Ruleset 22

1 - Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Hordes must obey it. Rules 1-10 are the "core Ruleset", covering basic Horde and proposal mechanics; Rules 11 onwards are those specific to the current round.

The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be changed when a Rule specifically permits their being changed. ("Gamestate" is defined as any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of, such as Hordes' names and Brains totals, or the blog colour scheme.)

Admin Staff may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset at any time.

2 - Hordes

Anybody may apply to join BlogNomic (if they are not already playing) by contacting any of the Admin Staff, specifying the name they wish to use in the game and the URL or email address they want their name to link to in the Horde roster. The Admin may choose to approve or reject this application; if it is approved, the applicant will be signed up as a Member of the BlogNomic weblog, and will be considered a Horde from the moment that they first appear on the roster in the sidebar.

A Horde may change their name or their sidebar link, or leave the game, at any time, by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such action.

Some Hordes are Admin Staff, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Hordes who wish to become Admin should sign up with a username for the Ruleset Wiki, and submit a Proposal to make themselves an Admin. Existing Admin may be removed from their post by Proposal, CfJ or voluntary resignation.

Some Hordes are idle, and should be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of rules other than 1 and 2, idle Hordes are not counted as Hordes. Admin may render a Horde idle if that Horde has failed to vote for more than a week, or if it has asked to become idle. Admins may un-idle a Horde at their request - the Horde's personal gamestate retains the values it had immediately prior to their idling.

A single person may not control more than one Horde within BlogNomic. If anybody is suspected of controlling more than one Horde, then a Proposal may be made to remove any number of such Hordes from the game, and to bar the perpetrator from rejoining.

3 - Brains

Each Horde has an amount of Brains, which may vary during the course of the game. Brains may not fall below 0 or rise above 200. Any effect which would take Brains beyond either of these boundaries instead sets it to that boundary, unless the change must be made as a precondition of a game action (such as paying a "cost"), in which case that action cannot be performed.

Brains is normalized at the beginning of each new dynasty. If a Horde's Brains was higher than 125 before the Ascension of the new Overlord, it drops to 125. If it was lower than 75 before the Ascension, it rises to 75. If it was between 125 and 75, it retains its value for the new dynasty.

New Hordes begin the game with 100 Brains.

If at any time a fractional value would occur for Brains that value is rounded down to the nearest whole number.

4 - Proposals

Any Horde may propose a change to the Ruleset or gamestate by posting an entry with the subject "Proposal : [Title]" (where [Title] is a title of their choosing), and describes the changes they wish to be made.

Proposals can either be Pending, Enacted, Failed or Expired. When a Proposal is first put forward, it is considered Pending.

No ostensible Proposal shall be legal if its posting leads to its poster having more than 2 Proposals pending. Furthermore, no Horde may post more than 3 Proposals in the same day.

5 - Voting

Any Horde may cast their vote on a Pending Proposal by declaring it in the comments of the entry. Valid votes are FOR, AGAINST, and DEFERENTIAL, which must be represented by appropriate icons. If there exists more than one Vote from a single Horde on a single Proposal, only the most recent of those Votes is counted. If a Horde leaves the game or goes idle, their Vote no longer counts.

A vote of DEFERENTIAL is a vote of no opinion, or of faith in the decision of the Overlord. The vote will count as the same as the Overlord's vote. The Overlord cannot cast a vote of DEFERENTIAL. If there is no Overlord, a vote of DEFERENTIAL counts as an explicit vote of abstention.

If the Horde who made a Proposal has not cast an explicit Vote on it, their Vote is counted as FOR.

6 - Enactment

Quorum is equal to half the number of Hordes, rounded down, plus one.

If the oldest pending Proposal's FOR votes exceed or equal Quorum, or if it is more than 48 hours old and more than half of its votes are FOR, then any Admin Staff may mark that Proposal as Enacted, then update the Ruleset and/or Gamestate to include the specified effects of that Proposal.

