Ruleset 73
Core Rules
Ruleset and Gamestate
This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Commoners shall 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, entire number and name or type and name. (e.g. This Rule may be referred to as Rule 1.1 Ruleset and Gamestate or the Rule entitled “Ruleset and Gamestate").
The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset.
Admins may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset at any time, including replacing Spivak pronouns with the singular "they". A typographical mistake is defined as “A mistake in printing, typesetting, or typing, especially one caused by striking an incorrect key on a keyboard.”
Commoners
Anybody may apply to join BlogNomic (if he is not already playing) by registering at http://blognomic.com via the Register link in the sidebar, and then making a post announcing his arrival. An Admin shall add him to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment he becomes a Commoner.
A Commoner may leave the game at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A Commoner may only change his name as a result of a proposal approving the change.
Some Commoners are Admins, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Commoners 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. New admins shall be given the GNDT configuration password when they become admins.
Some Commoners are Idle, and shall be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of the Ruleset, excluding Rules 1.1, 1.2, 1.8 and 1.10, Idle Commoners are not counted as Commoners. Admins may render a Commoner Idle if that Commoner has asked to become Idle or if that Commoner has not posted an entry or comment in the last seven days. In the latter case, the Admin must announce the idling in a blog post. Admins may de-Idle an Commoner at his request (unless that Commoner asked to become Idle within the previous 4 days) - the Commoner's personal gamestate retains the values it had immediately prior to his going Idle. If one or more values would be undefined, it is set to the value new Commoners receive, if such a value exists.
Proposals
Any Commoner may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate, by posting an entry in the "Proposal" category that describes those changes (unless the Commoner 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. A Proposal may not also be a Call for Judgment.
Voting
Any Commoner may cast his Vote on a Pending Proposal by making a comment on that entry using a voting icon of FOR, AGAINST or DEFERENTIAL.
If the Commoner who made a Proposal has not cast a Vote on it, his Vote is counted as FOR. If a Commoner uses more than one Voting Icon in comments on a Pending Proposal, his Vote is the last voting icon he uses. If a Commoner leaves the game or goes Idle, his Vote is no longer valid. If a Commoner votes against his own proposal, that vote may not be changed. This is referred to as a Self-Kill.
A vote of DEFERENTIAL is a vote of no opinion, or of faith in the decision of the Mad Prince. The vote will count as the same as the Mad Prince's vote. If the Mad Prince casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a proposal, it serves the purpose of cancelling any previous vote on that proposal that was cast by the Mad Prince. If there is no Mad Prince, a vote of DEFERENTIAL counts as an explicit vote of abstention.
If no Mad Prince has voted on a proposal, a vote of DEFERENTIAL on that proposal does not count as a vote for the purposes of rule 1.5.
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 Commoner who proposed it has voted AGAINST it.
- The Mad Prince has voted to VETO it
Whenever an Admin marks a proposal, CfJ, or DoV as passed or failed, he must also mark his name, and report the final tally of votes (or the fact that it was self-killed or vetoed).
Proposals the Mad Prince has voted to VETO are considered vetoed. Proposals the author has voted against are considered self-killed unless the Mad Prince has voted VETO on them, or they have fulfilled one of the other requirements to fail a proposal before the author’s self-kill vote is placed.
Calls for Judgment
If two or more Commoners actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Commoner feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Commoner may raise a Call for Judgment (abbreviated CfJ) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgment” category. The post shall go on to describe the issue, and measures that shall be taken to resolve it.
All Commoners may add votes of agreement or disagreement in comments to this entry, using appropriate voting icons (a Commoner's later votes overriding their 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.
Any CfJ that has no effect on the ruleset or gamestate may be automatically failed by any admin.
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 Commoner 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 Commoner 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 be changed to reflect its status.
AA 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 fifteen minutes and has no comments, the author may change the categories as they wish.
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 Commoner may update any Commoner's data via the GNDT, whenever the Ruleset permits it.
All updates to the GNDT are logged. Actions that change gamestate directly (defined in other rules) can normally be performed simply by applying their effects to the GNDT, which updates the gamestate accordingly, unless another rule specifies some other method of performing them; one GNDT update may contain one or more actions, or one action may be split over multiple GNDT updates, as long as it’s clear what is happening and the actions are otherwise legal. A GNDT update that does not perform a rules-defined action does not alter the gamestate; Commoners should not alter the GNDT except to correct it to match the actual gamestate (in the case that the two somehow end up different), or to perform an action.
