you are perhaps wondering what i am going on about. here's a brief explanation. if after reading this you still find yourself in the dark *smirk* drop me an e-mail asking for clarification.... or check out the nomic FAQ.
nomic is a game played worldwide. it has many variants, each with a slightly different playing style. perhaps more importantly, each game of nomic, by its very nature, is unique. no two games are ever the same. though nomic: the masquerade is a new variant i have invented (i think - if anyone's done it before please tell me) it shares many of the basic nomic ideas...
basic nomic: the objective of nomic is both conceptually simple and exceptionally complicated. each player attempts, in competition with the other players, to become the winner.... that's it. i said the concept was simple. to do this however, the player must obey the rules, and rules are made up by the players...
dragon poker: at this point it may be worth mentioning that nomic is similar in this regard to a little game called dragon poker. i've never understood dragon poker and how its played, but players of that game should easily be able to notice similarities between it and nomic...
initial rules: each game of nomic starts with an initial set of rules. this is largely what sets each variant of nomic apart; imperial nomic starts with a different set of rules than minimist nomic, and i've just written a set of initial rules for nomic: the masquerade. throughout the game these rules are added to by the players.
from now on i will discuss the specific case of nomic: the masquerade.
proposals: players attempt to make additional rules by submitting proposals; one each turn. how to do this is detailed in the initial rules. if a proposal is accepted by the prince, the proposal becomes a rule. from then on all players (or any other entities that the rule refers to) must obey that rule, and all others that went before it. a proposal may not contradict a rule that has already been established... however the prince may ammend, add or remove a rule anytime they want.... they're the prince - they're in charge.
in this way players add to the rules kinda like parliament adds to the laws of the UK... or the senate makes ammendments and the like for the USA. unfortunately the prince is in charge, and he has final say, so it isn't the lovely democracy that everyone would love to live in if this was a perfect world... this is the world of the masquerade... *grin*
points of order: players may also submit points of order. these are primarily used for pointing out mistakes to the prince, the humble scribe, and the rest of the players. if there is a rules conflict, a player may inform everyone using a point of order. although a rules change may result from the submission of a point of order, they are not to be used to submit new rules - that's what proposals are for... if for example, a rules conflict was pointed out, then the prince would have to change the rules to remove the conflict. any points of order of any importance will be posted up on the relevant page.
that's pretty much it..... rules can be invented, players must play by the rules, and eventually one of them will win. what they must do to win (become the prince) is simple, but how they do that has yet to be proposed....
for examples of proposals and points of order, see....
