PodNomic:Ruleset

Core Rules

Ruleset and Gamestate

This is the Ruleset for PodNomic; all Contributors shall obey it. The Gamestate is defined as any information which the Ruleset regulates the alteration of.

The ruleset consists of three sections: the core rules, which govern the game as a persistent whole, the schedule, which governs the timing of events in the game, and the seasonal rules, which cover specific rules of gameplay. In general, the core rules and the schedule are considered to be more persistent and harder to amend, while the seasonal rules are intended to be more transactional.

The Ruleset and Gamestate can only be altered in manners specified by the Ruleset.

If the Ruleset does not properly reflect all legal changes that have been made to it, any Contributor may update it to do so.

Core rule amendments

Any votable matter that would change the core rules can be adopted if more than 66% of the Contributors have voted FOR it. This rule supersedes the provision for adoption set out in the rule Resolution, but is superseded by the schedule rule Schedule Protection.

Contributors

The game has two roles, Contributors and Listeners. Listeners are people who have listened to or are otherwise aware of Podnomic, but who have not contributed to it in any way. Any Listener may becomes a Contributor by performing any Contributor action that is defined in the ruleset.

The Host

At any time, the game has one Contributor who is the Host. The Host is responsible for producing and publishing the Podcast according to the schedule set out in the schedule rules.

The Helper

If the Host believes that they may not be able to publish the next episode according to the terms laid out in the rule “Production Schedule”, or is unable to publish the next episode according to such, they may appoint a single Contributor or a Listener, who must be willing, to become a Helper. A Helper is to perform as many of the duties pertaining to publishing the next episode as is required to publish the next episode on time. If an action required of the Host is performed by the Helper, that action is considered to have been done by the Host. The Helper must have permission before performing an action that is required of the Host.

During an episode in which a Helper performed any actions required of the Host, the Host should say the following at some point during the episode: “And I give special thanks to [name of Helper] for helping this episode come out on time.” If the episode was narrated by the Helper, the Helper should instead say “And my condolences to [name of Host], who will hopefully be able to return for the next episode.”

All Helpers, if any, cease to become Helpers after each episode.

Seasons

The Podcast has Seasons; the current Season is Season 1.

Official Entries and Votable Matters

An official entry is any communication whose content or format is determined by the ruleset. A Votable Matter is an official entry which Contributors may cast Votes on, which must seek to make changes to the ruleset or gamestate.

Votable Matters are made by submitting them privately to the Host through the PodNomic Discord server. A Votable Matter must be submitted with the following elements: a title, an audio clip in which the text of the Votable Matter is read aloud, and an accurate plain-text transcript of the text that was read aloud in the audio clip.

Votable Matters have statuses, as follows. A Votable Matter may have only one status; when it gains a status it loses the one it previously had. A non-Votable Matter cannot have any of these statuses.

• When a Votable Matter is submitted, until the next Production Cutoff as defined in the schedule rules, the Votable Matter is a Draft. During this time it may be freely edited or amended, so long as the audio clip and the text transcript consistently reflect the same text.
• Between the first Production Cutoff after it was posted and the publishing of the next episode of the Podcast, a Votable Matter is a Bill and cannot be edited or voted upon.
• After a Votable Matter has been broadcast as part of an episode of the Podcast, and until the subsequent Production Cutoff, it is a Proposal, and may not be edited but may be voted upon.
• Between the first Production Cutoff to take place after it became a Proposal and the publishing of the next episode of the Podcast, a Votable Matter is an Act and it cannot be edited or voted upon.
• After a Votable Matter has had its vote tallies read on an episode of the Podcast it ceases to be a Votable Matter and may be neither edited nor reacted to (beyond marking it as resolved, as per the rule Resolution).

When a votable matter becomes a Proposal, which is to say, after it has been broadcast on an episode of the Podcast, the Host should upload its audio and transcript to the votable-matters channel of the Podnomic discord.