If a Commoner feels that the GNDT was altered such that it no longer matches the gamestate (such as by performing an action which was against the Rules (as they were at the time of the alteration), or by any other means), he may simply undo the effects of that alteration. Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed GNDT update, Commoners are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgment instead. Commoners 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 Commoner, known as the Mad Prince, and is named according to the number of Dynasties he has headed (eg. "The First Dynasty of Myke").
The Mad Prince may vote to VETO any Proposal.
Victory and Ascension
If a Commoner (other than the Mad Prince) believes that he has achieved victory in the current Dynasty, he may make a post to the Blognomic weblog in the Declaration of Victory category, detailing this.
Upon doing so, the game immediately goes into Hiatus, if it hasn’t already. During this time, the only game actions that may be taken are those covered by Rules “Commoners”, “Voting”, “Calls for Judgment”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.
Every Commoner may respond to an active DoV saying whether or not he 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 Mad Prince has voted on it. Upon resolution, if a Quorum of Commoners 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 Commoner who made the DoV as its Mad Prince. (That Commoner may pass this role to another Commoner at this point, if he wishes.) The Hiatus continues until the new Mad Prince posts an Ascension Address to the BlogNomic weblog - this shall specify the Mad Prince'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.
A DoV may not be started in the period between a passing DoV and that DoV’s Ascension Address. When a DoV is failed, if it has a number of AGAINST votes that exceed Quorum, the Commoner who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was failed.
A Declaration of Victory may not also be any other type of Official Post unless the rules concerning that type of Official Post explicitly state otherwise.
Fair Play
The following are BlogNomic’s rules of fair play. If any of the rules are found to have been broken, a proposal or CfJ may be made to remove the perpetrator from the game, and bar them from rejoining.
- A single person should not control more than one Commoner within BlogNomic.
- A Commoner 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 Commoner should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
- Instead of deleting content from a blog post which has at least one comment, the content should either be struck through with <strike> tags, or replaced with a link to a copy of the same content on the wiki.
- A Commoner should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Commoner.
- A Commoner should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
- A Commoner should not make or edit a post such that its title does not broadly match its URL title.
- A Commoner should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
- A Commoner should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an ascension address).
Dynastic Rules
Commoner's Economy
Each Commoner has an Income (a number which can be positive, negative, or zero, and defaults to 50), and amounts of Coal, and amounts of Iron, Wood, Quicksilver, Caffeine, Cogs and Gems (numbers defaulting to the median values among Commoners, rounding up to an integer if necessary). Coal, Iron, Wood, Quicksilver, Caffeine, Cogs and Gems are collectively known as Resources.
If a Commoner would ever have more than 200 Coal, their Coal is instead set to 200. If a Commoner would ever have more than 50 of any Resource other than Coal, their amount of that Resource is instead set to 50. These limits are known as “Caps”.
As a weekly action, a Commoner can Scavenge; this increases his Coal by his Income, and is impossible if it would reduce a Commoner’s Coal to less than 0. When Scavenging, a Commoner may also choose two different items from the following list, and gain the Resources listed in each chosen item:-
- 10 Iron
- 10 Wood
- 5 Quicksilver
- 5 Caffeine
- 3 Cogs
- 1 Gem
Commoners can transfer their own Resources to other Commoners, at will.
Trading
There is a page on the Wiki called "Trading Post". That page may only be edited in manners allowed by the Ruleset.
There are 2 sections on that page: "One-Time Trades" and "Conditional Trades". If there is no list in either section, any Commoner may create one. In such a list, each list point is a "Trade Offer".
"Trade Offers" are defined as sentences defining the resources asked for, defined as "Sought Resources", and the resources offered, defined as "Offered Resources". "Trade Offers" must contain the name of the Commoner making the offer, and can also contain a "Condition". For example, both "Roujo is offering 10 Wood and 2 Caffeine in exchange for 10 Coal and 2 Gems" and "I, Keba, am willing to trade 10 of my Gems for 20 of your Coal if I have at least 30 Gems" are valid "Trade Offers".
