Rule 1301/27
Church
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)
1. Church is a type of Organization.
2. Any may Player may declare eir intent to found a Church. A Church officially exists when the player has three Followers in addition to eirself, and publically announces all of the following details of the Church:
a) the name of the Church
b) the name of the Founder (who must be a church member)
c) the names of all the members
d) a document called Church Dogma. Church Dogma includes any
information concerning the Church that the Church wishes to make
public.
A player may found at most one Church per calendar month.
3. a. Each Church may have a Church Policy.
b.Church Policy is an internal Church document.
c. A Player who disobeys the Church Policy of a Church of which he or she is a member is guilty of Iconoclasm, which is a Crime. It is impermissible for a Player to take a game action which constitutes Iconoclasm if he or she has any legal alternative which would not constitute Iconoclasm. [That is, Iconoclasm normally doesn't happen unless there is no alternative. It is possible for a player to commit Iconoclasm by inaction, though.]
d. The initial Church Policy will be set by the Founder. Church Policy may only change according to Church Policy.
e. A Church is not obliged to divulge Church Policy, in whole or in part, in a public forum.
f. Church Policy has no effect over the power to ordain Priests. It cannot take this power away from the Founder, neither can it give this power to anyone else.
g. Church Policy cannot prevent a Church member from leaving a Church.
4. a. The Church Founder has the power to ordain Priests, and to strip Priests of their Priestly status(which is called defrocking). The Church Founder also has the power to expel Players from eir Church; this is called Excommunication.
b. A Founder may ordain a Player as a Priest, defrock a Player who is a Priest, or Excommunicate a Player, if and only if that Player is a member of eir Church.
c. The Founder may delegate any of his duties or authorities to the Priesthood, except for the power to ordain Priests, to defrock Priests and to Excommunicate.
d.In the absence of the Founder, the most senior Priest will perform the duties, and have the authority of the Founder, except for the power to ordain Priests. If seniority is not defined in Church Policy, then the most senior Priest, will the one who has been Priest for the longest duration of time.
e. If a decision is to be made by the Priesthood, and no method for making such decisions is defined in Church Policy, then the decision will be made by a simple majority rule. In case of a tie, then seniority is taken into account. If seniority is not defined in Church Policy, then the seniority of a Priest will be defined as the length of time that has passed since that Player has been ordained as a Priest in that Church. If there is still a tie after this, then the Founder will break the tie.
5. a. A Church may define its own alternative terminology for the Church specific terms defined in this rule.
b. Any terms that the Church intends to use in a public forum, must be defined in Church Dogma.
c. If undefined terminology is used by Church members in a public forum, any player may publically request the Church to provide an explanation of that term. Members of the Church may respond to this however they like, and any such response has the official Ackanomic Seal of Politeness, regardless of how brain-stoppingly offensive it is.
d. A Church mailing list is not considered a public forum.
6. A player may not be a member of more than three Churches at the same time.
7. a. Any player may petition the Founder of a Church for membership in that Church.
b. If Church Policy has nothing to say on accepting new members, then Church membership will be up to the Founder. However, a Player cannot become a member of a Church until the Founder of the Church sends a public announcement to that effect.
c. A player may leave a Church at any time as a Public Action.
8. a. If a Church ever has no Priest, or (Heaven Forbid!) fewer than zero Priests, or fewer than four members, it is transformed into a Cult.
b. The Cult has the same name as the Church and retains ownership of all the assets and entities of the Church; however, it is impermissible for the Cult to trade or to use any Organizational Powers. This takes precedence over R1003.
c. For purposes of membership, the Church Founder is considered a Priest.
d. Any function that can be performed by a Priest, can also be performed by the Church Founder.
e. Any Priest who leaves the a Church cease to a Priest of that Church. A Priest who is no longer a Priest of any Church ceases to be a Priest.
f. A player who joins a Cult and was previously a Priest or a Founder of the Church that was transformed into that Cult, becomes a Priest of that Cult.
g. If a Cult has at least four members, at least one of which is a Priest of that Cult, it can transform itself into a Church, as an Organizational Action.
h. A Cult is an Organization.
i. If the Founder of a Church ever leaves the Church by declaring it publicly or by leaving the game, the Church shall be considered "orphan" until it achieves the following conditions:
(1) it has 5 or more members whose game status is Active
(2) it has 3 or more Priests
(3) at least one of its Priests has already read, while being a Priest, one of the Ackanomicon pages that refer to any of the following:
(a) the Arcane Lore
(b) Ancient Artefact
(c) Long Lost Treasure
When it happens all Founder's duties or authorities will be automatically transferred to the most Senior Priest, who shall make it public by posting a message with the words "Follow me all you members of <name>! Follow me and you will never get lost in the darkness!", where <name> is the name of the Church.
