From 7372bfc5e88f40a40974a37ac6e1959c28b1fedd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eric Wagoner <ewagoner@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2026 18:14:18 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?Rev=2022:=20the=20self-stack=20resolves=20?=
 =?UTF-8?q?=E2=80=94=20one=20wizard=20cannot=20bounce=20to=20himself?=
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A democratic monster touching its own creator opens a stack where one
player wears both hats, and doPass matched the attacker first: every
pass "bounced the exchange to the defender" — the same wizard —
forever. Room 928D livelocked there at seq 83; once the boot kick
revived its pump, the automaton politely passed 389 times. At rev 22
a self-stack pass RESOLVES (the claw lands, the game moves on);
older ledgers hold their recorded bounces and replay so. 928D itself
was repaired by truncating the no-op run and lifting it to rev 22,
verified clean and unstuck on a copy before installation.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 packages/engine/src/game.ts            |  8 +++++-
 packages/engine/test/creatures.test.ts | 37 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 packages/server/src/rooms.ts           |  2 +-
 packages/web/src/local.svelte.ts       |  2 +-
 4 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/packages/engine/src/game.ts b/packages/engine/src/game.ts
index 16910df..3062cf4 100644
--- a/packages/engine/src/game.ts
+++ b/packages/engine/src/game.ts
@@ -5071,7 +5071,13 @@ function doPass(prev: GameState, playerId: PlayerId): CommandResult {
   const state = clone(prev);
   const stack = state.stack!;
   const events: GameEvent[] = [];
-  if (playerId === stack.attackerId) {
+  // A self-stack (a democratic monster touching its own creator) has one
+  // party wearing both hats: their pass RESOLVES — bouncing it "to the
+  // defender" would hand the exchange back to themselves forever
+  // (rules rev 22; older ledgers hold those no-op bounces and replay so).
+  const selfStack =
+    stack.attackerId === stack.defenderId && (state.config.deckRev ?? 1) >= 22;
+  if (playerId === stack.attackerId && !selfStack) {
     // The attacker declining to answer bounces the exchange back so the
     // defender may stack further counters — but not past a total stop:
     // re-prompting then reads as "your shield failed" and goads the table
diff --git a/packages/engine/test/creatures.test.ts b/packages/engine/test/creatures.test.ts
index 3022954..9057945 100644
--- a/packages/engine/test/creatures.test.ts
+++ b/packages/engine/test/creatures.test.ts
@@ -683,3 +683,40 @@ describe("collapsing walls crush monsters too (rules rev 21)", () => {
     expect(state.creatures.find((c) => c.id === "tr1")!.damage).toBe(0);
   });
 });
+
+describe("the self-stack resolves on a pass (rules rev 22)", () => {
+  function selfTouch(deckRev: number) {
+    let { state } = createGame({ playerIds: ["a", "b"], seed: 42, sets: ["basic", "expansion1"], deckRev });
+    state = toRound2(state);
+    const creator = activePlayer(state);
+    state.creatures.push({
+      id: "dm1", kind: "democratic-monster", controllerId: creator.id,
+      position: { x: creator.position.x - 1, y: creator.position.y },
+      damage: 0, maxDamage: 5, movesPerTurn: 3, movementUsed: 0,
+      attackUsed: false, justCreated: false,
+      wallPassesPerTurn: 0, wallPassUsed: 0, scorchedThisTurn: [],
+    });
+    const r = applyCommand(state, creator.id, { type: "moveCreature", creatureId: "dm1", direction: "E" });
+    if (!r.ok) throw new Error(r.error);
+    return { state: r.state, creator: creator.id };
+  }
+
+  it("rev 22: passing your own monster's touch takes the claw and moves on", () => {
+    const { state, creator } = selfTouch(22);
+    if (!state.stack) return; // a wall between: the touch never opened
+    expect(state.stack.attackerId).toBe(creator);
+    expect(state.stack.defenderId).toBe(creator);
+    const r = applyCommand(state, creator, { type: "pass" });
+    if (!r.ok) throw new Error(r.error);
+    expect(r.state.stack).toBeNull();
+    expect(r.state.players.find((p) => p.id === creator)!.life).toBe(13);
+  });
+
+  it("rev 21 keeps its recorded bounce, no-op as it was", () => {
+    const { state, creator } = selfTouch(21);
+    if (!state.stack) return;
+    const r = applyCommand(state, creator, { type: "pass" });
+    if (!r.ok) throw new Error(r.error);
+    expect(r.state.stack).not.toBeNull();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/server/src/rooms.ts b/packages/server/src/rooms.ts
index 1f88fdb..104dcc7 100644
--- a/packages/server/src/rooms.ts
+++ b/packages/server/src/rooms.ts
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ export interface Room {
 const rooms = new Map<string, Room>();
 
 /** Rules revision new games are dealt under (stored games keep their own). */
-const RULES_REV = 21;
+const RULES_REV = 22;
 
 const ROOM_CODE_ALPHABET = "ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ23456789";
 
diff --git a/packages/web/src/local.svelte.ts b/packages/web/src/local.svelte.ts
index 3faf6dd..5efc996 100644
--- a/packages/web/src/local.svelte.ts
+++ b/packages/web/src/local.svelte.ts
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ class LocalGame {
       seed,
       sets: expansion ? ["basic", "expansion1"] : ["basic"],
       ...(colors ? { colors } : {}),
-      deckRev: 21,
+      deckRev: 22,
     };
     const { state, events } = createGame(config);
     for (const e of events) {