Ruleset 31
Laws
Ruleset and Gamestate
This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Voices must obey it. Section One consists of the “laws†of blognomic, covering basic Voice and proposal mechanics; Section Two contains the “rules†of the current round, and Section Three contains the glossary, which exists soley to clarify the remainder of the ruleset. Laws and rules may be referred to by their type and number.
The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be changed when the Ruleset specifically permits their being changed.
Spivak pronouns, as defined in the Glossary, shall be used whenever a Voice is referred to.
Admin Staff may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset at any time.
Voices
Anybody may apply to join BlogNomic (if e is not already playing) by registering at http://blognomic.com via the Register link in the sidebar, and then making a post announcing eir arrival. An Admin will add em to the roster in the sidebar, at which moment e becomes a Voice.
A Voice may change eir name or eir sidebar link by editing eir blognomic.com profile. E may leave the game by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such action.
Some Voices are Admin Staff, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Voicees who wish to become Admins should sign up with a username for the Ruleset Wiki, and submit a Proposal to make themselves Admins. Existing Admins may be removed from their post by Proposal, CfJ or voluntary resignation.
Some Voices are Idle, and should be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of rules other than 1 and 2, idle Voices are not counted as Voices. Admin may render a Voice idle if that Deity has failed to vote for more than a week, or if it has asked to become idle. Admins may un-idle a Voice at eir request - the Voice's personal gamestate retains the values it had immediately prior to eir idling.
A single person may not control more than one Voice within BlogNomic. If anybody is suspected of controlling more than one Voice, then a Proposal may be made to remove any number of such Voices from the game, and to bar the perpetrator from rejoining.
Proposals
Any Voice may propose a change to the Ruleset or gamestate by posting an entry in the "Proposal" category that describes the changes e wishes to be made.
Proposals can either be Pending, Enacted, or Failed. 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 Voice may post more than 3 Proposals in the same day.
Voting
Any Voice may cast eir 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 Voice on a single Proposal, only the most recent of those Votes is counted. If a Voice leaves the game or goes idle, eir Vote no longer counts.
A vote of DEFERENTIAL is a vote of no opinion, or of faith in the decision of the Ego. The vote will count as the same as the Ego's vote. The Ego cannot cast a vote of DEFERENTIAL. If there is no Ego, a vote of DEFERENTIAL counts as an explicit vote of abstention.
If the Voice who made a Proposal has not cast an explicit Vote on it, eir Vote is counted as FOR.
Enactment
Quorum is equal to half the number of Voices, rounded down, plus one.
If the oldest pending |Proposal's FOR votes exceed or equal Quorum and that Proposal has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, 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 Deities have voted on it and it still cannot be Enacted, or if the Deity who proposed it has voted AGAINST it, or if it is more than 48 hours old and at least half of its votes are AGAINST, then any Admin Staff may mark that Proposal as Failed. When the proposer votes against eir own proposal, that vote may not be changed.
Whenever an Admin marks a proposal as enacted or failed e must report the following information on the proposal:
1) the final tally of for to against votes, or whether the proposal was self-killed or vetoed
2) the time of enactment or failure
3) the identity of the enacting or failing admin
Calls for Judgment
If two or more Voices actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Voice feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Voice may raise a Call for Judgment by posting an entry in the "Call for Judgment" category . If the Voice wishes, e may post anonymously by choosing "Call for Judgment" from the Author drop-down menu on the OPTIONS tab. The post should go on to describe the issue, and measures that should be taken to resolve it.
All Voices may add votes of agreement or disagreement in comments to this entry, using appropriate voting icons (a Voice's later votes overriding eir earlier ones). CfJs continue until they reach a quorum of FOR votes, a quorum of AGAINST 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.
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.com. Any Voice 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 placed in the Admin field of the post, and the post's Status must changed to reflect its status.
A non-official post may not through editing of the blog be changed into an official post.
Voting and comments are 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://blognomic.com/gndt/generic.cgi?nomic=blog. Any Deity may update any Deity's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.
All updates to the GNDT are logged - if a Voice feels that an alteration goes against the Rules (as they were at the time of the alteration), e may simply undo the effects of that alteration. If such an undoing is disputed, a Call for Judgment should be raised.
Voices shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.
Dynasties
BlogNomic is divided into a number of Rounds, referred to as Dynasties.
Each Dynasty has a single Ego and is named according to the number of times which that Voice has been the Ego (or Ego equivalent) (eg. "The First Dynasty of Myke").
The Ego has the following powers:
- E may veto any Proposal; that Proposal immediately fails. (This veto may be contested with a CfJ if it is thought excessively unreasonable.)
