Eric's Tri-Nomic Proposal Wish List

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Please comment on and use these ideas.
Some ideas have been removed due to proposal or TPB deposit. They might still be listed below, though.

Minor Amendments
E12: "Double your vote or your money back"
E25: "Vacation Time"
E39: "Winning, losing and why we care."
E40: "Should I make this legible?"

Tri-nomic Offices
E09: "Along came a spider..."
E15: "Has the jury reached a verdict?"
E26: "The Officer in Charge of Random Things"

Non-player Voting Entities
E27: "Welcome to the twenty-first century...oops."
E28: "More power to you."
E29: "Does somebody need a hug?"
E30: "Efficiency in all things."
E31: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"
E32: "Mandatory discussion period"

Miscelaneous Ideas
E24: "Play Ball!"
E34: "The Viral Trans-Nomic Rule"
E35: "Who are we?"
E36: "Where are we?"
E37: "Acme Construction Company"

Ideas from Other Players
E22: "Fiend Folio"
M02: "Boxes within Boxes"
M03: "It's my Red Crayon"
M04: "Oil Paints or watercolor"
M07: "Acme Moving Company"

Minor Amendments

The following amend rules to make them better and/or add new features.

E12: "Double your vote or your money back"

[[ Intended for use after E39. ]]

Amend Rule #207 to read:

Each current winner who is an eligible voter has two votes. The other active eligible voters each have one vote.

E25: "Vacation Time"

Replace the fourth paragraph of Rule #315 with the following text:

Vacation: A players may place eir Status to Vacation at any time, by posting to the official mailing list a message containing anything to the effect of "I'm going on vacation." Players on Vacation automatically pass their turns.

Inactive: Players who have not actively cast any vote on a proposal during the previous 6 or more player turns, including the current turn, shall have the Player Activity Status of Inactive. Inactive players may not hold Tri-nomic Offices, and automatically pass their turns.

E33: "One For All"

[[ TPB deposit #22 ]]

Amend Rule #304 to read:

One or more players may at any time constitute a team, as follows:

  1. A team must have colours, a name, and a policy. These may not be changed except as specified in the rules. No team may have the same name or colours as any other team.

  2. A team's colours must consist of not less than two nor more than three colours from this list: Yellow, White, Gold, Silver, Pewter, Red, Blue, Black, Green, Purple, Orange, Teal. Furthermore, not less than one of a team's colours must be Yellow, White, Gold, Silver, or Pewter.

  3. A team's name must be either an English agentive noun (e.g. Maulers, Killers, Flamers, Raiders), an English noun referencing an animal (e.g. Panthers, Lions, Earwigs), or an English noun referencing an occupation (e.g. Doctors, Rangers, Pirates).

  4. A team's policy must be either Hippy, Communist, Democratic, or Tyrannical.

  5. A player may petition a team during their turn, by posting the petition to the official mailing list. That player joins the team if any of the following are true:
    1. The player is the first player to petition the team.
    2. The team's policy is Hippy.
    3. The team's policy is Communist and at least one member of that team posts an approval before the end of the turn.
    4. The team's policy is Democratic and a majority of that team's members post approvals before the end of the turn.
    5. The team's policy is Tyrannical and the first player to petition that team posts an approval before the end of the turn.

  6. The first player to petition a team must, in that post, state the team's colours, name, and policy.

  7. When the last member of a team leaves the team, the team ceases to exist.

  8. Teams are eligible voters. When a vote is taken, if all members of a team cast the same vote, and the team has three or more members, then the team shall cast that vote.

  9. A team's score is initially zero. Whenever the score of an entity changes, the score of each team of which that entity is a member change by an equal amount. This paragraph takes precedence over any other rule dictating the score of a team.

E39: "Winning, losing and why we care."

Amend Rule 313 to read:

A. Definition of winning:

At any moment, the current winners are the game entities which each have the greatest number of positive points.

