Ruling — Arcs — RuleSage

You asked

How do I set up the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Arcsbg-359871-en-1e

To set up the game, follow these steps: **Table Setup** 1. Place the map and collect the 18 battle dice and 25 resource tokens [1]. 2. Give the initiative marker to a random player [1]. 3. Shuffle all 6 Vox and 25 Guild cards to make the Court deck [1]. 4. Draw 3 cards (for 2 players) or 4 cards (for 3-4 players) from this deck to create a face-up Court row [1]. 5. Shuffle the 2/7 action cards marked '2' through '6' to start the action deck; for 4 players only, shuffle the 8 action cards marked '1' and '7' into the action deck (otherwise, return them to the box) [1]. 6. Place the 3 ambition markers on their blue, lower-numbered sides in the Available Markers section of the map [1]. 7. Place the chapter marker on the '1' space of the Chapter track on the map [1]. 8. Place the zero marker in the Ambition Declared slot on the map [1]. 9. Shuffle the setup cards that list your number of players and draw 1 setup card [1]. 10. In the 2 clusters (for 2-3 players) or 1 cluster (for 4 players) on the map marked Out of Play on the setup card, place a path marker over its numbered gate and place 3 out-of-play markers over the planets touching that gate [1]. 11. If playing with 2 players, place the 6 resource tokens matching the 6 planets covered by out-of-play markers onto the ambition boxes: Material and Fuel go on Tycoon; Weapons go on Warlord; Relics go on Keeper; Psionics go on Empath [1]. **Player Setup** 1. Each player chooses a color, collects the matching player board, 5 cities, 5 starports, 15 ships, and 10 agents [2]. 2. Players place their cities in the triangle slots along the top of their player board [2]. 3. Each player puts their Power marker on the '0' Power track space on the map [2]. 4. The player with the initiative marker places 3 ships and 1 city in the system marked 1A on the setup card, places the leftmost city from their player board, places 3 ships and 1 starport in the system marked 1B, and places 2 ships in the system (for 3-4 players) or 2 systems (for 2 players) marked 1C [2]. 5. Going clockwise from the player with initiative, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th players set up in the same way in the systems marked 2A-C, 3A-C, and 4A-C on the setup card, respectively [2]. 6. Each player gains the 2 resource tokens matching the planet icons in their A and B systems, placing them in the leftmost and next leftmost circle slots on their player board, respectively [2]. 7. Each player draws a hand of 6 action cards [2]. 8. In a 2-player game, the player without initiative may discard all 6 action cards in their hand and draw 6 new ones [2]. 9. Discard all action cards not in players' hands into a facedown action discard pile on the map, then shuffle it [2].

[1] RULEBOOK Arcs — Rulebook · p.4 · 1. Set Up Table

[2] RULEBOOK Arcs — Rulebook · p.5 · 2. Set Up Players

🔧 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 408 ms · ask 12592 ms · total 862384 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 849373 ms · generation 13011 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 19, "score": 0.047123, "snippet": "During setup with 2 players, 6 resources matching the planets with out-of-play markers are placed on the ambition boxes. For scoring, count these resources as if a third player had them. Weapons on the Warlord box count as Trophies. Otherwise, these resources are out of play. If Warlord was scored, ", "headingPath": "Two-Player Scoring · Step 2: Clean Up & Flip Ambition · Step 3: End Game or Advance Chapter · Step 4: Draw Cards · Two-Player Mulligans", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.045541, "snippet": "ADMINISTRATION Tax /o.smcp/r.smcp Repair /o.smcp/r.smcp Inﬂ uence 7 Pivot Play any action card that does not match the lead suit. You may take one action on your played card. (Not on the lead card!) Copy Play any action card face down. You may take one action of the lead card. Third, see if initiati", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "Each player chooses a color, collects the matching player board , 5 cities , 5 starports , 15 ships , and 10 agents , and places the cities in the triangle slots along the top of their player board. Each player puts their Power marker on the '0' Power track space on the map. Players simultaneously p", "headingPath": "2. Set Up Players", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "Place the map and collect the 18 battle dice and 25 resource tokens . Give the initiative marker to a random player. Shuffle all 6 Vox and 25 Guild cards to make the Court deck . Draw 3 cards (2 players) or 4 cards (3-4 players) from this deck to make a face-up Court row . Shuffle the 20 action card", "headingPath": "1. Set Up Table", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "After the player with initiative takes their turn, each other player in clockwise order takes a turn. Players with no cards in their hand skip their turn. On your turn, you must play an action card in one of three ways: Surpass: Play an action card face up of the lead card's suit. Its card number mu", "headingPath": "Step 2: Other Players Take Turns · Seizing the Initiative", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Lotus played the highest Construction card to Surpass this round. Nobody seized the initiative, so Lotus takes the initiative marker. After everyone has taken a turn, check whether the initiative marker goes to a new player. If no one seized the initiative this round, give the initiative to the play", "headingPath": "Seizing the Initiative · Step 3: Check Initiative · Step 4: Discard Cards & Check for New Round", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "A game of Arcs lasts up to 5 chapters . In each chapter, you play some number of rounds . In a round, each player takes one turn , starting with the player with the initiative marker. Broadly, on your turn, you must play 1 action card , which lets you take one or more actions. At the end of the roun", "headingPath": "Playing a Chapter · Step 1: Player with Initiative Takes Turn", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.029877, "snippet": "In a game of Arcs , you play through a number of chapters , usually three to five. Each chapter is made up of several rounds . Broadly, in a round, each player will take one turn by playing an action card to do various actions, starting with the player who has initiative. After everyone takes a turn", "headingPath": "The Arc of Play · Power & Ambitions · The Map", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "1. Set Up Table", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "2. Set Up Players", "sharpsignalDocId": 286}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 286 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 286 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 14:22

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 Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)	Two-Player Scoring · Step 2: Clean Up & Flip Ambition · Step 3: End Game or Advance Chapter · Step 4: Draw Cards · Two-Player Mulligans	p.19	0.047123 (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 Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)		p.3	0.045541 (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 Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)	2. Set Up Players	p.5	0.032787 (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 Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)	1. Set Up Table	p.4	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 Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)	Step 2: Other Players Take Turns · Seizing the Initiative	p.10	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 Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)	Seizing the Initiative · Step 3: Check Initiative · Step 4: Discard Cards & Check for New Round	p.11	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 Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)	Playing a Chapter · Step 1: Player with Initiative Takes Turn	p.8	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
#8	RULEBOOK Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)	The Arc of Play · Power & Ambitions · The Map	p.6	0.029877 (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 Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)	1. Set Up Table	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Arcs — Rulebook (corpus doc 286)	2. Set Up Players	p.5	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 408 ms · first delta 7472 ms · total 862384 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 849373 ms · retrieval 408 ms · ask 12592 ms · gateway work 13011 ms · total 862384 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3261
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 757
tok/sec: 138.2 tok/sec — 757 output tokens in 5.477 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 19s 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): set up

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 215), 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.