Ruleset 43
Contents |
Core Rules
Ruleset and Gamestate
This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Agents must obey it. Section One consists of the "core rules" of blognomic, covering basic proposal mechanics; Section Two contains the rules of the current dynasty; and Section Three contains the glossary, which exists solely to clarify the remainder of the ruleset. Rules may be referred to by their type and entire number or type and name. (e.g. This Rule may be referred to as Rule 1.1 or the Rule entitled "Ruleset and Gamestate").
The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset.
No Rule may contain a provision that bars itself from being altered and/or repealed. If at any moment a Rule exists or is altered in a manner that renders it to contain such a provision, the entirety of that Rule shall be considered void and with no effects on the Gamestate. The provisions on this paragraph supersede any text in a Rule.
Spivak pronouns, as defined in the Glossary, shall be used whenever an Agent is referred to.
Admins may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset at any time.
Agents
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 an Agent.
An Agent may leave the game at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. An Agent may only change eir name as a result of a proposal approving the change.
Some Agents are Admins, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Agents who wish to become Admins shall 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.
Some Agents are Idle, and shall be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of the Ruleset, excluding Rules 1.1 and 1.2, Idle Agents are not counted as Agents. Admins may render an Agent Idle if that Agent has asked to become Idle or if that Agent has not posted a entry or comment for more than 7 days. Admins may de-Idle a Agent at eir request - the Agent's personal gamestate retains the values it had immediately prior to eir going Idle. If one or more values would be undefined, it is set to the value new Agents receive, if such a value exists.
A single person may not control more than one Agent within BlogNomic. If anybody is suspected of controlling more than one Agent, then a Proposal may be made to remove any number of such Agents from the game, and to bar the perpetrator from rejoining.
Proposals
Any Agent may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the "Proposal" category that describes those changes (unless the Agent already has 2 Proposals pending, or has already made 3 Proposals that day).
Proposals can either be Pending, Enacted, or Failed. When a Proposal is first put forward, it is considered Pending.
Voting
Any Agent may cast eir Vote on a Pending Proposal by making a comment on that entry using a voting icon of FOR, AGAINST or DEFERENTIAL.
If the Agent who made a Proposal has not cast a Vote on it, eir Vote is counted as FOR. If an Agent casts more than one Vote on a Proposal, only the most recent of those Votes is counted. If an Agent leaves the game or goes Idle, eir Vote no longer counts. If an Agent votes against eir own proposal, that vote may not be changed.
A vote of DEFERENTIAL is a vote of no opinion, or of faith in the decision of the Mastermind. The vote will count as the same as the Mastermind's vote. The Mastermind cannot cast a vote of DEFERENTIAL. If there is no Mastermind, a vote of DEFERENTIAL counts as an explicit vote of abstention.
Enactment
The oldest pending Proposal may be enacted by any Admin (and the Ruleset and/or Gamestate updated to include the specified effects of that Proposal) if either of the following is true:-
- It has a number of FOR votes that exceed or equal Quorum, has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, and has not been vetoed or self-killed.
- It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, it has more than 1 valid vote, more than half of its votes are FOR, and it has not been vetoed or self-killed.
The oldest pending Proposal may be failed by any Admin, if any of the following are true:-
- It has enough AGAINST votes that it could not be Enacted without one of those votes being changed.
- It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and half or fewer of its votes are FOR.
- It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and has fewer than 2 valid votes.
- The Agent who proposed it has voted AGAINST it.
- The Mastermind has voted to VETO it.
Whenever an Admin marks a proposal as enacted or failed, e must also mark eir name, and report the final tally of votes (or the fact that the proposal was self-killed or vetoed).
Calls for Judgment
If two or more Agents actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if an Agent feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Agent may raise a Call for Judgment by posting an entry in the "Call for Judgment" category. If the Agent wishes, e may post anonymously by choosing "Call for Judgment" from the Author drop-down menu on the OPTIONS tab. The post shall go on to describe the issue, and measures that shall be taken to resolve it.
