Ruling — Cthulhu: Death May Die

You asked

How do I set up the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Cthulhu: Death May Diebg-253344-en-1e

To set up the game, follow these steps: 1. Choose an Elder One and place its figure on the starting space of the summoning track [1]. 2. Place the Minions reference card on the Story Board [1]. 3. Set out the 8 Mythos cards and any tokens [1]. 4. Place the Elder One Stage cards in order, faceup, on the Story Board, with Stage 1 on top [1]. 5. Choose an episode [1]. 6. From the episode box, take out its 8 Mythos cards, 15 Discovery cards, Episode card, and tokens [1]. 7. Place the Monsters reference cards on the Story board [1]. 8. Take out all figures for the enemies shown on the reference cards [1]. 9. Set up the map board according to the instructions on the back of the episode card, which includes arranging the map tiles and setting enemy figures and tokens on the indicated spaces [1]. 10. Turn over the episode card and place it on the Story board [1]. 11. Shuffle the 16 Mythos cards together and place them facedown [1]. 12. Shuffle the episode Discovery deck and place it facedown [1]. 13. Have each player select an investigator board and its figure [1]. 14. Attach a colored base to the figure to help identify which figure is yours [1]. 15. Place the figures on the starting space for the episode [1]. 16. In a single-player game, choose 2 investigators and alternate turns with them [1]. 17. For each investigator, place 6 markers of your color on the board: 3 on the first level of the investigator's skills, and 3 in the leftmost space of the wound, stress, and sanity tracks [1]. 18. Shuffle the insanity cards and deal 1 to each player, placing the card faceup near their investigator boards [1]. 19. Randomly determine a starting player; that player takes the Mythos deck and takes the first turn [1].

[1] RULEBOOK Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook · p.10 · - Leveling up skills

🔧 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 298 ms · ask 14023 ms · total 1538602 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 1524271 ms · generation 14331 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 10, "score": 0.04866, "snippet": "Choose an Elder One. From its box, place the Elder One figure on the starting space of the summoning track. Place the Minions reference card on the Story Board. Set out the 8 Mythos cards and any tokens . Place the Elder One Stage cards in order, faceup, on the Story Board. Stage 1 goes on top. Choo", "headingPath": "- Leveling up skills", "sharpsignalDocId": 267}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.047379, "snippet": "RULES OF THE GAME - DEATH MAY DIE EPISODES Each episode has its own Episode cards, Mythos cards, and Discovery cards, as well as special tokens. NOTE: Some Episode cards feature special rules. The back of each Episode card shows how to set up the episode. This is discussed in detail on pages 9 and 1", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 267}, {"page": 14, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "Finally, the bottom of some cards will indicate a Gate color and the specific enemy that must be summoned there. If you have the corresponding figure available in reserve, place it on the indicated space. Otherwise, ignore this step. If there are multiple Gates and enemies indicated, perform the sum", "headingPath": "SUMMON ENEMIES", "sharpsignalDocId": 267}, {"page": 15, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "This step varies depending on whether there are enemies in your space or not. Draw the top card of the Discovery deck and read the text in the center box aloud. Some cards will have a statement of something you must do if you have a Condition or a certain Companion. Most offer choices of what you wa", "headingPath": "3. INVESTIGATE OR FIGHT! · If you are in a Safe space, INVESTIGATE your space: · If you are not in a Safe space, the enemies FIGHT you:", "sharpsignalDocId": 267}, {"page": 16, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "When an enemy attacks you, roll the number and type of dice as shown on their reference card. Each success gives you 1 wound. Each tentacle costs you 1 sanity. Elder signs only have an effect if the enemy has the ability to use them. You may use stress to reroll these dice and you may use any of you", "headingPath": "DEFENDING AGAINST ENEMIES · 2. FIRE!", "sharpsignalDocId": 267}, {"page": 19, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "You all win the game when you kill the Elder One by defeating its Final Stage. If multiple end-game triggers happen at the same time, winning conditions have precedence. EXAMPLE: The Elder One and the last investigator die at the same time. The players saved the world and win the game. You all lose ", "headingPath": "ENDING THE GAME · INDEX", "sharpsignalDocId": 267}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "The Story board, used in every game, is the hub of information. Progression Token and Story Board The Summoning track shows the progression of the Elder One as it manifests into our world. The Elder One figure starts on the left part of the track and progresses to the right. When it enters a red spa", "headingPath": "OVERVIEW", "sharpsignalDocId": 267}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "Some actions and Discovery cards tell you to 'make a roll'. When investigators make a roll, you always roll 3 standard black dice (and may also be allowed to add bonus green dice). Enemies roll a specific number and type of dice for their attacks, as indicated on their reference card. Each die has 4", "headingPath": "DICE AND CHECKS · 1. Use Any Successes:", "sharpsignalDocId": 267}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 10, "quote": null, "headingPath": "- Leveling up skills", "sharpsignalDocId": 267}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 267 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 267 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 14:35

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 Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook (corpus doc 267)	- Leveling up skills	p.10	0.04866 (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 Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook (corpus doc 267)		p.5	0.047379 (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 Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook (corpus doc 267)	SUMMON ENEMIES	p.14	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
#4	RULEBOOK Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook (corpus doc 267)	3. INVESTIGATE OR FIGHT! · If you are in a Safe space, INVESTIGATE your space: · If you are not in a Safe space, the enemies FIGHT you:	p.15	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
#5	RULEBOOK Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook (corpus doc 267)	DEFENDING AGAINST ENEMIES · 2. FIRE!	p.16	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
#6	RULEBOOK Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook (corpus doc 267)	ENDING THE GAME · INDEX	p.19	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
#7	RULEBOOK Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook (corpus doc 267)	OVERVIEW	p.6	0.029851 (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 Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook (corpus doc 267)	DICE AND CHECKS · 1. Use Any Successes:	p.11	0.029412 (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 Cthulhu: Death May Die — Rulebook (corpus doc 267)	- Leveling up skills	p.10	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 298 ms · first delta 11131 ms · total 1538602 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 1524271 ms · retrieval 298 ms · ask 14023 ms · gateway work 14331 ms · total 1538602 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 2961
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 447
tok/sec: 148.8 tok/sec — 447 output tokens in 3.005 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 11s 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 195), 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.