Nomic V Initial Ruleset

Rule 101 (Immutable)

All players must always abide by all the rules then in effect, in the form in which they are then in effect. The rules in the Initial Set are in effect whenever a game begins. The Initial Set consists of Rules 101-116 (immutable) and 201-216 (mutable).

Rule 102 (Immutable)

Initially rules in the 100’s are immutable and rules in the 200’s are mutable. Rules subsequently enacted or transmuted (that is, changed from immutable to mutable or vice versa) may be immutable or mutable regardless of their numbers, and rules in the Initial Set may be transmuted regardless of their numbers.

Rule 103 (Immutable)

A rule-change is any of the following: (1) the enactment, repeal, or amendment of a mutable rule; (2) the enactment, repeal, or amendment of an amendment of a mutable rule; or (3) the transmutation of an immutable rule into a mutable rule or vice versa.

Rule 104 (Immutable)

All proposed rule-changes must be written down. If they are adopted, they shall guide play in the form in which they were voted on.

Rule 105 (Immutable)

All rule-changes put to a vote in the proper way shall be adopted if and only if they receive the required number of votes.

Rule 106 (Immutable)

No rule-change may take effect earlier than the moment of the completion of the vote that adopted it, even if its wording explicitly states otherwise. No rule-change may have retroactive application.

Rule 107 (Immutable)

Each proposed rule-change put to a vote shall be given a number for reference. The numbers shall begin with 301, and each proposed rule-change put to a vote in the proper way shall receive the next successive integer, whether or not the proposal is adopted.

When a rule-change is adopted in the proper way, the rule it enacts receives said rule-change’s number.

Rule 108 (Immutable)

Rule-changes that transmute immutable rules into mutable rules may be adopted if and only if the vote is unanimous among the eligible voters. Transmutation shall not be implied, but must be stated explicitly in a proposal to take effect.

Rule 109 (Immutable)

In a conflict between a mutable and an immutable rule, the immutable rule takes precedence and the mutable rule shall be entirely void. For the purposes of this rule a proposal to transmute an immutable rule does not “conflict” with that immutable rule.

If two or more mutable rules conflict with one another, or if two or more immutable rules conflict with one another, then the rule with the lowest ordinal number takes precedence.

If at least one of the rules in conflict explicitly says of itself that it defers to another rule (or type of rule) or takes precedence over another rule (or type of rule), then such provisions shall supersede the numerical method for determining precedence.

If two or more rules claim to take precedence over one another or to defer to one another, then the numerical method again governs.

Rule 110 (Immutable)

A player always has the option to forfeit the game rather than continue to play or incur a game penalty. No penalty worse than losing, in the judgment of the player to incur it, may be imposed.

Rule 111 (Immutable)

The adoption of rule-changes must never become completely impermissible.

Rule 112 (Immutable)

Rules can change their own text or repeal themselves. Rules cannot make any other changes to the rules unless the explicit authority for such a change is already present.

Rule 113 (Immutable)

Votes must be unambiguous. A vote that would be ambiguous is not considered to be a vote. Additional rules may be made to clarify what constitutes ambiguity.

Rule 114 (Immutable)

Server moderators regulate the server and game. Their responsibilities include the creation of text and voice channels, the designation of which messages and actions go in which channels, the editing or deleting of messages that are inappropriate for the channel that they are in, and keeping track of the state of the game.

This game adheres to the Discord Terms of Service and the Discord Community Guidelines. Moderators are empowered to remove content that violates the terms and guidelines as well as sanction violating persons, up to and including banning.

A person is a server moderator if and only if they have the “Moderator” role.

Rule 115 (Immutable)

All actions, including voting, endorsing, and rule-change proposals, must occur in the channel or channels that are designated for them. Any action that does not occur in said action’s designated channel or channels is not considered a valid action.

Rule 116 (Immutable)

Whatever is not prohibited or regulated by a rule is permitted and unregulated, with the sole exception of changing the rules, which is permitted only when a rule or set of rules explicitly or implicitly permits it.

Rule 201

The Proposal Queue is a queue that proposed rule-changes, or proposals, go on. Players may have up to one proposal in the Proposal Queue. Active players may create a proposal to go on the Proposal Queue at any time; if a player that already has a proposal on the Proposal Queue creates another one, the first proposal is removed. Players may also remove their proposals from the Proposal Queue without replacement. Proposals may not be edited.

