Ruling — Too Many Bones

You asked

How do I setup the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Too Many Bonesbg-192135-en-1e

To setup the game, follow these steps: 1. Place the Battle Mat in the center of your play area [1]. 2. Select a Tyrant or draw one at random (you may look at both sides and familiarize yourself with its Skills and Tyrant Die effects) [1]. 3. Place the Tyrant's Card, Chip, and Die to the left of the Battle Mat [1]. 4. Place the Day Counter Card and Chip (set to 1) directly below your Tyrant Card [1]. 5. Find any Tyrant Encounters associated with chosen Tyrant (1-3 blue cards, labeled with the Tyrant name at the bottom of the card) and set those aside [2]. 6. Shuffle the General Encounter Deck (green and labeled 'General' at the bottom), or Solo Encounter Deck (green and labeled 'Solo' at the bottom) if playing with only one Gearloc [2]. 7. Draw Encounter Cards equal to the # of Days shown on your Tyrant Card minus 3 cards [2]. 8. Shuffle these together with the Tyrant Encounter Card(s) you set aside to form an Encounter Deck, and place to the left (story side up) of the Battle Mat [2]. 9. Place unused General and Solo Encounter Cards in the game box [2]. 10. Find Special Encounters 001-003 (labeled 1, 2, and 3) and, in order, place them on top of your newly created Encounter Deck [2]. 11. Place the Cover Card on top of the Encounter Deck if you'd like to make Encounters even more of a surprise [2]. 12. Shuffle all Loot and Trove Loot cards separately and place both decks (chest side up) to the right of the Battle Mat [2]. 13. Take the 4 Lockpicking Dice and place them nearby [2]. 14. Using the Baddie Type icons shown on your Tyrant Card, find all Baddies of these types, flip them face down, shuffle, and create separate 1Pt, 5Pt, and 20Pt Baddie 'Active Stacks' [2]. 15. Place these stacks above the Battle Mat [2]. 16. Each player chooses a Gearloc and places their selected Gearloc Mat, Gearloc Chip (with # of Starting Health Chips underneath it), Initiative (Ini) Die, and Stat Dice as shown [3]. 17. Adjust mat placement to your liking based on party size [3]. 18. Place Gearloc Reference Sheet nearby [3]. 19. Find your Gearloc's 16 Skill Dice and place them in a Storage Tray near your Gearloc Mat (you may also use tray covers for storing Atk and Def Dice near each Gearloc) [3]. 20. Using your Gearloc Reference Sheet, look for any Skills with a circle next to their name; these are the Skills your Gearloc starts the game with, so place the corresponding Skill Dice into those slots on your mat [3]. 21. Collectively choose a Party Leader, who is responsible for making tie-breaking decisions [3]. 22. Choose a game mode to play on (Adventurer Mode is recommended to start) [3]. 23. Below the Battle Mat, make pools of Atk Dice, Def Dice, and Effect Dice [3]. 24. Set the D6 in this area as well [3]. 25. Place the 4 Lane Marker Chips above the Battle Mat as shown [3]. 26. Do the same for the 4 Baddie Ini Dice and Health Chip stacks as shown [3]. 27. Place the Round Counter Die at the top of the Initiative (Ini) Meter on the Battle Mat, set to R1 [3]. 28. Make sure the Gearloc Adventuring Reference Guide (GARG) and Baddie Skills Reference are close by [3].

[1] RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook · p.6 · Game Objective · Tyrant and Day Counter

[2] RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook · p.7 · Encounters · Loot & Trove Loot · Baddies

[3] RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook · p.7 · Gearlocs · Other Components