If the Priest who first read the Ackanomicon pages listed above is not the Senior Priest, the Senior Priest the Senior Priest is encouraged to give this Priest a gift of eir (the Senior Priest's) choice, like a Trinket, for example.
If a Transfigured player is not considered a priest in any of the Church or Cults of which he is a member, then its Founder must make them a Priest within 7 days.
9. Church, Church membership, Foundership, Priesthood, and Church Dogma may only be manipulated asspecified by the rules.
10. A Church may own and trade currency and Entities. If Church policy is silent about the managing the Church's Currency and Entities, then the Church Founder manages the Church's Currency and Entities.
11. Priesthood is relative to a particular Church; in other words, a player may not be simply a Priest, but must be a Priest of a particular Church. (It is possible for a player who is a member of two Churches to be a Priest in one Church but not in another.) A Player may only be a Priest of a Church if e has been Ordained a Priest of that Church since the last time e joined that Church.
If Church Policy is silent about methods for suggesting and approving Organizational Actions, then the Founder has the authority to suggest and approve Organizational Actions of behalf of the Church. An announcement by the Founder that the Church takes a certain Organizational Action, that announcement is taken to implicitly include both the suggestion and the approval.
If a given Church has no Founder, and Church Policy is silent about method for suggesting and approving Organizational Actions, then the following procedure is followed:
a. Any member of the Church may publically suggest that the Church take a certain Organizational Action.
b. If within three days at least 2/3 of the members of the Church who are also Active players publically approve, and not a single Priest debunks it, the Organizational Action is attempted. If all the Priests who are also Active players publically approve before three days have elapsed, then Organizational Action is attempted when the public message of the last Priest to approve is posted.
If Church Policy defines another method for suggestion and approval of Organizational Actions, then that method must be made known to the org-Harfer.
Rule 1304/2
Prophets and Prophecies
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)
On Solstice day, all members of Churches or Cults may each make one public list of predictions about all the proposals which will have their voting period end on the next day, predicting which will pass and which will not. No player may make the same list of predictions as one that has already been made on that Solstice day.
If exactly one player's predictions are all correct, then it is said that the Great Power of the Universe is now inhabiting him and he is Transfigured. That player also becomes the new True Prophet. There can only be one True Prophet. The True Prophet gets an Indiana Jones Staff if he does not already have one. The Indiana Jones Staff is yea high. A Player may have at most one Indiana Jones Staff. It may not be traded, exchanged or otherwise manipulated except by this rule.
If multiple players' predictions are all correct, all such players are referred to as Proto-prophets, and a Great Schism begins and shall last for three days. During the Great Schism, players may sacrifice any Trinket they own on behalf of any Proto-prophet. This is accomplished as a public action by specifying which Trinket they are sacrificing and which Proto-prophet they are sacrificing it on behalf of. Any Sacrificed Trinket is destroyed -- its value in A$ in created in the Treasury, not in the sacrificing player's possession. At the end of the Great Schism, the Proto-prophet on whose behalf the Trinkets with the greatest combined value were sacrificed becomes True Prophet as per the preceding paragraph. If a tie remains, the True Prophet shall be determined by random selection, and the loser(s) may claim the title False Prophet. Whenever the True Prophet makes a prediction, all False Prophets should attempt to make a prediction that is even gloomier than the True Prophet's.
If no proposals' voting periods expire on the day after Solstice Day, or if no player correctly predicts the acceptance or rejection of all such proposals, all Prophets, True and False, are stripped of their titles and any accoutrements of Prophecy (such as Indiana Jones Staves) are destroyed. It is rumored that at such a time, all the gloomy prophecies shall come to pass.
The True Prophet has the task of providing Ackanomic with Prophecies of things to come. It is good form for these to be gloomy and for other players to laugh at them. It is also good form for the Prophet to spend time in the Wilds of Ackanomic. It is rumored that the True Prophet can cure, heal, anoint and otherwise comfort Enlightened players by simple touch.
Rule 1309/9
We don't need Gravity
snowgod (Phil Ackley)
Ackanomic exists on the face of the Earth which includes Ackanomia, which is, of course, cubical. Ackanomic, and everything it contains, is held onto the earth with Suction Cups so that it doesn't fall off.
Communications with entities residing on the other faces of the earth are made possible through a series of incredibly complex devices that even the inventor cannot begin to understand. These devices too, are attached to the earth with suction cups.
In the event that any item loses its suction cups, which may only happen in accordance with the rules, it shall fall off of the earth and dangle from its surface by the attached emergency tether, in the case of a building it shall become Tethered.
If a building is dangling by its emergency tether, players may still enter and leave the building, by climbing up and down the tether. If a building has its emergency tether break and floats free, no one may enter or leave that building unless they have wings, or are given a ride by a winged player. Objects that reside in a floating building cannot be accessed or used by anyone who is not also inside that building.
