Zefram wrote:
> No change to the Ruleset can occur that would cause a Rule to
> stipulate any other means of determining precedence between Rules of
> equal Power. This applies to changes by the enactment or amendment
> of a Rule, or of any other form. This Rule takes precedence over
> any Rule that would permit such a change to the Ruleset.
Yes, this was the subject of Andre's Thesis, and my unfinished thesis
(unfinished because my committee chair pointed out that Andre had
written it first!) This was the recommendation of both theses, IIRC.
Don't know why we never did.
> Change the Power of rule 1482 to 4.
Actually, I'm against raising the power of a lone useful (e.g. non-
fountain) rule to power 4, significantly altering the precedence
structure rather than just defending the current one. I'd rather
have this stay at power-3, and read "this takes precedence over other
rules which would cause Rule changes to occur."
> Amend the rule titled "Rule Changes" (which was numbered 2131 when
> first enacted, and then renumbered to 105) by replacing each
> instance of "a proposal" or "a Proposal" with "an instrument"
> [...]
> (This will once again allow rules to enact, modify, or repeal rules,
> without them needing to have a ridiculously high Power in order to
> take precedence over the "Rule Changes" rule.
I like the goal, but not the implementation. The "instrument"
language caused all sorts of problems in previous iterations.
For example: If Rule says that a card has power-2, is the card
the instrument, or is the player playing the card the instrument?
The card can't act, and the player playing the card isn't the
instrument (e isn't the card).
There was a lot of written tongue-twisting trying to get the
language right last year when we had cards. ("The player is the
instrument when e plays the card") I'd suggest revisiting the
langauge of R1688 altogether. Maybe turn the noun (objects with
power = "instruments") to verbs (actions with power = "commands").
Proto: Amend R1688 to read:
The power of an entity or action is a natural number, which is
zero unless otherwise defined or modified according to
procedures defined by the rules. An instrument is an entity
with positive power. A command is an action with positive
power; a command must be explicitly defined by the rules as
a command and performed precisely as defined by the rules in
order to have power. A command can not have greater power than
the Rule defining it.
[first draft, probably can be streamlined.
Use:
-In R105: "A rule may be modified by command if and only
if the power of the command is equal to or greater than
the power of the rule."
-In a self-repealing rule: "The Rulekeepor may command this
rule to be repealed."
- In a Mutation: "The [player in charge of mutations] may
command a mutation in a rule under these conditions:" works
only on rules of power equal or less than the mutation rule.
]
-Goethe