B. Calculation:

  1. Each game entity has its own score independent of any entities which it contains, controls, or owns.
  2. If an entity is unable to possess points, its score is zero; otherwise, its score is the number of negative points it possesses subtracted from the number of positive points it possesses.
  3. A score of zero is neither positive nor negative.

C. Why we care:

At the end of each round, each current winner receives 5 TMU from the Tri-nomic Association Bank, and must taunt and ridicule non-winners. If a current winner fails to do so within 72 hours of the end of the round, then its score is set to the nearest positive prime less than its current score, or to one point if no such prime exists.

E40: "Should I make this legible?"

Amend Rule 320 to read:

The official mailing list is "tri-nomic@onelist.com". When and if any person posts a message to the official mailing list without one or more topic designators in the subject line, or with an inappropriate topic designator in the subject line, any and all players controlled by that person lose five points.

A topic designator is a single letter within square brackets. Topic designators come in four types:

  1. Official topic designators. These are used for posts regarding a player's regular responsibilities. They are:
    • "[A]" - Administrative details
    • "[Y]" - Booth reports
    • "[M]" - Mogul reports
    • "[R]" - Random determination

  2. Proposal topic designators. These should be followed by the numbers or abbreviated titles of the proposal(s) in question. They are:
    • "[c]" - Commentary on current proposals
    • "[d]" - Discussion on possible proposals
    • "[p]" - Official proposal
    • "[v]" - Voting on proposals

  3. Action topic designators. These may be used for anything and everything related to the concept mentioned. They are:
    • "[b]" - Banking and transfers of currency
    • "[g]" - Official league games
    • "[j]" - Invocations of Judgement
    • "[l]" - Locations and buildings
    • "[t]" - Teams

  4. Miscellaneous topic designators. These are generally used when no game action is taking place in the post. They are:
    • "[o]" - General talking commentary
    • "[q]" - Questions to be answered at leisure
    • "[u]" - Something unrelated to the game, but interesting to players.

Any player may suggest a new topic designator, by posting its type, letter, and description. If the letter is not used by another topic designator, regardless of case, and no player objects to the new topic designator within four days, then this rule shall amend itself by inserting the new topic designator into the list under its type.

Tri-nomic Offices

The following create new Tri-nomic offices, to spread around the work and earn money.

E09: "Along came a spider..."

[[ Removed from the list while it was TPB-19 ]]

There exists a Tri-nomic Office known as the Arachnist. The Arachnist shall update the Tri-nomic website as necessary to reflect the current status of the game. Information under the Arachnist's responsibility includes, but is not limited to:

  1. the current ruleset;
  2. proposals made in the current turn; and
  3. the status of game entities.

E15: "Has the jury reached a verdict?"

[[ TPB Deposit #23 ]]

Amend Rule #212 to read:

There exists the Tri-nomic Office of Judge. If players disagree about the legality of a move or the interpretation or application of a rule, one of them may Invoke Judgement on the question, and the Judge shall decide the question.

When Judgment has been Invoked, the next player may not begin eir turn without the consent of a majority of Active players.

The Judge's Judgment may be overruled only by a unanimous vote of the other Active players taken before the next turn is begun. If a Judge's Judgment is overruled, then e shall be removed from office if e still holds it, and the new Judge shall decide the question. Each Invocation of Judgement may only be overruled once.

While a Judge holds the office, e shall settle all Invocations of Judgement, including those on questions as to eir own legitimacy and jurisdiction as Judge.

New Judges are not bound by the decisions of old Judges. New Judges may, however, settle only Invocations of Judgement which have never been Judged since they were Invoked or overruled. All decisions by Judges shall be in accordance with all the rules then in effect; but when the rules are silent, inconsistent, or unclear on the point at issue, then the Judge shall consider game custom and the spirit of the game before applying other standards.

