Cycle 12/Ruleset

Time

Rule: Time

All times mentioned in the rules are in UTC. Days begin at 00:00 UTC. Weeks begin on Monday.

Each week is divided into two phases, containing the following days:

• Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
• Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Phases are identified by successive Roman numerals; the First phase of the cycle is Phase I.

Sheets

Rule: Sheets

A sheet is an image of a writing surface, or portion thereof, which may have inscriptions. Everything on the surface must be hand-drawn or handwritten (perhaps with technological assistance) except for reasonable additions that do not reduce the handmade character. Players should ensure that they are capable of creating and uploading all types of sheets.

The header of a sheet (if any) is a section of the text set apart from the main content. A stack is an ordered set of sheets.

Cards

Rule: Sheets → Cards

A card is a type of sheet. Cards should have an aspect ratio approximately equal to 4:3 and should contain only enough detail that they can be reproduced relatively easily on an index card.

A deck is an ordered set of cards.

Submissions

Rule: Sheets → Submission

To submit a sheet is to attach or link to that sheet in a message.

A new sheet is a sheet that has never been submitted before.

Tiles

Rule: Sheets → Tiles

A tile is a type of sheet. Tiles have an aspect ratio of 1:1.

A map is a 2-dimensional grid of non-overlapping tiles, indexed by integer coordinates.

A tile in a map is adjacent to the tiles surrounding that tile orthogonally.

Rules

Rule: Rules

A rule is a card 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 rule's header contains "Rule:", followed by the path of the rule, which is used to reference that rule.

Rules should be short to aid in rewriting.

Subrules

Rule: Rules → Subrules

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.

The path of a subrule is: path of parent → title of subrule. The path of the top-level rule is the title of the rule.

Change Cards

Rule: Change Cards

A change card is a card which describes a change to the gamestate.

Types of change cards are defined by subrules of this rule.

Rule Change Cards

Rule: Change Cards → Rule Change Cards

A rule change card modifies an existing rule in any way other than deleting it, or adds a new rule.

A rule change card takes the form of a rule card. When applied, if there is a rule with the path described in the image, then that rule is replaced with the rule change card; otherwise that rule change card becomes a new rule in effect.

Arbitrary Change Cards

Rule: Change Cards → Arbitrary Change Cards

An arbitrary change card describes one or more modifications to the gamestate that don not meet the criteria for any other change card type.

When applied, the changes it describes are put into place, in the order they are described.

Proposals

Rule: Proposals

A proposal is a nonempty deck of change cards duly submitted as a proposal. When a proposal takes effect, each of its change cards are applied in a sequence and in the same instant.

Players can create a proposal by linking to or attaching the sequence of images in #proposals, optionally specifying a title and/or the proposal's class, which defaults to Standard.

Lifecycle

Rule: Proposals → Lifecycle

At the end of a proposal's voting period as defined for its type, a thumbs-up and thumbs-down emoji reaction on the message in which the proposal was created represent a vote for or a vote against that proposal, respectively.

At the end of its voting period, a proposal takes effect if it is popular as defined for its type, the message in which it was created has not been edited or deleted, and none of its cards have been edited or deleted.

Standard Proposals

Rule: Proposals → Standard Proposals

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

A player cannot create a standard proposal if they have already submitted two standard proposals this week.

Urgent Proposal

Rule: Proposals → Urgent Proposals

The voting period for an urgent proposal starts at the time it was submitted and ends two days later. An urgent proposal is popular if there are no more than two votes against it.

Urgent proposals are only to be used to correct the game to its intended state and to maintain playability.

Urgent proposals may only be submitted by reputable players.

Actions

Rule: Actions

When a rule defines an action that can be taken by posting to the server, it should specify where that action can be taken.

If the rule defining a game action does not specify a channel it can be performed in, or that channel does not exist, then it can be performed in #game-actions.

Card Sending

Rule: Actions → Card Sending

When a rule dictates that an action can be taken by sending a card, then that action can be performed by attaching or linking to a card (in the relevant channel) showing unambiguously that they intend to perform that action.

Joining

Rule: Actions → Joining

Any person can join the game by sending a card in #game-actions. When they do so they become a player of this cycle.

Reputability

Rule: Actions → Reputability

Players are considered reputable if they have continuously been a player for the last seven days, or if tey have continuously been a player from a time that was within three days of the cycle starting.