Nomic by e-mail poses some minor problems of play. Pokey Nomic adopts the following conventions
for e-mail play. They can be thought of as the parliamentary rules of order for conducting a game
of Pokey Nomic by e-mail. Players must agree to them before joining the game.
- The game is conducted under the honor system. [101]
- The host of the game maintains a public copy of the rules, judgements, standings, and other
records of the game.
- "Clockwise order," [201] or playing order, is established randomly by the host of the game
before play begins.
- The host of the game will establish an e-mail mirror (automatic mailing list). Post all
e-mail, including general discussion as well as proposals, debate, votes, appeals and
judgements, to the mirror address. Private discussion might violate rule 210.
- Voting is conducted by secret ballot. When you receive a call for votes, post your decision
to the e-mail mirror, clearly marked as a ballot. Secrecy is maintained by the honor
system. Do not read other ballots until you have posted your own. To avoid compromising the
secret ballot by learning of others' votes indirectly from post-vote discussion, you should
vote as soon as you receive the call for votes, or at least before you read any more e-mail
from the mirror, and you should not make any post-vote comments until all ballots are
posted.
- Players make and post their own die rolls.
- Failure to "continue to play" [113] -- that is, to make a required move -- by a reasonable
deadline constitutes forfeiture by default.
- Consensus decisions are made by posting a proposal to the mirror and allowing a reasonable
time for objections. If no objections are made, the proposal is binding on all players.
- Players and teams are recognized by consensus. New players are placed randomly in the
playing order. The status (score, etc.) of a player who leaves a game temporarily may be
restored if acceptable to the other players.
- These conventions may be updated by consensus. However, the Current Rules, which with
Suber's "Nomic: A Game of Self-Amendment" and a little common sense are the basis for them,
always takes precedence.
Editor: Ed McGuire
Created: September 1, 1993
Revised:
July 25, 1997
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