Round 9/Ruleset

Info

General

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

Players

Only players may perform actions, vote, and possess items.

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.

Actions

A "game action" is any action a player takes which has the capacity to directly alter the gamestate. All game actions may be performed by stating one's attempt to take that action in #game-actions with a message ending in a duck word (an "action message"). Additional parameters to the action, limits on its use, and means of acting other than by action message are mentioned in the description of the action or in the rule where it is defined. Unless otherwise stated, game actions are instantaneous and take place as soon as the valid action message is posted, in order of posting, even if the change is not recorded yet.

Trade

Players may give or exchange items in their possession with other players. The exchange or act of giving items takes place immediately after both players explicitly express their consent to the trade in #game-actions.

Duck Words

All action messages which do not end in a duck word automatically fail. These are duck words:

• quack
• uwu
• egg
• waddle

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

The voting period for all proposals made in Period One is Period Two. The voting period for all proposals made in Period Two is the next weeks Period One. At the end of every voting period, then, for each proposal in the order that they were submitted, if there are more votes in favor than against that proposal then it takes effect. If the number of votes in favor is tied with the number of votes against, the proposal takes effect if the proponents' ducks have more Quacks than the proposal's 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.

Ducks

Upon joining the game, a duck is created in the possession of each player. Players may give any duck they own a name in #game-actions. Players may not interact with unnamed ducks in any way except to give them a name, and any reference to ducks outside this rule refers only to named ducks unless otherwise specified.

Duck Naming Criteria

All player may give their duck any name, with the following exceptions:

• names impersonating players
• names violating Discord's TOS or the rules of the Infinite Nomic Discord server
• names longer than 9,000 characters or shorter than 0
• 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.

Quack Attacks

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

• Standard Quack Attack. Cost: N Quacks, where N is positive and even. Targets: 1 Duck. Effect: The target loses N/2 quacks.

• Lay Egg. Cost: N Quacks, where N is positive. Targets: None. Effect: Roll a dN, and if the result is 10 or greater, the attacking duck gains 1 Egg.

• Hatch Egg. Cost: 1 Egg, 5 Quacks. Targets: None. Effect: A new duck is created in the possession of the attacking duck's owner. The new duck's parent is the attacking duck.

• Divine Scrambler. Cost: N Quacks, where N is a multiple of 20. Targets: Duck God. Effect: The target loses N/20 God Eggs. This cannot bring the target's God Eggs below 0.

• Steal Duck. Cost: All quacks possessed by the target duck. Targets: One named duck belonging to the DUCK DUKE with more than ten Quacks. Effect: Possession of the target is transferred from the DUCK DUKE to the attacker. This attack may not be performed by Duck Royalty.

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. 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 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. When the player attepts to retrieve the duck, and if the duck's potential quacks exceeds 9, 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. A player can only attempt to retrieve each scouting duck once per voting period. Upon return, the potential quacks are added to the returning duck's total quacks, benefits and costs the duck provides to the player are unpaused, and as long as they have not cut their losses, the owner of the duck will obtain a new duck along with their existing duck.

Duck Royalty

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.

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.

Duck as Property

Ducks are items for the purposes of rules concerning items.

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. 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. If the duck is not on a scouting mission, it moves immediately to that pond. If the duck is on a scouting mission, it will return to that pond when it returns.

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.

If a duck does not have an assigned pond, it must be assigned a pond before any player may interact with that duck. 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. They are not considered to be in the pond while on a scouting mission.

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.

Judge rulings can be overturned within 4 days of being made by a public vote of confidence; they are 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.