THE RULES OF ACKANOMIC: 500's

Rule 500/1
Entities
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

Something is an entity if and only if the rules specify that it is, or it is defined by the Rules and Ackanomic tradition indicates that it is an entity. [Caveat: implicit entityhood (by game custom) may be abandoned in a future version of this rule. Explicitly defining your entityish creations to be entities is strongly recommended.]

An entity may not be created, destroyed, or manipulated except as specified by the Rules. It can have no material effect on the game other than those effects specified by the Rules.

Rules, the rule set, and Proposals are unownable entities. Rule changes may manipulate Rules and the Rule set.

Manipulation of an entity is permissible if such manipulation is not explicitly regulated by the rules, and such manipulation would not have a material effect on the game. In other words, the game state must be the same after the manipulation as it would have been had the manipulation not occurred.

For the purposes of this rule, discussion and messages (public or private) are not considered a material effect on the game. Nor are the initiation or results of a CFJ or CFCJ concerning the matter of whether or not a certain event constitutes a material effect. It is recognized that deciding whether a particular manipulation materially affected the game state is a matter that often can only be decided by judgement alone.

Entities may not be broken into fractional pieces, and fractional pieces of entities may not be created. When any rule or anything else empowered by the rules specifies a fractional number of entities are created, destroyed, transferred, or otherwise operated upon, that action uses the least integer greater than the fractional number in place of the fractional number. This paragraph takes precedence over all other rules.

Rule 500.1/3
Entity Names
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

Each entity is either named (which means it has a name) or nameless. An entity is nameless unless the Rules specify otherwise.

When a named entity is created, it shall be given a name in accordance with the Rules. If the Rules do not specify any other method for determining its name, or if the method specified does not give a legal name, that entity shall be considered nameless until a name is legally assigned to it.

A name is a sequence of name characters. The name characters are: 

	! # $ % & * + - / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : = ? @ \ ^ _
	A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
	a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
	| ~ . , '
and the space character.

[Parentheses, double quotes, back quotes, square brackets, angle brackets, braces, and non-ASCII characters are not name characters.]

An alphabetic character can be "accented". If this is the case, then it has two equivalent representations, one with the non-accented alphabetic character, and one with an accented representation of the same character. The accented representation will be in accord with the HTML standard, so that, for instance, an o with an umlaut will be represented as ö . (This is the only circumstance under which a semicolon can be part of a name.) The accented representation is intended mainly for use on the Ackanomic web pages, where it will show up[in most browsers, at least]as the accented character in question. A character cannot be accented in a way that cannot be represented in the HTML standard. In any context where characters are being counted, the accented representation of a character counts as a single character.

If a named entity at any time ever does not have a name, it shall immediately take the name "Nameless Thing #X", where X is the lowest positive integer creating a legal name for the entity. If this would result in multiple entities having the same name, one of them is chosen at random. If this method does not produce a legal name, the entity remains unnamed.

[So, for example a character named "those pesky aliens" might have an accented representation of eir name as "thöse pésky âliens".]

Rule 500.2/1
Entity Ownership
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

Named entities may own other ownable entities, or even own themselves. (Nameless entities may not.)

Each entity is either unownable, nontradeable, tradeable, or gift, except that a gift entity is also tradeable. An entity is nontradeable unless the Rules specify otherwise.

If an entity is nontradeable or tradeable, then it is ownable. At any given time, each ownable entity is either owned by one named entity or Somewhere Else (unowned).

When an ownable entity is created, it is unowned, unless the Rules specify an initial owner for it. Entities may be transferred from one owner to another only through methods specified by the Rules.

Rule 500.3/2
Entity Uniqueness
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

An entity is unique if, and only if, the Rules specify that it is. Each unique entity is the only entity of its type.

If there are several entities of the same type, and at least one of them is unique, all the non-unique entities of that type are destroyed. If there are several unique entities of the same type, the oldest one survives and the rest are destroyed.

Unique entities may not be cloned, copied, duplicated, or Xeroxed; an attempt to forge a copy of a unique entity always results in humiliating failure.

A unique entity is also mimsy, unless the rules specify that it is not. A non-unique entity is not mimsy, unless the Rules specify that it is.

Rule 501/4
ExtraNomic Entities
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

Other nomics may exist, although it is uncertain exactly where they might reside (maybe in some of the smaller cells of the Gaol.)

