Ruling — Coup — RuleSage

You asked

How do I set up the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Coupbg-131357-en-1e

For a standard game: 1. Shuffle all character cards and deal 2 to each player [1]. 2. Players must keep their cards face down in front of them, though they may look at them [1]. 3. Place the remaining cards in the middle of the play area as the Court deck [1]. 4. Give each player 2 coins, which must be kept visible [1]. 5. Place the remaining coins in the middle of the play area as the Treasury [1]. 6. Give one summary card to each player for reference [1]. 7. The person who won the last game starts [1]. For a two-player variant: 1. Divide the cards into 3 sets of 5 (each set has one of each character) [2]. 2. Each player takes one set, secretly chooses one card, and discards the rest [2]. 3. Shuffle the third set and deal one card to each player [2]. 4. Put the remaining three cards face down as the Court deck [2]. 5. The starting player receives only 1 coin at the beginning of the game [2].

[1] RULEBOOK Coup — Rulebook · p.1 · Contents · Set-Up

[2] RULEBOOK Coup — Rulebook · p.7 · At this stage · Note: Double Dangers of Assasination · Total (Lack of) Trust · Two Player Coup & Two Player Variant · As a variant, Coup can be played with two players with these changes to the setup: · Credits

🔧 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 269 ms · ask 5112 ms · total 2109180 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 2103789 ms · generation 5391 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 1, "score": 0.048916, "snippet": "In the not too distant future, the government is run for profit by a new 'royal class' of multinational CEOs. Their greed and absolute control of the economy has reduced all but a privileged few to lives of poverty and desperation. Out of the oppressed masses rose The Resistance, an underground orga", "headingPath": "Contents · Set-Up", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "To eliminate the influence of all other players and be the last survivor. Face down cards in front of a player represent who they influence at court. The characters printed on their face down cards represents which characters that player influences and their abilities. Every time a player loses an i", "headingPath": "Goal · Influence · Game Play", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "A player may choose any action they want and can afford. Some actions (Character Actions) require influencing characters. If they choose a Character Action a player must claim that the required character is one of their face down cards. They can be telling the truth or bluffing. They do not need to ", "headingPath": "Actions · General Actions · Income · Foreign Aid · Coup · Character Actions · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "If a player wins a challenge by showing the relevant character card, they first return that card to the Court deck, re-shuffle the Court deck and take a random replacement card. (That way they have not lost an influence and other players do not know the new influence card they have). Then the action", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.030886, "snippet": "Natasha has 2 influence remaining (Contessa and Duke) and 1 coin. Sacha has 1 influence remaining (Captain) and 5 coins. Haig is out of the game. Two Assassins and One Contessa have been revealed and are face up on the table. It is possible to lose 2 influence in one turn if you unsuccessfully defen", "headingPath": "At this stage · Note: Double Dangers of Assasination · Total (Lack of) Trust · Two Player Coup & Two Player Variant · As a variant, Coup can be played with two players with these changes to the setup: · Credits", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Your local hobby store has the Reformation expansion that brings more roles, more actions and more players to Coup. If you enjoy Coup, look for other games in at your local hobby store. is the ultimate game of hidden identities, deduction and deception for 5 to 10 players. Hidden Agenda and Hostile ", "headingPath": "Like Coup? · The Resistance Universe · The Resistance", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "Captain – Steal Take 2 coins from another player. If they only have one coin, take only one. (Can be blocked by the Ambassador or the Captain) Ambassador – Exchange Exchange cards with the Court. First take 2 random cards from the Court deck. Choose which, if any, to exchange with your face down car", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Haig has been dealt an Assassin and a Duke. On his first turn he claims the Duke and takes 3 coins. Sacha thinks Haig is bluffing and challenges him. Haig shows a Duke and wins the challenge. Haig keeps the 3 coins that the Duke provided him but has to return his Duke card to the Court. He shuffles ", "headingPath": "3 players. Each start with 2 influence cards and 2 coins. The remaining 9 character cards make up the Court deck. · After the first turn: · Continuing on...", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 1, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Contents · Set-Up", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "At this stage · Note: Double Dangers of Assasination · Total (Lack of) Trust · Two Player Coup & Two Player Variant · As a variant, Coup can be played with two players with these changes to the setup: · Credits", "sharpsignalDocId": 180}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 180 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 180 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 14:46

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 Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)	Contents · Set-Up	p.1	0.048916 (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 Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)	Goal · Influence · Game Play	p.2	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
#3	RULEBOOK Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)	Actions · General Actions · Income · Foreign Aid · Coup · Character Actions · …	p.3	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
#4	RULEBOOK Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)		p.5	0.03125 (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 Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)	At this stage · Note: Double Dangers of Assasination · Total (Lack of) Trust · Two Player Coup & Two Player Variant · As a variant, Coup can be played with two players with these changes to the setup: · Credits	p.7	0.030886 (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 Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)	Like Coup? · The Resistance Universe · The Resistance	p.8	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 Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)		p.5	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 Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)	3 players. Each start with 2 influence cards and 2 coins. The remaining 9 character cards make up the Court deck. · After the first turn: · Continuing on...	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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)	Contents · Set-Up	p.1	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Coup — Rulebook (corpus doc 180)	At this stage · Note: Double Dangers of Assasination · Total (Lack of) Trust · Two Player Coup & Two Player Variant · As a variant, Coup can be played with two players with these changes to the setup: · Credits	p.7	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 269 ms · first delta 3538 ms · total 2109180 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 2103789 ms · retrieval 269 ms · ask 5112 ms · gateway work 5391 ms · total 2109180 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3067
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 244
tok/sec: 137.3 tok/sec — 244 output tokens in 1.777 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 59s 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 98), 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.