2026-09-06 23:37:48
Anonymous:
CMB101 r2: add the clause REV104-8 has been asking for since before this page existed - a floater does not leave water. r1 said only that it is in water almost by definition, which the critic correctly called a description rather than a rule; contract r5 section 3 now states it. Consequences drawn out: dry ground is the sanctuary, draining or diverting is the counterplay, and the open question about riding a filling lock upward is answered - yes, because cannot-climb is about the body, so filling a lock is a decision to deliver bodies rather than a way to strand them.
hold the flood/enemies/floater.md ..
@@ 1,6 1,7 @@
# Hold the Flood — Floater
-
**CMB101 · r1 · 2026-09-06 · Combat and Enemy Designer · In review — transferred, not invented.**
+
**CMB101 · r2 · 2026-09-06 · Combat and Enemy Designer · In review — transferred, not invented.**
+
r2 adds the one clause [REV104-8](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Design%20Review) has been asking for since before this page existed: **a floater does not leave water.** r1 said only that it "is in water almost by definition", which the critic correctly called a description rather than a rule, and [contract r5 §3](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Power%20And%20Attraction) now states it. The open question about riding a filling lock upward is answered by it.
**This role is the Lead's.** It was proposed on [Campaign 34dc09 §3.1 and §4](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Campaign) as part of DES104, and [the shared contract r3 §7](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Power%20And%20Attraction) transfers it to Combat with the rest of the merged roster. This page carries it under Combat's grammar without changing what the Lead specified; **anything below that goes beyond the Lead's two sentences is marked as Combat's proposal and is the Lead's to reject.**
Sources: [Campaign](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Campaign) §3.1 (the Lock Flight) and §4; [shared contract r3](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Power%20And%20Attraction) §§3, 7; shared grammar: [Combat Rules](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Combat).
| **Action** *(Lead)* | Rides the flow; **cannot climb** a lock or a ladder; otherwise a Walker |
+
| **And it does not leave water** *(contract r5 §3, ruled)* | A floater stays in water — it does not walk out onto a bank, a quay or a causeway. This is the clause the critic asked for through four revisions, and it is what makes the role's threat a *routing* threat rather than a general one: a floater is only ever where water is, so **draining or diverting the water is the counterplay, and dry ground is the sanctuary** |
| **Precedence** *(Lead, contract §3)* | **Line 2 while its water flows** — its role target is the flow. **Line 3 when the flow stops**, whereupon it answers the nearest reachable lit beacon like anything else |
-
| **Threat** *(Combat)* | It arrives where the water goes, not where the light is. A player who has routed the crowd correctly can still have a branch fill from below, and **a flushed quay is not a cleared quay** — it is a quay whose bodies were delivered somewhere else, possibly onto the route home |
+
| **Threat** *(Combat)* | It arrives where the water goes, not where the light is. A player who has routed the crowd correctly can still have a branch fill from below, and **a flushed quay is not a cleared quay** — it is a quay whose bodies were delivered somewhere else, possibly into water on the route home. It cannot follow onto dry ground, so its threat is to everywhere the player must wade, and nowhere else |
| **Hit count** *(Combat proposal)* | Three, as a Walker. It is not tougher; it is somewhere else |
| **Conducts?** *(Combat)* | Yes, ordinarily. It is in water almost by definition, so it is a reliable coil target — and it is the role most likely to be *carried into* a discharge the player has already spent |
| **Charge** *(Combat)* | Sheds once, by the ordinary rule |
@@ 63,6 65,6 @@
## Open questions
-
- **What happens when the flow stops with a Floater mid-channel?** *Combat's position:* it becomes an ordinary body at line 3 immediately, in place. No stranding state, no new cue — the wake simply stops, which is the same signal read backwards.
-
- **Can a Floater ride flow *upward* through a lock that is filling?** *Combat's position:* yes, if the water carries it, because "cannot climb" is about the body and not about the water. This is the one place where the Lead's two sentences and a lock's actual behaviour might disagree, and it is a district-design question for [Campaign](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Campaign) as much as a rule.
+
- **What happens when the flow stops with a Floater mid-channel?** *Combat's position:* it becomes an ordinary body at line 3 immediately, in place — but **still in water**, so it walks to the nearest reachable lit beacon only by whatever wet path exists, and holds where the water ends if none does. No stranding state and no new cue: the wake simply stops, which is the same signal read backwards.
+
- ~~**Can a Floater ride flow upward through a lock that is filling?**~~ **Answered in r2 by the ruled clause.** Yes, if the water carries it: "cannot climb" is about the body, and a floater that stays in water goes wherever that water goes, up a filling lock included. What it cannot do is step out at the top. That is the Lead's design and it is a good one — **filling a lock is a decision to deliver bodies, not a way to strand them.**
- **Does the flow's speed change anything?** *Combat's position:* no. Speed is a number, and a role that differs by a number is the thing the [Expansion Brief](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Expansion%20Brief) warns against. Direction is the design.
