Friday, February 28, 2020

Proposal: Can-Can Angst Kit

Times out 4-2-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 02 Mar 2020 02:17:27 UTC

Delete the text of the rule “The Discrepancies [Alpha]” and give it a new subrule called “Scanning” as follows:

Scanning is a Discrepant Action and an Atomic Action that can only be taken if at least one Portal is open, with the following steps, which all occur before the check to see if a new Portal is opened:

  1. The Scientist who is Scanning (the Scanner) selects a single Portal in a Universe where they are present (the Scanned Portal) and rolls DICE13 in the Blognomic Dice Roller, naming the Scanned Portal and the Universe in question in the comment for that roll without naming any other Portals or Universes.
  2. The Scanner then changes the Star Sign of the Scanned Portal in all Universes to match the Star Sign designated by that die roll, in order from the list in the rule “Star Signs [Prime]” with 1 being the first Star Sign so listed and 13 being No Star Sign.
  3. If the Scanned Portal’s Star Sign would be set to No Star Sign, instead, its Strength is set to 0 in all Universes.
  4. The Scanner doubles the Polarity and Prominence of the Upsider.
  5. The Scanner sets the Polarity and Prominence of the Downsider to 0.
  6. All Scientists in the same Universe as the Scanned Portal, who have the same Star Sign as the Scanned Portal and who have a Polarity with an absolute value less than or equal to the Strength of the Scanned Portal, are moved to the Prime Universe.

Let’s make something happen.

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Proposal: Astringent Incensing [Prime]

Times out 4-3-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 28 Feb 2020 21:01:35 UTC

Delete the text of the rule “The Discrepancies [Prime]” and give it a new subrule called “Scanning” as follows:

Scanning is a Discrepant Action and an Atomic Action that can only be taken if at least one Portal is open, with the following steps, which all occur before the check to see if a new Portal is opened:

  1. The Scientist who is Scanning (the Scanner) selects a single Portal in a Universe where they are present (the Scanned Portal) and rolls DICE13 in the Blognomic Dice Roller, naming the Scanned Portal and the Universe in question in the comment for that roll without naming any other Portals or Universes.
  2. The Scanner then changes the Star Sign of the Scanned Portal in all Universes to match the Star Sign designated by that die roll, in order from the list in the rule “Star Signs [Prime]” with 1 being the first Star Sign so listed and 13 being No Star Sign.
  3. If the Scanned Portal’s Star Sign would be set to No Star Sign, instead, its Strength is set to 0 in all Universes.
  4. If the Scanner’s Star Sign matches the Scanned Portal’s Star Sign, then both the Upsider and the Downsider are moved to the Universe that is the Source of the Scanned Portal.

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Pickle ‘rick

After 8 days without a comment, derrick idles out. Quorum remains 6.

Monday, February 24, 2020

Proposal: Sneeches

passes 7-0, with dukes vote counting as for. DK

Adminned at 25 Feb 2020 23:40:38 UTC

Update the name of each Scientist in the Names column of the Scientists Alpha wikipage by appending -Alpha to that name (for instance, Brendan becomes Brendan-Alpha).

Update the name of each Scientist in the Names column of the Scientists Prime wikipage by appending -Prime to that name (for instance, Brendan becomes Brendan-Prime).

I don’t know if this fully requires a proposal, but I want to make sure. I’m looking here at the sentence “Each Self is located in their Universe of origin at the time of Divergence, and may be referred to by the addition of “Alpha” or “Prime” respectively after their name” in Scientists [Para] and thinking about the possibility of selves crossing through Jenkins.

Proposal: God Plays Dice

passes 6-0, with dikes vote counting as for. My roll has marked Mindflaying [Prime] and Research Material [Alpha] for repeal. DK (update slow but coming)

Adminned at 25 Feb 2020 23:31:42 UTC

Using a Blognomic Dice Roller roll of DICE6, select a single rule at random from among the following list, in this order: “Budget [Prime]”, “Research Material [Prime]”, “Star Signs [Prime]”, “Mindflaying [Prime]”, “The Discrepancies [Prime]”, and “Position and Prominence [Prime]”. Repeal that rule.

Using a Blognomic Dice Roller roll of DICE6, select a single rule at random from among the following list, in this order: “Budget [Alpha]”, “Research Material [Alpha]”, “Star Signs [Alpha]”, “Mindflaying [Alpha]”, “The Discrepancies [Alpha]”, and “Position and Prominence [Alpha]”. Repeal that rule.

If we want the universes to diverge, they have to actually diverge. There’s no point to having two rulesets if they’re just duplicates.

Friday, February 21, 2020

Proposal: We’ll Have None Of That Here [Prime]

Fails 5-2-2. Dk

Adminned at 23 Feb 2020 22:59:15 UTC

Delete the rule “Mindflaying [Prime]” from the Prime Ruleset.

:D

Enter the Intern

I would like to unidle.

This dynasty looks like it has a lot of potential, so hopefully the Ruleset will pan out a little more before the Metadynasty triggers (which, if my math is correct, will occur in 3 weeks if budgets keep being granted).

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Proposal: Order of precedence [Appendix]

passes 5-0. DK

Adminned at 23 Feb 2020 06:48:29 UTC

Amend the rule “Prioritisation” as follows:

* If two parts of the Ruleset contradict each other, precedence shall be construed in the following order:
# The Appendix has precedence over any other Rule;
# A Dynastic Rule has precedence over a Core Rule, unless that Core Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
# A Special Case Rule has equal precedence as a Dynastic Rule, unless that Special Case Rule explicitly says it can’t be overruled by a Dynastic Rule;
# If two contradicting parts have equal precedence, the part with more limited scope applies (e.g. if the rules “Individuals may Kick each other” and “Individuals may not Kick each other on Tuesdays” exist, and it is Tuesday, Individuals may not Kick each other);
# If two contradicting parts have the same scope, the negative rule applies (e.g. with “Individuals may Punch a Spaceman on Friday” and “Individuals may not Punch Spacemen on Friday”, then Individuals may not Punch Spacemen on Friday).

Not necessarily the kind of proposal we need right now, but I’m on my phone and I had this ready in my sandbox.

Cosmetic changes aside, I’m proposing to cover certain cases left out of the current rule, by widening #4 to take in any pair of provisions in the same Section of the Ruleset, or a pair consisting of a Dynastic rule and a Special Case rule. (This proposal’s #4 is the current rule’s #3, which I’m proposing to change by moving up current #5; this would allow the list to be read as an actual order. Special Case rules seem to be mentioned last only because they were a later addition to the rule.)

Proposal: [Appendix] Poacher turned gamekeeper

Self killed. Dk

Adminned at 20 Feb 2020 15:45:05 UTC

Change the text of the appendix rule Rules and Proposals from “If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a Proposal enacting, that page shall – unless otherwise specified – be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that Proposal’s submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked)” to “Any page on the BlogNomic wiki that is linked to or cited in a pending votable matter is gamestate, although it should be considered to have no properties or content for the purposes of all other existing rules.”

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Proposal: [Para]site

Unstable proposal. Josh.  Re-failed by Dk after it’s reopening

Adminned at 20 Feb 2020 15:44:19 UTC

Add to both the Alpha and Prime Ruleset the following

The Scientist named Cuddlebeam has achieved victory

The mirror crack’d from side to side

“How far is it now?”

“Two miles, Professor. Oscillation levels rising but within our parameters.”

“It seems our calculations are accurate, then… Finally, some good news. And the magnets?”

“Everything’s humming, sir. No problems so far.”

“That you know of. Observer! Any signs of anomalies?”

“Nothing unusual in the Window, sir. I think I can actually see my flat back there…”

“That’s the closest you’ll get to see it in the next month, if everything goes well. And if it doesn’t… There is no universe that can shield you from my wrath. All right, we’re going ahead. Maintain focusing speed until the quantum tunnel reaches the campus.”

As Dr Waltham turned off the microphone, his gaze took in the busy scene through the thick glass screen of the control room, and he allowed himself a smile. People used to taunt him for wasting his days on “dead-end research”, shutting himself in this lab and “ignoring the world”. In the end, it’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? Very few people understand how vast the world truly is. Indeed, worlds…

The view from the Window, almost like a video feed from a low-flying drone, was now moving over manicured lawns and towards the red-brick building of the Physics Department. The Vice-Chancellor, standing behind him, gasped as she recognised some of their colleagues chatting outside. She had only visited the lab once again, in the early stages, when they couldn’t yet control what the Quantum Window showed and it mostly pointed itself skywards. But this was the moment of truth: she had to be there. Many scientists and dignitaries would want to witness this historic discovery as well, if only they knew about it. Ultimately, only the secret Interchange Committee of politicians and technocrats was allowed to monitor activities; most of them sat in the back, taking notes and whispering to each other. The tension in the air was palpable, a mixture of excitement and dread. Would it work? Did they want it to?

“Oscillation levels rising exponentially, sir!” came a voice through the speakers. “Approaching the limit!”

“Gently…” replied the Professor from the microphone. “It’s just a few yards now.” He didn’t need to ask for a distance: the lab’s exterior wall was looming close enough on the Window that he could read the memorial plaque to “Prof. L. Jenkins”. He shuddered at the thought of following in his footsteps… But Science cannot advance without sacrifices. He pressed the button again.

“Listen, people… This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. No matter how it goes, we’ve done good work here today. I want you to know that.” And after a brief pause, “Maintain the trajectory stable for as long as you can.”

No sooner had he left this final instruction that alerts began to sound and red indications lit up the room. The image from the Window started trembling and then blacked out, showing the impossible perspective of a solid wall from the inside. Then lights, computers, machinery, people… themselves. A large frame came into view, seemingly empty… Then nothing. The lab was plunged into darkness, and an earth-shattering rumble came up from the basement, engulfing everything.

Call for Judgment: Gamestate Tracking

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 20 Feb 2020 09:00:33 UTC

The ruleset now requires that the gamestate be tracked on the Scientists [Alpha] and Scientists [Prime] pages of the wiki. Sadly, the wiki does not allow square brackets in page titles.

Throughout the ruleset, change Scientists [Alpha] and Scientists [Prime] to Scientists Alpha and Scientists Prime wherever they appear in reference to the tracking of gamestate data on wiki pages.

