# Ordinary bribe controls

## Basic pending-opening and Extortion payments — 29 October 2026

Direct ordinary bribes are available during a clean Basic Ix-deck Amal opening
and a clean Basic Moritani Extortion payment decision, including out of turn.
They use the normal uncommitted payer spice, nonally restriction and deferred
recipient ledger. The original opening passes or Extortion queue and decision
remain unchanged. An Extortion recipient cannot use the deferred bribe to pay
that current decision. A bribe made before deferred Mentat initialization is
collected at that imminent opening; one made after collection, including during
Extortion, waits for the next turn's opening. The owner's control states which
collection applies.

The publisher [base rules, printed p. 12](https://www.gf9games.com/dunegame/wp-content/uploads/Dune-Rulebook.pdf)
allow nonallied bribery without prescribing a digital decision priority. These
interruptions are a provisional online interpretation, not a publisher timing
ruling. The initial profiles exclude optional modules, other expansion families,
competing continuations and the payer's active commitments. Deal-linked payments
retain their previous quiet-window restrictions. A bot can still progress the
original opening or decision before a human pays; response and other decision
parents, Advanced play and full acceptance remain open.
[Native runtime](../tests/bribe-pending-basic.test.ts) includes public setup,
explicitly staged Extortion placement and a real next-turn collection;
[rendered controls](../tests/bribe-pending-basic-controls.test.tsx) cover timing.

**26 October follow-up:** [quiet Mentat payments](MENTAT_BRIBES.md) are now
allowed after opening collection, with their receipts deferred to the next
turn's actual opening. This supersedes the original blanket Mentat restriction.

21 September 2026. A connected prototype exposes the existing authoritative
ordinary bribe action beneath the table. This does not complete negotiation,
Leader Skills or expansion acceptance.

## Payment and controls

Choose a non-allied recipient and a positive whole amount, then explicitly pay.
The payer loses spice immediately. The recipient's share is deferred until the
next Mentat Pause; it is not current spending money. The public chronicle records
the amount and recipient, while the panel exposes only its owning seat's supply
and incoming escrow. Self/allied targets and Inflation Double remain prohibited.
Bribes are allowed out of turn at otherwise open boundaries, including Mentat.

These preserve the existing rules and [Bureaucrat source contract](BUREAUCRAT_PAYMENTS.md).
The official [November FAQ, p. 9](https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dune-FAQ-Nov-2020.pdf#page=9)
places paid bribes in front of the recipient's shield until the next Mentat Pause.
Chat messages and verbal promises do not themselves transfer spice. Emperor
gifts to allies remain a separate power.

The separate [public deal record](PUBLIC_DEALS.md) can capture a two-to-six-human
offer, unanimous acceptance and mutual release. Its optional immediate payment
uses this native action on final acceptance; written terms do not automatically
transfer spice or enforce future promises.

The server derives the owner's limits from existing uncommitted spice, excluding
sealed bids, paid support, Banker spending and other reserved costs. Existing
Truthtrance completion checks further constrain voluntary spending on isolated
copies; this projection does not commit actions or live continuations. The
target-specific Bureaucrat guard can cap unsupported combinations below five.
Supported payments use the existing saved redirect/allow decision. Other pending responses, decisions or forced continuations disable the payment
controls, except for the supported Basic opening and Extortion cases above.

The client retains an invalid amount or removed recipient as a disabled draft
rather than silently changing a payment. The explicit action uses existing
request/version handling: concurrent or stale submissions cannot debit twice.
After an uncertain result, reconcile the game before making another payment.
Only committed game state survives refresh; unsubmitted form drafts do not.

## Verification and remaining work

Focused tests cover out-of-turn transfer, JSON escrow/collection, private owner
budgets, target and integer validation, phase/response restrictions, auction
reservations, max/max-plus-one Truthtrance spending, Bureaucrat continuation and
rendered controls. Production HTTP checks exercise concurrent duplicate payment,
stale rejection, refresh and private views; existing Bureaucrat SQLite and all
four legal AI response tests remain applicable. Source-bound checks, browser
observations, preservation, independent review and Git delivery are retained
with the private checkpoint.

AI seats can receive and later spend bribes through ordinary resource handling;
existing Bureaucrat choices remain legal. Automated negotiations and strategic
bribe initiation wait for the post-feature AI stage. Textual deals are not
automatically enforced. Complete negotiation, responsive/assistive acceptance
and all legal expansion combinations remain open.