All Agents may add votes of agreement or disagreement in comments to this entry, using appropriate voting icons (a Agent's later votes overriding eir earlier ones). Unfailed CfJs continue until they reach a quorum of FOR votes, a quorum of AGAINST votes, or if there is no hiatus going on, until four days have passed, and if there is a hiatus going on until two days have passed. After this time, if more than half of the cast votes are in favour, the Gamestate and Ruleset shall be amended as was specified. Otherwise, the CfJ fails. A Failed CfJ has 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 Agent 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 no Agent has commented on it, an official post may be altered or removed by its author; 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 or otherwise, be changed into an official post, with the following exception: Whilst a non-official post has been posted for less than five minutes and has no comments, the author may change the categories as e wishes.
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 Agent may update any Agent's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.
All updates to the GNDT are logged - if an Agent 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 shall be raised.
Agents shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.
Dynasties
BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty is headed by a single Mastermind, and is named according to the number of Dynasties they have headed (eg. "The First Dynasty of Myke").
The Mastermind may vote to VETO any Proposal.
Victory and Ascension
If an Agent (other than the Mastermind) believes that e has achieved victory in the current Dynasty, e may make a post to the Blognomic weblog in the Declaration of Victory category, detailing this.
Upon doing so, the game immediately game goes into Hiatus, if it hasn't already. During this time, the only game actions that may be taken are those covered by Rules 1.2, 1.6, 1.7 and 1.9.
Every Agent may respond to an active DoV saying whether or not e believes the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty (using the FOR and AGAINST icons).
The Declaration of Victory may be resolved after 24 hours, or after 12 hours if the Mastermind has voted on it. Upon resolution, if a Quorum of Agents have voted on the DoV and more than half of those votes were in favour, then the DoV passes - otherwise the DoV fails, and if no other DoVs are still pending, the Hiatus ends.
When a DoV passes, all other active DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins with the Agent who made the DoV as its Mastermind. (That Agent may pass this role to another Agent at this point, if they wish.) The Hiatus continues until the new Mastermind posts an Ascension Address to the BlogNomic weblog - this shall specify the Mastermind's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally include a proclamation that any number of Dynastic Rules will be repealed, and that any keywords will be replaced with new theme-appropriate terms.
Dynastic Rules
Affiliation
Each Agent has an Affiliation, tracked by the Mastermind and emself. An agent's affiliation can be World, Mastermind, Double Agent-True Affiliation World ,or Double Agent-True Affiliation Mastermind. An agent's affiliation is secret and each Agent is responsible for maintaining that secrecy. Each agent is required to declare an affiliation by sending a Private Message with eir affiliation to the Mastermind within 2 weeks of joining the game or have their status changed to idle. An agent may only change eir Affiliation if the rules specifically allow em to. The Mastermind will track the affiliations of all Agents in whatever manner they choose.
Gadgets
Each Agent may have a certain number of gadgets. The number of gadgets an Agent may have is tracked in a GNDT column called “Gadgetsâ€. This number is 3 by default. Gadgets not listed in the List of Approved Gadgets don't count against this limit. I.e. Only approved or bought Gadgets count against the GNDT limit
There exists a page on the wiki called List of In-play Gadgets, which contains a list of every Agent and the descriptions of the Gadgets which the agent has. There also exists a page on the wiki called List of Approved Gadgets, which lists all Gadgets that have been Approved by legal process. An agent is considered to be the Owner of all Gadgets listed in eir section in the “List of In-Play Gadgetsâ€. Gadgets can only be used by their Owner unless otherwise specified in the Gadget’s description.
There also exists a page on the wiki entitled “Gadget Requestsâ€. An agent may make an entry in the page named “Gadget Requests†with the following format:
* (<STATUS>) Request: <Gadget Name> - ~~~~
** Description: <Description of gadget>â€
This is called a “Gadget Requestâ€, and the agent who posted it is called the “Requesterâ€. The initial STATUS of each Gadget Request is “PENDINGâ€. An agent may at any time have only one Gadget Request with “PENDING†status.
Any other Agent may submit eir vote on that Gadget Request, provided the STATUS of the Gadget Request is PENDING, by making an entry immediately under the original Gadget Request with the format “***I approve - <Comments> - ~~~~â€, if e wishes to approve the request, or the format “***I disapprove - <Comments> - ~~~~â€, if e wishes to deny the request. Only the most recently created vote entry by each agent will be considered for the purposes of this text.