Votes

A Prospective Vote is a clear and unambiguous selection of either FOR or AGAINST on a single Votable Matter submitted privately to the Host. A Contributor's Effective Vote on a Votable Matter is the most recent Prospective Vote pertaining to that Votable Matter that they have submitted.

When a Contributor casts a Prospective Vote AGAINST a Proposal that they authored, the Proposal is rendered Withdrawn. No future Prospective Votes cast by them on that Proposal alter this status.

The "votes" on a Votable Matter are taken to be the Effective Votes pertaining to that Votable Matter.

Resolution

Votable Matters are resolved on an episode of the Podcast following the episode of the Podcast in which they were initially broadcast, by means of the Host reading aloud their title, the final votes cast on that Votable Matter, and confirming the outcome. The Host shall resolve Votable Matters in the episode immediately following their initial broadcast, but failure to do so does not preclude their future resolution.

Votable Matters must be resolved using the criteria set forth in the rules. An invalid specification of the outcome renders the resolution ineffective.

A Votable Matter is generally to be adopted if it has more votes FOR than AGAINST. Proposals which have been Withdrawn can never be adopted.

A Votable Matter is to be failed if it cannot otherwise be adopted.

When an adopted Votable Matter has not yet been enacted, any Contributor may enact it by updating the ruleset and gamestate as directed.

Within each episode, the Host shall resolve Proposals in chronological order of their submission, but failure to do so does not render the resolution ineffective. Adopted Proposals can only be enacted in chronological order of their resolution.

Licencing and Attribution

All audio recorded for use in PodNomic, including episodes of the podcast and the audio recordings of votable matters, are shared under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International creative commons licence.

I Say Therefore I Do

There exists (and if it doesn’t, it shall be created) a channel called #saying. When an action is said to be performed by saying so, that means that it can be performed by posting a sound file to #saying that says so, along a transcript of what you just said.

Each episode of the Podcast should include all sound files posted to the saying channel which have not previously been included in the Podcast.

Transcript Accuracy

Where the rules require that a transcript be produced, any reasonably accurate transcript is to be accepted. In particular, filler words, background noises, and obviously misspoken sections need not be reflected in the transcript. When the transcriber of the audio is also the producer of the audio, reasonable deference is to be given to the transcript about the intended meaning and grammatical structure of the audio.

Random Choices

Whenever the rules require a random choice to be made, it shall be made using the distribution specified (or a uniform distribution if not specified). The choice can be made by any method such that the distribution is reasonably close to the required distribution and that the final choice is not trivially predictable in advance. The method used should be public and verifiable.

Definitions

The word “should” indicates that something is encouraged, but not strictly required, by the rules. "Player" is a synonym for "contributor".

Fallibility

The Host shall endeavour to the best of their capability to produce each episode in accordance with the rules set out in the ruleset. However, any sound file published by the Host purporting to be an episode is considered to be a valid episode, provided that it was produced in good faith.

If a Contributor believes that an episode uploaded less than 14 days ago contains inaccurate information, or is otherwise not in accordance with the rules, they may create a challenge by sending a message describing the issue to the #challenges channel. The host may accept a challenge by reacting to it with a suitable emoji. If the alleged issue does not exist, the host may reject the challenge by replying to it with a message explaining the circumstances. Before the release time of an episode of the podcast, the host shall have accepted or rejected all challenges issued before that episode’s production cutoff.

Any statements made in a valid episode are considered to be definitive, provided that they are not challenged within 14 days after publication, or, if they have been challenged, those challenges have all been rejected.

Schedule Rules

Schedule Protection

The Schedule Rules govern the production schedule for the Podcast and define the practical steps that must be taken to fulfil the requirements of the ruleset. Contributors may not attempt to alter the Schedule Rules in ways that would have the effect of making the Podcast impossible or unduly onerous to produce; Contributors are required to vote AGAINST any Votable Matter whose impact would be to either alter the Schedule Rules in ways that would be contrary to the physical or mental wellbeing of the Host, or which would undermine of weaken the provision of this rule. This rule takes precedence over all other rules in the ruleset.