If the oldest pending Proposal has enough AGAINST votes that it could not be Enacted without one of those votes being changed, or if all Hordes have voted on it and it still cannot be Enacted, or if the Horde who proposed it has voted AGAINST it, or if it is more than 48 hours old and most of its votes are AGAINST, then any Admin Staff may mark that Proposal as Failed. When the proposer votes against his or her own proposal, that vote may not be changed.

Whenever an Admin Enacts or Fails a Proposal that has been pending for more than 48 hours, he/she has the option of deducting 5 Brains from the accounts of all active Hordes who did not vote on the Proposal. This deduction cannot take place if a proposal has been vetoed or self failed.

7 - Calls for Judgment

If two or more Hordes actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Horde feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Horde may raise a Call for Judgment by posting an anonymous entry (via the blogger account that is specifically designated for CFJs) which begins with the paragraph "Call for Judgment" in bold text, and goes on to describe the issue, and measures that should be taken to resolve it.

All Hordes may add votes of agreement or disagreement in comments to this entry, using appropriate voting icons (a Horde's later votes overriding its earlier ones). CfJs continue until they reach a quorum of FOR votes, or until four days have passed. After this time, if more than half of the cast votes are in favour, the Gamestate and Ruleset should be amended as was specified. Otherwise, the CfJ fails and may have no further effect.

8 - Gamestate Tracking

Proposals, Calls for Judgment, and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.blogspot.com. Any Horde 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.

If nobody else has commented on it, an official post may be altered or removed; otherwise this can only be done as allowed by the ruleset. 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 formatted

[data]

, where [result] is one of enact, fail, veto, or other.

A non-official post may not through editing of the blog be changed into an official post.

Voting and comments are tracked by backblog, accessible through the link at the bottom of every post.

Specific parts of the Gamestate data shall be tracked by the Generic Nomic Data Tracker at http://kevan.org/generic?nomic=blog. Any Horde may update any Horde's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.

All updates to the GNDT are logged - if a Horde feels that an alteration goes against the Rules (as they were at the time of the alteration), he or she may simply undo the effects of that alteration. If such an undoing is disputed, a Call for Judgment should be raised.

The Year is tracked in the Blog sidebar and the GNDT. In instances of dispute, the GNDT is offical. It is measured in Years A.E. ("Anno EquitisRegis"). Once per day at midnight GMT the Calendar advances 10 Years.

Periodically the Calendar will advance 1 year. This has no game effect other than to indicate the time until the year increments; the Year is still considered to be what it was at midnight.

Hordes shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

9 - Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Rounds, referred to as Dynasties.

Each Dynasty has a single Overlord and is named according to the number of times which that Horde has been the Overlord (or the Overlord equivalent) (eg. "The First Dynasty of Myke").

The Overlord has the following powers:

• They may veto any Proposal; that Proposal immediately fails. (This veto may be contested with a CfJ if it is thought excessively unreasonable.)
• They may change the BlogNomic header, the colour scheme and the VETO icon, whenever they like.

A page of Dynasty Records are kept on a separate weblog, recording events that took place during past Dynasties, noting their themes, their Overlord or equivalent, interesting rules, large arguments, the winning move, etc. A Dynasty record must accurately reflect the Dynasty it refers to. Hordes may submit Dynasty Records to the Overlord - the Overlord may award the submitter 20 Brains for any Records it uses.

10 - Victory and Ascension

If a Horde believes that they have achieved the victory conditions for the current Dynasty, they may post a Declaration of Victory to the BlogNomic weblog. At this point, BlogNomic immediately goes into Hiatus, during which no further game actions (other than Calls for Judgment, and all relevant actions specified in Rule 7) may be taken.

Every Horde may respond to the Declaration of Victory saying whether they regard it as legal or illegal (using the FOR, AGAINST and DEFERENTIAL icons). If more than half of Hordes consider the win legal, then the poster of the Declaration is considered to have officially won the Dynasty - the Dynasty ends. If more than half consider it illegal, and if no CfJs remain pending, however, then the Hiatus ends and the current Dynasty continues. If no clear decision is reached after 24 hours, the Overlord may optionally step in and decide the win's legality.

