Ruleset 96

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Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Players 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 appendix, which exists solely to clarify the remainder of the ruleset.

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 and gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they”. Players may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in their own Pending Proposals at any time

Players

Any human may apply to join BlogNomic (if they are not already playing) by registering at http://blognomic.com via the Register link in the sidebar, and then making a post making clear their wish to be a Player. An Admin shall add them to the roster in the sidebar and the GNDT, at which moment they become a Player.

A Player may leave the game at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A Player may not rejoin the game within two weeks after having left. A Player may only change their name as a result of a proposal approving the change.

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

Idle Players

Some Players are Idle, and shall be marked as such in the sidebar. For the purposes of the Ruleset, excluding Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Players” , “Dynasties”, “Fair Play”and any of those Rules’ subrules, Idle Players are not counted as Players.

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

When an Player is unidled, if they went Idle in the same dynasty, their personal gamestate retains the last legally endowed values it had, if they are still valid. Otherwise (including if a value is invalid, does not exist, or the Player Idled in a different dynasty), the Player is given the default value for new Players, if such a value exists.

An Idling Post is a post within which a Player requests to be idled or unidled.

If an Idling Post was made in the last seven days, an Idling Comment is a comment to that post within which another Player requests to be idled or unidled.

Any unidle Player may submit an Idling Post or Idling Comment requesting themselves to be idled.

Any idle Player, provided they did not go idle within the same dynasty in the previous four days, may submit an Idling Post or Idling Comment requesting themselves to be unidled.

Any Admin may accordingly render a Player Idle or remove their Idle status (“unidling”), if that player has made a valid Idling Post or Idling Comment in the last seven days. The Admin must announce the change in a comment on the relevant blog post.

If a Player has not posted an entry or comment in the last seven days, any Admin may render that Player Idle. The Admin must announce the change in a new blog post or in a comment to the last Idling Post.

Dynasties

BlogNomic is divided into a number of Dynasties. Each Dynasty may be headed by a single Player, known as the Emperor. If there is no Emperor, the Dynasty is a Metadynasty.

Proposals

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

Special Proposal Voting

When a player casts an explicit vote AGAINST their own Proposal, this renders the Proposal Self-Killed, even if the author later changes their Vote. The Emperor may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a proposal; when the Emperor casts a vote of VETO on a Proposal, this renders the Proposal Vetoed, even if the Emperor later changes their Vote.

If a Player other than the Emperor casts a vote of DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, then the Vote of DEFERENTIAL is an indication of confidence in the Emperor. When the Emperor has a valid Vote other than VETO on a Proposal, then all votes of DEFERENTIAL are instead considered to be valid and the same as the Emperor’s Vote for the purposes of other rules unless otherwise specified.

Resolution of Proposals

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 cast on it, more valid Votes cast on it are FOR than are AGAINST, 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 could not be Enacted without either one of the Votes AGAINST it being changed, or the set of Players being changed, or by awaiting the passage of time.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

If a proposal somehow ends up being pending for more than 7 days, it is ignored for the purpose of calculating the oldest pending proposal, and can be failed by any Admin.

Votable Matters

A Votable Matter is a post which Players may cast Votes on, such as a Proposal, a Call for Judgment or a Declaration of Victory.

Each Player may cast one Vote on a Votable Matter by making a comment to the Official Post that comprises that Votable Matter using a voting icon of FOR, AGAINST, or DEFERENTIAL. Additional voting icons may be permitted in some cases by other rules. A valid Vote is, except when otherwise specified, a Vote of FOR or AGAINST. A Player’s Vote on a Votable Matter is the last valid voting icon that they have used in any comment on that Votable Matter. Additionally, if the author of a Votable Matter has not used a valid voting icon in a comment to the post, then the author’s Vote is FOR. A non-Player never has a Vote, even if they were a Player previously and had cast a valid Vote.

Votable Matters can either be Pending, Enacted, or Failed. When a Votable Matter is first put forward, it is considered Pending.

Whenever an Admin resolves a Votable Matter, they must also mark their name, and report the final tally of Votes (or the fact that it was self-killed or vetoed).

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules in its application to Calls for Judgment or Declarations of Victory.

Calls for Judgment

If two or more Players actively disagree as to the interpretation of the Ruleset, or if a Player feels that an aspect of the game needs urgent attention, then any Player may raise a Call for Judgment (abbreviated CfJ) by posting an entry in the “Call for Judgment” category.

