Nomic 2020/Rules

Useful Pages

• Players
• Rules
• Proposals
• Activity
• Game State

Rules

Rule 0. Definitions

• 0.1 This is a game. The game includes a set of players and a set of rules. The initial players are Jota, Roger, inky, Matthew and lpsmith. The players are responsible for maintaining, to the best of their ability, the current list of players in the game at the Players page and the current list of rules at the Rules page.
• 0.2 The game begins at midnight UTC at the start of May 4, 2020 (i.e., 8pm US Eastern time on Sunday, May 3, 2020).
• 0.3 The game ends when either A) any player or players have won the game, or B) there are no players left in the game.
• 0.4 Consenters are those players who voted YEA in favour of a proposal, implicitly or explicitly.
• 0.5 Dissenters are those players who voted NAY against a proposal, implicitly or explicitly.
• 0.6 Abstainers are those players who did not vote for or against a proposal, implicitly or explicitly, or who explicitly ABSTAIN.
  • 0.6.1 Explicit Abstainers are players that vote 'Abstain' on a proposal.
  • 0.6.2 Implicit Abstainers are players that did not vote on a proposal, and did not propose it.
• 0.7 A Piece is any of a Pawn, Queen, or Knight.
• 0.8 Capturing is an activity that happens on the game board. If a Piece is Captured, that Piece is removed from the game board. Additionally, the following effects happen, in this order:
  • 0.8.1 Half of the captured piece's points (if any) are awarded to the Piece that captured it, and half to the entity that controlled the capturing Piece (if any).
  • 0.8.2 The owner of the capturing piece (if any) divides the cards into two groups: one group becomes points or (if a Monkey Arcana suit) actions, and the other group remains cards. The owner awards one group to themselves, and the other group to the capturing piece itself. (I.e. they can give themselves the points and the piece the cards, or visa versa.) If there is no owner, the Cosmic Void is considered the owner for the purposes of this distribution. All non-player owners always act completely randomly. Cards owned by the Cosmic void are considered both owned by and assigned to the Cosmic Void.
  • 0.8.3 If the captured piece possessed any cards in the Monkey Arcana, and those cards had any special effects associated with them, those special effects occur in alphabetical order of the cards' names.
  • 0.8.4 If there are any gold stars in the Cosmic Void, one of those stars is re-assigned from the Cosmic Void to the player who caused the capturing piece to move.
• 0.9 Randomly: Any activity that happens 'randomly' may be carried out by any Player by using any RNG, as long as there is some record of the method they chose (such as orokos.com, or ifMUD). They must, in that history, indicate that they are choosing randomly for a particular Nomic choice that must be made. They must use the first result so generated.
  • 0.9.1 Random draw: A random draw from a deck of cards is a Random activity that must have an equal chance of picking any card still in the deck.
• 0.10 An Entity is any noun mentioned in these Nomic rules. In particular, Players, Pieces, Cards, and the Cosmic Void are all entities.
• 0.11 A Day is a twenty-four hour period. Unless otherwise specified, it will be assumed to be from midnight to midnight UTC (8pm MUD time).
• 0.12 A competitor is an entity in the game which can score points and win (or lose) the game. All players are competitors. All pieces are competitors. The Cosmic Void is a competitor.
• 0.13 An owner is an entity in the game which can own other entities. All players are owners. The Cosmic Void is an owner. All owners are owned by themselves.
• 0.14 A location is an entity in the game which can contain other entities (aka in which other entities can be located). All players are locations. The Cosmic Void is a location. The Board is a location, which contains the squares (and may not contain anything else, nor may squares be contained by anything else). The squares on the board are locations, which may only contain a single piece or nothing. Pieces are locations but may only contain cards.

Rule 1. Voting

• 1.1 Certain rules may allow players to create new proposals. They can do this by adding their proposal to the Proposals page.
  • 1.1.1 The voting period for a proposal begins as soon as it's posted. Players can vote on a proposal during the voting period by adding their vote to accept or reject it to that page. Players can change their votes at any time during the voting period by the same method. The player who originally posted a proposal is assumed to have voted to approve it unless they explicitly indicate otherwise.
  • 1.1.2 If at any point during the voting period, the player who originally posted a proposal votes to reject it, any player may resolve the proposal by editing the proposal page to indicate that it was rejected. This ends the voting period. If the player who proposed the rule votes to reject it, and the rule has neither attained majority support for adoption after 24 hours nor has there been a resolution to reject it, the rule is automatically rejected and the voting period cancelled.
  • 1.1.3 If at any point during the voting period, all players have voted on a proposal and a strict majority of them have voted to approve or reject a proposal, any player may resolve the proposal by editing the proposal page to indicate that it was approved or rejected, as appropriate. This ends the voting period.
  • 1.1.4 If after 24 hours have passed during the voting period, if a strict majority of players have voted to approve or reject a proposal, any player may resolve the proposal by editing the proposal page to indicate that it was approved or rejected, as appropriate. This ends the voting period.
  • 1.1.5 If a proposal has not been resolved after 72 hours from the time it was posted, the voting period automatically ends. No votes may be cast or changed after the end of the voting period. If the number of Consenters plus the number of Explicit Abstainers form a majority of the players, then any player may resolve the proposal by editing the proposal page to indicate that it was approved. If not, any player may resolve the proposal by editing the proposal page to indicate that it was rejected.

