Nomic
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Nomic is a game that can be played in person or over the Internet in which the rules of the game are subject to change based on player's actions. Usually, at least initially, the rules are changed by democratic voting. "Nomic" actually refers to a large number of games based on the initial ruleset laid out by Peter Suber in his book The Paradox of Self-Amendment. (The ruleset was actually first published in Douglas Hofstadter's column Metamagical Themas in Scientific American in 1982, which discussed Suber's upcoming book, which wasn't actually published until years later.) The game is in some ways modeled on modern government systems, and demonstrates that any rule-changing system can get into a situation in which the laws are contradictory or insufficient to determine what is legal.
While the victory condition in Suber's initial ruleset is the accumulation of 100 points by the roll of a die, players can change the rules to such a degree that points can become irrelevant in favor of a true currency, or make victory an unimportant concern. Any rule in the game, including the rules specifying the criteria for winning and even the rule that rules must be obeyed, can be changed. Any loophole in the ruleset, however, may allow the first player to discover it the chance to pull a "scam" and modify the rules to win the game. Complicating this process is the fact that Suber's initial ruleset allows for the appointment of Judges to preside over issues of rule interpretation.
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Gameplay
Initially, gameplay occurs in clockwise order, with each player taking a turn. In that turn, they propose a change in rules that all the other players vote on, and then roll a die to determine the number of points they add to their score. If this rule change is passed, it comes into effect at the end of their round. Any rule can be changed with varying degrees of difficulty, including the core rules of the game itself. As such, the gameplay as mentioned in this section may quickly change.
Rules are divided up into two types: mutable and immutable. The main difference between these is that immutable rules must be changed into mutable rules (called transmuting) before they can be modified or removed. Immutable rules also take precedence over mutable ones. A rule change may be the addition of a new mutable rule, the repealing of an old mutable rule, an amendment to a mutable rule, or the previously mentioned transmutation of a rule from mutable to immutable or vice versa.
Alternative rules exist for Internet and mail games, wherein gameplay occurs in alphabetical order by surname, and points added to the score are based on the success of a proposed rule changed rather than random dice rolls.
Variants
Not only can almost every aspect of the rules be altered in some way over the course of a game of Nomic, but myriad variants also exist: some that have themes, begin with a single rule, or begin with a dictator instead of a democratic process to validate rules. Others combine Nomic with an existing game (such as Monopoly, Chess, or in one possibly self-contradictory attempt, Mornington Crescent). There is even a version in which the players are games of Nomic themselves. Even more unusual variants include a ruleset in which the rules are hidden from players' view, and a game which, instead of allowing voting on rules, splits into two sub-games, one with the rule, and one without it.
One offshoot of a now-defunct Nomic (Nomic World) is the Fantasy Rules Committee (http://www.sir-toby.com/archives/FRC/), which adds every legal rule submitted by a player to the ruleset until no more rules are possible. Then, all the "fantasy rules" are repealed and the game begins again.
Notes
Internet Nomic games in English sometimes use Spivak pronouns, so that the rules can refer to indefinite players easily without using "he or she".
Games of Nomic sometimes last for a very long time - Agora has been going on continuously ever since 1993. According to [1] (http://www.dfw.net/~ccarroll/agora/), "Agora itself was started following the collapse of another Nomic, Nomic World, which was the first known MUD-based Nomic."
The longevity of Nomic games can pose a serious problem: after a certain point, the sets of rules by which Nomics operate can grow so complex that current players do not fully understand them and prospective players are deterred from joining. One currently-active game, BlogNomic (http://blognomic.blogspot.com/) gets around this problem by dividing the game into "dynasties;" every time someone wins, a new dynasty begins, and all the rules except a privileged few are repealed. This keeps the game relatively simple and accessible.
Another facet of Nomic games is the way in which the implementation of the rules affects the way the game of Nomic itself works. ThermoNomic, for example, has a ruleset in which rule changes are carefully considered before implementation, and rules are rarely introduced which provide loopholes for the players to exploit. B Nomic (http://www.nomic.net/~g6/), by contrast, was once described by one of its players as "The equivalent of throwing logical hand grenades".
This is essentially part of the differentiation between Procedural games, where the aim (acknowledged or otherwise) is to tie the entire ruleset into a paradoxical condition, and Substantive games, which try to avoid paradox and reward winning by achieving certain goals, such as attaining so many points.
External links
- The original initial ruleset (http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/nomic.htm#initial%20set), as created by Peter Suber
- The Nomic page of Peter Suber (http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/nomic.htm), among other things, contains a very long list of Nomic games past and present.
- A Nomic thesis on the "Mousetrap" (http://www.nomic.net/~nomicwiki/index.php/MousetrapThesis), published by a player of Agora demonstrates the complicated legal, cultural, and psychological elements of Nomic.
- nomic.net (http://www.nomic.net/) contains a Nomic Wiki, the Nomic FAQ, a Nomic Bulletin Board, and a variety of other resources.
- Nomic card game "Dvorak" (http://www.dvorakgame.co.uk), a simple blank-card game where creating and amending the cards is a part of the game.