A Pending CFJ may be Resolved by an Admin if it has a Quorum of FOR Votes, a Quorum of AGAINST Votes, or if it has been open for voting for more than 48 hours. When a CFJ is Resolved, it is to be Enacted if it has more FOR Votes than AGAINST Votes and Failed otherwise. When a CFJ is Enacted, the Admin Enacting it shall update the Gamestate and Ruleset, and correct the GNDT and other gamestate tracking entities, as specified in the CFJ.

Any CfJ that specifies neither changes to the Gamestate or Ruleset nor corrections to any gamestate tracking entities may be failed by any Admin.

This Rule may not be overruled by Dynastic Rules.

Victory and Ascension

If a Player (other than the Emperor) believes that they have achieved victory in the current Dynasty, they 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 “Players”, “Votable Matters”, “Calls for Judgment”, “Gamestate Tracking” and “Victory and Ascension”.

Every Player may cast Votes on that DoV to indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty.

A DoV may be enacted if any of the following is true:

  • It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and either the Emperor has Voted FOR it or it has no AGAINST Votes.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 24 hours, has a number of FOR Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and has a number of AGAINST Votes lesser than half of Quorum, rounded down.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours, has a number of Votes that exceed or equal Quorum, and more than half of its valid Votes are FOR.

A DoV may be failed if any of the following are true:

  • It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, and it could not be Enacted without either at least one of the Votes AGAINST it being changed, or the set of Players being changed, or by awaiting the passage of time.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

When a DoV fails and there are no pending DoVs, Hiatus ends.

When a DoV is enacted, all other active DoVs are failed, and a new Dynasty begins with the Player who made the DoV as its Emperor. That Player may pass this role to another Player at this point by making a post to that effect, if they wish. The Hiatus continues until the new Emperor makes an Ascension Address by posting an entry in the “Ascension Address” category - this should specify the Emperor's chosen theme for the new Dynasty, and may optionally specify that the terms Player and Emperor will be replaced with theme-specific terms throughout the entire ruleset, and/or a number of dynastic rules to keep. Upon posting such an Ascension Address, the ruleset is updated to reflect any changed terms, and any dynastic rules which were not listed to be kept are repealed.

A DoV may not be started in the period between an enacted DoV and that DoV’s Ascension Address. When a DoV is failed, if it has a number of AGAINST Votes that exceed Quorum, the Player who posted it cannot make another DoV until after 120 hours (5 days) have passed since the time their DoV was failed.

This rule cannot be overruled by Dynastic Rules as it relates to Declarations of Victory, but can be overruled in other matters.

Fair Play

The following are BlogNomic’s rules of fair play. If any of these rules are found to have been broken, or if a Player's behaviour or actions are otherwise deemed unacceptable (socially or otherwise), a proposal or CfJ may be made to reprimand or punish the perpetrator or, in cases of extreme or repeated violations, remove them from the game and bar them from rejoining.

  • A single person should not control more than one Player within BlogNomic.
  • A Player 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 Player should not deliberately exploit bugs or unexpected behaviours in the software running the game (ExpressionEngine, MediaWiki or the GNDT).
  • A Player should not edit their own blog comments once posted, nor those of any other Player.
  • A Player should not edit the "Entry Date" field of a blog post.
  • A Player should not make a DoV primarily to delay the game by putting it into Hiatus.
  • A Player should not do any action meant to make the game unplayable (for example, changing multiple keywords to the same word in an ascension address).

Seasonal Downtime

Blognomic goes into hiatus every year on December 24th, and remains in hiatus until December 27th. During this time no game actions may be taken except those described in the rules entitled “Votable Matters,” “Gamestate Tracking” and “Call for Judgement”.

Dynastic Rules

Stimulus Package

In today’s economy, most Players can’t afford Proposal Slots. To encourage legislative activity in Blognomic, each Player may be eligible to receive one or more Stimulus Packages (abbreviated SP). The number of Stimulus Packages that a Player has is tracked in the GNDT under a column named SP.

Whenever a Player becomes eligible to receive a SP, that player may increase by one their SP count in the GNDT once, but only within the first 48 hours of becoming eligible. Whenever a rule states that an action is taken ON BEHALF OF another player (known as the Affected Player), the action can only be taken if the Affected player has at least 1 SP. If the action takes place, the player taking the action (known as the Executing Player) must reduce the Affected Player’s SP by 1 as part of that action.

New Players start play with the default value of 3 SP.

Dead Body Collection Service

If there exists a Proposal P for which all of the following are true:

a) P is Pending
b) P is not the oldest proposal
c) P’s author has voted against it
d) P doesn’t have a Quorum of AGAINST votes

Then, any Admin may fail Proposal P ON BEHALF OF the author of that proposal.