Also I broke the sidebar

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Call for Judgment: Last-minute redrafting

Reached quorum 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 18 Feb 2020 18:34:28 UTC

1. In the rule “Portal Procedure”, for step three of the Atomic Action—

Change the title of the “Dynastic Rules” section of the ruleset to “Dynastic Rules [Para]”. Create two new sections in the ruleset, called “Dynastic Rules [Alpha]” and “Dynastic Rules [Prime]”. Place copies of all rules, apart from those mandated to be included in the Para Ruleset by the rule called “Divergence”, in the Alpha Ruleset and the Prime Ruleset, and then remove the rules that have been so copied from the Para Ruleset. Add the [Para] tag to all rule titles in the Para Ruleset, the [Alpha] tag to all rule titles in the Alpha ruleset and the [Prime] tag to all rule titles in the Prime Ruleset.

substitute—

Change the title of the “Dynastic Rules” section of the ruleset to “Dynastic Rules [Para]”. Create two new sections in the ruleset, called “Dynastic Rules [Alpha]” and “Dynastic Rules [Prime]”. Place in the Alpha Ruleset and in the Prime Ruleset copies of all Dynastic Rules, with the exception of the rule “Portal Procedure” and those rules that the rule “Dynastic Rulesets” mandates to be included in the Para Ruleset, and then remove from the Para Ruleset the rules that have been so copied. Add the “[Para]” tag to all rule titles in the Para Ruleset, the “[Alpha]” tag to all rule titles in the Alpha Ruleset and the “[Prime]” tag to all rule titles in the Prime Ruleset.

In step four, for the second subparagraph—

Replicate all of the information currently held on the Scientists page of the wiki on the Scientists [Alpha] and Scientists [Prime] pages, clearing any other data that might be present. Remove any data relating to the Prime Universe from the Scientists [Alpha] page, and any data relating to the Alpha Universe from the Scientists [Prime] page. Ensure that both Scientists pages are embedded in the blog sidebar.

substitute—

Replicate all of the information currently held on the Scientists page of the wiki onto the Scientists [Alpha] and Scientists [Prime] pages, clearing any pre-existing data that might be present in these two pages. Remove from the Scientists [Alpha] page any data relating to the Prime Universe, and from the Scientists [Prime] page any data relating to the Alpha Universe. Ensure that both Scientists pages are embedded in the blog sidebar.

2. In the rule “Dynastic Rulesets”, in the third paragraph, for “with the exception of any rules listed to be contained in the Para Ruleset” substitute “with the exception of any rules listed in the previous paragraph as comprising the Para Ruleset”.

3. In the rule “Portals”, for “They are tracked on the Scientists wiki page” substitute “They are tracked on both Scientists pages of the wiki”.

I mean no disrespect to Josh (and the customs of BlogNomic), but this is time-sensitive and I may need to be away from my computer soon, so I cannot wait until Hiatus is over to post it. (The CfJ is still legal, so I suppose it’s just a question of propriety.)

Divergence problems I’ve spotted:

a) In renaming the rule “Divergence”, I forgot to update one reference thereto.
b) “Portal Procedure” is supposed to be repealed at the end of Divergence… But its copies in the other two rulesets probably won’t, so it must be exempted from said copying.
c) By the way, that is “copies of all rules”, which might be interpreted to include the entire Ruleset rather than just Dynastic Rules, so it needs to change as well.
d) The Portals rule is no longer in a Universe Ruleset, and Portals affect both Universes equally; it must therefore be clarified that Portals go on both Scientists wikipages.
e) The wording is ambiguous in a few other places.

The Divergence test I’ve conducted is here; I haven’t included the changes I’m proposing here, but in completing the test I did “overlook” the errors I aim to address with this CfJ.

Declaration of Victory: But a goodie

Unpopular. Josh

Adminned at 19 Feb 2020 07:53:34 UTC

As per the dynastic rules, I have achieved victory.

I don’t know whether this is a fair play violation or not.

The rule say that “If a wiki page becomes gamestate as a result of a Proposal enacting, that page shall – unless otherwise specified – be reverted to whatever state it was in at the time of that Proposal’s submission (and if the page did not exist at that time, it shall be blanked).” Proposal: Government-Mandated Protocols didn’t make its wiki page gamestate; it simply used it as a source. Is this a scam on an appendix rule, or a scam on a proposal that exploited a gap in the way that the rules are drafted?

In Neither Universe

Card idles out after a week’s inactivity. Quorum drops to 6.

Proposal: Groundhog Jenkins

Popular, 6 votes to 0. Josh

Adminned at 19 Feb 2020 11:20:39 UTC

Repeal the rule “Similarity”. Create a Portal with a name of “Jenkins0001”, a random Source, a Strength of 1 and a Star Sign of Aquarius. Perform the atomic action described by “Portal Procedure”.

Can’t tell if the Liaison thinks that the previous proposal makes the game ready to play or not, so here’s that question in the form of a proposal.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Proposal: Government-Mandated Protocols

Popular, 6-0. Josh

Adminned at 18 Feb 2020 14:27:31 UTC

Replace the contents of the Dynastic Ruleset with the text of the section “Dynastic Rules” in the page https://wiki.blognomic.com/index.php?title=Sandbox&oldid=9015#Dynastic_Rules.

The main changes here are in the “Divergence” rule, now renamed “Multiverse Mechanics” and restructured: I’ve added “Portals” and “Cataclysm” to the Para Ruleset; I’ve added the “Self” term for in-universe versions of Scientists, and introduced some other terms (like “Universe Rulesets”, Universe of origin” and “associated Universe”) that might be useful in proposals; I’ve changed wording that no longer makes much sense; I’ve clarified that each Scientist has one vote per proposal; I’ve added gamestate to things you need a tag to amend in a Universe; and I’ve added a ban on combining Universe proposals with Para or Core proposals, mostly so that the extra level of bureaucracy doesn’t get too confusing (and crossing Scientists cannot bypass voting restrictions this way).

As to the other changes:

– I renamed “Portal” to the clearer “First Connection”.
– I moved the temporary, portal-related “Similarity” high up and improved its structure.
– I removed from “Cataclysm” the restatement of extreme Polarities; since this is set elsewhere, and the Para set has precedence, it would only complicate things to keep the numbers in both places.
– I rearranged some of the other rules (though it’s still a somewhat loose set): “Portals” is close to its Para brethren, “Budget” and “Research Material” have been unified under “University Resources”, “Star Signs” is the second rule in the Universe Rulesets after that, and “Mindflaying” is now a subrule of “Polarity”.
– Some tweaks in “Polarity” (clarifying that each Scientists throws their own dice), “Discrepant Actions”, “Portal Procedure” (including another blockquote and removal of the now-redundant “flavour text” note there) and “Star Signs” (to ensure that the Scientist is interpreted as the player and not a Self, and thus the Star Sign is the same for both Selves).

I’m sure there’s enough here to raise objections on something or other from most quarters, but in the interest of convenience, these could be dealt with in supplementary proposals. (Same thing for previous proposals that look set to pass: I’ve incorporated their effects, but if one of these ends up being failed for whatever reason, this can be corrected afterwards.)

I still haven’t got to satisfactorily resolve the matter of rules dealing with both Universes; the ruleset seems to work as it is, but not necessarily as well as it should. On the other hand, if we put too many rules in the Paradynastic Ruleset, there might be so little left in the Universe Rulesets that would defeat the point of diverging Universes, so… I don’t know.

Proposal: Schroninder’s Patch

Self-killed. Josh

Adminned at 18 Feb 2020 14:26:29 UTC

If Proposal: Paging Professor Jenkins passed, do the following:

In the Alpha Ruleset, change all instances of the phrases ‘“Scientists” wikipage”, ‘Scientists page of the wiki’, ‘Scientists wiki page’, ‘Scientists wikipage’, or ‘Scientists page’, to read ‘Scientists [Alpha] page of the wiki’. In the Prime Ruleset, change all instances of the phrases ‘“Scientists” wikipage”, ‘Scientists page of the wiki’, ‘Scientists wiki page’, ‘Scientists wikipage’, or ‘Scientists page’, to read ‘Scientists [Prime] page of the wiki’.

Replicate all of the information currently held on the Scientists page of the wiki on the Scientists [Alpha] and Scientists [Prime] pages, clearing any other data that might be present. Remove any data relating to the Prime Universe from the Scientists [Alpha] page, and any data relating to the Alpha Universe from the Scientists [Prime] page. Ensure that both Scientists pages are embedded in the blog sidebar.

If Proposal: Paging Professor Jenkins failed, do the following:

Add the following step to the atomic action described in the rule entitled Portal Procedure, between the current steps 3 and 4:

In the Alpha Ruleset, change all instances of the phrases ‘“Scientists” wikipage”, ‘Scientists page of the wiki’, ‘Scientists wiki page’, ‘Scientists wikipage’, or ‘Scientists page’, to read ‘Scientists [Alpha] page of the wiki’. In the Prime Ruleset, change all instances of the phrases ‘“Scientists” wikipage”, ‘Scientists page of the wiki’, ‘Scientists wiki page’, ‘Scientists wikipage’, or ‘Scientists page’, to read ‘Scientists [Prime] page of the wiki’.

Replicate all of the information currently held on the Scientists page of the wiki on the Scientists [Alpha] and Scientists [Prime] pages, clearing any other data that might be present. Remove any data relating to the Prime Universe from the Scientists [Alpha] page, and any data relating to the Alpha Universe from the Scientists [Prime] page. Ensure that both Scientists pages are embedded in the blog sidebar.

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Proposal: Thinking With Portals

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 18 Feb 2020 09:14:50 UTC

To the start of the rule “Portals”, add:-

Portals are game entities which have a Name (a string), a Star Sign (with the same possible values as a Scientist’s Star Sign), Strength (a number) and a Source (either Alpha or Prime). They are tracked on the Scientists wiki page.

Replace “Give the Portal a name, made up” with “Create a Portal with a name made up”.

Remove “, and update the Scientists page of the wiki with the name, Source, Star Sign and Strength of the new Portal”.

If a Portal was created by the earlier proposal “Paging Professor Jenkins”, give it a name of “Jenkins0001”, a random Source, a Strength of 1 and a Star Sign of Aquarius.

Fixing the unattached Portal possibly being opened by Professor Jenkins.

Today’s horoscope for Aquarius (January 20 – February 19): “There could be marked difference between what you see with your eyes and what you read. It might help you to review a situation with an expert. It’s likely that you now have many questions to address. Someone’s daily routine could be at the heart of this. You may sense that the next few days are critical, and that you need to do all you can to conserve resources. On the bright side, a pending visit, (probably tomorrow), could give you something to look forward to.”

Proposal: Paging Professor Jenkins

Vetoed. Failed by Kevan. Back to the drawing board, Jenkins.

Adminned at 18 Feb 2020 09:12:15 UTC

Repeal the rule “Similarity”. Create a Portal. Perform the atomic action described by “Portal Procedure”.

I think it’s good enough

Friday, February 14, 2020

Proposal: Interdimensional rivalry

Fewer than a quorum not voting against. Failed 0-7 by Kevan.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2020 11:38:00 UTC

1. In rule 2.10 (“Position and Prominence”), insert at the end of the first paragraph a new sentence—

The Universe has a Universal Prominence, tracked on the Scientists page, which is the sum of the Prominence scores of all Scientists.

2. At the end of rule 2.3 (“Divergence”), insert a new paragraph—

A Scientist cannot achieve Victory unless their Universe has a higher Universal Prominence score than the other Universe.

