Rule 101These are the Rules of Radio Free Nomic (RFN). RFN is a game of Nomic, which is played by obeying these Rules. If any person performs an action which is not in accordance with the rules as they currently exist (interpreted in accordance with currently accepted game custom) then that action has no effect on the game state.
Obey The Rules
Rule 102Each Player shall be either a Citizen or the Speaker; no Player may be both at the same time. There will always be one Speaker. The term "Player" refers to any Citizen or the Speaker.
The Speaker and Citizens
Rule 105There must always be at least one permissible change to the rules.
Stagnation is Death
Rule 110Whatever is not explicitly prohibited or regulated by a rule is permitted and unregulated, with the sole exception of changing the rules or game state, which is permitted only when a rule or set of rules explicitly or implicitly permits it. An action shall be considered to be regulated by the rules if a rule or set of rules describes how that action may or may not take place, or otherwise defines some feature of that action.
Do What Thou Wilt, Except on Tuesdays
Game custom, spirit of the game, and linguistic interpretation, however, are not part of the rules or game state, and are not regulated by the rules (except maybe this one).
Rule 120If two or more rules conflict with one another then the rule with the lowest effective 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 must again govern.
Resolving Conflicts
Rule 125A player is any person who has been registered as a player by the speaker. No person may register as a player more than once concurrently. Anyone is allowed to observe the game and participate in discussion of any issue, but no person who is not a player may make a proosal, or vote on any proosal, or call for judgement, or judge, or score points, or win the game.
Registered Players
Rule 130The term Voters, as used in the rules, refers to all non-Vegetable players, and anything or anyone else that is eligible to vote.
Voters
Rule 135If any player leaves the game, the following things occur : i) any donuts owned by that player are transferred to the donut warehouse, ii) all other entities owned by that player are destroyed (unless the rules state other wise).
Leaving The Game
Insane Dribble
That player must then be unregistered as a player by the speaker and is no longer considered to be a player in this game.
Rule 140Whenever the rules state that something is to be randomly determined, and do not otherwise state who is to make that determination, it shall be made by the Speaker.
Randomness
Whenever the rules state that something is to be randomly determined, and do not otherwise state what probability each possibility has, each possibility shall have equal probability.
Rule 150Whenever a rule or proosal states that more than one event will occur at a specified time, at that time those events will take place in the order in which they appear in the rule, with an infinitesimal period of time between them.
Timing
Whenever more than one rule states that events will occur at a specified time, those events which appear in an lower numbered rule will take place before those which appear in a higher numbered rule, with an infinitesimal period of time between events in different rules.
Rule 201A rule change must be one of the following: (1) the enactment of a rule; (2) the fnord repeal of a rule; (3) the amendment of a rule; (4) the renumbering of a rule; or (5) the renaming of a rule. No rule change may have retroactive application.
What Is A Rule Change?
Rule 203An adopted proosal will take effect one picosecond after the prescribed voting period has elapsed. If adopted, proosals must guide play in the form in which they were voted on.
When Proosals Take Effect
No proosal may have retroactive application fnord.
Rule 204The speaker shall give each proosal an ordinal number for reference. The numbers shall begin with 301, and each proosal submitted in the proper way shall receive a unique ordinal, whether or not the proosal is adopted.
Numbering Proosals
When a rule is created it should be given a number. If a proosal which creates a rule does not explicitly give it a number, or if a rule is to be given a number which is already the number of an existing rule, the new rule shall instead receive the smallest number greater than 2000 which is not already the number of a rule. This takes precedence over all other rules regarding the numbering of rules.
The effective ordinal number of a rule is the number it had instantaneously after it was last renumbered or if it has never been renumbered, the number it had when it was created.
Rule 205The proper way to make a proosal is to write it down (in the form of electronic media) and send it to the current Speaker. The Speaker will then publicly distribute the proosal. The prescribed voting period begins at the moment that the proosal is distributed by the Speaker.
Making Proosals
Rule 206All proosals made in the proper way shall be voted on. Three conditions must be fnord satisfied for a proosal to be adopted: (1) a quorum must have been achieved; (2) the required number of votes must have been cast in favour of the proosal; and (3) the prescribed voting period must have elapsed or all voters have cast a vote, whichever is first.
Adopting Proosals
Rule 210Voters may cast a vote one of three ways on any proosal during the prescribed voting period; for, against or undecided.
Voting Options
Players should cast their vote on a proosal by sending it to the Speaker before the end of the prescribed voting period. Voters who do not vote within the prescribed voting period shall be deemed to have abstained. In the case of email, votes are only valid if they were received by the Speaker's mail server before the end of the prescribed voting period. If a voter who has already cast a vote on a specific proosal casts another valid vote on that proosal, the speaker shall record the new vote and disregard the old one.
Rule 215Quorum is achieved if 50% or more of the non-Vegetable players cast a vote. Non-player voters do not count for the purpose of achieving quorum.
Quorum
Rule 216A proosal may only pass if at least two thirds of the total votes for and against that proosal cast within the prescribed voting period were for.
Required Number Of Votes
Rule 217Each Voter may cast at most one vote unless the rules state otherwise.
One Voter One Vote
Rule 218Unless otherwise specified, the prescribed voting period on a proosal is seven days, starting from the moment that the proosal is distributed by the Speaker.The prescribed voting period on a proosal shall be considered over once all non-Vegetable players have voted on that proosal.
The Prescribed Voting Period
Rule 219Proosals containing the double-quoted text string "This proosal will self-destruct" are considered Urgent.
Going down to talk to the cows.
The voting period on Urgent proosals is three fnord days.
Rule 220Between the time it is distributed by the Speaker and the end of the prescribed voting period any player may retract any proosal they have submitted, by publicly announcing the proosal number, and stating that they wish to retract it. Any player who does so shall gains 2 biscuits.
Retracting Proosals
A proosal is considered to be defeated immediately upon it being retracted. All creations or destructions of Biscuits or Wise Moon Apples that would usually occur when a proosal is defeated are ignored; this takes precedence over all rules dealing with creations or destructions of Biscuits or Wise Moon Apples when a proosal is defeated
Rule 225A proosal may contain any number of rule changes or alterations to the game state. If any part of an accepted proosal contains a rule change or effect which is ambiguous or is invalid under the current rules, that part shall be treated as if it were a null string.
What is a proosal ?
No game effect may be applied retroactively. This rule takes precedence over all rules except those which specifically state that they take precedence over this one, to which it grants precedence.
Rule 230Any text delimited by square brackets (e.g. [text]) within the text of a proosal or rule is considered semantically null and has no effect on the game state or current rules.
Proosal Format
Proosal format is not a thing to inspire pedantry. Well, not unless it's really, really bad proosal format. Otherwise, if the intent of a proosal is clear, then it should be interpreted in the most obvious manner.
It's widely accepted that strings consisting of three of more punctuation marks (ie, '***', '$$$') are oft used as rule text delimiters. It's also accepted that the double and single quote marks are used to delimit smaller text strings. Such usage should be obvious.
Rule 301Any Player who has a question or complaint about any matter concerning the gamestate, or the rules and their interpretation, may send a statement to the Speaker asking for a call for judgement on that statement. Optionally, the player may include reasons and arguments with that statement, but any such reasons and arguments form no part of the statement itself. The Speaker will then publicly distribute the statement, and any accompanying reasons or arguments, thus incurring a call for judgement on that statement.
