Cycle 15/Ruleset Draft

Rules defined in subsections claim to be subrules of rules defined in their supersections.

Time

General

All times mentioned in this ruleset are in UTC. Days start at 00:00 UTC. Weeks start on Monday 00:00 UTC.

Phases

Each week is divided into two phases:

Phase I: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday

Phase II: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

Rules

A rule is a body of text which governs the state of the game. Rules that are in effect apply continuously. When a player joins the game, they agree to abide by the rules in effect.

A subrule is a rule that claims another rule as its parent. The subrule is not part of the parent; instead this relationship is to be used for organizational purposes.

A rule that is not a subrule is a top-level rule.

Players

Any person may become a player by posting a message setting forth their intent to do so in the channel ⁠#game-actions, provided they have not been a player at any point in the past seven days. A player may cease being a player by sending a message that sets forth their intent to do so in #⁠game-actions.

A player is "reputable" if they have continuously been a player for the previous seven days or if they have continuously been a player from a time that was within 3 days of the round starting.

Proposals

Proposals are made by sending a message in the channel #proposals.

A 👍 or 👎 reaction from a player on a proposal message at the time when the voting period ends constitutes a vote in favor or against, respectively. If a person's vote is unclear (excluding abstentions), it is considered to be against.

At the end of its voting period, a proposal takes effect if it is popular (as defined for its type) and the message in which it was submitted has been neither deleted nor edited. If more than one proposal would otherwise take effect simultaneously, they take effect in the order in which they were created.

The class of a proposal must be a class defined in the rules. When a proposal is submitted, the submitter may specify its class. if no class is specified, the proposal class defaults to Standard.

Urgent Class Proposal

The voting period of an urgent proposal begins at the time it is submitted and ends two days (48 hours) after. An urgent proposal is popular if it has no more than two votes against it.

Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, only a reputable player can submit an urgent proposal. Urgent proposals should only be used to correct the game to its intended state and to maintain playability.

Standard Class Proposal

The voting period for a standard proposal is the phase that started after the proposal was submitted. A standard proposal is popular if it has more votes in favor than votes against.

Judges

There shall be a sole Judge, responsible for resolving rules disputes. An incumbent Judge can be removed with the assent of two players, but they should not be removed except for abuse of office. A person can cease being the Judge by publicly stating so.

A request for justice shall take the form of a question or statement. The proper response to a question is an answer to that question, and the proper response to a statement is the truth value of that statement.

Upon formal submission of a request for justice by a person other than themself in #request-for-justice, the Judge shall, as quickly as possible, issue a response to the request. This response shall be binding only to the extent that it reasonably directly pertains to the request, and only to the extent that it does not blatantly and obviously contradict rules text while still considering the expressed or clearly implied legislative intent.

Within 4 days of a judge issuing a ruling, a public vote of confidence on that ruling can be initiated in #request-for-justice. Votes may be cast in such a vote for a period of 2 days after initiation. Votes are to be cast by 👍 or 👎 reactions on a clearly designated poll message; if a person's vote is unclear, it is to affirm the judgement. A ruling is overturned if strictly more players vote in favor of overturning than affirming.

A ruling may be overturned by the Judge who made it within one week of being made. When a ruling is overturned in this manner, the Judge shall then issue a new ruling on the initial request, which shall be binding in the same manner as the original ruling.

An overturned ruling shall have no bearing on the interpretation of the rules or of the gamestate.

Any reputable player may become a candidate for the Judge by sending a message in the channel #judge-elections. If there are any Judge candidacies put forward during a week, the player whose message is both popular and has the most 👍 reactions from players becomes the Judge once that week ends. A Judge Candidacy message is popular if it has more 👍 than 👎 reactions from players on its initiating message. Ties are broken in favor of the player with the earliest text message during that week.

Items

Items are entities defined as such by the rules. Items can be owned by players. When an item's owner cannot reasonably be determined using publicly available information, or if it would be owned by a non-player, it is instead destroyed.

For an entity to gain an item is for that item to be created in that entity's possession. To grant an entity an item is to create it in that entity's possession.

For an entity to lose an item is for that item to be destroyed from that entity's possession. To revoke an item from an entity is to destroy it from that entity's possession.

Reputable players can trade items with other reputable players.

Trading

A trade is an exchange or transfer of items between two entities, with each entity giving a specified finite set of items to the other.

When otherwise authorized, a trade between two players takes place when both players explicitly consent to the trade in #trades within 7 days of each other.

Actions

When defining a game action that can be performed by sending a message, the rules should specify a channel where the game action can be taken. If the rules enable performing an action by sending a message without providing for a specific channel, the action can be taken by sending a message in #game-actions. Similarly, if the rules provide that a game action can be taken without making any provision for any method to take that action, the action can be taken by sending a message in #game-actions.