E26: "The Officer in Charge of Random Things"

There exists a Tri-nomic Office called the Chaotician. When the rules specify that an action is to occur randomly, but do not otherwise specify how that action is to be determined, the Chaotician must, in order:

  1. assign each possibility an equal probability, unless the rules specify a different probability distribution, in which case the Chaotician will use those probabilities;
  2. use a random method to select a possibility with the probabilities assigned (it is good form to use the method described at http://www.pbm.com/dice/, though other methods may be acceptable); and
  3. post the results and the method used to the official mailing list.

Non-player Voting Entities

This is my mad scientist laboratory. Under the right circumstances, enough of these might just overpower the players... but I doubt it will ever happen.

E27: "Welcome to the twenty-first century...oops."

[[ Intended for use after E26. ]]

Amend Rule 319 to read:

There exists a mechanical game entity known as the Robot. The Robot is an eligible voter, but not a player. Whenever the Robot may vote and is not broken, it votes randomly with an equal probability for each legal vote.

E28: "More power to you."

There exists a game entity known as the Workforce. The Workforce is an eligible voter, but not a player.

When a vote is taken, any player except the Booth may send to the Booth a bribe offer of a number of TMU. This bribe offer may not be conditional. At the end of the voting period, the Workforce calculates the best bribe as follows:

  1. If there are no bribe offers, then there is no best bribe.
  2. Otherwise, if exactly one player submitted the highest bribe, and that player has enough TMU to pay the bribe, then that bribe is the best bribe.
  3. Otherwise, if multiple players submitted the highest bribe, and exactly one of them has enough TMU to pay the bribe, then that player's bribe is the best bribe.
  4. Otherwise, if multiple players submitted the highest bribe, and two or more of them have enough TMU to pay the bribe, then the one of those submitted first is the best bribe.
  5. Otherwise, the highest bribes are removed from consideration and the calculation restarts at step 1.

If there is no best bribe, then the Workforce abstains from voting. If there is a best bribe, then the Workforce takes from the player who submitted the best bribe a number of TMU equal to the bribe, and votes as that player does.

E29: "Does somebody need a hug?"

There exists a game entity known as the Teddy Bear. The Teddy Bear is an eligible voter, but not a player. Whenever the Teddy Bear may vote, it votes the same as the active player with the lowest score.

E30: "Efficiency in all things."

There exists a mechanical game entity known as the Knife. The Knife is an eligible voter, but not a player. Whenever the Knife is not broken and it may vote on a title, it votes "Sweet" if the title is less than thirty characters long, or "Sacre Bleu!" if the title is more than fifty characters long. Whenever the Knife is not broken and it may vote on a proposal, it votes "Wheat" if the proposal is less than fifty words long, "Psoriasis" if the proposal is more than one hundred words long, or "Albrecht Durer" otherwise.

E31: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"

There exists a mechanical game entity known as the Speed Limit. The Speed Limit is an eligible voter, but not a player. Whenever the Speed Limit is not broken and it may vote on a proposal, it votes "Psoriasis" if the proposal creates a new rule; otherwise, it votes "Wheat".

E32: "Mandatory discussion period"

There exists a game entity known as Mogul's Monster. Mogul's Monster is an eligible voter, but not a player. Whenever Mogul's Monster may vote on a proposal, it votes "Wheat" if the proposal was in the TPB for at least one full turn; otherwise, it votes "Psoriasis". Whenever Mogul's Monster may make a proposal, it proposes the oldest deposit in the TPB, if there is one.

Miscelaneous Ideas

The following are entirely new rules which don't fit into the other categories.

E23: "So it isn't legalese"

[[ TPB deposit #21 ]]

Text delimited by single or double square brackets is called a comment. Comments have no semantic meaning, but should be considered by Judges as a statement of the rule's intended meaning. If a rule contains a comment delimited by double square brackets, that comment and its delimiters are deleted from the text of the rule. [[ Therefore, this sentence is deleted when this proposal becomes a rule. ]] [ Single-bracketed comments will stay in the text of the rule, though. ]

Text delimited by parentheses is called a side-note. Side-notes have semantic meaning separate from the text which they are in (i.e. the text's semantic meaning is not affected by the side-note, but may be clarified thereby). Restrictions in side-notes must be obeyed.