I’m not yet proposing an explicit victory condition, and it might be rather early for that anyway… But I’d like to emphasise the “Universes opposed” competitive aspect, as well as possible benefits in collaborating within Universes.

The reference to “The Universe” is, of course, to each Ruleset’s own (after Divergence). If any rule needs to refer to two Universes, it either belongs to the Paradynastic Ruleset or it needs some kind of exception granted by such a Paradynastic Rule.

Proposal: Janitorial duty

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 16 Feb 2020 11:36:38 UTC

In the second step of the atomic action described in the rule entitled Portal Procedure, change the name of the sub-rule targetted by the action from Portals to Portal.

Add a new step, after the second step but before the last, to the atomic action described in the rule entitled Portal Procedure, as follows:

Change the title of the “Dynastic Rules” section of the ruleset to “Dynastic Rules [Para]”. Create two new sections in the ruleset, called “Dynastic Rules [Alpha]” and “Dynastic Rules [Prime]”. Place copies of all rules, apart from those mandated to be included in the Para Ruleset by the rule called “Divergence”, in the Alpha Ruleset and the Prime Ruleset, and then remove the rules that have been so copied from the Para Ruleset. Add the [Para] tag to all rule titles in the Para Ruleset, the [Alpha] tag to all rule titles in the Alpha ruleset and the [Prime] tag to all rule titles in the Prime Ruleset.

Add a new step, after the newly-made third step but before the last, to the atomic action described in the rule entitled Portal Procedure, as follows:

Add a rule to the Para ruleset, with a title of “Cleanup [Para]”, and the following text (which is currently flavour text): ‘Whenever an admin enacts an Ascension Address they must also change the name of the Dynastic Rules [Para] section of the ruleset to “Dynastic Rules”, and remove the Dynastic Rules [Alpha] and Dynastic Rules [Para] sections from the ruleset.’

If Proposal: Universal dynasties did not pass, in the rule entitled Divergence, change ” It initially contains only this rule (named “Divergence”) within it” to ” It initially contains only this rule (named “Divergence”) and the rule named ‘The Universes’ within it.”

Friday, February 14, 2020

Proposal: Universal dynasties

Timed out and passed, 8-0. Josh

Adminned at 16 Feb 2020 10:04:08 UTC

Amend rule 2.3 (“Divergence”) as follows.

1. For the paragraph—

* Three versions exist of the second Section of the Ruleset, two of which are initially identical except for their titles. The first is entitled “Dynastic Rules [Alpha]” (and may be referred to as the “Alpha Ruleset”) and the second is entitled “Dynastic Rules [Prime]” (and may be referred to as the “Prime Ruleset”). The effects of rules in the Alpha Ruleset apply only to the Alpha Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it, and the effects of rules in the Prime Ruleset apply only to the Prime Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it, unless such a rule specifically states that it has an effect on both Universes or the Scientists therein. The Third version of the dynastic rules is entitled Dynastic Rules [Para], and may be referred to as the “Para Ruleset”. It initially contains only this rule (named “Divergence”) within it.

substitute—

* What until the occurrence of Divergence was the second Section of the Ruleset, entitled “Dynastic Rules” (which may be referred to as the “Old Dynastic Ruleset”), has been replaced by three versions of itself; each of these new versions is a Dynastic Ruleset in its own right, and all rules contained within it are Dynastic Rules.
** At the time of their creation, two of these new Dynastic Rulesets are identical with each other except for their titles, and each initially contains a copy of all Dynastic Rules that the Old Dynastic Ruleset contained at the time of its replacement, with the exception of the rules “The Universes” and “Divergence”. The first of these Rulesets is entitled “Dynastic Rules [Alpha]” (and may be referred to as the “Alpha Ruleset”) and the second is entitled “Dynastic Rules [Prime]” (and may be referred to as the “Prime Ruleset”). The effects of rules in the Alpha Ruleset apply only to the Alpha Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it, and the effects of rules in the Prime Ruleset apply only to the Prime Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it, unless such a rule specifically states that it has an effect on both Universes or the Scientists therein.
** The third Dynastic Ruleset is entitled “Dynastic Rules [Para]” (and may be referred to as the “Para Ruleset”); it initially contains only the rules “The Universes” and “Divergence”.

2. For “one in the Alpha Universe and one in the Prime Universe” substitute—

one who is initially located in the Alpha Universe and one who is initially located in the Prime Universe

3. For the paragraph—

The Para ruleset has precedence over the alpha ruleset and the prime ruleset. If a proposal would amend the Para ruleset and does not include the tag [Para], that proposal is unstable. If a [victory] tag is included on a proposal with the tag [Alpha] or [Prime], that proposal is unstable.

substitute—

The Para Ruleset has precedence over the Alpha Ruleset and the Prime Ruleset; the effects of rules in the Para Ruleset apply to both Universes and to all Scientists. If a proposal would amend the Para Ruleset and does not include the tag [Para], that proposal is Unstable. If a [Victory] tag is included in a proposal with the tag [Alpha] or [Prime], that proposal is Unstable.

There’s more to be done, but this should take care of a few problems.

I still think we need a way to distinguish between Scientists the human players and Scientists the game characters (soon to be two of the latter for each of the former). Any ideas?

Proposal: Catapracticality

Timed out and failed, 1 vote to 5. Josh

Adminned at 15 Feb 2020 23:33:31 UTC

If the rule “Cataclysm” exists in the Ruleset, replace its first paragraph with the following:

Text inside of blockquotes in this rule is flavour text.

If both Universes are ever Cataclysmic, then all Scientists have failed, no Scientist may declare victory, and any Scientist can and should replace this sentence with the following block of flavour text:

No Portals exist and all Portals must be removed from the gamestate (including the Scientists wikipage). The contents of the Alpha and Prime Rulesets are considered flavour text. There is no longer an Alpha Universe version of any Prime-Oriented Scientist and there is no longer a Prime Universe version of any Alpha-Oriented Scientist. No Scientist may declare victory until neither Universe is Cataclysmic. This rule applies to both Universes.

Proposal: Crisis on Exactly Two Blognomics

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 14 Feb 2020 17:05:23 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Portals:

Whenever any Scientist takes a Discrepant Action, they must roll DICE12. On a result of 12, a Portal is opened. The Scientist whose action provoked the opening of a Portal is responsible for then carrying out the following atomic action:

* Give the Portal a name, made up of one of the names of their choice from this page http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/list-of-greek-gods-goddesses.html and a random 4-digit number;
* Randomly select a Star Sign for that Portal;
* Set the Portal’s Strength, which is the result of a DICEx roll where x is the current Crisis;
* Set the Portal’s Source as the Universe to which the Scientist who provoked its opening is Oriented, or a random Universe if they are Balanced;
* Make a story post to the blog announcing the opening of a new Portal, and update the Scientists page of the wiki with the name, Source, Star Sign and Strength of the new Portal.

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Mindflaying:

As soon as possible after Monday 10am UTC each week, any Scientist should, as a weekly communal action, Flay. Flaying is an atomic action with the following steps:

* If there are more than two open Portals, set the Polarity of all Balanced Scientists to either 1 or -1, seleted at random;
* Move the Polarity of all Prime-Oriented Scientists Primeward by a number equal to the number of open Portals with a Prime Source;
* Move the Polarity of all Alpha-Oriented Scientists Alphaward by a number equal to the number of open Portals with an Alpha Source;
* Double the Crisis.

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Cataclysm:

If both Universes are ever Cataclysmic then all Scientists have failed and no Scientist may declare Victory. Any Scientist may repeal all Dynastic rules and immediately start a new metadynasty with a blank Ascension Address.

A Universe is Cataclysmic if it has a crisis value of zero, or if all Scientists in that Universe have a Polarity that is at the most extreme value for the Orientation of that Universe (-50 for the Prime Universe, 50 for the Alpha Universe).

Remove “A universe with a crisis amount of 0 is considered “cataclysmic”” from the rule entitled Budget.

Setting up a basic framework for a semi-co-op game loop, with Scientists trying to close portals as they open to bring the Universe back to a stable situation, along with a fail state: so many portals existing that it tears the multiverse apart.

Proposal: Professor Jenkins

Self-killed. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 14 Feb 2020 00:43:51 UTC

Repeal the rule “Similarity”. Create a Portal. Perform the atomic action described by “Portal Procedure”.

Focusing our minds on whether we’re ready to do this.

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Proposal: First, Change the Universe

Popular at 7-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 14 Feb 2020 00:42:48 UTC

Reword the sentence in the rule “Divergence” that reads “The Alpha Ruleset applies only to the Alpha Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it, and the Prime Ruleset applies only to the Prime Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it” to read:

The effects of rules in the Alpha Ruleset apply only to the Alpha Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it, and the effects of rules in the Prime Ruleset apply only to the Prime Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it, unless such a rule specifically states that it has an effect on both Universes or the Scientists therein.

Per commentary on “Grand Theft Portal.” I think prrrobably the specificity-precedence rule handles this, but it can’t hurt to clarify. (Also need to think about how a daily/weekly action that’s specified in multiple universe-rulesets works; are they different actions, such that a given player can take one of each per day?)

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Proposal: Grand Theft Portal

Times out as Popular, 6-1. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 14 Feb 2020 00:39:32 UTC

Remove all paragraphs beginning “As a daily action” from the rule “Position and Prominence”, if it exists.

Add to that rule:-

Scientists may seek to interact with or capitalise on the other universe using the following actions:

* Plagiarism is a Discrepant Action which can only be taken by an Academic Scientist: it raises the Upsider’s Prominence by 1, and decreases the Downsider’s Prominence by 1 (to a minimum of zero).
* Siphoning is a Discrepant Action which can only be taken by a Corporate Scientist: it raises the Upsider’s Budget by 100, and decreases the Downsider’s Budget by 100 (to a minimum of zero).
* Grandstanding is a Discrepant Action which can only be taken by a Political Scientist: it raises the Upsider’s Prominence by 2, and decreases the Downsider’s Prominence by 2 (to a minimum of zero).
* Theft is a Discrepant Action which can only be taken by a Criminal Scientist who does not share a universe with a Law Enforcement Scientist: it raises the Upsider’s Budget by 250, decreases the Budget of any Scientist in any Universe by 250, and sets the Downsider’s Prominence to zero.

To “Discrepant Actions”, to the top of the bullet list, add:-

* If no Portal is Open, they apply its effects with themselves as both its Upsider and Downsider

And replace “If the Scientist is Balanced,” in that list with “If a Portal is Open and the Scientist is Balanced,”.

Replacing the “roll a die to increase a number” position abilities with a corresponding Discrepant Actions that start off boring (“steal money to lose respect!”) but get interesting once the other universe is open and you can pin the blame on your counterpart.