The Mastermind may veto any Gadget Request by making an entry immediately under the original Gadget Request with the format “***Vetoed - <Comments> - ~~~~â€.
If none the following are true after 48 hours from the original Gadget Request posting:
A) The Mastermind has vetoed the Gadget Request.
B) Three or more agents have denied the request.
C) Fewer than two other agents have approved the request.
Then the Requester may add the gadget to their List of In-play Gadgets on the wiki and change the STATUS portion of the Gadget Request post to “APPROVEDâ€.
If any one of those three requirements is true, then the gadget is not added to the Requester’s List of In-play Gadget and the STATUS portion of the Gadget Request post must be changed to “DENIEDâ€.
The Requestor may at any time change the STATUS portion of eir Gadget Request to DENIED.
If an agent ever has more gadgets than allotted on the GNDT, any other agent, provided such an action would not leave eimself with too many gadgets, may claim one of the original agent’s gadgets by moving its location on the gadgets page to eir own section.
Gadgets may not grant any player victory, nor can they edit the ruleset in any way.
An agent may choose to remove any of eir gadgets at any time.
Each Gadget shall have a cost specified in Air, Sea, and Land Tickets. The Mastermind shall set the cost of each Gadget within 48 hours after the Gadget has been Approved. The cost of each Gadget shall be tracked in the List of Approved Gadgets.
Top Secret
There exist some aspects of each Agent which are to be kept secret. Any aspect which refers to an Agent that is Top Secret is tracked by the Mastermind, and not by the GDNT. The Mastermind may reveal information at an Agent’s request, either through email or private message.
Map
The image document modern_ra.gif is referred to as the “Mapâ€. The term “Territory†refers to a named territory on the Map. Named territories consist of territories with a three-letter abbreviated name (indicated on the map), or territories with a longer name in which three letters are underlined (such as Algeria or Mid-Atlantic Ocean).
Territories are either land territories or sea territories (with sea territories including North Atlantic Ocean and all other territories of that color, and land territories being all other territories).
Territories may be referred to by their full name or their unique three-letter abbreviated name (the name indicated on the map, or the underlined letters in the name indicated on the map). Territories that are only labeled with a three letter name on the map (such as “Borâ€, “Ska†or “Latâ€) may also be referred to by the full name for the territory as describe in the Legend Page. The Legend Page may only be edit if another rule allows so.
A territory is considered adjacent, or bordering, another territory if the two territories border on the map. For example, KRA (Krakow) borders SLO (Slovakia), and NTH (North Sea) borders YOR (Yorkshire).
The territories of LON (London), FRA (Frankfurt), MOS (Moscow) and CAI (Cairo) are considered “Airport Territoriesâ€. All Airport Territories are Adjacent to each other.
Furthermore, EME (Eastern Mediterranean) is adjacent to RED (Red Sea); WBS (Western Black Sea) is adjacent to AEG (Aegean Sea) and EBS (Eastern Black Sea) is adjacent to CAS (Caspian Sea).
Some Territories, like LON (London) or RUM (Rumania), are Supply Centers and are marked in the Map by a significant circle spot.
Location
Each Agent has a Location, which corresponds to a Territory in the Map and is tracked by the Agent and the Mastermind. Each Agent’s initial Location is a land territory on the Map that is assigned to that Agent via a confidential message from the Mastermind. Any number of agents may be located in a particular territory.
Tickets
There are three types of Tickets an Agent may posses: Air Tickets, Sea Tickets or Land Tickets. The number of each type of Ticket possessed by each Agent is tracked in the GNDT.
When a new agent enters the game, the Admin adding then to the GNDT shall roll DICE3 three times. For each dice roll, e shall add 2 and put the resulting number respectively in the Air Tickets, Sea Tickets and Land Tickets columns of the new Agent in the GNDT.
Often, if an Agent is in a Supply Center, e may make an DICE6 roll. If the result is 1, e may increase eir Air Tickets by one; if the result is 2, e may increase eir Sea Tickets by one and if the result is 3 or 4, e may increase eir Land Tickets by one. If e rolls 5, nothing happens. If e rolls 6, e must update eir “LKL†to reflect eir current Location.
