Ruling — Forbidden Desert

You asked

How do I set up the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Forbidden Desertbg-136063-en-1e

To set up the game, follow these steps: 1. Examine the 24 desert/city tiles and turn them all desert-side up [1]. 2. Shuffle the desert/city tiles and randomly place them desert side up into a 5 x 5 square grid with a tile missing in the middle, ensuring all tiles are oriented the same way with the compass symbol in the top left corner and leaving a small gap between tiles [1]. 3. Add 8 Sand markers to the board with the lighter colored side (not the 'X' side) facing up, and stack the remaining Sand markers in a pile near the board [1]. 4. Remove the 4 parts from the flying machine and place them nearby [1]. 5. Insert the Sand Storm meter into the holder and place a meter clip on it according to the number of players and desired difficulty level [1]. 6. Separate the cards into the Storm deck (red back), Equipment deck (gear back), and Adventurer cards [1]. 7. Shuffle the Storm deck and place it face down above the top of the desert, with the compass symbol pointing away from the board to indicate 'North' [1]. 8. Shuffle the Equipment deck and place it face down to the side of the desert [1]. 9. Shuffle the 6 Adventurer cards and deal 1 to each player [2]. 10. Read aloud your role and powers written on the front of your card [2]. 11. Attach a meter clip to each adventurer's card to cover the top mark of their canteen (4 in most instances) [2]. 12. Place a pawn matching the color of your Adventurer card on the 'helicopter crash' tile [2].

[1] RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook · p.2 · 1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards

[2] RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook · p.2 · 7. The Adventurers Appear

🔧 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 278 ms · ask 6478 ms · total 1849064 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 1842299 ms · generation 6765 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 2, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "Look at the 24 desert/city tiles to get an idea of what they look like on each side. (See 'Special Tiles and Symbols' for more.) Then, turn them all desert-side up. Important: You may not peek at the tiles once they've been turned over! Shuffle the desert/city tiles and randomly place them desert si", "headingPath": "1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.047379, "snippet": "Once you've won the Novice game, try starting the Sand Storm meter at the Normal, Elite, or Legendary difficulty settings. Also, try playing with a different mix of adventurers. When we launched Forbidden Island in 2010, we had an inkling that we had created a hit game but never thought that we'd be", "headingPath": "Difficulty · A Word from Gamewright · Credits · Archeologist · Climber · Explorer · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "The thirstiest player goes first and play continues to the left. On every turn, do the following things in order: Take up to 4 actions. Draw Storm cards equal to the Sand Storm level. The parts of each turn are described below. Also note that every Adventurer card shows a quick reference guide on th", "headingPath": "Order of Play · 1. Take Up to 4 Actions · Move · Remove\tSand · Excavate · Pick\tUp\ta\tPart", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "Shuffle the 6 Adventurer cards and randomly deal 1 to each player. Take a moment to read aloud your role and powers written on the front of your card so your teammates know your strengths. (More details can be found in 'Meet the Adventurers'.) You'll find you need to take advantage of each player's ", "headingPath": "7. The Adventurers Appear", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "This ancient city featured an underground system of tunnels-perfect for getting around under protection from the desert sun. You may move between any two excavated Tunnel tiles for 1 action. However, you may not move to a tunnel tile that contains two or more Sand markers. Tunnels also provide shelt", "headingPath": "Tunnels (3 tiles) · Launch Pad (1 tile) · 2. Draw Sand Storm Cards · Wind Blows", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "Three desert tiles contain a water symbol in the bottom right corner to indicate that there may be water hidden underneath. When you excavate a tile with this symbol and it reveals a well, every player with a pawn currently on the tile may at once (and only once) add two water to their canteens. You", "headingPath": "Water (3 tiles) · Gear (12 tiles) · Part Location Clues (2 tiles for each flying machine part)", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "There are 4 Sun Beats Down cards in the Storm deck. When you draw a Sun Beats Down card, all players that are not currently on a tile containing a Tunnel or protected by a Solar Shield must drink 1 water. (Lower the water meter on your canteen to the next lower tick mark.) If any player reaches the ", "headingPath": "Sun Beats Down · When\tthe\tStorm\tDraw\tPile\tRuns\tOut · Winning the Game · Losing the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "In addition to the above actions, players on the same tile may share water and pass equipment cards at any time during the game for free . To share water, one player moves her canteen meter down 1 or more tick marks and the other player moves his water meter up the same number of tick marks. Note: Y", "headingPath": "Share Water and Pass Equipment · The Water Carrier spends 4 actions:", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "7. The Adventurers Appear", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 232 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 232 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 14:41

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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards	p.2	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Difficulty · A Word from Gamewright · Credits · Archeologist · Climber · Explorer · …	p.7	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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Order of Play · 1. Take Up to 4 Actions · Move · Remove Sand · Excavate · Pick Up a Part	p.3	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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	7. The Adventurers Appear	p.2	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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Tunnels (3 tiles) · Launch Pad (1 tile) · 2. Draw Sand Storm Cards · Wind Blows	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
#6	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Water (3 tiles) · Gear (12 tiles) · Part Location Clues (2 tiles for each flying machine part)	p.4	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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Sun Beats Down · When the Storm Draw Pile Runs Out · Winning the Game · Losing the Game	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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Share Water and Pass Equipment · The Water Carrier spends 4 actions:	p.3	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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards	p.2	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	7. The Adventurers Appear	p.2	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 278 ms · first delta 4043 ms · total 1849064 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 1842299 ms · retrieval 278 ms · ask 6478 ms · gateway work 6765 ms · total 1849064 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3287
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 366
tok/sec: 137.3 tok/sec — 366 output tokens in 2.666 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 18s 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 158), 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.