Proposal: A couple of minor fixes [Appendix]

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 13 Feb 2020 15:08:42 UTC

In the rule Polarity, change “While there is no Portal open, this value defaults to zero; while there is a Portal open, the default to this value should be determined through a DICE2 roll, with a value of 1 corresponding to a Polarity of -50 and a value of 2 corresponding to a Polarity of 50. ” to “While there is no Portal open, this value defaults to zero; while there is a Portal open, the default to this value should be determined through a DICE2 roll, with a value of 1 corresponding to a Polarity of -1 and a value of 2 corresponding to a Polarity of 1.”

If Proposal: Position and Power was enacted, in the rule Position and Prominence, change “A scientist may change their position to any legal position by decreasing their prominence by two, or by decreasing it to 0.” to “A scientist may change their position to any legal position by decreasing their prominence by two, or by setting it to 0.”

Add the following to the end of the Appendix rule Official Posts: “Any post that is or is made illegal as a result of an infraction against any of the prohibitions set out in this rule continues to be an Official Post but may no longer have any effect on the ruleset or the gamestate. If it is a Votable Mater then it is Unpopular, regardless of any other performance against criteria set out in the core rules. When it is resolved it may be marked as Illegal by the resolving admin. A post that is illegal in this manner cannot subsequently be made legal by any means.”

Proposal: Position and Power

Passes 8-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 12 Feb 2020 16:51:33 UTC

Create a rule named “Position and Prominence”:

Each scientist has a position tracked on the scientists page, which is one of academic, corporate, criminal, law enforcement, or political, defaulting to academic. Each Scientist has a prominence tracked on the scientists page, which is a number greater than or equal to 0, defaulting to 0.

A scientist may change their position to any legal position by decreasing their prominence by two, or by decreasing it to 0.

As a daily action, a scientist with a position of academic may aspire by spending 500*2^x budget, where x is their prominence, and rolling DICE2. If the result is two, their prominence increases by one.

As a daily action a scientist with a position of corporate may aspire by spending 1000*2^x budget, where x is their prominence, and rolling DICE6. If the result is three or higher, their prominence increases by one.

As a daily action, a scientist with a position of political may aspire by spending 50,000 budget to roll DICE6. If the result is four or greater, their prominence increases by one. If the result is one, their prominence decreases by one.

As a daily action, a scientist with a position of criminal and a budget of at least 50% of the crisis amount may aspire by rolling DICE4. If the result is three or higher, their prominence increases by one. If the result is one, that scientist’s budget is set to 0, and the prominence of each scientist with the law enforcement position and a prominence lower than or equal to the aspiring scientist’s prominence increases by one.

Inspired by fringe, where different characters play different roles in different universes. The randomness should assist in differentiating the two universes.

Proposal: Orfound

Passes 9-0. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 12 Feb 2020 16:46:17 UTC

Add to “Similarity”:

The Similarity amount is tracked on the Scientists wikipage.

Unorphaning this variable. Divergent Actions can’t be taken currently because of it. Kudos to Kevan for pointing it out.

Proposal: We Are Stardust

Self-killed. Failed by Brendan.

Adminned at 12 Feb 2020 16:45:29 UTC

If Proposal: The Road Not Taken has failed, this proposal does nothing.

Add a new sub-rule to the rule Star Signs, entitled Horoscopes:

Each Star Sign has an Alpha Horoscope and a Prime Horoscope. These are tracked on the Scientists page of the wiki, along with the date upon which that Horoscope was set. Scientists are affected by the Horoscope that matches their Star Sign and their Orientation (i.e. a Prime-Oriented Scientist is affected by the Prime Horoscope for their sign, and vice-versa).

Horoscopes can have three Flavours: actions, benefits and penalties. Horoscopes must exclusively have the impacts set out by their Flavour as described below.

A Horoscope with an Action Flavour provides those affected by it with an action that they may carry out, as well as the requirements and timings of that action.
A Horoscope with a Benefit flavour provides those affected by it with a concrete benefit. This benefit may be claimed by any Scientist affected by that Horoscope as a weekly action.
A Horoscope with a Penalty flavour inflicts a one-off disbenefit upon those afflicted with it. Any Scientist may inflict any appropriate Penalties on afflicted Scientists as a weekly communal action.

A list of potential horoscopes can be found below.

Boon Horoscopes:
* Efficacy (Action): As a daily action, spend 100 Budget to reduce the Crisis amount by 500.
* Wealth (Benefit): Gain 1 Turboencabulator.
* Luck (Benefit): Gain 20 Putty.
* Charisma (Action): As a weekly communal action, reduce the Buy prices for one Research Material of your choice in the Universe of your Orientation by 5%, with final values rounded up.
* Will to Power (Action): As a weekly action, slect a random other Scientist. Move your Polarity by 2 points in any direction, and theirs by 1 in the same direction.
* Charity (Action): As a weekly action, select another Scientist with the same Horoscope as you but the opposite Orientation, and increase both of your Budgets by 500.

Bane Horoscopes:
* Accident (Penalty): Lose, at random, 10 Putty, 200 Budget or 1 Turboencabulator.
* Parting of Ways (Action): As a daily action, select a random other Scientist. Set your Polarity to theirs multiplied by -1.
* Market crash (Penalty): Reduce the Sell prices for all Research Materials in the Universe of your Orientation by 5%, with final values rounded up.
* Unlucky in Love (Action): As a weekly action, select a random Scientist with a Polarity of zero, or, if there is no such Scientist, the Scientist with the value closest to zero. Move your Polarity 2 points closer to zero, and theirs 1 point in the opposite direction.
* Envy (Action): As a weekly action, you may spend 1 Turboencabulator to be affected by the Horoscope of the Universe other than your Orientation for 24 hours.

Add another subrule to the same rule, entitled Star Charts:

As a weekly atomic action, any Scientist may Consult a Star Chart. To do so, they should carry out the following steps:

* Select a Star Sign whose recorded date is at least a week in the past;
* Randomly select two Horoscopes from the list of potential Horoscopes, one from the Boon list and one from the Bane list. As a Discrepant Action, apply the Boon Horoscope to the Horoscope of the Universe of their Orientation as its Upsider, and its Bane Horoscope to the other as its Downsider.
* Amend the information held in the Scientists page on the wiki, including changing the date held against the affected Star Sign and its Horoscopes to the date of edit.

Set the Horoscope of all Star Signs in all Orientations to “None”, with a date of 1 January 1900.

Clumsy first pass. Discussion welcome.

Monday, February 10, 2020

Proposal: ParaDynastic Rules

Passes 9-0 with 1 unresolved DEF. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 12 Feb 2020 16:42:54 UTC

In the Rule Divergence Change:

Two versions exist of the second Section of the Ruleset, which are initially identical except for their titles

To:

Three versions exist of the second Section of the Ruleset, two of which are initially identical except for their titles.

Add to the end of the paragraph so modified:

The Third version of the dynastic rules is entitled Dynastic Rules [Para], and may be referred to as the “Para Ruleset”. It initially contains only this rule (named “Divergence”) within it.

Add to the end of the rule “Divergence”:

The Para ruleset has precedence over the alpha ruleset and the prime ruleset. If a proposal would amend the Para ruleset and does not include the tag [Para], that proposal is unstable. If a [victory] tag is included on a proposal with the tag [Alpha] or [Prime], that proposal is unstable.

 

Proposal: The Road Not Taken

Times out as Popular at 5-0 with 3 unresolved DEFs. Enacted by Brendan.

Adminned at 12 Feb 2020 16:32:00 UTC

Rename “Divergent Actions” to “Discrepant Actions”, and reword it to:-

If an action is a Discrepant Action and it defines an effect for both an Upsider and a Downsider, then any Scientist may perform it as follows:-

* If the Scientist is Prime-Oriented, they apply its effects with the Prime version of themselves as its Upsider and their Alpha version as its Downsider
* If the Scientist is Alpha-Oriented, they apply its effects with the Alpha version of themselves as its Upsider and their Prime version as its Downsider
* If the Scientist is Balanced, they randomly determine which version of themselves is its Upsider and which is its Downsider and then apply its effects

All Discrepant Actions are also considered to be Daily Actions.

Add a subrule to “Discrepant Actions”, called “The Discrepancies”:-

Scanning is a Discrepant Action which raises or lowers (at the choice of the action’s performer) the Upsider’s Polarity by 1, and does the opposite to the Downsider’s Polarity.

If “The Opposite Of Divergance” enacted, replace “When a Divergent Action is taken” with “When a Discrepant Action is taken”.

Reworking Divergent Actions to remove the (self-defeating?) coin flip for every case, and including an example action so we can think about the action concept more clearly and optionally start taking them.

Seems maybe a bad idea to have “Divergence” being a huge deal and “Divergent Actions” being a related but different concept (has “Divergence occured” if someone’s taken a Divergent Action?), so I’ve also changed the word to “Discrepant” here.

Proposal: Artificial Flavouring

Reached quorum 9 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Feb 2020 23:29:31 UTC

Replace “The text of the rule “Divergence” shall be interpreted, for the purpose of play, to mean nothing.” with “The text of the rule “Divergence” shall be interpreted as flavour text.”

If it exists, replace “Text inside of blockquotes in this rule has no gameplay effect. It remains text, which can be copied, pasted or otherwise referenced by this or other rules.” with “Text inside of blockquotes in this rule is flavour text.”

Sunday, February 09, 2020

Hello again!

Hello folks! It’s been a little while, but I’d like to try playing again. Therefore, i hereby unidle!

Proposal: Procedure is Everything

Timed out 4 votes to 1 with 3 unresolved DEFs. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Feb 2020 23:27:38 UTC

After the rule “The Universes” add a rule, “Portal Procedure”:

Text inside of blockquotes in this rule has no gameplay effect. It remains text, which can be copied, pasted or otherwise referenced by this or other rules.

If a Portal exists or has been created between the two Universes, an Individual should, as an Atomic Action:

  1. Replace the first paragraph of “Divergence” with:
    A Portal has been created between the Universes, and Divergence has occurred. This means that the two Universes are diverging at an accelerated pace, and conditions in them are no longer functionally identical. The following is true:
  2. Replace the text of the sub-rule “Portals” with:
    The two Universes have diverged, as a Portal has been created between them. Contact between the two Universes has been established.
  3. Repeal this rule.

Codification.

Proposal: Demi(urge)ncy

Fewer than a quorum not voting against. Failed 2 votes to 6 with 3 unresolved DEFs, by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Feb 2020 12:18:13 UTC

Create a new rule called Inventions:

Scientists can have Inventions. A Scientist can create an Invention in their ownership as a daily action by paying its cost. This is known as Inventing. Inventions are tracked on the Scientists wikipage. The following are Inventions and their effects (if any) and their cost in “[]” brackets:
- Goop [1 Putty 100 Budget]
- Fuel [2 Goop]
- Ultraencabulator [1 Turboencabulator 1 Putty]
- Molotov Cocktail [1 Fuel]: Spend this Invention to Increase Crisis by 200.
- Putty Protest [1 Molotov Cocktail 1 Putty]: Spend this to increase both the buy and sell price of Putty of your Universe by 20%, or decrease both the buy and sell price of Putty of your Universe by 20%
- Homunculus [3 Goop 1000 Budget]: Its owner can perform an Inventing 1 additional time per day.
- Reality Gyroscope [3 Ultraencabulator 2 Turboencabulator]: As a Daily Action you can spend 2 Fuel you own to set the Polarity of a Scientist to a value of your choice.

