Sunday, March 01, 2015

Proposal: I am a Morning Person

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 02 Mar 2015 10:18:47 UTC

In a new paragraph in the Rule “Horoscopes” add the following:-

Birthsigns’ elements are connected to Weather Conditions if they are next to the same number in the Ruleset (The Eel is connected to Sun, The Bee is connected to Rain, etc.) Each Townsperson is Energized(X) tracked in a new GNDT field “Energized” where X is the number of elements in the Townsperson’s Birthsign that are connected to the Weather Condition that is in effect.

No more than once per season, each Townsperson may choose an element of their Birthsign and change it to a random element determined by rolling DICE6 in the GNDT.

Proposal: Dole Queue

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 02 Mar 2015 14:41:23 UTC

In the rule “Workplaces”, add a new paragraph after the first:

Each Townsperson without a Workplace may have an Acumen, tracked as a number in the Workplace field. If a Townsperson has neither a Workplace nor an Acumen, they may give themselves an Acumen equal to a random number between 1 and 99. When a Townsperson gains a Workplace, they lose their Acumen.

Replace “At any time, a Townsperson may change their Workplace to any Workplace listed in this rule.” with:-

If a Townsperson has an Acumen and it is the lowest (or tied lowest) Acumen of all Townspeople with no Workplace, that Townsperson may change their Workplace to any Workplace listed in this rule. If a Townsperson has an Acumen and it is the lowest (or tied lowest) Acumen of all Townspeople with no Workplace, and if they have had the lowest Acumen for 24 hours or more, any Townsperson may change that Townsperson’s Workplace to any Workplace listed in this rule.

Then replace “If no Townsperson has done so during the current Season, and if at least a Quorum of Townspeople have Workplaces, then any Townsperson may call a Day of Observance.” with:-

If every Townsperson has a Workplace, then any Townsperson may call a Day of Observance.

Remove the Bailiff role, and add to that rule:

Then, the Townsperson who called the Day of Observance removes the Workplace of every Townsperson.

In “The Almanac”, replace “At 11.59pm UTC on each Sunday” with “whenever a Day of Observance occurs”.

Quick proposal to make Workplace claiming turn-based and to redefine the length of a Season as the time it takes everybody to have a turn, in the hope we can enact it before the end of the weekend. Needs a neater way to assign Acumen.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Proposal: Have We Actually Ever Been Unanimous on Anything?

Reached quorum 10 votes to 0 with 1 unresolved DEF. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 01 Mar 2015 21:36:21 UTC

Dependent on Super Quorum.

In the rule Pace, change:

every Townsperson has voted upon it

to:

A Super Quorum has voted upon it

Proposal: Super Quorum

Reached quorum 10 votes to 0, with 1 unresolved DEF. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 01 Mar 2015 21:35:04 UTC

Change the text of the rule Vocabulary to be a bullet point in a bullet point list.

Add a new bullet point to that list that says:

The Super Quorum is the sum of the active Townspersons and the Quorum, divided by 2, rounded up to the nearest integer.

Proposal: Pick A Different Number, Nobody Liked That Number

Timed out 6 votes to 0 with 4 unresolved DEFs. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 01 Mar 2015 21:35:41 UTC

Let Spring be the Season in effect at the time this Proposal is enacted.

Add an item to the Blognomic sidebar entitled “Current Season.”

Add the following sentence to the rule called “The Almanac:”

The current Season is listed under the item “Current Season” in the sidebar template of the Blognomic blog. If this item is inaccurate, any Admin may update it to correctly reflect the current Season.

If the Proposal “An Everyday Story of Country Folk” has not passed, ignore the text from the end of this sentence to the end of this proposal.

Add a new rule called “Seasonal Changes,” and give it a subrule called “Autumn / Fall,” with the following text:

This rule has no effect unless the current Season is Autumn / Fall.

Each Townsperson may have a Vision, which is a single Constellation, tracked in the GNDT and defaulting to nothing. If a Townsperson has no Vision, they may randomly select a Constellation and set it to be their Vision. If a Townsperson has no Vision and no Birth Sign, they may select any Constellation and set it to be their Vision.

If a Townsperson’s Vision is one of the Constellations visible in the Sky, and they have not Quested yet in the current Season, and a Day of Observance has been called in the current Season, that Townsperson may Quest, and by doing so add any one Thing to their Home.

If the Season would change from Autumn / Fall to Winter, delete the Vision of every Townsperson.

I have returned

I unidle myself, and would like to have a wiki account.

Proposal: An Everyday Story of Country Folk

Reached quorum 9 votes to 3. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 01 Mar 2015 10:09:29 UTC

Add a new rule, “Homes”:-

Each Townsperson has a variety of Things in their Home, tracked as a text string in the GNDT under “Home”. This string is composed of a series of characters, with multiple instances of Things being represented with multiple characters. Valid things are:

  • @: Human.
  • A: Animal.
  • v: Vegetable.
  • m: Meat.
  • F: Furniture.
  • b: Book.
  • $: Money.
  • X: Plague.

If a Townsperson’s Home has no things in it, that Townsperson may add one Human and one non-Human Thing to it.

Add a new rule, “Workplaces”:-

Each Townsperson may have a Workplace, tracked in the GNDT. At any time, a Townsperson may change their Workplace to any Workplace listed in this rule.

If no Townsperson has done so during the current Season, and if at least a Quorum of Townspeople have Workplaces, then any Townsperson may call a Day of Observance. Upon doing so, he or she should go through each Workplace in sequence and - if any Townspeople have that Workplace - apply its effect. (The bracketed word after the name of each Workplace is the name given to any Townsperson who has that Workplace.)

  • Farm (Farmer): If it is Autumn, and if there are three Farmers, then each Townsperson gains one Vegetable.
  • Church (Priest): Each Priest loses their Birth Sign.
  • School (Teacher): Each Townsperson who has a Human in their Home gains 1 Book.
  • Forge (Smith): Each Smith gains 1 Furniture.
  • Hall (Clerk): Each Townsperson with a Workplace gains 1 Money.
  • Court (Bailiff): Each Townsperson loses their Workplace.

Apply all ruleset changes proposed by the earlier proposal “Constellation Games”.

We should probably try to get some kind of gameplay in place this weekend, so that there’s something to do next week - this is some sort of worker placement mechanic. It’s a bit slow, but maybe it’s worth making Seasons faster and decoupling them from the weekend proposal phase. Sorry for the big proposal, but currently limited slots mean that I have to do it all in one go.

(Note that I’ve self-killed my proposal that was two short of quorum to get a slot back, and reenacted it at the end of this one.)

Proposal: Grammar

Timed out 2 votes to 7. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 01 Mar 2015 10:08:36 UTC

In the rule “Horoscopes”, replace the sentence

Each Townsperson has a Birth Sign, which is tracked in the GNDT.

with

Each Townsperson has a Birth Sign, which is tracked in the GNDT and seperated by a comma between each two elements.

The Townsperson enacting this proposal has to change the Birth Signs of each Townperson to include the commata.

Not sure if important at some point, but everyone just made the commata. I didn’t. :-)

Wiki and GNDT Account

Hey, I tried to access the GNDT and log in to the wiki today but couldn’t. The GNDT doesn’t accept my PW ( the one used for the blog) while the wiki doesn’t even access my username. Maybe the wiki- and/or GNDT-account have been deleted? How can I reestablish control over them?

Proposal: Home Sweet Home

Illegal third proposal - we’re allowed five, but not allowed to make the third one. Flagged by Kevan.

Adminned at 27 Feb 2015 10:37:50 UTC

Add a new rule, “Homes”:-

Each Townsperson has a variety of Things in their Home, tracked as a text string in the GNDT under “Home”. This string is composed of a series of characters, with multiple instances of Things being represented with multiple instances of that character. Valid Things are:

  • @: Human.
  • A: Animal.
  • F: Furniture.
  • b: Book.
  • m: Meat.
  • v: Vegetable.
  • $: Money.
  • X: Plague.

If a Townsperson’s Home has no Things in it, that Townsperson may add one Human and one non-Human Thing to that Home, at any time.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Proposal: Amendment to core rules

Over 48 hours old and cannot be enacted. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2015 01:06:49 UTC

Dependent on “Simpler Dependencies” Proposal

Move the rule “Contingent Proposals” to Core rule “Proposals” and place it under the rule “Resolution of Proposals” as it’s own section

I think this is the first time that this issue has come up, lets provide an answer.

Proposal: Pick A Number

Self-killed and failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 27 Feb 2015 19:29:33 UTC

If the proposal “Winter Isn’t Coming” has not passed, this proposal has no effect.

Delete the last sentence of the rule “Summer.”

Create a new rule called “Autumn” with the following text:

The text of this rule has no effect unless the Season in effect is Autumn.

Each Townsperson has a Numerisma, which is a nonnegative integer defaulting to 0, tracked in the GNDT.

The Astrologer has a Numerisma, which is an integer between -1 and 9, defaulting to -1, and tracked in the GNDT. At any time, the Astrologer may change their Numerisma to an integer between -1 and 9.

The Numerisma of a Townsperson is considered to align with the Numerisma of the Astrologer if they are the same number, or if the digital root of that Townsperson’s Numerisma is the same as the Numerisma of the Astrologer.

If a Townsperson’s Numerisma aligns with the Astrologer’s Numerisma, any Proposal of theirs may be enacted if it has been open for at least 24 hours, it has a number of effective FOR votes greater than or equal to the number of active Townspersons minus one, and it is not contingent on the passage of another pending proposal.

If the Season would change from Autumn to Winter, first, each Villager is considered to have their Numerisma set to 0 and the Astrologer is considered to have their Numerisma set to -1.

“The digital root (also repeated digital sum) of a non-negative integer is the (single digit) value obtained by an iterative process of summing digits, on each iteration using the result from the previous iteration to compute a digit sum. The process continues until a single-digit number is reached. For example, the digital root of 65,536 is 7, because 6 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 6 = 25 and 2 + 5 = 7.”

Awakening to the smell of peace

Please unidle me.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Proposal: So We Don’t Have To Remember Everything All Of The Time

Passes 13-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2015 01:05:54 UTC

Add a new rule to the beginning of the Dynastic Rules titled “Vocabulary” with the text:

During this dynasty the term Villager is considered to be synonymous with the term Townsperson.

I’m sure this will come up more than once.

Proposal: Winter Isn’t Coming

Self-killed and failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 27 Feb 2015 19:29:22 UTC

Let Spring be the Season in effect at the time this Proposal is enacted.

Add the following sentence to the rule called “The Almanac:”

The Season currently in effect is Spring. If the previous sentence does not accurately reflect the gamestate, any Admin may replace its final word with the name of the current Season.

Create a new rule called “Summer” with the following text:

The text of this rule has no effect unless the Season in effect is Summer.

Each Villager has a Numerisma, which is a nonnegative integer defaulting to 0, tracked in the GNDT. If a Villager has not set their Numerisma during the current Summer, they may do so at any time, to any positive integer that is not the Numerisma of any other Villager.

If the Season would change from Summer to Autumn, first, each Villager is considered to have their Numerisma set to 0.

If the proposal “Ratify the Postscript” failed, replace the word “Villager” with “Crewmember” in the rule “Summer.”

Next mechanic would be doing numerology/sum-of-digits stuff with these.

Proposal: Whether There will be Weather

Times out and passes 7-3 with 2 unresolved DEFs. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2015 01:02:26 UTC

Enact a new rule, Weather Conditions:

At any time, one Weather Condition will be in effect. Weather Conditions change each Season. This current Weather Condition is: Sun.

The Forecast for the next few seasons is:
• Sun
• Sun

Possible Weather Conditions are as follows:
1. Sun
2. Rain
3. Snow
4. Earthquake
5. Hurricane
6. Wildfire

Sun, Rain, and Snow are Typical Weather Conditions; Earthquake, Hurricane, and Wildfire are Disastrous Weather Conditions.

When the Season progresses, the Astrologer should replace the current Weather Conditions with the top Condition in the Forecast and remove the top Condition from the Forecast. If the Astrologer is unable to do this, then any Townsperson may do this instead.

Add a subrule to the rule “Weather Conditions,” Forecasting:

The Astrologer may Forecast the Weather by adding a randomly selected Weather Condition to the bottom of the Forecast. This may only be done once per Season.

If “Stars in Their Eyes” enacted, replace “Astrologer” with “Astrologer or Astronomer” in the rule “Weather Conditions”.

Proposal: Constellation Games

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 27 Feb 2015 10:40:15 UTC

In the rule “Horoscopes”, replace “made up three elements, which are drawn from the following list” with “made up of three Constellations from the following list of all Constellations”.

Enact a new rule, “The Sky”:-

The Constellations currently visible in the Sky are, from left to right: a Cloud, a Cloud and a Cloud.

If no Townsperson has done so during the current Season, the Astrologer may examine the Sky by randomly selecting a Constellation from those not currently visible in the Sky, adding it to the above list in the rightmost position, and then removing the leftmost Constellation from that list.

If “Stars in Their Eyes” enacted, replace “Astrologer” with “Astrologer or Astronomer” in the rule “The Sky”.

Upon enactment of this rule, each appearance of “a Cloud” in the rule “The Sky” shall be replaced by a randomly selected Constellation, such that all three are different.

Wiki account

Could an admin create me a wiki account, please?

Also, please idle me for now. I might or might not come back later in the dynasty.

(I know this looks like a weird combination, but there’s a few dynastic histories that need fixing.)

Proposal: Stars in Their Eyes

Passes 9-0. Kevan becomes the Astronomer. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2015 00:56:35 UTC

Enact a new rule, “The Astronomer”:-

The Townsperson called Josh is the Astronomer. The Astronomer may use VETO as a voting icon to cast a Vote on a proposal; this has the same effect as the Astrologer having cast a vote of VETO on that proposal.

The Astrologer may repeal this rule at any time.

Upon enactment of this proposal, any EVC on this proposal which includes the name of a single Townsperson shall be considered to Support that Townsperson; if one Townsperson has more Supports than any other, replace “Josh” with their name, in the rule created above. (If multiple Townspeople are tied for the most Supports, the enacting admin shall select one of them at random and replace “Josh” with that Townsperson’s name in the rule created above.)

We can live without DEF votes in a slow dynasty, but we should probably have a functioning veto mechanic while the Astrologer is out of action.