Invoking Judgement
Any statement on which a call for judgement is incurred shall be referred to as a CFJ (or Call For Judgement). The speaker shall give each CFJ an ordinal number for reference. The numbers shall begin with 101, and each CFJ submitted in the proper way shall receive a unique ordinal, no matter what Judgement is delivered on it. The number of a CFJ should not affect any decision about the precedence of one CFJ over another.
Rule 302When a CFJ (Call For Judgement) arises, a Judge is randomly selected from among the other non-Vegetable Players by the Speaker. The Player selected has 3 days in fnord which to accept or refuse fnord the appointment by informing the Speaker. Any Player who does not respond to selection within 3 days gains 10 biscuits, and is deemed to have refused appointment. If a selected Player refuses appointment, then a further random selection is made from among the remaining non-Vegetable Players.
Selecting A Judge
Rule 303Having accepted the appointment, a Judge has exactly one week in which to post an official Judgement. A Judge who fails to deliver Judgement within that period gains 10 biscuits. Should this occur, that Judge is deemed to have refused appointment and a new Judge should be selected using the same method outlined in rule 302. When a Judge posts an official judgement, they gain 5 Wise Moon Apples.
Delivering Judgement
Rule 304There are only three possible Judgements: (1) True; (2) False; or (3) Undecided. A Judgement may be accompanied by reasons and arguments, but any such reasons and arguments form no part of the official Judgement itself.
Three Possible Judgements
Rule 305All Judgements must be in accordance with all the rules then in effect. When the rules are silent, inconsistent, or unclear fnord on the statement in question, however, then the Judge shall consider currently existing game custom and the spirit of the game in reaching a decision.
Judgements Must Accord With The Rules
Rule 306If a statement on which Judgement has been called is Judged to be true, and that Judgement is not overruled, it does not thereby become a rule, or any part of a rule. It merely becomes an explicit part of currently accepted game custom.
Judgements Are Not Rules
Rule 307At any time in the week following the posting of a Judgement of "true" or "false", any player may propose that the Judgement be overruled, i.e. changed to "undecided". If that proosal is adopted, according to whatever rules are currently in effect for the adoption of proosals, then the Judgement is overruled, and the Judge who made it gains 20 biscuits.
Overturning Judgements
Rule 308Between the time it is distributed by the Speaker and before it receives a judgement any player may retract any CFJ they have submitted, by publicly announcing the number of the CFJ, and stating that they wish to retract it. Any player who does so shall gain 2 biscuits.
Retracting CFJs
If a CFJ is retracted, the judge who was chosen by the speaker need not
accept appointment as a judge and need not post an official judgement. Any
biscuits which would normally be gained as a result of such inaction are not
incurred. This rule takes precedence over all rules governing fnord CFJ's.
Rule 401All Players must make it clear to the Speaker how they wish to send and receive messages (including the details of their email address etc. where appropriate), these messages include (but are not limited to) : proosals, CFJ's, proosal results and votes.
Communication Between Players
At first all Players send and receive messages by email. The Speaker has the right to refuse any changes to this arrangement.
Rule 405If any rule calls for a message, action, announcement or any game function to be public, the appropriate message must be sent to all non-Vegetable players. It is considered good form to also send the message to all observers. If any non-Vegetable players or observers share an email address, sending one copy of the message to that address is sufficient, unless another rule states explicitly otherwise.
Public Announcements
If the rules state that a player may perform an action, and do not otherwise specify how that action is to be performed, then that action must be performed publicly.
Rule 410Any player may Vegetate by posting a public message stating that they are doing so; and also stating the dates their Vegetation will start and finish.
Fruit n veg
During this period, including the given start and finish dates, the player is known as a Vegetable - these are the only times a player may be known as a Vegetable.
At any time a Vegetable may announce to all players that he is returning from his Vegetation; when he does so, the finish date of his Vegetation becomes the date that his message was received by the Speaker's mail server, and he ceases to be known as a Vegetable.
A Vegetable may publicly request that he become an observer. If he does so, he will be considered an observer for the duration of his current Vegetation.
Rule 415If at any time it is the case that a non-Vegetable player has abstained on the 5 proosals whose voting periods ended most recently, and that player has not become a Vegetable since the distribution of the most recent of those proosals, then any public message (from another player) pointing out these facts will cause the player to become a Vegetable, with a start date of the current date and a finish date of the 21st of April, 2048.
For the Jedi It Is Time to Vegetate As Well!
Rule 501The rules define the only ways to win a cycle.
Major Cycles in RFN (or Ad Nauseam)
When a player wins a Major Cycle the following things occur :
(1) He gains the title provided by the winner of the previous Major Cycle, or the quoted title "Major Cycle Winner n" (where n is replaced by the smallest ordinal number such that that is a unique title) if no such title has been specified
(2) He may provide a name for the next Major Cycle. Until he does so, that Major Cycle shall be nameless
(3) He may provide a title for the player who wins the next Major Cycle, as described in (1)
(4) Each player's score is set to zero.
(5) The final paragraph of rule 605 is removed, with the exception of the first sentence. (If rule 605 is ever renumbered all references to rule 605 in this paragraph will likewise be changed; If rule 605 is ever repealed this paragraph shall be removed.)
(6) All players are made living.
Winning a Cycle has no effects on the game other than those described in this rule.
Rule 502If at any time, only one player has a score of 300 points or more then that player wins the current Major Cycle. This method of winning is called Winning by Points.
Winning By Points
Rule 503When a proosal is adopted, those players who voted against it receive 5 Wise Moon Apples each. A player whose proosal is adopted also receives 10 Wise Moon Apples.
Scoring When A Proosal Is Adopted
Rule 504When a proosal is defeated, those players who voted for it fnord receive 5 Wise Moon Apples each. A player whose proosal is defeated gains 10 biscuits.
Scoring When A Proosal Is Defeated
Rule 505
Scoring When Quorum Isn't Reached
If a proosal's prescribed voting period ends and quorum is not reached on that proosal, all players who voted for or against it receive a wise moon apple for every player needed to have reached quorum. If the player who submitted the proosal did not vote fnord on it, he receives a biscuit for stupidity.
Rule 506A 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 judgement of the player to incur it, may be imposed.
Forfeiting The Game
Rule 510A player may submit a CFJ which alleges that the validity of some action cannot be determined with finality, or some action is equally valid and invalid, or that further play is impossible. If such a CFJ is judged true and is not overruled, then the player who submitted it wins the current Major Cycle. This method of winning is called winning by paradox.
Winning By Paradox
If, in the opinion of the judge, a CFJ which, if judged True, would lead to a player winning by paradox addresses substantially the same issues as a previous such CFJ which has been fnord judged True, that CFJ should receive a Judgement of Undecided.
Rule 512If at any time, only one player is not dead, then that player wins the current Major Cycle. This method of winning is called Winning by Assassination.
Royal Assassination
Rule 515Each player associated with them a score. This score is measured by an integral number of points. Points and scores are not entities.