Any Commoner may make a "Trade Offer" by adding it to either section as a list item in that section. Only "Trade Offers" with a "Condition" may be added to the "Conditional Trades" section.
Any Commoner may agree to a "Trade Offer" if all of the following are true:
- They have enough of the "Sought Resources" to complete the "Trade Offer";
- The Commoner who made the offer has enough of the "Offered Resources" to complete the "Trade Offer";
- If the "Trade Offer" is in the "One-Time Trades" section, the offer has not been completed yet, and;
- If the "Trade Offer" is in the "Conditional Trades" section, the "Condition" is true.
- They did not post the trade offer themselves.
They then complete the offer by doing all of the following, in that order:
- Adding " - Completed by [Name 2]" to the end of the "Trade Offer", where [Name 2] is their own name;
- Reducing their "Sought Resources" by the amounts defined in the "Trade Offer";
- Reducing the "Offered Resources" of the Commoner who made the "Trade Offer" by the amounts defined in that "Trade Offer";
- Increasing their "Offered Resources" by the amounts defined in the "Trade Offer", and;
- Increasing the "Sought Resources" of the Commoner who made the "Trade Offer" by the amounts defined in that "Trade Offer";
The "Trade Offer" is then considered completed.
Any Commoner may remove a "Trade Offer" from the page if it was added by them.
Inventions
Each Commoner owns 0 or more Inventions, tracked on the wiki page Inventions (updating that page should only be done to take an action, to revert a mistaken update, or to change it to match the actual gamestate, as with the GNDT); each Commoner starts with 0 Inventions. An Invention has one or more Parts, listed in subrules of this rule; a Part has a Composition, which is any amount of Resources, a Power Requirement, which is a number, and an Effect, which may affect any aspect of the game. No Invention may have more than one of the same Part, but two Inventions may share Parts. An Invention itself also has a Power Requirement, equal to the total Power Requirements of its Parts, plus the square of the number of Parts it has, plus five times the number of different Resources involved in its Composition; and a Composition, equal to the total Compositions of its Parts.
A Commoner can create an Invention, with a set of existing Parts of his choice, in their own possession by spending Resources equal to the total Compositions of every Part in the Invention, spending its Power Requirement in Coal, and reducing his income by its Power Requirement; after doing so, he must edit the Inventions wiki page to specify the Invention and that he owns it; this is known as Inventing. A Commoner cannot Invent if he already owns 3 Inventions which are not attached to a Workshop, however, nor if any of the Resource spending would be impossible or illegal due to leaving his Resources holdings at illegal values.
A Commoner can, at will, dismantle an Invention he owns, by regaining half of the Invention’s Composition (rounded down), raising his income by the Invention’s Power Requirement, and removing the Invention from the wiki page Inventions. The Invention is no longer considered owned by the Commoner who dismantled it.
If the only effect of a Proposal is to add a single Part to the Ruleset, or to amend a single Part, and if its title includes the word “Blueprint”, it is known as a Blueprint Proposal. A Commoner’s oldest pending Blueprint Proposal is not counted as a Proposal for the clause of “unless the Commoner already has 2 Proposals pending” in Rule 1.3.
If an Invention would have a Power Requirement lower than 0, its Power Requirement is instead 0.
Cog Mold
- Cost: 7 Iron and 1 Cog
- Power Requirement: 10
- Effect: At any time, any Commoner who owns an Invention with this Part may decrease their Iron by any number (the Amount) and increase their Cogs by the Amount, minus one; this action may not be taken if this would set a Commoner’s Iron to an illegal value.
Furnace
- Cost: 3 Cogs and 3 Iron
- Power Requirement: 10
- Effect: At any time, any Commoner who owns an Invention with this Part may decrease their Cogs by any number (the Amount) and increase their Iron by the Amount, minus one; this action may not be taken if this would set a Commoner’s Cogs to an illegal value.
Electromagnetic Coil
- Cost: 5 Iron, 5 Quicksilver, 2 Cogs Power Requirement: 10
- When Scavenging, the owner of an Invention which has an Electromagnetic Coil additionally gains 3 Iron, as the device picks up stray fragments from the environment. An Electromagnetic Coil has no effect if it is attached to a Junkyard Workshop, or to an Observatory and Alchemarium.