When the Rules specify that an entity is "imported" from another nomic, that entity is, for the purposes of Ackanomic, created at that time. Its behavior and ownership are generally governed by the rules of the nomic from which it was imported. However, it may not perform protected actions, create entities, or manipulate or destroy entities that weren't imported from the same nomic; if a nomic specifies that an entity imported from it performs any of these actions, the entity is immediately exported. For the purposes of Ackanomic, it is then destroyed.

Rule 505/16
Treasury and AckaDollars
pTang1001001sos (Mark Nau)

I. AckaDollars

The AckaDollar (A$) is the official currency of Ackanomia.

AckaDollars are gift entities.

II. Treasury:

The Treasury is a named, unownable entity that serves as a storing house for entities that belong to no Player, except for those entities for which the rules explicitly state are not in (or considered to be in) the Treasury. Items owned by the Treasury are said to be "in the Treasury", and they may not be manipulated in any way except as explicitly allowed by the Rules.

III. Hard Currency:

AckaDollars may not be created nor destroyed, except as Trinkets are created and destroyed. This Rule has precedence over any Rule that would create or destroy A$, except it defers to rules concering the creation and destruction of Trinkets. Whenever the Rules specify that a Player should receive A$, and do not indicate where those A$ should come from, they shall come from the Treasury. Whenever the Rules specify that a Player should lose A$, and do not indicate where those A$ should go to, or specify that they should be destroyed, they shall go to the Treasury instead. The total number of A$ shall always be 75,000 less the combined value of all extant Trinkets and Majiks (including those Trinkets and Majiks created in Ackanomic, yet exported as described in the rules).

IV. Bankrupt Treasury:

Whenever some number of Players are to receive A$ from the Treasury, and there are insufficient available A$ to meet those obligations, the following process is executed:

V. Donation:

A player may donate any non-mimsy Tradeable entity they own to the Treasury by publically announcing they are doing so. When a Trinket is donated (or otherwise transferred to the Treasury), it is transformed into its value in A$ upon donation.

Rule 506/7
Trinkets
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

A class of gift entities known as Trinkets exist.

Trinkets always have a positive, integral value in A$; this takes precedence over all other rules. The value of a Trinket may only be changed as specified by the rules. The owner of a Trinket may transform it into its value in A$ by publically announcing they are doing so. This action destroys the Trinket, creating A$ in its stead, and it upsets the art and antiquities communities.

A player may create a Trinket by publically announcing its name, description, and value, as long as the player has at least as many A$ as the announced value. Upon doing so, the stated amount of A$ is transformed into the Trinket, and the creating player becomes the owner of the Trinket.

Other rules may also create and bestow ownership of Trinkets, so long as the rule provides for naming, describing, and valuing the Trinket. In these cases, however, if the value of the Trinket would exceed the number of A$ in the Treasury directly before it would be created, it is not created.

A player-created Trinket, whose name contains the name of a current or former player other than that of the creating player, such that the player name in question existed before the Trinket was created, is a forgery. The rules may define other circumstances under which a Trinket is a forgery. Upon it being publically knowable that a Trinket is a forgery, it is transferred to the Treasury. For the purposes of this clause, the Trinket name "contains" a name N, if it contans a word or phrase of the same length in words as N, that when stripped of any conventional English morphological changes, matches N as described in rule 348. [e.g. "Malenkai's Loophole" and "Malenkai-esque Statues" would be forgeries].

Trinkets have no power to affect any entities except as specified in the rules.

Rule 507/6
PF Bonds
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

There shall exist an acka-entity known as the Political Favor(PF), also known as the Bond or PFBond.

Each PF is "associated" with exactly one player.

PF Bonds are nameless, tradeable entities.

Rule 508/5
Bond Yields
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

At the end of every two weeks, PF Bond dividends are calculated. For each PF bond, the dividend earned is 1% of the change over that bond cycle in the score of the player in whose name the bond was issued, if that player's score increased, or 0.5% of the change, if the score decreased. The total of the dividends from the PF bonds each entity owns is calculated, and that number of A$ is paid to the entity from the treasury if it is positive; else the negative of that number of A$ is transferred from the entity to the treasury.