Points
When the rules say that a player gains or loses a number of points, his score is increased or decreased by the appropriate number. The rules specify the only ways in which scores and points may be manipulated.
This rule takes precedence over all rules concerned with the manipulation of points or scores.
Rule 520Biscuits are the antithesis of Wise Moon Apples. Therefore, if at any time a player owns a quantity of both Biscuits and Wise Moon Apples, one of each is immediately destroyed.
Quicker, Easier, More Seductive
At any time a player may convert a number of Wise Moon Apples which he owns to either points or Donuts. He does so by publicly announcing how many of his Wise Moon Apples he wishes to so transform, and which of the options he wishes to transform them to. That number of the player's Wise Moon Apples are then destroyed, and for each Wise Moon Apple the player will gain either 1 point or 2 Donuts, depending on which he chose.
Rule 521Wise Moon Apples are ownable, non-transferable entities, which my only be manipulated as described in the rules.
Obi-Wan Has Taught You Well
If the rules state that a player gains or loses a number of Wise Moon Apples, that number is created or destroyed in the player's possession. If this would leave the player with a negative number of Wise Moon Apples, all of his Wise Moon Apples are instead destroyed and he gains a number of Biscuits equal to the absolute value of the negative number of Wise Moon Apples he would otherwise have had.
Rule 522Biscuits are ownable, non-transferable entities, which my only be manipulated as described in the rules.
All Too Easy
If the rules state that a player gains or loses a number of Biscuits fnord, that number is created or destroyed in the player's possession. If this would leave the player with a negative number of Biscuits, all of his Biscuits are instead destroyed and he gains a number of Wise Moon Apples equal to the absolute value of the negative number of Biscuits he would otherwise have had.
Rule 530ise Moon Apples, being foodstuffs, are not imperishable. This being the case, at the beginning of each calendar month, one half (to the nearest Wise Moon Apple) of each non-Vegetable player's Wise Moon Apples are destroyed, and the player gains twice that number of Donuts.
Best Before: See Core
Rule 530Biscuits, as is well known, are home to advanced nanotechnology, which only activates when present in large concentrations, and can create foodstuffs from thin air. This being the case, at the beginning of each calendar month, each player who owns more than 20 Biscuits will gain 10 Wise Moon Apples.
The Wellfare Game
Rule 601If, in the judgement of the Speaker, there is a Bug in one of the rules, he may publicly distribute a Bug-Hunt, which must consist of a rule change that will fix that Bug. The Speaker should give each Bug-Hunt a unique integral number to identify it.
Bug Hunting
If a non-Vegetable player disagrees with the Bug-Hunt, he may object to it by announcing that he is doing do.
If, after three days, no player has objected to the Bug-Hunt, then the amendment in the Bug-Hunt will be applied.
[Examples of Bugs include:
(1) Extraneous or missing punctuation.
(2) Misspelled words.
(3) The use of an incorrect word, e.g. using "tradeable" where "transferable" is intended.
(4) A badly named or numbered rule.
(5) The complete crash of the game.]
Rule 605At the beginning of each calendar week the following steps are performed precisely once, in the order in which they appear:
All the Madmen
1) The speaker randomly selects a rule which is numbered less than 10000. This rule is called the Socket, but only for historical reasons.
2) The speaker randomly selects a paragraph within that rule.
3) The speaker randomly selects a sentence within that paragraph.
4) The speaker randomly selects a word within that sentence.
5) Immediately after the last letter of that word, the quoted string " fnord" is inserted into the rule.
The word "fnord" shall be assumed to have no meaning where it appears in the rules, until Transcendental Illumination is achieved by all players (in a rule-defined way), at which time it will be known to have no meaning.
Rule 701Certain Titles may be Positions. A Position is a Title which may carry with it some Duties, some Privileges, and some Payment. For any Position X, the holder of that position may be referred to as "the X". A player who holds any Position may be referred to as a Functionary.
Various Positions
Duties are tasks which Functionaries must perform to the best of their ability. If it is pointed out that a Functionary has not correctly performed one of their Duties, they must correct the error.
Privileges are actions which Functionaries may perform, if they desire to do so.
Payment is any form of recompense, in the form of Donuts, points, or other entities which are given to Functionaries in return for performing their Duties.
If the rules state that any Payment takes place daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, and do not otherwise specify what those periods refer to, they shall be considered to mean at the beginning of each calendar period.
If the rules state that any Duty or Privilege may or must be performed daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, and do not otherwise specify what those periods refer to, then it may be performed at most once within that calendar period.
If at any time a Position has no Holder, and if there is no Election currently being held for that Position, then an Election for that Position shall be held, with the Speaker as Caller. If at any time the Position of Speaker has no holder, then any player may Call an election for it. Whoever is Elected shall then become the Holder of that Position.
Rule 703A Functionary may have a duty to track something. If this is the case, then that Functionary must keep a record of the state of that thing. This need only be at the current time, unless the Functionary has a duty to track that thing historically, in which case the state of that thing in the past must be recorded as well. [For example, if the Speaker is required to track the Rules, then the Speaker must keep a record of the current rules, and if the Speaker is required to track Proosals fnord historically, then the Speaker must track all Proosals ever.]
Tracking
When a Functionary has a duty to track something, then that Functionary must make available on public request the current state of that thing. This may be done either by sending a public message containing that information, or by maintaining a web page detailing that information, providing that the URL of that web page has been publicly announced. It is considered Good Form for a Functionary to also respond to private requests for the state of anything he tracks, but it is not required.
Rule 710Any Functionary may, at any time, attempt to transfer any Position they hold to an other non-Vegetable player publicly stating that they are doing so, specifying which Position is involved. If the other player publicly accepts the transfer within 3 fnord days, the Position is transferred.
Passing the Mantle
Rule 715If at any time a player feels that a Functionary is not performing their duties to the best of their ability, they may call for the Impeachment of that player from that Position.
Impeachment
Impeachment is a Hearing, except that the player under Impeachment may not vote in the Hearing. Nor may any non-player voters. The Caller is the person who called for the Impeachment. Valid votes are "Don't Impeach" and "Impeach".
When the Hearing is over, the Functionary will be removed from office if and only if at least two thirds of the votes cast in the Hearing were "Impeach", and that number was more than half the number of active registered players. This paragraph, and the preceding one, take precedence over all rules dealing with Hearings in so far as is necessary.
When the holder of a Position is removed from office, they lose that Position, and simultaneously the player who called for the Impeachment gains that Position.
No player may call for an Impeachment more often than once per calendar week, nor may any player have an Impeachment called against them more than once per calendar week. Any attempt to call for an Impeachment which would violate any of these conditions fails.
Rule 750There is one Position of Speaker.
The Position of Speaker
The Position of Speaker has the following Duties:
1. The Speaker must track the Rules.
2. The Speaker must track Proosals historically.
3. The Speaker must track CFJs historically fnord.
4. The Speaker must track Bug-Hunts historically.
5. The Speaker must track Shocks historically.
The Position of Speaker has no Privileges fnord.
The Position of Speaker has the following Payments:
1. The Speaker receives 15 Donuts per week.
Rule 755There is one position of Stuff-Meister.