The Schedule Rules may not be amended without the Host's assent. Any Votable Matter that would amend the Schedule Rules, or which would have the effect of amending the Schedule Rules, may not be adopted unless the Host has voted FOR it. The Host may freely revert any game action that they feel has increased the burden upon them to the point at which it makes the commitment to continue being the Host unmanageable.

Production Schedule

Throughout the rules, the term 'Podcast' refers to PodNomic. An episode of the Podcast is a single instance of that Podcast. Each episode must have a number, which increases consecutively episode by episode, and a date upon which it is to be released.

Episodes of the Podcast must be produced such that they are released at noon UTC on the Tuesday and Friday of each week, excluding Intermission days.

Each Episode of the Podcast has a Production Cutoff. The Production Cutoff of an episode is noon UTC one day before its release (i.e. Monday and Thursday each week).

Podcast Content

The title of each episode in its RSS feed should be "Season X, Episode Y: A B", where X is the season number, Y is the episode number, A is an adjective of the Host's choice from any Bill, and B is a noun of the Host's choice from a different Bill. The "Season" prefix may be omitted during Season 1.

Each episode of the Podcast must begin with the following script:

"Hello and welcome to PodNomic, a True Crime podcast that is also a Nomic. This is episode x of season y for broadcast on z" - where x is the episode number, y is the season number, and z is the date.

Each episode of the podcast must include, for each accepted challenge posted before this episode’s production cutoff and not included in a previous episode, a correction, describing the nature of the error and providing corrected or missing information as necessary.

Each episode of the Podcast must broadcast the audio clip of each Bill, in the order in which they were posted. Each Bill should be announced with its title and the name of its author.

Each episode of the podcast should list all Acts, in the order in which they were initially posted, with their titles, the names of their authors, a tally of the votes cast upon them, and whether they were enacted or failed.

Each episode of the Podcast should end with the following script:

"That's all we have time for today. As always, if you want more information about the podcast or the game just go to podnomic.com. I've been your host, [name of host]. See you next time."

Beyond these restrictions, the Host is free to order the content of each episode of the Podcast as they see fit. The ruleset may be freely edited by the host to include such formatting as is necesary such that any direct instructions as to how to include or structure content in an episode of the podcast is visually highlighted.

Editing and Review

The Host is permitted to mix and master provided audio clips from Contributors and listeners for the benefit of the production value of the podcast, via methods including noise filtering, volume normalization , low and high pass filtering, de-essing, and trimming silent sections of the provided audio clips, etc., so long as the transcribed content of the audio clips is retained.

Season Transitions

If any Contributor has one or more Crowns, instead of reading the end of episode script, the Host should read the following script:

"This is the last episode of this season of Podnomic. Congratulations to x, who [is/are] the winner[/s] of this season; we'll be back with a new season shortly. Until then, I've been your host, y. See you next time."

- where x is the name or names of the Contributors who have more than zero Crowns, the choices in square brakets relate to pluralising the sentence where appropriate, and y is the Host's own name.

After such an episode is broadcast they must set the Crowns and Score of all Contributors to zero, and increase the number of the current Season in the rule Seasons by 1. The next eleven days are then considered to be Intermission days.

In the subsequent episode, instead of reading the usual opening script, the Host should read the following:

"Welcome back for a new season of Podnomic, a podcast about nomics that is also a nomic. This is episode x of season y, for broadcast on z" - where x is the episode number, y is the season number, and z is the date.

Seasonal Rules

Background Music

The PodNomic background music is Cruising for Goblins by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC-Attribution licence.

Between an episode's production cutoff and release, the Host should visit https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/full_list.php and select a track from that page the title of which includes a word from any Votable Matter or Segment which is due to be broadcast in that episode, then update the previous paragraph to include the title, artist and licence of the selected track.

The Host may reroll the result of the background music selection for any episode if they find that the background music selected is not available for any reason.

The PodNomic background music shall play through the entirety of each episode of the podcast, except for during the reading of each proposal's text. The Host shall, during each episode of the podcast, name the title and artist of the background music, and the licence that it is used under.

