What is Nomic? / Torna a

In the words of Nomic's creator,

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, Appendix 3, p. 362)

If that sounds intriguing, read on! Further information on the game can be found below.

Resources

This is a rough enumeration of what nomic.net has to offer:

• FAQ: Have questions? Read the FAQ first.
• NomicWiki: A collection of Nomic-related information arranged in a Wiki.
• Nomic Bulletin Board: A forum for the discussion of all things Nomic.
• News: Notices of events in the Nomic world, as well as of site updates.
• Live Games: A summary of the active games hosted at nomic.net.
• Dead Games Archive: The ghosts of games past.
• Tools: Tools for maintaining Nomics.
• Links: Links to various off-site Nomic-related pages.
• About: Information about nomic.net itself.
• Questions: Well? What?! Speak up!

News

29 June 2002: Reponomic added to archive.
29 June 2002: Nomopoly III added to archive.
28 June 2002: NomiCam added to archive.
28 June 2002: Net Waste of Time Nomic added to archive.
28 June 2002: Minic added to archive.
28 June 2002: Mega-Ultra Plus added to archive.
28 June 2002: Blind Toby Nomic added to archive.
27 June 2002: Legacy added to archive.
27 June 2002: Jinx_tigr's Nomic added to archive.
27 June 2002: InterNomic added to archive.
27 June 2002: AMONC added to archive.
27 June 2002: PNomic added to archive.
27 June 2002: GNomic added to archive.
27 June 2002: Paranomic added to archive.
26 June 2002: Gnomic added to archive.
26 June 2002: Corporations pages added to Pumpkin Patch Nomic archive.
26 June 2002: Garden Nomic added to archive.
25 June 2002: DragaNomic added to archive.
25 June 2002: Axiom added to archive.
25 June 2002: A Nomic added to archive.
24 June 2002: Commentary and admin's copy of rules added to Blind Nomic archive.
24 June 2002: Our Nomic added to archive.

Local Games

The following live games are hosted here:

• B Nomic: email-based, open to new players, began on 5 December 2001

Nomic.net provides free hosting for several Nomic games. If you are have a game you would like hosted on nomic.net, contact the webmaster.

Dead Games Archive

The web changes quickly, and often the records of old Nomics get lost in the shuffle. Quite a lot of creative effort went into these games; it would be a shame to lose them. Collected here are the documents from as many dead games as we have been able to find. Unfortunately, this is a only a fraction of the games Professor Suber has listed as having once had an Internet presence. If you have the records for a dead game not appearing below, we'd love to add it to the collection. Contact the webmaster for details. For each game archived below, either the owner of its pages has graciously granted us permission to mirror them here, or the owner was unreachable and the pages have been considered abandoned.

The following dead games are archived here:

• A Nomic: email-based, ran 2 October 2000 - July 2001.
• Ancient Mystical Order Nomic Crucis forum-based, ran ? - ?.
• Autonomic: email-based with rulesets for each player; game I ran sometime prior to game II, which ran early Spring 1999.
• Axiom: email-based, minimal ruleset, ran 30 September 1998 - September (?) 2000.
• BB Nomic: forum-based, ran 4 October - 12 December 2000.
• Berserker Nomic: email-based, ran 12 March 1998 - December 1999.
• Blind Nomic: email-based, rules known only to the moderator, ran April - June 1997.
• Blind Toby Nomic: email-based, modeled on Blind Nomic, ran ? - ? 2001.
• deNomic: email-based, ran January 1998 - July 1999.
• DragaNomic: a Nomic/D&D cross, ran ? - September 1997.
• EcoNomic: email-based, economic theme, ran ? - ?.
• Eleusis Nomic: email-based, combined the game Eleusis with Nomic, ran August - November 1998.
• Garden Nomic: email-based, garden theme, ran ? - January (?) 1999.
• GNomic: email-based, ran ? - ?.
• Gnomic: forum-based, ran ? - ?.
• InterNomic: email-based, a meta-Nomic, ran ? - November (?) 1998.
• Jinx_tigr's Nomic: a ruleset.
• Legacy: a ruleset based on music composition.
• MacroNomic: email-based, formed by the combination of PNomic and MicroNomics I and II, ran 1 April 1998 - September 1998.
• Mega-Ultra Plus: email-based, ran April - July 1999.
• Minic: email-based, minimal ruleset, ran ? - January 1996.
• NeoNomicon: email-based, ran 9 January - April 1999.
• Net Waste of Time Nomic: email-based, ran ? - March (?) 1996.
• NomiCam: email-based, ran ? - ?.
• Nomiclature: email-based; game I ran 28 October 1996 - ?; an attempt to reform the rules; game II ran 11 January 1999 - ?.
• Nomopoly III: email-based, third in a board-game-themed series, ran 10 - 19 March 2001.
• Omeganomic: email-based, ran January - August 1999.
• Our Nomic: email-based, ran February 2000 - March 2002.
• Paranomic: email-based, ran from 14 January 1999 - March (?) 1999.
• PNomic: a ruleset.
• Pumpkin Patch Nomic: email-based, ran from 1 January 1996 - ?.
• Pure Nomic: email-based with a minimal ruleset; game 1 ran 22 April - 10 June 1998, game 2 ran 8 May - August 1998, game 3 ran 25 April - 9 October 1998.
• Radio Free Nomic: email-based, ran 2 December 1998 - ?.
• Reponomic: email-based, ran ? - ?.
• Simplex: email-based, ran for four days in September 1998
• Tabula: email-based, ran December 1993 - October 1995.
• Terra Nomic: email-based, ran 31 March - May ? 1999.
• Thring Nomic: email-based, ran 1995? - 1997?.

NB: We have attempted to normalize all links in the archives relative to this site. However, it is possible--nay, likely, that 1) we missed some, and 2) off-site links no longer work. If the former is the case, please let us know.