Technical notice (3 comments) On a hunch, I’ve just set blognomic.com to run PHP as CGI instead of as an

On a hunch, I’ve just set blognomic.com to run PHP as CGI instead of as an Apache module.  If this fixes or breaks anything for anyone, please hail me on IRC.  (Be sure to type my screen name, SeventyFifthTbn, so my client will beep at me.)

Sunday, April 30, 2006

I hope I did this right

TAE is now active, but is not on the GNDT.  Quorum rises to 7.  I have a copy of the template before I edited it in case I really screwed up..

EDIT:Eir Member Group seems to be BlogNomic Member, while (say) Thelonious’ is BlogNomic Idle.  Is this backwards?  Also, how do I change TAE’s (or Thelonious’) Member Group to reflect that e is not idle?  I’ll be in the IRC if anyone feels like explaining.

Further edit: TAE: Now that you’re in the GNDT will you take your Vow of Silence?

Proposal: The Logical Conclusion

Failed by Self-Kill.  Adminned by Bucky.

Adminned at 02 May 2006 17:26:13 UTC

If the Rule “I Can Hear You” does not exist, this Proposal does nothing.

Add the sentence, “In addition, Monks may not take any action that makes a Noise.” to the end of the description of Vow of Silence in the Rule “Vows”.

More Monks

I know its a bit late, but could I be un-idled as well?  Thanks

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Proposal: Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

Passed 10-0 timed out and past Quorum by Bucky, with Blessings

Adminned at 02 May 2006 14:57:39 UTC

Add a clause to the Rule “The Story”:

Any Monk may make a Story Post once per forty-eight hours. The Story Post may optionally contain proposed changes to the GNDT at the end of the entry. If the Abbot responds to the Story Post with a FOR comment within two days, those changes shall be finalized in the GNDT.

Why not let anyone tell the story, if they like?

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Notice: I am taking a vow

/me grins

Proposal: Potpourri

Passed 8-2 by Bucky, timed out and past Quorum.  Dropped like it’s Scandinavian.

Adminned at 02 May 2006 14:56:52 UTC

Enact the following in order.

If at least half of comments containing counted votes contain the “Drop It Like It’s X”, where X is one of the bolded titles, do not enact anything in the blockquote immediately following the bolded title.

Loud

Add a rule entitled “I Can Hear You”:

Two Monks are considered to be an Audible Distance away if both Monks are within ten Moves of one another without going through any Doors, Locked Doors, Walls, or Blank Spaces.

Any Monk can hear a Noise made by a Monk an Audible Distance away.

If the rule Fighting exists, add the sentence “When a Monk Picks a Fight, e makes a Noise.” to the end of it.

Musical

Add a rule entitled “Chanting”.

Any Monk may often start a Chant if e hasn’t chanted yet that day.

When a Monk starts a Chant, e chants.

Any Monk that is within Audible Distance of a chanting monk also chants, unless e has already chanted that day.

When a Monk chants, e gains X Integrity, where X is the number of Monks that wouldn’t have chanted if e hadn’t chanted.

Example: Hix starts a Chant. Eir chanting causes both Elias IX, who is 10 moves left, and Bucky, who is 10 moves right, to chant. Bucky’s chanting causes Rodney and Thelonious, who are both 7 moves right of Bucky, to chant.

If Hix hadn’t chanted, five Monks (Hix, Elias IX, Bucky, Rodney, and Thelonious) wouldn’t have chanted, so e gains 5 integrity.
If Bucky hadn’t chanted, three Monks (Bucky, Rodney, and Thelonious) wouldn’t have chanted, so e gains 3 integrity.
Rodney and Thelonious both gain one, since they can’t cause each other to chant, since even if either hadn’t chanted, the other one still would.
Lastly, Elias gains 1 integrity.

Scandinavian

Add a rule entitled “The Pirates of IKEA”

Viking raids occur once a week. Once per day, if a Viking raid hasn’t yet occurred that week, a DICEX shall be rolled, where X is determined by the number of days until the week ends, rounded up. Example: Monday = 7, Tuesday = 6,... Saturday = 2, Sunday = 1. If the result of this dice roll is a 1, then a Viking raid occurs. The Monk who rolled the die shall then post to the Main Page with either the title “grrrr grrrr grrrr” or “Viking Raid”. E can insert anything more into the post’s body that e wishes.

When a Viking raid occurs, any Monk who is on a space signified by a period (i.e., on the grounds) has eir Fitness reduced by 2.


Childish

Add a rule entitled Jankenpon.

Any Monk may once per each period of Game Day, Game Night, or Midlight Period initiate a game of “Jesus, Peter, Judas” with any Monk within two Moves of em.  Initiating a game of Jesus, Peter, Judas makes a Noise.

E does this by first posting a comment to the GNDT choosing only one of the following: “Jesus”, “Peter”, and “Judas”. E then rolls a DICE3, which determines the other Monk’s play. A roll of a 1 means the other Monk played “Jesus”, a roll of 2, “Peter”, and a roll of 3, “Judas”.

If one Monk played “Jesus” and the other played “Peter”, than the Monk that played “Jesus” wins.
If one Monk played “Peter” and the other played “Judas”, than the Monk that played “Peter” wins.
If one Monk played “Judas” and the other played “Jesus”, than the Monk that played “Judas” wins.

If both Monks played the same, then increase both Monks’ Integrity by 1 for showing exemplary biblical unity. Then decrease both Monks’ Integrity by 1 for ungodly telepathy.

Winning or losing a game of Jesus, Peter, Judas have no effects until this Ruleset explicitly defines effects for those events, at which time this sentence shall be deleted.

Jesus, Peter, Judas is a relatively sacred game for Monks, and thus may have different effects during different times of day/night/midlight.

The Monk that initated the game shall then post to the Main Page the results of the game.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Proposal: Proposal: Proposal: Propo…

Passes 6-0, reaches Quorum. I am setting the admin bit for Bucky—Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 29 Apr 2006 00:30:04 UTC

The oldest pending proposal is 110 hours old.  The last batch reached an age measured in days.  Sounds like we need more admins.

Make Bucky an admin.

If more than half of all comments containing counted votes also contain the name of a non-admin Monk, make that Monk an admin as well unless that Monk voted against this proposal. 

If the above paragraph describes more than one Monk, adminify all of them.

Proposal: Bell Pull (again)

Passes 10-0, reaches Quorum. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 29 Apr 2006 00:23:27 UTC

Add a rule entitled “Bell Pull” with the following text.

The remaining paragraphs of this rule have no effect.  A new bell is installed and marked on the map as B at A-L19 after which this paragraph is removed.

The bell may be reached by all monks in the main doorway (A-L20, A-M20 and A-N20) and in the entrance hall (E&B).  Any monk who can reach the bell may ring it by posting a note to that effect to the front page.

Any monk ringing the bell…

  a) more than twice in any one day, or
  b) during the night

...shall lose 1 Integrity for each ring at night or in addition to their twice daily allowance, except that a new arrival to the monastery (who is not yet a monk) may ring the bell once at any time of the day or night for the purpose of announing eir arrival without loss of Integrity.

Additionally, any monk may ring the bell during the night to alert others to an Emergency (as defined by the Ruleset).

 

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Proposal: Zombie Attack

Add a new rule entitled “Zombies” with the following text:

Monks whose stations are Zombie are known as Zombies.  Whenever a Zombie reduces another Monk‘s Temporary Fitness to less than 0 in a Fight, set that Monk‘s station to ZombieZombies may only Fight often, and do not warp to the Infirmary or Detention Cell as the result of a Fight.

Proposal: Imperial Purge

Times out 3-5. Failed by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 29 Apr 2006 00:22:07 UTC

I sense the true reason for the inactiveness may be that the power of the Abbot dwarfs the powers of the Monks to the point that anything the monks might do is rendered irrelevant. Thus, the inactivity.