Rule 2. Amending the Rules

• 2.1 Any player can propose new rules, changes to rules or the removal of rules at any time by creating a proposal as described in Rule 2. Once a rule proposal has been resolved as approved, any player can apply the change to the Rules. At this point (and only at this point), it officially becomes a part of the rules of the game.
• 2.2 All proposals shall clearly indicate who they were proposed by.
• 2.3 All proposals shall clearly indicate the date and MUD time when they were proposed.
• 2.4 Any currently active player may renumber rules [and, if necessary, pending proposals] at any time for purposes of clarity, convenience, or error correction, provided the text of the rules themselves does not otherwise change.

Rule 3. Adding and Removing Players

• 3.1 Players shall act in good faith, not attempting to deceive other players regarding elements of the game (such as the state of the rules) or to subvert their ability to partake in the game, except where explicitly permitted by the rules. If a player believes that another player has not acted in good faith, they can create a proposal to that effect as described in Rule 2. If the proposal is resolved as approved, any player can edit the Players page to indicate that that person has lost the game. From this point, that person will no longer be considered a player of the game.
• 3.2 Any player can attempt to add a new player to the game by creating a proposal to that effect. If the proposal is resolved as approved, any player can edit the Players page to add that person. From this point, that person will be considered a player of the game.

Rule 4. Activity

• 4.1 Rules may refer to players taking an action, recording an activity, or the like. This is done by recording the action at the end of the Activity log.

Rule 5. Paradox

• 5.1 If at any point a rule requires a player to do two mutually exclusive things (such as requiring a player to both take an action and not take that action), that player may note this on the Activity log. By doing so, this player immediately wins the game.

Rule 6. Scoring and Win Conditions

• 6.1 If at any point before the game has ended, a majority of the players have a score of 100 or greater, and all other win conditions have been met, then any player may declare victory for all players as an action, at which point all players immediately win and the game ends. If at any point before the game has ended, any entity other than one of the players has a score of 100 or greater, that entity immediately wins the game. All the players immediately lose and the game ends.
• 6.2 Any player who has accumulated 1 or more points and violates a rule established by another player will lose 1 point. Any player who has accumulated 1 or more points and violates rule he or she established himself will lose 3 points. No loss of points may take the player's score below zero.
• 6.3 In order for one or more players to win the game, there must be at least three different Queens in play, owned by at least three different players, with at least one identified by a color, at least one identified by a letter, and at least one identified by a name.
• 6.4 If any entity which is not a player wins the game, then all players lose the game and the game is over.

Rule 7. Longevity Scoring

• 7.1 At any point a player may take an action to award themselves points. They may award themselves any number of points as long as the number is greater than zero, and the total number of points awarded to a player due to this rule may not exceed the number of 24 hour periods since the game has begun.

Rule 8. Friendly Typo Handling

• 8.1 Correctable text, for purposes of this rule, means a proposal which has not yet been accepted or rejected, or an entry in the Activity Log. If any player makes an error when writing a piece of correctable text, they may correct it by editing the page (previous text should be left in place with strikeouts, or the change should be noted in square brackets). No corrections may be made after the game has been won. If a player feels a correction excessively changes the meaning of the correctable text, they may challenge it by editing the page (noting the challenge). Once a correction in a piece of correctable text has been challenged, no further corrections may be made to that piece of text under this rule.

Rule 9. Pawns

• 9.1 The game includes a set of pawns. Each pawn is uniquely identified with either a color, a letter of the alphabet, or a name.
• 9.2 Any player can add a pawn to this set as an action in the Activity Log, identifying the new pawn with a color, letter or name. A player can do this at any time, but can only do it once for each category (color, letter, name).
• 9.3 A player may take ownership of a pawn as an action; this may be done once per player per game day. The player need not have created a pawn to take ownership of it.
• 9.4 A player may also use an action to take ownership of a pawn from another player. The player then "owns" the pawn and adds his/her name as owner to the pawn's entry in the Activity Log.
• 9.5 No pawn may be owned by more than one player at one time.
• 9.6 A pawn that is owned by a player may be promoted by its owner to a Queen.
  • 9.6.1 To promote a pawn to a Queen, a player must declare on the Activity Page his or her intent and do one of the following:
    • 9.6.1.1 Forgo proposing any new rules for three game days.
    • 9.6.1.2 Immediately subtract 5 points from his or her score. If subtracting the 5 points would reduce the player's score below 0, he or she may not promote a pawn to Queen by this method.
    • 9.6.1.3 Immediately discards three cards, each of which must be of a different suit. Cards with no suit may not be discarded for this purpose.
  • 9.6.2 When [any] of the [above] conditions is met, the pawn is immediately promoted to Queen, and the appropriate changes are made to the Activity Log page.
  • 9.6.3 A pawn may not become owned or change ownership and be promoted to Queen on the same game day.
  • 9.6.4 No other characteristics specific to that pawn are changed when it is promoted to Queen.