At any time an Agent is allowed to move, e may, instead of moving, spend 2X Tickets of one type to increase eir amount of any one other type of Tickets by X.
Movement
Often, a particular Agent may choose to move from the Territory in which e is then located to another Territory if the following conditions are met:
- If both Territories are land Territories, both territories are adjacent territories, and are not both Aiport Territories, the Agent may move between the two Territories free of charge. The agent must then make a comment saying “LAND MOVE†to the GNDT. That shall be construed as the same of registering the spending of a Ticket.
- If both Territories are Aiport Territories, the Agent must spend 1 Air Ticket before doing eir movement.
- If either or both Territories are sea Territories and both Territories are adjacent territories, the Agent must spend 1 Sea Ticket before doing eir movement.
- If both Territories are land Territories, are both not Airport Territories, and there exists a third land territory adjacent to both territories, the Agent must spend 1 Land Ticket before doing eir movement. If both territories are on one size of the iron curtain, and the third territory is on the other side, and the agent is not allowed to move across the iron curtain, e cannot move between the two territories. (Unless, of course, a fourth territory exists adjacent to the original two territories and on the same side of the iron curtain).
An Agent may only spend a Ticket if e has more than Zero of the adequate type of Ticket. When spending a Ticket, an Agent must decrease the amount e has of the adequate type of Ticket.
Particular Gadgets or other Rules may permit other kinds of movements.
Upon moving, an Agent must also, within 1 hour of registering eir Ticket spending in the GNDT, send a private message to the Mastermind identifying emself and stating that e is moving from Y to Z (substituting Y for the territory that e is leaving and Z for the territory that e is entering).
Iron Curtain
The Blognomic wiki page Iron Curtain contains a list of territories. That wiki page may only be edited as the Rules or the Gamestate documents expressly permit. The territories listed on that wiki page are considered to be “Behind the Iron Curtain.†All other Territories are considered to be “The Free Worldâ€. An Agent may not move from a territory in The Free World to a territory Behind the Iron Curtain, or vice versa, unless the Agent has a Gadget that permits that Agent to make such a move; or another Rule permits the move.
Checkpoint Charlie
A move between the territories of BER (Berlin) and FRA (Frankfurt), in either direction, is not considered a crossing of the Iron Curtain. If an Agent makes this move, then Mastermind will, within 48 hours of receiving the message that effects the move, post a message to the blog stating “An Agent was spotted passing through Checkpoint Charlieâ€.
Smuggling
Certain territories, which are listed on the blognomic wiki page Iron Curtain, are construed to be both “Behind the Iron Curtain and in “The Free Worldâ€.
They are construed to be “Behind the Iron Curtain†if the Agent moving into them has done so from a territory “Behind the Iron Curtainâ€, and in “The Free World†if the Agent moving into them has done so from a territory in “The Free Worldâ€.
If an agent is in one of these territories, and the Territory is “Behind the Iron Curtainâ€, e may move into a Territory in “The Free Word†if e spends 2 Sea Tickets, instead of the usual One, before doing so. If an agent is in one of these territories, and the Territory is in “The Free Worldâ€, e may move into a Territory “Behind the Iron Curtain†if e spends 2 Sea Tickets, instead of the usual One, before doing so.
Missions
There exists a Wiki page "Missions" that contains a link to all past and present missions for the game. A mission is a page linked of the main page with the name "Mission: (Mission Title)", where Mission Title is the name by which the Mission will be referenced and Status is either Open or Closed. As long as the number of OPEN Missions which no Agents have completed is less than 3, the Mastermind may add a new Mission to the Wiki. When e does so e must post a message to the main blog with the title "New Mission Available", and the body containing the Name of the Mission. The Mission page will contain the following:
- Mission Description - A brief in game description of the mission
- Mission Goals - A list of requirements that are necessary for an agent to have “completed†a mission.
- Mission Reward - A list of the game effects which will be rewarded to an Agent that completes the mission.
- Completion Requirements - What must be done for the mission to be changed from Open to Closed
- Completed By - List of all agents that have completed the mission
- Penalty - What happens if a Mission is failed.