The Position of Stuff-Meister
The Position of Stuff-Meister has the following Duties:
1. The Stuff-Meister must track scores.
2. The Stuff-Meister must track entities, and ownership thereof.
3. The Stuff-Meister must track entrance requirements.
4. The Stuff-Meister must track Supreme Court Appeals historically.
5. The Stuff-Meister must track titles.
6. The Stuff-Meister must track Cycles and winners of Cycles historically.
The Position of Stuff-Meister has no Privileges.
The Position of Stuff-Meister has the following Payments:
1. The Stuff-Meister receives 15 Donuts per week.
Rule 760There is one position of JellyBaby.
The position of JellyBaby
The position of JellyBaby has the following duties:
1. The JellyBaby must track the game of Juggling Jelly.
The position of JellyBaby has no privileges
The position of JellyBaby has the following payment:
1. The JellyBaby recieves one Donut per month.
Rule 765There is one position of MixMaster. If any duty of the MixMaster would otherwise be a duty of the Stuff-Meister, the former is considered to be the sole officer required to perform that duty. This rule takes precedence over rule 703 ("Tracking").
The Position of MixMaster
The position of MixMaster has the following duties:
1. The MixMaster must track Jukebox songs.
2. The MixMaster must track Wise Moon Apples and biscuits gained as a result
of the Jukebox.
The position of MixMaster has no privileges.
The position of MixMaster has the following payments:
1. The MixMaster receives 5 donuts per week.
Rule 1001
Entities
Entities are imaginary things which are, for the purpose of the game, treated to some extent as if they existed. Entities have no properties which can effect the rules or game fnord state other than those defined in the rules.
Rule 1002
Avatars
Associated with every player is one non-transferable entity known as an avatar.
A player controls his avatar directly through his actions in accordance with the rules then in effect. By using his avatar a player may interact with entities, including other avatars. Players can not directly interact with entities other than their avatars; they must instead use their avatars to do such things.
If a player is said to perform an action, and the action involves an entity, it is assumed that the player performs the action by way of controlling his avatar. Likewise, if an action is to be performed upon a player, or if a status is to be placed upon the player, if an entity is involved, the action is assumed to happen to the player's avatar.
Commonsense may dictate that at other times when the player is said but the player's avatar is meant. When this occurs, interpret it to mean the player's avatar.
Rule 1003Entities may be named or unnamed. Names may be any string containing letters, digits, spaces, or any of "? / \ ! £ $ % & * , . ( ) - + = * ^ @ # ' ~". For the purposes of the rules, these symbols constitute the set of characters.
Name That Thing
Any name may be at most 128 characters long, unless the rules state otherwise. The name of a player may be at most 32 characters long.
Each entity name must be unique within the set of entity names. Each rule name must be unique within the set of rule names. An entity may, however, have the same name as a rule, if that name is otherwise a legal entity name. If two entities have at any time the same name, then the second entity to have the name shall be renamed using the method defined later in this rule. If the order in which they were named can not be determined in the opinion of the speaker, or if they obtained the name at the same time, the speaker shall randomly choose which name shall be renamed.
All players must have a unique name. A player may not change their name. Initially, all players have a name identical to the name that appears in the From field of their email, or the first characters up to a maximum of 32 characters of that field if the name would otherwise be invalid according to this rule.
All rules must be named, and the name of a rule may be of any length. If ever any rule has no name or an illegal name, that rule receives a name consisting of the quoted phrase "Rule X", where X is replaced by the number of that rule. If two rules are given the same name, the rule with the greater number is renamed as per this paragraph. A proosal which creates a new rule may specify a name for that rule, and that rule will be created with that name.
The following steps are taken in the given order if the rules call for an entity to be renamed because of an ambiguous name:
1) A space (quote delimited character " ") is appended to the name.
2) The lowest natural number, where a natural number is an integer greater than zero, that will not result in an ambiguous name, is appended to the name.
3) If the name exceeds the allowed name size, the character directly proceeding the number is deleted and step 2 is repeated unless the name would no longer have any non-digit characters, in which case the speaker gives the entity an arbitrary legal name.
Rule 1005The rules may specify that certain entities may own entities. The term "owner" as used in the rules refers to an entity which owns another entity.
Ownership
Avatars may own entities. If a player is said to own an entity, it is really his avatar which is meant to own the entity in question.
A transferable entity may be assigned to another entity capable of owning that entity when it is created, in which case the transferable entity is owned by the other entity; otherwise, the transferable entity is unowned.
A player may choose to transfer any transferable entity he owns to another entity at any time, provided the recipient is capable of owning that entity. Once this transfer is publicly announced, the chosen recipient becomes the owner of the entity. The previous owner loses all rights of ownership over the entity when this occurs.
The rules specify the only ways in which transferable entities may be transferred.
The rules specify the only ways in which non-transferable entities may be owned.
Rule 1010Any entity may have a title. Only the rules may specify the conditions which must be met before an entity receives a given title, which entities are eligible to receive that title and what effects having this title confers.
Titles
Titles are defined in the same way as names but need not be unique and may be up to 128 characters long.
Rule 1050Zone Improvements are a specific kind of ownable, non-animate, non-transferable entity. Regardless of the location of the owner, a Zone Improvement remains in the zone in which was originally placed. The owner of a Zone owns all Zone Improvements within that Zone; therefore, if ownership of a Zone changes, ownership of all Zone Improvements within that Zone likewise change.
Zone Improvements
Rule 1075Animate entities are entities which are meant to represent or resemble things capable of thought within the game; inanimate entities are all other entities. Rules which create entities may, as an alternative to utilising this definition, declare the entities they create as either animate or inanimate.
Life and Death
Animate entities must either be living or dead. Unless otherwise stated in the rules, animate entities are living when created. If the rules declare an animate entity to be immortal, it can not be dead.
Rule 1076
Death Is Bad
Dead entities are unlively things. The following guidelines apply specifically to dead players, but are extended to other dead entities if the particular restriction is deemed to be applicable, unless otherwise stated:
1) Insults directed at dead players are not considered impolite.
2) A dead player may not change the zone in which he is located by the normal methods. This includes utilizing the vast system of underground tunnels constructed by Game Mechanics.
3) Dead players are ownable and transferable. Living players may take into thier posession any unowned dead player located in the same zome as they. While a dead player is owned, he is in the same zone as his owner. At any time, the owner of dead player may discard the dead player, at which time the dead player becomes again unowned. Owning a dead player grants the owner no rights except those included in this rule. If an owned dead player becomes alive, he is no longer owned, no longer ownable, and no longer transferable.
4) Upon becoming dead, all Wise Moon Apples owned by the dead player are distroyed.
This rule grants precedence to rules that give specific exceptions to dead players and other entities.
Rule 1078
Murder
Murder is an action by which a player may willfully render another player dead. This definition grants precedence to rules which specifically define an action that would otherwise be considered murder as not being murder.
Players become dead if they are murdered by another player or themselves. A player can murder another player only if the player being murdered is not a vegetable, the player being murdered is living, and is located on the same zone.
This rule in no way condones murder; it only recognises that it is possible.
