Amendments to the Game Rules

[Aquinas]

Some small changes have been introduced to the Game Rules. Yes, those. We know most of you have more important things to do than read the rules, but if at least some of you could put aside some time to read them, we really would appreciate it .

The significant changes are...

Section 15: A Cultural Protocol can now be affirmed through a simple "Motion of Cultural Protocol Affirmation" rather than going through the process of a Cultural Protocol update. See the section for more details on the conditions.

Section 17: Creating a new Cultural Protocol in a Culturally Open nation now requires the support of a "a 2/3rds majority of all players with seats (not just those with seats who vote), and at least 3 players with seats must support the motion, all of whom must have been currently continuously active in the nation (ie. no inactivations) for at least 1 month". Previously, you needed a 2/3rds and at least 3 players with seats, at least one of whom must have been continuously active for a month.

There is also now a 4 day (96 hour) waiting period before a newly-created Cultural Protocol will be accepted, in order to allow more opportunity for discussion. Previously the waiting period was 2 days (48 hours), the same as for regular Cultural Protocol updates.

Section 22.1.2: The position on constitutional RP laws has been amended to:

22.1. Constitutional RP laws require a 2/3rds majority, just like game mechanic constitutional laws.

22.1.2 Any RP law granting extraordinary "emergency powers" or dictator-like powers to a government must be passed by at least a 2/3rds majority, but may always be overturned by a simple majority vote of the legislature.

Section 22.10: An extra provision on RP laws:

22.10 Moderation reserves the discretion to declare RP laws invalid if the players supporting them are doing so in an excessively confrontational way.

Section 22.4.5.1: It is now explicitly permitted for a nation to adopt an executive presidency model:

22.4.5.1 It is permitted to use a RP law to assign full executive authority to the Head of Government and to either entirely disregard the list of Cabinet Ministers on the Cabinet page or regard those Cabinet Ministers as entirely subordinate to the Head of Government.

Section 23.2: It is now explicitly permitted to use the RP events procedure to handle referendums:

23.2 It is permitted to use a RP event bill to institute a referendum. The RP event bill should specify:

- the result of the referendum or a full description of how the result will be determined. The bill could arrange for the result to be simulated by applying a simple formula to the outcome of an upcoming election. For example, the RP event bill might list what percentage of voters for each party will vote "Yes" and "No". Alternatively, as an example, the bill might delegate authority for determining the result to a designated player.

- the RP event bill should specify the in-game date at which the referendum will be held. For example, it might be held simultaneously with the election, or it might be held a year after the election.

- whether the bill is recommendative (ie. the legislature and/or government considers the referendum result and then takes a decison on what to do next) or enactive (ie. the referendum could potentially immediately enact a piece of legislation). However, bear in mind that it is not possible for RP laws to over-ride game mechanic laws, so no referendum RP will be legal under the rules if it conflicts with this principle.

Thanks to everybody who has taken the time to read this. Please do not hesitate to come forward if you have any questions or suggestions.

[Aquinas]

Some more small changes have been introduced.

"Cabinet-locking" is now disallowed:

13.7 It is forbidden to impose a "Cabinet-lock" by introducing a situation where the Head of State is unelected and yet only the Head of State is permitted to propose a Cabinet. Amongst other possible sanctions, Moderation reserves the discretion to subject parties to a seat reset if this is necessary to reverse a Cabinet-lock situation.

Party Organisations will now be eligible for deletion if they have no active leadership or if they are more than 20 IG years old and have fewer than 2 active full members:

12. Party Organisations.

12.1 A Party Organisation will be deleted if one or both of the following apply:

- It has no active leader(s).

- It is more than 20 IG (in-game) years old and does not have 2 or more active full members.

Organisations which meet this criteria may be reported for deletion on the Organisations for deletion thread.

12.2 If a player uses an inactive account within an organisation to raise or demote a party from leadership, then Moderation reserves the discretion to reverse the changes if this action is challenged by another player.

As many of you will have noticed, Particracy has a surfeit of organisations, and we believe gameplay will be enhanced by moving towards a situation where we have fewer organisations, but more relevant organisations. But obviously, from now on, if you want to keep your organisations alive, you will need to put in at least the small amount of effort necessary to meet the minimum requirements to avoid deletion.

Finally, Treaties are now eligible for deletion if they are over 20 IG years old and have no ratifications:

14. Treaties.

14.1 Treaties which have become inactive, meaning they are over 20 IG (in-game) years old and have no active signatories, will be deleted. Treaties identified as inactive may be reported for deletion on the Dead Treaties thread.

14.2 "Treaty-locking", or ratifiying treaties that completely or nearly completely forbid any proposals to change laws, is not allowed. Amongst other possible sanctions, Moderation reserves the discretion to delete treaties and/or subject parties to a seat reset if this is necessary in order to reverse a treaty-lock situation.

[Aquinas]

In order to limit the number of treaties and organsiations, we have moved to make the rules just a little bit tighter still. The rule for Party Organisations is now:

12. Party Organisations.

12.1 A Party Organisation will be deleted if one or both of the following apply:

- It has no active leader(s).

- It is more than 20 IG (in-game) years old and does not have a minimum of 2 active members of full member status or higher, who must both be listed with no more than 25 organisations.

Organisations which meet this criteria may be reported for deletion on the Organisations for deletion thread.

12.2 If a player uses an inactive account within an organisation to raise or demote a party from leadership, then Moderation reserves the discretion to reverse the changes if this action is challenged by another player.

And the rule for Treaties is now:

14. Treaties.

14.1 Treaties which have become inactive, meaning they are over 20 IG (in-game) years old and have no ratifications or are over 100 IG years old and have fewer than 2 ratifications, will be deleted. Treaties identified as inactive may be reported for deletion on the Dead Treaties thread.

14.2 "Treaty-locking", or ratifiying treaties that completely or nearly completely forbid any proposals to change laws, is not allowed. Amongst other possible sanctions, Moderation reserves the discretion to delete treaties and/or subject parties to a seat reset if this is necessary in order to reverse a treaty-lock situation.