- E may change the BlogNomic header, the colour scheme and the VETO icon, whenever e likes.
If there is no Ego, any Deity may propose a new header, color scheme, and/or VETO icon. If such a proposal passes, the changes will be made by any Admin.
A page of Dynasty Records is kept on a separate weblog, recording events that took place during past Dynasties, noting their themes, their Ego or equivalent, interesting rules, large arguments, the winning move, etc. A Dynasty record must accurately reflect the Dynasty it refers to. Deities may submit Dynasty Records to the Ego.
Victory and Ascension
If a Voice believes that e has achieved victory as specified in the current Ruleset, e may Make a Post to the Blognomic frontpage entitled "Declaration of Victory", and a Hiatus begins. So long as the Hiatus is in effect, the only game actions that may be taken are those covered by laws 2, 6, and 9.
Every Voice may respond to the Declaration of Victory saying whether e regards it as legal or illegal (using the FOR, AGAINST and DEFERENTIAL icons). If more than half of the Voices 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 Ego may optionally step in and decide the win's legality.
At the winner's discretion, e may choose another active Deity to be the Ego for the next dynasty. This is known as Passing the Mantle. If the selected Deity agrees, then all rights and responsibilities of the Ego transfer to the selected Deity. If the winner makes no mention of Passing the Mantle, it is assumed that the winner has decided to become the next Ego.
When a Dynasty has been won, all Voices' GNDT stats are reset to zero or blank. Any Voices who were idle throughout that Dynasty may be removed from the game, at the Ego's discretion.
The Hiatus then continues until the new Ego posts an Ascension Address to the BlogNomic weblog - this should specify the Ego's chosen theme for the new round, and may optionally include a proclamation that any number of Rules will be repealed, and/or that the words "Voice" and "Ego" will be replaced with new theme-appropriate terms. If the new Ego chooses not to repeal a rule, e may also replace any keyword in those rules with a new theme-appropriate term. The remaining rules, after the new Ego's proclamation, shall be renumbered to keep a sequential progression. The new Ego may also proclaim at the Ascension Address the veto of any Pending Proposals.
Upon posting this Address, and having made the Ruleset changes, the Hiatus period ends and the new Dynasty commences.
The Ego may not declare victory in eir own dynasty.
Priority
In the event of conflict between items in the ruleset, the glossary takes precendence over all laws, which both take precedence over all rules. In the event of conflict amongst the rules, the lower-numbered one shall take precedence.
When any voice would be affected by multiple conflicting rules, impulses shall take preference over instincts if that voice has identity Ich, and inclininations shall take preference over both if e has identity Über-Ich, despite the normal hiërarchy.
The laws and glossary of Blognomic may only be altered by Proposal or Call for Judgment until the next Ascension. At that time, this Law may optionally be repealed, in whole or in part, by edict in the Ascension Address.
There are three types of rules in this Dynasty, “Instinctsâ€, “Impulses†and “Inclinationsâ€. A proposal creating or modifying an “Instinct†must pass by a two-to-one margin, and thus has a Quorum of 2/3, rounded up. A proposal creating or modifying an “Inclination†may pass with a one-to-two margin, and thus has a quourm of 1/3, rounded up. “Impulses†have the usual quourm and pass-ratio, as do proposals that modify Laws, the Glossary, or the Gamestate.
If a proposal modifies rules of more than one type, then it must adhere to the strictest standard applying to it. Any rule that allows a Declaration of Victory must be an Instinct.
Rules
Instincts
Playing in the Sandbox
There is an Inclination entitled “Sandboxâ€, which is always the highest-numbered Inclination. Often, any voice may add one word to the end of this rule, and optionally any punctuation that would be immediately adjacent to this word (such as a period or colon). Any addition to the Sandbox must be grammatical, and if it does not complete a sentence, must allow for a grammatical conclusion to the sentence. Incomplete sentences have no effect until terminated by a period.
Paragraphing, and similar formatting, may be added by the Ego at any time. The Ego may also delete words from the end of the rule at will. Smith
Neurosis
A rule which contradicts any other rules without referring to them is called Dysfunctional.
Good vs. Evil
There exists a Voice named Angel and a Voice named Devil and a Voice named Fred.
There exists a GNDT field entitled ‘Allegiance’.
Angel Instincts, Impulses and Inclinations shall be colored blue; Devil Instincts, Impulses and Inclinations shall be colored red; and Fred Instincts, Impulses and Inclinations shall be colored green. When creating a proposal that creates an Instinct, Impulse or Inclination, it must be explicitly mentioned whether said rule shall apply to those with an Angel Allegiance, a Devil Allegiance or those with a Fred Allegiance. If a proposal does not state what Allegiance a rule shall have, it shall have no Allegiance.