Remove “And Movement Rule” from rule 2.9

Remove “For the purposes of adding, editing, or removing ciphertext, the Abbot may alter this rule at any time, provided that e gives notice on the front page that an alteration has been made.”

Delete rule 2.10.4, if it exists, and undo the changes done by it.

This is not meant as a personal attack on AG or anyone else for that matter. But abusing the cipher rule to change the ruleset in a manner very simular to a failed proposal is one step too far.

EE seems to be working again.

If this works…
Thank you, 75thTrombone!

Some things.

I made some perfectly legal but morally dubious changes to the ruleset. There is a new cipher (IV) and some new rules. Feel free to CfJ if you don’t like where this is going, but I feel like things have slowed down enough for such things not to break consensus overly. Chiefly things are not moving so much, for whatever reason, so I will slowly start defining game actions and conditions of victory until they move, and then ease off.

If you see an error, inconsistency, etc. in the new changes, write up a post to the front page?

Edit: Since I used Cipher IV, this line constitute sufficient notice.

Proposal: Fighting minus loopholes.

Passes 7-1, times out. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 29 Apr 2006 00:19:42 UTC

Add a new rule entitled “Fighting” with the following text:

Each Monk has a Temporary Fitness, tracked in parentheses after eir FitnessTemporary Fitness may be negative.  If such a number does not exist, it is assumed to be equal (but not equivalent) to Fitness.

Any Monk may Pick a Fight with another Monk who is within 2 Moves of the first Monk’s Location.  When e does this, e picks a single Severity number(S) from the set [0(Fruit),1(Fists),2(Sticks and Stones),4(Knives),8(Broadswords),16(Wands of Death)].  E then performs a Fight consisting of 3 Rounds.

In each Round, the Monk who Picked the Fight rolls DICEF, where F is eir Temporary Fitness.  If this is less than a quarter of eir opponent’s Temporary Fitness, subtract DICES from eir opponent’s Temporary Fitness.  E then rolls DICEG, where G is eir opponant’s Temporary Fitness.  If this is less than a quarter of eir own Temporary Fitness, subtract DICES from eir Temporary Fitness. 

Being involved in a fight causes a loss of Integrity equal to 3*S for whoever starts it and 1*S for the other Monk.  This may make eir Integrity negative.

At the end of the Fight, if either Monk has a Temporary Fitness of 0 or less, e is moved to C-4M in the Infirmary.  Then, if either Monk has an Integrity of 0 or less, e is moved to the Detention Cell at A-12e.  Monks in the Detention Cell may not Fight.

If a rule entitled “Monk’s Code” exists and containes the text

No Monk may be involved in a fight with another Monk. (costs 4 for whoever starts it and 1 for the other one)

delete that text.

We should also have a mechanism for healing.  Ideas welcome.

Any change?

Just out of curiosity, is everything fixed for anyone now?  Someone at some point had added a line to the .htaccess that I think might’ve been the cause of all these problems.  Post here or e-mail me.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Changes coming

As I post this, a script in an SSH window is compiling our very own copy of PHP.  This is the only remedy I know to try for the server problems people are having that keep people from posting.  Backups will be made.

I’m so terribly sorry about all of this.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

The Idling Cycle Rears Its Ugly Head

Cavaliere Pugrins, lars atomica, and TheSmokingMan are idled.

Quorum is now 6.

Request

I’m planning on reproposing Thelonious’s bell pull, but with seven different bells, for the seven tones of the C major scale, so… could the lower case letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g be reserved for the map?

Proposal: Starting slow, but choose as you like.

Timed out, 7-2. Passes, with four votes to one half, but only two votes to three halves.

-Elias IX

Adminned at 28 Apr 2006 18:42:04 UTC

Enact the following in order.

Rewrite the rule Temporal Effects to read as follows:

For the purposes of game play, a Circadian Cycle is the following:

A Game Day of M hours, which is followed by a Midlight Period of R hour(s), which is followed by a Game Night of N hours, which is followed by another Midlight Period of R hour(s).

Midlight is the mysterious time between day and night, and between night and day.

This rule becomes operative after a sidebar widget indicating whether the game is in Game Day, Game Night, or Midlight Period, after which this sentence is removed.

Set M = N = 20. Set R = 4.

If there are any comments containing counted votes (from here on, known as CCCV) that contain the phrase “three halves”, set M = N = 15, and set R = 3.

If more CCCV contain the phrase “four thirds” than “three halves”, set M = N = 13â…“ and set R = 2â…”. (Please don’t choose this one?)

If more CCCV contain the phrase “three quarters” than both “four thirds” and “three halves”, not combined, then set M = N = 7.5 and set R = 1.5

If more CCCV contain the phrase “one half” than all of “three quarters”, “four thirds”, and “three halves”, not combined, then set M = N = 5 and set R = 1.

If more CCCV do not contain any of the aforementioned phrases than contain the phrase that appears most in CCCV, then set M = N = 20, and set R = 4.

Choice??? Here it is.

I hope this mechanism works for the plurality thing, but if you see any problems, I’ll repropse.

Sidebar widgetry

I should have some sort of timer to indicate day / night done by tonight, tomorrow at the latest.

Igthorn unidles

Quorum rises to 8.

End of a vow of silence and invisibility

Please could I be unidled?

Thanks

Friday, April 21, 2006

Proposal: The goodness of things.

Timed out 1-3. Failed by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 23 Apr 2006 07:26:19 UTC

Add a rule titled “Location effects”:

Some Locations on the Monastery Map have an effect on the game. All such effects shall be listed in this rule. The Abbot may edit, alter, or otherwise amend this rule after giving notice on the front page.

===L=== Any Monk in the Library (denoted on the Monastery Map by L) may often send an e-mail to the Abbot with the heading ‘Research’, and a request for a hint on any cipher listed in the Codex rule. The Abbot shall reply within 48 hours with a hint to that cipher.

===P=== Any Monk who holds the station of Cellarer who is in the Monastery Storage (denoted on the Map by S) may often increase or decrease the Fitness of another Monk by as much as two points, provided that this does not decrease eir Fitness below nine or raise it above twenty-one.

===_=== Any Monk standing at an Altar (denoted on the Monastery Map by _) may often set eir Moves to zero and increase eir Integrity by one. If any Monk is at a Location marked by a _ on the Map, no other Monk may be at that Location.

Will add more of these as I get ideas, or suggestions.

 

Story Post: Day Six

The general air of the monastery at Passignano is hushed—a storm front has broken over the hills. The arrival of the sergeant of the guard has done nothing to decrease the tense feeling that the discovery of murder has brought about. The abbot had announced the morning after his arrival that the sergeant was to have access to all of the grounds (except the library, of course) and freedom to question any of the brothers as his discretion dictates. Throughout the day the men of the guard have wandered the grounds in a seemingly random fashion and taken the monks and servants aside for questioning.


The previous evening:

Brother Bucky rushes out of the Graveyard Chapel in pursuit of the two black garbed monks. They sprint past the side of the building and to the far end of the graveyard, hopping over the stone wall and vaulting down the cliff face on the other side. Bucky climbs up the largish tree at the end of the wall, hoping to gain a view of these figures—the terrain on the other side of the wall is shear and treacherous, and not to be taken at night. Down at the bottom of the drop, some distance away, a figure bearing a torch can be seen.

Increase Bucky’s Knowledge and Fitness by 2.

Idlings abound

Chronos, by request, has been unidled.

Quazie, Personman, and The Lone Amigo, by apathy, have been unidled.

Quorum moves to 7.

Proposal: Double Time

Timed out 2-3, failed by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 23 Apr 2006 07:24:29 UTC

Rewrite the rule Temporal Effects to read as follows:

For the purposes of game play, a Circadian Cycle is the following:

A Game Day of M hours, which is followed by a Midlight Period of R hour(s), which is followed by a Game Night of N hours, which is followed by another Midlight Period of R hour(s).

Midlight is the mysterious time between day and night, and between night and day.

This rule becomes operative after a sidebar widget indicating whether the game is in Game Day, Game Night, or Midlight Period, after which this sentence is removed.

