proprietor has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
It has a number of FOR Votes greater than 2/3rds of the number of Groups, 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.
It is more than 48 hours old and cannot be Enacted

If a DoV is Failed and it had at least one AGAINST vote, the Group 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 Group who posted the DoV becomes Proprietor, 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 Proprietor must either Pass the Mantle (by making a post naming a Group who was not the last dynasty’s Proprietor, in which case the passing Group ceases to be the Proprietor and the Group so named becomes the Proprietor) 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 Proprietor'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 Group'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. Groups 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 Group within BlogNomic, and should announce publicly if they control both a non-Idle Group and any Idle Groups. This extends to exerting full control over the actions of another Group, defined here as the controlled Group's game behavior being functionally indistinguishable from if the controlling Group was logged into their account and playing through it, over a period of more than a day.
A Group 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 Group should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or other blognomic.com scripts).
A Group should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Group .
A Group should not edit the “Entry Date” field of a blog post.
A Group should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
A Group 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 Group 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 Group must use their own name in the Dice Roller, when rolling dice.
A Group should not deliberately and unreasonably prolong the performance of a game action once they have started it.
A Group should not use a Core, Special Case, or Appendix rules scam to directly or indirectly cause a Group to achieve victory.
A Group 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 Partygoesrs and idle Groups 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 Groups are encouraged to commit to upholding them to whatever extent is possible.

Dynastic Rules

Visitors

Each Group controls a number of Visitors, the Names of which are publicly tracked. Each such Visitor has a publicly tracked Name, which is flavour text and consists of a single-word Forename and single-word Surname. The names of Visitors that were created under the control of currently-idle Groups continue to be publicly tracked; these Visitors are known as Sleepers.

Where a rule defines an action as being taken by a Visitor, it may be taken by the Group that controls it, on that Visitor’s behalf.

If a Group contains fewer than four Visitors, that Group may create a new Visitor with a Name of the Group’s choice which is different from all other Visitor Names (including Visitors belonging to idle Groups), under their control. The Proprietor may not create a Visitor in this way if they already control a Visitor.

An NPC is any Visitor controlled by the Proprietor other than the one named “Grandpa Fuller”.

The Robot

There is an NPC named “Bucky Bot”, who is the Robot . At any given time, one Group is the Robot Operator, defaulting to the Proprietor; this is publicly tracked. The Robot Operator may cause the Robot to take Traffic Actions as though they controlled the Robot. The Proprietor, unless he is also the Robot Operator, may not cause the Robot to take Traffic Actions.

The Robot has no need, it claims, for human sustenance. It may not be moved to Bucky’s BBQ Stand, the Popcorn Stand, the Food Court Line or the Bathroom Line. Any If a Food is passed or given to the Robot in any way, that Food is instead lost.

The Stalker

There is an NPC named “Chase Pleonexi”, who is the Stalker. The Stalker can only Walk to or Rush a Queue if no other Queue has more Souvenier items held by the Visitors in it.

If the Stalker is Jostling or in the Plaza or Bathroom, any Visitor may cause the Stalker to Walk to a Queue, other than its current Attraction, that it can legally Walk to.

Shortly before turning the Traffic Light Red, if the Stalker is Jostling in a Queue but another Queue has more Souvenier items held by its Visitors, the Proprietor should have the Stalker rush the Queue with the most such Souveniers. The Stalker should not otherwise Rush any Queue.

Grillin'

Barbecue, Barbeque, BBQ, Barbie, Braai and Grill are all considered to be synonyms as per the rule Spelling and Formatting.

Attractions and Queues

There are several Attractions whose information is tracked in the Information Center, generally defined in Attraction List subrules. The Proprietor may re-order Attractions within the Visitor Center but should only move recently added Attractions. Each Attraction has a list of Visitors present, tracked in the Information Center. A given Visitor can only be at one Attraction at a time, and adding them to one Attraction removes them from all other Attractions.

Some Attractions are Gated, notated by (G) after the Attraction’s name in the Information Center.

Some Attractions are Queues where explicitly defined as such by other rules. Queues’ visitor lists are strictly ordered - the top or start of the list is the front of the queue, and the bottom or end of the list is the back. Each Visitor in a Queue is either Jostling (tracked by recording their name in italics within that Queue’s list) or Settled (tracked by a lack of such italics), defaulting to Jostling when they join a Queue.