Discussion

Contributors are encouraged to, but not required to, include within a votable matter discussion of changes within the votable matter. This discussion is encouraged to be extemporaneous, or with notes, but not read from prepared text.

Letters to the Editor

Any listener or contributor to the podcast may send a letter to the podcast by sending it in text form to the host. Each episode the host should randomly select a player with one or more unread letters from the letters they have received, then randomly select one of more of that player's unread letters and read it on air. If the person who sent that letter is already a contributor then they gain 1 score

Sponsorship

Each episode of the podcast must include the host saying the phrase 'this episode of PodNomic is brought to you by' and then listing a business, ideally fictional, that the host sees fit to claim that the episode is sponsored by, and then make up a slogan for that business. If it's a real business, it should still be a fictional slogan.

Segments

A segment is defined as an audio clip, which may be no more than two minutes in length, that has been recorded by a Contributor, optionally with additional input from other Contributors or listeners. Segments may be uploaded to the #segments channel of the PodNomic discord.

A Contributor may record and upload a segment at any time. A fresh segment is any Segment that has not been played on the Podcast before. Contributors may react to fresh segments with any emoji they choose. A Contributor's reactions to their own Segments are ignored for the rest of this rule. Contributors may delete their own fresh segments from the channel; if they do, then that segment ceases to be fresh.

A segment's fitness is equal to the result of the formula (d + e - s)/n, where:

• d is the number of days since the segment was posted
• e is the number of episodes since the last time a segment from that Contributor was played on an episode
• s is the Contributor's score, divided by five, rounded up
• n is the number of fresh segments by that Contributor

The Host should include up to two segments in each episode, selecting the most fit fresh segments, breaking ties randomly.

Interview Prep

A segment is an interview if it is produced by the Host and features the Host speaking extemperaneously to a Contributor or non-Contributor about something that is happening in a nomic other than Podnomic. An interview has a maximum length of five minutes instead of the default 2.

All The News

A player of any Nomic may submit an item of Nomic News in text form to the Host at any time, specifying a Nomic (other than PodNomic) and a significant event which has recently occurred there.

Each episode of the Podcast should include a summary of all Nomic News received but not previously broadcast.

Explainers

A segment is an explainer if it is produced by a Contributor other than the Host, and it features that Contributor speaking to another Contributor or the Host about the elements of the True Crime story that have been broadcast so far on the podcast. An Explainer can be up to five minutes in length.

An Explainer may establish that elements raised in preceding Statements are meaningful Suspects, Objects or Locations. This is done by calling out the specific element, highlighting which category of meaningful phenomena that element falls into, and optionally including a short clip from the statement where that element was established.

Musings

A musing is a type of segment that has been produced by a Contributor other than the Host, features only their voice, and is recorded outside of any building. It should feature that contributor speaking extemporaneously about any of the statements that have been received so far and broadcast on the podcast. Whenever a Musing is broadcast on the podcast its author gains 1 Insight.

Specials

In addition to episodes, there are PodNomic Specials, which are published as if they were episodes of the podcast. The host shall release specials at noon UTC on Sunday whenever there are any pending publication.

Any Contributor can record a special as directed by the rules. When a special recorded by a Contributor is published, that Contributor earns 5 score.

Ruleset Readout

The Ruleset Readout is a kind of special in which the entire ruleset is read out loud.

If no Ruleset Readout has been published in the current month and there is no Ruleset Reader, any Contributor can claim the opportunity to become such by saying so. Once they do this they become a claimant. 72 hours after someone becomes a claimant when there are no other claimants, if there is only one claimant, then they become the Ruleset Reader. If there are multiple, then any Contributor can randomly select one such Contributor. That Contributor then becomes the Ruleset Reader. When a Contributor becomes the Ruleset Reader, all claimants cease to be claimants.

The Ruleset Reader must, within 96 hours of becoming such, record the Ruleset Readout and send it to the Host.

