Water and buckets¶
Bucket
| Kind | Container |
| Count | 5 — 3 full at the river bank, 2 empty in the inn |
| Holds | 10 of water |
| Used for | putting out fires |
| Since | Phase 1 |
| Status | designed · Phase 1 |
| Technical | Intents and the resolver (one holder per thing) · ActionSystem |
The river runs along the bank, and there are five buckets in the village: three already full on the river bank, two empty in the inn. When a building burns, the full ones are the village's only answer.
How water moves¶
Water is in the bucket, never in the villager. To bring water to a fire, a villager picks up a bucket that has water in it, carries it, and empties it onto the burning building. A bucket's worth is enough to put a fire out. The empty bucket stays with them until they drop it, and in Phase 1 nobody refills: three throws is what the village has.
That one rule — the water is in the bucket — is what makes the bucket race honest. Two people cannot both carry the same bucket, so two people cannot both bring its water.
The bucket race¶
When the inn catches, every brave villager who feels the heat and knows where the full buckets are heads for the river bank. If three of them reach for three buckets in the same moment, each gets one. If five reach for three, three get a bucket and two are left standing there — the game picks who by a fair draw, and the losers have to decide again: run for the square, or follow the bucket-carriers to watch.
This is one of the three things the game promises will happen in most villages. Whether it does in yours depends on who is near the river when the fire starts.
What you can do¶
- Fill the inn's empty buckets at Tinkerer (set their water), and the village has five throws instead of three.
- Spawn a brave villager at the river bank and watch them become the one who saves the inn.
- Move a bucket — drop one in the square and see if anyone remembers it is there.
History¶
| Phase | Change |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduced: five buckets, water that lives in the bucket, the bucket race resolved to one holder per bucket. |
See also¶
Fire and heat · Personality · Riverside Village · Technical: Intents and the resolver