Set M = N = 5. Set R = 1.

Passage of the Day

In honor of Brother Thelonious,

Proverbs 17:27-8
  He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.
  Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

Proposal: Fighting

Self killed. Failed by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 23 Apr 2006 07:22:30 UTC

Add a new rule entitled “Fighting” with the following text:

Each Monk has a Temporary Fitness, tracked in parentheses after eir FitnessTemporary Fitness may be negative.

Any Monk may Pick a Fight with another Monk who is within 2 Moves of the first Monk’s Location.  When e does this, e picks a single Severity number(S) from the set [0(Fruit),1(Fists),2(Sticks and Stones),4(Knives),8(Broadswords),16(Wands of Death)].  E then performs a Fight consisting of 3 Rounds.

In each Round, the Monk who Picked the Fight rolls DICEF, where F is eir Temporary Fitness.  If this is less than a quarter of eir opponent’s Temporary Fitness, subtract DICES from eir opponent’s Temporary Fitness.  E then rolls DICEG, where G is eir opponant’s Temporary Fitness.  If this is less than a quarter of eir own Temporary Fitness, subtract DICES from eir Temporary Fitness. 

At the end of the Fight, if either Monk has a Temporary Fitness of 0 or less, e is moved to C-4M in the Infirmary.  Then, if either Monk has an Integrity of 0 or less, e is moved to the Detention Cell at A-12e.  Monks in the Detention Cell may not Fight.

 

If a rule entitled “Monk’s Code” exists and containes the text

No Monk may be involved in a fight with another Monk. (costs 4 for whoever starts it and 1 for the other one)

Change that text to:

No Monk may be involved in a Fight with another Monk. (costs 3*X for whoever starts it and 1*X for the other one, where X is the Fight’s Severity.  This may make eir Integrity negative.)

Change A-12d to a %.
Set all Monks’ Temporary Fitnesses to their Fitness.

I hope after all that that this submit works…

Hix’s fitness

I don’t think this is important enough to warrent a CfJ, since it can be undone by anyone, but the Ruleset states that “At present, there is no way of changing a Monk’s Fitness.”  Therefore, Hix and Elias should not have been allowed to increase their fitnesses to 14 and 11.  If nobody objects, I’ll undo the fitness increases soon.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Welcome to Blognomic!

Welcome Thelonious to Blognomic! Quorum remains nine. As a new Monk at the Abbey, I ask you to take a Vow of Silence to show your humility and dedication.

I will draft a proposal to add some more functionality to the places on the map as well as stations tomorrow. I have some ideas now, but I don’t haven’t got the appropriate rule text. Also tomorrow I will update the story again (hopefully by 21:00 EDT).

Any room in St. Passignano?

Good day to you brothers.

Pray, allow me to introduce myself.  I’m Thelonious and I’m here to bring a little Jazz to St. Passignano, if you’ll take me in.

Any room in St. Passignano?

Good day to you, brothers.

Allow me to introduce myself.  I’m Thelonious and I’m here to bring a little Jazz to St. Passignano, if you’ll have me.

Proposal: Proposal: Bell Pull

Not a legal proposal. Failed by Angry Grasshopper, but re-propose, I think that it’s a good idea.

Adminned at 23 Apr 2006 07:21:52 UTC

Add a rule entitled “Bell Pull”.

The remaining paragraphs of this rule have no effect.  A new bell be installed and marked on the map as B in A-L19 after which this paragraph is removed.

The bell may be reached by all monks in the main doorway (A-L20, A-M20 and A-N20) and in the entrance hall (E).  Any monk who can reach the bell may ring it.

Any monk ringing the bell…

a) more than twice per day, or
b) during the night

...shall lose 1 Integrity and all Blessings, except that a new monk may ring the bell at any time of the day or night for the purpose of announing eir arrival without loss of Integrity of Blessings.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Proposal: Monk’s Code

Pases 5-4, times out. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 23 Apr 2006 07:20:05 UTC

Add a rule titled ‘Monk’s Code’:

The restrictions in this rule may be broken at the cost of Integrity, enforced by Monks other than the one who broke it.  If no integrity cost is listed, assume 2 Integrity.

No Monk besides the [Assistant] Librarian may enter the library. (costs 4 Integrity only if the monk is still in the library when this is enforced)

No Monk may be involved in a fight with another Monk. (costs 4 for whoever starts it and 1 for the other one)

No Monk may consume more than one food ration per day.  (1 per extra food ration)

Aside from this one, references to the Apocrypha are heresy and will not be tolerated!

I guess we can do it this way, Bucky, but it’s really no good. Should I also e-mail you the ruleset when we change it? ;P

Have you tried another browser, say, Firefox, Opera, or what have you for your OS? Hopefully we can get this fixed sometime soon.

 

Proposal: Repropose! With extra.

6-1, timed out. Enacted by Elias IX, who shall from now on be synonymous with “the ninth” whenever used in an admin box.

Adminned at 21 Apr 2006 13:21:06 UTC

Enact the following in order.

Add a rule titled “Temporal Effects”:

For the purposes of game play, a Game Day is a M hour period, which is followed by a Game Night of N.

This rule becomes operative after a sidebar widget indicating whether the game is in Game Day or Game Night, after which this sentence is removed.

Set M = N = 6.

Set M and N to the numbers specified by a plurality of counted votes, if those numbers exist.

If at least four comments containing counted votes contain the phrase “It’s gradual”, do not enact the next sentence.

Do not enact the rest of the proposal.

Rewrite the rule Temporal Effects to read as follows:

For the purposes of game play, a Circadian Cycle is the following:

A Game Day of M hours, which is followed by a Midlight Period of R hour(s), which is followed by a Game Night of N hours, which is followed by another Midlight Period of R hour(s).

Midlight is the mysterious time between day and night, and between night and day.

This rule becomes operative after a sidebar widget indicating whether the game is in Game Day, Game Night, or Midlight Period, after which this sentence is removed.

Set M = N = 5. Set R = 1.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Unusual slowness hereabouts

What are the causes of the general lack of interest this game? Is it an inscrutable theme, technical difficulties with EE and PHP, some combination of the above, or something else that I may not have noticed? If I can do anything to make things more interesting—change the theme, say—I would be happy to do so if there is consensus. Technical matters are out of my hands for the most part. Sometimes things are naturally slow, of course, but I don’t want to bore all of you.

Write your thoughts up on this in a comment, if you would take the time.

get the silk bag from the graveyard duck

Using the third Encrypted Rule.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Assist all those who are in need.

Good morning, brothers. I’ve got a few guests here who would like to meet the abbot. This sergeant and his/her associates may shed some light upon recent ‘developments’. I’m sure they would love to chat with some of you first, so feel free to take them off my hands. Please do deliver them to the abbot, if you’d be so kind. It is, after all, the monkly thing to do.

I’m taking one of those spiffy secret actions, by the way.

Story Post: Day Five

The entire monastery vibrates with tension and hysteria—the idea that one of the monks could kill a brother for no apparent reason is such an entirely alien notion. Preparations are being made for the funeral mass of Ugolino, a messenger has been dispatched to Pisa to inform his abbot of his untimely demise, and all of the monks exhibit some nervousness.

At the hours of None, a sergeant of the guard and two of his investigators show up at the abbey, demanding to speak with the abbot. Create three tourists (Sergeant, and two Guardsmen). If the Porter would take them to whichever Location the Abbot has within two days, that would be excellent.


The Night Before

As Brother Bucky approaches the Graveyard Chapel, it seems as if e can make out some light cast from inside of the Chapel. Evidently two monks, dressed in black robes with the hoods pulled over their heads, are standing before the altar, which has some strangely colored candles burning and unusual incense. As e enters the Graveyard Chapel, the two monks turn to face him. One of them laughs maniacally and sweeps a brazier and several other small objects off of the altar. The sound of breaking glass and liquids are heard. Both Monks rush to the exit of the Chapel, and having extinguished the lights, it is not clear who these people are.