As the war fades away, our population grows

Hi, I’m Dresdom and I’ve been lurking your games for some time. Finally, I decided to join in. I hope we have great fun!

English is not my first language so please, feel free to correct me and propose rewordings for the itty bits of my rules proposals.

Every proper village should have a weird foreigner to blame bad weather on.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Proposal: Simpler Dependencies

Passes 14-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2015 00:59:45 UTC

Add a new subrule to “Pace”.  Call it “Contingent Proposals” and give it the following text:

If a proposal starts with the text “Dependent on X”, where X is the name of a proposal or a list of proposals, if any of those proposals fails, the Dependent proposal is considered to be Self-Killed.

Ill Portent

After a week of inactivity, Put goes idle, seemingly having left in the night to avoid hardships foreseen not to come. Quorum falls to seven.

Proposal: Browser Tab Name

Has been open for over 48 hours and cannot be enacted. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2015 00:56:55 UTC

I propose that the tab name for the website be changed from:

BlogNomic: The Thirteenth Dynasty of Kevan

To:

BlogNomic: The Ninth Dyasty of Josh

I would propose it be changed to BlogNomic: Then place where Maldor does everything incorrectly, but that is both degrading myself and too long

Last proposal for today, I promise

Proposal: Proposal Management

Self-killed. -RaichuKFM

Adminned at 24 Feb 2015 05:01:09 UTC

Add a new rule called “Proposal Management” which contains

If a proposal relies on a proposal that is has not been enacted then it must mention the proposal it changes or amends. (ex. If Proposal A changes something in Proposal B then Proposal must state “this proposal relies on Proposal B”)
If the required proposal is vetoed or self-killed then the dependent proposal is failed by an admin

 

I’m in the middle of writing something that may depend on this rule, and realized that their may be a conflict if the amendment is enacted but the proposal it changes is not. This hopefully provides actions that the mod can take in this event (which should happen that often, I think.)

Economy Rule Amendments

This proposal requires Passage of the Victory Conditions and other things proposal, if that proposal fails or is self killed then this proposal automatically fails

Market ruleset

Add a new rule named “Economy”

-Add a new stat called “gold”
-Give everyone 5 gold

Proposal: Victory Conditions and other things

Self-killed. -RaichuKFM

Adminned at 24 Feb 2015 02:36:56 UTC

Create a new rule with the name “Victoy Conditions” containing the following

-Add a new stat in the GNDT called Farms and Food
-Give everyone 2 Farms and 10 Food
How to win
-Have 25 Farms
-Have 200 Food
-Make a DoV stating these facts

Create a new rule with the name “Farm and Food management” which contains,

Building a new farm requires 20 food.
At the end of Fall or Spring, you receive DICE4 plus number of farms in food
At the end of Winter or Summer, you lose DICE6 Food

Add a new rule called “Starvation” which contains,

If at the end of Winter or Summer you have no food, you lose one farm

 

If we are on a border town that gets raided every so often, this shouldn’t be to hard… Right?

New Crewmember (or villager if I understand it right…)

I would like to announce my arrival to the ninth dynasty of josh and request to become a player.

Core rules say I can, and I will…

Proposal: Long Year Patch

Passes 12-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2015 00:57:02 UTC

Change the rule Pace to read:

Where contradictory, this rule supersedes any provision set out in rule 1.5.

During this dynasty, Proposals can only be resolved on a Saturday or Sunday, unless one of the following is true, in which case it can be resolved at any time regardless of whether it is the oldest pending Proposal:

  • It has been open for at least 24 hours, every Townsperson has voted upon it, all of the votes are FOR, and it is not contingent on the passage of another pending proposal;
  • It has been open for at least 24 hours, every Townsperson has voted upon it, and all of the votes are Against;
  • It has been vetoed or self-killed.
  • It is limited in effect to a specific Season or Seasons not including the current Season, and it is the oldest pending Proposal.

During this dynasty, a Townsperson may submit a Proposal unless the Townsperson already has 4 Proposals pending, or has already made 5 Proposals that day.

A proposal may be pending for longer than 7 days. If a proposal somehow ends up being pending on 2 or more consecutive Sundays, it is ignored for the purpose of calculating the oldest pending proposal, and can be failed by any Admin.

Unforeseen Circumstances

Our Astrologer had a “nasty fall” this morning, and is presently in a real world hospital for spinal surgery. Will see what happens over the next few days, but if people are wondering why Josh isn’t voting or commenting right now, it’s this.

May the Greater Triangle speed his recovery.

Proposal: Possible Long Year Fix

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 23 Feb 2015 19:37:51 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Pace:

Where contradictory, this rule supersedes any provision set out in rule 1.5.

During this dynasty, Proposals can only be resolved on a Saturday or Sunday, unless one of the following is true, in which case it can be resolved at any time regardless of whether it is the oldest pending Proposal:

  • It has been open for at least 24 hours, every Townsperson has voted upon it, all of the votes are FOR, and it is not contingent on the passage of another pending proposal;
  • It has been open for at least 24 hours, every Townsperson has voted upon it, and all of the votes are Against;
  • It has been vetoed or self-killed.
  • It is limited in effect to a specific Season that is not the current Season, and it is the oldest pending Proposal.

During this dynasty, a Townsperson may submit a Proposal unless the Townsperson already has 4 Proposals pending, or has already made 5 Proposals that day.
A proposal may be pending for longer than 7 days. If a proposal somehow ends up being pending on 2 or more consecutive Sundays, it is ignored for the purpose of calculating the oldest pending proposal, and can be failed by any Admin.

52 possible proposals is still a lot, but maybe is better than 65?

Proposal: Changing Seasons

SKed (per the rule Pace I can admin this at any time once it’s SKed) DK

Adminned at 25 Feb 2015 01:53:44 UTC

Create a new rule, entitled Spring:

This rule has no effect unless it is Spring.

Create 3 new rules, entitled Summer, Autumn, and Winter, each with the same text, replacing the word “Spring” with the name of that rule.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Proposal: Lets finish the clean up

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan. (Self-kills can be failed at any time under Rule 2.3.)

Adminned at 23 Feb 2015 15:56:03 UTC

Repeal all Dynastic rules except for the following rules if they exist:

* The Almanac
* Horoscopes
* Pace
* the Astrologer

As Bucky pointed out, this field is not part of a post so the last rule repeal in the AA also didn’t take effect.

Proposal: Ratify the Postscript

Passes 13-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2015 00:50:04 UTC

Change “Crewmember” to “Townsperson” and “Ship’s Computer” to “Astrologer” throughout the ruleset.

By rule, the ‘commentary’ field isn’t part of a post.  So the Ascension Address didn’t re-theme the ruleset.

Proposal: Cleudo

Has been open for over 48 hours and cannot be enacted. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2015 00:49:20 UTC

Enact a new Rule, the Astrologer, with the following text:-

The Astrologer may not post Story Posts of any kind or posts with no category. In the spirit of this rule, the Astrologer should not have extraneous words in their Proposals or Call for Judgements or communicate with Players outside of the game. As a Daily Action, the the Astrologer may make a Story Post with the title “Communication” and a single picture in the body.

Not sure where this is going. What do you all think about it?

Proposal: The Long Year

Reached quorum 9 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 23 Feb 2015 11:27:41 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Pace:

Where contradictory, this rule supersedes any provision set out in rule 1.5.

During this dynasty, Proposals can only be resolved on a Saturday or Sunday, unless one of the following is true, in which case it can be resolved at any time:

  • It has been open for at least 24 hours, every Townsperson has voted upon it, all of the votes are FOR, and it is not contingent on the passage of another pending proposal;
  • It has been open for at least 24 hours, every Townsperson has voted upon it, and all of the votes are Against;
  • It has been vetoed or self-killed.

During this dynasty, a Townsperson may have up to five pending proposals.

This is not a pivotal part of my plan for the dynasty, so very interested in thoughts, but would quite like a slower-paced dynasty with less scope for timing scams. Would also like to incentivise big, sweeping changes to mechanics between seasons.

Proposal: Season’s Greetings

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan. The Season defaults to Autumn.

Adminned at 23 Feb 2015 11:27:50 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled The Almanac, as follows:

At any time, a Season will be in effect. There are four possible Seasons, as listed below:

  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Autumn / Fall
  • Winter

At 11.59pm UTC on each Sunday, the Season progresses, changing to the Season listed immediately below the current Season in the list above (or returning to Spring if the current Season is Winter).

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Horoscopes, with text as follows:

Each Townsperson has a Birth Sign, which is tracked in the GNDT. A Birth Sign is made up three elements, which are drawn from the following list:

  1. The Eel
  2. The Bee
  3. The Toad
  4. The Crossed Swords
  5. The Greater Triangle
  6. The Parapet

At any time, any Townsperson who does not have a Birth Sign may allocate themselves one by rolling 3 DICE6 in the GNDT, and applying the results in the order that they are rolled in the GNDT to the numbered list in this rule.

Follow on to this will be: each season will have a horoscope, and the placement of each Sign within the Birth Sign will determine how they interact. Horoscopes will spell out the requirements of each Townsperson to flourish during the Season, and yes, I will probably make use of Kevan’s suggestion and make it real-world in some way.

Ascension Address: The Quiet Years

In the last few years, our small settlement has had no peace. First come the forces from the north, laying waste to the crops and livestock. Then comes the inevitable counterattack from the south, undoing all that had been rebuilt. Plague and pestilence follow armies in a cloud - as does conscription. Both separate the youth from their parents with an equal lack of humanity or mercy. Our patch of land is a border town, and all we hope for is a quiet year in this long war.

But this year, the astrologer sees a portent in the stars heralding such a peace. Word has come that the forces of the north and the south have fought each other to a standstill. Our scrap of land and its meagre tithe is no longer under contest. No lord stands between our town and the fates that guide us. For a short while, our path is our own.

This time, when the avarice of others turns its eyes on us, perhaps we will be ready.

Change “Crewmember” to “Townsperson” and “Ship’s Computer” to “Astrologer” throughout the ruleset. Repeal all Dynastic rules.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Please unidle me

New Dynasty, so please unidle me.

In at the start

I wish to become unidle.

Next Dynasty

Probably won’t get an AA out for another 24 hours at least, I’m afraid. Sorry for the delay. If anyone wants to suggest / speculate about interesting mechanics for the next round, please do go ahead.

Recovered Log of the ISV Haniver

Just a new thread for any more post-match commentary, now that the DoV has closed.

Declaration of Victory: Spinning Jenny

Passed after 12 hours with eight votes in favour including that of the Ship’s Computer. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 21 Feb 2015 21:09:09 UTC

Per rule 2.9, and Kevan’s confirmation posted this morning, I have achieved Victory.

Triumph

The Mediator strides through the now almost airless corridors of the Haniver, wading through a thin tide of greenish chlorine gas and stepping over prone bodies on his way towards the command deck. He takes a seat at the main console, flicks a few switches and lifts up a comms headset.

Josh is Triumphant.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Proposal: Alternative Endgame

Vetoed.  Darknight

Adminned at 22 Feb 2015 21:57:41 UTC

Create a new dynastic rule, “Endgame Protocol”:

This rule cannot be repealed or amended as the result of a Proposal being Sabotaged. This takes precedence over all other dynastic rules.

An Emergency Broadcast is a PM submitted to the Ship’s Computer with the subject line “Emergency Broadcast”, and with a body that consists only of a list of Crewmember’s names. Only the first Emergency Broadcast submitted by each Crewmember has any effect; the others should be ignored.

An Emergency Broadcast is “correct” if it lists the names of each Android, and no other names.

If the Ship’s Computer has received at least one correct Emergency Broadcast, and that Emergency Broadcast was submitted at least 36 hours ago, then he may post a blog post listing all Crewmembers who submitted correct Emergency Broadcasts, and identifying a randomly selected Crewmember, chosen from the Crewmembers who submitted correct Emergency Broadcasts, as the Radio Operator. Upon the publication of this blog post, the Radio Operator achieves Victory. If the Radio Operator has achieved Victory, no other Crewmember may achieve Victory

This was a beautiful rule before that gave us the opportunity to become a game of Werewolf until it was flagged as illegal. Anyway, here it is with some minor (or perhaps major, I don’t know your perspective) edits.

The big change here is that the Crewmember has to name the Disabled Androids correctly as well, if there are any. Yes, I know - that sucks.

Error: You have surpassed the Private Message sending limit for a 24 hour period

Can we get this limit increased? As it is, I’m being locked out of participating in the Dynasty by the software.

(I’m going to send Kevan emails to substitute for PMs, for the time being.)

Proposal: This dynasty could be ruined by outside interference; let’s prevent that happening in future

Was vetoed by kevan while his dynasty was still in progress.  Darknight

Adminned at 22 Feb 2015 21:56:38 UTC

To the end of the bulletted list in the Core rule “Fair Play”, add the following bullet point:

  • A Crewmember should not try to gain an advantage via persuading an Idle Crewmember to unidle, or a non-Crewmember to register for the game.

Also means that if Agora ever invades again, it’ll actually be against the rules.

Drugging: Bucky

Bucky has been made Unhappy by a drug of some kind.

Story Post: Trial: The Curious Case of ais523

With Command Quorum at 2 and an Unhappy Atmosphere, passes with 2 FOR votes. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 21 Feb 2015 04:43:12 UTC

I’m a bit ambivalent about this one myself, but I think it’s time - with five living players remaining - that we take a serious look at ais. This might be the last opportunity to do so, and as someone who has rhetorically steered so much of the discussion I think it’s important to at least consider the question formally.

The case against ais would be as follows:

  • The gap between ais’ actions and rhetoric has been great. He has consistently pushed for decisions to be made on the basis of personal utility as divined from Clearance, but has only accused players who are no threat to him on that basis, and have ignored those players from whose misfortune he has most to gain. He claims to be hunting Androids, but even this runs contrary to his previous statements, where he said that he would be seeking cross-factional alliances. (As the player who, I think it’s probably fair to say, has borne the brunt of ais’ attentions to date, I can attest that he has made no attempt to leverage his certainties about my role.)
  • He has used his own credibility to endow shaky theories with the weight of truth, with only that credibility holding them together. The Brendan / Sylphrena dichotomy still rests on the assumption that ais is telling the truth.
  • As an expansion to the last point, ais has promoted the idea of a factionalised game with himself as the honest broker. This has largely protected _Fox_ and Sylphrena from scrutiny while focusing attention arbitrarily on those deemed to be in the “other” faction. Again, the evidence of this factionalisation is sketchy. I admit, I feel emotionally like it might be true, but I can’t pin down much evidence of it, beside weak patterns of players agreeing with each other. This may be distracting us all from a relatively straightforward attempt to win along Human / Android lines - Bucky’s Euphoric play being an example, which ais noticed but did nothing to prevent.