A Visitor may Walk to any non-Gated Attraction, putting themselves at the bottom of that Attraction’s List. Walking is a Traffic Action.

Rushing Queues

Each Visitor may Rush a Queue. To do so, they roll DICEX where X is one plus the number of Jostling Visitors currently in that Queue. They subtract one from the result, add themselves to the back of the Queue, then advance that many places in the Queue. Rushing a Queue is a Traffic Action. If a Queue is Gated, it cannot be Rushed. Visitors who have Rushed a Queue during the current Turn may take no further Traffic Actions.

Turns

A Rule that makes an Attraction into a Queue shall also specify a Front Effect. Front Effects should generally remove the front Visitor from that Queue in addition to whatever else they do, and this is the default Front Effect if a Queue has none explicitly specified.

If the Proprietor has not done so in the past 46 hours, he may Advance the Queues as an atomic action with the following steps:

For each Queue that has Visitors in it, in the order the Queues appear in the Information Center, carry out its Front Effect.
Set all Jostling Visitors in Queues to Settled.
If the Queues have been Advanced four or more times since 12:00 on 29 November 2022 (including the current action), and a single Visitor's Stamp Collection has a higher total Personal Value than that of any Visitor outside its Group, then the Proprietor shall make a Story Post appointing that Visitor the Heir, upon which the Heir's Group achieves victory.
Post a blog entry, summarising the effects of having Advanced the Queues
Change the color of the Traffic Light to Green.

A Turn is a period between two instances of Advancing the Queues, or between the dynasty start and the first instance of Advancing the Queues, or after the last instance of Advancing the Queues. Things that happen as part of an instance of Advancing the Queues are considered to have happened during the preceding Turn.

Closing Time

The Proprietor may Advance the Queues at any time, so long as the Groups named JonathanDark, Kevan and Trapdoorspyder all have at least one Jostling Visitor each at that point.

Attraction List

In a Queue’s Front Effect “Admit N:”, where N is a positive integer, is a shorthand for “Do the following to each of the first N Visitors in this Queue in order, or all of them if there are less than N, then move those visitors to the Plaza if they’re still in this Queue:”

If an Attraction has an “Admit N” in its Front Effect, the value of N should be noted for convenience in its entry at the Information Center.

Plaza

The Plaza is an Attraction that can never be Gated, and is the default for any variable whose set of valid values is all Attractions. New Visitors start at the end of the Plaza list.

Ferris Wheel

The Ferris Wheel is a Queue. Its Front Effect is “Admit 2: nothing.”

Maze

The Maze is a Gated Attraction. When a Visitor who is not carrying Popcorn attempts to Walk or Rush a Queue to leave the Maze, they must first roll DICE2. On a 1, they fail to move and cannot take any Traffic Actions for the rest of the Turn.

The Maze Line is a Queue. Its Front Effect is “Admit 3: Move the Visitor to the Maze if the Maze has less than 5 Visitors in it.”

Bathroom

The Bathroom is a Gated Attraction

No non-NPC Visitor can be removed from the Bathroom except by the Group that controls them, by CfJ, or by repeal of this rule.

The Bathroom Line is a Queue. Its Front Effect is “Admit 1: Move the Visitor to the Bathroom if the Bathroom has less than 3 Visitors in it. If that Visitor is carrying any Food, that Food is discarded.”

Bucky’s BBQ Stand

Bucky’s BBQ Stand is a Queue. Its front effect is: Admit 3: Gain 1 Brisket item, costing $5. Brisket is a Food.

Gift Shop

The Gift Shop is a Queue. Its Front Effect is: Admit 10: Gain 1 Souvenier item, costing $10.

Popcorn Stand

The Popcorn Stand is a Queue. Its Front Effect is: Admit 1: Gain 1 Popcorn item, costing $2. Popcorn is a Food.

Robot Race

The Robot Race is a Queue. Its Front Effect is “Admit 1: their Group becomes the Robot Operator.”

The Robot Race should always be the last Attraction in the list of Attractions in the Information Center. New Attractions are added to the list immediately before it.

