Dune/docs/LEADER_SKILLS_RUNTIME.md

# Leader Skills first functional prototype

13 September 2026. This is **Prototyped**, with **Partial** rules coverage.
Normal mode starts and publication remain gated. The [source contract](LEADER_SKILLS_RULES.md)
contains all fourteen physical cards; the [capture interpretation](LEADER_SKILLS_CAPTURE.md)
records the fresh publisher/designer search requested by the user.

**2 October normal Banker checkpoint:** the separate fresh local `banker-income`
profile connects actual final-bank payment legs, one physical Banker phase
grant and automatic current Mentat collection. The full deck14
and existing lower Banker spending remain intact. Read-only public front-shield
counts explain unavailable currency; no collect action/confirmation is added.
Original earned-faction retention after death/capture/reassignment and per-payer
nonaggregation are explicit conservative LOCAL prototype choices, not answers
to the earlier pending custody/split questions or full-module certification.
Bounded verification is Partial / Development Verified: 6,487 offline tests,
140 focused cases, eighteen native source-to-Mentat cases, four legal budgets
and two preserved six-seat CLI/human-phone rooms pass; local HTTP remains
49/55 with six upstream503 failures. Full-module/deployed acceptance stays open; see the
[existing Banker normal-band contract](SPICE_BANKER_RUNTIME.md#normal-income-local-contract--2-october-2026).

**2 October native Mentat checkpoint:** explicit fresh
`--profile leader-skills --mentat-question` connects the existing private
normal-band question to supported Basic Ixian/Tleilaxu/CHOAM/Moritani starts.
Canonical exact/default weapon roles, target-owned fallback, posture and native
battle continuation use the existing controls and legal policies. Ordinary
activation still awaits the uniform-response UX decision; empty hands and
Advanced native/combined-module skills remain guarded. See
[native preview scope](MENTAT_QUESTION.md#native-skill-integration--2-october-2026).

## Native Ecaz ordinary-disc composition — 4 October 2026

Fresh local `leader-skills` now admits Basic/Advanced native Ecaz with classic
opponents, the exact `ecaz` family and all fourteen physical skills. Basic
Harkonnen remains permitted; Advanced Harkonnen keeps the original shared-Duke
capture boundary. Public starts, other factions/modules and combined Occupy
skill battles are not opened. Skill assignment uses the five native discs,
never the separately controlled Duke. Source-ordered starting cards, public
skills, Loyalty/Traitors and original six-force placement remain genuine.

Ordinary native role scores, physical Suk rescue and trained-disc death compose
with original handlers. Eligible own normal-disc revival through paid first
cohort or a physical Ghola retains optional decline/draw/assignment. Native
Ambassador placement, bank grants and original entrant continuation preserve
training. Explicit Mentat and separate Banker opt-ins retain current questions;
an Ambassador bank grant is not another player's bank payment.

Real Ecaz Ambassador acquisition gives one temporary Duke6. A separate living
face-up native Warmaster adds only its normal1 with a physical Worthless card,
never trained-disc3. Surviving release and actual poison death preserve native
trainer/card; bounty is printed6. Ecaz's original paid5 revival returns the
same living set-aside disc under the user's earlier ruling. These cases retain
an existing native skill and do not settle shared-Duke skill assignment.

Focused9/9 and twenty actual controlled programs pass: Basic/Advanced Duke
normal/hidden/stronger-opponent/death, manual/four-policy native Suk, and separate
actual native Banker payment. Ten genuine Basic/Advanced two-through-six-seat
games complete4,264 accepted actions/no rejection,110 JSON continuations and
59 battles, including50 Ambassador decisions and one Suk rescue. Natural and
explicitly controlled evidence are distinct; full combinations/assurance,
strategic AI, public activation and deployment remain unfinished.

Affected67/67, types/lint/build pass. Original CLI **24HGMJCD v4** retains setup.
Human390px **LQWE8TZM v18** uses original token placement/paid entrant/acquisition,
then a conserved controlled Wind Pass/Baliset position retaining the acquired
disc. Actual Sanya Ecaz/Warmaster normal1 plus Duke6/dial0 ties Captain5/dial2/
support2 at7–7 and wins as aggressor. Normal cleanup/refresh retains native
training, Collection/wallet11/eight counters/Tanks0 and living set-aside Duke;
opponent's owned wallet is7. Original enlarged Duke inspection is readable.