When a Dynasty has been won, all Hordes' GNDT stats are reset to zero or blank. The Year is reset to 0 A.E. Any Hordes who were idle throughout that Dynasty may be removed from the game, at the Overlord's discretion.

The Hiatus then continues until the new Overlord posts an Ascension Address to the BlogNomic weblog - this should specify the Overlord's chosen theme for the new round, and may optionally include a proclamation that any number of Rules will be repealed (excluding Rules 1-10), and/or that the words "Horde", "Overlord", "Brains", "Year" and “A.E. (Anno EquitisRegis)" will be replaced with new theme-appropriate terms. If the new Overlord chooses not to repeal a rule with number over 10, he/she may also replace any keyword in those rules with a new theme-appropriate term. The remaining rules, after the new Overlord's proclamation, shall be renumbered to keep a sequential progression. The new Overlord may also proclaim at the Ascension Address the veto of any Pending Proposals. The failure of said proposals shall incur no Thaler penalty for the proposer.

Upon posting this Address, and having made the Ruleset changes, the Hiatus period ends and the new Dynasty commences.

11 - The City

The Hordes are shambling about in a city full of yuppies, angst-ridden teenagers, and other urbanites. The city is divided into a number of Locations, each of them having a Size (given in brackets).

• The Town Centre (500)
• The Slums (350)
• The Mall (100)
• The Graveyard (40)
• The Heliport (10)
• The Hospital (50)

The Location of each Horde is tracked in the GNDT, and once per day Hordes may move to any new Location, unless such a movement would mean that the total number of Zombies in that Location exceeded its Size. New Hordes enter the game in the Graveyard, even if this would overfill it.

The total human population of the city is listed in the GNDT under the Brains field of a Horde named "Humans," although it is not actually a Horde for the purposes of any rule. The population is initialized at 1000 and must at all times be 0 or greater; if it reaches zero, the city has been abandoned to the Zombies.

Once a day, a Horde may attempt to attack the Humans for their Brains. The Horde does this by posting a comment consisting of "Attack Humans: DICE" to the GNDT. The result of the dice roll is subtracted from the Human population and added to the Horde's Brains and Zombies.

If a Horde rolls a 5 or 6 on their attack, they must make an additional "Grarh: DICE" comment. The dice roll is subtracted from the human population, and is added to the the Horde's Zombies, if Shambling, or Brains, if Rampaging.

12 - Zombies

Each Horde contains a number of Zombies, tracked in the GNDT. New Hordes consist of a single Zombie, when they join the game.

No horde may have fewer than zero zombies. If any action would reduce a Horde's zombies below zero that horde's zombies are instead reduced to zero.

Hordes with zero zombies do not count as hordes for non-core rules except where otherwise stated by the ruleset.

Once per day, a Horde (including a Horde with zero Zombies) may deduct 30 of their Brains and a further 5 Brains for each Zombie that Horde already contains; after paying this cost, that Horde gains 1 Zombie.

If a Horde ever ends up with 0 Zombies, it immediately moves to the Graveyard.

13 - Different Strokes

Each Horde is always in one of two modes, Shambling or Rampaging. A Horde may change its mode provided it has not done so in the past 24 hours. All Hordes start as Shambling.

14 - Horde Activities

Hordes can be driven to perform specific, complex activities - in order for the Horde to perform an activity, each Zombie in the Horde must eat one of that Horde's Brains (decreasing the GNDT Brain count appropriately). If a Horde has more Zombies than Brains, it cannot perform any activities. Hordes cannot perform a particular activity more than once per day.

• Dig. The Horde sifts through the rubble of the city and unearths one Zombie to join it, or - if in the Graveyard - a die roll's worth of Zombies.

• Forage. The Horde must be in the Hospital - it gains two dice rolls' worth of Brains.

• Barricade. Requires at least ten Zombies. The Horde must be in the Hospital or the Mall, which becomes Barricaded. (All Hordes in that Location have an asterisk added to their Location.) Hordes cannot enter or leave Barricaded Locations.