Involuntary Representation Service

In today’s economy, the voting power of Players has been damaged by inflation. In order to reinvigorate our limping lobbying industry, some Proposals can be Representation Proposals. A Representation Proposal’s text begins with “REPRESENTING:” followed by a list of names. This list may not include more Players’ names than the amount of SP that the author has, or 2, whichever is greater; the surplus names closest to the end of the list are ignored. The named Players are said to be Represented by the Proposal. The author is always Represented by such a Proposal, even if not included in the list.

Whenever a Representation Proposal is enacted, each Player it represents becomes eligible to receive a Stimulus Package.

If a player Represented by a Proposal votes AGAINST that Proposal (other than by voting DEFERENTIAL), it counts as if the author of that Proposal has voted AGAINST it (in other words, it has been Self-Killed), for the purposes of the rules “Resolution of Proposals” and “Dead Body Collection Service”.

Employment

Each player is either a Free Agent or is Employed by another player. This status is tracked in the GDNT column ‘Employment’. This is either Free Agent or the name of an Active Player. If at any time a Player’s Employment is anything but Free Agent or the name of an Active player, it is set to Free Agent.

If a player has an Employment of Free Agent and a SP of 0, that player is considered to be Broke.

At any time a player who is not Broke can Hire a Broke player by reducing their own SP by 1, to a minimum of 1, increasing the SP of the Broke player by 1 and changing the Broke Player’s employment to the Hiring Player’s name. The Broke player is now considered Employed by the Hiring Player.

Any Employed player with at least 2 SP may, at any time, change their Employment to Free Agent by transferring 1 SP to the player listed under their Employment and then changing their Employment to Free Agent. This causes them to no longer be Employed.

Any Player whose Employment is Free Agent may, at any time, change their own Employment to the name of any other Active Player.

If ever an Employee and their Employer both have 0 SP, then any Player may set the Employee’s Employment to Free Agent, and they are no longer considered Employed by their former Employer.

A player who has a SP of 0 but is not Broke is considered to be Penniless.

A Player listed under another Penniless Player’s Employment is known as a that Player’s Cruel Patron.

At any time, a Cruel Patron may transfer 1 SP to one of the Penniless Players who list that Cruel Patron under their Employment.

At any time a player who is not Broke nor Penniless can Raid for a Penniless Player by transferring 1 SP from themselves to that Player’s Cruel Patron and changing the Penniless Player’s employment to the Raiding Player’s name. The Penniless Player is now considered Employed by the Raiding Player.

Downsizing

In today’s economy, Employers (Players who have hired other Players) cannot afford to keep all of their Employees. Therefore, in an effort to reduce overhead, they can use the following methods to reduce headcount:

a) An Employer may, when voting against an Employee’s Proposal, declare that they are Firing that Employee in a comment on that Proposal. They shall change that Employee’s Employment to Free Agent immediately, and the Employee’s vote shall count as DEF on that Proposal, except for determining whether it has been self-killed.

b) An Employer may fire an Employee if that Employee voted against a Proposal that the Employer proposed, and that vote was their latest vote. They shall comment on that Proposal, declaring that they are Firing that Employee, and change that Employee’s Employment to Free Agent immediately. The Employee’s vote shall be counted as DEF on that Proposal.

Full Employment

A Player Outranks another if the first Player Employs the second, or if the first Player Employs a Player who Outranks the second. If a single Player Outranks every other Player, then that Player has achieved victory.

The Government

The Government is a non-Player entity that has the same types of GNDT-tracked information a Player does. For the purposes of the rules “Proposals” and “Votable Matters” and their subrules, the Government is treated as the Emperor and a Player, and may take any action those rules allow the Emperor or Players to take, but does not affect Quorum.

The Government may not directly veto a Proposal, but it may Object to any Proposal by posting a comment to the corresponding post containing the text “OBJECTION!” If a Proposal has been Objected to at least twice, the Government is considered to have Voted to VETO it.

Any Player may transfer 2 SP to the Government to cause it to take an action the rules allow the Government to take, specifying any required parameters; this is known as Lobbying. If the action would normally be taken by making a comment or blog post, the Player must make a corresponding comment or post, noting that it was submitted on the Government’s behalf.

The Government’s Employment is always ‘Sovereign’, and may not be set to any other value. The word ‘Sovereign’ is not a Player’s Name.

Whenever a player spends or otherwise loses an amount of SP which is not transferred to another player or the Government, the Government’s SPs shall be immediately increased by that same amount.

