Chapter I of the Imperial 9 Ruleset - Basic Game Mechanics

1. (The Buck Stops Here - Rule 1)
   The decision of The Imperious Emperor is final.

2. (Options for Proposal Judgement - Rule 2)
   The Imperious Emperor will judge each proposal submitted and either accept or reject it. If a later rule states the possibility, then the Imperious Emperor may also ignore certain proposals.

3. (Imperial Prerogative - Rule 3)
   The Imperious Emperor may, at any time, modify or remove any existing rule or enact new rules.

4. (Issue of Directives - Rule 4)
   The Emperor may, at any time, issue a Directive calling for legislation in a particular area, or may issue a Proclamation describing new laws. If a Directive is issued, the first player with an appropriate accepted proposal receives a bonus of 2 A points (appropriate being TIE's judgement).

5. (Duties of Humble Scribe - Rule 5)
   The Humble Scribe must publish via the World Wide Web the current set of rules, the current state of all proposals and decisions, and the current scores of all players.

6. (Rights of Humble Scribe - Rule 6)
   The Humble Scribe may rewrite a proposal to clarify its meaning, as long as the rewriting does not change its meaning.

7. (Identity of Emperor - Rule 7)
   The Imperious Emperor is Duncan Richer.

8. (Identity of Scribe - Rule 8)
   The Humble Scribe is Duncan Richer.

9. (Method for Making Proposals - Rule 9)
   Any player may propose a new rule or change to an existing rule by notifying The Humble Scribe via email or the World Wide Web.

10. (Maximum of Two Undecided Proposals - Rule 10)
    If a player has submitted two proposals which have not been accepted, rejected or ignored and that player submits a new proposal, the new proposal will replace the older proposal. No points shall be awarded for the replaced proposal. Proposals submitted in response to directives shall be excluded for the purposes of this rule.

11. (Points of Order - Rule 11)
    Any player may, at any time, with no effect on his score, submit a Point of Order to raise any issue relevant to the game.

12. (One Name Only Per Player - Rule 12)
    Each player must chose one name under which to play. Submissions which, in the opinion of The Humble Scribe, originate from the same player, will be treated as such.

13. (Applicability of Proposals - Rule 13)
    Each submission will be numbered and a new rule will apply to all submissions numbered greater than or equal to its own proposal unless it specifies otherwise.

14. (Precedence of Proposals - Rule 14)
    When several rules apply at the same time and have different consequences then the rule with the lowest number is applied first. Other rules may then be applied so long as they do not conflict directly with a rule that has already been applied.

15. (Winning the Game - Rule 18)
    The game ends when a player has 5 C points and not more than 5 B points, and is also a Hero or Villain, but not Dead, and that player will be named the Winner.

16. (Continuation of Game - Rule 19)
    With the agreement of the Imperious Emperor, a game may be continued after the Winner has been found. This continuation is in fact a new game, with an initial ruleset being the final ruleset of the previous game. All players scores are set to zero. The Imperious Emperor becomes an ordinary player, provided that the Winner wishes to be TIE for the next game. A game succeeding Game 9 shall be designated 9A, that succeeding 9A 9B etc.

17. (Leftover Proposals Invalid - Rule 20)
    All undecided proposals at the end of a completed game are null and void, and are not applied in the next game.

18. (Time of Point Awards - Rule 21)
    Points are taken to have been awarded at the time of the Emperor's decision.

19. (Reasons for Ignoring Proposals I - Rule 29)
    A proposal will be ignored if it does not meet the rules that were in place at the time it was submitted, if it is insulting to the Emperor, or is impossible to implement or would create a paradox.

20. (Deferral of Proposals - Rule 33)
    If one or more directives are currently unfulfilled, any proposals received which do not pertain to a directive will be deferred until all directives are fulfilled. After that time, TIE will consider the deferred proposals as if they had just been proposed by their respective authors.