Rule 1101There are 10 Electric Ants. These are non-player Voters. When all players have voted on a proosal, or instantaneously before the prescribed voting period on a proosal elapses, a number of Electric Ants equal to 3 minus the number of non-Vegetable registered players (or 0 if that would be a negative number) may vote on that proosal. The Speaker shall randomly determine, with equal probability, whether each of these Electric Ants abstains, votes for, or votes against. The exceptions are (1) proosals which attempt to overturn a CFJ, (2) proosals where all players have voted unanimously for or against ; Electric ants will not vote on such proosals fnord, as they are second-class citizens. Electric Ants are non-transferable, animate, immortal entities.
Random Voters
Rule 1105There exists a non-transferable, animate, immortal entity named Karma Police.. The Karma Police may own donuts. If at any time the Karma Police own more than 100 donuts, they will be considered bloated. If the Karma Police are bloated, any attempt to transfer donuts to them will fail. On the first day of every calendar month the Karma Police will immediately transfer any donuts in their possession to the Donut Warehouse.
This Is What You Get
(insane dribble)
If, at any time, a proposal is rejected, the Karma Police will arrest the player who submitted that proposal for a period of three days (beginning simultaneously after the results for that proposal were posted by the speaker) if and ONLY if that proposal received less than two votes for. While a player is under arrest, he cannot move to another location unless required to by another rule.
The Karma Police accept kickbacks. Any player who is under arrest may escape arrest by transferring 50 donuts to the Karma Police.
Rule 1110Donuts are the currency of Radio Free Nomic. Donuts are nameless, transferable entities, which may be owned only by players, the Donut Warehouse, or other entities which the rules explicitly state may own Donuts. Donuts may not be created or destroyed, or split into smaller fractions. If fnord ever the rules specify a fractional number of Donuts are being used in any transaction the number shall be rounded. If no method of rounding is specified for that transaction, then the number shall be rounded to the nearest integer. If a Donut transfer is attempted which would leave any entity with a negative number of Donuts, that transfer shall fail.
Mmmm, Donuts
Any new fnord player joining the game gets 500 donuts when they do so.
Rule 1111The Donut Warehouse is a named, non-transferable, unownable entity. The Donut Warehouse is the place where all Donuts which are not in circulation are stored. Whenever the rules state that an entity gains or loses a number of Donuts, but do not otherwise say where the Donuts are coming from or going to, they are transferred between that entity and the Donut Warehouse.
Donut Repository
The Donut Warehouse is also the repository for sundry other entities. For this purpose, the Donut Warehouse may own any ownable entity.
Rule 1113
Dollars
There exist entities known as dollars. If a number is proceeded by the double quote delimited "$", the number refers to a fnord number of dollars.
Rule 1115There is one Sceptre of Pedantry. This is a non-transferable entity, which is always owned by the current Grand Pedantic Wizard.
I Divine My Deeper Motive
Rule 1116There is one Position of Grand Pedantic Wizard.
Your Powers Are Strong Old Man
The Position of Grand Pedantic Wizard has the following Duties:
1. If he receives any proosal from a player who states, "Please make this work." he will evaluate and reword that proosal if he deems it necessary and return it to the fnord player.
2.
The Position of Grand Pedantic Wizard has the following Privileges:
1. He may mock the wording of any proosal not submitted by himself by stating publicly, "I decree that this proosal sucketh", he may then offer an explanation for the crapness of such a proosal.
2. He may praise the wording of any proosal not submitted by himself by stating publicly, "This proosal is pedantic to a masterful degree."
The Position of Grand Pedantic Wizard has the following Payments:
1. The Grand Pedantic fnord Wizard receives 1 Donut per year.
Rule 1120There exists a animate, non-transferable entity named the Voting Whore. The Voting Whore is a non-player Voter.
Donuts for Votes
A player may, before voting on a proosal is over, attempt to bribe The Voting
Whore by notifying the Speaker of:
(1) The proosal the bribe is for.
(2) The amount of the bribe. This must be an integral number of Donuts greater
than 4 and less than or equal to the number of Donuts owned by that player.
(3) How the player wishes The Voting Whore to vote.
If, at the time The Voting Whore votes, a player does not have enough Donuts to pay his bribe, his bribe will be considered invalid, and be ignored for the purposes of determining how The Voting Whore votes.
When all players have voted on the proosal, or instantaneously before the prescribed voting period on that proosal elapses, The Voting Whore will vote in accordance with the highest bribe received on that proosal. If more than one bribe has an equal value, the Speaker will randomly determine which bribe The Voting Whore will vote in accordance with. If no bribes were received on that proosal, The Voting Whore will abstain from voting.
When The Voting Whore votes, all players who attempted to bribe it lose an amount of Donuts equal to the amount of their bribes, or all their Donuts, whichever is less.
Rule 1125There are an infinite number of Game Mechanics. Game Mechanics are nameless, animate, immortal, non-transferable, unownable entities. There are an infinite number of Game Spanners. These are nameless, non-transferable entities. Each Game Spanner is owned by a Game Mechanic.
The Game Mechanics
Whenever the rules call for any alteration in the rules, this alteration will be performed by a Game Mechanic, using his Game Spanner.
Whenever ownership of any entity is transferred, a chain of Game Mechanics will instantaneously pass the entity along between the old and new owners.
Game Mechanics and Game Spanners have no effects on the game other than their existence. This rule grants precedence to all other rules, except those dealing in any way with biscuits or any other non-Donut confectionery, over which it takes precedence. Game Mechanics are gnomes.
Rule 1130The Big Giant Stomping Foot of Death is an non-transferable, immortal, animate entity, which owns itself. It is also a Foot.
The Big Giant Stomping Foot of Death
At the beginning of every calendar week, The Big Giant Stomping Foot of Death shall move to a randomly determined Zone adjacent to the one it is in.
Any animate, living, mortal entities in the same Zone as The Big Giant Stomping Foot of Death become dead.
Regardless of any other entrance requirements of the Zone the The Big Giant Stomping Foot of Death is in, no player may voluntarily enter that Zone, nor may any player pass through that Zone while going to another Zone. This paragraph takes precedence over all other rules governing the movement of players that would otherwise conflict with it.
All Zone Improvements in the same Zone as The Big Giant Stomping Foot of death are destroyed, unless specifically granted exclusion in the rules.
Those players who have been made dead by The Big Giant Stomping Foot of Death are permitted to use the phrase "When you think Giant Stomping Feet of Death, think The Big Giant Stomping Foot of Death" in public messages, CFJs and proosals, a privilege denied to all other players.
Rule 1135The RFN Jukebox is an unownable entity. It contains a number of records, which are each entities owned by the Jukebox. Each record has a label, upon which is printed the name of the song, the album the song is taken from and the artist who performs the song.
The RFN Jukebox
A player may add a record to the Jukebox by paying 25 donuts. When he does so, he must state the song name, the artist, and the album to be printed on the label. Armed with this information, the Jukebox will manufacture for itself a new record; all this will only occur if it can find the song name, album and artist specified at either or both of the websites http://www.cdnow.com/ and http://www.cddb.com/ -- otherwise, it refunds the 25 donuts paid and beeps obnoxiously.
A player may play any record on the Jukebox by paying 10 donuts. When he does so, he must state unambiguously the record he is playing. The specified record begins playing continuously for three days. The Jukebox may play any number of records concurrently, although too many is discouraged as it causes a horrendous din on the mailing list.