Precision Lens
- Cost:10 Iron, 2 Gems, 1 Cog Power Requirement: 7
- The owner of an Invention fitted with a Precision Lens spends one less of each type of Resource he or she would spend during the creation of an Invention. No attempt to create an Invention is subject to more than one reduction of resource spending from Precision Lenses; instead, the reduction from all but one Precision Lens owned by the same Commoner is ignored.
Teak Panelling
- Cost: 5 Wood Power Requirement: 0
- If an Invention is created with Teak Panelling, any amount of its Iron costs may instead be paid with Wood.
Basic Heatsink
- Cost: 10 Iron Power Requirement: -5
- These curved fins of metal have no effect beyond their negative Power Requirement.
Vacuum Piping
- Cost: 2 Iron, 3 Quicksilver Power Requirement: 5
- During the creation of an Invention with Vacuum Piping, the Quicksilver cost of its other Parts is reduced to zero.
Wings
- Cost: 2 Cogs, 1 Iron, 1 Quicksilver
- Power Requirement: 2
- As a weekly action, a Commoner with this Part attached to their Workshop can change the County they are located in to any neighbouring County.
Hydrogen Distillery
- Cost: 1 Wood, 2 Quicksilver, 1 Gem
- Power Requirement: 5
- This Part has no intrinsic effect.
Armour Plating
- Cost: 5 Iron, 5 Wood
- Power Requirement: 5
- This Part has no intrinsic effect.
Mobile Telescopic Legs
- Cost: 5 Cogs, 1 Iron
- Power Requirement: 10
- No more than twice in any week, a Commoner with this Part attached to their Workshop can change the County they are located in to any neighbouring County.
Thermometer
- Cost: 1 Wood, 2 Quicksilver, 1 Gem
- Power Requirement: 5
- Monitoring the temperature of a machine can help to improve its operating efficiency. Whenever a Commoner who owns a Thermometer and has a negative Income would increase his Coal by his Income as part of a Scavenging action, he instead increases it by his Income plus ten.
Fireproof walls
- Cost: 10 Wood, 2 Iron
- Power Requirement: 10
- This Part has no intrinsic effect.
Flame Vent
- Cost: 2 Iron Power Requirement: -10
- If the owner of an Invention with a Flame Vent owns an Invention with Wood in its Composition, the Invention with Wood in its Composition is destroyed.
Hydraulics
- Cost: 8 Iron, 4 Cogs Power Requirment: 7
- At any time, any Commoner who owns an Invention with this Part may spend 10 Coal or 5 Wood. For the subsequent 24 hours, they may reduce by half any coal expenditure made against the power requirement of an invention or part.
Really Ingenious Design
- Cost: 5 Caffeine Power Requirement: -15
- An Invention containing this Part cannot be created if the Commoner creating it has created another Invention in the preceding 3 weeks.
Governing Armature
- Cost: 5 Iron, 1 Quicksilver, 3 Cogs Power Requirement: 15
- If an Invention has a Governing Armature, its Power Requirement is simply equal to the total Power Requirements of its Parts.
Basic Improver
- Cost: -5 Cogs, -2 Gems Power Requirement: 20
- If an Invention, which consists of a “Basic improver”, would have a Cog or Gem Amount lower than zero, the Amount of the Ressources lower than zero would be 0 instead. If not, this Part has no other effect than reducing the Composition costs.
Armor
- Cost: 15 Iron, 5 Wood, 2 Gems Power Requirement: 15
- A Commoner, who owns an Invention with this Part, counts as two Commoners for the purpose of Rule 2.5 (Raiding), except in the phrase “then this instead causes the Income of each Raider to decrease by 10.
Coal Hopper
- Cost: 8 Iron Power Requirement: 0
- If a Coal Hopper is attached to a Workshop, the owner of that Workshop ignores the Coal Cap, but if that Commoner’s Coal is ever more than 350, their Coal is instead set to 350.
Storage Drawer
- Cost: 4 Wood Power Requirement: 0
- For each Storage Drawer attached to their Workshop, a Commoner may ignore the Resource Cap for a single Resource type of their choice (other than Coal).
