Editing Round 9/Ruleset (section)

== 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.
If a duck possesses an Abundant Nothing, that duck collapses into an egg. The duck is removed from the game and its owner gains one egg.

=== Duck Naming Criteria ===
All player may give their duck any name, with the following exceptions:
* 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
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.

=== 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.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Quacktions
|-
! Name !! Cost !! Target !! Effect
|-
| Quack Attack || N Quacks, where N is positive and even || 1 Duck || The target loses N/2 quacks
|-
| Lay Egg || N Quacks, where N is positive || None || Roll a dN, and if the result is 10 or greater, the attacking duck gains 1 Egg. If that egg is used to create a duck via Hatch Egg, its parent will be the duck that performed this action.
|-
| Hatch Egg || 1 Egg, 5 Quacks || None || A new duck is created in the possession of the attacking duck's owner.
|-
| Divine Scrambler || N Quacks, where N is a positive multiple of 20 || Any one entity possessing at least one God Egg || N/20 God Eggs are transferred from the target to the attacking duck's player
|-
| Steal Duck || All quacks possessed by the target duck || One named duck belonging to the DUCK DUKE with more than ten Quacks || Possession of the target is transferred from the DUCK DUKE to the attacker. This attack may not be performed by Duck Royalty
|-
| Cannibalism || None || Any duck owned by the same player || The attacking duck gains ten quacks plus the target's amount of quacks. The target is removed from the game
|-
| Adopt || None || Any duck that does not have a parent and is owned by the same player || The attacking duck becomes the target's parent
|-
| Make Smoothie || 5 Quacks || None || Craft a Smoothie from Fruits as specified in the Fruit rule
|}

=== 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.

=== 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. 

Each time that a duck returns without its owner cutting their losses, its owner can once roll a d20 and obtain the corresponding item(s) on the following loot table:

{| class="wikitable"
| 1-4 || 2d6 seeds
|-
| 5-6 || 1 Grapes
|-
| 7-8 || 1 Watermelon Slice
|-
| 9 || 1 Blood Orange
|-
| 10 || 1 Mango Slice
|-
| 11-20 || 1 Abundant Nothing
|}

=== 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. 

{| class="wikitable"
|+ 
|-
! Item Name !! Description
|-
| Grapes || You may use grapes to feed one of your own ducks instead of another's. You may do this even if you have already fed a duck this voting period.
|-
| Blood Orange || When feeding to an uncolored duck, add 3 to the final number for the purpose of determining duck color.
|-
| Watermelon Slice || If the duck this is fed to goes on a scouting mission in the same voting period, its owner may add or subtract 1 from the duck's potential quack roll.
|-
| Seeds || You may feed 10 seeds to a duck when feeding a duck. That duck gains 1 additional quack.
|-
| Mango Slice || If fed to a colored duck, the duck is becomes uncolored. If the duck has a colored parent, its color is not affected by the color of its parent as specified in other rules.
|}

Smoothies are Fruits that can be crafted by a player performing the Make Smoothie Quacktion through one of their ducks. A Smoothie is made by combining 2 different non-Smoothie Fruits. The name of a smoothie is the result of concatenating the names of each of its constituent fruits in alphabetical order, with spaces in between, then appending " Smoothie". Using any name that clearly and unambiguously designates a smoothie is deemed to designate that smoothie, even if it differs from the true name. The smoothie's properties are dictated by the unification of the constituent fruits' properties.

=== 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.