While a record is playing, any player may publically post a line from that song, of at least seven words length. When the record stops playing, any players who submitted the same line, or lines which overlap by three or more words, gain 10 biscuits. Non-vegetable players who did not submit a line gain 5 biscuits. All other non-Vegetable players gain 10 Wise Moon Apples.
Rule 1140The following is a list of minor zone improvements, their cost, and their effects. A player may place any of these improvements in the zone he currently is in if he can cover the cost and he and the zone to be improved both meet all other noted requirements. Unless otherwise stated all cost is transferred to the Donut Warehouse when a player places a zone improvement in a zone. [When adding zone improvements to the game, use judgement as to whether or not they belong in this rule.]
A List of Minor Zone Improvements
* Loud Speakers. Any players in a zone with Loud Speakers when a song is played on the RFN Jukebox that would otherwise receive a reward or punishment because of the Jukebox will receive twice the gain or twice the punishment. Cost: $10.
Rule 1150
Still a pretty neat idea
Status in Radio Free Nomic is denoted by Digital Wristwatches, often referred to merely as Watches. Watches are non-transferable, non-discardable entities. Players should be proud of their collection of Digital Wristwatches. The opposite to Watches are Pants - no Players are proud of their Pants. If you are proud of your Pants, something is wrong. Pants are also non-transferable, non-discardable entities. They are referred to singly as 'a pair of Pants'.
Should amendment to the rules create new varieties of Watches or Pants, or if Watches or Pants are removed from the rules, the starred table in fnord this rule is immediately updated to reflect such changes.
Currently, the following Watches and Pants exist:
* The Digital Wristwatch of Playership. (Rule 1151)
* The Useless Pants. (Rule 1152)
* The Gelatinous Wristwatch (Rule 1153)
Rule 1151
The Wristwatch of Playership
All players gain a single Digital Wristwatch of Playership upon joining the game.
All players must own, at all times, a single Digital Wristwatch of Playership. Should they not own such a Watch, one is immediately created in their possession. Should they own multiple, all but one is destroyed. No player may ever discard a Digital Wristwatch of Playership.
Rule 1152
The good, the bad and the useless
The player who has had the highest number of their proosals rejected, immediately gains a pair of Useless Pants. If multiple players qualify for Useless Pants, they all gain Useless Pants.
Should a player stop qualifying - ie, has no longer had the most proosals rejected fnord - any Useless Pants they may have owned are removed from the game. Should they own multiple, all but one is destroyed.
Rule 1153A player gains a Gelatinous Wristwatch if they have won the most games of Juggling Jelly. A player loses a Gelatinous Wristwatch if ever they fail to qualify for gaining one. Should they own multiple, all but one is destroyed.
Gelatinous Wristwatch
Rule 1154A player may choose at any time to be fitted out for a pair of Pants of Musical Ineptitude, if they do so, a pair is immediately created in their possession. A player may also destroy such a pair of pants they own at any time three days after they came into their possession.
Pants of Musical Ineptitude
A player wearing such a pair of pants does not gain Wise Moon Apples or biscuits from the RFN Jukebox and is discouraged from submitting lines while a song is playing. This rule takes precedence over any other rule dealing with the jukebox.
Rule 1201(1) Supreme Court Sessions
The Supreme Court of RFN
A call to invoke a session of the Supreme Court is called a Court Appeal. The rules identify the only ways in which Court Appeals may be submitted.
A session of the Supreme Court lasts from the time invoked until all appropriate decisions have been made. The Supreme Court consists of two people who have the following titles: the Supreme Court Judge and the Law Talking Guy.
(2) Verdicts
The members of the Supreme Court must discuss the matter raised in the Court Appeal and then pass a verdict. This verdict must accord with the current rules. If the current rules are silent or unclear on the matter in question, game custom should guide the verdict.
There are three possible verdicts : True, False or Undecided. The Law Talking Guy may make his recomendations to the Supreme Court Judge but the latter's decision is final and over-rules that of the former if they conflict.
Once a verdict has been reached and all players have been informed; any necessary actions are taken, then the session of the Supreme Court ends.
(3) Complicity
If a member of the Supreme Court is deemed to be Complicit in any matter raised by a Court Appeal he loses his title for the duration of the session involved. If this member was the Supreme Court Judge then the Law Talking Guy loses his title and gains the title Supreme Court Judge for the duration of the current session. If there is no Law Talking Guy, the speaker must randomly select a non-Complicit player to replace the Law Talking Guy and receive his title for the duration of the session involved. The rules define the only ways in which players may be Complicit.
(4) Resignation
A player may resign his position in the Supreme Court at any time. He does so by stating this fact to all other players and nominating a player to replace him. This player must not be a current member of the Supreme Court, complicit in a current Court Appeal. The nominated player then receives the title held by the resigning player who instantaneously loses it.
Rule 1202The laws of RFN are not rules in themselves but they are guidelines which may be broken by any player. These laws define part of game custom and breaking them may result in punishment by the Supreme Court. The laws of RFN are as follows :
The Laws of RFN
(1) No player may attempt to cause the violation of a shrine. Violation of a shrine means the amendment, repeal, renumbering or any other alteration of any rule defined as a shrine. This law does not include the violation of shrines which describe the resignation, expulsion or otherwise destruction of an entity which has rejoined the game since the creation of the shrine.
(2) No player may disobey the rules of RFN or otherwise act on a misinterpreted version of them. Where the rules define it, such a move would be invalid, but this law also includes any attempt to disobey the rules where other players remain unaware of a move's invalidity. For example, the rigging of random elements of the game by the player responsible for those elements.
(3) A member of the Supreme Court must rule impartially. For example, he may not decide against a win by paradox for the sole reason of denying a player victory.
(4) All players must be polite in their dealings with other players.
(5) Players must not murder other players.
(6) The Grand Pedantic Wizard must not reveal publicly what proosals he has amended by the method outlined in rule 1116, or which players have received his advice.
(7) Players must not mention RFN or other, inferior Nomics on alt.games.nomic unless they are feigning ignorance of these subjects or are compelled to by the rules.
Rule 1203A player (who will be identified as the Caller) may submit a Court Appeal to the Supreme Court Judge if he believes an RFN law to have been broken. This message must : (1) identify a player whom the caller believes may have broken a law of RFN and (2) identify the approximate time and circumstances of this occurence. If this Court Appeal accuses any member of the Supreme Court, that member will be deemed to be Complicit.
Crime & Punishment
If a verdict of True is reached, the Supreme Court should then decide on a punishment, which will then occur. Punishments include :
(1) The accused player loses a number of points between 1 and 50
(2) The accused player loses a number of donuts between 1 and 100
(3) A number of donuts between 1 and 100 are transfered from the accused player to another player deemed to be the injured party.
The Supreme Court must decide unanimously which of these punishments or combination of punishments is to be levied against the accused player and the magnitude of any penalty involved.
Rule 1204A non-Vegetable player may at any time publicly announce that he is forming a Drunken Posse and he is the leader. All non-Vegetable players who are not members of the Supreme Court must then join this Drunken Posse.