• Smash. Requires at least ten Zombies. If the Horde is in a Barricaded Location, it may only Smash the Barricade on that Location; otherwise, the Horde may choose any Barricaded Location and revert it to an unbarricaded state. (All Hordes in the Location have the asterisk removed from their Location.)

• Call. The Horde must be in the Mall. A chosen Horde, drawn by the muzak, may then be moved to the Mall as if it were moved normally (provided that such a movement would be legal if that Horde had made it themselves).

• Blackhawk Down. The Horde must be at the Heliport. The Horde that performs Blackhawk Down has their Horde attempt to fly a Blackhawk Helicopter. The Helicopter crashes at the location of that Horde’s choosing, and all Hordes at said location lose half of their zombies. The Horde flying the helicopter loses all of its zombies and may not gain zombies in any way for 24 hours after the crash. Blackhawk Down may only be used once per week, meaning once its used by one horde during the week, there are no more helicopters available until the next week.

(Where dice are referenced, a GNDT comment along the lines of "(Action Name): DICE" should be made to obtain dice results. All dice are six-sided.)

15 - Protagonists

There are a number of humans who have successively failed to be eaten, beating back the zombie horde at every turn. They have attained a kind of legendary status, both amoungst the remaining humans, and amoungst the zombies that face them. They have their own player fields in the GNDT, have Health (which is tracked under Brains) and may change location as detailed below.

Each Protagonist has their own, seperate, characteristics that are tracked at the bottom of this rule. However, all Protagonists have the following characteristics:

• A Horde attacking Humans loses an additional 3 Zombies for each Protagonist in the same Location as that Horde.
• When they are killed by a Horde, that Horde gains 5 Zombies and 25 Brains.

A Horde may, once per day, attack any Protagonist in the same Location as them by posting a comment to the GNDT, reading "Protagonist: DICE". If the result of the roll is 1-3, then the Protagonist loses Brains equal to the Horde's number of zombies multiplied by the dice roll. If the result in 4-6, the Horde loses Zombies equal to that result. When the Protagonist is reduced to 0 Brains, it is dead and can be deleted from this rule and the GNDT.

Protagonists may have their locations changed by any Horde in the same location, no more than once per day. This is done by a comment of "Move on: DICE" to the GNDT; a result of 1-3 means that the attempt fails, but on a roll of 4-6, the Protagonist is moved to the location of the Horde's choice. If all Protagonists are in the same location, then a roll of 6 moves them all to the same location.

All Protagonists start with 100 Brains unless otherwise stated.

• Bub: Leadership - all Hordes in the same Location as Bub may reduce the Brain cost of their Activities by one third, rounding up. Because Bub is a zombie, Hordes attacking Humans in the same location as him lose 3 fewer Zombies (to a minimum of 0) instead of 3 more.

• Logan. Experimentation - Doctor Logan is capturing the city's more intelligent zombies for research. If a Horde performs an Activity in the same Location as Logan, it loses one Zombie immediately afterwards. If Logan and Bub are in the same Location, Bub may not have his Location changed.

• Rhodes. Armed - if a Horde sustains casualties when attacking Captain Rhodes, those casualties are doubled.

• Roger. Roger has no special abilities.

16 - Daytime and Nighttime

Define the Cycle to be the "tens" digit of the Calendar.

Whenever the Calendar is in an odd Cycle it is Nighttime, whenever it is in an even Cycle it is Daytime.

Zombies are more aggressive at Nighttime, and more docile during the Daytime.

A Horde may double the number of Zombies and/or Brains it would gain from an Attack or Grarh against the Humans made during the Nighttime. Also, a Horde may double the effects of any attack made on a Protagonist during the Nighttime.

A Horde may halve their Brain eating requirements of the Horde Activities they perform during the Daytime.

17 - Allegiance and Domination

Each Horde has an Allegiance to a single Horde, which may be themselves. Each Horde starts off holding Allegiance to themselves. All uses of "Horde" in this rule include Hordes with 0 Zombies.