As Bucky moves up to the altar, he finds a brazier on the floor, a censer (still burning) containing a heady incense which e does not place, and a pile of broken glass on top of a puddle of some viscous clear fluid.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

No alms here

Undergoing a Vow of Poverty.
Nonsensical? You bet it is.

It’s a secret to everybody

Encrypted Rule use.

Undergoing a Vow of Silence.

Starting right…  about…

Historical Recreation

Er… I’m taking an action of an Encrypted Rule, I hope.

Sadly, Monks can’t play DDR to raise their Fitness.

Attention, SeventyFiftt Trombone!

I am currently unable to access EE or the wiki, and thus to make posts and keep up with AG’s rule changes.  I did not have this problem until my browser’s cache was cleared.  The error message is in a comment to an earlier post of yours on the subject.  -Bucky

Manual Labor

Using an encrypted rule…

...and it won’t be the last time.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Nethack humor

Since this dynasty is developing a Nethack theme, we should give anyone not familliar with it some kind of background.

To kick this off, some methods of death may seem dumb.  However, a few stand out because of the sheer degree of stupidity they imply.  Some examples:

1)“Zapped himself with a spell”
2)“Killed by a scroll of genocide”
and my personal favorite:
3)“Killed by kicking a wall”

Occult Knowledge

Found a new item:  Manual of Gainful Exercise

I wonder how charged it is?

Oh my—I’m taking another action under an Encrypted Rule.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

An Herbalist Ego

I ban everyone else from entering the Infirmary before I arrive, because I have a stash of herbage that I need to secure. I’ll share with anyone as long that promises not to tell the Abbot of my “merchant venture”, as I’m pretty sure it’s illegal based on my monastic vows.

Story Post: Day Four

Murder most foul!

The body of Ugolino of Pisa is found in the common quarters after the monks return from their offices at Terce. A close inspection reveals that he suffered a blow to the head from behind, and a small pool of blood is found at a distance from the corpse.

Found in the hands of the deceased brother are a book and key of unknown origin, which are quickly confiscated by the abbot after word is sent out through the Abbey.

New Encrypted Rules are added, in order of difficulty. I have edited the Map and Movement Rule—specifically, you may pass through the >‘s and _’s, and some of the >‘s are moved.

Also, as per request, the most recent Story Post will be sticky.

Proposal: Knowledge for cipher hints

Passes 10-0, enacted by AG.

Adminned at 16 Apr 2006 18:26:19 UTC

Add the following text to the end of Rule 2.10, “The Codex”:

If a Monk’s Knowledge is greater than or equal to 8, that Monk may decrease eir Knowledge by 8 at any time to request a cipher hint from the Abbot. The Monk shall post an entry specifying about which cipher e wants a hint. The Abbot shall then e-mail that Monk a hint concerning the specified cipher. The Abbot shall consistently give the same hint about a given cipher.

It’s all very “hush-hush”

So I was trapped in a wall of nothingness for a while, which gave me a lot of time to think.  When I finally got out, I wandered into the chapel and saw the Abbot kneeling before the altar.  He stood up to greet me as I approached, so I engaged him in some conversation for a few short minutes.  After offering up a quick prayer myself, I left the way I came, this time passing up the mysterious wall from which I had exited.

A game action has been taken (by me) under an Encrypted Rule.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Story Post: In which some things happen, while others do not.

The Map is re-drawn, and new Movement rules are added. The reader is strongly urged to point out any inconsistencies to me if any exist. A new Encrypted Rule is added to the Ruleset. Some Monks are moved as the Monastery has been slightly re-drawn. Please read the Movement rule and see the Map so you are current on the play.

Proposal: Out of range!

3-3, timed out and fails. -Elias IX

Adminned at 14 Apr 2006 15:44:55 UTC

Add a rule titled “Line of Sight”:

Two Monks are considered to be in Line of Sight if both Monks are within ten Moves of one another, and the straight line on the Map between their Locations does not touch any Doors, Locked Doors, Walls, or Blank Spaces.

If the rule “Temporal Effects” passed, add the following clause:

During Night, the distance for Monks to be within Line of Sight is reduced to five Moves.

 

Proposal: The setting sun

Self -killed, thus failing. -Elias IX

PS: Something tells me my English usage is slightly off today.

Adminned at 12 Apr 2006 13:19:44 UTC

Add a rule titled “Temporal Effects”:

For the purposes of game play, a Game Day is a M hour period, which is followed by a Game Night of N.

This rule becomes operative after a sidebar widget indicating whether the game is in Day or Night, after which this sentence is removed.

Set M = N = 6, unless a plurality of counted votes specify different numbers for M and N.

The sidebar widget is easy to do as a cronjob—I even have a rotation of graphics set up in case we do this. I’m open to other time periods, as well—whatever works best over the time-zones that we have. I mean that nobody should be stuck in Night whenever they play.

 

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Passage of the Day

Given the library incedent earlier today, these two passages are especially relevant:
“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” (Ephesians 4:26-8)

and, ehem,
“And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”  (Revelation 22:19)

Not a Story Post

Bucky and Elias IX are the Lector and Herbalist, respectively, as long as they remain active and in good standing. I intend to edit the map ever so slightly (and perhaps add different areas, accesible through some judicious editing of the movement rule) by this time tomorrow.

I have received one candidate for an encrypted rule already, so if you have any ideas (and that proposal passes) be sure to send the rule, plaintext, and the cipher to my e-mail.

Vow of Silence

/me grins

New player, idles.

Welcome Cavaliere Pugrins to BlogNomic! I’ll e-mail you your GNDT password presently—have fun, and, erm, try not to meet with an untimely end this game. Also I ask that as a new Monk that you take a Vow of Silence as is customary of all new brothers.

Predisastered idles; quorum remains 9.

Alas

Unfortunately, I must request to be idled for a spell. I won’t be able to kep up with the game for a little while.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Cavaliere Pugrins e’ arrivato

Hello, all.

I hereby announce my arrival as per Law 1.2.

Proposal: The Codex

Passes 6-0, timed out. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper. On second thought, given the possible length of the plaintext, cryptanalysis may be easier than you think.

Adminned at 11 Apr 2006 19:31:30 UTC

Add a rule titled “The Codex”:

Some rules may be Encrypted for the duration of this game. Any such Encrypted rule is to be listed as ciphertext as a separate clause at the end of this rule. Any game action taken under an Encrypted rule must be accompanied by a post to the front page stating that an Encrypted rule was used, although neither the Encrypted rule or the plaintext itself need be cited. The Abbot is responsible for policing the legality of such plays, and any Monk making a play by an Encrypted rule is strongly advised to contact the Abbot to inform em of the play.

For the purposes of adding, editing, or removing ciphertext, the Abbot may alter this rule at any time, provided that e gives notice on the front page that an alteration has been made.

Any encryption that we use should be breakable by hand—that is, I don’t intend that we use 256-bit AES on any of these. Different ciphers are certainly possible—some should be easy, while others may be quite fiendish. As I am responsible for policing any such plays, if anybody wants to add an Encrypted rule by proposal, better e-mail me the cipher first.

Story Post: Day Three

A heavy rain has started to fall on the Abbey, although no storm was apparent on the horizons during the last few days.

The visiting brother is one Ugolino of Pisa. Having been escorted to his quarters and instructed to wait there until formally greeted by the abbot, Ugolino was observed to wander about the Abbey while the brothers were beginning their labors. (The assistant librarian noticed the new brother poking through the anteroom of the library, whereupon he gave the standard notice about the brothers and the collection.)

Word is received today that a prominent son of the Albizzi family was murdered in the streets of Florence—he was set upon by unidentified assassins as he left one of the mercantile districts of Florence at an unusual morning hour.

During communal dinner, the abbot is overheard mentioning something to Matteo about a deal of missing books, as well as a section of leaves torn from the Codex in the library antechamber. Although these words were not spoken loudly, word circulates through the monastery grapevine, as such a thing is strange enough even in such interesting times as these.