## Native Richese composition — 4 October 2026

Fresh local `leader-skills` now composes original native Richese setup and all
fourteen skills in Basic or Advanced with the required `choam` family, its
separate ten-card cache, classic opponents and optional native CHOAM. Advanced
Ix/Tleilaxu/CHOAM/Richese families keep distinct required decks and their current
rule boundaries. Extra decks do not manufacture factions; native Ixian Technology
on Richese lots remains guarded. Ordinary forces and marker-only0/3/5 battles
retain original private pools, both-plan reveal and physically capped casualties.
Suk rescues only those actual casualties. Original own mixed No-Field and
whole-plan disclosure guards remain; voluntary reveal must precede Battle.

Canonical printed Richese `Special` and `Special - Movement` cards can substitute
for a selected Planetologist's weapon. Exact physical id/name/kind/effect remain
required; Stone/Mirror weapons and Portable Snooper defense do not qualify.
The surviving trainer gains2; the green card is disposed once without its native
effect, fee or search. Original preleader acknowledgments stay separate controls.
Normal Smuggler's own companion remains one physical force beside the priced
marker; ordinary allied shipments retain their separate native cancellation
and Guild continuations without inventing an allied free companion.

[Advanced contribution recipients](RICHESE_AUCTION_RULES.md#authorized-advanced-contribution-recipients--4-october-2026)
now preserve original buyer-to-Richese versus Richese-to-Emperor/bank payer
shares. Basic keeps the publisher's earlier receipt. Separate normal Banker
counts only actual bank legs and collects at real Mentat; allowed Emperor
income is not bank income. Fourteen-card custody, private entitlements and
pending Bureaucrat split, earned-custody and ordinary Mentat questions remain.

Final affected rule/CLI union151/151 and types/lint/build pass.
Eleven actual controlled cases cover inert Basic Box/Advanced Residual Poison
substitution, five capped-marker manual/policy rescues and four original
bank/Emperor/cancellation/buyer paths. The original29-table batch completes28
with11,788 accepted actions,303 JSON continuations and130 battles, but is
**not green**: six-seat Advanced seed20261267 is captured after1,523 accepted
actions at the existing exhausted-cache ruling guard. Native selected-deck
marker eligibility now shares the profile; separate two/three-seat follow-ups
finish without rejection. The captured game is not rerun or bypassed.

Human390px **358WLPYA v16** retains original admitted seats followed by a
conserved controlled zero-marker battle. Ein Calimar5/Residual Poison/+2
Planetologist/dial0 wins7–7 on the original aggressor tie. The green card is
discarded through normal cleanup without killing an opposing leader or
creating a physical force; reserves20/Tanks0 remain at Collection after refresh.
Human **E2K2U5ZW v26** uses actual allied funding controls: original buyer4 plus
Richese4 buys one Ornithopter for8, Richese receives only buyer4, and absent
Emperor routes donor4 to bank. Guild Banker earns one unavailable front-shield
spice; real native Revival, movement and Collection retain that pile. Native
Mentat collects it once (wallet6→7), and refresh retains an empty pile.
The detailed green/recipient guide is visually readable at390px (351px topic).
Original CLI **FXK6Z8BW v6** retains native setup. No full assurance,
strategic calibration, public activation or deployed evidence.

## Advanced Moritani assassination composition — 4 October 2026

The [bounded native Moritani contract](MORITANI_LEADER_SKILLS.md#advanced-assassination-composition--4-october-2026)
composes all fourteen skills with the original classic/non-Harkonnen Advanced
assassination roster and exact `ecaz` deck. Five native assignment discs and
original setup remain; Basic/Harkonnen starts are unchanged.
Winner Suk rescue and Rihani choice finish before post-loss assassination.
A saved unspent receipt advances only after those skills, preserving the actual
winner, original excluded battle disc, printed bounty, card return and one
private native Mentat replacement without repeating casualties.
Explicit Mentat/Banker opt-ins remain separate; shared-Duke assignment, further
native rosters, public activation and unrelated optional modules stay guarded.

## Advanced Tleilaxu foreign-ghola composition — 4 October 2026

The [native Tleilaxu contract](TLEILAXU_LEADER_SKILLS.md#advanced-native-composition--4-october-2026)
extends the Advanced native subset to Tleilaxu, optionally with Ixians and/or
CHOAM and classic opponents, preserving distinct required decks and all fourteen
skills. Actual foreign revival gives control of the original physical disc but
never a new skill. Own revival, native trainer normal roles, foreign death and
negotiated return, Harkonnen capture/revelation/use-return/execution and native
Face Dance compose through their original handlers. Explicit Mentat/Banker
opt-ins retain their boundaries; captured replacement, Advanced Atreides Suk/KH,
unrelated overlays and public starts remain guarded.