Hyper-Pressuriser
- Cost: 3 Iron, 1 Quicksilver, 1 Caffeine Power Requirement: 20
- A Commoner who owns an invention which includes a Hyper-Pressuriser can, at any time, spend 100 Coal to gain 1 Gem.
Flanged Wheels
- Cost: 10 Iron, 10 Wood, 3 Cogs Power Requirement: 1
- A Commoner with this Part attached to their Workshop can spend 30 Coal to change the County they are located in to any neighbouring County, unless the old or new County is Northumberland.
Steamwagon
- Cost: 10 Iron, 2 Cog, 2 Quicksilver Power Requirement: 5
- A Commoner with an invention including a Steamwagon attached to their Workshop may, as a weekly action, swap up to 15 of any one of their non-Coal Resources for an equal number of any other Resource, so long as the Trade Route of the Resource selected for swap starts, ends or passes through a County that neighbours the Commoner's current County.
Modular Plugboard
- Cost: 2 Iron, 2 Wood, 2 Quicksilver
- Power Requirement: 2
- The Power Requirement of an Invention with a Modular Plugboard is - rather than its usual value - instead equal to the total Power Requirements of its Parts, plus five times the number of different Resources involved in its Composition.
Diamond Lens
- Cost: 3 Gems Power Requirement: 15
- The Power Requirement of an Invention with a Diamond Lens is reduced by 5 for every Gem in its Composition.
Intake Valve
- Cost: 2 Iron, 1 Wood Power Requirement: 2
- If an Invention has an Intake Valve, any of its parts which require the Spending of Coal to activate an effect have that Coal cost reduced by one quarter (rounding down the new value).
Kitten Repair and Recharge Kit
- Cost: 1 Cog, 1 Iron Power Requirement: 20
- A Commoner who owns an Invention with a Kitten Repair and Recharge Kit may gain 30 extra Coal whenever he Scavenges.
Retort
- Cost: 8 Iron, 2 Quicksilver Power Requirement: 10
- This cast iron cylinder can be used for the distillation of chemical materials or the decomposition of wood into charcoal. A Commoner who owns an invention with a Retort may spend 1 Wood to gain 7 Coal.
Chinese Stone Crusher
- Cost: 4 Iron, 1 Wood Power Requirement: 4
- Whenever the owner of a Chinese Stone Crusher dismantles an Invention that does not contain a Chinese Stone Crusher, they gain nine tenths of the Invention’s Composition (rounded down), in place of the usual half.
Crest of the Mad Prince
- Cost: 1 Iron, 1 Quicksilver Power requirement: 0
- Any invention consisting of just this Part has a Power Requirement of zero and does not count towards a Commoner’s total number of inventions. A Commoner who posesses an Invention that includes this Part must set their Allegiance to Loyalist and may not change it. That Commoner may perform Regalia Actions as defined under the rule entitled “Invasion”. A Commoner who owns an Invention which includes the Mark of the Demented Baron cannot build and invention that uses this part.
Mark of the Demented Baron
- Cost: 1 Iron, 1 Gem Power requirement: 0
- Any invention consisting of just this Part has a Power Requirement of zero and does not count towards a Commoner’s total number of inventions. A Commoner who posesses an Invention that includes this Part must set their Allegiance to Sympathiser and may not change it. That Commoner may perform Regalia Actions as defined under the rule entitled “Invasion”. A Commoner who owns an Invention which includes the Crest of the Mad Prince cannot build and invention that uses this part.
Rivet Gun
- Cost: 6 Iron, 2 Quicksilver, 3 Cogs Power Requirement: 5
- An Invention with a Rivet Gun is considered to be a Weapon.
Motion Sensor
- Cost: 5 Iron, 2 Cogs, 1 Gem Power Requirement: 5
- This glinting red mechanical eye has no intrinsic effect.
Drone Unit
- Cost: 5 Iron, 3 Wood, 2 Quicksilver, 2 Cogs Power Requirement: 10
- If a Commoner owns an Invention with a Drone Unit, any Regalia Actions performed by that Commoner may be performed as if the Commoner were located in a neighbouring County to the one that they currently occupy.
Billboard
- Cost: 5 Quicksilver, 2 Cogs Power Requirement: 20
- Inventions containing a Billboard do not count towards the 3-Invention limit.