Text delimited by double quotation marks is called a quotation. Quotations have no semantic meaning except as a quotation, but may be used as a name or to denote text in a rule, proposal, or post.

E24: "Play ball!"

  1. When an official league game is declared,
    1. each competing team chooses one of its members to be its Liaison;
    2. one active player not on any competing team is randomly chosen to be the Umpire;
    3. a mailing list is chosen for game actions, which must not be the official mailing list unless the game is played as an exhibition;
    4. the Liaisons and the Umpire each subscribe to the game's mailing list, with the competing teams each paying the viewing fee for its Liaison, and splitting the cost of the Umpire's viewing fee; and
    5. the Liaisons and the Umpire choose a set of rules for the game, through discussion on the game's mailing list.

  2. Multiple teams may not choose the same player as their Liaisons.

  3. The viewing fee is 0 TMU if the game is played as an exhibition; otherwise, the viewing fee is 6 TMU. When the competing teams split the cost of the Umpire's viewing fee, they shall each pay an equal amount unless they unanimously decide otherwise, even if this means the total is more than the viewing fee. If a competing team does not have enough TMU to pay the viewing fee for its Liaison and its share of the Umpire's viewing fee, then each of its members will give all of eir TMU to that team. If an entity is a member of multiple teams which must go through this process, then it will instead give all of its TMU to the Tri-nomic Association Bank. If the team still does not have enough, then it will pay all the TMU it has, the TAB will pay the remainder, and the team and each of its members will lose ten points. All viewing fees collected are part of Game Profits.

  4. Any player, observer, or other person desiring to subscribe to the game's mailing list must pay the viewing fee before doing so. If any player, observer, or other entity already subscribed to the game's mailing list, other than the Liaisons and the Umpire, refuses to pay the viewing fee before the game starts, then another mailing list must be chosen unless the game is played as an exhibition.

  5. The Liaisons may discuss game moves with their teammates, but have final say how their teams attempt to move. Their choice of game moves must be posted to the Umpire if the moves are secret, or to the game's mailing list if the moves are public. All moves are public unless otherwise specified by the set of rules used for the game.

  6. If the game is played as an exhibition, the set of rules used for the game may not change anything recognized by the Tri-nomic rules, except game custom.

  7. If the set of rules used for the game declares a method for splitting Game Profits between competing teams, then that method shall be used. If the set of rules used for the game declares neither a winner nor a method for splitting Game Profits, then the Game Profits which do not go to the League shall be split equally by the competing teams. If the set of rules used for the game declares a winner, but not a method for splitting Game Profits between competing teams, then the Game Profits which do not go to the League shall all go to the winning team.

  8. If the game is not played as an exhibition, then the Umpire shall be given seven points when the set of rules is donated to the Archivist, with any recommendations for changes which should be made before it is used again.

E34: "The Viral Trans-Nomic Rule"

When this rule is enacted, each player must propose a copy of it to each other nomic of which e is a member and which is not in the list below, except that the payoff may be different and the nomic in which it is proposed should be added to the list, and any changes should be made to allow it to be proposed it in that nomic. When a player has done this, and notifies the other players of this fact, e receives the payoff named below. Each player may only receive the payoff once.

Payoff: 2 TMU

List:
Three Rivers Nomic Association

E35: "Who are we?"

This game is the nomic which uses this ruleset. The name of this game is "Three Rivers Nomic Association". The following terms are interchangeable:

E36: "Where are we?"

Within Tri-nomic there exist locations. Each entity is at exactly one location. The location of an entity may not change except as specified in the rules. Unless otherwise specified, an entity is at Town Square. The following locations exist:

E37: "Acme Construction Company"

Buildings are named entities which cannot be moved from a location. If a building's location ceases to exist, then that building ceases to exist. An entity may be in up to one building at its location, if it meets all entrance requirements of that building. Buildings have no entrance requirements unless otherwise specified.