So it’s not a super-strong case, and in truth I will probably waive my explicit author vote on this one. But I wanted to give people the opportunity to consider whether ais is an honest broker, or whether there is harder evidence of his humanity elsewhere that I have missed.

In any case, for the sake of form: I accuse ais523 of being an Android.

Proposal: When Push Comes to Shove

Vetoed. Darknight

Adminned at 22 Feb 2015 21:54:06 UTC

To the bulleted list in the rule Emotions, insert a new point after the second:-

No Crewmember can have a Mark in the GNDT that targets a Disabled Crewmember or the Diplomat, unless it targets the Disabled Diplomat or is the Disabled Diplomat’s Mark.

When this is enacted, the enacting Admin should remove every Mark in the GNDT which targets a Disabled Crewmember and/or the Diplomat except for those Marks that either target the Disabled Diplomat or are the Disabled Diplomat’s Mark, but not both.

Leaving a slightly freer mechanic that is unclear who it benefits to see if it makes ais523 more happy.

Proposal: Defragging

Vetoed.  Darknight

Adminned at 22 Feb 2015 21:52:37 UTC

In the rule “Subroutines”, replace “As a daily action, the Computer may process the Subroutine at the start of its queue” with:-

As a daily action, the Computer may process a randomly-chosen Subroutine from its queue (selecting it privately without using the GNDT dice)

Randomising the Subroutine queue would remove one of Ais523’s timing concerns.

Story Post: Trial: Actual evidence for once

Has been open for 12 hours, and with three votes FOR and an Unhappy atmosphere meets the requirements to be enacted. _Fox_ is Disabled. Josh

Adminned at 21 Feb 2015 01:32:37 UTC

_Fox_ took a Strenuous action by Stimming Bucky while Life Support was Catastrophic. Humans can’t do that.

I accuse _Fox_ of being an Android.

Proposal: When Push Comes to Shove

Self killed.  Darknight

Adminned at 22 Feb 2015 21:51:44 UTC

To the bulleted list in the rule, insert a new point after the second:-

The Ship’s Computer shall remove every Mark in the GNDT which targets a Disabled Crewmember and/or the Diplomat.

Proposal: Prisoner Exchange [Demand]

Vetoed.  Darknight

Adminned at 22 Feb 2015 21:50:21 UTC

Add “Paranoid” to the emotions of all Crewmembers.

Within 24 hours of the enactment of this proposal, the Ship’s Computer should select a non-Disabled Android at random. That Android gains one additional use of their Phaser. The Ship’s Computer should then immediately PM that Android to notify them of that fact.

Subroutine Report: MD1C

Hollow circles of turquoise light track Sylphrena’s eyes for a few moments. Sylphrena is no longer Tired.

Proposal: Alternative Endgame

Illegal third proposal, ais523 already had “Disable all Android Powers” and “Or, we can do it like this” pending. Flagged by Kevan.

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 08:31:27 UTC

Create a new dynastic rule, “Endgame Protocol”:

This rule cannot be repealed or amended as the result of a Proposal being Sabotaged. This takes precedence over all other dynastic rules.

An Emergency Broadcast is a PM submitted to the Ship’s Computer with the subject line “Emergency Broadcast”, and with a body that consists only of a list of Crewmember’s names. Only the first Emergency Broadcast submitted by each Crewmember has any effect; the others should be ignored. Only Emergency Broadcast submitted by Humans have any effect; Emergency Broadcasts submitted by Androids are ignored.

An Emergency Broadcast is “correct” if it lists the names of each non-Disabled Android, and no other names (and if the previous paragraph does not prevent it being effective due to being ignored).

If the Ship’s Computer has received at least one correct Emergency Broadcast, and that Emergency Broadcast was submitted at least 36 hours ago, then he may (and shall within 36 hours) post a blog post listing all Crewmembers who submitted correct Emergency Broadcasts, and identifying a randomly selected Crewmember, chosen from the Crewmembers who submitted correct Emergency Broadcasts, as the Radio Operator. Upon the publication of this blog post, the Radio Operator achieves victory.

Designed to avoid administrative timing scams (via opening up a 36 hour window in which all guesses are effectively considered to have happened in a random order). Anti-retroactive-Sabotage clause is for the same reason as the removal of Sabotaging in my previous Android-baiting proposal; if they’re going to call the bluff, this is going to happen. (And it also avoids Josh’s criticism; even though that criticism is invalid, I may as well avoid the argument altogether.) Again, just like Josh’s proposal, this is something that the Androids may choose to let through. The basic idea is to let correctly identifying the Androids win the game; this is what we were meant to be in Werewolf, until this became a messy game of cross-factional alliances.

I’d prefer it if Kevan voted a strict FOR or AGAINST on this one, rather than staying out of it. As can be seen here, the dynasty has devolved into four anti-Android players (me, ayesdeeef, Darknight, Sylphrena), and four pro-Android players (Brendan, Bucky, _Fox_, Josh), plus the inactive Put and Kevan. As it is, it’s thus basically impossible for any proposals to be enacted; anything that at all benefits the Humans will be voted down (given that the Androids no longer want to Sabotage because they’re scared of Trials). This is not a situation which really fits the intended purpose of the dynasty.

Proposal: If MI6 is a Secret Service, why do they keep putting its main headquarters in James Bond movies?

Sabotaged. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 21:40:29 UTC

Within 48 hours of the passage of this rule, the Ship’s Computer should make a post containing the names of all Android Crewmembers.

Another take on I-dare-you-to-make-me-Paranoid, but less nuclear. The Androids may even consider that this is worth the risk, keeping Trials off the table.

Friday, February 20, 2015

A Chill Comes Over Me

Since I haven’t the time to contribute much to now, I am humbly returning to my cryopod. Quorum remains at 6.

Proposal: Or, we can do it like this

Sabotaged. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 21:40:03 UTC

In the rule “Injuries”, replace

An Injured Crewmember may not take any action under a dynastic rule that a rule declares Strenuous. A Disabled Crewmember may not take any action under a dynastic rule, nor cast votes on Missions or Trials, except for actions that a rule declares to be Cerebral.

with

An Injured Crewmember may not take any action under a dynastic rule that a rule declares Strenuous. A Disabled Crewmember may not take any non-Cerebral action under a dynastic rule, except for casting votes on Trials. They may not cast votes on Missions.

In the rule “Trials”, replace the first bulleted list with:

  • It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours and has a number of FOR votes that equals or exceeds Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and has more FOR votes than AGAINST votes.

and the second bulleted list with:

  • It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours and has a number of AGAINST votes that equals or exceeds Quorum.
  • It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

Trials at the moment need a Command Quorum to pass, full stop; if enough people ignore them (which has always happened so far), they fail.

This changes them to a) allow Disabled people to vote, b) allow them to be Enacted in the face of apathy if more than half the people who actually voted think they’re a good idea. (This seems to have been working well for proposals, which at least tend to come to a decisive end, rather than just failing due to apathy.)

Story Post: Trial: Brendan really should have been Disabled

Illegal Trial, the Atmosphere is neither Paranoid nor Angry—ais523

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 01:40:46 UTC

If not for the inactivity of many of the non-Disabled players, Brendan would have been Disabled in the previous Trial. The only AGAINST vote was Josh, whose motives are highly questionable.

Thus, I again accuse Brendan of being an Android. See the previous trial for plenty of strong arguments. Let’s see if we can push this through this time.

I’m not enjoying this dynasty

I was enjoying this dynasty earlier, but things are getting increasingly upsetting.

My main problem is that it’s impossible to accomplish anything without the support of several other players, but I’m not getting that support even when it’s in those players’ best interests. For example, we haven’t had a trial pass yet even when there’s overwhelming support. Part of the problem is the artificially inflated quorum; there are some users (Put/Skju) who basically never do anything, meaning that we need far too many of the active players to agree for something to happen. Many of the mechanics aren’t being used much either; I managed to run two Subroutines in a row a while back, we just had the first Drugging ever, etc.

There’s also been a huge amount of use of Proposals for personal gain, which is incredibly exhausting when you’re trying to plot a path to victory. I’m almost convinced that Bucky is in league with Sylphrena at this point (Bucky’s two most recent proposals both effectively read “Sylphrena wins”). Sylphrena’s lead is frustrating enough as it is; he got there through a combination of being lucky, and having good reactions to capitalize on that luck, and although I’m fine with that, what I’m not fine with is all the attempts recently to make it permanent.

Which brings me to the always-online nature of this dynasty. Daily grinds are bad enough. This dynasty is far worse than daily grinds; most of the mechanics come down to hours or minutes. For example, being the first to submit a Subroutine after a Mark-flushing gives a large advantage, because you then know that any Subroutines that resolve before yours must belong to people who didn’t have M4RKs in the queue. Likewise, some actions only make sense if done just before a Trial or Mission deadline runs out, which is a problem if the person who needs to do them isn’t online at the time. This is causing problems for me in Real Life; I don’t have an Internet connection at home, and I’ve been spending all my free time online just so that I can hit important timing breakpoints. This is leaving me short of sleep, among other things.

So why don’t I just idle out? Because the dynasty’s designed to punish idling. I’d lose all the lead that I’ve been struggling to obtain over weeks, and not be able to meaningfully participate in the rest of the dynasty. So it’s a sort of sunk cost fallacy thing.

Anyway, my main argument is just the lack of control over everything. There’s too much proposing to change the rules in a way that hurts me, and not enough trial-Disabling going on. I got really upset and annoyed at Josh saying that there was no rush and we could just wait around for a few weeks with nothing happening, because that’s a) completely unfun and b) would hurt my sleep schedule even more. Waiting for everyone else to get bored is a legitimate strategy in Nomic, I guess, but it doesn’t make things fun for the other players. (Not to mention that an intentional policy of doing nothing makes it impossible to gather information on the other players anyway.) To actually be able to achieve anything, I’d need help from a group of people (minimum size 3 if we were all online 24:7, probably 4 would be needed in practice), and that’s unlikely in a dynasty that doesn’t have actual rules-enforced teams that have a reason to cooperate amongst themselves.

I suspect that much of this comes down to the single-winner nature of BlogNomic. BlogNomic traditionally works around the general plan of “create a game and then play it”, and there are enough people who want to make it a good game (especially the Emperor) that the game improves over the Dynasty and then comes to an end. This is strongly influenced by the Emperor and DEFERENTIAL vote, meaning that some player who isn’t involved in the action can look for good directions to shape the dynasty in.

In this dynasty, proposals are very political in nature; it’s normally obvious what effect any given proposal will have on the race to win (and for the few that aren’t, it’s due to an embedded scam that quickly gets pointed out). This means that the people who it helps vote FOR, and the people who it hinders vote AGAINST. Given how Disabled players have very little chance of winning (due to having basically no game-effecting actions), this in turn translates into “whoever has the biggest alliance”. Part of my problem here is that there are many people who don’t benefit from any given proposal, but who don’t notice why until I spend several comments explaining. It gets very tiring after a bit. BlogNomic’s normal fix for this is the Emperor, but due to the nature of the dynasty, there’s not much Kevan can do but studiously vote DEFERENTIAL on almost everything, so as not to bias in favour of one factor or another.

At this point, I’m not really sure that the dynasty can be fixed, but I’m open to hearing ideas.

Proposal: Trials hit too hard?

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 21:39:08 UTC

In the rule “Trials”, replace

has their Clearance set to 0

with

has their Clearance halved (rounding towards 0)

This way it’s still a Clearance hit, but doesn’t leave all the Trial victims tied at 0.

Proposal: Put Down

Reached quorum 9 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan. Put becomes Disabled.

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 09:43:39 UTC

Give the Crewmember named Put the Condition Disabled.

Proposal: Disable all Android Powers

Sabotaged. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 21:40:57 UTC

Repeal the first paragraph of the subrule “Sabotage”.

Repeal the subrule “Demands”.

Repeal the subrule “Phasers”.

Repeal the second paragraph of the subrule “Drugs”.

The Androids apparently don’t want the Atmosphere to be Paranoid (given that they drugged Bucky to be much less Paranoid).

If everyone votes FOR on this proposal, the Androids will be forced to Sabotage it (or else forever lose all their powers), making the Atmosphere Paranoid again.

Drugging: Bucky

Bucky has been drugged to feel Reckless, and no longer feels Paranoid.

Alert: Scanning Malfunction

The forward scanning array has picked up a Manta-class Jovian warship with weapons armed, but there’s nothing on the viewscreen. One crewmember is required to check the processor circuits on the scanning array.

Subroutine Report: L0GS

Blank tape spools back and forth for a while, and nothing happens.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Subroutine Report: L0GS

Tape reels spin, and the signature records of recent Subroutines are piped to the earpiece of a Crewmember.

Discussion: Someone should put Put on trial

...Remember how we were saying this is hopeless if there are more than two Androids? Well the only possible non-Disabled third Androids are Put and ais523.  At this point I’m 99% sure ais523 is Human from his actions, but Put has been very much under the radar.  We can hedge our bets by canning him.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Proposal: More Emo Texture

Times out and passes 3-2. -Bucky

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 05:31:03 UTC

In the rule “Emotions” change the text

If a Crewmember has two Emotions

to

When a Crewmember gains an Emotion, they lose all other Emotions of the same Nature.  If a Crewmember has two Emotions

Add the following text to the rule “Side Effects”:

If a Crewmember is Careful when they Tamper with a System, they may Tamper Carefully by saying they do so in the Tamper message.  They are not considered to be the author of the Tamper message for the resulting mission while that mission is being processed.
When a Crewmember becomes Euphoric, they lose 1 Clearance.
If a Happy Crewmember becomes Exhausted as a result of a Mission being processed, once within the next 24 hours they may roll “Second Wind DICE4” in the GNDT.  If the result is a 1 and they are still Exhausted, they become Fatigued.