The Abbot’s Fitness is set to 10. I guess that’s easy enough to fix without proposal. Tomorrow I will re-draw some of the map and perhaps add separate levels, provided that my pending proposal passes.

A single vow.

I’m taking a vow of poverty.  Please ignore my previous illegal vow.

Proposal: Sincerity

Passes 8-0, timed out. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 11 Apr 2006 19:14:11 UTC

Amend the rule “Integrity” so that it reads:

Integrity is the measure of how Monkly a Monk’s character is.

New Monks start with an Integrity of 10.

Whenever a Monk undergoes a Vow, e gains 2 Integrity every 24 hours if it is voluntary, or 1 Integrity every 24 hours if it isn’t, until either e breaks the Vow, or the Vow is removed.

Whenever a Monk breaks a Vow, e loses 5 Integrity.

Proposal: Outdoor Exercise

Failed 3-5, timed out by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 11 Apr 2006 19:13:21 UTC

In the rule “Fitness” replace

At present, there is no way of changing a Monk’s Fitness. A new Monk has a Fitness of 10.

with

New Monks start with a Fitness of 10.

Each Monk may occasionally increase eir Fitness by 1;  this action may only be taken by a Monk when eir Location has been Represented by a period at all times in the previous 36 hours.

Some vows

I’m taking Vows of Poverty and Silence.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Story Post: Day Two.

The funeral mass for Alessandro is finished, and the Abbey begins to move into its normal routine. The Monks chant the offices at the proper hours, the necessary labor is pooled and divided between the brothers, and the air of calm industry begins to settle again on the Abbey. The new Monk, as well as a few others, have taken vows of silence to demonstrate their discipline and humility.

The Abbot Stefano is often seen consulting with the new Librarian, Matteo. At Terce and Sext, after the Monks finished chanting their offices and had begun to leave for their duties, the Abbot was seen (by those who keep an eye for such things) handing a bundle of books and papers to Matteo. The Abbot seems to be in unusually good spirits, although no reasons why this should be so are apparent from his behavior. Matteo seems to be somewhat less confident than the brothers would have expected—perhaps the duties of a new station weight heavily on his mind.

A brother from a different order has appeared at the gates of the Monastery, just after sunrise as the Monks were chanting Lauds. The Abbot assigns him a room—15i. If the Porter will take this Unknown Brother (Tourist) to his quarters within the next two days, this would be superb.

Provided that these Monks keep in good standing with God (as well as staying active in the game), Plorkyeran is the new Assistant Librarian, Purplebeard is the new Porter, and Rodney is the new Cellarer.

Proposal: A bevy of changes

11-1, timed out! Reached quorum, incidentally. -Elias IX

Adminned at 10 Apr 2006 16:41:03 UTC

Make the following changes to the gamestate / ruleset. If at least half of counted votes contain the comment “Ixnay on the Xnay”, where X is the title of any of the following changes, then the enacting admin shall omit that change entirely:

The Abbot is not a demi-god:

Set the Abbot’s Fitness to 20, Knowledge to 10, and Integrity to 10.

Multiple vows:

Remove the line ‘No Monk may undergo multiple Vows simultaneously.’ from Rule 2.4.

New Stations:

Prefix the list of Stations in the ‘Stations’ rule with the line: “The following are a list of all Stations in the game.”

Add a station titled Herbalist:

The Herbalist of the Monastery is in charge of the botanical gardens situated adjacent to the Monastery proper. The Herbalist has access to the Infirmary, which is situated outside of the Abbey, and e may forbid any other Monk to enter the Infirmary without his permission.

Add a station titled Lector:

The Lector of the Monastery is appointed by the Abbot to read to the Monks from canonical texts. The Lector may often make an official post titled ‘Passage of the Day’, in which e posts appropriate passages related to the flow of game events as e sees fit. Within twenty-four hours of making this official post, the Lector may make a comment in the GNDT containing the phrase ‘Passage of the Day DICE4’. If the resulting DICE check is a four, e may increase eir Knowledge by one.

Terra Firma:

Append the following line to the Rule ‘The Story’:

The Abbot may edit the Monastery Map and Movement Rule as long as e gives notice during a Story Post.


Sort of like a reverse line item veto, but not. Speaking of line item vetos… hmm.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Technical problems survey

Everyone who sees this, please respond to this post with the following information:

  • Time zone
  • Operating System and version
  • Web browser and version
  • Do you regularly or semi-regularly experience server errors on any page on BlogNomic?
  • If so, what error and on what pages?

Thanks.

Passage of the Day

Numbers 6:3-5
He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.

All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.

All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.

st. atomica standard encoding

space (sigh)
E grrrr (sigh)
L grrrr grrrr (sigh)
C grrrr grrrr grrrr
D grrrr grrrr /me grins
U grrrr /me grins (sigh)
G grrrr /me grins grrrr
F grrrr /me grins /me grins (sigh)
V grrrr /me grins /me grins grrrr
K grrrr /me grins /me grins /me grins
I /me grins (sigh) (sigh)
S /me grins (sigh) grrrr
A /me grins (sigh) /me grins
R /me grins grrrr (sigh)
N /me grins grrrr grrrr
P /me grins grrrr /me grins (sigh)
M /me grins grrrr /me grins grrrr
H /me grins grrrr /me grins /me grins
T /me grins /me grins (sigh)
O /me grins /me grins grrrr
B /me grins /me grins /me grins (sigh)
Y /me grins /me grins /me grins grrrr
W /me grins /me grins /me grins /me grins (sigh)
Z /me grins /me grins /me grins /me grins grrrr
X /me grins /me grins /me grins /me grins /me grins (sigh)
J /me grins /me grins /me grins /me grins /me grins grrrr
Q /me grins /me grins /me grins /me grins /me grins /me grins

Taking a Vow…

...of Silence.

Undergoing a Vow of Silence

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
...a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;...” - Ecclesiastes 3:7 ‘A Time for Everything’

Vow of Silence

(sigh)

Proposal: Expanded Knowledge

1-5, timed out. -Elias IX

Adminned at 08 Apr 2006 09:09:46 UTC

Change the subrule “Knowledge” of the rule “Monk Stats” from

Knowledge is the measure of how much a Monk knows about Monking.

When each Monk votes on a Proposal, e may accompany eir vote with one or more relevant verses from the King James Bible (found HERE in the columns “Old Testament” and “New Testament”).  After that Proposal becomes Enacted or Failed, e may increase eir Knowledge by 1 at any time in the next 24 hours, up to 1 per Proposal e did this on.  However, if the Abbot believes the verse(s) is(are) irrelevant, e may deduct 2 from that Monk‘s Knowledge.  New Monks start with a Knowledge of 2.

to

Knowledge is the measure of how much a Monk knows about Monking.

When each Monk votes on a Proposal, e may accompany eir vote with one or more relevant verses from the King James Bible (One version can be found HERE in the columns “Old Testament” and “New Testament”. Verses found elsewhere, including those from the Apocrypha are also legal).  Each such verse must be identified correctly by book, chapter, and verse. After a Proposal becomes Enacted or Failed, each Monk who so posted a verse may increase eir Knowledge by one. No monk may increase eir Knowledge by more than 1 per Proposal to which they have posted a verse. If more than 24 hours have elapsed since the passage of the Proposal, such a Monk must put the name of the Proposal for which e is increasing his Knowledge in the GNDT comment field.  If a Monk posts to a Proposal a verse with identical indentification to one alread posted by another Monk in that Proposal, or incorrectly identifies a verse, or posts a verse e has already posted to a different Proposal within the last day, e may not increase eir Knowledge for that verse. If e does, any Monk may reverse the increment. In the event of a dispute, the Abbot’s word is final. If the Abbot believes a verse is irrelevant, e may deduct 2 from the posting Monk‘s Knowledge.  New Monks start with a Knowledge of 2.

Link the word HERE in the replacement text to the page to which the word HERE in the replaced subrule is currently linked.

