0. Ruleset and Gamestate (INITIAL)

The Game of DocNomic shall be played according to the current Ruleset. Each Rule shall consist of a unique, finite, nonnegative integer number, a brief descriptive name, an Enactment Date, a rule body, and whatever additional information about the Rule is required by the Rules. The Enactment Date of a rule is the date of the most recent amendment to its body text, or the date of its addition to the Ruleset if its body text has never been amended, or the word "INITIAL" if it was part of the initial ruleset of the round and has never been amended.

Rules with numbers less than 1000 shall be known as Fundamental Rules. Rulse with numbers greater than or equal to 1000 shall be known as Not So Fundamental Rules.

Certain information reflecting the state of the game is known as the Gamestate.

The Ruleset and Gamestate may not be altered except as specified in the Rules.

1. Doc (8 Jun 2001)

A person shall hold the office of Doc. The identity of Doc is part of the Gamestate. At the outset of the Game, Doc is the person variously known as Doctroid, Rich Holmes, or rsholmes.

Doc maintains the DocNomic Web Site at <http://www.richholmes.net/games/nomic/docnomic/index.html> and the DocNomic Mailing List at <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DocNomic>.

In the event that Doc is absent from the game for a period of more than ten duns without making arrangements for his return, the Active Players may choose a new Doc. They register their preference by election, each Active Player having one vote each. The Leading Player oversees the process, and appoints as the new Doc the Active Player receiving the most votes. In the event of a tie, the Leading Player may appoint one of those receiving the highest number of votes. The Active Player so appointed must immediately remove emself from the game and take on the role of Doc.

2. Players (8 Jun 2001)

A person becomes a Player at the submission of their first Proposal or Point of Order. Doc may not be a Player. The list of Players is part of the Gamestate.

A Player may at any time remove emself from the game by stating eir intent to do so by sending an email to the mailing list. Eir name and all status information shall be removed from the gamestate and any rules where it might be listed. Eir Points shall be distributed evenly to all Players (remainders shall be thrown away). No Player may rejoin the game within 7 duns of voluntary removal.

A Player is Active if and only if e has submitted a Proposal or Point of Order within the previous two weeks.

The Active Player with the largest number of Points is known as the Leading Player.

3. Proposals (INITIAL)

Players may submit Proposals at any time permitted by the Rules by sending them to the DocNomic Mailing List. A Proposal thus submitted becomes Pending. A Proposal consists of one or more new proposed Rules, and/or one or more amendments to existing Rules, and/or one or more proposed repeals of existing Rules. (Changing the number or title of a Rule is considered an amendment of that Rule.)

Players are encouraged to discuss Pending Proposals in the DocNomic Mailing List.

Doc will judge all Pending Proposals, in the order in which they were proposed, and accept, reject or ignore them. To ignore a Proposal, the condition by which it is ignored must be explicit somewhere in the ruleset. Once a Proposal has been judged, it ceases to be Pending.

When a Proposal is Accepted, Doc shall make the specified changes to the Ruleset.

Doc may ignore any Proposal whose intent has already been addressed by another (pending or otherwise) Proposal or Proclamation, if in eir judgment the Player who proposed it was likely to be unaware at the time of the other Proposal or Proclamation.

Doc may rewrite a Pending Proposal to clarify its meaning, correct errors, or for any other reason, as long as the rewriting does not alter the meaning. Doc may also specify or change proposed rule numbers for rules the Proposal creates.

Doc may, at any time, modify or remove any existing Rule or enact new Rules, or modify the Gamestate, by the publication of a Proclamation. In addition, Doc may, at any time, publish a Directive calling for Proposals in a certain area.

4. Publication (2 Jul 2001)

Doc must publish all Proposal and Point of Order judgements, and all Proclamations and Directives, to the DocNomic Mailing List. No Proposal or Point of Order judgement, Proclamation, or Directive, shall have any effect until it is so published.

Doc must publish the current Ruleset at <http://www.richholmes.net/games/nomic/docnomic/doc_ruleset.html> No change to the Ruleset shall be considered to have occurred until and unless it is so published.

Doc must publish parts of the current Gamestate at <http://www.richholmes.net/games/nomic/docnomic/doc_gamestate.html> and must publish or arrange for the publication of all remaining parts of the Gamestate, if any, in public forums to be designated on the above web page. However, changes to the Gamestate occur immediately after the moment the condition leading to that change occurs; publication is not required for the change to occur.

5. Appeals Mechanism (INITIAL)

Any Player may, at any time, submit a Point of Order to raise any issue relevant to the Game by sending it to the DocNomic Mailing List. A Point of Order thus submitted becomes Pending. Each Point of Order must have in its Subject line the text: "Point of Order:" followed by a label of the Proposal or Rule in reference or it shall be ignored. Each Proclamation shall follow a similar format at the Doc's discretion.

Doc will consider each Pending Point of Order and, if in Doc's judgement the Point of Order is upheld, publish one or more Proclamations to address the issue. Once a Point of Order has been judged, it ceases to be Pending.

Informal discussion of the game in the DocNomic Mailing List is encouraged. A Point of Order should be raised only if informal means of resolving the issue fail or cannot be applied.

