Rock Cube

Rock Cube

Drop a durable blocker onto the field and force the fight around it.

What This Skill Does

Use Rock Cube when the best move is to place a visible obstacle that changes movement, timing, or attention. In this chip pack, Rock Cube is treated as a hybrid battle-chip procedure with a shipping-now delivery profile. Canonical reference input: Rock Cube. Hermes shelf: Traps and Obstacles.

When To Use

• A workflow needs a deliberate blocker, pause point, or dummy target.
• You want to redirect hostile motion without engaging directly.
• A durable obstacle is safer than a subtle trick.

Prerequisites

• Name which part of this move is real tool use versus battle-chip framing before you act.
• These procedures rely on the normal tools already present in the active Hermes runtime; this repo does not ship a separate integration layer.

Operator Inputs

• Name the lane, panel, or behavior you want to block, slow, or redirect.
• Say who will be inconvenienced by the obstacle besides the intended target.
• Describe how durable or visible the blocker needs to be.
• State what advantage you plan to gain once movement reroutes around it.

Procedure

1. Restate the target, success condition, and no-touch boundaries before you spend the chip.
2. Collect the operator inputs below so the chip lands on the right panel.
3. Choose the panel where a blocker will matter most.
4. Place the obstacle and let the room adapt around it.
5. Exploit the rerouted movement it creates.
6. Package the result with concrete evidence, what stayed untouched, and the next recommended chip only if follow-up is truly needed.

Deliverables

• A blocker, placeholder, or deliberate friction point.
• A note on what path or behavior it is meant to redirect.

Output Contract

• One deliberate blocker, placeholder, or friction point at the highest-value location.
• An explanation of what path or behavior the obstacle is meant to redirect.
• A plan for how the operator will exploit the rerouted movement.
• A removal or relocation condition if the blocker hurts allies more than enemies.

Do Not Use For

• Stealthy monitoring problems where a visible obstacle would spoil the move.
• Situations where your own side lacks a route around the blocker.
• Complex policy overhauls when one localized obstruction would do.

Pair With

• Rock Cube + Time Bomb: force the target to path around a blocker and into a delayed punishment window.
• Rock Cube + Killer Eye: narrow the lane first, then watch the crossing that matters.
• Rock Cube + Air Shot: place the obstacle, then exploit the forced positioning with knockback or displacement.

Pitfalls / Guardrails

• Keep the theatrical framing, but name the concrete mechanism that makes the chip useful right now.
• Do not place obstacles you are not prepared to work around yourself.
• If the blocker creates more friction for allies than enemies, remove it.
• Keep the chip metaphor anchored to a real operating move; do not let flavor substitute for procedure.

Verification

• Check that the response includes every promised deliverable and leaves an inspectable audit trail.
• Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and proposed follow-up are visibly separated.
• Confirm the blocker sits on a lane where rerouting actually matters.
• Confirm the obstacle creates less pain for allies than for the behavior it is meant to disrupt.
• Confirm there is a clear removal or rollback condition if the field adapts badly.
• Check which parts are concrete actions versus framing, so the operator can tell what is real now.

Example Invocation

Use Rock Cube to place one durable blocker in this workflow so the bad path becomes inconvenient and the good path becomes obvious.
Use Rock Cube on the highest-value lane, but make sure my own team can still move around it.