Proposal: Mass Conviction

Cannot be enacted after 48 hours (2-6). -Bucky

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 05:30:17 UTC

Disable all Crewmembers. Set the Clearance of all Crewmembers to 0.

I feel like our ship is being run by Captain Kirk and the Three Musketeers. Canning everyone is probably more right than wrong.

Proposal: The Mediator is Not Always Trusted

Cannot be Enacted after 48 hours (1-5). -Bucky

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 05:18:47 UTC

Remove from the ruleset the text

Should the Mediator vote FOR a Demand or Trial that succeeds or passes, or AGAINST a Demand or Trial that fails, their Clearance is increased by x, where x is the number of EVCs of DEFERENTIAL on that Demand or Trial. Should the Mediator vote AGAINST a Demand or Trial that succeeds or passes, or FOR a Demand or Trial that fails, their Clearance is decreased by x in the same way.

As much as I’m entertained by ais giving Josh more and more clearance, I dislike strategic voting, which this rule encourages. Our votes should be a public statements of our beliefs, not a method of winning.

Discussion: A technical suggestion

I’ve been thinking about two problems recently, which seem connected:

  • Frequently, players will forget to categorise a post (most commonly leading to a Proposal that isn’t, and spamming up the blog if the mistake isn’t caught within 5 minutes). This just creates a little extra tedium all round.
  • Sometimes, I want to create posts for discussion, rather than posts that have a game effect. Like this one, for example, that discusses the blog software, or my posts that summarize the gamestate and invite discussion as to what lead to mysterious GNDT updates. We have a category for basically everything else, but not these.

Thus, I have a suggestion:

  1. Add a new “Discussion” category to the blog, intended for blog posts with no game effect (I don’t foresee any rules changes needed for this, apart from possibly a Glossary entry);
  2. If possible, configure the blog software to prevent the submission of posts that aren’t in any category (with a message like “Each post must be in some Category”).

This would both make it clearer which posts were intended to have no game effect (meaning that we have a nice little prefix on every post), and cut down on mistakes.

Story Post: Trial: Why Brendan is an Android

Has been open for 48 hours and cannot be enacted. Failed by Brendan.
The sidebar might round, but the timestamps don’t.  Unfailed by Bucky.
Now that it’s actually been open for 48 hours and still can’t be enacted, failed by Bucky.

Adminned at 19 Feb 2015 23:58:11 UTC

I accuse Brendan of being an Android.

I have two primary pieces of evidence: This post and this post. The posts should speak for themselves, so I won’t describe the conclusions in detail. However, in general, in both situations, something bad for the humans happened, and it was likely that either Brendan or I was involved in the action. I have gone out of my way to have the least Clearance, so it seems more likely that Brendan is actively working against the Humans and should be eliminated.

Life Support sabotage

This mission just failed despite being a) Rostered; b) with a valid Command Team; c) with a Command Quorum.

In other words, the mission was either Sabotaged or Tampered with by _Fox_, Sylphrena, or Brendan, even though there’d be no Clearance benefit either way from doing so. Thus, one of those three players doesn’t want Humans to be able to do Strenuous actions. (Because of this, it’s probably a good idea to vote AGAINST this proposal; there’s no longer any real Human benefit from it, whereas an Android could use it to quickly Disable Humans.)

Does anyone want to admit to having done this? (For example, _Fox_ by mistake due to failing to understand the Rostering rules.) If nobody admits to it, it’s probably a result of Android activity.

Proposal: Daisy, Daisy

Adminned at 19 Feb 2015 20:57:28 UTC

To the rule “System Failure”, add:-

If three or more Systems are Catastrophic, then the Ship’s hatches and airlocks begin to malfunction, and the Computer should - if it has not done so in the previous 48 hours - Fnord the Marks as if a Proposal had just passed which included such a phrase.

Then replace “Fnord” with “Flush” throughout that rule.

Times out and passes 6-2. Enacted by Brendan.

Story Post: Alert: Energy Malfunction

Has a Command Quorum of (three) votes in favour, including one from the one-person Responder Team. Fox becomes Exhausted. The Mission succeeds.

Adminned at 20 Feb 2015 17:04:21 UTC

One of the computer’s memory slides has become corrupted and must be replaced manually. One Crewmember is required to perform this task.

Proposal: Ghosts [Demand]

Timed out 2 votes to 5. Failed by Kevan. +1 Mediator Clearance.

Adminned at 19 Feb 2015 16:11:32 UTC

Flush the marks.

Add a new rule to the ruleset with the name “Medical Nanobots”:

The Jenny Haniver is equipped with state of the art nanorobotics. The nanorobots have no healing capability to speak of, but they do have a built-in neutral network. Any Crewmember with the “Disabled” condition is considered to be Augmented by the nanobots. Any action that is listed as being Telepathic can only be carried out by Augmented Crewmembers.

Add a new subrule to the newly created rule. Call it “Possession”, and give it the following text:

If a Trial or Mission has not received a number of EVCs equal to or greater than the number of non-Disabled Crewmembers, then any Crewmember may, as a Telepathic action, make a Posession Vote on that Votable Matter. A Possession Vote must include the name of a non-Disabled Crewmember who has not voted on that Votable Matter, and is considered to be the EVC of that Crewmember.

Alert: Energy Malfunction

A stripbulb needs replacing on the command deck. This mission requires one Crewmember.

Subroutine Report: M4RK

Databanks chatter meaninglessly for a moment, and nothing happens.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Story Post: Trial: Why Josh is an Android

Cannot be passed after 48 hours, with 4 votes against and none for. Josh

Adminned at 18 Feb 2015 22:38:06 UTC

I accuse Josh of being an Android.

Evidence that Josh is an Android (ancient to recent):

  • Josh was accused before, by Bucky. Bucky got Disabled by an Android phaser shot, possibly to stop him posting the Trial again. Bucky’s reasoning was that Josh was responsible for the Mark-flushing that lead to ayesdeeef’s Disablement (and the Marking mechanic in general), and that Marking is basically impossible to track, reasoning that still applies. Interestingly, the FOR voters included all of the players with lowest Clearance. These players are statistically more likely to be Human; an Android would be unlikely to Sabotage a Mission (and their own winning chances along with it), although it’s possible that there are Androids among those players who didn’t dare to derelict the mission and reduce their Clearance penalty.
  • As of the 12/02 03:38 GNDT update, Josh was actually in the lead for low Clearance, tied with Sylphrena, Bucky and Darknight. He’s allowed that lead to be thrown away via Mediator actions and via allowing ties to change his Clearance (admittedly, the latter is only weak evidence, because it’s mostly due to quick thinking on the part of Sylphrena). This is very counterintuitive behaviour for a Human.
  • Josh accuses me of being an Android with some very interesting arguments. He constructs a narrative based on reduced Android activity while I’d been gone, something I hadn’t actually noticed. Combining this with the retroactive veto means that it looks a bit like there was an intentional attempt to frame me. If so, Josh is most likely behind it.
  • Josh votes AGAINST on a Demand, despite being well aware (his EVC shows the awareness) that doing so will increase his Clearance. This would have been trivial to avoid; it’s not like Josh’s vote was needed to fail the proposal. His policy of ignoring Mediator effects is bizarre and makes no sense for a Human; you have a choice of Clearances, just pick the lower one, that is literally the only difference between AGAINST and no vote. (Voting FOR would also have been possible, and risky because the proposal would be passing but not quorumed. I requested an admin to fail the proposal immediately because I was worried about a potential last minute CoV, forcing the proposal to pass, especially with players idling; people rarely pay attention to proposals deep in the queue.)
  • Josh suggested that Bucky shot himself, which would be a completely crazy thing for an Android to do. In my experience in Werewolf games, the people suggesting crazy theories are normally the Werewolves (because they have more information as to what happened and can rule out more possibilities; the Humans tend to consider more sensible theories in crazy situations because they have less information with which to rule the sensible ones out).
  • Josh votes AGAINST my proposal here that lets players get rid of unwanted Command Roles. If Human, the Mediator is one of the players who would benefit the most from this proposal, because Mediator effects are much more likely to increase clearance than decrease it (something that’s borne out by the historical record). In effect, Josh is expressing the opinion that he wants to keep getting free Clearance, while not benefitting the Humans in any way from this. In other words, he’s an Android.

For balance, evidence that Josh is Human (also worth reviewing, to make sure we aren’t making a mistake):

  • From GNDT history: When Bucky got shot, Josh and Bucky had just finished a little argument in the GNDT over the use of Marks. If Bucky had got shot during the argument, it’d look very bad for Josh, but Josh seems less likely to have taken the shot, given the circumstances. (Although Bucky was the main person pushing for Josh’s Disabling.)
  • Josh had a deciding vote on the proposal to make it harder for Brendan to reach the Human victory; a CoV by him would have failed the proposal. In addition to making it harder for Brendan to reach the Human victory, it also makes it easier for him to reach the Android victory. It’s possible that Josh was just trying to avoid suspicion, or that he was somehow sure that Brendan was Human. It’s also possible that he was a Human and hoping to dissuade Brendan from rostering, so as to be able to reduce Clearance. (This is incompatible with his behaviour with Mediator, though.)

I think this is easily strong enough evidence for an Accusation. (Also, I’m unwilling to Disable players by trial if I think they have a reasonable chance of being Human, because then they’d be ahead of me in the Clearance race. So I’m not going to post one of these unless I’m pretty sure.)

Subroutine Report: ASUM

Put’s security badgestrip flickers for a second time, and changes to reflect a loss of Diplomatic status. No other Crewmember gains the role.

Under the Ice

Sphinx hasn’t posted or commented in a week, and returns to the cryotubes. Quorum drops to 6, Command Quorum to 4.

Proposal: Oh, For—

Timed out 4 votes to 5. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 18 Feb 2015 19:03:02 UTC

Clear the Command Role of the Crewmember named Darknight.

Upon the enactment of this proposal, the Enacting Admin should pick a random Crewmember using the GNDT DICE function (where each Command Role-free, non-Disabled, non-Injured Crewmember is assigned a number in a GNDT comment before DICE is called) and assign that Command Role to the Crewmember so selected.

Change the sentence in the rule “Command Roles” that begins “If there is a Command Role with no Crewmember assigned to it” to read as follows:

If there is a Command Role with no Crewmember assigned to it, and there are at least two active Crewmembers with no Command Role, the Ship’s Computer may pick a random Crewmember using the GNDT DICE function (where each non-Disabled, Command Role-free Crewmember is assigned a number in a GNDT comment before DICE is called) and assign that Command Role to the Crewmember so selected.

Proposal: If the other way is more interesting, then let’s propose it

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 18 Feb 2015 08:05:44 UTC

Flush the Marks.

Add the following Subroutine to the list in the rule “Subroutines”, keeping the list sorted by OI:

  • D3NY - Threshold: 8 OI. The subject of this subroutine immediately loses their Command Role, if any. Even if they have no Command Role, the Computer still announces who the Subject was.

Consensus seems to be leaning towards ASUM not working like this, but some people seem to think the gameplay would be interesting. So I’m throwing it out there to see if people want it.

Call for Judgment: Diplomatic Incident

Has reached a quorum of FOR votes, 6 votes to 2. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2015 20:24:39 UTC

In the rule “Subroutines”, replace “The subject of this subroutine is immediately given the Command Role of Diplomat. Any other Crewmembers with a Command Role of Diplomat loose their Command Role.” with:-

Any Crewmember who has the Command Role of Diplomat loses that Command Role. Then, if the Subject of this Subroutine has no Command Role, the Subject of this Subroutine is given the Command Role of Diplomat.

The Subroutine queue is currently blocked because the “The subject of this subroutine is immediately given the Command Role of Diplomat.” clause is an illegal gamestate update, meaning that the entire Subroutine processing action cannot be performed. This fixes the ASUM Subroutine so that it can still be performed when the Subject already has a Role. (Also making it explicit that roles are lost before being reassigned, to be on the safe side.)

Call for Judgment: ASUM Contradiction

Failed with a quorum of AGAINST votes, 1 vote to 6. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2015 20:23:51 UTC

Assign the Subject of the ASUM subroutine that executed here the Command Role of Diplomat, replacing any existing Command Roles that that Crewmember might have. As an exception, if that Crewmember’s Command Roles have changed since this CFJ was created, this CFJ does nothing.

Kevan just processed an ASUM subroutine as removing Diplomat, but not awarding it to anyone else. The definition of “ASUM” says “The subject of this subroutine is immediately given the Command Role of Diplomat.” I can’t see any rules that contradict this; “Command Roles” says “No more than one Crewmember at a time may be assigned a given Command Role.” but this doesn’t prevent a Crewmember being assigned a Command Role if they already had one.

“Command Roles” implies that a Crewmember has at most one Command Role by making it a GNDT field. Thus, any existing Command Role for the subject of the ASUM should have been overwritten.

I note that Kevan can fix the GNDT to match the Gamestate directly, but seems to think that something else happened, so I’m making this CFJ to challenge that intepretation. I can’t see any way in which an ASUM wouldn’t lead to someone ending up as the Diplomat.

Proposal: Knocking on the Glass

Reached quorum 6 votes to 3. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 17 Feb 2015 18:10:30 UTC

Add a subrule to “Emotions” called “Cryolock”:-

If a Crewmember joins the game or unidles on or after the 18th of February 2015, they become Disabled upon doing so, if they were not already.

No comment intended on how near to endgame I think we are, just gauging opinion and reminding players that it might be worth padlocking the cryotubes at some point during the dynasty, to prevent new players from reinforcing either faction, or taking actions on behalf of disabled accomplices.

Subroutine Report: ASUM

Put’s security badgestrip flickers and changes to reflect a loss of Diplomatic status, but no other Crewmember gains the role.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Proposal: In a Heartbeat

Reached quorum 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2015 20:49:26 UTC

In “Side Effects”, replace “If a Crewmember is Listless and Euphoric at the same time, they become Happy instead of Euphoric.” with:

If a Crewmember is Listless and Euphoric at the same time, any Crewmember or the Computer may change that Crewmember from Euphoric to Happy.

Repeal the rule “Paranoia” and add to “Side Effects”:

If a Proposal has been Sabotaged in the previous 24 hours, any Crewmember or the Computer may make its proposer Paranoid, if nobody has already done so for that Proposal.