The Devil shall be seen as evil. The Angel shall be seen as good. Fred shall be seen as neutral.
A Voice may Occasionally chance eir Allegiance to Devil, Angel or Fred.
A new Voice starts out with eir Allegiance set to Fred.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
A rock, a piece of paper, and a pair of scissors reside in the rules. A voice may occasionally move one of them to any rule by removing the instance of ROCK, PAPER, or SCISSORS, respectively, from wherever it currently is and adding it behind the last sentence of that rule. That rule then becomes the ROCK rule, PAPER rule or SCISSORS rule, complying with the nature of the moved object.
If the PAPER rule overrides any effect of the SCISSORS rule, undo the effect that overrides that rule and apply the overrided effect instead. In the same manner, stop the SCISSORS rule from overriding the ROCK rule and the ROCK rule from overriding the PAPER rule. If this causes a paradox in which three rules try to override each other due to this paragraph, this rule, apart from this sentence, has no effect instead and all voices must immediately whisper to emselves.
ROCK
SCISSORS
Mood
There exists a GNDT field named “Moodâ€.
Every value except for one allowed for the Mood of a Voice falls on a scale from happiest to unhappiest. The only values allowed, in order from happiest to unhappiest, are the following: Ecstatic, Manic, Cheerful, Happy, Content, Unhappy, Melancholic, Depressed, and Suicidal. The only other acceptable value for Mood is Orgasmic.
New Voices start out content. A Voice may change the Mood of any two other Voices occasionally by one value toward Ecstatic or by one value toward Suicidal.
Unless any other rule alters this, no Voice may change eir own Mood. Unless any other rule alters this, no Voice may be Orgasmic.
Total Chaos
If the game enters a state from which it can impossibly continue by the rules, laws and glossary CHICKEN (due to a huge paradox or something similar), the voice who took the last legal action before the game entered that stage may declare victory. If a proposal caused this state, the writer of that proposal may declare victory.
When a voice declares victory as allowed by this rule, e must do it in the form of a Shakespearian sonnet.
When a voice declares victory as allowed by another rule, e must do it in the form of a limerick.
Impulses
Neurotic
A rule which contradicts any other rules without referring to them may not be called Dysfunctional.
Identities
All voices but the Ego have identities, which are tracked in the GNDT. Voices can occasionally change the identity of any voice with an identity to Ich, Ãœber-Ich, or Es.
Hello
Purplebeard is a silly fellow.
Angel
Angel is a silly fellow.
NOT Salamander
Salamander is not a silly fellow.
Devil
Devil is a silly fellow.
NOT Quazie
Quazie is not a silly fellow.
Cayvie
Cayvie is a silly fellow.
NOT Angel
Angel is not a silly fellow.
Elias IX
Elias IX is a silly fellow.
NOT Moonwryn
Moonwryn is not a silly fellow.
Rodney
Rodney is a silly fellow.
NOT Cayvie
Cayvie is not a silly fellow.
Hix
Hix is a silly fellow.
NOT Excalabur
Excalabur is not a silly fellow.
The Lone Amigo
The Lone Amigo is a silly fellow.
NOT Truman Capote
Truman Capote is not a silly fellow.
Salamander
Salamander is a silly fellow.
NOT Hix
Hix is not a silly fellow.
Seventy-Fifth Trombone
Seventy-Fifth Trombone is a silly fellow.
NOT Chronos Phaenon
Chronons Phaenon is not a silly fellow.
Angry Grasshopper
Angry Grasshopper is a silly fellow.
NOT Angry Grasshopper
Angry Grasshopper is not a silly fellow.
Chronos Phaenon
Chronos Phaenon is a silly fellow.
NOT Elias IX
Elias IX is not a silly fellow.
Excalabur
Excalabur is a silly fellow.
NOT Seventy-Fifth Trombone
Seventy-Fifth Trombone is not a silly fellow.
Moonwryn
Moonwryn is a silly fellow.
NOT Devil
Devil is not a silly fellow.
Smith
Smith is a silly fellow.
NOT Fred
Fred is not a silly fellow.
Truman Capote
Truman Capote is a silly fellow.
NOT Smith
Smith is not a silly fellow.
Fred
Fred is a silly fellow.
NOT The Lone Amigo
The Lone Amigo is not a silly fellow.
Quazie
Quazie is a silly fellow.
NOT Rodney
Rodney is not a silly fellow.
