Editing Nomic (section)

==Gameplay==
All aspects of Nomic are variable; the players can vote to change the rules to whatever sort of game they want to play. The initial {{boardgloss|ruleset}} was designed by Peter Suber, and was first published in [[Douglas Hofstadter]]'s "[[Metamagical Themas]]" column in the June 1982 edition of ''[[Scientific American]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hofstadter|first=Douglas|title=Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern|publisher=Basic Books|year=1996|isbn=978-0-465-04566-2|pages=70–83}}</ref> Hofstadter discussed Suber's book ''The Paradox of Self-Amendment'', in which Suber defined the game thus:

{{Blockquote|Nomic is a game in which changing the rules is a move. In that respect it differs from almost every other game. The primary activity of Nomic is proposing changes in the rules, debating the wisdom of changing them in that way, voting on the changes, deciding what can and cannot be done afterwards, and doing it. Even this core of the game, of course, can be changed.|Peter Suber, ''The Paradox of Self-Amendment''<ref>{{cite book | title=The Paradox of Self-Amendment: A Study of Law, Logic, Omnipotence, and Change |url= http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:10243418 | publisher=Peter Lang Publishing | author=Suber, Peter | author-link=Peter Suber | year=1990 | pages=362 | isbn=0-8204-1212-0}}</ref>}}

Initially, [[gameplay]] occurs in [[clockwise and counterclockwise|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 (gaming)|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 may quickly change. The game can be played face-to-face with as many written notes as are required, or through any of a number of Internet media (usually an archived [[mailing list]] or [[Internet forum]]).

Under Suber's initial ruleset, rules are either {{wikt-lang|en|mutable}} or {{wikt-lang|en|immutable}}. Immutable rules take precedence over mutable ones, and must be changed into mutable rules (called ''{{wikt-lang|en|transmuting}}'') before they can be modified or removed. 

A rule change may be:

* the addition of a new mutable rule
* the amendment of a mutable rule
* the repeal of a mutable rule
* the transmutation of a rule from mutable to immutable, or
* the transmutation of a rule from immutable to mutable

While the victory condition in Suber's initial ruleset is the accumulation of 100 points by the roll of [[dice]], he once said that "this rule is deliberately boring so that players will quickly amend it to please themselves".<ref name="suber" /> 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.

===Online===
{{Refimprove section|date=July 2017}}
Nomic is particularly suited to being played online, where all proposals and rules can be shared in web pages or email archives for ease of reference. Such games can last for a very long time: Agora has been running since 1993.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://agoranomic.org| title = Agora official website| access-date = 2011-04-10| archive-date = 2011-06-23| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110623044354/http://agoranomic.org/| url-status = live}}</ref> The longevity of nomic games can pose a serious problem, in that the rulesets can grow so complex that some participants do not fully understand them, and prospective players are deterred from joining. One currently active game, BlogNomic,<ref>{{cite web| url = http://blognomic.com/| title = BlogNomic website| access-date = 2005-10-12| archive-date = 2014-12-02| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141202123928/http://blognomic.com/| url-status = live}}</ref> 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 [[repeal]]ed. This keeps the game relatively simple and accessible. Nomicron (now defunct) was similar in that it had rounds –when a player won a round, a convention was started to plan for the next round. A game of Nomic on [[reddit]], {{Proper name|nommit}} (now defunct),<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.reddit.com/r/nommit| title = nommit on Reddit| access-date = 2017-09-06| archive-date = 2017-10-22| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171022035136/https://www.reddit.com/r/nommit/| url-status = live}}</ref> used a similar mechanism modeled on Nomicron's system.

Another facet of Nomic is the way in which the implementation of the rules affects the way the game of Nomic itself works. ThermodyNomic, for example, had a ruleset in which rule changes were carefully considered before implementation, and rules were rarely introduced which provide loopholes for the players to exploit. B Nomic,<ref>{{cite web| url = http://bnomic.org| title = B Nomic| access-date = 2022-03-15| archive-date = 2008-12-03| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081203225100/http://www.bnomic.org/| url-status = live}}</ref> by contrast, was once described by one of its players as "the equivalent of throwing logical hand grenades".<ref>Comment on spoon-discuss, a discussion list for B Nomic. {{cite web|author=SkArcher|date=17 Jan 2004|title=Re: [spoon-discuss] so do we have a game or not?|url=http://lists.ellipsis.cx/archives/spoon-discuss/spoon-discuss-200401/msg00132.html|access-date=7 May 2014|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305061536/http://lists.ellipsis.cx/archives/spoon-discuss/spoon-discuss-200401/msg00132.html|url-status=live}}</ref>