Rule 10. Format rule sub-lists as numbers:

• 10.1 It's easier to refer to 'rule 9.1' and the like if they're numbered as such.

Rule 11. The Deck

• 11.1 The game includes a deck of cards. Cards in the deck can have one of five suits: air, earth, fire, water, and quintessence. Cards can also have no suit. Cards without a suit are known as the Monkey Arcana. Initially, the deck includes ten cards in each suit, numbered from 1-10.
• 11.2 The Monkey Arcana cards and effects are:
  • 11.2.1 Tax Collector: The score of every piece that has a score of 10 or greater is reduced by 10. Any piece that has a score which is less than 10 has its score set to 0.
  • 11.2.1 Astronomer: If this card is possessed by a player or a piece owned by a player when this effect occurs, that player may re-assign any two gold stars of their choice. Otherwise, one random player (selected from those with at least one gold star) has one gold star re-assigned to the Cosmic Void.
  • 11.2.2 Return to Sender: All cards are returned to the deck. Any owner of a card so returned has their score increased by the face value of the card.

Rule 12. Stellar Cartography

• 12.1 The game includes twenty-five gold stars. Each gold star can be assigned to exactly one entity at a time. Initially, all gold stars are assigned to the Cosmic Void.
  • 12.1.1 At any time, a player who has a gold star assigned to them can redeem it as an action. This increases that player's score by twelve and assigns that star back to the Cosmic Void.
  • 12.1.2 At any time, a player who has three gold stars assigned to them may, as an action, assign the stars to the Cosmic Void and take a card of their choice from the Deck.

Rule 13. The Board

• 13.1 The game includes a board, consisting of a 12x12 grid of squares with two alternating colors ('dark' and 'light'), with 'dark' in the lower left corner.
• 13.2 Board squares are referred to by row (number) and column (letter), starting at the lower left square as 'A1', proceeding through the upper right square as 'L12'.
• 13.3 Any one square may only be occupied by one piece at a time.

Rule 14. Board actions

• 14.1 Every player may perform up to 3 actions involving the board per day for free. If every other players has performed at least N actions involving the board as well, the player may make N more moves for free.
• 14.2 Players may take additional board actions in a day beyond the free amount by reducing their score (if the reduction would not put their score below zero). The required amount is 1 point for the first additional action, 2 points for the second, 3 points for the third, and so on.

Rule 15. Pawn Activity

• 15.1 Pawns may be introduced to the board through a player action, and placed in any unoccupied square in row 1.
• 15.2 Pawns may be moved forward one square (i.e. increase its row position by one, and keep its column position the same) through a player action, provided that square is unoccupied.
• 15.3 Pawns may be moved forward diagonally one square to an occupied square (i.e. increase its row by one, and either increase or decrease its column by one), capturing the inhabitant of that square.
• 15.4 If after a player action, a Pawn is on row 12, that Pawn is then promoted to a Queen automatically, without player involvement (i.e. rule 9.6.1 is not invoked).

Rule 16. Knight Activity

• 16.1 A Black Knight is a Piece in the game, not controlled by any Player or any other entity. The Black Knight is owned by the Cosmic Void.
• 16.2 If after any player action that moves a piece on or adds a piece to the board, the Black Knight is on the board, it moves in an 'L' shape, two squares in one horizontal or vertical direction (through occupied or unoccupied squares), followed by one square at a 90-degree angle from the first direction. If that square is occupied, the Black Knight captures that Piece. It moves semi-randomly, according to the following rules:
  • 16.2.1 It must remain on the board.
  • 16.2.2 If it can capture a Piece, it does so. If it could capture more than one piece, it chooses one to capture at random.
  • 16.2.3 If it cannot, but it can move to a square from which it can capture one or more pieces with its next move, it does so, preferentially moving to the square from where it could capture the most pieces. If there are multiple such squares, it chooses among them randomly.
  • 16.2.4 If it cannot, its move is chosen at random.
• 16.3 Otherwise, if after any player action the Black Knight is not on the board, it is placed on the board in a random unoccupied square.

Rule 17. Dealing In

• 17.1 Any time a piece is added to the board or moves from one place on the board to another, the player who caused it to move it must randomly draw one card from the Deck. This card is no longer in the Deck; it is now in the possession of the piece in question.
• 17.2 At any time, a player who A) has a score of at least 2 and B) owns a piece which possesses a card can, as an action, spend two points (i.e., reduce their score by two) to transfer ownership of that card from the piece to them. Likewise, a player who A) has a score of at least 2 and B) possesses a card can, as an action, spend two points to transfer ownership of the card from themselves to a piece they own.
• 17.3 At any time, any player can propose a Monkey Arcana card as per Rule 1. This proposal must include a name for the card and can optionally include a special effect that's associated with the card. If it's approved, the card is added to the Deck.