## Advanced native Ixian and CHOAM composition — 4 October 2026

The fresh local `leader-skills` profile now admits two through six unique
Advanced seats with native Ixians and/or CHOAM and otherwise classic factions.
Select distinct `ix` and/or `choam` decks, including each native faction's
required family. All fourteen physical skills and original native setup choices
remain: Ixian starting-card selection and HMS, genuine traitor offers, CHOAM's
unskilled Auditor, posture before faction powers and optional own revival.
Basic entries and public activation are unchanged. Foreign gholas, captured
replacement, Advanced Atreides Suk/Kwisatz Haderach, Richese mixed planning and
unrelated optional overlays retain their explicit guards.

Advanced cyborg support and casualties feed the existing skilled Suk rescue,
then native Suboid substitution without paying twice or creating counters.
CHOAM keeps its original support payer/income distinction and unmodified
Smuggler collection before ordinary Collection. Existing Planetologist,
Sandmaster, Mentat, Bureaucrat and Banker helpers share this admitted native
profile rather than independently accepting a different roster.
Explicit `--mentat-question` remains a private timing preview; ordinary
activation and empty-hand rulings are not resolved. The separate `banker-income`
profile also admits this native Advanced subset; normal front-shield income
remains unavailable until actual Mentat and keeps its provisional earned custody.

Bounded Development Verified: affected122/122, types/lint/build, ten actual
controlled native programs (five Ixian rescue/policy cases, one CHOAM collection,
two private Mentat and two original-payment-to-Mentat Banker cases), and three
genuine unstaged CLI games pass. Those games accept511 actions without rejection
and twelve JSON continuations, but contain no battle: battle evidence comes
from the controlled programs and human controls, not those natural histories.
Fresh CLI **KFW75TCB v6** preserves original setup. Human390px **ARRHUS7Z v20**
uses original admitted seats and an explicitly staged conserved Wind Pass
position, then real plans, typed losses, mixed Suk rescue, native substitution
and phase opening. Actual Collection after refresh retains wallet9, three board
forces including one cyborg, four Tanks counters and zero cyborg Tanks.
No full assurance campaign, public release or deployed claim.



## Connected boundary

The [Basic Tleilaxu follow-up](TLEILAXU_LEADER_SKILLS.md) adds the full-deck
Tleilaxu/base profile, response-driven own revival, native Rihani Face Dancer
exchanges and later Face Dance custody. Advanced foreign gholas stay gated.

The [Basic Moritani follow-up](MORITANI_LEADER_SKILLS.md) now connects Moritani
with base opponents and no other optional modules. It preserves all fourteen
cards and existing unfinished-effect boundaries. The older base-only scope
descriptions below are extended only by that explicit integration contract.

Genuine Basic or Advanced setup supports two through six base factions. Starting
Treachery Cards, including Harkonnen's extra card, precede simultaneous private
two-card skill offers. Every faction selects one physical skill and an eligible
own leader, returns the other card to the shuffled deck, and publicly assigns
the selected card before traitor choices. No reduced or duplicate skill deck is
substituted. The [No-Field follow-up](SMUGGLER_NO_FIELD.md) adds genuine CHOAM &
Richese setup for its bounded combination; remaining expansion/skill acceptance
and other optional modules remain separate work.

Human controls show each permitted card's normal and battle text, select its
leader, choose battle posture, and handle an optional own-leader revival draw.
An undrawn revival offer shows no preview; drawing obliges a selection. All four
AI profiles follow the same private offers and legal actions, prioritizing the
five battle disciplines during skill selection and hiding the assigned leader for battle. This
simple policy is not calibrated skill strategy.

Warmaster, Master of Assassins, Swordmaster of Ginaz, Killer Medic and
Prana-Bindu Adept apply +1 to another selected leader from a face-up native
trainer, or +3 to the surviving assigned leader. They use the physical card's
actual weapon or defense role, including a legally supplied Portable Snooper.
They do not grant +4 or change printed strength, leader bounty or Zoal's source
value. Existing traitor, explosion and Stone Burner precedence is preserved.
Cheap Hero receives the normal +1 through ordinary leader substitution; this
is a general-rule inference, without a separately located explicit skill FAQ.