Remove the sentence “When a Crewmember is accused in a Trial they may add the emotion Angry to themselves and lose all other emotions of the same nature.” from Trials and add to “Side Effects”:

While a Crewmember is accused in a Trial, they may add the emotion Angry to themselves and lose all other emotions of the same nature.

Rewording two automagical Emotion mechanics and moving one of them and a slightly reworded Trial Anger all into the same rule.

Proposal: A reasonable limitation on our sabotage power [Demand]

Failed 1 vote to 6, number of Crewmembers who are not voting AGAINST it is less than Quorum. Failed by Kevan. Mediator gains 2 Clearance.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2015 20:31:14 UTC

Add after the first paragraph of the rule “Sabotage”

If the Proposal being Sabotaged would affect only the Core Rules and/or the Glossary, or if the Proposal was created by the Ship’s Computer, the Ship’s Computer may choose not to veto it, instead posting a comment stating that a sabotage attempt was overridden by emergency subroutines.

Add this paragraph to the end of the rule “Missions”

The next time the Ship’s Computer would Alert the crew to a new Pending Mission, they shall first privately select a random non-Disabled Human Crewmember, using a randomizing method of their choice, and give that Crewmember the Condition Disabled. They shall then repeal this paragraph from the Ruleset.

The Flushing of Marks

Without much warning, airlock two opens itself to the void. Perhaps still dazed by the medical scans, Darknight fails to make it through an emergency hatch before it closes, and is caught in a violent depressurisation, becoming Disabled.

Proposal Sabotage: Mark’s Residue

The proposal “Mark’s Residue” has been retroactively sabotaged (it enacted 25 hours ago, but the request was made within the 24-hour window).

Story Post: Alert: Life Support Malfunction

Mission complete with all the Responder Team and a Command Quorum voting FOR. The Mission fails. Life Support becomes Catastrophic, there are no Clearance changes.

Adminned at 17 Feb 2015 17:39:20 UTC

Each of the three carbon dioxide scrubbers aboard the Haniver is registering as blocked. Three crew are required to check and replace the filters.

Subroutine Report: MD1C

Turquoise lasers lock on to Darknight’s retinae again, masking his sense of tiredness.

Proposal: We need a medic over here

Reached quorum 7 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan. Darknight becomes the new Doctor.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2015 18:52:08 UTC

Clear the Command Role of the Crewmember named Bucky.

Upon the enactment of this proposal, the Enacting Admin should assign the Doctor Command Role, as if they were the Ship’s Computer.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Proposal: Irregular Mood Swings

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2015 16:23:02 UTC

In the rule “Emotions”, change the text

Changing one’s own Emotions using this rule is Cerebral

to

Changing one’s own Emotions is Cerebral

Because self-mood-changing actions aren’t neatly all collected in one rule.

Proposal: Alertness is normal

Timed out 6 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2015 16:22:02 UTC

In the description of MD1C in the rule “Subroutines”, change

(excluding “Disabled”)

to

(excluding “Alert” and “Disabled”)

Subroutine Report: MD1C

Turquoise beams of light track and glow into Darknight’s eyes from a distant console. Darknight is no longer tired.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Proposal: Prevent Brendan winning by default

Timed out / quorumed 8 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan.

(Note by ais523: you miscounted, it’s actually 3 votes to 1. This does not change anything about the enactment, because it was already timed out.)

Adminned at 16 Feb 2015 11:50:06 UTC

In the rule “Clearance”, replace

When a Crewmember is part of the Responder Team for a Mission that succeeds, their Clearance increases by 2. When a Crewmember is part of the Responder Team for a Mission that fails, their Clearance decreases by 3. If the Pilot posted a Roster Comment on a Mission, instead, none of its Responder Team gains or loses Clearance as a result of that Mission.

with

When a Crewmember is part of the Responder Team for a Mission that succeeds, their Clearance increases by 2. When a Crewmember is part of the Responder Team for a Mission that fails, their Clearance decreases by 3. If the Pilot posted a Roster Comment on a Mission, none of those Clearance changes happen for that Mission; instead, when a Mission succeeds for which the Pilot posted a Roster Comment, then the Pilot’s Clearance increases by 3.

 

Currently, the only players who can even potentially get the Human victory are Brendan and Josh (and Josh is almost certainly an Android, leaving it as just Brendan). This is because the only Clearance decreasers around are Mission failure (which Brendan has veto power over), and Mediator effects.

The intent behind this proposal is to prevent Brendan gaining an advantage from use of the Mediator power; because he a gets 3-point advantage over the mission team when a mission is Rostered (let’s face it, the only correct move is to Sabotage for the Clearance gain), this gives him a 3-point disadvantage to cancel it out.

Proposal: My Mind Is Set On You

Passes 8-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 15 Feb 2015 15:32:24 UTC

Flush the Marks.

Change the first sentence of the rule “The Airlock” to read as follows:

Each Crewmember can Mark up to one other Crewmember. This is tracked in the GNDT, and may be changed as a Cerebral action.

Add the following bullet to the end of the same rule:

  • The Ship’s Computer removes all Marks currently set in the GNDT.

Something for the disabled to do, as per ais523’s wishes, and a way to keep sluggish players from plugging up the airlock.

Story Post: Alert: Propulsion Malfunction

Mission is more than 72 hours old and cannot be processed as Attended. Bucky, ayesdeeef, Darknight and Josh are wearied, Propulsion becomes Moderately Severe, no Clearance changes.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2015 19:18:58 UTC

The engine core is currently running at 5.3 Kelvin above its standard operating temperature boundaries. Four crew are required to check the coolant system.

Proposal: Givng the Disabled something to do

At 1-7, cannot pass. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 15 Feb 2015 15:31:46 UTC

In the subrule “Sabotage”, replace “An Android may Sabotage a Proposal by sending a Private Message to the Ship’s Computer informing it of this intention.” with “An Android or Disabled Crewmember may Sabotage a Proposal by sending a Private Message to the Ship’s Computer informing it of this intention. This is a Cerebral action.”

Disabled crewmembers are a minority in much the same way that Androids are, and should probably have the same rules-based protection. Otherwise, it’s easy for non-Disabled crewmembers to collectively push through plans that make it even harder for Disabled crewmembers to win.

Proposal: Speeding Things Up [Demand]

At 1-8, cannot pass. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 15 Feb 2015 15:30:53 UTC

Give all Human Crewmembers the Condition Disabled.

Proposal: Bad Atmosphere

Passes 7-1. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 15 Feb 2015 15:28:31 UTC

In the rule entitled “Emotions”, change the following sentence:

If a single Emotion (ignoring Alert, Tired, Fatigued and Exhausted) appears in more Crewmembers than any other Emotion, that Emotion is known as the Atmosphere; otherwise there is no Atmosphere.

to read:

If a single Emotion (ignoring Alert, Tired, Fatigued and Exhausted) appears in more Crewmembers than any other Emotion in its Nature, then that Emotion is part of the Atmosphere. If no Emotion meets this criterion, there is no Atmosphere.

Change “Atmosphere is” to “Atmosphere contains” throughout the ruleset.

“Side Effects” includes things like “If the Atmosphere is Unhappy, Trials require one fewer FOR vote to be enacted”, but if the Atmosphere is Unhappy then we can’t post Trials.

Story Post: Trial: Danger Zone

Could not be enacted after 48 hours, with three votes for and two votes against. Josh

Adminned at 15 Feb 2015 15:06:04 UTC

I believe ais523 is an Android.

First, to review, here’s the last time we did this. None of the arguments therein have changed. ais is still acting in a manner that is explicitly set out to destabilise the humans, does not deny it, and admits that he will continue to do so. His defence is that he’s not interested in the human / Android aspect of the game, and that could potentially be true. It is, however, unlikely. Firstly, if that really was his intent, my suspicion is that he’d be less obvious about it, as playing overtly selfishly tends to make one a target (cf. the two trials he has now been the subject of). Secondly, if he is an Android, then promoting an atmosphere of every-human-for-themselves is an easy path to getting the humans tear each other to shreds.

Additional data: what happened while ais was idle, and what happened when he came back.

While ais was idle, only one proposal was sabotaged. No missions were sabotaged. No tickertape messages were received, nor Demands. No phaser rounds were fired.

Within hours of ais’ return, a proposal had been retroactively sabotaged, a key command role - and ais’ previous accuser - was gunned down, and ais himself had flagged up that the latter had taken place, helpfully including a handy interpretation guide as to how to read the events.

Long story short here, ais’ presence in the game is non-coincidentally synchronous with upticks in Android activity. Either the actual Androids invested a bizarre amount of energy into setting up a single innocent Human who they had no guarantee would even unidle in this dynasty, or ais’ has to be considered a likely fit for an Android. Given that ais himself freely admits that his actions are anti-human, it seems very likely to me that he’s attempting to hide in plain sight.

Proposal: I Feel Fantastic

Reached quorum / timed out 7 votes to 2. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 15 Feb 2015 10:30:54 UTC

Add a subrule to Emotions called “Fitness for Duty”:-

A Crewmember’s Fitness for Duty is equal to six, minus one for each of their Emotions which is either the Highest or the Lowest of its Nature (excluding Alert and Exhausted). If two Crewmembers have the same Clearance and a different Fitness for Duty, any Crewmember may increment the Clearance of whichever of those two Crewmembers has the highest Fitness for Duty.

Using Emotions to break ties for Clearance.

Subroutine Report: MD1C

In the darkened medbay, turquoise-tipped robotic arms belatedly repair the lesser injuries to Ayesdeeef’s unconscious body.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Game Over

With the failure of the Trial against Josh I’m pretty sure it’s impossible for Humans to win.  There is no remaining way to get information about Androids, the Androids will presumably sabotage any proposal to change that, and the voters have demonstrated themselves so apathetic that they won’t push a Trial through even with the strongest of circumstantial evidence.

Does anyone have any plans to change this, or should we just propose to disable all the Humans and speed things up?

Proposal Sabotage

The proposal Double Shift has been sabotaged within 24 hours of its enactment. I have removed the words it added to the ruleset.

Mysterious GNDT update

Latest update:
12/02 12:15 (UTC) (Kevan)  Bucky’s Emotions = Paranoid, Calm, Fatigued, Disabled [was Paranoid, Calm, Fatigued] (Bucky has become Disabled somehow.)

Looking through the ruleset, I’m guessing this was a phaser shot? I can’t see any other reason in the ruleset that Kevan would have been able to do this. (Also, it implies that either one of the Androids felt very threatened by Bucky, or that at least one Android is very wasteful of resources.)

Proposal: Don’t Leave Us

Reached quorum 7 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 14 Feb 2015 11:21:38 UTC

In the rule “Trials” before the paragraph beginning “If a Trial is enacted,...” add the text

If a Trial has 2 or more votes and has more FOR votes than AGAINST votes, then if the accused Crewmember goes idle, the Trial is enacted before that Crewmember goes idle.

We never actually fixed the loophole that prevented ais523 from being disabled. Fool us once…

Holiday on Ice

RaichuKFM hasn’t made a post or comment in more than seven days, and returns to the cryotubes. Quorum remains 7, and Command Quorum drops to 6.

Fox becomes the new Stim Dealer.

Subroutine Report: ASUM

A blue light goes out on Skju’s security badgestrip, and Put’s becomes illuminated. Put is now the Diplomat.

Time to unidle

I wonder if it’s been long enough that people have stopped trying to Disable me?

Please could an admin unidle me, anyway?

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Just to be clear

A recent Mission has failed, and there was not roster comment. The responders (Sylphrena, Josh, Bucky, Fox and Darknight) do lose Clearence, right? There’s no rule I missed that prevents the loss in this situation?

Proposal: Patch for Chief of Security

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacts with no effect.

Adminned at 13 Feb 2015 09:41:38 UTC

If the rule “Chief of Security” is enacted, change:

Any Crewmember may remove the Confined condition from the GNDT if it was given more than 24 hours prior.

to:

As a Cerebral action, any Crewmember may remove the Confined condition from the GNDT if it was given more than 24 hours prior. The Chief of Security may not Confine the same Crewmember more than once per week.

Two fixes for my previous proposal.

Proposal: Marks’ Residue

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 13 Feb 2015 09:39:45 UTC

Add a new subroutine to the list in “Subroutines”:

X0UT - Threshold: 99 OI.  The Ship’s Computer announces the Subject and may process an additional Subroutine today.

In the rule “The Airlock”, replace

The Ship’s Computer removes all M4RK subroutines from the subroutine queue

with

The Ship’s Computer changes all M4RK subroutines in the subroutine queue to X0UT subroutines

Story Post: Alert: Life Support Malfunction

Mission failed by the Computer: more than 72 hours old and cannot be processed as Attended. Life Support is now Critical.

Adminned at 14 Feb 2015 17:39:29 UTC

Sensors are picking up a small atmospheric leak in the ventilation system, and the emergency seals for that shaft appear to be malfunctioning. Two crewmembers are required to enter the ventilation ducts and close the seals manually.

Subroutine Report: L0GS

A control panel oscilloscope spikes and curves as the Ship’s Computer recites a private subroutine log through a Crewmember’s earpiece feed.

Proposal: Chief of Security

Timed out 3 votes to 4. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 13 Feb 2015 09:39:01 UTC

Under the rule, “Command Roles”, change:

The valid Command Roles are Pilot, Doctor, Mediator, Diplomat, Stim Dealer and Engineer.

to

The valid Command Roles are Pilot, Doctor, Mediator, Diplomat, Stim Dealer, Engineer and Chief of Security.

and add a paragraph after “If the Diplomat’s Condition is due to Worsen then their condition instead does not Worsen. ” That says:

As a Daily Action, the Chief of Security may Confine any Crewmember other than themselves to the brig for 24 hours by posting a comment to this effect in the GNDT, and giving them the condition Confined. While Confined a Crewmember is considered to be Disabled. Any Crewmember may remove the Confined condition from the GNDT if it was given more than 24 hours prior.

In the rule Emotions, change:

Valid Conditions are Injured and Disabled

to:

Valid Conditions are Injured, Disabled, and Confined.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Story Post: Trial: Reckless Airlock Operation

More than 48 hours have passed and this can’t be enacted, with 5 votes FOR not exceeding the command quorum of 5. Josh

Adminned at 12 Feb 2015 23:42:05 UTC

I accuse Josh of being an Android.

I’m not sure he’s actually an Android, but if he’s not he’d better have a very good reason for privately conspiring with someone else to covertly can Ayesdeeef.