New Player

Welcome TheSmokingMan to BlogNomic, err, the Badia a Passignano. You will please take the Vow of Silence as requested of all new Monks. Work hard, be devout in your efforts, and don’t stay out after Compline. Also please be careful, as we seem to have had a spell of bad luck at the abbey.

Quorum rises to nine.

Proposal: Exhibit 1: How Not To Write Proposals

4-3, timed out. -Elias IX

Adminned at 09 Apr 2006 10:40:05 UTC

Change

The Abbot may at any time ask a Monk to undergo a Vow, in which case the asked Monk readily accepts. E does this by posting notice to the front page.

in rule 2.5 to

The Abbot may at any time ask a Monk to undergo a Vow. E does this by posting notice to the front page. If the Abbot asks a Monk to undergo a Vow, the asked Monk immediately undergoes it.
No Monk may undergo multiple Vows simultaneously.

 

TheSmokingMan has arrived

In the middle of a quiet, moonless night, a dark carriage pulled by two black horses silently pulls up to the Monastery of the Angry Grasshopper. A man emerges, dressed in a dark cloak, a pipe in his mouth, and heads straight for the gate. The carriage disappears into the night, as soundlessly as it arrived. The man hands the monastery guard some papers - the words “TheSmokingMan, arrival as per Law 1.2” can be made out on the first page. The guard starts to say something, ask something, but TheSmokingMan is already heading to the main monastery building. The second page in the pile of papers starts telling a long story about how TheSmokingMan repented, realized the folly of his ways and decided that a lifetime in God’s service as a Monk is just what he needs. Somehow, the guard doesn’t quite beleive this…

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Passage of the Day

Revelation 2:8-10
    And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;

  I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

Vow of Silence

In response to the Abbot’s request. (I’m posting from home, where the server works…)

>Power Check

Howard, I’m at 10Y, and I’d like you to power up the old Wand of Digging.  It’s description is as follows:

Wand of Digging:  This looks like a runed wand.  If a Monk is Grabbing its Handle, it turns a location of eir choice represented by blank space that is adjacent to eir location into a square represented by a #.

Proposal: The Story

7-2, timed out. -IX

Adminned at 08 Apr 2006 08:33:09 UTC

Since this dynasty looks like it will be a story-like Dynasty, we should allow some narration.

Add a new rule entitled “The Story” with the following text:

As often as e wants, the Abbot may make a post to the Blog with a title containing “Story Post:” followed by a unique description string.  Such a Post is called a Story Post.  The post itsself should describe an event or series of events within the Monastery.  When possible, these events should be consistant with the GNDT state at some past or present time.  The Abbot may then update the GNDT to reflect what happened in the Story Post.

Also, due to an unintended consequence of a Vow of Poverty, in Rule 2.6, change:

Vow of Poverty: Monks shall not increase any of eir GNDT values.

to:

Vow of Poverty: Monks shall not increase any of eir GNDT values, except for Moves.

Proposal: ×”

4-2, timed out. Apathy, (sigh). -Elias IX

Adminned at 08 Apr 2006 08:30:32 UTC

In rule 2.1, replace “any Station that is held by a Monk may not be held by any other Monk.” with “any Station that is held by a Monk may not be held by any other Monk unless otherwise noted.”

Add two Stations, “Heaven” and “Hell”:

Heaven:  Monks, being human, die.  Being in the service of God, they naturally go to Heaven upon doing so.  More than one Monk may have this Station.

Hell:  Some Monks may not necessarily be so pious.  They end up in Hell when they pass on.  More than one Monk may have this Station.

(sigh)

grrrr

Vow of Silence.

I’m about to take a Vow of Silence, but I’m not sure if I’d break the vow by announcing it. According to the ruleset, the making of the post is the act of undergoing the vow, so the vow goes in effect the second I’d supposedly break it. I’d like to hear your opinions on how we’d rule this, and for someone to fix it if necessary.

In the meantime, please consider my next post to be a notice that I’m taking the vow.

Proposal: ד

6-3, timed out. -Elias IX

Adminned at 08 Apr 2006 08:27:56 UTC

Add a new rule, “Ascension”:

When a Monk’s Fitness becomes below 0, eir Station immediately becomes Heaven.  A Monk whose Station is Heaven may not increase eir Fitness.

Proposal: Name change request.

12-0, and I’m fairly sure that I don’t have to do much else besides posting this admin notice. Elias IX

Adminned at 08 Apr 2006 08:21:42 UTC

Change my name from Knightking to Plorkyeran.

Incidentally, this breaks my Vow of Silence which I think AG’s post gave me.  However, there isn’t currently any punishment for doing so.  Feel free to make said punishment retroactive.

Abbot’s orders

In order to demonstrate humility, I ask all new Monks and all idle Monks upon un-idling to take a Vow of Silence.

Yours, Abba,

Stefano of Florence.

Proposal: ×’

Passes 13-0, reaches Quorum. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 06 Apr 2006 07:02:49 UTC

In the rule “The Abbey”, replace “Each Monk has a Location, represented by a number followed by a letter.” with “Each Location is Designated by a number followed by a letter, and Represented by one ASCII character.”

In the rule “Movement”, replace “A Location is Empty if it is represented on the Map by +, #, a capital letter, or a period.” with “A Location is Empty if it is Represented by +, #, a capital letter, or a period.”

This cleans it up a bit.

On the Map, change the Representation of the Location at 10Z to ‘%’
On the Map, change the Representation of the Location at 9Y to ‘%’
Add at the bottom of the map: “% Locked Door”

Spooooooooooky.

Note: Edited the title, but there were no comments, so it’s good and legal.

Proposal: “Salve. Dei te Audire voces mei quod adserviam Prudentiam invenire.”

12-1, timed out, reaches quorum.

Less than five of the comments contain “Monks are fast”, so the fitness goes down to ten.

-Elias IX

Adminned at 07 Apr 2006 15:48:35 UTC

This proposal has no effect if integrity is not defined in the ruleset.

Add a new rule, named Guests:

If there is a Porter, the Abbot may create a Guest at any time by making a post and specifying the Guest‘s identity. The Porter may then Accompany the Guest by adding its name to the ‘Accompanying’ column in the GNDT while e is in the Entrance Room or in a doorway directly beneath it. Each Monk may Accompany any Guest Accompanied by any other Monk by moving its name from that Monk to emself in the GNDT, provided both Monks are in the same location. Additionally, the Porter may force another Monk in eir Location to accompany a Guest e’s accompanying in the same manner. Whenever a Monk Accompanies a Guest, e must reply to the post made by the Abbot for that Guest with a for icon.

If a Guest’s Goal is accomplished, the Porter shall be awarded 2 integrity in addition to any reward specified below, and the Guest shall be removed from the GDNT, unless otherwise specified. If a Guest’s Goal isn’t fulfilled within 48 hours since its creation, that Guest will be removed from the GDNT, and both the Porter and the Monk accompanying the Guest shall lose 4 integrity, unless the Porter was accompanying the Guest, in which case e loses only 5 integrity.

If two Guests would have the same name, add to the name of the most recently added one a number so this isn’t the case.

The current possible Guests, as well as their goals and the rewards for accomplishing them, are listed below:

*Tourist: When a Tourist is created, the Abbot must add to its name a Location. A Tourist’s goal is to get to that location (Or for the Monk accompanying it to reach it). When the Tourist’s goal is fulfilled, each Monk that has accompanied it receives Integrity equal to the amount of Monks that have accompanied the Tourist.

Create a GNDT column titled ‘Accompanying’.

Unless more than half of all comments containing counted votes also contain the text “Monks are fast”,Set each Monk’s Fitness to 10, and change the amount of Fitness Monks start with to 10 (in the ruleset). Set the Abbot’s Fitness to 30.

I hope this is somewhat comprehensible.

Proposal: Vow Tweaks

Passes 9-1, reaches Quorum. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 06 Apr 2006 07:01:42 UTC

If the Rule “Vows” does not exist, this Proposal does nothing.

