Dune/docs/MENTAT_QUESTION.md

# Mentat before Battle Plans

**Normal activation approved 11 October 2026.** The user approved the existing
uniform private card-show step, including exact matches and sole eligible cards.
New supported Leader Skills battles now offer the normal Mentat question
without a separate preview flag. Public module/mode acceptance remains partial.
[Common skill rules](LEADER_SKILLS_RULES.md) govern assignment, capture, death and the right to conceal a skilled leader.

## Normal activation and approved UX — 11 October 2026

Normal questions use the existing admitted Leader Skills envelope. Naming
and the compulsory target-owned private show step still precede posture
and faction powers. This approved extra interaction prevents public stages
from disclosing held-versus-absent information. It moves no physical card.

The global preview flag and CLI option are removed. Per-battle version,
event, signed receipt and private observation history remain authoritative.
Already-opened unversioned battles retain their original continuation;
existing versioned questions continue without the obsolete global flag.
Empty-hand skipping remains the earlier explicit unfinished interpretation.


**4 October composition:** the explicit preview also admits the bounded
Advanced native Ixian and/or CHOAM plus classic profile with distinct required
family decks. Actual private naming/disclosure returns to native posture and
keeps the shown card held; unrelated players receive no learned card.
See the [current native contract](LEADER_SKILLS_RUNTIME.md#advanced-native-ixian-and-choam-composition--4-october-2026).
The 11 October normal-activation cutover above supersedes the old opt-in; other boundaries remain unchanged.
The bounded [Advanced Tleilaxu composition](TLEILAXU_LEADER_SKILLS.md#advanced-native-composition--4-october-2026)
now uses the same explicit preview; original foreign revival does not assign a
new Mentat or any other skill.
The [bounded Advanced Moritani composition](MORITANI_LEADER_SKILLS.md#advanced-assassination-composition--4-october-2026)
also uses this explicit private preview before posture and faction powers.

## Native skill integration — 2 October 2026

The existing private preview now composes with the already-supported **Basic
Ixians, Tleilaxu, CHOAM and Moritani** skill profiles. It retains genuine native
starting-card choices, Face Dancers, HMS placement, native rosters and all
fourteen skills. Existing classic/CHOAM Basic/Advanced preview coverage remains;
this does not admit Advanced Ixian/Tleilaxu/Moritani skills or extra modules.

For a fresh ready local lobby, use the existing exact-version/private-backup
entry with `--profile leader-skills`. The normal question is part of supported
skill behavior; no separate question option or player action enables it.

The same canonical question and target-owned answer controls handle exact Ix
weapon names, including **Weirding Way**, with its default weapon role.
Chemistry remains a defense, not a nameable weapon. An absent weapon offers
the target's actual held fallback cards. The question precedes posture and
faction powers; the shown card stays held and is not committed to a plan.
Both answers continue through native battle resolution and Collection.

Five new behavioral regressions cover all four native families and all four
legal policies. A separate runtime driver exercises eight native exact/fallback
battles through Collection plus four policy inquiries: twelve cases pass.
The earlier Ixian regression failed at the missing question before admission.
The uniform-response UX was approved on 11 October; the empty-hand question
remains pending. No public module gate or old-battle reopening is enabled.

Final local390px **8HTTTZMA v9** names Weirding Way, shows it privately,
inspects the learned physical card and conceals the native Mentat. Genuine
flagged CLI **BGK6YQCK v6** reaches original Ixian setup. The affected rule
batch45/45, guide/inspector12/12, types/lint and build pass. These are bounded
local evidence, not deployed acceptance or approval of the pending UX.


## Source contract

The physical card permits asking the battle opponent about one **specific named
weapon**, such as Crysknife or Poison Tooth. If held, the opponent must show that
card; otherwise they choose another Treachery Card to show. The card says “show
you”, which makes the answer private to the questioner, not a public reveal.
The [archived physical face](https://cdn.anyfinder.eu/assets/NQOmfvkJitFsQncGJ73kLzv7aC1w7Jp1kQAyy5CJ0pOoj8RlSEN3veAO6wBnw8wV?height=768)
and [designer Jack Reda's walkthrough, 17:37–18:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT_azRVLq_0&t=1057s)
agree. The persistent source archive and provenance are listed in the common
skill contract; no inaccessible image text was reconstructed.