Season Retrospectives

A Season Restrospective is a kind of special that may be produced between the last episode of one season and the first episode of the next. Only the Host may produce a Season Restropsective.

No Contributor gains any Score for the broadcast of a Season Retrospective, including the Host for its production.

A Season Retrospective is intended to be an unstructured review of the season that has just passed, and the Host has broad latitude to interpret that as they wish. They should consider including:

• Clips from Contributors reflecting on that season
• Repeat plays of high-scoring or particularly popular Segments
• An interview with the winner
• Thoughts or suggestions on what could change structurally to improve the podcast or the game

True Crime

If a Segment is described in its filename as being a Statement, then it is a Statement, and the Host should introduce it as such when it is broadcast. The Host may edit his own voice into Statements and Explainers, adding his own questions or reactions; these additions are not considered to count towards the length of the audio clip

The Host maintains a list of Suspects, Objects and Locations: whenever the Host edits an Explainer into the podcast which mentions any of these phenomena, the Host should evaluate whether the selected element reasonably represents that kind of phenomena and, if it does, must then add those elements to the appropriate lists; otherwise they must say so, explaining why.

If the Host has at least six items on each of these lists, then they may (if they have not already done so) privately select one of each to be the Criminal, the Evidence and the Scene respectively. When they do this, they should include the phrase "the pieces are beginning to fit together" in the episode they are currently editing.

The Host should not divulge the Suspects, Objects, Locations, Criminal, Evidence or Scene to the contributors until required to do so by the ruleset.

If the Host considers a Statement to be a reasonably close reading of an earlier piece of text which was posted to the Segments channel (in that it would not score any differently to an entirely faithful reading of that text), then that Statement is instead considered to have been uploaded by the Contributor who submitted the original text.

Once a person has recorded a Statement by a named character, the Host should ignore any Segments which purport to be by that same named character but which are recorded by a different person.

Insight

Each contributor has an amount of Insight and an amount of Tension, both of which are tracked privately by the Host and start at zero.

When an Explainer is broadcast, for any phenomena that are added to their respective lists, the contributor who uploaded the Statement that established that phenomenon gains +1 Insight, unless that Contributor was also the author of the Explainer that added it. If the Host feels that the Explainer in any way contradicted an earlier broadcast Statement or Explainer, however, its contributor instead gains no Insight from it, and the host should say so; they instead gain 1 Tension.

When a Statement is broadcast, the Contributor who uploaded it gains +1 Insight if the Host feels that it included the name of a place or a person who has not previously appeared in any Statements, and a further +1 Insight if the Statement referred back to a place or a person from an earlier Statement.

The Podcast's Signature Sound

The Host should debut the Podcast's signature noise in Episode 10. The signature noise should be no more than 5 seconds long and should play at the end of the introduction script of each episode. The Host has discretion to make the Podcast's signature noise as they please, however it should where possible incorporate the submissions of any Contributor. Any Contributor can make a submission by sending a sound file, either by sending it to him privately or by saying so. The sound file of a submission should be no more than 5 seconds long and should be a public domain sound effect or a recording of their own devising.

True Crime Hosting

The Host may, at their discretion, add into each episode up to one minute of True Crime Hosting. A True Crime Hosting segment can but does not have to take the form of the host asking a number of open-ended questions in a row and then ending in an overly dramatic exclamation; the host simulating retracing the steps of the crime; the host hypothesising wildly on the basis of no information, or the host explaining his own physical or emotional reaction to a revelation that has just transpired.

Field Recordings

If a Segment includes the uploader's own voice claiming to be at a location mentioned in an earlier Statement or Explainer, then it is a Field Recording. After a Field Recording is broadcast, the Host should privately contact the Uploader and inform them of either:

• The name of a Suspect who is not the Criminal, an Object which is not the Evidence or a Location which is not the Scene, where the named entity was mentioned in the Field Recording, and where it has not been named in this way to this Contributor before; or
• The fact that the Host was unable to provide information under the previous bullet point.