Two week cycles for PF Bonds shall end on at 12:00 on Mondays of the appropriate weeks.

Rule 509/2
Controlling Interest
IdiotBoy (Matt Miller)

If a player (player A) owns more than 50% of the PFBonds associated with another player (player B), player A is said to have a "controlling interest" in player B.

Player A may direct player B, in whom he has to controlling interest, to vote in a certain way on a given proposal. This is known as "exercising one's controlling interest."

Exercising one's controlling interest is accomplished by posting a public message which unambigously states the following:

a) Player A is exercising his controlling interest in Player B.

b) The proposal on which player A is exercising his interest. The deadline for voting on this proposal must be at least 3 days after the message is posted.

c) The vote which Player B is to cast on the proposal.

When player A exercises his controlling interest, A$30 is transferred from player A to player B, to cover player B's costs. Also A$20 is transferred from player A to the Clerk of the Courts, to file the appropriate documents.

If player B does not vote in the way specified, he is guilty of Stiffing His Shareholders. If a controlling interest in player B is exercised more than once on the same proposal, he shall only be guilty of Stiffing his Shareholders if he violates the last such exercise of controlling interest.

A player who has Stiffed His Shareholders will:

a) Have A$50 transferred from his account to player A, to reimburse with damages.
b) Have A$30 transferred from his account to the Clerk of the Courts, to have the paperwork corrected.
c) Have A$1 transferred from himself to the owner of each PFbond in his name, including player A. [e.g., snowgod owns 60 PFIdiot, Malenkai owns 40 PFIdiot. If IdiotBoy Stiffs His Shareholders, IdiotBoy would pay A$60 to snowgod and A$40 to Malenkai.]

A player may not exercise his controlling interest in any single other player more often than once a calendar week.

Rule 510/2
Voluntary Debt Prohibited
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

No player may use more A$'s to buy, trade, give or in any way move out of his account, than there are in his/her account at that moment in time. In other words, a player may never voluntarily go into debt, but it is possible that a player may go into debt involuntarily.

If a player is in debt, that player continues to earn A$s from jobs, yields, interests, donations, and selling or auctioning assets for currency.

Rule 511/2
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die
Calvin N Hobbes (Thierry Joffrain)

A trinket worth more than $99, whose description has "This trinket is Majik. It is sapphire bullet of pure love number <number>" as its first and second sentences becomes a Majik as soon as creation of the trinket is complete (where <number> is an integer greater than 199).

An existing trinket can be made into a Majik by the Archaeologist. A player who owns a trinket worth more than A$99 can ask in a public message if that trinket is special (and providing an integer greater than 199). If the Archaeologist replies publicly "This trinket is Majik. It is sapphire bullet of pure love number <number>" (<number> being the number given by owner) then the two sentences above from the Archeologist get added to the start of the description and the trinket becomes a Majik.

Majiks are no longer trinkets but keep the value, name and description (or amended description) they had when trinkets.

If Aliens have failed to capture a rule for three weeks in a row, then the sapphire bullet numbers are looked at. A random Majik is selected for consideration from among those existing Majiks which have sapphire bullet numbers that match rule numbers of existing rules. The rule with that number is abducted. The effects of the rule abduction will then follow from the rule called "The Sinister Alien Abduction Act".

A Majik becomes a simple trinket again (with the same value name and description as that of the Majik) if any of following three events take place:
1. The player who created (and still owns) a Majik publicly says "<Majik's name> looks like a snake to me."
2. The Aliens abduct a rule with number identical to that of a Majik's sapphire bullet number.
3. The player who created a Majik becomes an Undead.

Once a Majik becomes a trinket again, it is transformed into its value in A$.

Rule 515/5
Trading and Gifts
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

This Rule defers to all other rules. [Rules may specify conditions in which certain trades may not take place, even though this rule specifies that they are legal. Rules may specify alternate means of trading entities, beyond those given here.]

A Player may offer a trade of one group of entities for another, by sending a public message specifying the entities offered (if any) and the entities requested (if any), if and only if the trade is legal. If the message further states specifically to which Players the trade is offered, then the trade is exclusive; otherwise it is offered at large.

A trade that offers or requests any entity that is not tradeable is illegal. A trade that offers more entities of any type than the Player offering the trade owns is illegal. A trade that offers more entities of any type than the Player offering the trade owns is illegal. All other trades are legal.