Change the following in rule “Vows”

Vow of Silence: In all posts and comments, official and unofficial, Monks shall only use the voting icons and the following character strings: “(sigh)”, “grrrr”, and “/me grins”.

to

Vow of Silence: In all posts and comments, official and unofficial, except for Calls for Judgment, Monks shall only use the voting icons and the following character strings: “(sigh)”, “grrrr”, and “/me grins”.

Unidling

I’m unidling, changing my name to Plorkyeran, and attemping to play in a way less unfun for others.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Day One: Tantus labor non sit cassus…

The funerary ritual for Alessandro of Pisa is lengthy and elaborate, like most of the rituals at Badia a Passignano. The ceremony lasts for three hours, and like all of the offices and functions at the Monastery, is chanted by all of the monks. Brother Alessandro was a bit of strange fellow, with his unusual habits and tendencies to disappear unexpectedly if not at the center of attention. He was close to some of the brothers, but his demeanor tended to be slightly off-putting.

...ab auditione mala non timebit.

Alessandro had been the librarian for the last thirteen years. Speculation and rumor (mostly out of earshot of the abbot) have been passed about both regarding the unusual circumstances of his death, as well as the competency of Matteo of Pisa to handle the position, who was only appointed assistant last year.

... Et gratia tua illis succurrente mereantur evadere judicium ultionis.

As the rites are concluded, some of the more astute notice that Matteo is no longer in the chapel, having slipped out at some time during the ceremony. The abbot, who usually tends to lecture after these sort of things, leaves the chapel quickly, instructing some of the peasants and brothers to take the body out to the graveyard. As he steps quickly from the chapel, a folded piece of paper drops from the inside of his robe, which one of the brothers pockets in a nonchalant fashion.

Per sepulcra regionum, coget omnes ante solium…

Proposal: Movement Bookkeeping

Passes 9-0, reaches quorum. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 05 Apr 2006 15:24:32 UTC

If the Proposal ‘deux’ passes, do the following:

Create a GNDT column titled ‘Moves’.

Replace the line

Each Monk may move X times a day, where X is eir Fitness.

with

If a Monk has a positive number of Moves, then e may move by decreasing eir number of Moves by 1. A Monk may often set eir Moves equal to eir Fitness.

So we can keep track of how many more times a Monk can move. Useful for book-keeping and skullduggery. Also probably best if you subtract the points all at once, as opposed to one at a time.

Proposal: Knowledge and integrity.

passes quorum (8) to 1, lars atomica

You feel wise!

Adminned at 05 Apr 2006 11:03:53 UTC

Add a new rule entitled “Monk Stats” to the ruleset.  It contains the following text:

Each Monk has several Stats representing various measures of that Monk‘s Monking abilities.  These are tracked in the GNDT.

Add a subrule to the rule entitled “Monk Stats”.  Call it “Integrity”.  Give it the following text:

Integrity is the measure of how Monkly a Monk‘s charactor is.  Whenever a Monk undergoes a Vow, e gains 2 Integrity per day if it is voluntary, or 1 per day if it isn’t, until it is removed.  Whenever a Monk breaks a Vow, e loses 5 Integrity and any further Integrity bonuses from that Vow.  New Monks start with an Integrity of 10.

Add a subrule to the rule entitled “Monk Stats”.  Call it “Knowledge”.  Give it the following text:

Knowledge is the measure of how much a Monk knows about Monking. 

When each Monk votes on a Proposal, e may accompany eir vote with one or more relevant verses from the King James Bible (found HERE in the columns “Old Testament” and “New Testament”).  After that Proposal becomes Enacted or Failed, e may increase eir Knowledge by 1 at any time in the next 24 hours, up to 1 per Proposal e did this on.  However, if the Abbot believes the verse(s) is(are) irrelevant, e may deduct 2 from that Monk‘s Knowledge.  New Monks start with a Knowledge of 2.

Add a subrule to the rule entitled “Monk Stats”.  Call it “Fitness”.  Give it the following text:

Fitness is the measure of how physically able a Monk is. 

At present, there is no way of changing a Monk‘s Fitness.  A new Monk has a Fitness of 20.

Add any necessary rows to the GNDT (i.e. don’t add Fitness if it’s already there) and set each Monk’s Stats to the values for new Monks.  Set the Abbot’s Knowledge to 100, eir Integrity to 50 and eir Fitness to 30.

 

Proposal: The Minor Fixes

Passes 9-0, reaches Quorum. The pronoun ‘E’ in the second sentence is ambiguous and probably should be cleared up. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 05 Apr 2006 09:25:56 UTC

If the Rule “Vows” does not exist, this Proposal does nothing.

Change the following in the rule “Vows”

The Abbot may at any time ask a Monk to undergo a Vow, in which case the asked Monk readily accepts.

to

The Abbot may at any time ask a Monk to undergo a Vow, in which case the asked Monk readily accepts. E does this by posting notice to the front page. In addition, any Monk may undergo a Vow, if e is not already doing so, by posting notice to the front page.

 

 

Proposal: Puedo ser multilingüe también.

Passes 8-1, reaches Quorum. Perhaps Rodney is correct in that we cannot enforce the conditions, but another proposal in the queue sets up rewards and penalities for not taking Vows seriously. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 05 Apr 2006 09:25:43 UTC

Add a new rule entitled Vows.

There exist Vows, which Monks can undergo. Vows are tracked in the GNDT. The Abbot may at any time ask a Monk to undergo a Vow, in which case the asked Monk readily accepts. The effects of a Vow last until the Vow is removed. On noon Wednesday and noon Sunday, all Vows are removed. The following are the only possible Vows that Monks may undergo.

Vow of Silence: In all posts and comments, official and unofficial, Monks shall only use the voting icons and the following character strings: “(sigh)”, “grrrr”, and “/me grins”.

Vow of Poverty: Monks shall not increase any of eir GNDT values.

Add a GNDT column entitled “Vow”.

More vows may be added later.

Proposal: deux

Passes 8-0, reaches Quorum. 5 requests for Blessings, so you get one, Lars.

The monk zaps a wand. The death ray hits you. You die. Adminned by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 05 Apr 2006 09:24:55 UTC

Add two fields to the GNDT, “Location” and “Fitness”.

Add a new rule, “The Abbey”:

The Monastery of St. Passignano is a rectangular building filled with twists of passages located on well-tended grounds.  The Map of the Monastery may be found on the wiki here.  Each Monk has a Location, represented by a number followed by a letter.

Set the Location of all Monks to 18N.

Add a new rule, “Movement”:

A Monk can move in the 4 orthogonal directions to any adjacent Empty Location adjacent to eir Location.  A Location is Empty if it is represented on the Map by +, #, a capital letter, or a period. (e.g. a Monk at 17P can move to 16P, 18P, or 17Q.)

Each Monk may move X times a day, where X is eir Fitness.

Set each Monk’s Fitness to 20.

Undo any changes made to the Map since the submission of this Proposal.

Every dynasty needs spatial dimensions, right?  Who doesn’t want a rogue-like Abbey?  Also, most of the Abbey is unknown, meaning there can be provisions for how to investigate the mystery areas.  I take it this is an idea AG will like, assuming he wants to put in the time keeping a personal “Real Map” that we can investigate.

Volunteers?

How should we decide who gets what stations?  Should the Abbot pick anyone regardless of who wants to do it?  Should we decide randomly?  Should we ask for volunteers?  Should we combine two of the above methods?

Proposal: un

Self killed by lars atomica. Failed by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 04 Apr 2006 19:02:56 UTC

In the glossary, replace
“Words in section 2 of the ruleset using a definition derived from section 2 of the ruleset rather than an English definition should be in bold, and a reference to the rule (if it is not the rule containing the word and the word has not been already referenced in the rule) that defines the word appended to it.”
with
“Words in section 2 of the ruleset using a definition derived from section 2 of the ruleset rather than an English definition are capitalized.”

un idle me?

please unidle me

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Given that we’re (presumably) Christian monks now…

...I think we should find some way of encouraging using the bible, especially the King James bible, in gameplay.