Proposal: The Opposite Of Divergance

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0 with one unresolved DEF. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Feb 2020 09:59:17 UTC

Add a new rule called Similarity:

There is a Similarity amount that begins at 100.  When similarity becomes 0 or lower, the following effects occur:
* A portal is created.
* This rule is removed.
When a Divergent Action is taken, Similarity decreases by 5.

Proposal: Overlapping Reality

Self-Killed. Failed by Derrick.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2020 21:38:55 UTC

Create a new rule called “Synchronicity”:

A Synchronized entity is both the Prime and Alpha version of itself.

After the Divergence, the Apple exists, and it is Synchronized.

idling

Avilva idles after 7 days of inactivity.
Quorum becomes 6

Sunday, February 09, 2020

Proposal: [Alpha] federal bureau of investigation

Unpopular 1 to 6. Failed by Derrick.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2020 21:38:22 UTC

Create a new rule titled “Investigation”
Scientists can have 0 or more Clues, defaulting to 0 with their absence marked as “-”, which are tracked on the [[Scientists]] wikipage in a comma delineated list. Clues are word pairs in the format “X+Y” where X and Y are both words.

As a thrice daily action a Scientist may investigate by taking the following Atomic Action:
*Spending 50 Budget.
*Choosing a specific word within the Dynastic Rules in their Universe.
*Find the word that is in the opposite Universe but otherwise within the same location as the first word.
*Gain a clue where the first word is from your Universe and the second word is from the opposite Universe.

The location of a word within a ruleset for the purpose of this rule is defined with 3 variables:
*The Rule number
*The Paragraph number
*The number of words within the Paragraph
and can be notated as (rule#, paragraph#, words in paragraph#). For example, the word “Register” in the Core Rules is at location (1.2, 1, 22)

Call for Judgment: Reality Glitch

Quorum reached, popular. Reality is stable again, for now. Josh

Adminned at 09 Feb 2020 07:48:58 UTC

To the first paragraph of all rules called “Divergence”, add:-

If Divergence has occured, the following take effect:

Remove the section of the ruleset named “Dynastic Rules [Prime]”, and rename “Dynastic Rules [Alpha]” to “Dynastic Rules”. Any illegal proposals which were posted between 08 Feb 2020 00:00:00 and 09 Feb 2020 00:30:00 shall be considered to have been legal since their creation.

The proposal Quantum Loopholes caused the “and the following take effect:” precondition to be removed from the list of Portal effects, leaving them as a list of bulleted statements. This caused the ruleset to immediately split and all dynastic proposals to become illegal. We should fix that before moving on.

Proposal: Long Live The King [Special Case]

Fewer than a quorum not voting against, failed 2 votes to 6 with (ironically) one unresolved DEF. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 10 Feb 2020 08:55:19 UTC

Rename “Imperial Deferentials” to “Imperial Styles”, and reword it from

If the Liaison has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal, that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Scientists have voted FOR the Proposal than have voted AGAINST it) or AGAINST (in all other cases).

to:-

The Liaison’s Imperial Style is one of the values in this list, with descriptions and effects as listed:

* Laissez-Faire: A Laissez-Faire Liaison leaves a dynasty to its players and will usually only cast votes on non-dynastic proposals. Laissez-Faire Liaisons are said to Defer to the Majority. Scientists’ votes of DEFERENTIAL are never considered to be valid while the Liaison is Laissez-Faire.
* Protective: A Protective Liaison leaves gamestate-modifying proposals to its players but will cast votes on dynastic proposals according to how well they serve the game and its current and future players as a whole. Protective Liaisons are said to Defer to the Majority.
* Populist: A Populist Liaison will vote as they wish and is likely to deactivate the Dynastic Distance rule to play alongside the Scientists. A Populist Liaison’s votes of DEFERENTIAL are not considered to be valid.
* Draconian: A Draconian Liaison will vote as they wish, and is likely to veto unwanted proposals. A Draconian Liaison’s votes of DEFERENTIAL are not considered to be valid.

If a Liaison has voted DEFERENTIAL on a Proposal and is said to Defer to the Majority, then that vote is instead considered to be valid and either FOR (if more Scientists have voted FOR the Proposal than have voted AGAINST it) or AGAINST (in all other cases).

The Liaison’s Imperial Style is tracked in this sentence, and is Protective. The Liaison may change their Imperial Style no more than once per dynasty, and no more than one week after the beginning of that dynasty.

Trying an idea that came out of a discussion of Imperial Deferentials with the Duke on Slack, and Josh’s Where You Lead (which becomes Laissez-Faire, here): a selection of explicit Imperial styles, rather than just a yes/no on Imp Defs. All of them give players some guidance on how the Emperor is likely to behave, and how DEFs will resolve. The list of types is only off the top of my head, but it feels like we’re probably in one of the first two right now.

Proposal: If you don’t Mind…

Self-killed. Josh
Added Fail icon, CB

Adminned at 09 Feb 2020 17:22:28 UTC

Add to the ruleset a new rule called “Ideas”:

Scientists have an amount of Jitteriness and can have Ideas, up to as many as their Jitteriness value. Jitteriness defaults to 3 and is tracked on the Scientists wikipage. Scientists default to having no Ideas. Ideas are privately tracked by the Liaison.

A Scientist can spend 500 Budget to Drink Coffee to increase their Jittierness by 1.

A Scientist can Brainstorm by paying 500 Budget and privately requesting to the Liaison an Idea. Such a request is a Brainstorm Request.

A Scientist can, if they haven’t since the latest Eureka, Execute an Idea by spending an Idea and privately requesting to the Liaison that they Execute that Idea, along privately informing them of the Targets they request for that Idea, if any. Such a request is an Execution Request.

Brainstorm Requests and Execution Requests can be Open or Closed and begin Open. This is privately tracked by the Liaison.

The Liaison can perform a Eureka by performing the following steps (in order) for each Scientist in the order of the highest Jitteriness Scientist to lowest (ties resolving randomly):
1 - For each Open Brainstorm Request of that Scientist, grant them a new instance of an Idea which is of a kind that is privately random to the Liaison.
2 - Then, Close all Brainstorm Requests of that Scientist.
3 - Then, if that Scientist has an Open Execution Request, perform the Effect of the Idea spent for that Execution Request, with the Target that was requested (if any).
4 - Then, Close all Execution Requests of that Scientist.

A Eureka can only performed twice per week at most. The Liaison is encouraged to privately inform Scientists of their Ideas upon that Scientist requesting such information.

The following are all of the kinds of Ideas, and their Effect, if any:
- Mull Again: Target up to any amount of your own Ideas. Those Targetted Ideas are replaced with new instances of Ideas which are of kinds that are privately random to the Liaison.

Proposal: Butterfly Selects

Popular. Josh

Adminned at 09 Feb 2020 16:30:59 UTC

Add a new rule entitled “Divergent Actions” as follows:

A Divergent Action is a type of Atomic Action, in which the first step is always rolling DICE2, and which has two potential direct outcomes based on the result of that roll.

If the proposal “Quantum Leap” has passed, add to “Divergent Actions” the following:

The following list is not rules text unless Divergence has occurred:

  • A Scientist who is Prime-Oriented must apply the Divergent Action outcome matching their roll for that action to the Prime version of themselves, and must apply the alternate outcome of that Divergent Action to their Alpha Version.
  • A Scientist who is Alpha-Oriented must apply the Divergent Action outcome matching their roll for that action to the Alpha version of themselves, and must apply the alternate outcome of that Divergent Action to their Prime Version.
  • A Scientist who is Balanced must apply the Divergent Action outcome matching their roll for that action to both Alpha and Prime versions of themselves.

I’m already tired by the idea of someone trying to scam this with “well the first time I EVER took this action I rolled a 1 so blah blah” but I don’t want to make this a giant tangle of words just to avoid that case. Suggestions on that point welcome.

Proposal: Walthamian commodity asymmetry theorem

Popular. Josh

Adminned at 09 Feb 2020 16:25:32 UTC

If “Quantum Leap” has not been enacted, this proposal has no effect.

Add a rule, “Research Material”:

Two commodities are crucial to a Scientist’s research: Interuniversal Putty (or simply “Putty”) and Turboencabulators. Each Scientist has a positive integer amount of each, which defaults to 0 and is tracked on the Scientists wiki page.

Each commodity has a buy price and a sell price in each of the two Universes; these prices are tracked on the Scientists wiki page.

At any time, an X-oriented Scientist (where X is Alpha or Prime) may buy a commodity (decrease their Budget by that commodity’s buy price in Universe X and increase their amount of that commodity by 1) or sell a commodity if they have 1 or more (increase their budget by that commodity’s sell price in Universe X and decrease their amount of that commodity by 1).

Set the Prime prices of Putty to 10 sell, 12 buy and Turboencabulators to 2500 sell, 2700 buy. Set the Alpha prices of Putty to 12 sell, 15 buy and Turboencabulators to 2350 sell, 2500 buy.

Proposal: The Breaking Point

Popular. Josh

Adminned at 09 Feb 2020 16:24:41 UTC

Add to the rule “Budget”:

If the crisis amount for a universe would be set to over 1 million, it is instead set to 0. A universe with a crisis amount of 0 is considered “cataclysmic”

You can’t escalate for ever. Sooner or later something nasty will happen.

Proposal: Of course we’re scientists, now pass the tarot cards

Popular. Josh

Adminned at 09 Feb 2020 16:22:43 UTC

Add a new rule tot he ruleset, entitled Star SIgns:

Each Scientist has a star sign, which is tracked on the Scientists page of the wiki. A Scientist’s star sign in the same regardless of which Universe they are in.

The possible values for a Scientist’s Star Sign are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, or Pisces, or No Star Sign, which is the default value.

Once in the Dynasty, a Scientist may set their Star Sign by rolling DICE12 against the list above, and setting their star sign on the Scientists page of the wiki. Once a Scientist’s star sign is set it cannot be changed by any means.

What star signs mean should vary from one Universe to the next.

Proposal: Quantum Leap

Ppopular. Josh

Adminned at 09 Feb 2020 16:20:41 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Polarity:

Each Scientist has a Polarity, which is an integer between -50 and 50, and is tracked on the Scientists page of the wiki. While there is no Portal open, this value defaults to zero; while there is a Portal open, the default to this value should be determined through a DICE2 roll, with a value of 1 corresponding to a Polarity of -50 and a value of 2 corresponding to a Polarity of 50.