Rule 202

Active players may endorse any number of proposals in the Proposal Queue, including their own. Proposals in the Proposal Queue are sorted first in descending order of number of active endorsing players, then in ascending order of proposal creation time.

Rule 203

One turn consists of taking a proposal off the front of the Proposal Queue, and having a vote on whether or not to adopt it. The voting period ends when the turn ends.

If the proposal queue is empty at the start of the turn, then no vote will be held. The duration of the turn will be unaffected.

The length of a turn defaults to 24 hours.

Rule 204

A rule-change is adopted if and only if it receives a simple majority of votes in favor of its passing. Every active player is an eligible voter.

Other rules may introduce additional conditions necessary for a proposed rule-change to be adopted, notwithstanding the above paragraph.

Rule 205

An adopted rule-change takes full effect at the moment of the start of the turn following the turn that it was adopted on.

Rule 206

All players start the game as active. An active player becomes inactive (*i.e.* loses their active status) if said active player has publicly declared that they are now inactive. Other rules may also grant and revoke activity status.

Rule 207

Players that are required by the rules to perform an action have a total of 48 hours to perform said action. A player that does not perform said action within the allotted 48 hours becomes inactive until either they do perform said action or said action becomes impossible to perform.

Rule 208

Each player always has exactly one vote.

Rule 209

Players may change their votes by voting again. Players may withdraw their votes with the phrase “withdraw”. Players may not edit or delete their votes (*i.e.* alter the voting record). A vote that is edited loses its vote status.

Players may grant and withdraw their endorsements freely and at any time.

Rule 210

The following phrases, and only the following phrases, are considered to be unambiguous affirmative votes:

The following phrases, and only the following phrases, are considered to be unambiguous negative votes:

Phrases for voting are case-insensitive.

Rule 211

If a section of a rule relies on a bot to be implemented to the point where its manual implementation would be infeasible, and there is no such bot, then said rule’s section is void until said bot is functional.

Rule 212

All players start with 0 points. The winner is the first player to achieve 100 (positive) points.

Rule 213

The state of affairs that constitutes winning may not be altered from achieving *n* points to any other state of affairs. The magnitude of *n* and the means of earning points may be changed, and rules that establish a winner when play cannot continue may be enacted and (while they are mutable) be amended or repealed.

Rule 214

If players disagree about the legality of a move or the interpretation or application of a rule, then an eligible player is to be the Judge and decide the question. Said player is to be selected uniformly at random. Disagreement for the purposes of this rule may be created by the insistence of any player. This process is called invoking Judgment.

A player is eligible to be selected as Judge if and only if all of the following are true:

The player is active

The player has voted on the most recent proposal put to vote, or the player has voted on the second most recent proposal put to vote, or no more than two proposals have been put to vote since the start of the game

The player has not proposed a rule-change currently being voted on

The player has not yet been Judge this turn

When Judgment is invoked for the first time in a turn, the current turn is extended by 24 hours unless the scheduled end of the turn was already more than 24 hours after Judgment’s invocation. If the turn is extended in this manner, and there are still more than 24 hours left in the turn, a majority of active players may consent to revoke the extension.

The Judge’s Judgment may be overruled only by either a unanimous vote of the other active players taken before the next turn is begun or a majority vote of server moderators before the next turn is begun. If a Judge’s Judgment is overruled, then another eligible player becomes the new Judge for the question, and so on.

Unless a Judge is overruled, one Judge settles all questions arising from the game until the next turn is begun, including questions as to his or her own legitimacy and jurisdiction as Judge.

New Judges are not bound by the decisions of old Judges. New Judges may, however, settle only those questions on which the players currently disagree and that affect the completion of the turn in which Judgment was invoked. All decisions by Judges shall be in accordance with all the rules then in effect; but when the rules are silent, inconsistent, or unclear on the point at issue, then the Judge shall consider game-custom and the spirit of the game before applying other standards.

Rule 215

If the rules are changed so that further play is impossible, or if the legality of a move cannot be determined with finality, or if by the Judge’s best reasoning, not overruled, a move appears equally legal and illegal, then the proposer of the proposal up for vote is the winner. If there is no proposal up for vote, then the proposer of the proposal at the front of the Proposal Queue at the time the game has become unplayable is the winner. If the Proposal Queue is empty, then there is no winner.

This rule takes precedence over every other rule determining the winner.

Rule 216

Persons wishing to become players may join by requesting to do so publicly. Persons may not act as multiple players at once. Persons that are found to have done this are banned from the game.