The following buildings are at Three Rivers University:

Ideas from Other Players

The following ideas were originated by Mary or other Tri-nomic players, but I modified them and included them here. I am not responsible for any consequences they might impose upon you for using these ideas without the author's permission.

E20: "To be or not to be"

[[ Originally Carrie's TPB-9 ]]
[[ Proposed as #324 by Eric ]]

Within Three Rivers Nomic there exist entities. No Tri-Nomic entity may affect the universe outside of a nomic. In general, entities are controlled by real people who exist outside the game, by other entities within the game, or by a random factor such as the roll of dice. Unless otherwise specified by the rules, entities may not own or be owned by other entities, may not vote, and are controlled by real people outside of the game.

If any entity 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.

E22: "Fiend Folio"

[[ Originally Carrie's TPB-11 ]]

There exist player classes Human, Animal, Monster, and Undecided. All players start as Undecided. Undecided players may choose to be in any other class at any time, and must choose a subclass at that time. A player's class and subclass may not change except as specified in the rules. Subclasses not mentioned in the rules have no Special Abilities except Speech.

M01: "Oopps"

[[ TPB deposit #20 ]]

For the purpose of this rule an error is defined as a misspelled word, unintended word, missing punctuation, incorrect reference, or incorrect numberal in a rule or proposal. Any player may post to the official mailing list a list of errors and corrections to be made. If no player objects to this list within three days, or each active player post an agreement with the list, then the corrections shall be made to the rule or proposal.

[[ I added more error types, trebled the wait period (I don't always read my mail within 24 hours, and certain "errors" may have significant effect), and reduced redundancy. --Eric ]]

M02: "Boxes within Boxes"

Each Rule Class has an associated Name, Rank, and Pvalue. No two Rule Classes may have the same Name or Rank. A Rank consists of a string of Roman numerals separated by hyphens. A Rank is larger than another Rank if the first (from left to right) Roman numeral which differs between the two is larger, or if the first is a descendant of the second. The Pvalue of a Rule Class is the number of hyphens ("-") in its Rank.

The following relations are defined between Rule Classes: (Z means an indeterminate set of Roman numerals separated by hyphens, X means a single Roman numeral. Zn, where n is an integer, is another indeterminate set of Roman numerals, Xn is another single Roman numeral.)

Rule Class 1          Rule Class 2         Rule Class 1 is a ____ of Rule Class 2
ZZ-XParent
Z-XZChild
Z1Z1-Z2Ancestor
Z1-Z2Z1Descendant
Z-X1Z-X2Sibling

Each rule is a member of one or more Rule Classes. Each rule is a member of only the Unassigned Class until otherwise specified. Any rule may be a member of multiple Rule Classes of the same Pvalue, but no rule may be a member of multiple Rule Classes with different Pvalues. Any rule may be referenced by the string "<Class>-<Rule Number>" where <Class> is the Rank or Name of a Rule Class of which that rule is a member, and <Rule Number> is the number of that rule.

When a new rule is created by a proposal, the proposal may specify one or more Rule Classes in which to place the proposal. If the proposal does not specify a legal set of Rule Classes, then the new rule shall be placed in the Unassigned Class.