An offer made in this way stands until it is legally retracted or accepted, or the entity who offered it no longer owns the entities offered, or the offer has been standing for at least three days, whichever comes first.

A Player may retract a trade he or she offered by sending a public message to that effect.

A Player may accept an exclusive trade offered to him or her, or any trade offered at large [but not one that was offered specifically to someone else], if and only if he or she owns all of the entities requested, in at least the quantities requested. He or she does this by sending a public message to that effect.

When a Player accepts a standing trade, the entities offered are transferred from the Player who offered the trade to the Player who accepted it, and the entities requested in exchange are transferred from the Player who accepted the trade to the Player who offered it.

A Player or organization who owns a gift entity may transfer that entity to another Player or organization as a public action.

All trades made as described by this rule are said to occur on the Free Market.

Rule 516/15
Auction
Malenkai (Randy Hall)

1) An Auction can be called either as specified by another Rule, or by any Player acting on their own.

The call for Auction must include:
a) the item or items to be Auctioned, which must be unowned if the Rules are calling (or directing a player to initiate) the Auction, and must be tradeable entit(ies) owned by the Player calling the Auction if it is being called by a Player acting on their own. Default quantity is 1 item.
b) if more than one item is being auctioned, whether or not the items should be grouped and auctioned as a lot (default = no). If yes, then "item" (and "items") as used in the remainer of this rule shall be construed to mean the entire lot of items being auctioned, and quantity shall be 1.
c) the minimum bid (default = A$0)
d) whether the Auction is to be private or public (default = public)
e) the player initiating the auction (default = Speaker)

2) The Auctioneer will be the player initiating the auction. If this is not possible for some reason, the Speaker shall be the Auctioneer. If this is impossible as well, there shall be no Auction until the situation is corrected.

3) The Auctioneer is disqualified to bid in a private Auction. The Auctioneer may use the title of Chief Cheese for the duration of any Auction.

4) The Auctioneer has the following duties: announcing the start of the auction and the relevant details of the auction; announcing the conclusion and results of the auction; making sure the auction procedure is conducted as specified by the rules; and accepting bids in private auctions.

5) The Auction shall last for 3 days, or 3 hours past the auction's most recent bid (in public auctions), whichever is longer, after which time the Auctioneer shall announce the results, and all A$ and items shall be transferred to their new owners. If the Auction was private, the Auctioneer shall keep a 10% commission of all monies transferred to the Treasury as compensation for performing the work and not being permitted to bid.

6) The Auction shall be conducted as follows:
6a) All qualified players are permitted to submit bids of a positive amount of A$ equal to or less than the amount they possess. If a player submits multiple bids, only the highest will be considered. Anyone who submits a bid in excess of the A$ they have is disqualified, and their bids are disqualified. Anyone who submits a bid below the minimum bid is also disqualified. Bids may not be retracted.

6b) In a public auction, each bid, except the first one, must exceed the previous bid by at least 10% for regular public auctions, and at least 1% for Shubik auctions, or it is disqualified.

6c) Let N be the quantity of items up for Auction. The players who made the N highest qualified bids shall each receive an item in exchange for the amount of A$ they bid. If the number of players who made qualified bids is less than N, then the Auctioneer shall receive all the the remaining items, if the minimum bid was A$0. If it was not A$0, then the remaining item(s) shall revert to the player initiating the auction. If, instead, they were unowned when the Auction was initiated, they are destroyed. If the auction was called by a player, and that player no longer has has at least N items at the conclusion of the auction, that player is placed in Contempt. If a bidder does not have enough A$ to honor their bid in either type of auction, they are placed in Contempt. In either of these cases, the auction is voided, and reinitiated if originally called by the rules.

6d) If the bids are tied such that the Auctioneer cannot determine who gets item(s), the Auctioneer shall resolve the tie(s) via random means, and disclose this fact. All tied bidders shall be eligible for the random selection, including any non-active ones.

6e) If the Auction is private, the Auctioneer shall not disclose the bids to anyone during the process of the Auction. If the Auction is public, bids must be submitted to the public forum.

7) When a player acting on their own calls a public auction in which exactly one item is being auctioned, that player may declare that auction to be a "Shubik Auction" when it is initiated. An auction may not be so declared under any other circumstances. At the conclusion of a Shubik Auction, the player who made the second highest bid, if such a player exists, forfeits his bid to the treasury as well, and receives no compensation.

