0. Ruleset and Gamestate

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, and a rule body. To each Rule is attached a chronology of the Rule's enactment and amendments, 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 any part of the Rule, or the date of its addition to the Ruleset if it has never been amended, or the date 7 Jun 2001 if it was part of the initial ruleset of Round 2 and has never been amended since then.

Rules with numbers less than 1000 shall be known as Fundamental Rules (FRs). Rules with numbers greater than or equal to 1000 shall be known as Not So Fundamental Rules (NSFRs).

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

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. This paragraph takes precedence over Rule 12.

2. Players

The list of Players is part of the Gamestate. Doc may not be a Player.

A person may become a Player by joining the mailing list and posting notice of their intent to become a Player. This paragraph takes precedence over Rule 12.

Posting a Proposal or a Point of Order, if it is legal to do so, shall be considered posting notice of intent.

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. No Player may rejoin the game within 7 duns of voluntary removal. At the start of each Round, all inactive Players are involuntarily removed.

When a Player is removed, 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).

Players may either be Active or Inactive. Players may change their own Active/Inactive status by declaring such an intention to the mailing list. When a Player joins Docnomic, he or she automatically becomes Active. If a Player has posted no messages to the mailing list in the past 7 duns, he or she automatically becomes Inactive.

The Active Player with the largest number of Points (with ties broken by seniority) is known as the Leading Player. "Seniority" refers to the amount of time since a Player most recently joined the game.

3. Proposals

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.)

A Proposal may be declared as "Trivial" if its Proposer feels that it is a minor change to the Ruleset and thus unworthy of reward or other consequence. Doc may choose to reject a Trivial Proposal if e feels it to involve more than a trivial change.

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. This paragraph takes precedence over Rule 12.

4. Publication

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

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

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.
2. Rules with lower rule numbers take precedence over higher-numbered rules with the same enactment date.

7. Rounds

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. The Initial Ruleset, Final Ruleset, and Final Gamestate of the Round shall be archived. All Not So Fundamental rules are repealed. All Gamestate items not mandated by a Fundamental Rule shall be deleted from the Gamestate. 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

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

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.

11. Manageable Number of Proposals

Whenever a Player submits a Non-Trivial Proposal, they lose 10 points for every other Non-Trivial Proposal submitted by them (if any) during the previous dun. If this would leave them with a negative number of Points, the new Non-Trivial Proposal is instead ignored.

12. Activity

There is a gamestate item known as DocNomic State, which may take the values Active or Inactive. DocNomic game activity may take place only while DocNomic State is Active. Any Proposals or Points of Order submitted while DocNomic State is Inactive shall be Ignored. No changes to the Gamestate shall take place while DocNomic State is Inactive. This Rule takes precedence over all other Rules except those that specifically claim precedence over this Rule.

1001. Doctrines

Each player must follow one and only one Doctrine at all times. By default, and until they state otherwise, any player who has not declared that they follow a Doctrine is following the Doctrine of 'Laziness unto Excess'. If, through some circumstance allowed by the Rules, a Player is not following any Doctrine, they are automatically considered to be following the Doctrine of 'Laziness unto Excess'. Players may create Doctrines by announcing so to the mailing list. Players may join any properly-created Doctrines by announcing so to the mailing list. A player who is not following a Doctrine or who is following the Doctrine of 'Laziness unto Excess' cannot submit proposals.

If at any time all players follow the same Doctrine, or if at any time after 00:00:01 GMT 18 Sep 2002 all active players follow the same Doctrine, and that Doctrine has a Leader, the Leader of that Doctrine wins the round.

Whenever a Player has a non-Trivial Proposal accepted, they gain 10 points, and all other Players who share their Doctrine gain 5 Points.

