Ruleset Submission Process

The game of Infinite Nomic, as governed by the Metaruleset, has no formal method of beginning a new cycle. This is by design, as the metaruleset is intended to govern the game in broad strokes, allowing reasonable interpretation of its dictates. According to the metaruleset (as of 15 April 2023):

A new cycle begins when players generally agree on a valid initial ruleset for the cycle. The process for selecting an initial ruleset is not outlined here, but should be done in an orderly and democratic fashion, giving due consideration to all proposed rulesets.

What follows is the general process that the Moderators of the Infinite Nomic Discord Server use when determining the starting conditions for the next numbered cycle after the previous one completes. It is subject to change at any time insofar as those changes are generally agreed upon by the members of the server and maintain the democratic spirit of the selection process.

Step 1: Ruleset Submission

At some point soon after the previous numbered cycle ends, someone with initiative will create a wikipage where ruleset submissions will be collected (for example, Cycle 14/Ruleset Submissions) and the moderators will set a deadline.

Restrictions on submissions

In order to have your ruleset considered, we require a document containing mostly rule text that outlines most of the cycle's unique ideas. In particular, the ruleset need not include common definitions of things like proposals and items, unless the mechanics of those things work significantly differently in the proposed cycle than they have in previous numbered cycles.

The primary reason for this decision is as follows. The proposed ruleset will not become the initial ruleset as is, but after people have voted to select a proposed ruleset, the goal is for the final ruleset to be something that the voters will still agree that they voted for. Rule text can be adapted rather easily into a final ruleset simply by adding any missing components from previous cycles. We do not accept game concepts as ruleset suggestions because in the process of creating rule text from that concept, the community would have broad latitude to interpret how those concepts could be made practical, and in so doing stray from core concepts that may have attracted voters in the first place, therefore producing a final product that they do not feel they voted for.

Creating submissions by branching off from other rulesets is encouraged during this phase. Nomic is inherently collaborative, ever-changing, and run by the community, so variations are welcome. If you want to do this, though, copy the page and recreate it elsewhere, then add your changes on top of it. For the reasons mentioned above, a paragraph outlining a previous submission but with some minor changes is not a ruleset submission. That game has already been proposed with its mechanics and inner workings intact. If you want to change something on a level that may change how willing someone is to play that nomic, that needs to be a separate submission.

Ruleset submission etiquette

Please submit rulesets by posting your suggestion under its own heading on the cycle's ruleset submission page. If the document is short enough, feel free to include it in-place; otherwise include a link to a page in your userspace containing the document. This means that the page will begin with "User:YourUsername" (i.e. User:Trungle/Branching Nomic). To create such a page, you can either type the name into the search bar at the top right then click the link that says "create this page", or you can replace the page title in the URL of your web browser with the name of the page you want to create.

Step 2: Voting

After the deadline for ruleset submission has passed, the moderators will open to the community an instant-runoff vote. When you vote, rank your choices from the one you'd like to play most to the one you'd like to play least. Instant-runoff guarantees that the choice that most people are okay with playing is the one that is selected.

Step 3: Final Draft

The community will use the selected ruletext submission as a basis to create the final draft of the ruleset. This should not take too long, but may take longer depending on how much the community has to fill in the gaps.

Step 4: Round Begins

Finally, the round will begin at a time that players choose as the most convenient (decided by poll).