Rule 1311/1
If we don't need Gravity, we'd better have Pressure
mr cwm (Eric Murray)
[The empirical observations outlined in "We don't need Gravity" reveal a great deal about the nature of the Earth and the Universe. This cosmology, while including some speculation, is consistent with and explains those observations.]
The Universe consists of a semi-infinite block of 2024 aluminium alloy joined to a semi-infinite block of Type 304 stainless steel. The sole defect in these semi-infinite blocks is a spherical hollow centered at the interface with a diameter two average cat-heights greater than the greatest distance defined or implied in any other Rule. The Earth lies centered within this hollow, oriented parallel to the interface between the blocks with Ackanomia facing the stainless steel side. The spherical hollow is pressurized to 1 atmosphere with life-sustaining gas.
Note that the asymmetry of the Universe will cause anything that becomes detached from the underside of the Earth to fall to the the stainless steel surface of the hollow.
This Rule takes precedence over any Rule that would define or imply any distance greater than the greatest distance defined or implied by this Rule.
Rule 1313/12
Tornado
Malenkai (Randy Hall)
A Tornado shall sweep though Acka at the time of the Summer Solstice, Winter Solstice, Vernal Equinox, and Autumnal Equinox. Tornadoes are dangerous entities.
Whenever a Tornado sweeps through Acka, all active and vacationing players who are non-Sheltered are affected. The scores of all affected players shall be randomly reassigned among the affected players. In other words, the score of each affected player is placed in a pool, all affected players' scores are set to 0, a random score is chosen from the above pool, without replacement, and added to the score of a randomly chosen (without replacement) affected player, until the pool is exhausted. ("without replacement" means the randomly chosen entity may not be re-chosen for the duration of a single instance of this process, once it has been randomly chosen). If there are no affected players, the Tornado has no effect on players' scores as detailed previously in this paragraph. Sheltered players are always unaffected, in any case.
The Scorekeeper is responsible for carrying out this procedure, when the Rules call for it to occur.
Players in the Ackanomic Afterlife and Gaol are Sheltered. A True Prophet and his Location are Sheltered.
A Bomb Shelter may only be created by methods specified in the Rules. Players may only become Sheltered by methods specified in the Rules.
The Rules may specify other ways or times that a Tornado sweeps through Acka.
Whenever a Tornado sweeps through Acka, each player's or haunted house that is Tethered stands a separate 50% chance of losing its tether and being swept off the face of Acka, were upon it becomes Floating. The player or undead shall retain possession or haunt of the land the building was sitting on. A player so bereaved of shelter may rebuild his house for A$100, and he must name it upon its reconstruction. Until such time, he shall be issued a small tent for use as his Home.
If the house belonged to a player who was Vacationing, that player shall be assumed to be vacationing in a far-off land with a two-letter name. Upon his return, he may submit a report containing the name of this far-off land and a summary of his journeys there. If he does so within seven days of his return, he shall receive five points.
Rule 1350/5
La Luna
Slakko (Duncan Richer)
Kansas, and indeed, all moons of Acka, are not part of Acka. However, as all spaceships come equipped with communications equipment, any player whose current location is a moon of Acka may perform any public action that e would otherwise be able to perform, with the exception of the following:
(1) e may neither give items to nor receive items from any entity which is not in the same location.
(2) e may not move to a different location, except for the Wilds of Ackanomia.
A player who moves from a moon to the Wilds of Ackanomia is deemed to have returned in eir spaceship. The spaceship used to reach the moon from which the player has returned, if such exists, becomes Decommissioned. A Decommissioned spaceship does not count as a spaceship for the purpose of any other rule.
A moon is considered to be "full" if a number of members from any Political Party equal to that Party's Active Size are on that Moon and all of those players are active. When a moon is full, no other players may move to that moon; this takes precedence over any rule which may state otherwise.
Kansas is a land without hues - with the exception of sepia. A player in Kansas gains 5 points the first time (on any given trip to Kansas) that they send a message, describing the moon Kansas and all its strangeness, containing at least 250 words, none of which are a colour, except for white, sepia, and black, should black ever be a colour.
Players on any Moon other than Kansas are Sheltered.
Rule 1351/1
Mooning
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)
Ganymede and Titan are both moons of Ackanomic. If any player has been to both Ganymede and Titan and e posts a message containing the phrase: "To Ganymede and Titan, yes sir I've been around" [Lister, The End, Red Dwarf] then e will receive a random boon of the ancients. After e has received this boon, e may not receive another by means of this room until after he has visited Ganymede and Titan again.
Rule 1390/1
Miscellaneous Rule Suite
breadbox (Brian Raiter)
All rules in the Miscellaneous Rule Suite defer precedence to rules outside of this Rule Suite.
Timestamp: Fri 02 Oct 1998 08:13 EDT