I know Josh is in on said conspiracy because he’s the one who proposed to flush the marks.  I know there is a conspiracy because I had a GNDT Mark on Josh, there were no other GNDT Marks, and therefore there must have been at least two independent M4RK subroutines on Ayesdeeef to result in a hit.

As far as I can tell, the Androids are the only known 2-member team with the motive to can ayesdeeef privately (eliminating a known Human).  Note that the first mark-flushing was proposed by Josh in immediate response (10 hours) to my failed scouting inject on ayesdeeef, and when my follow-up MD1C prevented him from being Disabled, Josh added another Flush to his next proposal.  These are the only two Flush proposals that happened.  And, given the result of the first one, Josh should not have proposed a second Flush if he did not approve of at least the possibility of ayesdeeef being Disabled.

I demand explanations, but I’ll settle for locking Josh in the can instead.

Marks Have Been Flushed

Ayesdeeef finds themselves trapped on the wrong side of an emergency bulkhead, just as the aft access corridor is violently depressurised.

Ayesdeeef becomes Disabled.

Proposal: Tamper, Tamper

Times out 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 12 Feb 2015 19:03:07 UTC

Remove “If the Crewmember who sent the Tamper message to the Ship’s Computer is part of the response team for that mission, then it fails regardless of any other conditions.” from the rule “Tampering”.

Insert a new bullet point after the first in the “When a Mission is processed” list:-

  • If the Mission was created by a Tamper message and the Crewmember who sent that message is among its Responder Team, the Mission becomes Unattended.

The new Tamper rule seems vague (and arguably ineffectual) when it makes Missions become “failed”. This proposal explicitly causes them to fail in the same manner as Unattended Missions, causing one level of damage to a System.

Proposal: Double Shift

Times out 5 votes to 1 with 2 unresolved DEFs. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 12 Feb 2015 19:02:26 UTC

In the rule “Tampering”, change the text

Upon receiving a Tamper message from a Crewmember

to

Upon receiving a Tamper message from a Crewmember that names a System with no pending Mission

 

This rule still has terrible consequences for Humans, but this would at least prevent Team Android from totally destroying an undamaged System in one go.

Subroutine Report: MD1C

Darknight stares blankly into the turquoise light for a few moments and is no longer Tired.

Story Post: Alert: Life Support Malfunction

Adminned at 11 Feb 2015 16:13:05 UTC

The air onboard the Haniver has begun to taste oddly stale and a little chlorinated. Five crew are required to check the integrity of pipes and seals across the ship.

Monday, February 09, 2015

Proposal: Big Strain

Times out 6 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 12 Feb 2015 08:42:33 UTC

In the rule “Drugs” remove “Injection is a Strenuous action.” and add a paragraph at the beginning of the rule:

All actions in this rule are Strenuous.

In the rule “Missions”, replace “any of its Responder Team are Exhausted or Disabled” with:-

any of its Responder Team are Exhausted, Injured or Disabled

In the rule “The Airlock”, replace “or if they are named as another Crewmember’s Mark in the GNDT”:-

or if they are named as another Crewmember’s Mark in the GNDT (and that Crewmember is neither Injured nor Disabled)

Reproposing the illegal-third-proposal “Uniform Drug Policy”, and making Mission assistance and Airlock shoving into Strenuous pseudo-actions as well.

Proposal: Hostile working conditions

Josh has an implicit FOR vote, and Kevan voted DEFERENTIAL, which means this passes 7-1. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2015 18:20:09 UTC

Flush the Marks.

Add a new subrule to the rule Androids, entitled Tampering:

Any Crewmember may Tamper by sending a PM to the Ship’s Computer with the subject line “Tamper: xxx”, where xxx is the name of a System as listed in the rule entitled Missions.

Upon receiving a Tamper message from a Crewmember, the Ship’s Computer should Alert the crew to a Pending Mission that takes place in the named System. If the Crewmember who sent the Tamper message to the Ship’s Computer is part of the response team for that mission, then it fails regardless of any other conditions.

An individual Crewmember may not Tamper with a system more than once every 48 hours.

Add a new subroutine to the subroutine list:

TRAK - Threshold: 11 OI. If the subject of this subroutine has Tampered with a System in the 48 hours preceding the execution of this subroutine, then the Crewmember who signed this subroutine is notified of that Crewmember’s identity by the Ship’s Computer.

In the rule entitled Missions, after the text “The Computer may, not more than once every 48 hours”, add the following:

(unless directed to as a result of Tampering)

Proposal: Slightly Less Careless Crewmembers

With only six Crewmembers not voting AGAINST, cannot pass. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2015 18:18:56 UTC

In the Rule “Clearance”, replace “When a Crewmember is part of the Responder Team for a Mission that fails, their Clearance decreases by 3.” with:-

When a Crewmember is part of the Responder Team for a Mission that fails, their Clearance decreases by 1.

In the Rule “Trials”, replace “No Crewmember may post a Trial if there is a pending Trial in which they are being accused.” with:-

No Crewmember may post a Trial if there is a pending Trial in which they are being accused. No Crewmember may be accused in a Trial if their Clearance is greater than 4.

Only losing one Trust, which then puts you in the range of getting tried for being an impostor who screws up Missions, may sharpen up the crew a little bit. I think its more or less flavorfully accurate, which is a bonus.

Proposal: Ye Cannae Amend the Laws of Physics

Passes 8-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2015 18:17:26 UTC

In the rule “Command Roles”, replace “The valid Command Roles are Pilot, Doctor, Mediator, Diplomat and Stim Dealer. ” with:-

The valid Command Roles are Pilot, Doctor, Mediator, Diplomat, Stim Dealer and Engineer.

In “Missions”, replace the bullet “If the Mission is Attended and the previous condition was not met, then the Mission succeeds, and the Severity of its System is decremented once. ” with:-

  • If the Mission is Attended and the previous condition was not met, then the Mission succeeds.
  • If the Mission Succeeded and the Engineer is among its Responder Team, then the Severity of its System is decremented once.

Moving the system-repair mechanism onto a command role.

Subroutine Report: MD1C

Sylphrena gets a serotonin boost from the turquoise lights of the med system, and is no longer Tired.

Proposal: Uniform Drug Policy

Third pending proposal. Josh

Adminned at 09 Feb 2015 08:11:48 UTC

In the rule “Drugs” remove:

Injection is a Strenuous action.

And add a paragraph at the beginning of the rule:

All actions in this rule are Strenuous.

There is a zero tolerance policy aboard the ISV Jenny Haniver. For what we don’t yet know.

Monday, February 09, 2015

Proposal: Target Practice

Sabotaged. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2015 18:13:06 UTC

Add a paragraph to the subrule “Phasers”:

A Phaser must be removed from its casing to be used. Removing a Phaser from its casing is a Strenuous action. An Android may remove its Phaser from its casing by posting a blog post announcing this action. No blog post is necessary if the Android is removing the Phaser at the time of use.

And it’s a really big phaser.

Proposal: Try Try Again

Self-killed. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2015 18:12:28 UTC

In the rule “Clearance”, add a subrule “Clearance Modifier”:

The Ship’s Computer will privately track a Clearance Modifier for each Android. The Clearance Modifier is an integer and can be negative. If the Clearance Modifier has not been set for a specific Android, it defaults to zero. Each time an Android Sabotages a proposal, their Clearance Modifier is lowered by one. Each time a Demand Proposal is enacted, the Android who submitted the Demand Proposal will have their Clearance Modifier increased by one.

When determining the Android with the highest Clearance, the Android with the highest total of Clearance and Clearance Modifier shall be considered to have the highest Clearance.

And add a new subrule to “Androids” titled, “Identities”

No earlier than February 15th, 2015, the computer shall send a private message to each Android player informing them of the usernames of each Android. Starting on February 15th, 2015, whenever a Crewmember becomes an Android, whether through conversion, scanning, or any other process, the Ship’s Computer shall send a private message to the new Android informing them of the usernames of all other Androids and a private message to each existing Android informing them of the username of the new Android.

 

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Proposal: Technical Fail

Reached quorum 9 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2015 09:34:17 UTC

Reword the sentence in the rule “Missions” that begins “If the Mission is Attended, and if any Crewmember among its Responder Team has prepared to Sabotage the Mission” to read as follows:

If the Mission is Attended, and if any Crewmember among its Responder Team has prepared to Sabotage the Mission, then any M4RK Subroutines currently in the Ship’s Computer’s queue that have such a Crewmember as a Subject are removed from the queue; the Mission fails; and the Severity of its System is incremented twice.

Proposal: Emotional Texture

Reached quorum 8 votes to 1 with 2 DEFs deferring to the Mediator. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2015 09:32:52 UTC

Add a new subrule to the rule “Emotions”.  Call it “Side Effects” and give it the following text:

If a Crewmember is Listless and Euphoric at the same time, they become Happy instead of Euphoric.
If the Atmosphere is Careless, whenever a Mission would be processed, there is a 10% chance it fails as though Unattended, regardless of whether it’s Attended.
If the Atmosphere is Euphoric, Humans may submit Demand proposals, which are treated as though they were Androids.  When the Computer posts a Demand submitted while the Atmosphere is Euphoric, it shall clearly label it as a Demand of uncertain origin.
If the Atmosphere is Unhappy, Trials require one fewer FOR vote to be enacted.  If the Atmosphere is Depressed, Trials require one more FOR vote to be enacted.

Subroutine Report: MD1C

Desynchronised pulses of turquoise light flash into Skju’s eyes, relieving them of their Fatigue.

Saturday, February 07, 2015

Subroutine Report: S33R

Lights flicker across a console, and one crewmember’s earpiece whispers secrets from the databanks.

Story Post: Alert: Scanning Malfunction

Adminned at 10 Feb 2015 18:06:27 UTC

The recent unscheduled depressurisation has knocked out all the heat sensors in the ship’s access corridors. Three crew are required to effect repairs.

Marks Have Been Flushed

Blast doors and airlocks open and close, and Ayesdeeef is suddenly trapped alone in a depressurised section of the ship, and becomes Injured. After a few long seconds, failsafe systems kick in and the air is restored.

Proposal: Consistency in Failiure

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Feb 2015 10:59:10 UTC

In the rule “Missions”, reword the bullet point beginning “If the Mission is Attended, and if an Android is among its Responder Team…” to read

If the Mission is Attended, and if an Android is among its Responder Team and has prepared to Sabotage the Mission, then the Mission fails, and the Severity of its System is incremented twice.

Because this line didn’t take affect last time.

Proposal: ID-10T Error

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Feb 2015 10:57:27 UTC

In “Command Roles”, replace “On Demands or Trials, votes of DEFERENTIAL reflect the EVC of the Mediator, rather than the EVC of the Ship’s Computer.” with:-

On Demands and Trials, votes of DEFERENTIAL are considered to be the same as the Mediator’s Vote.

and add:

On Proposals where the Ship’s Computer has voted DEFERENTIAL, votes of DEFERENTIAL are considered to be the same as the Mediator’s Vote, rather than the Computer’s Vote.

Extending the Mediator’s EVC takeover to Proposals that I’m passing on: I’ve been tending towards deferring on pure gameplay proposals, to let the crew decide amongst themselves, but I’d rather that this didn’t slow the queue. (Fixing the wording of the first bit while I’m here - per 1.5.1, the Computer DEF effect only occurs on Proposals, not Votable Matters, so it’s not a “rather than”.)

Saturday, February 07, 2015

Proposal: Since we can figure it out anyway

Reached quorum and passed, 8-0. Josh

Adminned at 07 Feb 2015 18:23:36 UTC

In the rule “Androids”, change the text

After the Computer Scans a Crewmember, it shall make a blog post saying it has done so.

to

After the Computer Scans a Crewmember, it shall make a blog post saying who they scanned.

Proposal: Metaphor Police

Reached quorum and passed, 9-0. Josh

Adminned at 07 Feb 2015 18:18:55 UTC

Replace “Each Crewmember other than the Ship’s Computer has a level of Trust.” with:

All of the Human crew are sick of Jupiter patrol and want to be reassigned to Earth; the Android crew simply wish to commandeer the vessel. Each Crewmember other than the Ship’s Computer has a Clearance level.

Replace “Trust” with “Clearance” throughout the ruleset.

Replace “the Human with the lowest Clearance is Triumphant” with “the Human with the lowest Clearance is reassigned to Earth and is Triumphant”. Replace “the Android with the highest Clearance is Triumphant” with “the Android with the highest Clearance assumes command and is Triumphant”.

Crewmembers’ previous Trust levels (including those of Idle Crewmembers) become their Clearance levels.

Okay, I’ve killed my proposed repeal of Trust in favour of trying a better metaphor: that Jupiter patrol is a terrible job and the humans want to do badly enough to be reassigned from it, without actually dying in the process, while the Androids are trying to seize command of the ISV Jenny Haniver. This doesn’t make sense for all Trust-altering mechanics, but we can clean that up - I think it fits the basics.

Proposal: Should You Choose To Accept It

Reaches quorum and passes, 8-0. Josh

Adminned at 07 Feb 2015 18:16:41 UTC

Change the sentence of the rule “Sabotage” that begins “An Android may prepare to Sabotage a specific Mission” to read:

Any Crewmember may prepare to Sabotage a specific Mission by sending a Private Message to the Ship’s Computer informing it of this intention.

Change the bullet point under the rule “Missions” that begins “If the Mission is Attended, and if an Android is among its Responder Team” to read:

If the Mission is Attended, and if any Crewmember among its Responder Team has prepared to Sabotage the Mission, the Severity of its System is incremented twice. In addition, any M4RK Subroutines currently in the Ship’s Computer’s queue that have such a Crewmember as a Subject are removed from the queue.

Missions are boring. Let’s make them less boring.

Subroutine Report: MD1C

Ayesdeeef is briefly illuminated by a narrow grid of turquoise light, and ceases to be Injured.