Proposal: Stations

Passed 10-0, reaches Quorum. Enacted by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 04 Apr 2006 14:41:57 UTC

Add a new rule titled ‘Stations’, and format the subsections appropriately:

The duties of the Monastery of St. Passignano are divided amongst the Monks.  Each Monk may have a Station, which is to be recorded in the GNDT. No Monk may have more than one Station, and any Station that is held by a Monk may not be held by any other Monk.

The Abbot may change the Station of any Monk by posting notice to the front page.

Stations:

Cellarer: The Cellarer of the Abbey is in charge of all of the foodstock,  produce, and general property that passes through into the hands of the Abbey. E may have several assistants among the brothers to see that all of his duties are accomplished. The Cellarer is also in charge of collecting rents from the peasant families on Monastery lands.

Porter:  The Porter of the Abbey is charged with keeping the gates and receiving visitors. Under the Abbot’s orders, the Porter is exempt from general labor under the Rule while e is keeping the gate.

Librarian: As per the orders of the Abbot, only the Librarian and Assistant Librarian are allowed access to the Library. The Librarian knows the contents and layout of the Library, as well as any secrets that it may contain, and is responsible for the organization, maintenance, and increase of the Abbey’s collection. The Librarian is under order from the Abbot to reveal his knowledge only to eir Assistant, to whom e may confide any knoweldge as e sees fit.

Assistant Librarian: The Assistant Librarian is also permitted access to the Library. E serves the Librarian with the books and such general clerical duties as per instruction of the Librarian.

I don’t really want to assign these stations, so we should figure out a way to do that. Since I haven’t given any specific game mechanisms involving the stations, we should also define what they do at some time. Something to think about…

 

Ascension Address: Ascension Address

Hearty greetings to you, my brothers! We end the month of November in the Year of Our Lord, 1419. My fellow Benedictines send me message (though doubtlessly you have already heard) that the Anti Pope Joannes the Twenty-Third has died, and may we have no such difficulties during the papacy of Martinus the Fifth.

Here at Badia a Passignano we have just finished the harvest of olives, and the servants are making the necessary preparations for winter. Our harvest was a good one this year, and with luck our surplus will fetch us a good price at the market, though the market in Florence has no shortage of olives.

The political situation in Florence is as interesting as it has ever been, and I am glad that our Monastery of St. Passignano is located on the outskirts of the city. The Albizzi family still runs the city, but the upstart Medici clan is a powerful force in the market, and they seem to have changed the balance of power. Such temporal affairs of money and power need naturally not concern you, my brothers—our Rule forbids private ownership, for the good of our souls.

As we have started the month of November, I remind everyone that we shall keep the Night Office until Easter—that we shall all meet in the church at the 8th hour of night for Matins. However all monks are to return directly to their respective communal quarters afterwards, and no brother is to wander the grounds otherwise during the night for any purposes.

Funeral mass will be held tomorrow for our brother Alessandro of Pisa. The peasants who witnessed the accident said that Alessandro stumbled and fell before a cart and so met his end. Our assistant librarian Matteo of Florence will assume his duties and take the role of librarian. I have not decided whom to appoint the position of his assistant. Again, remember that it forbidden for all brothers to enter the library, so if any have need of a text for your work, search out the Codex in the Scriptorium and make a request to Matteo, who should be in the Scriptorium if not at offices or labor about the Abbey.

Yours, Abba,

Stefano of Florence


Replace Gostak with Monk, and Che Hame Hame with Abbot. All rules except for 2.1 are repealed. ‘Cheese’ becomes ‘Blessings’. All pending proposals except for Adminify Bucky are vetoed. The GNDT is cleared except for the new Blessings column. I will back up the log for the last game. Somebody send out an Alert?

Just one thing.

I call the Mendelian pea plant garden.

It’s mine.

Unidle me, please

It seems like a good time to be active, so I’d like to be unidled, please.

posting a shoutout to the theme

It’s awesome.  GG AG.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Unidle

I’ll ask to be unidled in the hopes that this Dynasty does not descend into rules-lawyering horror like the past few dynasties.

Next Game.

Alright, so we finish the Gostak Metadynasty (or the Absurdist Metadynasty, if you prefer that). I hadn’t seriously intended the Declaration of Vicory to pass, but if the sentiment is there an isomorphic Declaration of Victory would pass, too, so…

What I mean to say is that I didn’t really have an Ascension Address to post today, so I’ll have to come up with one. I have two or three ideas for a theme, and need to think over them for a day. I was thinking something loosely along literary lines, say Umberto Eco’s

Name of the Rose

(if you’ve read it), but not entirely decided yet. The book is a murder mystery set in a 14th century monastery—I’m not so fixed on the setting, but I thought a mystery dynasty might be interesting. If you have any ideas to share I’ll be off and on #Nomic for the rest of the day / hiatus, whichever ends first.

Also I think that I will veto all of the pending proposals except for Bucky’s request for admin status, which should be decided by the participating players. If you haven’t yet voted on that proposal, figure out how you want to vote.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

The Hiatus Announcement

We’re in Hiatus, so we can’t make proposals, move to a different Floor, vote on proposals, enact proposals, distim dosh, give away dosh, eat pork, etc.

Is now a good time?

“Please let this be legal, please let this be legal, please let this be legal.”

I un-idle. Quorum rises to an unheard level (7).

P is now -2

P is now -2.

Idle

How unspeakably boring.

Please, get all your silly little wordplay scams out of your systems now. Maybe I’ll be back next dynasty.

Call for Judgment: In the name of the game!

Passes 7-1, reaches Quorum. We agree that general causality applies to the game unless otherwise specified. Bucky and Lars Atomica will make some attempt to play nicely and try to keep the level of general headaches to a minimum.—Angry Grasshopper

Adminned at 02 Apr 2006 11:10:39 UTC

If this passes, the following agreements shall be made: (these will not be saved in the ruleset or anywhere else but this CfJ since these should all be taken for granted)

Time-travel is impossible unless otherwise specified in the ruleset. No more proposals or CfJ’s that apply retroactively. The ruleset may not specifically forbid this, but most of it wouldn’t make any sense if it’d be allowed.
Bucky shall no longer threaten anyone with the usage of any ‘loopholes’ to destroy the ruleset, gain supernatural powers or retroactively win all previous and future dynasties. If you see a loophole, either fix it immediately or try to win with it and then fix it.
Lars and Bucky will both calm down. Your goal here is not to win, beat others at anything or reign supreme, it is to have FUN.
Most importantly, this is a GAME. It shall be treated as such.

(end of agreements)

Now, fail all proposals and CfJ’s that apply retroactively and undo any effects they might have had.

Declaration of Victory: Declaration of Victory

Passes 6-2. AG is the winner. Passed by Rodney.

6-1, Bucky changed eir vote from AGAINST to FOR.—Angry Grasshopper

Adminned at 02 Apr 2006 10:59:50 UTC

It is mine! As per Rule 2.6.4 and the GNDT state, I declare that I have won as per Rule 1.9.

I’ll have my Ascension Address ready by tomorrow. Thanks everyone for what was truly a fantastic metadynasty.

Credit to ChinDoGu, where credit is due.

Be counted.

I’m un-idle.

Proposal: that’s not a proposal, this is a proposal

Vetoed by Ascension Address. Failed by Angry Grasshopper.

Adminned at 03 Apr 2006 19:20:31 UTC

Fail “mmvi”, “closure”, and “Fail mmvi”.

Take note that as of the posting of this Proposal, “Call for Judgement: April Fools!” is neither a Proposal, a CfJ, nor a DoV, and may not have any effect on the Ruleset or Gamestate.

Take note that “Fail mmvi” is a direct attack against me, and that the only posts that have ever suggested barring a player from the game since my arrival have all been from Bucky.