# H2 — scoped problem stress (personal / bond / global)

**Date:** 2026-08-08  
**Status:** experiment open — packaged as selectable variant  
**Parent:** [H1 design + measurement](260807-attack-darvo-stress-design.md), [RPT-0004](../reports/260808-clay-borg-h1-measured.md)  
**Variant:** [`editions/experiments/h2-scoped-problem-stress/`](../editions/experiments/h2-scoped-problem-stress/)  
**Workplan:** [GROUND-WP-0007](../workplans/GROUND-WP-0007-h2-scoped-problem-stress.md)

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## 0. Why H2 (after H1)

H1 applied **+1 Stress to every seat** whenever any Problem remained unclaimed. Competent play regulated (GROUND); Stress plateaus ~3; SOLVE bandwidth died; group wins collapsed at 3p+. Direction (Problem → Stress) was right; **equal global tax** was wrong.

H2 keeps inbound problem pressure but **routes** it:

| scope | who pays | design role |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| **personal** | one owner | asymmetric load; someone can approach DARVO while others SOLVE |
| **bond** | Bond network of owner | shared load → shared **incentive to SOLVE** that card |
| **global** | all seats | rare systemic pressure (Surface only in this package) |

Difficulty dial (later / WP-0005): vary how many of each scope are in the deal. This package’s first recipe uses **priority mapping** so seat band already changes mix (no bond card at 2p).

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## 1. Bond scope — the interesting bit

Bond today is almost pure upside (stress down, cancel DARVO). Bond-scope problems add a **joint liability**:

- While the card stays unclaimed, **every bonded partner** takes the End tick.
- **Any** seat may SOLVE it (matching suit) — including a non-owner altruist.
- So the network is incentivised to **clear the shared load**, not only to Support through the crisis.

That is the hypothesis to protect in measurement:

> Do Bond networks clear bond-scoped Problems faster / more often than equivalent personal cards, and does that keep group success above H1’s floor?

**Risk to watch:** players avoid Bonding to shed liability. If Bond rate collapses and DARVO rises, magnitude is still wrong (or bond tick needs to be softer than personal).

**Network definition:** seats reachable from the **owner** by Bond edges only. Rivalries do not connect. Degree 0 → personal behaviour.

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## 2. Package rules (summary)

See `rules_delta.yaml` for machine form.

1. **H2-SCOPE** — `Problems.csv` column `stress_scope`; mapping by `hidden_priority` 0→global, 1–2 personal, 3 bond, 4 personal.  
2. **H2-OWN** — owners for personal/bond: ascending priority among in-play non-global, round-robin from Lead.  
3. **H2-A** — Round End: each unclaimed Problem → +1 Stress to each seat in its scope; then clamp; then DARVO arm as r0.  
4. **H2-SOLVE** — claim rights unchanged by scope (anyone with suit).  

**Not included:** H1-A, H1-B, owner-only solve, shadow goals.

**Thresholds / deal depth / start Stress 2:** unchanged from r0.

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## 3. Hypothesis and success criteria

> Scoped pressure creates stress **variance** and occasional DARVO under mixed policies **without** driving greedy SHARED group wins to ~0 at 3–4p; bond cards create joint SOLVE incentive inside Bond networks.

| # | criterion | target (directional) |
|---|-----------|----------------------|
| 1 | Group success (greedy SHARED, 3–4p) | **Well above H1’s 0**; not required to match baseline |
| 2 | Stress variance | max−min Stress across seats **higher** than baseline and H1-greedy |
| 3 | DARVO | non-zero for some policy that still sometimes wins; not only pure reactive-never-wins |
| 4 | Bond cards | among bond-scoped unclaimed time, networks show elevated SOLVE rate on those cards vs personal (or qualitative report) |
| 5 | Control | if all scopes forced global, H1-like collapse returns (optional A/B) |

Instrument caveats from CB-EV-0030/0031 still apply: plural panel; report sample-specific vs invariant; no felt-play substitute.

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## 4. Safety / scope of fiction

Cards keep existing scenario language (deadline, ownership, overload). No new trauma-personal content. Full `EXT_PERSONAL` (shadow goals, expose, win rewrite) stays **out**.

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## 5. Decision log

| Date | Decision |
|------|----------|
| 2026-08-08 | H1 reject-as-baseline; spawn H2 scoped stress |
| 2026-08-08 | Bond = full Bond network of owner; SOLVE unrestricted by owner |
| 2026-08-08 | Surface global; one bond card (priority 3) enters at 3p+ |
| 2026-08-08 | Do not stack H1-B in H2 until scoped pressure is measured alone |