Friday, February 06, 2015

Proposal: Victory Goes To The Bold

Vetoed. Josh

Adminned at 07 Feb 2015 18:16:07 UTC

If the proposal “As Far as I Could Throw It” has been enacted, and the proposal “Victory Goes To The Man In The Arena” has not been enacted, then

add a new rule “Victory”:

No Human Crewmember may declare victory unless they have more Victory Points than any other Human Crewmember and the Humans are Triumphant. No Android Crewmember may declare victory unless they have more Victory Points than any other Android Crewmember and the Androids are Triumphant.

whatever those are…

Proposal: Victory Goes To The Man In The Arena

Self-killed. Josh

Adminned at 07 Feb 2015 18:15:46 UTC

If the proposal “As Far as I Could Throw It” has been enacted,

add a new rule “Victory”:

No Human Crewmember may declare victory unless they are not disabled and the Humans are Triumphant. No Android Crewmember may declare victory unless they are not disabled and the Androids are Triumphant.

Proposal: Live to tell the tale

Vetoed. Josh

Adminned at 07 Feb 2015 18:15:07 UTC

If the proposal “As Far as I Could Throw It” has been enacted, in the rule “Triumph” amend “the Humans are Triumphant” to read “the non-Disabled Humans are Triumphant” and amend “the Androids are Triumphant” to read “the non-Disabled Androids are Triumphant”.

Intra-factional competition, agreeing with Phasers.

Maintenance requests

I’m going to try to carve out some time this weekend to work on the problems noted in the previous thread. Are there any other requests while I’m at it?

I’ll update the following list with all the stuff I plan to do, comments on it, etc.:

  • Sidebar timestamp discrepancies: Some people have incorrect timestamps on proposals, sometimes. Clearly it’s a timezone issue (shudder) of some kind. Does it make a difference to anyone whether you’re logged in or logged out at the time?
  • Old wiki issues: Kevan suggested putting an HTTP auth password on it, but his example is just as well served by a robots.txt file, which I’ve now added. Are there any other reasons to protect it from viewing? (Also, note to self: did I make it as read-only as it can easily be made?)
  • Responsive theme: It will probably be pretty freaking easy to make the site mobile-friendly, at least as far as viewing regular pages goes. (The admin side is almost certainly not, though, so don’t anyone get your hopes up too high about that.)

Ruleset history archive?

I was looking through the old dynastic histories recently, and noticed that some were missing their Final Ruleset (which is normally theoretically possible to recover via reading proposals, but would be a pain). The wiki’s history only goes back to the server move. Does anyone (Kevan? 75th Trombone?) happen to have a copy of the ruleset history handy, so that at least that part of the dynastic histories can be filled out?

Proposal: Werewolf orthodoxy

Timed out and passed, 4-3. Josh

Adminned at 07 Feb 2015 18:12:29 UTC

Flush the Marks.

In the rule entitled Command Roles, change the text “The valid Command Roles are Pilot, Doctor, Mediator, and Stim Dealer” so that it reads “The valid Command Roles are Pilot, Doctor, Mediator, Diplomat and Stim Dealer”.

Add the following as the second-to-last paragraph of the same rule:

If the Diplomat’s Condition is due to Worsen then their condition instead does not Worsen.

Add the following to the list of subroutines in the rule entitled “Subroutines”:

ASUM - Threshold: 8 OI. The subject of this subroutine is immediately given the Command Role of Diplomat. Any other Crewmembers with a Command Role of Diplomat loose their Command Role.

Note that this does not affect any mechanic that would set a specific condition, like a Trial or the effect of a phaser.

Story Post: Alert: Scanning Malfunction

Adminned at 06 Feb 2015 21:58:08 UTC

Primary power for the forward sensor array is failing, and presently running on emergency power. One Crewmember is required to reboot the system.

Scan Complete

A Crewmember has been scanned.

Proposal: Phasers to Stun

Reached quorum 7 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 06 Feb 2015 23:05:06 UTC

Enact a new subrule to “Androids”, called “Phasers”:-

Each Android has a silenced, one-shot Phaser concealed in their casing.

An Android may send a Private Message to the Ship’s Computer informing it of their intention to stun a named Crewmember, if they have sent no Private Messages of this nature so far this dynasty. Upon receiving such a Message, the Computer shall give the named Crewmember the “Disabled” Condition.

A straight Werewolf elimination mechanic to sharpen the game up, but with the twist that each Android can only fire once - and may prefer to hold their shot back to use against other Androids in the endgame.

Proposal: As Far as I Could Throw It

Self-killed and failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 06 Feb 2015 22:59:04 UTC

Repeal the rule “Trust”.

Remove every sentence from the dynastic rules which uses the word “Trust” or “Examine”.

Enact a new rule, “Triumph”:-

If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Androids are Disabled, then the Humans are Triumphant. If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Humans are Disabled, then the Androids are Triumphant. If both groups would be Triumphant at the same time, then neither is Triumphant.

It’s niggling me that our Trust metaphor doesn’t make enough sense - whose Trust is it? If it’s how much the whole crew trust a player (or how much the player trusts the rest of the crew), then there’s cognitive dissonance when it doesn’t match the players’ actual attitudes - we’ve had two Trials and some heated disagreements, but aside from a minor doctor examination everybody is at the default 5 Trust mark. If it’s the trust of the Computer or the crew’s distant employers, then why does the least trusted Human win?

Broken metaphors feel like they can be a quietly corrosive influence in Nomic, because if players don’t have a good grasp of what a mechanic really means, it gets stretched in different and potentially contradictory directions, and can lead to unsatisfying not-really-scams where someone receives an unintuitive reward or penalty which doesn’t match the story that players expect to see played out.

I’m struggling to think of a neat concept that captures the vague sense of the mechanic (it’s maybe something about the player’s personal job satisfaction?) yet still works with “lowest Human value wins”. Renaming it and switching to “highest Human value wins” just makes it a reward for Humans doing the stuff they’re supposed to do anyway, so I’m boldly suggesting a repeal, keeping just an unwired placeholder team-win mechanic for now.

Subroutine Report: L0GS

Magnetic tape judders back and forth behind plexiglass, and the Computer relays a log of recent Subroutine signage to somebody’s earpiece.

Thursday, February 05, 2015

Proposal: That Just Makes Me Angry

Reached quorum 7 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 06 Feb 2015 09:46:41 UTC

Add a paragraph to the end of the rule “Trials” that says:

When a Crewmember is accused in a Trial they may add the emotion Angry to themselves and lose all other emotions of the same nature.

If there’s one thing that ticks me off. . .

Proposal: Still Disabled, Now Unhappy

Reached quorum 11 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 06 Feb 2015 09:45:38 UTC

Add the following text to the rule “Emotions” immediately before the last paragraph:

Changing one’s own Emotions using this rule is Cerebral.

Unidle Request

Well, it’s a been a long time since my last (brief) time here, and this dynasty looks cool, could an admin unidle me?

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Proposal: Defining Failiure

Times out 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 06 Feb 2015 09:44:28 UTC

If the Proposal “Did we Fail?” passes: In the rule “Trust”, add to the bullet-pointed list immediately following “When a Mission is processed, the following steps are taken in order”:

• All members of the Responder Team are Wearied.

If the Proposal “Did we Fail?” fails: In the rule “Trust”, reword the bullet point that reads “If the Mission is Attended, and if an Android is among its Responder Team and has prepared to Sabotage the Mission, the Severity of its System is incremented twice.” to read

If the Mission is Attended, and if an Android is among its Responder Team and has prepared to Sabotage the Mission, then the Mission fails, and the Severity of its System is incremented twice.

Then reword the bullet point that reads “If the Mission is Unattended, the Severity of its System is incremented once” to read

If the Mission is Unattended, then the Mission fails, and the Severity of its System is incremented once. If this would cause any Crewmember to lose 3 Trust, it instead causes them to lose 1 Trust.

 

Idle me

This is a blatant scam in order to prevent myself being Disabled via Trial, because it would make it quite hard to participate in the dynasty (there’s basically nothing I can actually do, besides vote and propose, which isn’t so interesting).

Could an admin please idle me? (It’s not like it’s particularly distinguishable from my normal play anyway.) I’ll likely be unidling later.

Proposal: Empty pings shouldn’t count

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 05 Feb 2015 20:25:08 UTC

In the rule “Subroutines”, change the text

If fewer than five Crewmembers have been Scanned since the 30th of January 2015, or since the last time this Subroutine was processed

to

If fewer than five Crewmembers have been Scanned since the 30th of January 2015, or since the last time this Subroutine resulted in a blog post

Proposal: It Takes One To Know One

Fewer than a quorum of players are not voting AGAINST. Failed 1-6 by Kevan.

Adminned at 05 Feb 2015 18:57:18 UTC

In the rule “Trust”, add a subrule “Trust Modifier”:

The Ship’s Computer will privately track a Trust Modifier for each Android. The Trust Modifier is an integer and can be negative. If the Trust Modifier has not been set for a specific Android, it defaults to zero. Each time an Android Sabotages a proposal, their Trust Modifier is lowered by one. Each time a Demand Proposal is enacted, the Android who submitted the Demand Proposal will have their Trust Modifier increased by one.

When determining the Android with the highest Trust, the Android with the highest total of Trust and Trust Modifier shall be considered to have the highest Trust.

And add a new subrule to “Androids” titled, “Identities”

No earlier than February 10th, 2015, the computer shall send a private message to each Android player informing them of the usernames of each Android. Starting on February 10th, 2015, whenever a Crewmember becomes an Android, whether through conversion, scanning, or any other process, the Ship’s Computer shall send a private message to the new Android informing them of the usernames of all other Androids and a private message to each existing Android informing them of the username of the new Android.

 

Proposal: Activity Monitor

Reached quorum 9 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 05 Feb 2015 13:54:52 UTC

Change the sentence in the rule “Missions” that begins “Each Mission’s System is chosen at random” to read as follows:

Each Mission’s System is chosen at random, and its Team Size is an integer equal to the number of Subroutines in the Computer’s queue when the Mission is created. If the Team Size would be zero, it is instead one, and if the Team Size would be greater than the number of non-disabled Crewmembers, it is instead equal to the number of non-Disabled Crewmembers.

I thought it would be interesting to get a little insight into the queue this way—and figure out if there are players who are submitting Subroutines but can’t be bothered to show up for Missions.

Proposal: Here comes the Lynchman to lynch off your head

Reached quorum 7 votes to 3. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 05 Feb 2015 13:52:39 UTC

In the rule entitled “Emotions”, change “A Crewmember may also have zero or more Conditions, which are tracked as if they were Emotions. Valid Conditions are Disabled and Injured.” to:

A Crewmember may also have zero or more Conditions, which are tracked as if they were Emotions. Valid Conditions are Injured and Disabled. If a Crewmember’s Condition Worsens, and they have no Condition listed in the GNDT, they gain the Condition Injured. If a Crewmember’s Condition Worsens, and they have the Condition Injured, they gain the Condition Disabled. If a Crewmember’s Condition Worsens, and they have the Condition Disabled, then no effect takes place.

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled The Airlock:

Each Crewmember can Mark up to one other Crewmember. This is tracked in the GNDT.

If a Proposal is enacted that includes the phrase “Flush the Marks”, then the procedure for Flushing Marks should be followed as detailed in the bullet points below:

  • The enacting Admin shall, at the time of resolution, send a private message to the Ship’s Computer notifying them that this procedure has been initiated. The Ship’s Computer should then follow the remaining steps of this procedure at their first opportunity.
  • The Ship’s Computer examines the subroutine queue for any M4RK subroutines.
  • The Ship’s Computer evaluates which Crewmember carries the most Marks, and Worsen their Condition. A Crewmember carries a Mark if they are the subject of a M4RK subroutine that is currently in the subroutine queue or if they are named as another Crewmember’s Mark in the GNDT. If there is a difference between a Crewmember’s Mark as listed in the GNDT and the the subject of a M4RK subroutine signed by that Crewmember, the subject of the subroutine is considered to be that Crewmmeber’s Mark. If there is a tie between the Crewmembers with the most Marks then no Crewmember’s condition is Worsened as a result of this process.
  • The Ship’s Computer removes all M4RK subroutines from the subroutine queue.
  • The Ship’s Computer makes a post announcing that the Marks have been Flushed, specifying the identity of the Crewmember whose Condition was Worsened, if there was one.
Add a new subroutine to the list of subroutines in the ruleset:
M4RK - Threshold: 9 OI. This subroutine has no effect.

Proposal: I Can Let You Do That, Dave

Passes 9-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 04 Feb 2015 23:49:45 UTC

In “The Ship’s Computer”, after “the Ship’s Computer is not considered to be a Crewmember” add:-

and cannot cast votes on Missions or Trials

And add a paragraph to that rule:-

Command Quorum is the Quorum of all Crewmembers who are not Disabled.

After “A Disabled Crewmember may not take any action under a dynastic rule,” add:-

nor cast votes on Missions or Trials

Replace “Quorum” with “Command Quorum” throughout the dynastic ruleset, excluding the rule “The Ship’s Computer”.

It looks like the Ship’s Computer can vote on Trials and Missions at the moment, because although it’s not counted as Crew for the dynastic rules, Votable Matter voting is done at the Core level. If I’m not voting on them I shouldn’t count for quorum on them, and the same should probably go for Disabled Crew.

Subroutine Report: MD1C

A thick band of turquoise light pulsates from a wall console, its ultraviolet edges gently adjusting Bucky’s serotonin levels. Bucky is no longer Tired.

Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Proposal: Did we Fail?

Cannot be enacted with 7 votes against. Josh

Adminned at 04 Feb 2015 21:31:33 UTC

In the rule “Trust,” Reword the bullet-pointed list immediately following “When a Mission is processed, the following steps are taken in order:” to read:

• All members of the Responder Team are Wearied.
• If the Mission is Attended, and if an Android is among its Responder Team and has prepared to Sabotage the Mission, then the Mission fails, and the Severity of its System is incremented twice.
• If the Mission is Attended and the previous condition was not met, then the Mission succeeds, and the Severity of its System is decremented once.
• If the Mission is Unattended, then the Mission fails, and the Severity of its System is incremented once. If this would cause any Crewmember to lose 3 Trust, it instead causes them to lose 1 Trust.

It isn’t currently defined what it means for a Mission to fail, so I figured I’d change that. I also made the “pocket veto” less attractive.

Proposal: Vengeful Justice is Reasonless Justice

Reaches quorum and passes, 7-4. Josh

Adminned at 04 Feb 2015 21:30:18 UTC

Append to the first paragraph of the Rule “Trials” the following:-

No Crewmember may post a Trial if there is a pending Trial in which they are being accused.

Prevents preemptive angry counter-Trials by biased individuals.