The question is optional, and an accepted question requires a truthful answer.
The shown card stays in the opponent's hand and need not appear in their plan.
The owner may ask first, then conceal the same Mentat for possible selection.
Skills precede faction powers: the printed example specifically puts Mentat
before Atreides Prescience. [GF9 CHOAM & Richese, pp. 9 and 12](https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CHOAM-Rulebook-low-res.pdf)

A named weapon uses its held/default category, not every role it could take in a
future Battle Plan. Weirding Way defaults to a weapon; Chemistry defaults to a
defense. Heroes, Worthless cards and unrelated Specials are not named weapons.
If the weapon is absent, the fallback may be any held Treachery Card.
[GF9 November FAQ, p. 5](https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dune-FAQ-Nov-2020.pdf#page=5)

## Boundaries and continuation

Offer the question for a living, native face-up Mentat against its actual battle
opponent before skill posture and faction powers. A captured Mentat has only its
lower +2 bonus. Resolve the selected question and its compulsory disclosure as one
saved sequence, then restore the ordinary posture choice. Do not reopen older
battles that have already passed this boundary.

Use canonical weapon names without consulting the opponent's hidden hand to
construct the questioner's choices. After naming, show only the required matching
card, or let the opponent choose a fallback from their own hand. The public record
may identify the question and named weapon; it must never disclose the answer's
physical identity, fallback choices or an extra private hand snapshot.

The observation records what was shown at that time. Later play, transfers or a
leader's death do not turn it into current hand knowledge or require that card in
a plan. Retaining already learned information after death is a persistence
necessity, not a new skill benefit or an additional publisher ruling.

The sources give no fallback when the named weapon is absent and the opponent
has an empty hand. The prototype leaves asking unavailable with an explicit reason
and automatically skips that unavailable opportunity so battle can proceed.
It records no answer. This is an unfinished case, not a
printed ban. No new Karama counter to the skill or public disclosure is inferred.

The pending naming/disclosure sequence must retain exact decision ownership and
battle identity across JSON/SQLite restoration. Invalid, stale or competing
requests must not repeat an observation, change card custody, bypass posture or
start faction powers early. Optional hand-changing actions wait for this short
sequence to complete; that serialization is an explicit implementation boundary.
Every accepted question uses the same target-owned private card-show step,
including an exact match or a sole fallback. Automatically completing only some
answers would reveal held/absent information through different public stages.
Target controls alone receive the eligible physical cards; public decision shape,
logs and number of response steps stay the same across equal-size hands.

The uniform step is an exception to the user's usual forced-confirmation
preference. **Approved 11 October 2026:** use this private card-show step in
normal supported Leader Skills battles. Moritani's separate uniform-step
question is not answered by this approval.

## Preview evidence and remaining acceptance

Independent review and 22 focused tests cover the common question/answer sequence,
all four AI profiles, private projected controls, exact-match versus fallback
privacy, canonical weapon roles, captured lower-only behavior, saved ownership,
stale/duplicate rejection and competing SQLite writes. Ordinary Basic/Advanced
base and CHOAM skill games stay unactivated; actions cannot set the private flag.

Two complete base-faction samples use genuine Basic/Advanced skill setup, with a
controlled initial skill shuffle to include Mentat. They do not stage hands,
forces or phases. Basic completed 100 actions with three JSON restorations at
turn one; Advanced completed 507 actions with fourteen restorations at turn five.
Each produced one private observation and then reached Atreides Prescience;
neither rejected a candidate. All four profiles participated. These are targeted
preview paths with force/skill custody checks, not general card-custody coverage,
AI calibration or complete module certification.

An isolated browser QA room uses genuine skill setup followed by an explicitly
staged, conserved battle. Naming Lasgun led to the same target-owned private step,
then a Crysknife observation and the ordinary leader posture choice. The owning
seat restored its hand, resources, observation and pending posture after the
reported power failure. The observed card inspector was readable, and the leader
could move behind the shield after asking. Production SQLite tests separately
verify that the opponent and questioner alone retain the observation.

The checkpoint's source-bound broad results are recorded with its Git commit.
Normal uniform-response UX was approved and activated on 11 October. Empty hands
and other module combinations remain unfinished. No publication gate opens.