Breaking the rules

[macterra]

A mechanism for how to break the rules, taken from another Nomicon:

The non-conformance record (NCR) is a strategy for “enforcing” Nomicon rules. Instead of attempting to enforce the rules by some specified authority role (always problematic), an alternative approach is to get the players to commit to a different strategy: if a player breaks the rules (for whatever reason) or observes another player breaking the rules then they SHOULD create an issue noting the fact, along with any relevant context. When the NCR is opened there should be no prejudice about whether breaking the rule is justified in this case. The issue should then trigger a discussion about whether the player should have followed the rules (and what was preventing them from doing so), or whether the rule itself requires refinement, exceptions, or possibly even repealing if it is not adding value.

The name NCR comes from regulatory bodies like the FDA. We'll probably want something less formal like an "Inconsistency Issue" or a "Delta".

[justsahil]

This is great. But what happens if the judgement is "the player should have followed the rules"?

[macterra]

If it is determined that the player should have followed the rules then that judgment will automatically become part of the permanent record of the game. If the shame of that is not enough to keep players honest then we may need additional rules to sanction them. In my experience that has never been necessary, but I can't preclude the possibility.

[macterra]

@justsahil are you OK calling it an NCR? We can always rename it later.

[justsahil]

I think we should go with this for now.

I want to flag that it seems to be mostly, but not entirely pontinomical for some reason. I'll get to this later if it becomes clearer.