Polarity [Alpha] says “Each Scientist has a Polarity, which is an integer between -50 and 50 (inclusive) and is tracked on the Scientists Alpha page of the wiki. While there is no Portal open, this value defaults to zero; while there is a Portal open, each Scientist determines their own default to this value through a DICE2 roll, with a dice value of 1 corresponding to a Polarity of -1 and a value of 2 corresponding to a Polarity of 1.” The same rule in the Prime ruleset says the same thing. This has created two interpretations as to what the described action means.

My contention is that a ‘default’ always and only applies to new or unidling players, as per the core rule Individuals (“When a Scientist is unidled, if they went Idle in the same Dynasty, their personal gamestate retains the last legally endowed values it had, if they are still valid. Otherwise (including if a value is invalid, does not exist, or the Scientist Idled in a different Dynasty), the Scientist is given the default value for new Scientists, if such a value exists”). Even if that contention is disputable, a default can never be applied to modify a field that already has a value, as specific values should have priority over defaults. Therefore, the action described her cannot be utilised by any currently active player, as they already have a value for Polarity, which is zero.

Brendan contends that the terminology “their own default” allows each Individual to use this action to establish their own baseline value, to which they may set their Polarity even if they have an existing Polarity value. The implications of this are more interesting, from a gameplay perspective, but not, in my contention, what the rule actually says.

This causes a bind, as in either case it’s clearly undesirable to undo the few game actions undertaken by those Individuals that have engaged with the dynastic rules in some way. While I do contend that my interpretation is correct, I also think that the consequences of it are bad, game-negative and boring.

So the remediation suggested by this CfJ is to preserve the status quo. In the rules Polarity [Alpha] and Polarity [Prime], change “their own default” to “their own personal baseline”. By the passage of this CfJ all actions in this dynasty that set Polarity to a value through the application of an action established by a rule named Polarity, Polarity [Alpha] or Polarity [Prime], that took place before noon on 9 March 2020 UTC, are to be considered legal.