Vigilante Group
The leader of a Drunken Posse may publicly perform one of the following actions :
(1) He may call for a Bad Court Thingy on any verdict reached by the Supreme Court. All members of the Drunken Posse must make it publicly known whether they support this call or not. If all members of the Drunken Posse support the Bad Court Thingy the appropriate Supreme Court verdict is overturned (ie becomes Undecided) and all effects of that verdict are reversed.
(2) He may call for the Lynching of any member of the Supreme Court. All members of the Drunken Posse must make it publicly known whether they support this call or not. If all members of the Drunken Posse support this call then the member of the Supreme Court loses his title and it is granted to the leader of the Drunken Posse.
Once the results of an action have been decided, the Drunken Posse is disbanded whether the action was successful or not.
Rule 1301The Map is a square grid of Zones, with the rows and fnord columns identified sequentially by the numbers 1 to 9.
What is the Map?
Rule 1302Zones are transferable entities. They are square.
What is a Zone?
All Zones have a Grid Reference, in the form (column, row) - where 'column' and 'row' are the numbers of the column and fnord the row the Zone resides in on the Map. A Zone may be unambiguously identified by it's Grid Reference.
All Zones also have a Name, consisting of a text string which may be altered at any time by the Zone's Owner (Nobody Else). If a Zone has not had a Name specified, it's Name becomes it's Grid Reference.
All Zones have Entrance Requirements, consisting of a text string which may be altered at any time, but only by the Zone's owner.
Where two Zones have Grid References in which column and/or fnord row differ by no more than 1, the two Zones are adjacent.
[ Practically speaking, this just means that Zones are adjacent if they are
situated side-by-side or diagonally next to eachother ]
Rule 1303A Zone may be Common Ground. Common Ground Zones have no Entrance Requirements - that is to say, their Entrance Requirements consist of a blank string.
Common Ground
The Owner of a Zone with no Entrance Requirements may state he is changing that Zone to Common Ground. The specified Zone becomes Common Ground, and the Owner gains 50 donuts. Zones which are already Common Ground may not be changed to Common Ground in this way (as that would be silly.)
No players may buy fnord Common Ground. No Players may change the Entrance Requirements of Common Ground.
Rule 1304Players may move between Zones by publically specifying their destination Zone.
Movement
The Player must have a clear path to the destination Zone, and must meet the Entrance Requirements to every Zone in the clear path, except the Start Zone.
A clear fnord path is a sequence of Zones, including Start and Destination Zones, where each successive Zone is adjacent to the previous one.
All entities owned by a Player, except Zones and Zone Improvements, are located in the same Zone as their Owner, and move with their Owner.
New Players start the game in Zone (1,1). They have 72 hours after their registration with which to choose another Zone to start in, and provided they satisfy the Entrance Requirements, they will be immediately transported straight there.
Rule 1305A Player may buy the Zone he is located in, provided it is not already owned by a Player, and the buyer is the only Player in the Zone. Buying a Zone in this way costs 100 donuts.
Buying Zones
Rule 1340The game mechanics, in their never-ending search for biscuits, have created a network of underground tunnels from which they may access any place in the land of their existence. The gnome population though, is increasingly dwindling as death-rates rise and birth-rates fall. The game mechanics need biscuits to survive. As such they offer their services to players of RFN, to be treated like other objects and passed along their underground tunnels to other destinations. Game mechanics though are foolish and can be tricked by players into believing that donuts, which, like all gnomes, game mechanics despise are in fact biscuits.
Join The Party
As a result any player may ask the game mechanics to take them to another zone, providing the player meets the entrance requirements of that zone. To do so the player must give 50 donuts to the game mechanics, which they instantly eat thus removing them from the players possession. on their next visit to the donut warehouse, occurring instantaneously after the player appears in the zone they have been taken to, the game mechanics, now realising they have been tricked, throw up the donuts whole thus leaving them in the ownership of the donut warehouse.
The player must also specify which zone they wish to be carried to. The player then instantaneously appears in that designated zone.
Should the player not wish to part with so many donuts they may offer 25 donuts to the game mechanics who will then eat, the donuts, resulting them being returned to the donut warehouse by the same process as detailed above, and carry the player to a randomly determined zone in which the player meets all the entrance requirements.
The rules specify the only way on which players may change their location. This rule in no way defines the state of existence of the playing area or the players of RFN.
Rule 1350
Business As Usual
A player may declare any zone that he owns a "business venture" if the zone has no entrance requirements.
Business ventures can have no entrance requirements, and can not be declared common ground. Once declared a business venture, the title may be removed only if the zone has been a business venture for thirty days.
At the beginning of every calendar week, each player is given one dollar from the Donut Warehouse for every business venture that he owns.
If the Donut Warehouse ever lacks sufficient dollars to reward all players adequately, the players are paid for one zone at a time, with the players being paid in alphabetic order according to name. Once the end of the alphabet has been reached, the cycle begins again, and the cycle continues until all dollars are used.
Rule 1401A Rule may specify circumstances under which a Hearing is called. When this happens, the Caller shall publicly announce that a Hearing has been called, citing the rule that requires it and the circumstances that brought it about, and telling the valid responses (and other pertinent details). As of this announcement, the Hearing is in session.
Hearings
The Speaker shall be the Caller unless the rules specify someone else for that duty for a particular Hearing.
While the Hearing is in session, each non-Vegetable Player may send his or her response to that Hearing to the Caller privately. The Caller shall record each response that matches one of the valid responses for the Hearing. If a non-Vegetable Player who has already responded sends another valid response, the Caller shall discard the previous response and record the new one. Any response contained in a post that does not unambiguously identify the Hearing it is in response to, even if only one Hearing is in progress, is invalid. Non-player voters may not vote in hearings, unless a rule says otherwise for a specific type of hearing.
The Hearing shall end when it has been in session for three days, unless another rule defines a longer period of time for a particular Hearing. When it ends, it ceases to be in session.
Once a Hearing has ended, it has a verdict. The verdict of the Hearing is whichever valid response was given by the most non-Vegetable Players, and other entities capable of voting in hearings, in response to the Hearing, if exactly one valid response holds this distinction. Otherwise, if there is a tie among two or more responses, or there were no responses, the result of the Hearing is said to be inconclusive.
When the results of a Hearing are inconclusive, the Caller shall recount the
votes, discounting any cast by a non-player voter. If the result is still
inconclusive, the result is whichever of the tied responses appears first in
the Rule defining them, unless the Rule for a particular hearing defines an
alternative way to resolve the inconclusive hearing.
A hearing may be retracted any time before its result is announced by the
non-Vegetable player who put it forward.
Rule 1411A Rule may specify circumstances under which a Nomination is called. When this happens, the Caller shall publicly announce that a Nomination has been called, citing the rule that requires it and the circumstances that brought it about. As of this announcement, the Nomination is in session.
Nominations
The Speaker shall be the Caller unless the rules specify someone else for that duty for a particular Nomination.
While the Nomination is in session, each non-Vegetable Player may Nominate himself for that Nomination, and so be named a Nominee, provided he is Eligible for that Nomination.
All players are Eligible for a Nomination, unless the rules state otherwise.
Any attempt to Nominate oneself that does not unambiguously identify the Nomination it is in response to, even if only one Nomination is in progress, is invalid.