Ball Toss

The Ball Toss High Score is a publicly tracked positive Integer, defaulting to 10.

At any given time, one Visitor is the publicly tracked Ball Toss Champion. This defaults to the first listed Visitor under the Proprietor's control.

The Ball Toss is a Queue. The Ball Toss's Front Effect is "Admit 3: Roll 10DICE3. If the result is higher than the Ball Toss High Score, it becomes the new Ball Toss High Score and this Visitor becomes the Ball Toss Champion."

A Visitor holding Brisket has greasy hands, and therefore has 10DICE2 rolled when Admitted to the Ball Toss instead of 10DICE3.

The Food Court

The Food Court is a Gated Queue. Rushing the Queue is not allowed for this Queue. Its front effect is: “Admit 10: If the Visitor is carrying 2 different Food items, remove all Food items and award the Visitor a Y stamp”

The Food Court Line is a Queue. Its front effect is: “Admit 1: Move the Visitor to the Food Court”

Arena Dome

The Dome King is either a Visitor or nobody, defaulting to nobody. The current turn’s Dome King is publicly tracked in the Information Center, except that it might track the following turn’s Dome King instead while Advancing the Queues.

The Arena Dome is a Queue. Its Front Effect is “If there is more than one Visitor in this Queue, roll DICE4. The visitor in that position in this Attraction’s Visitor List is the Dome King next Turn. If that position is past the end of the list, nobody is the Dome King next Turn. Any Visitors who are in the front four spots of this Queue, other than the next turn’s Dome King, move to the Plaza.”

Stamps

Various rules award Stamps to visitors. Each Stamp has a letter associated with it, for example a “X stamp”, defaulting to X.

Each Visitor has a Stamp Collection, which is a set of stamps they have been awarded. A Visitor’s Stamp Collection is tracked in the Information Center as a text string consisting of the associated letters of each of their stamps in alphabetical order, for example “CPZ” denoting the C, P and Z stamps. A visitor can only have one stamp associated with each letter, such that gaining a stamp they already have has no effect. New Visitors start with an empty stamp collection.

When a Visitor leaves the Plaza for the first time, they are awarded a Z stamp for waking up.

Stamps cannot be lost once gained except by CfJ or by the repeal of this rule. The Proprietor should veto proposals that award Visitors stamps they have not earned.

A letter's Rarity Value is 20 minus the number of Visitors that have Stamps associated with it, to a minimum of 1. The Personal Value of a Stamp in a Visitor's Stamp Collection is equal to its associated letter's Rarity Value, plus twice the number of other Visitors within their Group who have Stamps with the same associated letter, plus 30 if no Visitor outside their Group has a Stamp with that associated letter.

Ferris Wheel Companionship

When two Visitors from different Groups are admitted to the Ferris Wheel in the same Turn, they make good friends and both receive an F stamp.

The Maze’s Treasure

Once per turn, a Visitor in the Maze may Search, rolling DICE with 6-N sides, where N is the number of times they have Searched in the Maze since they last entered it. If the result is a 1, they find and are awarded the M stamp. This is a Traffic Action.

Still Waiting?

When a Visitor has been in the same Queue for the past four complete Turns, they receive a W stamp for their unrivalled patience and stubbornness.

Again!

When a Visitor has experienced the Front Effect of the same Queue three times, they receive a J stamp for the childlike joy they experience in the simple things.

Well-timed Good Times

When four or more Visitors from the same Group have the Front Effects of different Queues applied to them in the same Turn, a random one of those Visitors who does not already have a T stamp receives a T stamp for their impressive coordination.

Ball Tossing Contest

If the Ball Toss High Score is not equal to its default value, and either the Ball Toss High Score is equal to 30 or the Ball Toss Champion did not change during the last three instances of Advancing the Queues, then as an atomic action called Crowning the Champion, any Group may award a B Stamp to the current Ball Toss Champion, then set the Ball Toss Champion and the Ball Toss High Score to their default values.

Reward by Proxy

The Visitor who was most recently admitted to the Robot Race is publicly tracked alongside the identity of the Robot Operator.