Any Scientist with a Polarity that is negative is considered to be Prime-Oriented, while any Scientist with a Polarity that is positive is considered to be Alpha-Oriented. Any Scientist with a Polarity of zero is considered to be Balanced.

Shifting a Scientist’s Polarity in a negative direction can be referred to as shifting it Primeward, and shifting a Scientist’s Polarity in a positive direction can be referred to as shifting it Alphaward.

A quick-and-dirty starting point for making Scientists-the-player more or less succeptible to thinkgs that happen in one Universe rather than the other.

Proposal: We Are Not So Different, You And I

Popular. Josh

Adminned at 09 Feb 2020 16:18:30 UTC

Replace the penultimate bullet point of “Divergence” with:-

* A Proposal may include the tags “[Alpha]” and/or “[Prime]”; if it includes neither then it is considered to include both. If a Proposal not tagged Alpha would amend the Alpha Ruleset, or if one not tagged Prime would amend the Prime Ruleset, then that Proposal is Unstable.

Replace “If a Proposal to amend a Dynastic Ruleset is Pending and no version of the submitting Scientist is present in that Ruleset’s corresponding Universe, any Scientist with a right to vote on that Proposal may note this fact in a comment under that Proposal, and this will be considered equivalent to a vote to Self-kill that Proposal.” with:-

If a Proposal to amend a Dynastic Ruleset is Pending and no version of the submitting Scientist is present in one of the Universes named in its tags, that Proposal is Unstable.

Then add to that rule:-

If a Proposal is Unstable, it may not be enacted and any admin may fail it at any time.

Allowing proposals to apply to both dynastic rulesets, open to voting by all, so that some aspects of reality can still proceed in parallel after the portal opens. (Otherwise any post-portal fixes and mundane mechanical expansions are going to need proposing twice, once from each side.)

Also replacing the self-kill mechanic (which may not work - it’s impossible for me to vote to “self”-kill another player’s proposal, so making something equivalent to that vote has no meaning?) with a broader keyword.

Proposal: Quantum Loopholes

Reached quorum 9 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 09 Feb 2020 00:26:16 UTC

If the proposal “There’s more than one of everything” has been Enacted—

1. In the rule “Portal”, at the end of the first paragraph—

The two Universes are currently separate and considered to be functionally identical.

insert—

The text of the rule “Divergence” shall be interpreted, for the purpose of play, to mean nothing.

This whole paragraph will be removed once the Portal opens; I want this to be a stronger safeguard for “Divergence”.

2. Move the subrule “Divergence” to after the rule “The Universes” (so that it is a separate rule) and amend it as follows.

For the first paragraph substitute—

When a Portal is created between the Universes, Divergence is understood to occur. This means that the two Universes diverge at an accelerated pace, and conditions in them are no longer functionally identical.

Still getting the chessboards to work properly. [There was more in here, but Kevan got there first.]

Declaration of intent

So, just in case people try to anticipate the win condition and plan ahead of time at some point around the extremely common win condition of “having the most apples”, I intend to push for a win condition which is fractional, in the form of “lottery tickets”. Having more tickets means you have more of a chance to win at the end (your chance would be your_tickets/total_tickets). We already do mantle splits all the time so I don’t think this would be too jarring. I don’t think this changes the idea of the game much either because you’d still aim to have the most “wealth” - which would be the tickets.

My intent is that playing the game fairly straight is still viable - even if you’re in an alliance, because you’d want to maximize the sum of the group’s tickets instead of having 1 person be the pool target and the rest can dump their wealth into them and play kamikaze. Hopefully. Things can always get weirded up in nomic lol.

My intent is to just shake up gameplay, team play/cabals aren’t entirely bad, but I just aim for variety for the sake of variety.

Saturday, February 08, 2020

Proposal: director, president, special agent, investigator

Fewer than a quorum not voting against, failed 1 vote to 10 by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Feb 2020 23:50:26 UTC

Create a rule titled “FBI” with the text

Each Scientist has a subrule with their name as its title to this rule. Rules text within each subrule to this rule applies only to the Scientist whose title is the same as its name. Each subrule to this rule has the default text “As a twice daily action, you may spend 50 of the Budget to Investiage.”

Proposal: [Core] [Appendix] revision

Reached quorum 10 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Feb 2020 23:47:43 UTC

Move

Scientists may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Proposals at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they”.

to the rule Spelling in the Appendix.

Proposal: Portals Are Scary

reached quorum FOR, CB

Adminned at 08 Feb 2020 20:48:00 UTC

If “Double Double” enacts, then append

When a portal is created, the Crisis amount doubles.

to the end of the rule Budget.

Proposal: :thinking:

SK, CB

Adminned at 08 Feb 2020 12:50:17 UTC

Create a new rule called “Ideas”:

A Scientist can pay (500+Crisis/10) Budget to request Ideas from the Liaison in private. Upon this request, the Liaison can and shall then grant them 3 random Ideas in a timely fashion and inform them of these Ideas privately. Ideas are privately tracked by the Liaison.

A Scientist shall not fake the use of an Idea, and the Liaison is encouraged to raise CfJs about ambiguities or doubts about their use, should they arise, even if it involves revealing secret information, but should try to withhold as much secret information as possible.

The following are Ideas, and their effects, if any:
- Calculate: Via a blog post to this effect, a Scientist can spend two of this Idea to gain a new instance of a kind of Idea of their choice.

A system for a “hand of cards”. Feel totally free to veto Liaison if you prefer to not have this responsibility.

Proposal: Double Double

Reached Quorum FOR - Cuddlebeam

Adminned at 08 Feb 2020 12:47:05 UTC

Create a new rule called “Budget” with:

As a Weekly Communal Action, a Scientist can grant all Scientists an amount of Budget equal to the Crisis amount, then double the Crisis amount. The Crisis amount begins at 1000. Budget is a non-negative integer value. A Scientist defaults to having 0 Budget. Budget and Crisis is tracked on the “Scientists” wikipage

A different kind of trickle of resources. Also, it fits the theme of doubling.

Proposal: There’s more than one of everything

Reached quorum 9 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Feb 2020 09:53:37 UTC

Enact a rule entitled “The Universes”—

There exist two parallel Universes, respectively code-named “Alpha” and “Prime”. These Universes have a common past, having branched off the same single Universe, and started off as separate from each other but identical. The forces of chaos cause them to diverge, but very slowly at first, when they are still considered to be functionally identical.

In this rule, enact a subrule entitled “Portal”—

The two Universes are currently separate and considered to be functionally identical.

When Scientists in the two Universes find a way to establish contact between them, a Portal is created, joining the two Universes together and allowing passage from one Universe to the other.

In the same rule, create a subrule entitled “Divergence”—

When a Portal is created between the two Universes, their divergence begins to accelerate, and the following take effect:

* Two versions exist of the second Section of the Ruleset, which are initially identical except for their titles; the first is entitled “Dynastic Rules [Alpha]” (and may be referred to as the “Alpha Ruleset”) and the second is entitled “Dynastic Rules [Prime]” (and may be referred to as the “Prime Ruleset”). The Alpha Ruleset applies only to the Alpha Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it, and the Prime Ruleset applies only to the Prime Universe and to those Scientists who are located in it.
* Each Scientist now controls two versions of themselves: one in the Alpha Universe and one in the Prime Universe. They may refer to each by using “Alpha” or “Prime” after their name; the undifferentiated name refers to the Scientist controlling them. This duplication has effect only for Dynastic Rules and for the Special Case rule “The Traitor”.
* Each Dynastic Proposal must include the tag “[Alpha]” or the tag “[Prime]” in its title and may amend only the Alpha Ruleset or only the Prime Ruleset respectively. A Dynastic Proposal is illegal if it is made without any of the aforementioned tags, or with both tags.
* The only Scientists allowed to submit or vote on a Dynastic Proposal for the Ruleset of a Universe are those who control a version of themselves located in that Universe. If a Proposal to amend a Dynastic Ruleset is Pending and no version of the submitting Scientist is present in that Ruleset’s corresponding Universe, any Scientist with a right to vote on that Proposal may note this fact in a comment under that Proposal, and this will be considered equivalent to a vote to Self-kill that Proposal.

This proposal has ended up more complex than initially expected, and it’s probably riddled with holes. I don’t want to delay it further, however, and I have a headache, so I think it ought to serve well as a statement of intent. I’ll aim to propose improvements tomorrow. For the time being, the Universes are separate; the game will not begin in earnest until they are connected, until which time we can flesh out and improve the rules.

Proposal: [Core] out of hibernation [Appendix]

self killed—card

Adminned at 08 Feb 2020 01:15:56 UTC

Move “Scientists may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Proposals at any time, including replacing Spivak and gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they”. ” to the rule Names in the appendix.

As discussed on slack this seems more like a hangover from previous rulesets
Sorry to start this dynasty of with a core proposal but I wanted to make this before I forgot

Ascension Address: Peering into the familiar

“Slow down, slow down”, protested the Vice-Chancellor, raising her hand to stem the torrent of information coming from the man standing across her desk. “What do you mean, ‘not our world’? I thought we had confirmed that the Quantum Window shows an accurate picture of reality. It’s all happening, in real time, exactly as we observe it. Unless…” Her voice trailed off, seeing the scientist nod vigorously.

“They’re identical, or at least they used to; we’re now beginning to observe differences in the weather. The two sides must have branched off recently, probably at the very moment we opened the Window.”

“You said that was two weeks ago! Can it diverge so fast?”

“It’s a chaotic system, madam. Predictions are impossible, foolish even, in the long term. All we can do is focus on the immediate future.”

“Really! We know nothing about—” She stopped abruptly, casting a glance at the office’s closed door before continuing in calmer tones. “…This. This whole thing. You’re just throwing darts on a board, the lot of you.”

“We’re testing a few ideas…” offered the physicist, finally sitting in a chair. “We may be capable of establishing contact with the other side, perhaps even creating a passage between the two universes.”

“Proceed with extreme care, Dr Waltham… Any misstep could prove catastrophic. Keep a close watch on your team, and I suggest you immediately start drafting a protocol for contact with the other side, in case you are right.”

“I’ll instruct my team”, he replied, and smiled faintly. “I suppose that’s what our counterparts on the other side are saying right now…”

“I’ve already agreed with the Secretary that a committee of government officials will be formed to oversee our activities, and you are to be the liaison. You will report to them. We may have taken over the Institute’s funding now that it’s closed down, but it comes with strings attached. And for God’s sake, don’t breathe a word of this to anyone outside your team!”

Repeal all Dynastic Rules. Replace “Individual” with “Scientist” and “Director” with “Liaison”. Set the Special Case rules “Tags” and “Atomic Actions” to inactive.