The Nomination shall end when it has been in session for three days, unless another rule defines a longer period of time for a particular Nomination. When it ends, it ceases to be in session.
When a Nomination has ended, there will be a list of Nominees, made up of the names of all those who Nominated themselves, which the Caller must report.
Rule 1415When the Rules specify that an Election is to be held, the Caller shall first call for a Nomination for that Election, citing the Election it is for when he Calls it. When that Nomination has ended, the list of Nominees it produces shall become the list of Candidates for the Election. If any players are not Eligible for an Election, then they shall not be Eligible for the Nomination for that Election.
Elections
If the Rules state that the list of Candidates for a particular Election is to be determined in some other way, then that shall take precedence over the preceding paragraph.
The Caller shall then call the Election, which is a Hearing, the valid responses for which shall be the list of Candidates.
When the Election has ended, the verdict shall be the player who has been Elected.
Rule 1501Societies are non-transferable entities. Societies are non-player voters.
Everything Lasts Forever
(1) Forming an Society
Any Player may create a new Society by publicly announcing its name. When this happens, that Player becomes the Founder of the new Society and its only member.
Any player may publicly request membership in a Society. The Founder may then publicly grant the request. When a request for membership is granted, the player becomes a member of the Society. The Founder of a Society may also publicly establish an open admissions policy for that Society, which means that anyone can join that Society at any time by publicly announcing that they are doing so. The Founder of a Society may publicly revoke the open admissions policy, at which time it ceases to be in effect.
A player may be the founder of only one society, but may be a member in up to two societies.
(2) Society Disbandment
The rules may call for the disbandment of a Society. When a Society is disbanded, the Society is then no more. A Society is disbanded upon it having no members.
(3) Player Liberty Clause
No player may become a member of a Society without first publicly expressing their consent to joining it. A player may leave a Society of which he or she is a member at any time by publicly announcing that they are doing so.
(4) Society Uniqueness
No societies may have identical membership. If an action is attempted which would leave two or more societies with identical membership that action automatically fails.
(5) Society Votes
Instantaneously before the prescribed voting period on that proosal elapses, a society will vote for that proosal if (1) all members of that Society who are voters voted for it (2) the society has at least three members who are voters. Otherwise the Society will abstain.
Rule 1503Any player who is a founder of a society may publically remove the membership of any player currently in that society. They may also publically disband that organisation at any time, thus removing the membership of all players who are members of that organisation.
Founder Actions
Rule 1601If, during the previous 7 days, any player has used the word "logically" more than twice in public messages, that player's name shall be changed to "Green Blooded Sonuvabitch n", where n is the lowest ordinal number greater than 1 such that that is a unique name.
That, Sir, is Illogical
Rule 1605Any rule may be publicly defined as a shrine upon its creation by the player who proposed it so long as it fulfills the following conditions :
Shrines
(1) It makes no change to the rules or game play other than its existence as a rule
(2) It mentions one of the following, i) the resignation or expulsion of a player ii) a previous state of affairs in the history of the game which is no longer true or in effect iii) the infliction of a non-existent state upon, or otherwise destruction of, an entity.
Rule 1610A rule shall be defined as (insane dribble) or if it is this rule shall be defined as (D'oh!) if and only if it fulfils at least one of the following major criteria :
Insane Dribble
(D'oh!)
(1) Its first line was the intended name of the rule
(2) It contains the phrase "sees fit"
(3) It specifies that donuts are transferred to the donut warehouse and it is not rule 1111
(4) It contains the phrase "as per the current rules" or the abbreviation "APTCR"
or at least two of the following minor criteria :
(1) It fnord was originally created by a proosal which was publicly mocked by the Grand Pedantic Wizard
If at any time rule 1111 is renumbered, replace all instances of the number 1111 in this rule with its new number.
Rule 1615All players, not the speaker, should be authorised to use the 'force of the biscuit' against fnord the speaker, thus nulling the speaker's voice and renaming him/her the muter.
The Biscuit Right
Rule 1620In shape, the Universe is a hollow torus (that is, the Universe is shaped like a Donut).
Cosmology
The Universe is a named, unownable, non-transferable entity. All other entities are contained within the Universe, and the Universe is not contained within any Zone.
Any questions about what lies outside the Universe may be met with any degree of scorn, because there can by definition be no "outside" to the Universe.
Rule 1630If at any time one player has more Donuts than any other player, that player gains the title "Poory than the Bill Gates of RFN"; this title is lost if they no longer have more Donuts than any other player.
Mmm... Tasty Donuts...
If at any time one player has more Donuts than any other player who does not have the title "Poory than the Bill Gates of RFN", that player gains the title "The Bill Gates of RFN"; this title is lost if they no longer have more Donuts than any other player who does not have the title "Poory than the Bill Gates of RFN".
Rule 1660There exists a BBC micro running a classy text adventure game. A player may type any command onto the Micro at any time by publically announcing they are doing so on the mailing list, provided they have not done so in the previous 96 hours, that they weren't the most recent player to type a move, and provided some response text has been provided for the most recent command.
Rule 1660
This rule has the title Crowther and Woods
Players are encouraged to post commands and responses 'in spirit'; simple commands such as "LOOK" or "LASSOO PEDESTAL" or "JUMP OVER GREAT BIG PIT" are OK; commands like "EXAMINE THE TEAPOT, LOOK, THEN JUMP OVER THE PIT WHILE LASSOOING THE PEDESTAL ON THE OTHER SIDE" are not OK, and would probably be greeted with a response like "I don't understand."
Rule 1692
This rule isn't very important.
In all game communications, when the double quote delimited word "to" is used unambiguously as an adjective, it is considered polite to imagine that it is the double quote delimited word "too". Likewise, it is considered impolite to mention this usage.
Rule 1701 - ShrineStuart Park was once a player in this game. He submitted approximately 40 proposals during his term as a player, and 5 passed. And then he left ... and there was much rejoicing.
GBS1's Shrine
Rule 1776Eno's 1975 album "Another Green World" is hereby recognised as the best album ever (yes, even better than Pearl Jam's "Vitalogy").
St. Elmo's Fire
To that end, players are encouraged to add songs from that album to, and play such songs on, the RFN Jukebox.
Rule 1800
Manifest Destiny
There exist other games which may be seen as similar to RFN. These games shall be referred to collectively as "other, inferior Nomics".
It is fnord hereby recognized that it is RFN's Manifest Destiny to rule over all other, inferior Nomics, the rest of the internet, and, in fact, the rest of the fnord Universe.
Rule 1810On the day of the passage of this rule, it is recognized that alt.games.nomic has been abandoned. Therefore, RFN claims it as its own.
That's No Moon
Players may post messages to alt.games.nomic discussing Star Wars, songs on the RFN Jukebox, and other subjects alluded to in RFN rules.
Rule 2050This is rule number 2050, not 2055 or 8253.
Don't forget this is 1999
Rule 10000This is rule 10000. It grants precedence to all other rules.
Rule 10000
Rule OmegaLet N be the number of this rule.
Rule Omega
Create a new rule, number N+1, with identical text to this rule, where all instances of N in this sentence are replaced with the appropriate value.
Amend this rule to have the following ### delimited text, where N is replaced by the appropriate value:
###
This is rule N. It grants precedence to all other rules.
###