Whenever a player gains an amount of SP which is not transferred from another player or the Government, the Government SPs shall be immediately decreased by that same amount.

Raising Taxes

The Government can, as a weekly action, Tax its citizens. When the Government Taxes its citizens, then for each Player, if that Player has fewer than 12 SP, the Government transfers one third of their SP, rounded up, to itself. If that Player has 12 or more SP, then the Government transfers one fourth of their SP, rounded up, to itself.

Welfare State

The Government can, as a weekly action, Provide Welfare to its citizens. When the Government Provides Welfare to its citizens, each player with fewer than 9 SP receives 1 SP from the Government. If the Government does not have enough SP to give each Player their allotted amount, then no Player receives any and instead the Government Defaults.

Printing Money

If any action would cause the Government to have 0 or less SPs, the Government is said to have Defaulted. If the Government Defaults, it prints more money, gaining an amount of SPs equal to twice what it would have gained if it Taxed its citizens. The Stimulus Package inflates, and at each point in the rules where it states an SP value, that value is increased by 1, unless it refers to gaining (“receiving”) SP or becoming eligible to gain an SP.

Austerity Measures

As a Weekly Communal Action, a Player may roll DICEX, where X is the number of Players at the time of the roll. That player then decreases the Government’s SP by the result.


Circus Bread

As a weekly action the Government may Burn Money. When it does so, it destroys up to 20 of its own SP.

Lawsuits

In today’s economy, who wants to work when other people are around to do it for you? Therefore, as a daily action, a Player, known as the Lawyer, who has 4 or more SP may transfer 3 of their own SP to the Government, and then transfer 2 SP from a second Player, known as the Defendant, to a third Player, known as the Plaintiff. The Lawyer, Defendant, and Plaintiff must all be different players

Too Big To Fail

In today's economy, the best way to protect our institutions is by making them to big to fail (or at least, big enough to take everything down with them). If the Government Defaults, and there is exactly one Player that has more SP than any other player, that Player achieves Victory.

Synergy

As a Weekly Action for each employee, any Player can create a Dynastic Proposal Synergizing with one of their employees, transferring 1 SP to that employee and starting the title of the Proposal with “[SYNERGY: X]”, where X is the employee’s name. Such a Proposal is known as a Synergy Proposal. For the purposes of the rule “Proposals” (but not its subrules), a Synergy Proposal is treated as if it were posted by the specified employee.

Appendix

Keywords

A keyword defined by a rule supersedes the normal English usage of the word. A keyword defined in this glossary supersedes that defined by a rule. (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
Core Proposal
A Proposal which mandates changes that, even if conditionally, are limited to the creation, deletion, and/or amendment of core rules and/or the glossary, and/or renaming, banning, and/or the granting or removing of admin status from one or more Players.
Daily Action
If a game action is a Daily Action, each Player able to perform it may take that action once each day, but not more than once every six hours.
Day
References to a “day” as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “Sunday”, “The day after performing this action”, or “August 2nd”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a day beginning at and including 00:00:00 UTC, ending when the next day begins. It can never be 2 different days at the same instant.
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.
Dynastic Proposal
A Proposal which mandates changes that, even if conditionally, are limited to the creation, deletion, and/or amendment of dynastic rules and/or gamestate defined by dynastic rules.
Effective Vote Comment (EVC)
A Player’s Effective Vote Comment with respect to a given Votable Matter means that Player’s Comment to that Votable Matter, if any, that contains that Player’s Vote on that Votable Matter.
Flavour Text
When posting a blog entry, a Player 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.
Idling Post
Any post within which a Player requests to be idled or de-idled, or which is specifically designated as an idling post and nothing else.
IRC Channel
The Blognomic IRC channel is located at #nomic on the slashnet network (irc.slashnet.org).
May
"is permitted to"
May not
"is not permitted to"
Post
A blog post published to the BlogNomic weblog at blognomic.com
Quorum
Quorum of a subset of Players is half the number of Players in that subset, rounded down, plus one. If the word Quorum is used without qualifying which subset of Players it is referring to, it is referring to a Quorum of all Players.
Resolve/Resolution
If used in a context of a Votable Matter, the world “Resolve” means to perform the act, as an Admin, of enacting or failing a Votable Matter. The world “Resolution” means then the act of doing so. If used in any other context, the meaning of both “Resolve” and “Resolution” is the standard English meaning of these words
Shall
"is required to"
Should
"is recommended that"
Sibling Rule
Two rules are “siblings” of each other if they are both direct subrules of the same rule.
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.
Vote
The word “Vote”, used as a noun, means a Vote that is cast in accordance with Rule “Votable Matters”. The word “Vote”, used as a verb, means the act of casting such a Vote.
Voting Icons
For use in voting, a check box http://blognomic.com/images/vote/for.gif shall represent a Vote FOR, an X http://blognomic.com/images/vote/against.gif shall represent a Vote AGAINST, an IMP http://blognomic.com/images/vote/imperial.gif shall represent a Vote of DEFERENTIAL, and an Imperial Seal http://blognomic.com/images/vote/seal.gif shall represent the Imperial Veto.
Week
References to a week as an entity rather than as a duration (e.g. “At the beginning of each week”, or “already happened this week”), unless otherwise stated, refer to a period of time between the beginning of a Monday and the end of the following Sunday.
Weekly Action
If a game action is a Weekly Action, each Player able to perform it may take that action once each week, but not more than once every twenty-four hours.
Weekly Communal Action
If a game action is a Weekly Communal Action, it can be performed by any Player, but only if it has not been performed (by any Player) already in the same week.
Wiki
The BlogNomic Wiki at http://blognomic.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Gamestate Tracking