1002. De-programming

A player may cease to follow their current Doctrine by announcing their intention to do so to the mailing list. Any player doing so has eir current point total reduced by N points, where N is defined as the player's current point total, divided by 2 and rounded up to the nearest whole number, with a minimum value of 10. (Other Rules may adjust or limit this point loss. This Rule defers to such rules. Such an adjustment applies to the number of points lost, and not to the value of N.) The Doctrine that the player is leaving has N subtracted from its Flock value, where N is defined as above.

1003. Precepts

Each Doctrine has certain Precepts.

Each Precept may have an opposite Precept. If such an opposite exists for a particular Precept, it must be specified in the description for that Precept. The Leader of a Doctrine may not add a particular Precept to eir Doctrine, if it already has the opposite Precept.

The available precepts are:

Open

Players can switch to a Doctrine with this Precept at any time without a point penalty. Players can also abandon a Doctrine with this Precept without a point penalty. This has precedence over rules determining penalties on Doctrine joining or leaving. This Precept is the opposite of Closed.

Extremist

When a member of a doctrine with the Extremist precept has a non-Trivial Proposal accepted they, and all players who share their doctrine, gain 5 points. When a member of a doctrine with the Extremist precept has a non-Trivial Proposal rejected they, and all players who share their doctrine, lose 5 points. These rewards and penalties are in addition to any other that may apply. This Precept is the opposite of Apathetic.

Strong-Minded

All members of a Doctrine with this Precept automatically Resist any Brainwashing action taken against em. This Precept is the opposite of Weak-Minded.

Closed

Players may only switch to a Doctrine with this Precept as a direct result of an action taken by any follower of the Doctrine, or if invited, via a message stating the invitation to join sent to the mailing list, by any follower of the Doctrine. This takes precedence over Rule 1001. This Precept is the opposite of Open.

Apathetic

When any Proposal is accepted, all followers of all Doctrines with the Apathetic Precept, except for the Doctrine that the author of the accepted proposal is following, gain 5 Points. When any Proposal is rejected, all followers of all Doctrines with the Apathetic Precept, except for the Doctrine that the author of the rejected proposal is following, lose 5 Points. When a follower of a Doctrine with the Apathetic Precept submits a Proposal, all followers of that Doctrine lose 5 Points. The Doctrine "Laziness Unto Excess" always has this Precept. This Precept is the opposite of Extremist.

Weak-Minded

All followers of a Doctrine with this Precept are incapable of Resisting any Brainwashing actions taken against them. This takes precedence over Rule 1011. The Doctrine "Laziness Unto Excess" always has this Precept. This Precept is the opposite of Strong-Minded.

Atheistic

If a Doctrine is Atheistic, it may not have a High Priest. (If a Doctrine with a High Priest becomes Atheistic, the High Priest loses that title.)

(If a Proposal does nothing other than add a Precept to this Rule, or add two Precepts that are opposites of each other to this Rule, it may be considered Trivial.)

1004. Creating Precepts [Repealed]

1005. Take Me To Your Leader

Each Doctrine may have a single Leader, with the exception of "Laziness to Excess", which is too lazy and disorganised to ever have a Leader. This Leadership is a part of the Gamestate.

If the Leader of a Doctrine stops following that Doctrine, or if at any time after 00:00:01 GMT 18 Sep 2002 the Leader is inactive, he or she ceases to be its Leader.

If a Doctrine has no Leader, any active follower of that Doctrine may claim the role by posting such a message to the mailing list. If at any time after 00:00:01 GMT 18 Sep 2002 a Doctrine has no Leader, Doc shall randomly pick a new leader from amongst the active members of that Doctrine who are tied for the most points. This random selection may be done in any fashion Doc desires. If the Doctrine has no active members, no new Leader is chosen.

If a Leader shares a Doctrine with another active Player, the Leader may announce to the mailing list that he or she is passing the Leadership on to that Player. That Player becomes the new Leader of the Doctrine.

