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Have any of you heard of Nomic?

In my near-endless trawling of Everything2.com (one of the few sites I visit regularly), I stumbled upon Nomic. It seems to me that the major premise of the game is the option to change the rule-set of the game. That strikes me as a fantastic idea, and I'm wondering how any such games you've played have turned out?

Furthermore, how does one even get started (with what is essentially a limitless game)? I haven't tried playing it because I'm in a foreign country and don't have the vocabulary to really try explaining something like that, and I worry that most of my friends back home wouldn't find it nearly as exciting as I do. Have any of you played an online version? Do you keep the game small (as in # of players, not ideas)?

Anyway, I guess I'm just interested in hearing any and all thoughts you have on the (obviously-wide-ranging) subject.

This seems like an extremely interesting game. I honestly can't say as I've ever played a game like it. At a glance, I'd say I wouldn't want the number of players to exceed seven, as an odd number allows for a tiebreaker, and seven seems small enough to allow the game to go fairly quickly.

Personally, I think the best way to get started would be exactly the way you have - bringing it to the attention of a community like this one, and seeing who would be interested in playing online. I understand language can be a barrier, and at least on the internet you have the potential to find others who are both interest and understand what you're talking about.

I've played Mao before, and one of the two playstyles seems to be similar to this.

FYI, that's a game that's played with a deck (or more than one deck) of standard playing cards, in the style of Uno, but with the addition of rules for people to figure out, adding more and more every time a player wins a round.

This can be played in two ways: as a way of harrassing new people in your social circle, and as an activity in brainstorming really interesting rules and how they interact. The second seems similar to this game, as was pointed out by a close friend of mine who likes playing this second style.

Finally, penalty card to me for saying the name of the game.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Yeah, I can easily see it getting out of hand with too many players.

I heard that in Mao you're generally not allowed to mention the rules; is that true? But yeah, both games seem primed to let you explore some interesting rules or new and particularly brutal methods of hazing.

It is indeed typically customary that you do not describe the rules, yes.

And you get a penalty card.

(Seriously, I much prefer this over the more typical "the game" mindvirus. Also, xkcd invocation so we all win.)

--------------------

Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 26th September 2011 11:29)

(Seriously, I much prefer this over the more typical "the game" mindvirus. Also, xkcd invocation so we all win.)

I can't stand "The Game." It's ridiculous.


Would anyone be interested in trying to pull off Nomic on the boards here? If not, what would it take to get you interested?

I was discussing this game with a coworker earlier this week, and we came to the conclusion that it would be a lot of fun to play Nomic Magic the Gathering - either by deciding before playing to modify the rules to fit, or to spend the first few turns of Nomic passing amendments and passing new rules to import the rules of Magic and modify the win condition of the Nomic game from points to reducing your opponent's life points to 0. I'm pretty sure I managed to get him excited about playing.

For my part, I'm already interested in playing here.

Quote (Suunok @ 29th September 2011 20:01)

I was discussing this game with a coworker earlier this week, and we came to the conclusion that it would be a lot of fun to play Nomic Magic the Gathering - either by deciding before playing to modify the rules to fit, or to spend the first few turns of Nomic passing amendments and passing new rules to import the rules of Magic and modify the win condition of the Nomic game from points to reducing your opponent's life points to 0. I'm pretty sure I managed to get him excited about playing.

For my part, I'm already interested in playing here.

I hear you on that. I don't think many of my friends would be interested in Magic: The Gathering, per se, but I wonder if they'd be interested in working something up with D&D or something (of course, I'd worry about incentivizing an already Munchkin-producing game any further--although, it could be an interesting exercise in incentivizing roleplaying instead of power-gaming...)

Anyway, I'm not really certain how one would go about running a game like Nomic, or for their part, how the powers-that-be would feel about it being run here (I don't anticipate there being any issues aside from possibly bloated post counts), but I'm open to further suggestions and comments.