21. (Sponsorship - Rule 39)
    A new player may nominate a sponsor by submitting the name of a current player and having that player send a recommendation to the current Emperor. The new player's score for their first proposal will be as if they submitted it themselves normally, while the sponsor will gain 1 A point if the proposal is accepted, and 2 B points if it is rejected. To indicate sponsorship, the new player must inform TIE in the proposal who the sponsor is.

22. (Punctuation Requirements - Rule 40)
    A proposal containing no capital letters or periods will be ignored.

23. (Minimum Acceptance Rate - Rule 45)
    The acceptance rate of proposals must be at least one in four.

24. (Compulsory Voting - Rule 49)
    Each proposal must be accompanied by at least two votes on the popularity of previous proposals, or be rejected.

25. (Delayed Effect of Certain Proposals - Rule 50)
    A rule that makes some otherwise acceptable proposals ignored will not take effect until all proposals received by THS before the rule change have been decided.

26. (The Royal Succession - Rule 111)
    At the conclusion of the game, the first in line to possibly become the new Imperious Emperor is anyone whose score actually contains the holiest of holy spellings "TIE". The player with the fewest extraneous points will get first pickings in case of a tie (no pun). Next in line will be the Winner of the game, followed by any player he may recommend in his Political Party, travelling group, Banquet, or any other associative group. Any other player in charge of maintaining web pages for the game will then get the next shot, with THS having the first choice. Then the most Popular (highest P Count) player follows, then the Strongest (highest S Count). If none of the above worthy players accepts the job as the new Emperor, then the old Emperor shall retain his job. If, for any reason, TIE must abandon his post during the middle of the game, this list of succession will also be implemented.

27. (Minimum Proposal Delays - Rule 114)
    Any time an event occurs that requires responses from players such as a Court of Appeal Vote, the players required to respond must do so within 2 Days(40 Proposals). Failure to do this will result in 1 P point being deducted from their score, for being slow. If the player has been challenged to a Duel and no response has been received in this period, it is treated as if they had declined. If they would have had a vote in the Court of Appeal, their vote is decided at random by THS' dice.

28. (Missing, Presumed Fed - Rule 115)
    Any player who has made no action for 100 Proposals be declared 'missing, presumed fed'. They shall immediately be removed from whichever location they are in, and placed on the missing list. Any missing player who subsequently rejoins the game gains a bonus of 1 P for the fame of being found, and is placed in a random location in the Empire. Missing players cannot be attacked or affected in any way by any rule, simply because they are missing.

29. (Municipal Ordinances - Rule 125)
    A Proposal or Rule which mentions exactly one Capital City shall be considered a Municipal Ordinance. When a Municipal Ordinance is proposed, if the City in question has a Lord, the Lord of the City must issue to TIE a recommendation for a decision on the Ordinance. TIE must defer decision on proposed Ordinances until either a recommendation is received from the city's Lord, or two Game Days pass by, whichever is sooner. Upon receiving a recommendation, TIE may either follow it or overrule it. After a Lord has been overruled by TIE three times, the Lord is automatically Cashiered; i.e., immediately deposed as Lord and being awarded CASH in points as compensation.

30. (Redefinition - Rule 128)
    Where 'proposals' is used to refer to proposals by any player, it shall be instead taken to mean 'submissions from any player'. No such figure shall be less than 5 submissions. This rule determines the meaning of all previous rules which it applies to.

31. (Maximum Undecided Proposals - Rule 140)
    Any submission which takes to over 10 (or such other number as TIE feels more appropriate) the number of submissions awaiting his imperial attention shall automatically be ignored (with standard consequences for the submittor).

32. (Conseil du Lords - Rule 144)
    Proposals which are Ignored by the Emperor are submitted to the House of Lords, a body which shall include the Lords of all Cities. Each Lord may vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain on such a Proposal. A Lord must abstain on a Proposal submitted by himself. At the end of a Day, all Lords who have not yet voted on a Proposal are considered to have Abstained. If more Aye votes are received than Nay votes, the Proposal is Accepted; if more Nay votes are received than Aye votes, the Proposal is Rejected; otherwise, the Proposal is Ignored. The House of Lords includes TIE.