6. Precedence (2 Jul 2001)

When two or more rules conflict, precedence as specified explicitly by the rules is applied first. Where there is no non-conflicting explicit precedence, the following procedure applies:

1. Rules with earlier enactment dates take precedence over later rules (where "INITIAL" is considered to be a date earlier than any other enactment date).
2. Rules with lower rule numbers take precedence over higher-numbered rules with the same enactment date.

7. Rounds (INITIAL)

The Game is divided into Rounds. When the Game begins, the Round Number is 1. The Round Number is part of the Gamestate.

When one (and only one) Player achieves the title of The Winner of Round n, where n is the Round Number, the Round ends. All Not So Fundamental rules are repealed. The Round Number increases by 1 and the Game continues. The identity of The Winner of each Round is part of the Gamestate.

8. Points (INITIAL)

Players may possess Points. The quantity of Points possessed by each Player must be a finite integer and is part of the gamestate. When a Player joins the game, e has zero Points.

10. Timeframes (8 Jun 2001)

All spans of time are measured in DocNomic Units (duns). The length of a dun is part of the gamestate, and shall be equal to 48 hours unless Doc proclaims otherwise.

1000. Manageable Number of Proposals (29 Jun 2001)

If a player submits more than one proposal per dun, that player loses 10 points for each proposal submitted by that player for that dun beyond the first. If losing 10 points in this fashion for a particular proposal would leave that player with a negative point total, the proposal is instead ignored and no points are lost.

1001. Documentation (29 Jun 2001)

The Docnomic environment is strewn with a variety of Documents, spread between the dark-green Filing Cabinet, the wire-mesh Wastebin and a number of In-Trays and Out-Trays (one of each for every Player). The Location of each Document is part of the Gamestate.

Each Document is printed on poor-quality coloured paper - either White, Pink, Green, Yellow or Blue. A Document's Colour is part of the Gamestate. Newly-created documents are Blue unless their creator specifies otherwise.

Each Rule is a Document, and its current Location and Colour are noted appropriately in the Ruleset. Whenever a Player's Proposal creates a Rule, that Rule is moved to the Player's Out-Tray. Whenever a Player's Proposal amends the body text of an existing Rule, that Rule is moved to the Player's Out-Tray.

Whenever a Rule is repealed, it goes to the Wastebin. (Rule Documents in the Wastebin are not considered to be part of the Ruleset.)

Unless otherwise specified by the Ruleset or by Doc's Proclamations, all Documents are in the Filing Cabinet.

When a new Player joins the game, two random Documents from the Filing Cabinet (if any are there) are placed into their In-Tray.

1002. Tasks (29 Jun 2001)

Players may perform the following Tasks, but may not perform more than one Task per dun. Tasks are performed by declaring them (and their specific targets) to the mailing list, in a message with a subject line beginning "Task:". They take effect when the Doc processes them; he must process Tasks in the order they were declared (although Tasks which are illegal by the time they are processed are ignored).

Assign

A Player may move a Document from any Out-Tray, or from the Filing Cabinet, to any In-Tray.

Delegate

A Player may move a Document from his or her own In-Tray to any other In-Tray, provided that his or her In-Tray contains more than one Document, and that he or she has at least ten Points. He or she then loses ten Points.

File

A Player may move up to two Documents from his or her Out-Tray to the Filing Cabinet. He or she gains 10 Points for each Document filed in this manner.

1003. Winning Methods (29 Jun 2001)

All methods defining how a Player may be named "The Winner of Round n", where n is the Round Number, shall be contained within this rule. Each method must be numbered incrementally starting with one and have a unique label for clarification.

A Player will be named "The Winner of Round n", where n is the Round Number, if e satisfies one or more of the following conditions:

1. Thousand Points: E has 1000 or more Points, and e has more points than any other Player.
2. Clear Desk: E has no Documents in eir In-Tray and Out-Tray, yet every other Player has at least one Document in either their In-Tray or Out-Tray.

1004. Pink Slip (29 Jun 2001)

If any Player has this Document in their In-Tray and this Document is Pink, then that Player loses 1000 Points (or has their points reduced to 0 if losing 1000 points would put them below 0 points) and this Document immediately turns Blue.

If this Document is put into the Filing Cabinet, it immediately turns Pink.

1005. Precedence (2 Jul 2001)

When two or more rules conflict, precedence as specified explicitly by the rules is applied first. Where there is no non-conflicting explicit precedence, the following procedure applies:

1. Rules which are printed on brighter paper than another rule take precedence over that rule. The order of colors is (brightest to darkest): White, Yellow, Pink, Green, Blue.
2. Rules with earlier enactment dates take precedence over later rules having the same color(where "INITIAL" is considered to be a date earlier than any other enactment date).
3. Rules with lower rule numbers take precedence over higher-numbered rules with the same enactment date and the same color.

This Rule takes precedence over Rule 6.

1006. Lowest on the Totem Pole (2 Jul 2001)

There exists an Office titled Secretary. A Secretary holds that Office for 7 duns, then the Secretary is chosen again, based on the following guidelines:

The Active Player with the lowest number of Points becomes the Secretary. If more than one Active Player has the same lowest number of Points, the Active Player who has most recently joined the game becomes the Secretary.

The Secretary is entitled to perform 2 Tasks per dun.