Actions that are to be performed by sending a message are done by sending a message in the appropriate channel that clearly and unambiguously sets forth intent for the action to be taken.

Whenever a player performs an action that would modify the information that the players generally agree should be tracked, that player should make a reasonable effort to track the outcome of the action in the generally-agreed-upon applicable location.

Random Choices

A person shall not deliberately select random values for a rules-defined action without intending to use those values to the best of their ability to resolve that action.

If a person has selected some or all of the random values necessary to perform an action, they shall not discard the valid specifications in order to attempt a substantially similar action with the goal of obtaining different random values. If there is consensus that a preponderance of the evidence exists, or if a Judge ruling, not overturned, finds that a player has done such a thing, all attempts other than the first are deemed to be invalid and to not have affected the gamestate.

Dice Rolls

A rule that requires a selection of an NdK value, for non-negative integer N and positive integer K, is requiring the random selection of N rolls of a K-sided die.

• If not otherwise specified, this produces the sum of N rolls of a K-sided die; that is, the sum of N independent selections of integers from 1 to K, using a uniform random distribution. If N is zero, the sum is zero.

• If a rule requires an NdK dice roll with a target number x, this instead produces the number of N independent 1dK rolls that meet or exceed the target number and can be abbreviated as "x+". For example, if a rule requires a dice roll with a target number of 3, this can be abbreviated to "3+".

Progressive Actions

Where the rules define a "progressive action", a person authorized to take that action may take that action as described in this rule. For this purpose, the "appropriate channel" is the channel specified by the rule defining the action (defaulting to #game-actions).

An authorized person may "commence" (syn. "begin") the action by sending a message in the appropriate channel. A person who has done so may then make any required selections (including, potentially, random choices) required for the action in the appropriate channel.

Upon the person making all required selections (that is, immediately after they make the final required selection), the action is deemed to be performed if all of the following are true at that time:

• The time is in the same phase in which they commenced the action.
• They are authorized to perform the action.
• All other preconditions of the action specified in the rules are met.
• All provided selections are valid (as required by the defining rule).

Initialization

Upon the first instant that this rule takes effect, the following occur in order:

• For each integer 0 to 39, in ascending numerical order, a space is hereby created with that identifier if it does not already exist.
• For each space with identifiers 0 to 38, in ascending numerical order, that space's successors is hereby the set consisting solely of the space with the next numerical ID.
• Hereby, the sole successor of space 39 is space 0.
• Hereby, the type of space 0 is Crystal.
• This rule is repealed.

Board

Each player has a location (syn. "current space"), which is a space. For a player to "move to" a new space, other than their current location, is for their location to become the new space. Initially, or if a player would otherwise lack a location or have indeterminate location, a player's location becomes the initial space (as elsewhere defined by the rules, or otherwise the oldest-created existing space) if possible.

Spaces

A space is an entity. Each space has an identifier, which is an integer unique among spaces. An attempt to create a space with an invalid or duplicated identifier fails, rules to the contrary notwithstanding. The space with identifier N is known as "Space N".

A space with identifier 0 always exists, and is created immediately if it does not. This space is the initial space.

Each space has a type. The possible types are described by other rules. Initially, or if a space would otherwise lack a type or have indeterminate type, a space's type becomes Blank.

Blank

"Blank" is a type of space. Blank spaces have no effect that occurs when a player lands on or passes through them.

Crystal

"Crystal" is a type of space. When a player lands on or passes through a crystal space, they gain 1 crystal.

Connections Between Spaces

Each space has a set of successors, each of which is a space. If such a set would ever contain non-spaces, or if one of its elements ceases to exist, the set is modified by removing any offending elements. Each space initially has no successors (that is, its set of successors is empty).

A space is said to "precede" each of its successors. A space "succeeds" (syn. "follows") each space that precedes it.

Movement

Each player can, as a progressive action, move, provided they have not done so previously in the current phase. This requires the following selections:

• First, a random choice of 1d10. Let the result be N.
• Then, N selections of a space, where each space follows the prior selected space (and the first seleced space follows the player's current space).

When a player moves, the following happen in order:

• They are deemed to "leave" the current space, and any subsequent effects occur.
• For each selected space, other than the last, in order:
  • Their location is set to that space. Then,
  • They are deemed to "pass" that space, and any subsequent effects occur.
• Their location is set to the final selected space.
• They are deemed to "land on" the final selected space.

Winning

Crystals are fungible, non-transferable items.

If a player owns a number of crystals greater than or equal to 15 and at least five more than any other player, that player wins.