All Rules

The game of Nomicron consists of a set of rules. Each rule has three parts: a number, a title, and text. All players must always abide by all rules currently in effect, in the form in which they are in effect.

Play proceeds in a series of rounds. When no round is in progress, the game is in convention. During convention, only convention rules are in effect. At other times, all rules are in effect unless otherwise specified by the rules.

A player of Nomicron is a participant in the game. Each player has a player name by which they are referred to in Nomicron. A player chooses a name when joining Nomicron and may only change it during the convention. A player is either active or inactive, unless the rules provide for other types of player status.

While the game is in convention, any player may become active or inactive at any time by notifying the public forum. During a convention, a non-player becomes an active player when a motion making that person a player passes.

At the end of a convention, any active player who has neither voted on a motion nor posted to the public forum for the last two weeks becomes inactive, and any player who has been inactive for the entire duration of the convention ceases to be a player.

The public forum is a means to communicate with other players. Any communications sent to the public forum shall be available to all active players.

When the game is in convention, the convention floor is either open or closed. At the beginning of each convention, the floor is open.

While the floor is open, any active player may submit motions to the public forum. Such motions may describe any number of changes to be made to any aspect of the game, including ending the game. However, a motion to begin the next round may not be made while the floor is open.

The floor closes when a motion to close the floor passes. While the floor is closed, the only motions players may submit are to reopen the floor or to begin the next round.

When a motion to begin the next round passes, all unresolved motions are discarded, and the next round begins.

Votes on motions must be sent to the administrator or their designee. Each active player may vote once on each motion. If a player submits multiple votes, the last vote received shall be considered that player's one and only vote on the motion. A motion remains up for vote until one week passes or all active players have voted on it, whichever comes first.

A motion to end the game requires unanimous acceptance among cast votes to pass; other motions require acceptance by a 2/3 majority among cast votes to pass. If a motion passes, the changes to the game it describes are immediately put into effect.

It is the duty of whoever collects the votes to accurately report the passage or failure of each motion, along with all votes cast on that motion, in a timely fashion.

While the game is in convention, the only permitted game actions are making a motion, voting on motions, posting to the public forum, and becoming active or inactive.

If there is a conflict between rules, the rule with the lowest number shall have precedence unless otherwise specified in the rules.

One player is the administrator. At any time there shall be exactly one administrator.

All of the following are rule changes: the enactment of a new mutable rule, the amendment of any rule, the repeal of any rule, and the transmutation of any rule between types (the rule types are convention, immutable, and mutable).

All rule-changes proposed in the proper way shall be voted on during the turn in which they are submitted. They will be adopted if and only if they receive the required number of votes.

Each active player is eligible to vote on any proposal. Players are permitted to abstain from voting, and shall be held implicitly to have done so if they do not vote during the turn in which a proposal is up for vote.

No rule-change may take effect earlier than the moment of the completion of the vote that adopted it, even if its wording explicitly states otherwise. No rule-change may have retroactive application.

Each proposed rule-change shall be given a number for reference. The numbers shall begin with 301, and each rule-change proposed in the proper way shall receive the next successive integer, whether or not the proposal is adopted.

Rules shall be numbered in two parts: a rule number and a version number. The rule numbers for all initial rules are specified. For all other rules, the rule number is the number of the proposal that enacted the rule. Initially, the version number for all rules is 1. This number shall be increased by 1 each time a rule is amended or transmuted.

Rule-changes that transmute immutable or convention rules into mutable rules may be adopted if and only if the vote is unanimous among the players who vote on the rule-change. Transmutation shall not be implied, but must be stated explicitly in a proposal to take effect.

Likewise, any rule-change that amends or repeals an immutable or convention rule may be adopted if and only if the vote is unanimous among the players who vote on the rule-change.

In a conflict between a mutable and an immutable rule, the immutable rule takes precedence and the mutable rule shall be entirely void. For the purposes of this rule a proposal to transmute an immutable rule does not "conflict" with that immutable rule.

There shall exist an entity called request for comment (RFC), to which draft versions of a rule-change may be submitted, and in which all players may comment on the posted drafts. The administrator may assign these drafts numbers for reference. When a player ceases to be active, the administrator may remove any drafts from RFC that were submitted by that player.

The state of affairs that constitutes winning may not be altered from achieving n points to any other state of affairs. The magnitude of n and the means of earning points may be changed, and rules that establish a winner when play cannot continue may be enacted and be amended or repealed.

A player always has the option to resign from the game rather than continue to play or incur a game penalty. No penalty worse than losing, in the judgment of the player to incur it, may be imposed.