When the Robot earns a stamp associated with a letter that it did not already have a stamp for, the Visitor who was most recently admitted to the Robot Race is awarded the “R” Stamp if their Group is still the Robot Operator.

Defending the Title

When the current turn’s Dome King experiences the Front Effect of the Arena Dome without having previously left the Arena Dome that turn, they are awarded the K Stamp.

Traffic Light

There is a Traffic Light whose color may be Green or Red and defaults to Green. Its color is tracked at the top of the Information Center.

If the Proprietor is allowed to Advance the Queues, the Proprietor may turn the Traffic Light Red to indicate his intent to do so. If the Traffic Light has been Red for the last four hours, any Group may change it to Green; or, the Proprietor may change it to Green at any time.

If the Traffic Light is Red, no actions defined as Traffic Actions may be taken. Any action that changes a Visitor’s presence at an Attraction but isn’t part of Advancing the Queues is a Traffic Action unless otherwise specified.

Money and Items

Each Group has a publicly tracked pool of Money, defaulting to $100. Whenever something happens to a Visitor which costs an amount of Money, this is subtracted from the Money of the Group that controls them (unless doing so would reduce that Money below zero or that Visitor is a Sleeper, in which case the Money is instead not reduced and the costed occurrence does not happen to that Visitor).

Each Visitor is able to carry 0-2 Items, which are any objects identified as “item” or “Item” in the rules. Visitors default to carrying 0 Items. Every Item carried by each Visitor is publicly tracked.

If a Visitor is already carrying the maximum number of Items, any rule or action that would give the Visitor another Item does not give them the Item, does not add or subtract any Money belonging to the Visitor’s Group, and does not award any Stamps associated with giving the Item to the Visitor.

A Visitor may drop an Item, but the Item is then lost and cannot be picked back up. Dropping an Item is a Traffic Action.

An Item may have a Group effect or action that applies to all Visitors in the same Group. Any Item that has a Group effect or action must still be held and tracked to one specific Visitor in the Group.

A Visitor may pass an Item they are carrying to another Visitor controlled by the same Group, if both of those Visitors are present at the same Attraction and if there is no rule preventing the Item from being passed to the receiving Visitor. Passing an Item is a Traffic Action.

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 “Groups” and “Victory and Ascension” (with the exception of Voting in DoVs) may not be taken.

Dormancy [Active]

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

Imperial Deferentials [Active]

If the Proprietor has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Groups 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 Groups on the same Proposal are not considered to be valid.

Dynastic Distance [Inactive]

For the purposes of dynastic rules which do not deal with voting, the Proprietor is not a Group.

Malign Emperors [Inactive] [Rare]

The Proprietor may be recipient of the Mantle, as if they were a Group, during an Interregnum, as per the rule Victory and Ascension. The Proprietor 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 Group may set it to Inactive. (The combo is too strong.)

Dynastic Tracking [Active]

The gamestate tracking page for this dynasty is the Information Center page of the wiki. Unless otherwise stated, all publicly tracked gamestate information is tracked on it. Proprietor 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 Proprietor is not considered a Group for the purposes of this rule.

Groups 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 Group 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 Groups (or people who are not yet Groups) also face the same restrictions if they intend to become an active Group 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 Groups 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]

The mantle may not be passed, except as a result of a Call for Judgment. (Groups 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.) This limitation does not apply to proposals that would explicitly award Victory.

Alliances [Inactive] [Rare]

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

If "Mantle Limitations" is also active, and if a Group 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 Group may pass the Mantle to a Group 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 Groups 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 Groups who have each other’s names in their Alliance.

Event Types [Inactive]

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 Group 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 Group 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 Group End it again.