🔧 debug — where this ruling came from

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile: live
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only): gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings: search 625 ms · ask 28655 ms · total 29311 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 29311 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 7, "score": 0.047712, "snippet": "Each player chooses a Gearloc and places their selected Gearloc Mat, Gearloc Chip (with # of Starting Health Chips underneath it), Initiative (Ini) Die, and Stat Dice as shown. Adjust mat placement to your liking based on party size. Place Gearloc Reference Sheet nearby. Find your Gearloc's 16 Skill", "headingPath": "Gearlocs · Other Components", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.046402, "snippet": "Your task is easy...according to the Gearloc Council. Reach and defeat the selected Tyrant within its day allotment to win. Let's start by setting up for your Adventure. Place the Battle Mat in the center of your play area. Select a Tyrant or draw one at random (you may look at both sides and famili", "headingPath": "Game Objective · Tyrant and Day Counter", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.044796, "snippet": "Find any Tyrant Encounters associated with chosen Tyrant (1-3 blue cards, labeled with the Tyrant name at the bottom of the card) and set those aside. Place other Tyrant Cards in the game box. Shuffle the General Encounter Deck (green and labeled 'General' at the bottom), or Solo Encounter Deck (gre", "headingPath": "Encounters · Loot & Trove Loot · Baddies", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}, {"page": 18, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "Now that you understand BQ basics, let's go through the battle set-up from start to finish. Trigger 'Before battle' effects and Skills such as Tantrum's Innate - Rage. Use Encounter Card instructions to build your BQ. Place top Baddie from BQ in its appropriate lane and Battle Mat position (also its", "headingPath": "Battle Set-up Sequence · BQ In Battle", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}, {"page": 17, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "Baddies have their Ini ( ) indicated on their Baddie Chip. A Baddie Ini Die is used to represent this # on the Ini Meter (e.g. if a Baddie with 3 Initiative is in Lane 1, use the blue Lane 1 Ini Die, and set it to 3 on the Ini Meter). Place the Ini Die of each Baddie in the Ini Meter (highest on top", "headingPath": "Ini Dice Placement (setting up for R1 of battle) · Ini Dice During Battle (R2 and beyond) · 2. Baddie Starting Positions · 3. Gearloc Starting Positions", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Draw # Trove Loot. *Party decides how to distribute. Encounter Text Colors Choice, Result, Battle Modifier, Flavor, Special Instructions Training Points! Earn these precious points from Encounters. With a Training Pt, do one of the following: Unlock a Skill Die (place it in your Gearloc’s Skills Are", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}, {"page": 23, "score": 0.030415, "snippet": "Invading The Ebon is no easy task. In fact, some Gearlocs may struggle finding success even on Day 2 of their Adventure! Don't be disheartened! TMB was designed to be quite challenging. When we suggest that first-time adventurers should ask the guards for help (on day 2), we mean it! We also underst", "headingPath": "Training Points (Pts) · STOP & READ!!!", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}, {"page": 25, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "During battle, if a Baddie cannot enter the Battle Mat because its position is occupied, it will instead take the first available Baddie position (starting with Lane 1-4) that matches its Attack Form. Then, it will try the opposite Attack Form. During battle set-up, for each Baddie that enters the B", "headingPath": "Battling 4+ Baddies Reminder · Baddie Initiative Reminder", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Game Objective · Tyrant and Day Counter", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Encounters · Loot & Trove Loot · Baddies", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Gearlocs · Other Components", "sharpsignalDocId": 261}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 261 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 261 boosted
answered-before recall: this ruling was answered, so past rulings were not offered
similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)
debug row retained until: Nov 6, 2026 14:19

retrieval — what the search arm returned

score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. This ruling ran the THREE-ARM fuse (full-text + vector + the doc-priority boost arm, which carried the base rulebook and/or the errata corrections this query matched), whose arithmetic ceiling is 0.04918 — all three arms ranking the same chunk #1 (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60). The measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 was measured on TWO-arm asks and does not bound this one: its high end is the two-arm ceiling, and a third arm has room above it. A chunk only one arm ranked highly lands near 0.016 (that one arm's #1 vote), so 0.03 here is an excellent hit, not a 3% match.

per-arm ranks (the rank each search arm gave a chunk): NOT DISCLOSED by the gateway. Fusion happens gateway-side and only the FUSED score crosses the wire, so rulesage cannot show them without a gateway change. The rank column below is the FUSED rank (position in the returned list), which is real.

token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.

fused rank	document	heading	page	fused RRF score	snippet chars
#1	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Gearlocs · Other Components	p.7	0.047712 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#2	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Game Objective · Tyrant and Day Counter	p.6	0.046402 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#3	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Encounters · Loot & Trove Loot · Baddies	p.7	0.044796 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#4	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Battle Set-up Sequence · BQ In Battle	p.18	0.032258 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#5	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Ini Dice Placement (setting up for R1 of battle) · Ini Dice During Battle (R2 and beyond) · 2. Baddie Starting Positions · 3. Gearloc Starting Positions	p.17	0.031746 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#6	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)		p.5	0.030769 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#7	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Training Points (Pts) · STOP & READ!!!	p.23	0.030415 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#8	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Battling 4+ Baddies Reminder · Baddie Initiative Reminder	p.25	0.030303 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Game Objective · Tyrant and Day Counter	p.6	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Encounters · Loot & Trove Loot · Baddies	p.7	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Too Many Bones — Rulebook (corpus doc 261)	Gearlocs · Other Components	p.7	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 625 ms · first delta 25097 ms · total 29311 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 0 ms · retrieval 625 ms · ask 28655 ms · gateway work 29311 ms · total 29311 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3582
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 841
tok/sec: 146.1 tok/sec — 841 output tokens in 5.756 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 1s ago)
stream path: streamed — the gateway pushed at least one accumulated draft
watchdog: first-token watchdog: 30s per arming window (rulesage.table.first-token-watchdog-seconds), re-armed once by the passages frame — so the worst case before a reader falls back to polling is 60s. Whether it actually fired is a BROWSER-side decision that never reaches the server, so it is not recorded here. The stream path above is the server's half of that story: whether a delta was emitted at all.
num_ctx · think posture: both are the CHILD's settings, not rulesage's, and no ask reply carries them — an answer never states which context window or think posture produced it. The live-seat line above reads them from the running child instead, where the gateway can answer for itself; it describes the child NOW, not this ask.

disposition

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered): answered — no abstain rationale applies

setup-shape — why the checklist band did or didn't render

decision: NO_APPROVED_CHECKLIST — setup-shaped, but no approved setup checklist exists for this game
pattern that matched: SETUP — "setup" / "set up"
matched words (in the normalized question): setup

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 188), so "no registered errata card matched" above could never have matched one

Errata scope: the gate above matched this ruling's own edition only. When an ask also reads an expansion, that expansion's own registered errata cards stay outside the match — a stated phase-1 limitation, not a failed lookup.