The Ego lives in a Fortress made out of Cheese which appears at the end of this rule. The instances of the string “####†in the Fortress of Cheese represent walls made out of the finest and awesomest Cheese. The instances of the string “%%%%†in the Fortress of Cheese represent empty rooms which Voices may move into. Any Voice whose name doesn’t appear in this rule may replace a line which consists of the character string “%%%%†with eir name. The instances of the string “$$$$†in the Fortress of Cheese represent the walls of the Gaming Room, wherein the Ego attemps to create the Perfect Game. The Gaming Room contains a couch on which the Ego lies on Sundays. Whenever the word “dimension†is used in a proposal,
#### %%%% %%%% %%%% $$$$ $$$$ $$$$ %%%% %%%% %%%% ####
is alternately added to the left and right sides of the Fortress of Cheese. The first addition is to the left of the Fortress of Cheese.
The Fortress of Cheese:
#### #### #### %%%% Rodney %%%% %%%% TheLoneAmigo %%%% %%%% Cayvie %%%% $$$$ $$$$ $$$$ $$$$ Excalabur $$$$ $$$$ $$$$ $$$$ smith Quazie Hix %%%% Purplebeard %%%% %%%% Elias IX %%%% #### #### ####
Inclinations
Whispers
Each Voice has the option to Whisper to another Voice. A Voice does this by changing eir Whispering value in the GNDT to the name of the Voice e is Whispering to. A Voice may often change eir Whispering value to another active Voice’s name (or to null). No Voice may Whisper to the Ego. No Voice may whisper to emself.
Occasionally, a Voice may change to null a Whispering value that is set to eir name. No Voice may alter the Ego’s Whispering value in this way.
Occasionally, a Voice may change the Whispering value of the Voice to whom e is currently Whispering to any legal value.
If Angel is Whispering to a Voice, that Voice may only cast FOR votes.
If Devil is Whispering to a Voice, that Voice may only cast AGAINST votes.
If Fred is Whispering to a Voice, that Voice may only cast DEFERENTIAL votes.
The Holy Triumvirate
For the purposes of enacting proposals, Angel’s vote is considered to be whichever type of vote on said proposal is most common among Voices with eir Allegiance set to Angel, and FOR in the case of ties. For the purposes of enacting proposals, Devil’s vote is considered to be whichever type of vote on said proposal is least common among Voices with eir Allegiance set to Devil, and AGAINST in the case of ties. Fred votes DEFERENTIAL on every proposal.
There is a Chicken that lives within the ruleset. It starts at the end of this rule, but a Voice may occasionally move the Chicken to any other point inside any other rule. If the Chicken is within a sentence, that sentence is considered Nonsense and is ignored for all purposes.
Methodology
Methodology is defined as authorship of at least two enacted proposals.
Goodbye
Purplebeard is not a silly fellow. Silly fellows may Whisper to emselves.
Sandbox
Voices without methodology must whisper to Excalabur. Proposals must alter other proposals. Defenistrate. A declaration of victory requires haiku. No Fred supporter can Whisper. Every papaphobic pope does nothing. Misspelled words may, by any Ãœber-Ich, sit. All impulses concerning Silly Ichs, ignore.
PAPER
Glossary
This is always at the end of the Ruleset. Its only effect can be to clarify ambiguity.
- 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://blognomic.com/images/vote/for.gif shall represent a vote FOR, an X http://blognomic.com/images/vote/against.gif shall represent a vote AGAINST, an I http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a vote of DEFERENTIAL, and an Imperial Seal (currently http://blognomic.com/images/vote/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.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 below.)
- 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. Any situation which would require a roll of DiceX when X is zero or lower always yields a value of 0 unless stated otherwise.
- Superficial differences between the spelling of geographic versions of English, e.g, British English, American English, Australian English shall be construed as irrelevant for the purposes of play.
- Gamestate is defined as any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of, such as Countries' names and the blog colour scheme.
Typographic Conventions
- Italicized text is not considered part of the ruleset and may be used to clarify rules with examples, notes and flavor text.
Timespans
- References to "a day" (as an entity rather than a duration, eg. "Sunday") refer to that day in the timezone of the BlogNomic blog, which is considered to be GMT for all purposes.
- References to a "week" refer to the period of time between the start of a Monday and the end of the following Sunday.
- 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.
- An action which may be taken 'often' may be taken once per day, but not more than once every six hours.
- An action which may be taken 'occasionally' may be taken once per week, but not more than once per twenty-four hours.
Spivak
- The Spivak pronouns used in Blognomic are:
- Subject case: "e";
- Object case: "em";
- Possessive Adjective case: "eir";
- Possessive Pronoun case: "eirs";
- Reflexive case: "emself".
