Round 9/Ruleset

General
All times mentioned in this ruleset are in UTC. Days start at 00:00 UTC.

Players
Only players may perform actions and vote.

Anyone may become a player by posting a message announcing their intent to become one in the channel #game-actions. A player may stop being a player by announcing their intent in that same channel or by leaving the Discord server.

Any player that would own a non-natural and non-zero number of any given type of item owns zero of it instead.

Actions
A "game action" is any action a player may take that would alter the gamestate. A default-method game action is a game action that the rules describe as performable by some persons but do not explicitly provide a method for, or an action which the rules describe as performable in #game-actions.

Default-method game actions may be performed by announcing intent to do so in #game-actions, provided that any conditions placed on its performance are fulfilled. Such actions take place in the order specified in the message (or in the order they appear, if no order is specified). For the purposes of this paragraph, editing a message does not constitute an announcement.

Trade
A trade is is an exchange or transfer of zero or more items between two entities. Players may trade items with other players. Players may trade non-Quack items with ducks in their own possession.

A trade between two players takes place when both players explicitly consent to the trade in #game-actions. A trade between a player and their duck takes place when the player announces it in #game-actions.

Proposals
Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, any player may make a proposal by sending a message in the channel #proposals, and no other restrictions may be imposed on this method. If that message is deleted or modified before or during its voting period, the proposal is retracted.

Each week is broken into two periods:
 * Period One: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday


 * Period Two: Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Unless otherwise specified, the voting period for proposals made in Period One is Period Two, and the voting period for proposals made in Period Two is the next week's Period One. At the end of every voting period, then, for each proposal in the order that they were submitted, if that proposal is adopted, then it takes effect. Unless otherwise specified, a proposal is adopted if and only if there are more votes in favor than against, or if there are equal numbers of votes in favor and against, and the proponents' ducks have more Quacks than the opponents' ducks.

A 🍞 or 🦆 reaction by a player on a Proposal message at the time when the voting period ends constitutes a vote in favor or against, respectively.

If more than one proposal takes effect, they take effect in the order in which they were proposed.

Proposal Class
The class of a proposal is either "normal" or "urgent". When a proposal is submitted, a submitter may specify its class. If a class is not specified, it defaults to normal.

The voting period of an urgent proposal begins at the time it is submitted and ends two days after. An urgent proposal is adopted if and only if it has no more than two votes against it at the end of its voting period.

Ducks
When a player joins the game, a duck is created in the possession of that player. Each duck has exactly one name, or its name is unset (which is the default case). Name is an essential duck attribute. The owner of a duck may change its name, specifying its new name, by posting in #game-actions.

Duck Naming Criteria
All player may give their duck any name, with the following exceptions: Any duck possessing any of these names loses it immediately. If two or more ducks share a name, only one may keep it. Whichever duck received a name most recently loses the contested name. Repeat this until only one duck has any given name.
 * names that, at the time they were assigned, impersonated the name of one or more specific players
 * names violating Discord's TOS or the rules of the Infinite Nomic Discord server
 * names longer than 140 characters or shorter than 1
 * names made illegal by other rules of this nomic
 * Jeffery

Feeding Ducks
Once per voting period, a player may feed another player’s duck by announcing which duck they with to feed in #game-actions, and optionally adding one valid fruit. The duck being fed gains 1d6 Quacks, plus any benefits from the fruit. If a duck is ever to change possession, its Quacks transfer with it, remaining in possession of the duck.

Quacktion
The following actions are designated "Quacktions" and can be performed by posting intent to do so in #game-actions. Quacktions are performed through a duck in one's one possession. Each Quacktion has an associated cost. Upon performing a quacktion, the cost is deducted from the duck through which the attack was performed. Quacktions cannot be performed through ducks who do not have quacks equal to or greater than the cost of that attack. If a Quacktion requires targets, these must be specified in the same message as the action intent.

Duck Colour
Uncoloured ducks are assigned a colour based on the dice roll that occurs the first time they are fed.

If the number was 1, 2, or 3, the duck is Yellow.

If the number was 4 or 5, the duck is Green.

If the number was 6, the duck is Blue.

If the number was none of the above, the duck is Red.

If an uncoloured duck has a parent with a colour, it becomes the same colour as its parent.

Scouting
During a voting period, a player can send a duck on a scouting mission by rolling a d12 for the duck.

The number rolled on the d12 to commence the scouting mission is the potential quacks. If the duck returns, the duck will have this number of potential quacks added to their existing quacks. For a player's duck to return, the player must wait until after the end of the voting period the duck was sent on the mission. Then the player can then roll a retrieval d12 roll to attempt to retrieve the duck. If the retrieval roll is greater than or equal to the number of potential quacks determined upon the duck's departure, the duck returns. If the duck does not return, its potential quacks decreases by 1, to a minimum of 1. When the player attepts to retrieve the duck, the player may choose to cut their losses by posting their intent in #game-actions. The duck's potential quacks become 1, and the duck returns without requiring a retrieval roll. Only one attempt to retrieve any given duck can be made in any given voting period. Upon return, the potential quacks are added to the returning duck's total quacks and benefits and costs the duck provides to the player are unpaused. If the roll to retrieve the duck is 12 or higher, the owner of the duck will obtain a new duck along with their existing duck.

If a duck returns without it's owner cutting their losses, the owner rolls a d20 and obtains the corresponding item(s) on the following loot table:

Duck Titles
The entity possessing the most God Eggs is the Duck Deity. The entity possessing the most ducks in total is the Duck King. The entity possessing the most quacks among all their owned ducks is the Duck Lord. In the case of a tie, the corresponding title is left vacant. If there exists a Duck King who is also a Duck Lord, then that player is also the DUCK DUKE. The Duck King, Duck Lord, and DUCK DUKE are all Duck Royalty.