- Each Invention containing a Billboard is either placed in no County (the default), or placed in a specific County. At will, a Commoner can place an Invention he owns that contains a Billboard in the county he currently is currently located in; and as a weekly action, a Commoner can cause an Invention containing a Billboard owned by any Commoner, that is placed in the County he is currently located in, to be placed in no County. The County in which an Invention is placed is tracked on the Inventions wiki page.
- If a Loyalist Commoner owns N Inventions containing Billboards (where N is 8 minus the number of occurrences of 12pm UTC on Thursday that have elapsed since this subrule was enacted), each of which is in a different County that is not Occupied, he may achieve victory; likewise for a Sympathiser Commoner and different counties that are Occupied.
Royal Blood
For purposes of all dynastic rules, the Mad Prince is not considered a Commoner unless it is explicitly stated otherwise.
Workshops
All Commoners have a Workshop, which can exist in various forms and have various characteristics. New Commoners start with a Junkyard workshop. Commoners’ workshops are tracked in the GNDT.
At any time, a Commoner who has fewer than three Inventions attached to their Workshop may attach an Invention they own to their Workshop, by updating the Inventions wiki page accordingly - Inventions which are attached to Workshops (and only those Inventions) must have “(attached to Workshop)” after their name. If an Invention is attached to a Workshop, all of its Parts are considered to be attached to that Workshop.
The types of workshop, their effects, and the criteria that one must meet in order to own one are listed below. A Junkyard Workshop may change to any other type of Workshop at any time, so long as the criteria listed below are met. Other workshops may never change to any other kind of workshop. If a workshop ceases to meet the criteria for the type of workshop that it claims to be then it immediately becomes a Junkyard Workshop.
- Junkyard Workshop
- The basic workshop that any Commoner can build.
- Effects: None
- Requirements: None
- Dirigible
- By adding wings, a propulsion system and teak panelling to their workshop, Commoners can take to the skies. An inspiring, but cost-intensive, way of inventing.
- Effects: The increased range of the Dirigible means that the Commoner occupying it can be more selective when it comes to Scavenging; instead of choosing to increase two Resources while Scavenging, they may choose to increase only one Resource, but at triple the rates detailed in rule 2.1. However, aerospace technology is still somewhat nascent and unstable; every time a Commoner chooses to use this power, they must decrease their Income by 1 to reflect the wear and tear that flying has on their workshop.
- Requirements: The workshop must have inventions with wings, a hydrogen distillery and teak panelling attached.
- Walking Fortress
- The mobile oppression palace is slow, ponderous and inaccessible. It is also ideal for dominating junkyards - if it ever gets there.
- Effects: A Commoner with a Walking Fortress may only Scavenge once every ten days. Whenever they may Scavenge, however, they may elect to instead take 2 Resources from each of the four Commoners to have Scavenged immediately preceding them, while also gaining their usual stipend of coal. (Cogs and Gems will be preciously guarded and cannot be stolen in this way; other Commoners with a Walking Fortress cannot be stolen from at all, although they still count towards the Walking Fortress’ four targets.)
- Requirements: A workshop must have inventions with armour plating, a furnace and mobile telescopic legs attached to become a Walking Fortress.
- Observatory and alchemarium
- Dedicated to both the scientific and the arcane, although somewhat lacking in earthy capability.
- Effects: The Commoner who owns an Observatory may spend 1 Coal and 1 Resource (other than Coal) to gain 1 of any other Resource. However, they can only choose to gain one Resource while Scavenging.
- Requirements: The workshop must have Inventions with a precision lens, a thermometer and fireproof walls attached to it.
- Raiding Castle
- A variation on the Walking Fortress designed to hold up cargo shipments, rather than muscle in on other people’s junkyards.
- Effects: A Commoner who owns a Raiding Castle counts as five Commoners for the purpose of Raiding, except for the purpose of reducing the Income of Commoners after a failed Raid. This effect takes precedence over the effect of Armour.
- Requirements: Attached to the Workshop must be Inventions with Armor, Armour Plating, an Electromagnetic Coil, and at least one of Wings, Mobile Telescopic Legs, or Flanged Wheels.