1006. The Leading Doctrine

One of the Doctrines which have at least one follower is the Leading Doctrine. This Leadership is a part of the Gamestate. The Leading Doctrine is the Doctrine with the greatest Flock. In case of ties, the Leading Doctrine is the Doctrine which also has the earliest creation date.

1007. Influence

There will exist a Gamestate item known as "Influence", which will be recorded for each doctrine. Influence will be expressed as a positive integer.

The Influence of a doctrine will be equal to the points total of the doctrine's leader.

If this calculation would result in a negative number for any doctrine, then the Influence of that doctine will be recorded as 0.

1008. Preceptual Precedence

Precepts which appear later in the Precepts list have precedence over Precepts which appear earlier.

1009. Convergent Views

Any Ambassador of a Doctrine may propose a merger with another Doctrine by announcing a merger proposal to the mailing list. The merger becomes pending if all of the following conditions are met at the time of the merger proposal. If one or more of the following conditions are false while the merger is pending, the merger immediately fails (and ceases to be pending).

• Both Doctrines have Leaders and Ambassadors.
• Both Doctrines have at least one Precept in common.
• Neither Doctrine has a Precept that is an opposite Precept of any Precepts of the other Doctrine.
• Both Doctrines are more than three duns old.
• Both Doctrines are at Peace with each other.

Once the merger becomes pending, the Leader of the Doctrine that received the merger proposal has 3 duns to accept or decline the merger (a merger may only be declined if the declining Doctrine has a greater Flock than the proposing Doctrine). If no response is received within that time, and the merger is still pending, the merger is automatically accepted. Once a merger has been declined or accepted, it is no longer pending. If the merger is accepted, both merging Doctrines are destroyed and a new Doctrine is created with the following properties:

• The name of the new Doctrine is of the form A DASH B where:
  A is the name of the proposing Doctrine.
  DASH is a hyphen ("-")
  B is the name of the Doctrine that the Merger was proposed to.
• The membership of the new Doctrine is the union of the memberships of the merging Doctrines.
• The set of precepts of the new Doctrine is the union of the precepts of the merging Doctrines.
• The new Doctrine has a creation date set to the time of the acceptance of the Merger. All members of the Doctrine are considered to have joined this new Doctrine exactly ten minutes after this creation date.
• The Leader of the new Doctrine is the one follower of the Doctrine with the most points of all followers of the Doctrine. If multiple followers are tied for the most points, Doc shall randomly pick the new leader from amongst those tied for the most points. This random selection may be done in any fashion Doc desires.
• The Ambassador of the new Doctrine is the one active Player following the Doctrine with the least points. If more than one active Player following the Doctrine ties for least points, Doc shall randomly pick the new Ambassador from amongst those active Players following the Doctrine that are tied for the least points. This random selection may be done in any fashion Doc desires.
• The Flock value of the new Doctrine is the sum of the Flock value of the two merging Doctrines.
• The relationships of the new Doctrine to all existing Doctrines are determined as follows: For all Doctrines that are at Peace with both of the merging Doctrines, the relationship is set to "Peace". For all other Doctrines, the relationship is set to "War".

Upon completion of the Merger, all members of the new Doctrine gain 20 points. The Ambassador and the Leader of the ex-Doctrine that received the proposal both gain (if they're distinct Players; if not, only once) an additional 5 points.

1010. Leadership Challenge

Any group of one or more Players may agree to Challenge the Leader of their Doctrine (if they have one) and replace them with a preferred Leader.

A single Player should make the Challenge in a mailing-list message, citing their nominated replacement. Any Players who agree or disagree with this replacement (other than the Leader) may declare their intention to support or oppose the Challenge (provided they are members of the relevant Doctrine), within the next Dun.

At the end of that Dun, the Challenge resolves. If the combined total Points of the Challenging Player and all supporting Players is greater than the total Points of the Doctrine's current Leader and all opposing Players, the Leader is replaced as specified.