Once per day, a Horde with at least 7 Zombies may attempt to Dominate a single other Horde in the same location as themselves. The Dominating Horde makes a "Dominate (Targeted Horde's Name): DICE" comment to the GNDT. The result is subtracted from the Dominating Horde's Zombies, and added to the targeted Horde's Zombies. If, after this, the Dominating Horde has more Zombies than the targeted Horde, the targeted Horde is Dominated by the Dominating Horde.

Once Dominated, a Horde, as well as all Hordes who hold Allegiance to that Horde, is changed to have the same Allegiance as the Dominating Horde. If a Horde Dominates the Horde to whom they owe Allegiance, those Allegiances are changed to the Dominating Horde, instead.

(For example: A holds Allegiance to B. If A dominates C, then C and everyone who holds Allegiance to C will now hold Allegiance to B. If instead, A dominates B, then B, and everyone who holds Allegiance to B (including A) now holds Allegiance to A.)

Once per day, a Horde may attempt to exert its influence over a single other Horde who holds Allegiance to them. It does this by making a comment in the GNDT of "Influence [HordeName]: DICE" where [HordeName] is the name of a Horde whose Allegiance is set to the Horde making the comment. If the DICE roll is a 5 or 6, then the Influential Horde (as the Horde who has successfully exerted its influence shall be henceforth called) may immediately force the Dominated one to perform a single action from the following list:

1) It may move the Horde to any other location to which it could legally move, even if that Horde has already moved that Day.

2) It may force the Horde to attack a Protagonist. This attack goes through normally, except that, if this attack kills the Protagonist, then all the rewards go to the Influential Horde.

3) It may force the Horde to cast a vote, that cannot be changed, on a pending proposal. This is done by making a comment to said proposal with the text "[HordeName] decides to vote this way," and the appropriate vote. Hordes cannot be forced to self-kill their own proposals.

If, at any time, a Horde has zero Brains and zero Zombies, it may transfer 30 Brains and 3 Zombies from the Horde to which its Allegiance is set. If this would reduce the Dominating Horde to below zero Brains or Zombies, then the action may not be performed, but the Dominated Horde may set their Allegiance back to themselves.

99 - Glossary

This Rule is always at the end of the Ruleset. Its only effect can be to clarify ambiguity.

• References to "a day" (as an entity rather than a duration, eg. "Sunday") refer to that day in the timezone of the BlogNomic blog.
• References to a "week" refer to the period of time between the start of a Monday and the end of the following Sunday.
• It is noted that where a Proposal would amend the effects of Proposal Enactment, this does not apply to its own enactment unless explicitly stated (eg. a proposal proposing that enacted proposals earn their writer a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own writer, when enacted).
• Rules which trigger on Enactment or Failure of a Proposal are the responsibility of the acting Admin, who is responsible to check if Quorum is met at the moment of the Enactment.
• Appropriate Icons: For use in voting, a check box http://kevan.org/gndt/for.gif shall represent a vote FOR, an X http://kevan.org/gndt/against.gif shall represent a vote AGAINST, an I http://kevan.org/gndt/imperial.gif shall represent a vote of DEFERENTIAL, and an Imperial Seal (currently http://kevan.org/gndt/seal.gif) shall represent the Imperial Veto.
• The "subject" of a blog entry is the first and only sentence in the Title of an entry. Any entry that does not have exactly one subject is not valid.
• "Posts" and "comments" refer only to those made to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.blogspot.com.
• A keyword defined by a rule supersedes the normal english usage of the word. A keyword defined in this glossary supersedes that defined by a rule. (eg. A rule specifying "Bananas are Blue" cannot be overruled by posting a dictionary definition or a photo of a banana, and a rule specifying "every day is Sunday" will be overruled by the glossary entry above.)
• Unless otherwise specified, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers, and any action that would set those values below zero instead sets them to zero.

Typographic Conventions

• Italicized text is not considered part of the ruleset and may be used to clarify rules with examples, notes and flavor text