Raiding
There is a Royal Treasury (a set of amounts for each Resource), and a Guard Level (a number), tracked in the GNDT under the non-player entity Treasury (the guard level is tracked in the Income column). The Mad Prince can change the value of the Royal Treasury and/or Guard Level at will, but should try to avoid doing so towards the end of a week.
As a weekly action, a Commoner can Raid by contacting the Mad Prince privately (via private message, IRC, or email at callforjudgement at yahoo.co.uk), stating that they are Raiding that week.
As a weekly action, the Mad Prince can resolve all Raids for the previous week. If the number of Commoners who Raided in the previous week (known as the Raiders) was greater than the Guard Level, then this causes each such Raider to gain resources equal to the Royal Treasury, divided by the number of Raiders. If the number of Raiders was less than or equal to the Guard Level, then this instead causes the Income of each Raider to decrease by 10.
You can run, but you can't hide
Each Commoner is located in a County (tracked in the GNDT, and defaulting to Dorset), an entry from the list below. Each county is numbered and marked on the map to the right. If two counties have a border line running between them (and do not just meet at a corner), they are considered to be neighbouring.
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Trade Routes
As a weekly action, the Mad Prince can set the trade routes. In order to do so, they must roll 14 different DICE39 in the GNDT.
Each County, as listed in the rule entitled "You can run, but you can’t hide," corresponds with a number from the diceroll results, with 1 corresponding to the first item on the list and proceeding in alphabetical order. The output of these rolls, without having their order changed, comprise the start and end points of seven trade routes, one for each resource (the first number being the start point of the Iron trade point, the second being the end; the third being the start of the Wood route, the fourth being the end; and so on in the same fashion for Quicksilver, Caffeine, Cogs, Gems, and finally Coal). The Trade Route for each resource starts from the County designated as its start point and takes the shortest route (defined as the route that passes through the smallest number of counties) to the County designated as its end point. If there are multiple routes that tie for the shortest route then the Mad Prince may pick one of his chosing. The seven trade routes have their routes, including the start point, all intermediary Counties and the end point, tracked on a wiki page entitled County Activity (a page which should only be updated in accordance with the ruleset). Note that a County may be the start point, end point, or an intermediary county for multiple trade routes, and may be both the start and end point for and entire trade route (in which case no modifier to Scavenging results is conferred).
Any Commoner occupying a County that is the start point of a Trade Route may not claim the Resource of that Trade Route when Scavenging, unless that Resource is Coal and their Income is negative.
Any Commoner occupying a County that is an intermediary County for a Trade Route gets a 50% bonus (rounded down) to their Scavenging results for the Resource of that Trade Route.
Any Commoner occupying a County that is the end point of a Trade Route gains double the expected amount of the Resource of that Trade Route if it is chosen while Scavenging.
These bonuses are not cumulative with the bonuses granted to Commoners with a Dirigible-type workshop. These Commoners may chose which bonus to apply to their Scavenging.
The Hitchhiker's Guide
As a Weekly Action a Commoner may “hitchhike”: If they are occupying a County, which is a start point or a intermediary County of a Trade Route, known as the “Hitchhiking Route”, they may change their County to the next County of the Hitchhiking Route, in exchange for 2 of the Hitchhikiking Route’s Resources, if this is a noncoal Resource, or else in exchange for 10 Coal.
Invasion
England has been invaded by the French, and each Commoner has an Allegiance, which is either Loyalist or Sympathiser. This choice is tracked in the GNDT and can be changed by the Commoner at any time. A County’s state is either “Occupied” (so Invaders have occupied this County) or “unoccupied” (the Invaders have not done so). If a Commoner is a Loyalist, their “wished state” refers to “unoccupied” and if they are a Sympathiser, their “wished state” refers to “occupied”. The default Allegiance is Loyalist.
At the time at which this rule was enacted, Invaders have only Occupied Kent (County #18). Every Monday at 00:00, every Unoccupied County that neighbours an Occupied County becomes Occupied. This only takes place once each Monday. If ever it ceases to be Occupied, Kent is always reoccupied on Monday at 00:00. The names of Counties which are Occupied should be coloured red on the County Activity page of the wiki. Any Trade Route which passes through an Occupied County is considered to end at the last unoccupied County before it; unless the start County is an Occupied County, in which case the reverse is true.