“Fringe” and “Counterpart” are among my favourite TV series, so I thought we could try something different for this dynasty: a universe that splits in two, with rulesets and players who are cloned, begin to diverge and even cross over to the other side! I have some ideas for basic mechanics, but I rely on your insights to fill in the gaps. Make me proud!

Thursday, February 06, 2020

Mantle pass

Invoking the following:

That Individual may pass the role of Director to another Individual by making a post to that effect, provided they haven’t yet made an Ascension Address for the new Dynasty.

The Duke of Waltham is the new Director (Emperor).

Declaration of Victory: The Winner

10 - 0 Cuddlebeam

Adminned at 06 Feb 2020 00:02:38 UTC

Per “Attainment”, I have achieved victory.

I went to a shadowy government facility but all I got was this stupid shirt. [The End]

Per “Attainment”, this Dynasty has reached a conclusion, without any Focus-based interference.

I’ve performed some calculations. To my knowledge, Cuddlebeam has attained victory.

Good game.

Tuesday, February 04, 2020

Proposal: [Core] tennant number 2

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 07 Feb 2020 20:37:37 UTC

Reword “Individuals” to

Any human may apply to join BlogNomic (if they are not already an Individual) by registering at http://blognomic.com via the Register link in the sidebar, and then making a post making clear their wish to be an ‘’‘Individual’‘’ (plural form ‘’‘Individuals’‘’). An Admin shall make them an Individual by adding them to the roster in the sidebar.

Some Individuals are ‘’‘Admins’‘’, responsible for updating the site and the Ruleset, and are signified as such in the sidebar. Individuals who wish to become Admins may submit a Proposal to make themself an Admin. Existing Admins may be removed from their posts by Proposal, CfJ, or voluntary resignation.

===Idle Individuals===

If an Individual is not listed in the Sidebar in the section “Current Active Players” or only appears there in a comment, they are ‘’‘Idle’‘’. For the purposes of all Gamestate and the Ruleset, excluding Rules “Ruleset and Gamestate”, “Individuals”, “Dynasties”, “Fair Play”, Idle Individuals are not considered Individuals.

If a Proposal or Rule contains a provision that targets either a specifically named Idle Individual or explicitly mentions Idle Individuals, then Idle Individuals are considered to be Unidle
for the purposes of that provision.

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

An Admin may render an Individual Idle if any of the following is true:
*That Individual has asked on the blog to become Idle in the past four days.
*That Individual has not posted an entry or comment in the last seven days.
*They are that Individual.

An Admin may Unidle an Individual if #1 is true and either #2 or #3 are true:
#That Individual has not asked to become Idle or Idled themselves within the past four days within the current Dynasty.
#That Individual has asked to become Unidle in an entry or comment in the past four days.
#They are that Individual.

When Idling or Unidling themselves, Admins should announce it in a post or comment. When Idling an Individual who has not requested it, the Admin must announce it in a blog post.

Admins who are unidling themselves should, in their first vote following each unidling, highlight their changed idle status and any changes to Quorum to have come about as a result of it.

Idle Admins can enact and fail Votable Matters.

Main change is reorganizing the requirements for idling or unidling into two lists.
link with comparison here https://wiki.blognomic.com/index.php?title=Sandbox&diff=8825&oldid=8824

Proposal: [Core] [Special Case] [Appendix] Nuclear fission

Reached quorum, 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 07 Feb 2020 20:37:07 UTC

1. In rule 1.4 (“Votable Matters”), enact a new subrule entitled “Tags”—

Votable Matters have zero or more tags. Tags are represented in the title of a Votable Matter with the format “[X]” (e.g. “[Core] Wording Fix”, where “[Core]” is the tag). Votable Matters require the “[Core]” tag in order to make changes to the Core Rules, the “[Special Case]” tag in order to make changes to the Special Case Rules and the “[Appendix]” tag in order to make changes to the Appendix Rules. Votable Matters other than [[#Victory and Ascension|DoVs]] require the “[Victory]” tag in order to grant victory to an Individual.

2. Before rule 4.3 (“Clarifications”) enact a new rule entitled “Atomic Actions”—

An Atomic Action combines otherwise separate game actions into a single action.

* All steps of an Atomic Action are considered one action, including the steps of an Atomic Action that is itself a step of a parent Atomic Action.
* When an Individual performs an Atomic Action, they must complete all its steps; they must complete them in order; and they may not take any other dynastic action, or achieve victory, until all the steps are complete.
* An Atomic Action may direct the Individual performing it to skip some of its steps, which the Individual must do and in which case the skipped steps are considered completed for this rule.
* If an Individual arrives at a step in an Atomic Action and they cannot perform that step, they undo all the steps they have performed of that Action and are considered never to have performed that Action.
* If one or more steps of an Atomic Action were done incorrectly, the Individual must redo the Atomic Action; for that purpose, the Individual uses any legal steps that have already been completed in the illegal Atomic Action and only redoes the illegal ones. (For example, if an Atomic Action consists of rolling a dice and then doing steps based upon its result, the Individual would have to reroll the dice only if they rolled the wrong one in the first place, and would then have to repeat any steps that depended upon the result of that dice; however, if they rolled the dice correctly but took an illegal step later on, the result of the original dice roll would still be used in the redone step.)
* For the purposes of determining the ordering or legality of game actions, the time of an Atomic Action shall be the time that it is completed. For Atomic Actions that are redone, the time of completion is the last redone step.

3. Repeal rules 3.1 (“Tags”) and 3.2 (“Atomic Actions”).

Changes analysed (and announced in advance) in the comments here, with the exception of a minor textual change and the addition of a link to “Tags” (which is otherwise the old Special Case rule moved to Core).

Proposal: [Appendix] Under the Wing

Timed out 6 votes to 5. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 07 Feb 2020 20:36:37 UTC

Add a new rule to the Appendix section of the ruleset, entitled Mentors:

Whenever a new Individual joins the game, the Director should select an active Individual who has indicated their willingness to act as a mentor and ask them to take that new Individual on as a mentee. The Director should wherever possible take care to consider game balance when selecting a potential mentor. The approached prospective mentor may decline to act as a mentor, in which case the Director should continue to approach other prospective mentors until one agrees or there are no available candidates who have not declined. If there are no available candidates then the Director may act as the new Individual’s mentor themselves, or the new Individual must go without a mentor.

A relationship between a mentor and a mentee is a Mentorship. Whenever a new Mentorship is established, the Director should announce it in a blog post.

===Things that a mentor must do===
A mentor must do the following:

  • Make pro-active contact with their mentee when appointed, and explain the dynamics of the Mentorship system;
  • Be available to answer any questions that their mentee may have about the game, including explaining the rules, common standards and etiquette of play, proofreading posts and clarifying game events;
  • Introduce their mentee to the various platforms of the game, including the wiki, Slack, and end-of-dynasty notifications through the Facebook group or Twitter;
  • If possible, give their mentee a nudge if it appears that they are at risk of becoming Idle;
  • If they themselves go idle, communicate with their mentee to either continue to support them as an idle Individual or arrange a handover to another mentor if requested.

===Things that a mentor should do===
The following sets out suggested best practice for Mentorship relationships:

  • The Mentorship should last for at least four weeks or until the next Ascension Address, whichever occurs latest. It can continue for longer but after this threshold the mentor is no longer bound by any of the conditions set out in the parent rule to this rule, or any of its subrules.
  • The mentor can and should advise the mentee on how to proceed in the mentee’s own best interests. This can include making connections with other Individuals.
  • The mentor should consider copying the mentee in on private, game-related communications, where it does not unfairly prejudice their own interests. The mentee should keep this information private without explicit consent from the mentor.
  • The mentor and mentee may work together to achieve victory. If a mentor achieves victory with support of their mentee then they should, if the mentee wishes it, pass the baton to the mentee.

===Things that a mentor should not do===
The following sets out a list of things that a mentor should not do in their relationship with their mentee. All of these are considered to be Fair Play rules, as per the rule Fair Play.

  • The mentor should not sock-puppet, bully, coerce or otherwise manipulate the mentee into performing any game actions.
  • The mentor should not seek to dissuade the mentee from pursuing other alliances.
  • A former mentor should not seek to use the fact of a prior Mentorship to influence the former mentee on an ongoing basis.

Wordy, but looking to prevent abuse.

Could a profile tag be used for mentor availability?

Proposal: [Special Case] Axed

Reached quorum 10 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 05 Feb 2020 09:29:05 UTC

Repeal the Special Case “The Tree”.

It’s an interesting piece of data to look at, but it should never be used as a game mechanic, and has no business being gamestate. The page can stay, the rule needs to take a hike.

Monday, February 03, 2020

Proposal: [Core] The only way out is in a casket

Reached quorum 8 votes to 1. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 04 Feb 2020 09:58:48 UTC

Remove from the Ruleset:

An Individual may cease to be an Individual at any time by posting an entry to the BlogNomic weblog requesting such an action. A human who has ceased to be an Individual in this way may not become an Individual again within the following two weeks.

I’ve never seen this used, and can of course be done via Proposal or CfJ. Thanks to Duke of Waltham for the title.

Proposal: Singularity

Reached quorum 9 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 04 Feb 2020 09:57:56 UTC

In “Attainment”, replace “The first Individual to be the sole Individual who has the most Attainment past the 5th of February 2020 at 12:00 UTC has achieved victory.” with:-

The Endpoint is the 5th of February 2020 at 12:00 UTC. If the time is after the Endpoint, and if no Individual has Focused in the previous half hour, and if one Individual (the “Attainer”) has more Attainment than each other Individual, then the Attainer has achieved victory.

Attempting to avoid a potential mass of conflicting game actions at 11:59:59 on Wednesday.

Proposal: [Core] In principio

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 04 Feb 2020 09:51:19 UTC

In rule 1.1 (“Ruleset and Gamestate”), for the first paragraph—

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Individuals shall obey it. Section One consists of the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering basic proposal mechanics; Section Two contains the rules of the current Dynasty; Section Three contains rules which apply in special cases; and Section Four contains the appendix, which complements and clarifies the Ruleset.

substitute—

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Individuals shall obey it.

It comprises four Sections: 1) the “core rules” of BlogNomic, covering the essential elements of gameplay; 2) the rules of the current Dynasty; 3) rules which apply in special cases; and 4) the appendix, which complements and clarifies the Ruleset.

Coming on the heels of this and this proposal, this one splits off the important introductory sentence, updates the description for the Core Rules, avoids the formal-looking but meaningless “Section One” etc. (in favour of numbers parallel to those in the nearby ToC) and cuts a few words in the process.

Proposal: As long as we’re doing [Core]

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 04 Feb 2020 09:50:07 UTC

Replace the first paragraph of the Ruleset with the two paragraphs:

This is the Ruleset for BlogNomic; all Individuals shall obey it.