Bounties [Rare] [Inactive]

A Bounty Notice is a post in the Story Posts - Votable Matter category which broadly requests a single mechanical or ruleset change. Despite its category, it is not a votable matter and any votes on it are ignored. A Bounty Notice may be Open or Closed being Open by default and being Closed when set to the ‘Enacted’ or ‘Failed’ status in the post backend. The Enacted Status should be used for successfully completed Bounty Notices, while Failed should be used for ones that were closed for any other reason

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: Royal Gift

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

If the Proprietor believes that one or more enacted votable matters satisfy the demand of an open Bounty Notice, then they may iterate the Bounty Reward Variable of each Group (other than the Proprietor) who authored at least one of those votable matters 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 Group 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 Group 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 Group 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 Group 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 Groups.
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 Group's Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter is that Group's Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Group's Vote on that Votable Matter.
Commentary: When posting a blog entry, a Group 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. Groups , as well as people who are not Groups 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 Groups 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. Groups 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 Groups is half the number of Groups in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Groups it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Groups.
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 Group 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 Group 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 Group 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 Group is defined as a Group who has been a Group for fewer than seven days or a Group 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 Group'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 Group may correct the representations to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Group 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 Group, if doing so would not require the correcting Group to make any decisions on behalf of the original Group .

Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed alteration, however, Groups 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 Group 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 Group with such access. Only a Group with such access may Enact that Votable Matter. If that Votable Matter does not name a Group 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 Group making the roll before or while making the roll. If a selection is explicitly specified as being “secretly” random, the Group 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 Group 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 Group performing an Atomic Action to skip some of its steps, the skipped steps are considered to have been completed.
If a Group 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 Group must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Group 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 Group 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 Group can spend or pay from only their own values, and a rule that allows Groups to transfer or pay a numeric value to another Group only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to that other Group (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 Group 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 Proprietor (including secretly random selections), then that information may only be revealed by the Proprietor when the ruleset allows it. If a Group should already know such a piece of information (in that the Proprietor has already told them it, or vice versa, and there is no way that the information could have been changed since then), the Proprietor 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, Group 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 Group 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.
When the ruleset calls for the use of a specific tool (such as the dice roller, or an off-domain website, or a specific piece of downloadable softwsare), Groups may not deliberately interfere with the function of that tool except in ways explicitly permitted by the ruleset.

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 Group 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.
Groups 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 Group 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 Group if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Group'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 Group's (or prospective Group'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:

The Appendix has precedence over any other Rule;
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;
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;
If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies (e.g. if the rules “Groups may Kick each other” and “Groups may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Groups may not Kick each other);
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 “Groups may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Groups may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Groups may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Mentors

A Group may have another Group as a Mentor. Groups 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 Group who has requested a change on their own behalf, from this list at any time.

If an unmentored Group requests a Mentor, or a new Group has joined the game and has no Mentor, the Proprietor should select a Tenured Group and ask them to take that Group 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 Proprietor should announce it in a blog post. The Proprietor should take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor.

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

If there is no Proprietor, any Group who has been active in at least three previous dynasties may act as Proprietor 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 Group 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 Groups .
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 “Group” and “Proprietor”.

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

Group (Player)
Proprietor (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.

Ruleset 208

Contents

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

Groups

Idle Groups

Dynasties

Votable Matters

Votes

Enacting and Failing

Tags

Proposals

Special Proposal Voting

Resolution of Proposals

Calls for Judgement

Victory and Ascension

Fair Play

Dynastic Rules

Visitors

The Robot

The Stalker

Grillin'

Attractions and Queues

Rushing Queues

Turns

Closing Time

Attraction List

Plaza

Ferris Wheel

Maze

Bathroom

Bucky’s BBQ Stand

Gift Shop

Popcorn Stand

Robot Race

Ball Toss

The Food Court

Arena Dome

Stamps

Ferris Wheel Companionship

The Maze’s Treasure

Still Waiting?

Again!

Well-timed Good Times

Ball Tossing Contest

Reward by Proxy

Defending the Title

Traffic Light

Money and Items

Special Case

Seasonal Downtime [Active]

Dormancy [Active]

Imperial Deferentials [Active]

Dynastic Distance [Inactive]

Malign Emperors [Inactive] [Rare]

Dynastic Tracking [Active]

No Collaboration [Inactive] [Rare]

Mantle Limitations [Active]

Alliances [Inactive] [Rare]

Event Types [Inactive]

Bounties [Rare] [Inactive]

Appendix

Keywords

Imperatives

Time

Other

Gamestate Tracking

Official Posts

Representations of the Gamestate

Orphan Variables

Random Generators

Atomic Actions

Clarifications

Numbers and Variables

Rules and Votable Matters

Time

Spelling and formatting

Names

Prioritisation

Archives