Regalia Actions
Any Commoner who possesses an Invention which includes either the Crest of the Mad Prince of the Mark of the Demented Baron may perform a Regalia Action from the list below, as a weekly action.
- Wage War. This Action requires the Commoner performing it to own a Weapon Invention, and costs that Invention’s Power Requirement in Coal to perform. If the Commoner performing this Action is a Loyalist, the Commoner’s current County, plus all those that neighbour it, become Unoccupied. If they are a Sympathiser, the Commoner’s current County becomes Occupied.
- Build a Sentry Tower. If a Commoner owns an Invention with a Motion Sensor, they may remove that Invention from the Inventions wiki page and raise their income by the Invention’s Power Requirement, to build a Sentry Tower in the County they currently occupy. A County containing a Sentry Tower may not change from Occupied to Unoccupied or vice-versa. A County with a Sentry Tower is tracked in the wiki by putting {ST} after its name.
- Dismantle a Sentry Tower. A Commoner may remove a Sentry Tower from the County they currently occupy. The Commoner gains 2 Iron and 1 Cog for doing so.
If a Commoner does not possess the Mark of the Demented Baron, they may perform the “Wage War” Regalia Action as if they possessed Crest of the Mad Prince.
Glossary
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. (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.)
- Can
- "is able to"
- Comment
- A blog comment published to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.com
- Daily Action
- If a game action is a Daily Action, each Commoner able to perform it may take that action once per day, but not more than once every six hours.
- Day
- 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.
- Dice
- References to "YDICEX" refer to Y X-sided dice, rolled within the GNDT. 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.
- Effective Vote Comment (EVC)
- A Commoner's Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Proposal means that Commoner’s Comment to that Proposal (if any) that contains that Commoner’s Vote on the Proposal that is given effect in accordance with Rule 1.4 when the Proposal is Adminned.
- Flavour Text
- When posting a blog entry, a Commoner 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.
- Gamestate
- Any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of.
- May
- "is permitted to"
- Post
- A blog post published to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.com
- Quorum
- Quorum is equal to half the number of Commoners, rounded down, plus one. If a Rule or other Gamestate document refers to a Quorum of some subset of Commoners (such as a Quorum of Commoners who share a particular Gamestate attribute, but excluding all other Commoners) then Quorum is equal to half the number of Commoners who share that Gamestate attribute, rounded down, plus one. If the words quorum and Quorum are ever different, they effectively mean the same thing.
- Shall
- "is required to"
- Should
- "is recommended that"
- Story Post
- A Story Post is an Official Post that is not a member of any specific category of Official Posts mentioned or defined in a Core Rule (excluding Official Post).
- 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.
- 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, an IMP 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.
- Week
- References to a "week" refer to the period of time between the start of a Monday and the end of the following Sunday.
- Weekly Action
- If a game action is a Weekly Action, each Commoner able to perform it may take that action once per week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.
- Wiki
- The BlogNomic Wiki at http://blognomic.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Clarifications
Numbers and Variables
- 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.
- All numbers, unless stated otherwise by a rule, are in base ten.
- 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); to gain X of a numeric value “V” means to add X to V; and to transfer X of a numeric value “V” from A to B means to subtract X from A's V and add the amount A's V was reduced by to B's V. Unless otherwise specified, a rule that allows Commoners to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Commoner (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
- A Commoner 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 the GNDT and/or similar gamestate-tracking entities (such as a wiki page), and b) the action would change one of those values to an illegal value.
- If a rule implies that the result of a division 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 division is instead the result rounded towards 0.
Rules and Proposals
- If a new rule is created by a proposal and its location is not noted in that proposal, that new rule is to be placed in the Dynastic Rules.
- 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 author a banana when enacted would not earn a banana for its own author, when enacted).
- Rules which trigger upon the Enactment or Failure of a Proposal are the responsibility of the Admin who Enacts or Fails it.
Time
- For the purpose of all rules, time in Blognomic is in GMT.
- 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 (eg. "04/10/09", it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.
- Any duration reference to a given day (i.e. “Sunday” or “August 2nd"), unless otherwise stated, inclusively begins at 0:00:00 GMT on the mentioned day and inclusively ends at 23:59:59 GMT on the same day.
Spelling
- 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.
Names
- Within the ruleset, a word only refers to the name of a Commoner if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Commoner's name.