Rule 517/4
Contracts
Red Barn (Daniel Knapp)

Contracts are named, tradeable entities. Any player may create a contract by publicly announcing that e is doing so and providing the name and text of the contract.

A contract has space at the bottom for signatures; a player may sign any contract by announcing that e is doing so, and signing the contract adds the signing player's signature at the bottom of the contract. [Of course, the wording of the contract might specify a player.]

A Player who takes a game action which violates one or more Contracts that bear his or her signature commits a Crime in doing so. A Player who, through inaction, violates one or more Contracts that bear his or her signature has committed a Crime by allowing this to happen.

Contracts may be destroyed under the following circumstances:

1) If the signers of the contract all publicly agree to destroy it, and it is owned by a player or Organization which also agrees to destroy it, it will be destroyed.

2) If there is a clause in the contract specifically dealing with its destruction, and the conditions in that clause are met, then it will be destroyed as soon as this fact is publicly knowable.

Rule 593/10
Ackanomic Research Guild
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

I. The Ackanomic Research Guild (Guild) consists of the holders of the following, and only the following, offices on the lettered list below. A member of the Guild has the title of Scientist:

A. Inventor

The Office of Inventor has one seat and is filled by Election for office. The Duties of the Inventor are to keep a public record of all existing Blueprints, to keep a public record of who owns each existing Gadget, and to take care of all other bookkeeping required to ensure that all Gadgets behave in accordance with their Blueprints.

B. Wizard

The Office of Wizard has one seat. This office is Tradeable, and is held by the player who possesses the seat, if any. When this seat is vacant (and not buried), it is auctioned in a public Auction, with a minimum bid of A$100.

C. Archaeologist

The Office of Archaeologist has one seat. This seat is filled or transferred only as follows: At the end of a Cycle, this seat is transferred to the single voting player who had the highest score when the cycle ended, which was both a prime number and not equivalent to the Magic Number at that time, and who is not already a Scientist other than the Archaeologist. If no such player exists, this seat is not transferred (nor filled if vacant).

II. A player may hold no more than one of the preceding offices at any one time.

III. When a Scientist is removed from their office by impeachment, he loses 20 points. If a Scientist resigns from their office while an Impeachment Paper is pending against him, he loses 5 points. An Impeachment Paper against a Scientist requires no quorum and a simple majority of votes in favor to be accepted.

Rule 594/15
Blueprints
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

(i) Blueprints are unownable entities. A Scientist can create a new Blueprint by posting its text publicly. If the Scientist has no Processing Chips, then the Blueprint is not created; otherwise, one Processing Chip is destroyed for every ten sentences, of fraction thereof, in the Blueprint. In this case, the Scientist is the creator of the Blueprint. A Rule can also create a new Blueprint by specifying that it is doing so, and specifying the text of the new Blueprint. In this case, the author of the Rule is considered the creator of the Blueprint.

Each Blueprint defines a different type of gadget. This definition consists of naming the type of gadget and unambiguously describing the behavior of such a gadget. A blueprint may state a requirement of various raw materials. If a blueprint does not require raw materials of at least half the number of processing chips (rounded up) used in creating the original blueprint, then the text ' Raw materials of N processing chips are required.' (with N replaced by the minimum number described above) is immediately appended to the blueprint, and any other existing requirement of processing chips as raw materials in that blueprint is deleted.

A Scientist may create no more than 4 Blueprints per calendar month.

(ii) When a Blueprint violates or conflicts with one or more Rules, the Blueprint is destroyed, as are any extant Gadgets made from that Blueprint. An attempt to create a Blueprint which violates or conflicts with one or more rules fails; in this case, no processing chips are spent, and the Blueprint is not created.

(iii) A Blueprint is lonely if and only if there do not currently exist any Gadgets made from that Blueprint. The creator of a Blueprint that is lonely may destroy it. If a Scientist leaves or loses their office for any reason, all of his or her lonely Blueprints are destroyed. [This gives the Players a way to get rid of the Blueprint for some Doomsday device: impeach the Scientist. In other cases, the Blueprint is generally approved by vote.]

