Ruling — Cryptid

You asked

How should we prepare everything before the first turn?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Cryptidbg-246784-en-1e

To prepare everything before the first turn, follow these steps: 1. Decide which type of game you want to play, normal or advanced [1]. 2. Shuffle the cards of that type and draw a single card for the table [1]. 3. Use the top side of the card to determine the order and rotation in which to set up the map tiles, and the spaces on which to place the structures [1]. 4. Set up the board and assign clues using the app, or the cards and clue books [2]. 5. Flip the card over; the reverse side indicates which clues to use [1]. 6. Check the leftmost column of the card for the correct number of players [1]. 7. Each player in turn order takes one of the clue books matching the columns of the numbers in that row [1]. 8. Find the number on your clue book that matches the number on the card; this is your clue for the game [1]. 9. Choose a starting player (it is suggested to choose whoever sets up the map) and give a set of playing pieces to each player [3]. 10. Begin the game with the initial sharing: the starting player places a cube in a space on the board which could not be the habitat according to their clue [2][1]. 11. The player on the left does the same, continuing clockwise until all players have placed two cubes [2][1].

[1] RULEBOOK Cryptid — Rulebook · p.5 · USING THE CLUE BOOKS · PLAYING THE GAME

[2] RULEBOOK Cryptid — Rulebook · p.12 · SETUP · TURNS · QUESTION · SEARCH · CORE PRINCIPLES · QUICK REFERENCE RULES

[3] RULEBOOK Cryptid — Rulebook · p.4 · SETUP · USING THE COMPANION APP · www.playcryptid.com

🔧 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 198 ms · ask 7028 ms · total 61172 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 53937 ms · generation 7235 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 12, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "Set up the board and assign clues using the app, or the cards and clue books. Begin the game with the initial sharing: the starting player must place a cube in a space on the board which could not be the habitat, according to their clue. The player on their left will then do the same, and this conti", "headingPath": "SETUP · TURNS · QUESTION · SEARCH · CORE PRINCIPLES · QUICK REFERENCE RULES", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "Once you've decided which type of game you want to play (normal or advanced), shuffle the cards of that type and draw a single card for the table. The top side of the card will indicate the order and rotation in which to set up the map tiles, and the spaces on which to place the structures. Once thi", "headingPath": "USING THE CLUE BOOKS · PLAYING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "Whether you choose to question or search, you must obey these core principles of the game: You must be honest in placing your pieces on the map. Pieces are never removed from the board. You may never interact with a space that contains any cube. This means that you cannot question, search, or place ", "headingPath": "CORE PRINCIPLES", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "To question, place the pawn on a space on the map, and ask any other player 'Could the creature be here?' You can choose any space to question, even one which you know could not be the habitat. In fact, this is often a good way to throw people off the scent of your own clue! The player you questione", "headingPath": "QUESTIONING · SEARCHING", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Cryptid can be played in normal or advanced mode. Normal mode is the best way to get new players familiar with the game and clues, while also being more suitable for younger players. There are only two differences in advanced mode: Players may receive negative as well as positive clues, so some clue", "headingPath": "SETUP · USING THE COMPANION APP · www.playcryptid.com", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "If players are badly stuck, it's possible to get a hint. This must be agreed by all players at the table, or by all bar one if playing with four or five players. If using the cards, check the number on your card, and find it in the Hints section in the back of this rulebook. If using the app, just f", "headingPath": "GETTING A HINT · HELPFUL TIPS · CLUES", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Cryptid allows room for misdirection, but the game is completely dependent on all players placing cubes and discs honestly. If that doesn't sound like your gaming group, then this might not be the game for you. Mistakes are rare, but do happen from time to time. If a player realises they have made a", "headingPath": "ON HONESTY", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "The map is the area where your search will be taking place, and serves as the focus of the game. It consists of six numbered map tiles, divided into hexagonal spaces. There are five different types of space: desert, forest, water, mountain, and swamp. One corner of each tile shows a number, which is", "headingPath": "THE MAP · ANIMAL TERRITORY · STRUCTURES · PLAYING PIECES · CLUE BOOKS AND CARDS", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "USING THE CLUE BOOKS · PLAYING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}, {"page": 12, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SETUP · TURNS · QUESTION · SEARCH · CORE PRINCIPLES · QUICK REFERENCE RULES", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SETUP · USING THE COMPANION APP · www.playcryptid.com", "sharpsignalDocId": 414}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 414 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 414 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 7, 2026 05:04

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 Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	SETUP · TURNS · QUESTION · SEARCH · CORE PRINCIPLES · QUICK REFERENCE RULES	p.12	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
#2	RULEBOOK Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	USING THE CLUE BOOKS · PLAYING THE GAME	p.5	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 Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	CORE PRINCIPLES	p.5	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 Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	QUESTIONING · SEARCHING	p.6	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 Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	SETUP · USING THE COMPANION APP · www.playcryptid.com	p.4	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 Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	GETTING A HINT · HELPFUL TIPS · CLUES	p.7	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 Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	ON HONESTY	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 Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	THE MAP · ANIMAL TERRITORY · STRUCTURES · PLAYING PIECES · CLUE BOOKS AND CARDS	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 Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	USING THE CLUE BOOKS · PLAYING THE GAME	p.5	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	SETUP · TURNS · QUESTION · SEARCH · CORE PRINCIPLES · QUICK REFERENCE RULES	p.12	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Cryptid — Rulebook (corpus doc 414)	SETUP · USING THE COMPANION APP · www.playcryptid.com	p.4	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 198 ms · first delta 3259 ms · total 61172 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 53937 ms · retrieval 198 ms · ask 7028 ms · gateway work 7235 ms · total 61172 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3363
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 304
tok/sec: 77.2 tok/sec — 304 output tokens in 3.940 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 17s 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: NOT_SETUP_SHAPED — no setup-shape pattern matched this question

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 343), 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.