There must always be at least one mutable rule. The adoption of rule-changes must never become completely impermissible.

Rule-changes that affect rules needed to allow or apply rule-changes are as permissible as other rule-changes. Even rule-changes that amend or repeal their own authority are permissible. No rule-change or type of move is impermissible solely on account of the self-reference or self-application of a rule.

Whatever is not prohibited or regulated by a rule is permitted and unregulated, with the sole exception of changing the rules, which is permitted only when a rule or set of rules explicitly or implicitly permits it.

All times referenced in the ruleset shall be considered North American Central Time (GMT -6:00), observing daylight savings time.

Turns begin every week at 22:00 on Monday; this moment may be called a turn's beginning. Turns continue until 22:00 on Saturday. This moment is the turn's end. The moment at 10:00 on Thursday is the turn's middle.

Turns are designated as {round}-{ordinal}. The ordinal of the first turn of a round is 1. Each other turn has an ordinal which is 1 greater than that of the previous turn.

The period between the beginning and middle of a turn is the turn's first half. The period between the middle and the end is its latter half. The period between the end of one turn and the beginning of the next is called an interim. The period comprising a turn and the following interim is one game week.

Each active player may submit one rule-change proposal at the beginning of each turn.

A rule-change is adopted if and only if the vote is unanimous among the players who vote on the rule-change. If this rule is not amended by the end of the second turn of the round, it automatically changes to require only a simple majority.

If and when rule-changes can be adopted without unanimity, the players who vote against winning proposals shall receive 10 points each.

An adopted rule-change takes full effect at the moment of the completion of the vote that adopted it; that is, at the end of the turn in which it is submitted for vote.

When a proposed rule-change is defeated, the player who proposed it loses 10 points.

Each active player always has exactly one vote on each proposal.

The winner of the round is the first player to achieve 200 (positive) points. When this occurs, the round ends.

If two or more mutable rules conflict with one another, or if two or more immutable rules conflict with one another, then the rule with the lowest 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 again governs.

If there is disagreement among the players about the legality of a move or the interpretation or application of a rule, then an active player may seek a Ruling by submitting a Request for Judgment (RFJ) to the administrator. The submitting player shall be considered the Petitioner for the RFJ. The RFJ shall take the form of a statement to be judged TRUE or FALSE. Arguments may also be included with the RFJ statement. Disagreement, for the purposes of this rule, may be created by the insistence of any player.

When an RFJ is invoked, it is a duty of the administrator to, as soon as possible, select a Judge as described in the Rules and publish the RFJ, along with the identity of the Judge. The Ruling on the RFJ, including comments by the Judge, shall guide game play in regard to the issue addressed by the RFJ. If two or more rulings conflict on an issue, the latest Ruling shall take precedence.

Requests for Judgment shall be given numeric Case Numbers consecutively in the order they are received, starting with 5301.

Any active player may or may not be in the Judicial Pool. An active player may enter or leave the Judicial Pool at any time by contacting the Administrator or their designee. A player who is in the Judicial Pool is removed from it if they cease to be an active player, fail to vote on at least one Proposal during any turn in which Proposals were up for vote, or are selected as a Judge. When a Judge returns a Judgment, they are returned to the Judicial Pool if not already there. When a player first becomes active, they are not in the Judicial Pool.

When a Judge is required, the administrator shall randomly select a Judge from those players in the Judicial Pool, except the Petitioner and any player mentioned in the RFJ. If the Judicial Pool is empty (or contains only players disallowed by the preceding sentence), the administrator shall serve as Judge.

When a player has been chosen as a Judge, they may recuse themselves by notifying the Administrator within 48 hours of notification of the Judge appointment. In this instance, a new Judge shall be selected.

A Judge who fails to deliver a Ruling within a week of the Judge appointment is penalized 25 Points and a new Judge is selected for the RFJ.

A legal Ruling is either TRUE or FALSE and may be accompanied by reasons and arguments. When determining a Ruling, the Judge should consider the rules in effect at the time of the disputed game action.

If a player is not satisfied with the result of an RFJ, they may submit an appeal to the administrator. The appeal shall consist of a new ruling of TRUE or FALSE, along with new reasonings and arguments. An appeal submitted on a particular RFJ shall be voted upon during the turn immediately following its submission. If two-thirds of the players voting on the appeal support it, the appeal and its reasonings and arguments shall replace the original ruling in its entirety.

If a player believes that the rules are such that further play is impossible, or that the legality of a move cannot be determined with finality, or that a move appears equally legal and illegal, then that player may submit an RFJ such that the statement to be judged explicitly specifies that there is a paradox. If such an RFJ is ruled true, the round ends and the petitioner wins.