Any Agent or group of Agents may attempt to complete an Open mission by fulfilling the Mission Goals. One Agent from every group(even a group of 1) that successfully completes a mission must send a message to the Mastermind stating that they have completed the mission, and the Mastermind will update the main page to show those that have successfully completed the mission, then provide the Agent that completes the mission with the reward. If an Agent sends a message to the Mastermind stating that they have completed a mission and have not, then the penalty applies to the Agent, and all other Agents in their group.
The Mastermind may cancel a mission by changing the status of the mission from Open to Closed, provided at least one of the following conditions are met:
- The mission is not more than 6 hours old.
- There are three or more comments from unique Agents on the mission’s discussion page that include the text "Abort the Mission!".
The Ranks of a Spy
There exists a column on the GNDT called "Rank". All Agents start with rank "Beginner Spy" Once an Agent has completed three or more missions, eir rank becomes of "Standard Spy" and may increase the number in eir gadgets column by one. (each agent may only do this once) Once an Agent has completed seven or more missions, eir rank becomes of "Experienced Spy" and may ignore the final sentence of rule 2.6. Once an Agent has completed ten or more missions, eir rank becomes "Master Spy" and has achieved victory.
Prisons
There are two locations on the map that contain prisons:
- ICE - World Prison
- SIB - Mastermind Prison
An Agent in a Prison has their LKL changed to their current Location followed by “PRI†(ex. ICE-PRI).
Any Agent in the a Prison may not leave the Prison’s Location unless at least one of the following is true:
- The Agent has a gadget that allows them to leave.
- The Agent’s Affiliation is the same as the name of the prison (ex. World Affiliation for World Prison)
- Another Agent rescues the Agent in prison by moving into the Location where the Prison the Agent is in is, then reducing the the number of Land, Air and Sea tickets on their GDNT by 1 to a minimum of 0. An Agent may not a rescue another Agent if e has 0 of any Ticket.
A Double Agent with a True Affiliation the same as the location (ex. Double Agent - True Affiliation Mastermind for Mastermind prison) may change their affiliation to their True Affiliation while inside the Prison, by sending a message to the Mastermind stating this.
Capture
If an Agent is in the same location as another Agent he may send a message to the Mastermind with the name of the name of the Agent to be captured. The Mastermind must make a GDNT comment DICE100, and then apply the results based on the Dice Roll as shown:
- 1-33: The Capture is succesful and the Agent is sent to the Prison of the Capturing Agent's Apparent Affiliation (Double Agents have the Apparent Affiliation opposite of their true affiliation)
- 34-50: The Capture goes awry and the Agent attempting capture is sent to the Prison of the target Agent's Apparent Affiliation
- 51-90: The Capture is a draw and neither Agent is sent to prison, both Agents are moved to random adjacent locations.
- 90-100:The Capture is a draw and neither Agent is sent to prison, but the conflict made the news. Both Agents have their LKL updated to their current Location and are then moved to random adjacent locations (of any type).
The Spy Shop
If an Agent is in a Supply Center, e may purchase any Gadget on the List of Approved Gadgets by spending its cost in Air, Sea, and Land Tickets.
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 upon the Enacment or Failure of a Proposal are the responsibility of the Admin who Enacts or Fails it.
- 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 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.
- "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.
- Unless otherwise specified: When “X†is a number, to spend X of a numeric value “V†means to subtract X from V (i.e. replace V with V-X); no action may be taken which requires spending X of a numeric value when the subtraction would result in a number which is illegal as a replacement for that value (e.g. if the value represents a variable which is restricted to non-negative integers, but the subtraction comes up negative).
- 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.
- Gamestate is defined as any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of, such as Agents' 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. For example, this italicized text provides an example of the use of italicized 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.
Keywords
- Quorum is equal to half the number of Agents, rounded down, plus one.
Dice
References to "YDICEX" refer to Y X-sided dice. To roll dice, post DICEX in the comments field of the GNDT, replacing X with the number of sides on the die you wish to roll.
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".
IEEE
- The IEEE auxiliary verbs used in Blognomic are:
- Is required to: "shall";
- Is recommended that: "should";
- Is permitted to: "may";
- Is able to: "can".