Editing Round 9/Rulings (section)

== Ruling 3 ==

;2021-02-25 | Wotton
: I formally request a judge ruling on the following question <pre>In the second paragraph of the scouting rule, is the relation between player and duck in the sentence "For a player's duck to return," a relation of possession/ownership or is it a different kind of relation similar to ownership that tracks to which player a duck is returned to?</pre> waddle

;Ruling | Judge Random Internet Cat
: Response: "The latter."

: The text:
 <blockquote>
 During a voting period, a player can send a duck on a scouting mission by rolling a d12 for the duck. When the duck is on the scouting mission, the duck is no longer in possession of the player, thus benefits the duck provides the player are paused. Any upkeep cost of owning the duck is also paused until the duck returns.

 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 the end of the voting period the duck was sent on the mission. 
 </blockquote>

: This really only admits the referent of "a player" being the player that sent the duck on the scouting mission. As such, in this limited context, the possessive cannot be strictly interpreted as the ownership relation. Duck returning attempts do not fail solely because the player does not possess the duck to be returned.

: quack