Votable Matters and other official posts, as well as specific gamestate information, shall be tracked by the BlogNomic blog at http://blognomic.com. Any Player 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. No entry may be more than one of the following official types of post: Votable Matters, and Idling Post.

If no Player 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. However, despite this, official posts can never be changed from one category to another, or changed to be a different sort of official post, if they have been posted for more than fifteen minutes. The Admin processing an official post is allowed to append to the post to reflect its new status. Anything appended to a post in this way must be placed in the Admin field of the post, and the post's Status must be changed to reflect its status.

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 fifteen minutes and has no comments, the author may change the categories as they wish.

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 Player may update any Player'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. The GNDT merely represents the Gamestate, and is not the same thing. In the event that the Gamestate and the GNDT are different, any Player may correct the GNDT to comply with the Gamestate.

If a Player 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), they may simply undo the effects of that alteration. Instead of repeatedly reverting and re-reverting a disputed GNDT update, Players are encouraged to raise a Call for Judgment instead. Players shall be assigned a password for the GNDT when they join the Nomic.

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 is an illegal action unless explicitly otherwise stated in the ruleset. Any situation which would require a roll of DiceX when X is zero or lower always yields a value of 0 unless stated otherwise.
  • All numbers, unless stated otherwise by a rule, are in base ten.
  • Unless otherwise specified, 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 Players to transfer a numeric value only allows them to transfer that value from themselves to another Player (of their choice unless otherwise stated).
  • A Player 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 or more of those values to an illegal value.
  • If a rule implies that the result of any calculation should be an integer (for instance, by attempting to store that result in, or add it to, a gamestate variable that can only hold integers), the result of the calculation is instead the result rounded towards 0.
  • If a number or other game variable is selected 'at random' or 'randomly' from a range of possible values, its value shall always be taken from a uniform probability distribution over the entire range of possible values, unless otherwise specified.
  • If a game variable has no defined starting value for new Players, or for existing Players upon the variable’s creation, then that starting value is zero (for numerical variables) or blank (for a text string or list).

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 Resolution of a Votable Matter are the responsibility of the Admin who Resolves it.
  • Unless otherwise specified, a new Dynastic rule shall be placed at the end of the Dynastic Rules.
  • If a rule would ever have no name, it is instead named “Unnamed Rule”.

Time

  • For the purpose of all rules, time in Blognomic is in UTC.
  • All references to time must be either specific or defined within the ruleset to be considered achievable in the gamestate. Abstract concepts of time (e.g. "dinnertime", "twilight") cannot be achieved until they fulfil one of these criteria.
  • Where the month, day and/or year of a calendar date are ambiguous (eg. "04/10/09"), it shall be assumed that the date is in a day/month/year format.

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 Player if it is explicitly stated that it refers to a Player's name.

Prioritisation

  • If two parts of the Ruleset contradict each other, precedence shall be construed in the following order:
  1. The Appendix has precedence over any Rule;
  2. A Dynastic Rule has precedence over a Core Rule, unless that Core Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
  3. If both contradicting parts are a Core Rule, or if both of them are a Dynastic Rule, the part with more limited scope applies. (e.g. if the rules “Players may Kick each other” and “Players may not kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, players may not Kick each other.)
  4. If two parts with the same scope contradict each other, the negative rule applies. (e.g. with “Players may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Player may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Players may not Punch Spacemen on Friday.)