A face-up assigned disc cannot enter a plan. Concealing it while selecting
another leader gives no skill bonus. Later Voice or card use can remove the
last alternative: the mandatory remaining skilled disc then moves behind the
shield automatically, without replaying battle powers. A surviving assignment
returns face up after battle. Death returns its physical card exactly once.
An own Ghola revival during unfinished battle preparation retains that stage
through the new private draw and public posture choice.

Harkonnen capture keeps the card attached to its original leader and publicly
shows the current captor. Only the captive's lower battle effect can apply;
neither faction receives its normal effect while captured. A surviving used
captive returns with the same card. Execution returns the card to the deck;
that unique formerly public card makes this skilled leader's identity inferable.
Other captures retain the existing privacy behavior. This narrow publicity
interpretation follows the physical component procedure, not an express
publisher instruction to announce a name.

## Missing and guarded work

[Battle-effects follow-up](LEADER_BATTLE_EFFECTS.md) connects both Rihani bands
and the lower Mentat, Bureaucrat and Sandmaster effects. A separate
[Mentat question preview](MENTAT_QUESTION.md) connects private naming/disclosure,
posture and saved history under an explicit private opt-in. The uniform mandatory
response step awaits the user's UX decision; ordinary activation remains disabled.
[Bureaucrat payment redirection](BUREAUCRAT_PAYMENTS.md) connects the ordinary
auction, shipment, Richese sale and paid-bribe families within its recorded
boundary. Other Bureaucrat payments and split funding remain incomplete.
[Banker normal income](SPICE_BANKER_RUNTIME.md#normal-income-local-contract--2-october-2026)
is connected only in its separate fresh classic, supported Basic native or
the bounded Advanced Ixian/CHOAM `banker-income` profile; ordinary/default starts gain no activation.
[Banker battle spending](SPICE_BANKER_RUNTIME.md) retains its separate
sealed funds and survivor strength. [Smuggler shipping](SMUGGLER_SHIPMENT.md)
connects its optional normal reserve bonus and the [owned No-Field companion](SMUGGLER_NO_FIELD.md).
[Diplomat defense](DIPLOMAT_DEFENSE.md) connects its normal band for a physical
Worthless card copying a canonical base Shield or Snooper. Its bounded lower
[retreat](LEADER_SKILLS_RULES.md#bounded-diplomat-retreat-interpretation) now moves
selected undialed normal/elite counters to an empty adjacent non-stronghold
after a surviving trained leader loses. Modified-defense inheritance remains
guarded. [Smuggler battle collection](SMUGGLER_BATTLE.md)
now connects reveal-bound, unmodified collection after survival, including
losers and captives. Modified strength and combined modules remain guarded.
Planetologist and Suk Graduate have the connected
prototypes described below.

Captured-card replacement entitlement remains unresolved. The prototype rejects
own-leader revival while its original skill is captured, before beginning a
paid revival or consuming the Ghola/special-Karama action. This is an explicit
unsupported boundary, not a ruling that the physical game forbids that revival.
Other expansion rosters and combined optional modules remain gated. Native
Advanced foreign gholas now follow the bounded Tleilaxu contract above; the
recorded source-contract timing questions remain open. Planetologist has bounded
movement and battle controls as described below.
Remaining normal-band payments, ordinary Mentat activation, modified Smuggler collection,
and the other guarded skill combinations still need connected effects. Diplomat
retreat is a bounded prototype, not a complete simultaneous-effect ruling.

## Planetologist follow-up

[Planetologist](PLANETOLOGIST_RULES.md) connects the explicit capped range bonus,
two-origin movement to one destination, Fremen cancellation/replacement and a
surviving skilled leader's +2 green-Special substitution with mandatory discard.
The movement panel and weapon selector expose those choices; all four AI profiles
can use the same physical action paths. Pending movement receipts survive JSON
continuation and revalidate source custody before a response is spent.

Six base factions remain the supported roster. Mixed BG origins are supported
where ordinary rules determine the destination stance. Enemy-only mixed arrival
still needs a combined flip response. Expansion faction/card/module combinations
and full integrated acceptance remain unfinished. The remaining bands and skill families are
listed above; this is partial prototype coverage.