1011. Brainwashing

A Player may spend x Points (if he or she can afford it) to Brainwash a Player who has x Points, by announcing this intention to the mailing list. The Brainwashed Player automatically joins the Brainwashing Player's Doctrine one Dun later, unless the Brainwashed Player has Resisted in the meantime. Resistance costs the Brainwashed Player y Points (where y is half of x, rounding up).

1012. Doctrine Cleanup

Any Doctrine, excluding Laziness Unto Excess, which has had no members continuously for that past two duns is removed from the game.

1013. Renaming Doctrines

The Leader of a Doctrine may rename that Doctrine at any time by posting their intentions to do so, and the new name, to the mailing list. The new name may not be that of any currently existing Doctrine. Changing the name has no effect of any currently unresolved actions that might affect the Doctrine.

1014. The Unwashed Masses

The players of DocNomic represent the Great Leaders of the world. It is they who control The Unwashed Masses through the creation of Doctrines, the abuse of Precepts, and petty rivalry amongst themselves.

The Unwashed Masses also follow Doctrines, however since they are not like the Great Leaders of the world, they are referred to as a Doctrine's Flock, instead of followers of a Doctrine. Each Doctrine has a gamestate item known as "Flock" which is a non-negative integer and tracks the exact number of The Unwashed Masses following the Doctrine. Whenever a Doctrine is created, it starts out with a Flock of 0. If a Doctrine ever has an unspecified Flock value, it is set to 0. If an action attempts to set a Doctrine's Flock value to a negative number, it is instead set to 0.

If a Doctrine's Flock is less than half the size of that of the Leading Doctrine, it is considered Small. Otherwise, it is considered Large.

1015. Doctrine Actions

Large Doctrines may take an Action if they haven't already taken one in the past dun. Small Doctrines are able to implement changes more quickly, and may take an Action if they haven't yet taken two in the past dun. The Leader or the High Priest of a Doctrine may determine what action their Doctrine takes by announcing it to the mailing list. A Doctrine cannot take the same action twice in a row. The following Doctrine actions are available:

• Influence the World: A number of The Unwashed Masses equal to the Influence of the Doctrine joins the Flock.
• Spread the Word: A number of The Unwashed Masses equal to 1/10 of the Flock value of the Doctrine (rounded down to the nearest integer) joins the Flock.
• Steal From Others: A target Doctrine must be specified for this action. The Doctrine initiating this action must be at War with the target Doctrine.Persuaded by carefully targetted advertising, 1/20 of the target Doctrine's Flock (rounded down to the nearest integer) leave the target Doctrine to join the Doctrine which initiated the action.
• Add a Precept: A target Precept must be specified for this action. If no conditions exist that would prevent it from occurring, that Precept is added to the Actioning Player's Doctrine.
• Remove a Precept: A target Precept must be specified for this action. That Precept is removed from the Actioning Player's Doctrine, if it is there.
• Seeking Vengeance: A target Doctrine must be specified for this action. The Doctrine initiating this action must be at War with the target Doctrine. That Doctrine must have performed within the past two Duns the action of Stealing from the Doctrine which initiated the action. Doc shall determine, with equiprobability, if the Vengeance succeeds, in which case 1/15 of the target Doctrine's Flock (rounded down to the nearest integer) leave the target Doctrine to join the Doctrine which initiated the action. If the Vengeance does not succeed, nothing happens.
• Excommunication: 1/10 of the Doctrine's current Flock (rounding down) are kicked out of the Doctrine.
• Go to War: A target Doctrine must be specified for this action. The Doctrine initiating this action must be at Peace with the target Doctrine. The relationship of the Doctrine initiating this action to the target Doctrine is set to "War". The relationship of the target Doctrine to the Doctrine initiating this action is set to "War".
• Bid for Peace: A target Doctrine must be specified for this action. The Doctrine initiating this action must be at War with the target Doctrine. A Bid for Peace will remain pending for 2 Duns after this action is taken. If the Leader of the target Doctrine accepts the Bid for Peace within that time, the relationship of the Doctrine initiating this action to the target Doctrine is set to "Peace", and the relationship of the target Doctrine to the Doctrine initiating this action is set to "Peace". If the Leader of the target Doctrine rejects the Bid for Peace, or if no response is given while the Bid for Peace is pending, nothing happens and the two Doctrines remain at War with each other.

