Ruling — Root — RuleSage

You asked

How do I setup the game?

Answered counted as answered

Depending on the chosen method, there are different ways to set up the game: **Standard Setup (5.1)** 1. Assign one faction to each player in any way and determine the starting player and seating order randomly [1]. 2. Each player takes their chosen faction board and the pieces listed on its back [1]. 3. Place score markers on the '0' space [2][1]. 4. If playing with two players, remove all four dominance cards from the deck; shuffle the deck, and each player draws three cards [1] (Note: In a two-player game using specific expansion rules, players draw five cards instead of three [3]). 5. Place a ruin in each slot on the map marked with an 'R' (four in total) [2][1]. 6. Form the item supply near the top of the map by placing 2 M, 2 B, 1 C, 1 H, 2 S, 2 T, and 2 X [2][1]. 7. Gather other pieces by handing out the 16 faction overview cards as desired and placing the two battle dice near the map [1]. 8. Set up factions in setup order (A, B, C, etc.) following each faction's specific instructions found in their rules section or on the back of their faction board [2][1]. **Faction Setup Card Method (using Marauder and Homeland Expansions)** 1. Create a draft pool by agreeing whether to omit any factions; note that you cannot include both the Vagabond and the Knaves of the Deepwood [4]. 2. Shuffle all militant faction setup cards (red name with sword) and deal one card to a pool in the center of the table [4]. 3. Shuffle the remaining militant faction setup cards with all insurgent faction setup cards (grey name with no sword) and deal one card per player, ensuring there is one more card in the pool than there are players [4]. 4. If playing with two players, remove all insurgent faction setup cards before dealing [4]. 5. If a Vagabond card is dealt, also deal one random character card face up next to it; if a player chooses this faction, they must use that character card [4]. 6. If the Knaves of the Deepwood card is dealt, also deal four random Captain cards face up next to it [4]. 7. Starting with the last player in turn order and going counterclockwise, each player chooses one faction setup card from the pool and sets up their faction immediately as described [4][5]. **Other Setup Variations** * **Advanced Setup:** Use this if you want more variety for experienced players or if playing with five or more factions that start in corner clearings [6]. * **Two Vagabonds (Riverfolk Expansion):** Use both sets of 'R' items and place two random 'R' items in each ruin slot [7].

[1] RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root · p.5 · 5.1 Standard Setup

[2] RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root · p.32 · Setup (5.1)

[3] RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root · p.23 · A.7 Step 7: Draw Five Cards

[4] RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root · p.23 · A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions

[5] RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root · p.23 · A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions

[6] RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root · p.4 · 5. Setup

[7] RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root · p.10 · 9.7 Playing with Two Vagabonds

Strategy guides → — community tips, kept separate from rulings

🔧 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 241 ms · ask 12370 ms · total 12621 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 12621 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 4, "score": 0.032522, "snippet": "If any players are new to the game, use the Standard Setup (5.1) If everyone has played and you want more variety, use the Advanced Setup (Appendix A). If you want to play with five or more factions that would start in corner clearings, you must use the Advanced Setup.", "headingPath": "5. Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.032018, "snippet": "Follow the modified setup rules on the first two pages of the Walking /Through Root booklet. Once you have set up the game, give the players an overview of Root's theme and the victory conditions for each faction. Now you're ready to play.", "headingPath": "Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 75}, {"page": 23, "score": 0.031258, "snippet": "As a group, you may choose and set up factions as described in the Standard Setup (5.1) or you may use the faction setup cards included in the Marauder and Homeland Expansions, as described below. A.8.1 Step 1: Create Dra/ft Pool. Agree whether you will omit any factions from the game. You can- not ", "headingPath": "A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.016129, "snippet": "If you have /The Riverfolk Expansion , you can play a game with two Vagabonds by following these rules. 9.7.1 Setup. Use both sets of 'R' items and place two random 'R' items in each ruin slot. If you are us-", "headingPath": "9.7 Playing with Two Vagabonds", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.015873, "snippet": "5.1.1 Step 1: Assign Factions and Starting Player. Assign one faction to each player in any way. Determine the starting player and seating order randomly. Each player takes their chosen faction board and the pieces listed on its back. 5.1.2 Step 2: Place Score Markers. Each player places their score", "headingPath": "5.1 Standard Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 23, "score": 0.015625, "snippet": "Starting with the last player in turn order and going counterclockwise, each player chooses one faction setup card from the pool and sets up the faction immediately as it describes (before another player chooses) . I Homelands. When setting up, players might choose one or more homeland clearings. Pl", "headingPath": "A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.015385, "snippet": "1.5.1 Limits. Pieces are limited by the contents of the game. Do not use proxy pieces if you run out. 1.5.2 Starting Faction. Each player owns the faction they choose in setup (5) and the pieces listed on the back of its faction board except for items. Generically, these are called faction pieces or", "headingPath": "1.5 Pieces", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 20, "score": 0.015152, "snippet": "17.3.1 Step 1: Gather Pieces. Form a supply of 20 warriors. 17.3.2 Step 2: Place Warriors. Place 4 warriors in a corner clearing. /This is your starting clearing. Place 2 warriors in a different clearing. 17.3.3 Step 3: Fill Assemblies Track. Fill your Assemblies track on your player board with your", "headingPath": "17.3 Faction Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "5.1 Standard Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 32, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Setup (5.1)", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 23, "quote": null, "headingPath": "A.7 Step 7: Draw Five Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 23, "quote": null, "headingPath": "A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 23, "quote": null, "headingPath": "A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "5. Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 10, "quote": null, "headingPath": "9.7 Playing with Two Vagabonds", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base-rulebook boost: not recorded (this ruling predates it); rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base-rulebook boost: not recorded (this ruling predates it)
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: Oct 23, 2026 20:56

retrieval — what the search arm returned

score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. How many arms fused this ruling was NOT RECORDED (it predates the boost trail, ran on the path that stored none, or stored one that could not be read), and the ceiling depends on that count (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60): 2 arms top out at 0.03279; 3 arms top out at 0.04918. So a score above 0.03279 here is not an anomaly: it is arithmetic proof a boost arm voted, and the measured band 0.016–0.033 (taken on two-arm asks) is what does not apply. 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 Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	5. Setup	p.4	0.032522 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded))	269
#2	RULEBOOK Root — Learning to Play (corpus doc 75)	Setup	p.3	0.032018 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded))	239
#3	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions	p.23	0.031258 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded))	300
#4	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	9.7 Playing with Two Vagabonds	p.10	0.016129 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded))	208
#5	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	5.1 Standard Setup	p.5	0.015873 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded)	300
#6	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions	p.23	0.015625 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded)	300
#7	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	1.5 Pieces	p.2	0.015385 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded)	300
#8	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	17.3 Faction Setup	p.20	0.015152 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded)	300

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	5.1 Standard Setup	p.5	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	Setup (5.1)	p.32	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	A.7 Step 7: Draw Five Cards	p.23	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions	p.23	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions	p.23	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	5. Setup	p.4	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56)	9.7 Playing with Two Vagabonds	p.10	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 241 ms · first delta n/a · total 12621 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 0 ms · retrieval 241 ms · ask 12370 ms · gateway work 12621 ms · total 12621 ms
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 48s ago)
stream path: not recorded — this ruling predates the stream-path column (V41)
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): setup

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 6), 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.