The “Core Rules” section of the Ruleset contains the core rules of BlogNomic, which cover basic proposal mechanics; the “Dynastic Rules” section contains the rules of the current Dynasty; the “Special Case” section contains rules that apply in special cases; and the “Appendix” section complements and clarifies the Ruleset.

 

Counting off sections right away might be an obstacle for someone reading the Ruleset for the first time. This also avoids having to remember to renumber if for some reason we want to move things around. (Also: I unidle, and quorum is 7)

Proposal: [Special Case] [Appendix] Foster family

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 04 Feb 2020 09:49:35 UTC

1. Amend rule 4.2 (“Gamestate Tracking”) as follows.

a. Before the subrule “Random Generators”, create three new subrules entitled “Official Posts”, “Representations of the Gamestate” and “Orphan Variables”.

b. Move into the subrule “Official Posts” the first three paragraphs of “Gamestate Tracking” (from “Votable Matters and other official posts…” to “...for at least 3 months.”).

c. Move into the subrule “Representations of the Gamestate” the remaining two paragraphs of “Gamestate Tracking” (from “For gamestate which is tracked…” to “...raise a Call for Judgement instead.”).

d. Copy into the subrule “Orphan Variables” the text of rule 3.5 (“No Orphan Variables”).

2. Repeal rule 3.5 (“No Orphan Variables”).

Step 1 of the Special Migration. I think “Gamestate Tracking” is a good fit for orphan variables, and I take this opportunity to break up the rest of the rule in a way that feels natural; it ought to make it clearer and easier to read, and gives some prominence to the term “official posts”, which I completely missed for a good while when I first arrived. The proposed rule ought to look like this (with the minor difference of an additional paragraph break there).

This is an opportunity to discuss other improvements to the rule in question.

Monday, February 03, 2020

Proposal: [Core] small steps

Fewer than a quorum not voting against. Failed 1-6 by Kevan.

Adminned at 03 Feb 2020 17:22:11 UTC

Change Rule 1.1 to be the following text

This is the ‘’‘Ruleset’‘’ for BlogNomic; all Individuals shall obey it. The Sections and their purpose are
;Section One: Rules that are necessary for passing proposals and handling Victory.
;Section Two: Rules of the current Dynasty.
;Section Three: Rules which apply in special cases.
;Section Four: Rules which complements and clarifies the Ruleset.

The Ruleset and Gamestate can only change as specified by the Ruleset.

Individuals may correct obvious spelling and typographical mistakes in the Ruleset and their own Pending Proposals at any time, including replacing gender-specific pronouns with the singular “they” or “them” as appropriate.

If the Ruleset does not properly reflect all legal alterations, any Individual may update it.

trying to lessen the core rules wordcount. the current rule is 121 words (counted using vim) and this only has 113 words. there would have been more saved but i realized the gendered pronoun replacement wasn’t quite correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_personal_pronouns#Complete_table taking a look at this table, “he” and “she” would certainly turn into “they” but “him” and “her” should turn to “them”. correcting “i know him” to “i know they” doesn’t actually correct anything.
removed the bit about Spavick since i’ve yet to see a rule that included it
split the first paragraph into easier to digest and simpler but, still accurate, explanations for the rules

here’s how it looks https://wiki.blognomic.com/index.php?title=Sandbox&oldid=8783

Call for Judgment: [Core] Either everyone’s a winner or no one is!

popular 10-0 enacted by card (04 Feb 2020 20:52:23 UTC)

Actually takes effect. Quorum is now definitely, actually, properly 7. We did it, folks.—Tantusar

Adminned at 04 Feb 2020 23:22:23 UTC

Replace the first sentence of the subrule “Idle Individuals” with:

If an Individual is not listed in the Sidebar in the section “Current Active Players” or only appears there in a comment, they are ‘’‘Idle’‘’.

Accept all previous actions which supposedly Idled any Individual as having done so validly.

Apparently everyone has been playing forever and never stopped playing, not even for a moment. For starters, what does “specially marked” mean? In any case, this should close the loop.

Proposal: 4cus

7-2 Cuddlebeam
Re-adminned at Mon 03/02/20—16:51:47 UTC

Adminned at 03 Feb 2020 16:51:55 UTC

Add to “Artefacts”:

An Individual can only Focus up to 4 times a day.

More infinite-loop patches. While I think the spirit of being able to do a lot at a cost is preserved, it aims to prevent doing a potentially unlimited amount of things.

Sidebar, Your Honour?

The sidebar ordinarily shows the names of active players, yet according to the rule “Individuals” it ought to also show idle players, only specially marked. It also implies that being named in the sidebar is part of being a player, but it doesn’t state so outright – nor does it otherwise state explicitly that a player who has requested to leave is removed from the sidebar.

If the current state of affairs goes against the Ruleset, then gameplay may have been diverging from its legal state for years and requires a CfJ to sort out the problem (in addition to fixing the aforementioned vague points of the rule).

A case for special consideration

We have nine Special Case rules now, and the latest addition (“The Tree”) just doesn’t seem to fit there. This made me realise that a cleanup might be in order, and other rules might be moved out of this section as well, either to the Appendix or to the Core Rules.

To aid in this decision, I decided to conduct a survey of Special Case rules and how often they have been deactivated. It’s not perfect (I checked the history mostly in ten-day intervals), but I think I caught everything, or almost everything; I intended it to cover the last two years, but I extended it back to September 2017 when I realised that’s when the Special Case section itself was created. Here is what I found:

– “Dormancy” started its life as Inactive during the Katamari Dynasty; this continued into the Metadynasty that followed, and the Dynasty after that. At that point arose questions about its exact workings, and it was temporarily repealed by CfJ in December 2017 (to be reinstated a couple of weeks later). I believe it was switched off once, by Proposal, near the end of the end of the Tech Project Dynasty (last May).
– “Combos”, “Tags”, “Atomic Actions” were the first rules to populate the Special Case section, soon followed by “Seasonal Downtime” (right after “Dormancy”); these were all active and have remained so ever since. Of these, only “Combos” is no longer in the books: it was considered to be troublesome and was repealed in February 2018. (Not everyone agreed with this view at the time, but the abolition of the GNDT might have changed that now.)
– “Orphan Variables” appeared around the turn of 2018 and, in its first incarnation, actually drew this comment from Kevan: “Would we ever realistically want to switch this off, though?” Indeed, this rule has also never been switched off.

Compare these rules with the next batch…

– “Imperial Deferentials” was created in July 2018 and “Dynastic Distance” was transferred (with modifications) from the Dynastic ruleset in August 2018. They were both deactivated by Proposal a few days after the beginning of the Tron Programming Dynasty, and the same happened in the Activism Dynasty that followed (autumn 2018). “Dynastic Distance” was also deactivated by Proposal in the Moonbase Dynasty in mid-2019.
– In July 2019, “The Traitor” was created. Both it and “Dynastic Distance” were set to inactive in the Ascension Address of the Climate Change dynasty, but both were eventually reactivated by Proposal. In the Enneagram dynasty, “Imperial Deferentials”, “The Traitor” and “Dynastic Distance” were initially set to inactive, but “The Traitor” was then reactivated by Proposal.

These three are actually rules that are switched on and off occasionally, at least for the time being, and it makes sense to keep them in the Special Case section. “Dormancy” and “Seasonal Downtime” I’d also keep there; I can imagine this being useful in the future.

“Tags” and “No Orphan Variables” I’d move out. “The Tree” as well, as long as we’re supposed to be adding information to the Player Tree without paying attention to when we add it. If we’re meant to wait for some reward to be instituted before we name our Recruiters, it kind of defeats the point; it certainly doesn’t sound reasonable that anyone would start a dynasty now and consciously shut down the Tree. The only one I don’t have a firm opinion about is “Atomic Actions”; can we think of circumstances where disabling them helps us somehow?

So, discuss: do you agree with moving these rules out of Special Case? And if so, where would you put them?

Capture #4 failed

The recovery squad failed to obtain an Artefact during this Capture. They file a heavily redacted report, hand back their equipment and return to other duties.

Saturday, February 01, 2020

Request

Request to become unidled.

Proposal: [Institute] Plucky robot sidekick’s last stand

2-1, Enacted, Cuddlebeam

Adminned at 03 Feb 2020 16:50:37 UTC

Make the Attendant into an Outsider.

Plucky robot sidekick, we had fun together, but it’s time for you to forge your own path.

Proposal: The Brick is mightier than the sword

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 02 Feb 2020 09:55:25 UTC

In “The Lego Brick”, amend “Whenever an Individual transitions from not being in the same Location as this Artefact, to being in the same Location as this Artefact” to:

Whenever an Individual Travels from not being in the same Location as this Artefact, to being in the same Location as this Artefact

Remove all Damage Counters that have been granted to Individuals via the Lego Brick’s effects upon being dropped while this Proposal has been Pending.

Gin and Googles flashbacks.

Anyways, there is an infinite Damage loop here. Drop the Brick, Grit, Pick it up, repeat. Sure, you’d gain massive Soul Damage yourself but I think we’d be lying to ourselves if we didn’t consider that alliance play easily exists.

Standard removal of the scam’s effects for a scam-revealing-and-fixing proposal.

Proposal: A clean Institute is a safe Institute

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 02 Feb 2020 09:54:24 UTC

1. In rule 2.2.1 (“Public Places”), for “they must gain 1 Soul Damage” substitute—

they must gain 1 {{Soul}} [[#Damage|Damage]]

2. In rule 2.4 (“Damage”), for “An Individual can Grit to lose 1 Flesh Damage and gain 3 Soul Damage.” substitute—

An Individual can Grit to lose 1 {{Flesh}} Damage and gain 3 {{Soul}} Damage.

3. In every subrule of rule 2.3 (“Artefacts”) in which the four characteristics of the Artefact described in that subrule, other than the Artefact’s Name, are not in the order “Description”, “Location”, “Protocol”, “Effect”, rearrange them so that they are in that order. [As far as I can see, these are The Tiepin, The Picture Frame and Incandescent Injection.]

4. In rule 2.9 (“Fetal Artefacts”), for “1 Spatial damage” substitute “1 {{Spatial}} Damage”

5. In rule 2.13 (“Magnetism”), for “moving” substitute “Travelling”.

I’d fix some of these myself, but I’m not sure they count as typos.

Proposal: More stuff

Reached quorum 6 votes to 2. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 02 Feb 2020 09:52:22 UTC

Add the following Artefacts to the Ruleset:

The Soap Bar

  Description: A very slippery bar of soap that is hard to hold onto.
  Location: Unknown
  Protocol: None.
  Effect: The Location of this Artefact is set to a random Public Location whenever an Individual that is holding it or that has it in their Collection changes Location.

The Clock

  Description: A small clock
  Location: Unknown
  Protocol: None.
  Effect: An Individual that is holding this Artefact can Focus to set their Damage, Artefacts held and in their Collection and Location to the values it had at some point within 72 hours in the past, and then remove The Clock from the Ruleset.