## Suk Graduate follow-up

[Suk Graduate](SUK_GRADUATE_RULES.md) connects the mandatory one-counter
normal rescue and the surviving selected leader’s optional rescue of up to three
physical casualties. Normal and elite identity, original sector, paid support,
private hands and captured-leader return survive the saved continuation. Human
controls and all four AI profiles use the same server-projected legal choices.
Advanced Atreides awaits the loss-count ruling; expansion factions and combined
optional modules remain guarded.

## Local prototype entry and evidence

Create a new base-faction local lobby, select its seats and mark them ready.
Keep its browser cookie. Use the existing backup and atomic version-check tool:

```sh
node --import tsx tools/start-prototype.ts --profile leader-skills \
  --db PATH_TO_LOCAL_D1_SQLITE --room EIGHT_CHARACTER_CODE \
  --version CURRENT_LOBBY_VERSION --out /private/new-prototype-checkpoint
```

Only that fresh named lobby is initialized; every other room and all seats stay
intact. Refresh to continue through ordinary authenticated actions. No HTTP
endpoint dispatches the initializer; do not restart or reset the database.

Focused tests cover physical inventory, setup ordering, private views, all five
bonuses, Voice legality, capture and return, death, revival and JSON restoration.
SQLite tests use production room actions across restarted stores and concurrent
selection: one choice commits, the selected card has one owner, the rejected
card returns once, and private offers remain owner-only. The local prototype
writer is separately checked for stale/redeal rejection and preserved seats.

Two seeded four-player simulations (20260913 Basic; 20260914 Advanced) completed
through genuine setup in 265 and 211 accepted actions with no rejected bot
candidates. They used Easy, Medium, Hard and Brutal, checked physical skills and
forces, and restored JSON views at fourteen sampled boundaries in total.
These were first-batch runs before the later capture and Voice review fixes;
their private report fingerprints the exact files exercised. They do not prove
all fourteen effects, Harkonnen capture or every interaction was played.

A later Advanced run including Harkonnen (seed 20260915) completed in 360
accepted actions, four turns and ten sampled JSON restores, with no rejected
bot candidates. It exercised the current controller/Voice integration. Exact
captured-card outcomes are proved by the focused capture scenarios, rather
than inferred from this sample game's completion.

Browser room `REF6YHN7` was created normally with a human Atreides and Medium
Harkonnen, then initialized through the backed-up local tool. The human inspected
both effect bands, assigned Master of Assassins to Thufir Hawat, selected a
private traitor and reached Storm. Refresh retained that assignment, the AI's
Swordmaster on Feyd-Rautha, the same Snooper hand and the pending Storm dial.
Visual inspection caught two squeezed columns in the table sidebar; single-column
cards restore readable text. This was a focused desktop setup/recovery journey,
not a complete human game or mobile acceptance.

The second reported power outage stopped the development server. All 292 rooms
were present with a clean SQLite integrity/foreign-key check; the 291 opening
rooms matched their hashes. A new online backup preceded the necessary server
start. The same browser seat then restored both skills, Snooper, private Thufir
traitor, ten spice and its pending Storm decision. No database reset or old
game restoration was performed.

Checkpoint-wide check/build/HTTP results and the final source fingerprint are
recorded in the commit and private verification report. Full module and combined
game acceptance remain unfinished.

The [Sandmaster ground-movement follow-up](SANDMASTER_MOVEMENT.md) adds explicit
routes, optional collection, human/AI controls and saved cancellation. The
[worm-ride follow-up](SANDMASTER_WORM.md) adds native Fremen destination collection
and saved arrival reactions. Other special relocation and combined modules
remain unfinished.

## Basic Ixian integration

[Basic Ixians with Leader Skills](IX_LEADER_SKILLS.md) adds genuine starting-card
setup, per-origin cyborg range, Sandmaster HMS entry/exit, explicit Suk cyborg
rescue origins, Rihani-before-substitution and mandatory green-Special disposal.
Tleilaxu/base opponents are supported through the complete deck; Advanced and
other combinations remain separate. This supersedes earlier Ix admission gaps,
not the documented missing skill bands or unresolved Sandmaster eligibility
during native HMS relocation.

## Basic CHOAM ordinary action integration

[Basic CHOAM with Leader Skills](CHOAM_LEADER_SKILLS.md) connects ordinary
skill actions to the already available genuine setup. It retains the complete
fourteen-card skill and 35-card Treachery inventories, native card sales and
private own-revival replacement through interrupted market timing. Existing
Advanced/Richese setup admission remains, without extending this action profile
or certifying its separate effects.