(iv) If the specification or behaviour, attributes, etc, specified by 2 Blueprints is in conflict, the Blueprint which was created first has precedence. If the Blueprints were created at the same time, the one which would appear first in an alphabetic list of their titles would hold precedence. If this still does not resolve the conflict, or the precedence cannot be determined with finality for any reason, both Blueprints, and all gadgets made from each, are destroyed, in a large yellow, pungent, cloud of dust, which remains in the Archaeologist's home for 3 days.

(v) If a Blueprint specifies the effects of a certain kind of Gadget-related manipulation, and tells who can perform it, but does not specify how it is to be accomplished, then that type of manipulation can be performed as a public action. [See Rule 373 for more about public actions.]

[A Blueprint is not a legally binding document except where the Rules say that it is.]

Rule 595/17
Gadgets
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)

(i) A Gadget's Blueprint is the Blueprint that defines the class of Gadget to which that Gadget belongs. If a Gadget's Blueprint exists, the Gadget behaves in the manner defined by the Blueprint, and may be manipulated in accordance with it.

(ii) Gadgets are entities. A Gadget is tradeable unless its Blueprint specifies otherwise. A Blueprint has the authority to specify that Gadgets made from it are nontradeable or gift.

(iii) The ability to create Gadgets is a Privilege of a Scientist. A Scientist may create a Gadget only by performing these tasks, in this order:

(a) choosing a type from those defined by existing Blueprints. If the gadget requires raw material, the Scientist may use that provided by a player or from the Treasury. The raw materials used are destroyed.

(b) announcing publicly that a new Gadget of that type is being made. This cannot be done if the Scientist is already in the process of making a Gadget.

(c) building the gadget. This task is completed when the Scientist has spent at least three days building, and the Blueprint defining the type of Gadget to be made has existed for at least one week. The Gadget is created at the end of this time. If the Treasury provided the raw materials, then the Treasury owns it, otherwise it is unowned.

(d) if a gadget has no owner, then announcing publicly that the new Gadget has been built and initiating a public Auction of the Gadget, as defined by Rule 516. Otherwise, announcing the gadget is completed and who its owner is.

(iv) Gadgets may also be created by rules, provided the rule specifies the quantity created, the Blueprint which defines its behaviour, and how ownership is to be determined. If ownership is to be determined by Auction, The Auction shall be conducted by the process defined by Rule 516.

(v) A Gadget's owner can destroy it by publicly announcing that he or she is doing so, unless the Gadget's Blueprint specifies that it is indestructible.

(vi) A Gadget may create, destroy, or manipulate a Protected entity if its Blueprint so specifies. [So, Gadgets can affect other Gadgets, create points, and so on, as long as this behaviour does not conflict with the Rules.]

(vii) A Gadget is a Qualified Gadget if and only if its Blueprint has existed for at least a fortnight.

Rule 596/2
The Mad Scientist
Swann (Steven Swiniarski)

There is an optional Office of Mad Scientist which has one seat. The holder of the Office has the title of Scientist, but e is not a member of the Ackanomic Research Guild. This Office cannot be filled by any other Scientist, and when a Player takes the seat of this Office e must say publicly; "They laughed at me back at the Academy, the fools! Bwahahaha!" Or words to that general effect.

This Office can only be filled or transferred as follows: If the seat is vacant, it is filled by the last Player to take possession of any Frankenstein Monster. If it is impossible or illegal for the last player to take possesion of a Frankenstein Monster to become Mad Scientist [no such player exists, or the player is already a "real" scientist, whatver], then, the seat shall be filled by Election for Office.

The Mad Scientist's duty is to create Blueprints for, and build, Frankenstein Monsters. Being an outcast from the Scientific community, e has none of the other usual privileges associated with being a Scientist.

The Mad Scientist shall receive A$15 for each Frankenstein Monster e creates.

Any official communication by the Mad Scientist, in eir capacity as Mad Scientist, shall be made in a bad Transylvanian accent and contain at least one exclamation point.

This Rule takes precedence over all Rules on the matters of Scientists, including Mad Scientists.

Rule 597/7
The Frankenstein Monster(s)
Swann (Steven Swiniarski)

There is a class of entities known as Frankenstein Monsters. Each Frankenstein Monster is unique, and has it's own name. Each Frankenstein Monster has it's own Blueprint, which can be created in the manner described by this, and only this, rule. Only the Mad Scientist can construct anything from a Blueprint created according to this Rule, an attempt by any(one)thing else to build something from a Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster is doomed to dismal failure.

A Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster is not a Blueprint until its construction is completed by the Mad Scientist. Until then it is a Blueprint-under-construction.

If no Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster is currently under construction, and no Frankenstein Monster is being built from a Blueprint, the Mad Scientist shall begin construction of a Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster by making a public announcement, in the proper accent, as follows:

"I am building a monster and its name is <name>!" (where <name> throughout this Rule refers to a name picked for the Monster by the Mad Scientist that is not the same as that of any other Entity, or any prior Monster.)

Thereafter, the construction of a Blueprint for a Frankenstein Monster named <name> is initiated. The Blueprint is constructed by the Mad Scientist attaching valid Frankenstein Parts to it. However, e may only attach such Frankenstein Parts as are delivered to em.

Any voting player (including the Mad Scientist) has the option of digging up and delivering a Frankenstein Part to the Mad Scientist, once per calendar week.

A Frankenstein Part is dug up in the following manner:
i) A complete sentence of no more than thirty words is copied from either some current Rule or some past version of a Rule, such that the rule in question was initially created by a Proposal. The sentence is valid if and only if it is not already to be found in the current blueprint-under-construction, or in the completed Blueprint of a Frankenstein Monster.

ii) A single noun phrase is selected from this sentence.

iii) All instances of the selected noun is replaced by <name> (in whatever grammatical form is appropriate.) Any verbs, pronouns, or other nouns that corresponded in number with the original noun phrase are modified if necessary to correspond in number with <name>. Any pronouns for which the original noun phrase was an antecedent should also be modified to a neuter or otherwise gender-nonspecific form.

iv) The modified sentence, if it fulfills all the above conditions, is a valid Frankenstein Part.

The Mad Scientist must attach all parts to the Blueprint-under-construction, in the order delivered. If any Part is in conflict with a prior attached Part, (i.e. the two Parts would give the Monster mutually-exclusive attributes, (one says "the monster is blue," the other "the monster cannot be blue.") or would lead to a paradoxical or self-contradictory Blueprint) the new Part is rejected, withers, and is discarded.

The Mad Scientist shall keep secret the text of the Blueprint-under-construction (it is not yet a Blueprint), not revealing anything of its nature or contents, until one of the following conditions is true:

v) Its construction is such that any new parts would be rejected.
vi) No player other than the Mad Scientist has submited a Frankenstein Part that was not rejected in the past 30 days.
vii) It is over 500 words long.
viii) It consists of more than 20 complete sentences.

Once this happens the Mad Scientist shall publicly announce;

"I have assembled the Blueprint for <name>!"

E shall then post the text of the Blueprint-under-construction. At this point the Blueprint is constructed, (and is a Blueprint) and no more Parts may ever be added to it. The Mad Scientist must immediately, after this announcement, begin building the Frankenstein Monster subject to the general limitations placed upon Scientists working from Blueprints except that e need not pay Processing Chips, or any raw materials of any sort.

Once the Frankenstein Monster <name> is built, the following happens, (these provisions take precedence over the rules governing the fate of things built from Blueprints):

viii) The Mad Scientist shall exclaim, "It's alive! <name> IS ALIVE!"
ix) The <name> Monster is awarded to the last Player other than the Mad Scientist to have dug up and delivered a Part that was successfully attached (i.e. not rejected) to the Monster. This Player then owns the <name> Monster.
x) If this Player also submitted the last Part in the case where any additional Parts would have been rejected, that Player shall also win the current cycle, be awarded the honorary title of Angry Villager, and be awarded a Silver Pitchfork (a non-unique ownable entity).
xi) The Blueprint is hidden away and may never, ever be used again to create another Monster. If the <name> Monster ever ceases to exist, its Blueprint instantly crumbles into useless dust.

Frankenstein Monsters behave in the manner described in their Blueprints, unless they are in conflict with another blueprint, in which case the Blueprint which was created easrliest hs precedence. Blueprints for Frankenstein Monsters alway defer to the rules.

This Rule takes precedence over all Rules concerning Blueprints, Frankenstein Monsters, Gadgets, and the creation thereof.

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