Rule 5E36
From B Nomic
Contents |
Rule 5E36: Judgment
The Oracle
There exists a ministry known as the Ministry of Questions. The Minister of Questions, also known as the Oracle, is responsible for maintaining a Public Display of the current Consultations and their attributes. There exists an Object called the staff of ZOT. The Oracle holds the staff of ZOT.
Consultations
Any External Force may as a Game Action submit a Consultation.
Consultations are Game Documents that contain a Question or a Statement that is to be Answered. If a Statement is submitted, it shall be treated as a Question of the form "is it true that <statement>?". The Question or Statement must be posed in such a form as to permit a yes or no reply. Unless otherwise specified in the Question or Statement, the veracity of the Question or Statement shall be evaluated with respect to the time at which it was submitted. Consultations may also contain:
- Reasoning, meaning text that clarifies the intent of the Consultation.
- the name of a Player that is to be considered as the Unbeliever for that Consultation.
That player submitting the consultation will be known as Supplicant regarding that consultation.
Consultations are given a Consultation Number by the Oracle when assigned to a Priest. For each new Consultation, the Consultation number is usually equal to 1 or, if such Number is already in use, to the greatest existing Consultation Number incremented by one. The Oracle may arbitrarily override the normal assignment of Consultation numbers, and choose a number of his liking for a new Consultation.
A Consultation is in one of the states of Waiting, ZOTTED and Pondered. A Consultation is initially Waiting.
Whenever there exists a Waiting Consultation which has no priest assigned, the Oracle is obligated to either assign a priest to that Consultation or ZOT it.
Pondered Consultations have a Switch called Influential, by default On. The Answers to Influential Consultations (and the Reasoning, if any, of the final Priest to whom they were Assigned) are considered to reflect the generally agreed upon gamestate and should guide future interpretation of the Rules. However, it is entirely possible for them to be contradicted by future Answers. /* Contradictions may arise if, for instance, Players later realize that an earlier Answer should have been declared Inconsistent, or if the relevant Rules have since changed.*/
The Oracle may, without Objection, set the Influential Switch of any Pondered Consultation to On or to Off.
ZOTTING
Upon submission of a Consultation the Oracle shall as a Game Action select a Priest for that Consultation. Alternatively the Oracle may wield the staff of ZOT and cause the Consultation to be ZOTTED, if in his insight he considers the contained Question to be malformed, ambiguous, irrelevant or otherwise unworthy. ZOTTED consultations have no further effect.
The Oracle may also ZOT a Waiting Consultation if has not been Answered yet and its assigned Priest requests him to do so. In this case the Oracle is required to grant the request or immediately reassign the Consultation to a new Priest instead.
If a Consultation is ZOTTED by the Oracle before he assigns it to a Priest, the Oracle is not required to record the Consultation in the Public Display.
Selecting a Priest
An Active Player, as a Game Action, may gain the Ordained Property. Any Player, as a Game Action, may remove their own Ordained Property. Any Player that loses the Active Property also loses the Ordained Property.
Whenever a Priest is to be selected for a Consultation, the Oracle shall select one between the eligible Players. All Ordained Players, except the Supplicant, the Unbeliever if the Consultation names one, the Oracle and Players that have already been selected as Priests for that Consultation, are eligible for selection as Priests. It is a violation of the Rules for the Oracle to deliberately select a specific Priest for the purposes of fostering or protecting the Oracle's personal interests, monetary or otherwise If no Player is eligible, the Oracle is automatically selected as Priest.
The Answer
The selected Priest shall find inspiration in his knowledge of the Rules and, as a Game Action, Answer his assigned Consultation YES, NO, or, in cases where neither of these two answers can potentially be logically correct, PARADOX, causing it to become Answered. The Priest may also submit his own Reasoning, explaining how his mystical interpretation of the Rules has guided him in his Answer. The Priest may also submit a list of Obsolescences, in which he pronounces one or more Pondered Consultations to be in conflict with his own Answer.
If the Consultation's subject is on the matter of whether a Player has broken or violated the Rules, and the Answer is Yes, then the Priest may assign a Punishment that includes either Bail, specifying an amount of a Currency, Term, specifying a duration of ntime, or both Bail and Term as defined above.
If a Consultation remains Answered for four full Ndays (or Ndelays if the clock is off), it becomes Pondered.
When a Consultation with a Punishment becomes Pondered, the Player that has been found to have violated the rules becomes a Prisoner until:
- If the Punishment includes only Bail, he destroys the relevant amount of the Currency specified.
- If the Punishment includes only a Term, the specified duration elapses.
- If the Punishment includes both Bail and a Term, any one of the two events listed immediately above occurs.
When a Consultation with a list of Obsolescences becomes Pondered, the Pondered Consultations named in this list lose the Influential Property.
For the purposes of answering Consultations the words "True", "Affirmative" and "Correct" are to be considered synonymous with "Yes", the words "False", "Negative" and "Incorrect" are to be considered synonymous with "No", and the words "Maybe", "Undecidable" and "Göd Knows" are to be considered synonymous with "Paradox".
Automatic Reassignment
Any Priest, who is not the Oracle and has not answered a Consultation he has been assigned to within a Jiffy, ceases to be the Priest for any Consultations he is assigned to and loses the Ordained Property. If a Player loses the Ordained Property in this manner, he cannot regain the Ordained Property until the next nweek.
Overriding Consultations
When a Priest submits an answer to a consultation, within three rdays since its submission, any player except the Priest, Unbeliever, and the Supplicant may, as a Game Action, make a Claim regarding the Answer and the Oracularity (if one exists). Such Claims will ultimately state that the player believes the answer to be Consistent or Inconsistent. If a Player submits multiple Claims, only the last one submitted shall be counted.
A Jiffy after the Answer has been submitted the Oracle shall tally any such Claims. If there exist more Claims of Inconsistency than claims of Consistency, the consultation ceases to be Answered and becomes Waiting. The Oracle shall then assign a new Priest to the Consultation. The previous Priest's answer (if any) is discarded.