Fruit
Fruit are items that can be fed to a duck as specified in the Feeding Ducks subrule.

Essential Attributes
The essential duck attributes are attributes of ducks that are described as such by other Rules. When an essential attribute of a duck is unset, it is impossible to interact with such a duck except to assign an essential attribute of that duck a value. Unless otherwise specified, references to ducks outside of this subrule apply only to ducks with all essential attributes assigned. Unless otherwise specified, an unset essential attribute of a specified duck can be set by that duck's owner in #game-actions.

Duck as Property
Ducks are items for the purposes of rules concerning items.

Auctions
Ducks that are not owned by any player may be auctioned off, rules on interacting with ducks notwithstanding. An auction starts with a player placing a bid on an ownerless duck. The initial bid must give a temporary name to the duck, if the duck is nameless; the temporary name lasts for the duration of the auction. A bid must be a non-negative number of quacks, and the bidding player must possess at least that number of quacks among their ducks. If the game state changes such that a player can no longer afford their bid, the bid becomes invalid and does not affect the auction. Bids on a duck must increase the amount bid. The auction is automatically cancelled if there are no valid bids. At the end of the voting period after the voting period in which the first valid bid was placed, the auction concludes and the duck is transferred to the possession of the highest bidder and quacks are deducted. The highest bidder may specify how many quacks are deducted from each duck, as long as the total is the amount of the winning bid.

Duck God
There is an entity called Duck God. Each Sunday, immediately after all proposals have taken effect, the Duck God gains one God Egg. If the Duck God possesses 12 or more God Eggs at one time, all players lose the round. God Eggs are items.

Duck Disciple
The Duck Disciple is an entity that worships the Duck God.

The Duck Disciple is not owned by any player, but still may be the target of Quacktions. Once per voting period, a player may perform a Quacktion against the Duck Disciple. After this Quacktion resolves, the Duck Disciple then performs a Ritual Quack Attack. This is a Quacktion that can be performed by the Duck Disciple by its own means and without the need for player ownership. If, after performing this Quacktion, the Duck Disciple has 0 or fewer quacks, it perishes.


 * Ritual Quacktion. Cost: None. Targets: 1 random named Duck that is not the Duck Disciple. Effect: Target loses 1d6 quacks.

When a Duck Disciple perishes, all ducks that dealt damage to that Duck Disciple gain 1d6 quacks. Additionally, the owner of the duck that reduced the Duck Disciple to 0 or fewer quacks rolls a d20 on the following table and receives the benefit of that roll.

If a Duck Disciple does not exist at the beginning of a voting period, one will be created with 3d20 quacks and will be given a name by means of an available source that is capable of generating random duck names. The Duck Disciple will then be known by that name, with the "Disciple" title preceding it, and a incrementing numerical suffix if a Duck Disciple with that name has existed before.

Old One
There may not be an entity as defined by the rules called the Duck Old One. If an entity called the Duck Old One ever does come into existence, it is immediately removed from the gamestate.

Immediately after the first time a game action is taken by a player each week, the Duck Old One gains 1d4 God Eggs and performs an Eldritch Quack Attack. The Eldritch Quack Attack is a Quack Attack that can be performed by the Duck Old One by its own means and without the need for player ownership.


 * Eldritch Quack Attack. Cost: None. Targets: 1 random named Duck that is owned by a player. Effect: Target loses a number of quacks equal to the number of God Eggs owned by the Duck Old One.

If the Duck Old One possesses 24 or more God Eggs at one time, all players lose the round.

Ponds
There exist ponds in the land. The number of ponds is initially equal to the number of ducks in existence, divided by four and rounded down. Whenever a new duck is created, any player can roll a d6. If the result is 6 then a new pond is created.

Each duck lives in exactly one pond, or its pond is unset (which is the default case). Any duck that does not live in a pond may be assigned a pond at any time by its owner by posting in #game-actions. The duck immediately moves to that pond.

Players may move ducks from one pond to another by spending one quack from that duck and posting in #game-actions. Players cannot move a duck (after its initial assignment) that does not have any quacks.

Pond is an essential duck attribute. At the beginning of each voting period, each duck loses one quack for each duck of its same color in the pond it lives in, not including itself. It also gains one quack for each duck of a different color that lives in that pond.

Ducks on scouting missions cannot change their pond assignment, except to be assigned one.

Judges
There shall be a sole Judge, responsible for resolving rules disputes. If there is no Judge, any player can appoint themself Judge with the assent of two other players. An incumbent Judge can be removed with the assent of two players, but they should not be removed except for abuse of office. A person can cease being the Judge by publicly stating so.

A request for justice shall take the form of a question or statement. The proper response to a question is an answer to that question, and the proper response to a statement is the truth value of that statement.

Upon formal request by a person other than themself, the Judge shall, as quickly as possible, issue a response to the request. This response shall be binding only to the extent that it reasonably directly pertains to the request, and only to the extent that it does not blatantly and obviously contradict rules text.

Judges may make rulings on the Metaruleset, but those rulings shall only be effective within the bounds of the round.

A judge ruling can be overturned within 4 days of being made by initiating a public vote of confidence in #game-actions; the votes may be cast for a period of 2 days after initiation. A ruling is overturned if strictly more players vote in favor of overturning than affirming. An overturned ruling shall have no bearing on the interpretation of the rules or of the gamestate.

A ruling may be overturned by the Judge within one week of being made. When a ruling is overturned in this manner, the Judge shall then issue a new ruling on the initial request, which shall be binding in the same manner as the original ruling.