Proposal: Trust Modifier

Sabotaged. -RaichuKFM

Adminned at 04 Feb 2015 02:17:49 UTC

In the rule “Trust”, add a subrule “Trust Modifier”:

The Ship’s Computer will privately track a Trust Modifier for each Android. The Trust Modifier is an integer and can be negative. If the Trust Modifier has not been set for a specific Android, it defaults to zero. Each time an Android Sabotages a proposal, their Trust Modifier is lowered by one. Each time a Demand Proposal is enacted, the Android who submitted the Demand Proposal will have their Trust Modifier increased by one.

When determining the Android with the highest Trust, the Android with the highest total of Trust and Trust Modifier shall be considered to have the highest Trust.

Between 24 hours and 72 hours after the enactment of this rule the ship’s computer shall send a private message to each Android player informing them of the usernames of all other Androids and change:

Each Crewmember may either be a Human or an Android, defaulting to Human. This is tracked privately by the Ship’s Computer. If there are more than five Crewmembers and fewer than two Androids, the Computer may convert a randomly-selected Human to an Android and privately inform that Crewmember that their sense of humanity had been simulated up to this point.

The Computer maintains a private list of scanned Crewmembers. If a Crewmember has never been Scanned, the Computer may Scan them by privately rolling a ten-sided die. On a roll of 1 or 2, the Crewmember becomes an Android and is privately informed of this fact. After the Computer Scans a Crewmember, it shall make a blog post saying it has done so.

to:

Each Crewmember may either be a Human or an Android, defaulting to Human. This is tracked privately by the Ship’s Computer. If there are more than five Crewmembers and fewer than two Androids, the Computer may convert a randomly-selected Human to an Android and privately inform that Crewmember that their sense of humanity had been simulated up to this point and inform them of the usernames of all other Androids. The computer shall then send a private message to each Android player informing them of the username of the new Android.

The Computer maintains a private list of scanned Crewmembers. If a Crewmember has never been Scanned, the Computer may Scan them by privately rolling a ten-sided die. On a roll of 1 or 2, the Crewmember becomes an Android and is privately informed of this fact and informed of the usernames of all other Androids. The computer shall then send a private message to each Android player informing them of the username of the new Android. After the Computer Scans a Crewmember, it shall make a blog post saying it has done so.

 

Do you trust me?

Proposal: For Justice and Honor! and trust

Self-killed. -RaichuKFM

Adminned at 04 Feb 2015 02:17:10 UTC

In the Rule “Trials”, at the end of the last paragraph of that rule, replace “the enacting Admin must give the Crewmember accused within it the “Disabled” Condition” with the following text:-

the enacting Admin must give the Crewmember accused within it the “Disabled” Condition and increase the Trial’s author’s Trust by 5.

Proposal: Triumph

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 03 Feb 2015 16:03:07 UTC

Change the following paragraph in the Rule “Trust”

If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Androids are Disabled, the Human with the lowest Trust has achieved victory. If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Humans are Disabled, the Android with the highest Trust has achieved victory. While more than one Crewmember meets these conditions, instead, none of them have achieved victory. If the Ship’s Computer sees that any Declaration of Victory is invalid based on private information, they may vote AGAINST it and comment on it saying so; this causes the Declaration of Victory to fail.

to read

If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Androids are Disabled, the Human with the lowest Trust is Triumphant. If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Humans are Disabled, the Android with the highest Trust is Triumphant. While more than one Crewmember meets these conditions, instead, none of them are Triumphant. If any Crewmember is Triumphant, the Computer shall make a blog post announcing this and that Crewmember has achieved victory.

Proposing the Triumphant idea by Kevan.

Proposal: And Zero Side Effects

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan. RaichuKFM becomes the Stim Dealer.

Adminned at 03 Feb 2015 16:02:26 UTC

Replace the sentence “The valid Command Roles are Pilot, Doctor, and Mediator” in the rule “Command Roles” with:

The valid Command Roles are Pilot, Doctor, Mediator, and Stim Dealer.

Add the following to the rule “Drugs”:

As a Daily Action, the Stim Dealer may Boost any Crewmember other than themself who is Tired, Fatigued or Exhausted. To do so, the Stim Dealer updates the GNDT to replace that Crewmember’s Emotion of Tired, Fatigued or Exhausted with Alert. The Stim Dealer shall then roll 1DICE6; on a result of 1, that Crewmember gains the Emotion Paranoid as well, or if they were already Paranoid, gains the Emotion Angry.

When this Proposal is Enacted, the enacting Admin shall roll 1DICEX, where X is the number of Crewmembers who are Alert and do not currently have a Command Role, and use the result to select one of those Crewmembers (with 1 corresponding to the Crewmember who appears first in GNDT order, 2 to the second, and so on) and assign the Command Role of Stim Dealer to them.

More drugs.

Proposal: Can We Compromise?

Sabotaged. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 03 Feb 2015 08:42:49 UTC

In the rule “Trials”, add to the end of the paragraph beginning “A Trial is a Votable Matter…”:

Posting a Trial is a Cerebral action.

Add the following text to the rule “Sabotage”:

Sabotage is always a Strenuous action.

Between 24 hours and 72 hours after the enactment of this rule the ship’s computer shall send a private message to each Android player informing them of the usernames of all other Androids and change:

Each Crewmember may either be a Human or an Android, defaulting to Human. This is tracked privately by the Ship’s Computer. If there are more than five Crewmembers and fewer than two Androids, the Computer may convert a randomly-selected Human to an Android and privately inform that Crewmember that their sense of humanity had been simulated up to this point.

The Computer maintains a private list of scanned Crewmembers. If a Crewmember has never been Scanned, the Computer may Scan them by privately rolling a ten-sided die. On a roll of 1 or 2, the Crewmember becomes an Android and is privately informed of this fact. After the Computer Scans a Crewmember, it shall make a blog post saying it has done so.

to:

Each Crewmember may either be a Human or an Android, defaulting to Human. This is tracked privately by the Ship’s Computer. If there are more than five Crewmembers and fewer than two Androids, the Computer may convert a randomly-selected Human to an Android and privately inform that Crewmember that their sense of humanity had been simulated up to this point and inform them of the usernames of all other Androids. The computer shall then send a private message to each Android player informing them of the username of the new Android.

The Computer maintains a private list of scanned Crewmembers. If a Crewmember has never been Scanned, the Computer may Scan them by privately rolling a ten-sided die. On a roll of 1 or 2, the Crewmember becomes an Android and is privately informed of this fact and informed of the usernames of all other Androids. The computer shall then send a private message to each Android player informing them of the username of the new Android. After the Computer Scans a Crewmember, it shall make a blog post saying it has done so.

 

Take 2…

Proposal: The propulsion system is not in the jail.

Reached quorum 11 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 03 Feb 2015 08:42:22 UTC

In the rule ‘Missions’, change the text

the Computer should select a number of random Crewmembers

to

the Computer should select a number of random non-Disabled Crewmembers

Story Post: Alert: Life Support Malfunction

Adminned at 03 Feb 2015 18:15:14 UTC

Cabin temperature has dropped by 1 degree in the previous eight minutes. Four crew are required to check and repair the thermoregulation system.

Proposal: Asleep at the Wheel

Reached quorum 7 votes to 3. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 03 Feb 2015 08:40:52 UTC

In the “When a Mission is processed” list in “Missions”, add a bullet point to the top of the list:-

  • If the Mission is Attended and any of its Responder Team are Exhausted or Disabled, the Mission becomes Unattended.

Subroutine Report: MD1C

Josh is dazzled by pinpointed turquoise beams of light, and ceases to be Happy.

Story Post: Trial: Now that we’re properly paranoid

It’s impossible to give ais523 the Disabled condition as required.  Therefore, cannot be enacted.  Also, it’s more than 48 hours old, therefore it fails. -Bucky

Adminned at 04 Feb 2015 19:46:22 UTC

I accuse ais523 of being an Android.

Here’s what Brendan had to say on the subject:

]I know I said I was too busy steering this thing to be bothered with some circuit court nonsense, but as Pilot, that spot on our perfect mission record rankles. I include myself in the blame for our fumbled “Training Drill,” but it would have gone fine if not for one player: ais523, who claims to be too busy to play in this Dynasty, but who managed to bring down one mission and nearly fail another anyway. Frankly, I don’t care even if they are Human. I just want to see them tossed in the coolant tank for failing to pull their weight.

I mostly agree with Brendan, but I have additional arguments.

One common tactic Androids-analogues use in other Werewolf variants is to feign inactivity to avoid accidentally doing suspicious things.  And when I analyzed ais523’s voting record on recent* controversial** votable matters, a clear pattern emerged.  Namely, ais523 did not vote on any of them.  Not voting on some of them might be simple inactivity.  But I find it implausible that he didn’t have an opinion on any of the hot topics.  More likely, he is deliberately abstaining so that he won’t get caught voting in a suspicious manner.

*the last one I could find was “Blind man’s bot”.
**‘controversial’ meaning at least one person voted each way.

Monday, February 02, 2015

Proposal: Message in a Bot

Self-killed by Brendan. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 02 Feb 2015 18:22:00 UTC

Add a rule called “Transmissions,” as follows:

As a Daily Action, a Crewmember may send a Private Message to the Ship’s Computer with the title “Transmission: Androids.” This is called a Transmission. At any time, the Ship’s Computer may relay the body of such a message to all Android Crewmembers, with an added note identifying which Crewmember sent it. The Ship’s Computer shall then decrement the Trust of the Crewmember who created the Transmission by 1.

As a Weekly Action, if a Crewmember has not created a Transmission in the last five days, they may increment their own Trust by 1.

And if they want to talk back, well, I suppose they can Demand things. Feel free to sink this if it seems like too much busy-work, Kevan.

Proposal: Abracadabra

Passes 7-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 02 Feb 2015 18:20:56 UTC

Change the paragraph in the rule “Trust” that begins “If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled” to read as follows:

If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Androids are Disabled, the Human with the lowest Trust has achieved victory. If at least two Crewmembers are Disabled, and all Humans are Disabled, the Android with the highest Trust has achieved victory. While more than one Crewmember meets these conditions, instead, none of them have achieved victory. If the Ship’s Computer sees that any Declaration of Victory is invalid based on private information, they may vote AGAINST it and comment on it saying so; this causes the Declaration of Victory to fail.

Story Post: Trial: Prisoner No. 523

Marked as Illegal by Kevan; the Atmosphere was neither Angry nor Paranoid.

Adminned at 02 Feb 2015 08:57:27 UTC

I know I said I was too busy steering this thing to be bothered with some circuit court nonsense, but as Pilot, that spot on our perfect mission record rankles. I include myself in the blame for our fumbled “Training Drill,” but it would have gone fine if not for one player: ais523, who claims to be too busy to play in this Dynasty, but who managed to bring down one mission and nearly fail another anyway. Frankly, I don’t care even if they are Human. I just want to see them tossed in the coolant tank for failing to pull their weight.

Anyway, pro forma: I hereby accuse ais523 of being an Android.

Can We Compromise?

In the rule “Trials”, add to the end of the paragraph beginning “A Trial is a Votable Matter…”:

Posting a Trial is a Cerebral action.

Add the following text to the rule “Sabotage”:

Sabotage is always a Strenuous action.

Between 24 hours and 72 hours after the enactment of this rule the ship’s computer shall send a private message to each Android player informing them of the usernames of all other Androids and change:

Each Crewmember may either be a Human or an Android, defaulting to Human. This is tracked privately by the Ship’s Computer. If there are more than five Crewmembers and fewer than two Androids, the Computer may convert a randomly-selected Human to an Android and privately inform that Crewmember that their sense of humanity had been simulated up to this point.

The Computer maintains a private list of scanned Crewmembers. If a Crewmember has never been Scanned, the Computer may Scan them by privately rolling a ten-sided die. On a roll of 1 or 2, the Crewmember becomes an Android and is privately informed of this fact. After the Computer Scans a Crewmember, it shall make a blog post saying it has done so.

to:

Each Crewmember may either be a Human or an Android, defaulting to Human. This is tracked privately by the Ship’s Computer. If there are more than five Crewmembers and fewer than two Androids, the Computer may convert a randomly-selected Human to an Android and privately inform that Crewmember that their sense of humanity had been simulated up to this point and inform them of the usernames of all other Androids. The computer shall then send a private message to each Android player informing them of the username of the new Android.

The Computer maintains a private list of scanned Crewmembers. If a Crewmember has never been Scanned, the Computer may Scan them by privately rolling a ten-sided die. On a roll of 1 or 2, the Crewmember becomes an Android and is privately informed of this fact and informed of the usernames of all other Androids. The computer shall then send a private message to each Android player informing them of the username of the new Android. After the Computer Scans a Crewmember, it shall make a blog post saying it has done so.

 

Proposal: Did I win yet?

With only 6 Crewmembers not voting AGAINST, cannot pass. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 02 Feb 2015 18:20:12 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset.  Call it “Victory Tokens” and give it the following text:

Victory Tokens are a resource tracked privately by the Ship Computer.  New Crewmembers start with no Victory Tokens.

When the Ship Computer determines that a Crewmember has three Victory Tokens, it shall make a blog post saying so and identifying that Crewmember; when it does, that Crewmember achieves victory.

Destroy all existing Victory Tokens.

This means win conditions can involve hidden information that the winning player doesn’t know.

I expect Victory Tokens to be awarded in blocs of three, but I’m leaving it frangible just in case.

Proposal: False Flag

Passes 7-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 02 Feb 2015 18:16:10 UTC

In the rule “Demands”, replace “When the Computer receives a Demand” with:-

When the Computer receives a Demand from an Android

Any pending Demands received from Humans are discarded with no effect.

Proposal: Mob Juices [Demand]

Uh, does this count as being adminned by Kevan? Updated to vetoed by Brendan.

(No, it’s like any other veto; I vote “veto” and when the queue gets to it, the proposal fails.—Kevan)

Adminned at 02 Feb 2015 08:41:20 UTC

If Proposal: Mob Justice fails, this proposal does nothing.

Replace the subroutine ARLK with the following:

ARLK - Threshold: 10 OI. All effects of this subroutine need to be Countersigned. The Subject of this subroutine is given the Injured Condition. If its Subject is already Injured, their Condition is instead changed to Disabled. If its subject is already Disabled, this subroutine has no effect.