1016. High Priests

Each Doctrine may have a single High Priest, with the exception of "Laziness to Excess". High Priesthood is a part of the Gamestate. A Player cannot be both the Leader and High Priest of a Doctrine.

If a Doctrine's Leader is Inactive, the High Priest of that Doctrine is treated as its Leader for the purposes of any Rule other than Rule 1005 (Take Me To Your Leader) and Rule 1001 (Doctrines).

If the High Priest of a Doctrine stops following that Doctrine, he or she ceases to be its High Priest.

If a Doctrine has no High Priest, any follower of that Doctrine may claim the role by posting such a message to the mailing list.

Within a Doctrine, a High Priest or Leader may reassign the role of High Priest to any other Player in that Doctrine, by announcing this intention to the mailing list.

1017. Doctrine Relationships

Every Doctrine has a set of gamestate items for its relationship with all other Doctrines. These relationships can be set to either "Peace" or "War". When a Doctrine is first created, it is at Peace with all other Doctrines. If a Doctrine ever has an unspecified relationship with another Doctrine, the relationship is set to "Peace".

The relationship of one Doctrine to a second Doctrine and of the second Doctrine to the first Doctrine is known as a relationship pair. At all times both relationships of all relationship pairs must be identical. If a condition arises in which one relationship of a relationship pair is set to "War" and the other is set to "Peace", both relationships will be set to "War".

1018. Ambassadors

Every Doctrine may have an Ambassador. The role of Ambassador is not incompatible with Leadership or High Priesthood. The Ambassador of a Doctrine must be an active Player following the Doctrine. If the Ambassador of a Doctrine is inactive, they are removed from that role. If a Doctrine has no Ambassador, the Ambassador of that Doctrine is selected to be the one active Player following that Doctrine with the least Points, with ties broken by Juniority (the amount of time since a Player most recently joined the game, the later the better). If there are no active Players following a Doctrine, that Doctrine remains without an Ambassador until the Doctrine has an active Player following it.

The Ambassador is responsible for dealing with other Doctrines in game actions that require the collaboration, or interaction, of Doctrines. A Doctrine with no Ambassador cannot take place in those game actions. The Leader has the power of invalidating any Ambassador action performed by eir Doctrine's Ambassador in the last Dun (where an Ambassador action is one of the actions reserved to Ambassadors). If e chooses to do so, e then may transfer the role of Ambassador upon any other Player of that Doctrine (including emself).

1019. Assemblies

Once every 3 Duns, an Assembly of all the Doctrines of the world can be convened upon request of any Ambassador of any Doctrine. All Ambassadors automatically join the Assembly when it is convened. An Assembly can perform up to one of the Assembly actions listed below. The procedure for performing an Assembly action is the following: within the first Dun of Assembly, every Ambassador can propose which Assembly action he desires to take and any text is required by that Assembly action in order to be performed. Then all Ambassadors cast their votes, specifying their preference among the proposed assembly actions, within the next 2 Duns. The proposed Assembly action which receives more votes and at least 2, with ties broken by the earliest sumbission date, is the one to be performed. Then, Doc performs the necessary changes to the Ruleset according to the description of the assembly action. At the end of the third Dun, the Assembly ends and a new one can be convened. List of available assembly actions:

• Add a Doctrine Action: The text of a new Doctrine Action to be added to rule 1015 is chosen by the Assembly with the standard procedure.
• Add a new assembly action to this list: The text of a new assembly action to be added to this list is chosen by the Assembly with the standard procedure.