What is Nomic?

Nomic is a game that is made up as you go. It begins with one or more rules and a set of players. Players then vote on new rules and amendments to those rules. There are many variations on how this is done. The original creator of Nomic is Peter Suber. The games may become 'Procedural' or 'Substantive'. In a procedural game, the voting and amending of rules becomes the focus. In a Substantive game another game emerges that may be winnable (scoring points, acheiving some objective).

For an in depth overview of Nomic, your best bet is to consult the FAQ: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~malcolmr/nomic/FAQ.html

OTOH, you may ask yourself "What is the version of nomic you play?. Nomic game 2 is based on "degenerate nomic" or 1 rule nomic. That being "All players must agree to changes in the game" (This has also been called "Pure Nomic"). Nomic game 1 is similar, but began with two of the starting players proposing an initial rule set.

[CU Games Club] This CUGC web page is maintained by: nomic@cugc.org