The following is the set of all Rule Classes with the associated Ranks and Pvalues:
Rank Name Pvalue
I Root 0
I-I   Judicial 1
I-II   Proposal 1
I-III   Voting 1
I-IV   Entity 1
I-IV-I     Player 2
I-IV-I-I       Officer 3
I-IV-II     Team 2
I-IV-II-I       Games 3
I-V   Scoring 1
I-VI   Commerce 1
I-M-M-M-M-M           Unassigned 5

[ <examples>
A rule dealing with all Entities voting could be in Entity, Voting and Scoring.
A rule dealing with Team membership voting could be in class Team or in class Voting, but NOT in both.
I-IV-312/0.1.a could refer to the main duty of the Mogul.
</examples> ]

[[ I added Ranks, added the Unassigned Class, clarified a number of details, stuffed in a modified M06, and reorganized the list of classes into a table. --Eric ]]

M03: "It's my Red Crayon"

Amend rule 211 to read:

In the event of a conflict of rules, then precedence would be determined as follows:

  1. If the rules state an unambiguous precedence for that particular conflict, then that precedence is used.
  2. If the rules are members of the same Rule Class, then the rule with the lower number takes precedence.
  3. If the conflicting rules are members of different Rule Classes with different Pvalues, then the member of the Rule Class with the lower Pvalue takes precedence.
  4. If the conflicting rules are members of different Rule Classes with the same Pvalues, then the member the Rule Class with the lower Rank takes precedence.
  5. If two statements within the same rule cause the conflict, then the statement occuring later in the text takes precedence.

[ <examples>
Conflicting Rules Higher PrecedenceReason
Player-27 vs. Player-154 Player-27 (case 2)
Player-27 vs. Games-12 Player-27 (case 3)
Player-27 vs. Team-15 Player-27 (case 4)
Player-27.A.3 vs. Player-27.C.1 Player-27.A.3 (case 5)

</examples> ]

[[ I accounted for explicit precedence statements, changed the inter-Class cases to use the Class Rank, made the cases more consistent, accounted for intra-rule conflicts, and updated the examples. --Eric ]]

M04: "Oil Paints or watercolor"

Amend rule 108 to read:

Each rule has a Base Number, which is a positive integer. Multiple members of a Rule Class may not have the same Base Number. Each rule has an Amendment Number, which is initially zero. The Number of a rule is its Base Number, optionally followed by a forward slash ("/") and its Amendment Number, optionally followed by a period and a subsection designation (i.e. "<Base Number>[/<Amendment Number>][.<subsection>]").

If a rule is amended by a proposal then its Rule Class membership and Base Number do not change, but its Amendment Number will increase by one. Only the latest amendment of a rule is in effect.

Each valid proposal shall be given a Reference Number. The Reference Numbers shall begin with 301, and each valid proposal shall receive the next successive integer, whether or not a proposal is adopted.

When a new rule is created by a proposal, the proposal may specify a Base Number for the rule. If the proposal does not specify a legal Base Number, then the Base Number of the new rule shall be the Reference Number of the proposal, if this is a legal Base Number for the rule. If the proposal does not specify a legal Base Number, and the Reference Number of the proposal is not a legal Base Number, then the new rule's Base Number shall be the lowest legal integer.

[ <examples>
Player-27/3 is amended and becomes Player-27/4
312/0.7.b refers to the subsection granting "interest" on a TPB deposit, but only in the initial version of the rule.
</examples> ]

[[ This combines M04, M05, portions of rule 108, and a few of my own ideas. However, I switched the amendment delimiter from a period to a slash to facilitate subsection specifications, and scrapped the whole idea of multiple numbers for a single rule. The "lowest legal integer" may not be ideal, but it's the only guarantee. The number "108" should be changed when 108 is transmuted. --Eric ]]

M07: "Acme Moving Company"

Amend Rule 103 to read:

A rule-change is any of the following: (1) the enactment, repeal, or amendment of a mutable rule; (2) the repeal of an amendment of a mutable rule; (3) changing the Base Number of a mutable rule; (4) changing the Rule Class membership of a mutable rule; or (5) the transmutation of an immutable rule into a mutable rule or vice versa.

[[ I basically rewrote the whole thing as an addition to rule 103, and eliminated a few extraneous segments of that rule. Unfortunately, the rules have no definition for "2/3 majority". The number "103" should be changed when 103 is transmuted. --Eric ]]

Created by Eric Wald for Three Rivers Nomic.