Ruling — Ra — RuleSage

← Ra

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Rabg-12-en-1e

Ra is played over three rounds called epochs.[1]

Setup

1. Place the game board in the center of the play area.[1]

2. Place the Ra statue next to the game board.[1]

3. Place all 180 tiles in the cloth bag and thoroughly mix them.[1]

4. Each player takes two 5-point tablets and places them facedown in front of him.[1]

5. Place all remaining tablets faceup near the game board to create the supply.[1]

6. Place the sun disk numbered '1' on the sun space in the and the center of the game board.[1]

7. Sort the remaining sun disks into groups according to the number of players (use disks 1-9 for two players; 1-13 for three or four players; all sixteen for five players).[1]

8. Randomly distribute one group of sun disks to each player, who then places them faceup in front of him.[1]

Gameplay

1. At the start of each epoch, the player with the highest-numbered sun disk takes the first turn.[1]

2. Players take turns in clockwise order.[1]

3. During an epoch, a player can take multiple turns, and may take multiple turns in a row if he is the only remaining player with at least one faceup sun disk.[1]

4. If a player has no faceup sun disks, he does not take a turn, and play proceeds to the next player in clockwise order.[1]

5. On a turn, a player must perform exactly one of the following actions:

* Draw a Tile: The player draws one tile from the bag and places it faceup on the next open space of its track on the game board; if a Ra tile is drawn, it is placed on the Ra track, and if any other tile is drawn, it is placed on the auction track.[1] This action cannot be performed if the auction track is full.[1]

* Invoke Ra: The player says, "I invoke Ra," and takes the Ra statue, which triggers an auction.[2]

* Spend God Tile(s): If a player has a god tile, he may spend it to take one non-god tile from the auction track; the god tile is returned to the game box.[2] A player may spend one or more god tiles per action.[2]

6. After an action is completed, the turn ends.[1]

7. Auctions occur after specific actions (drawing a Ra tile or performing the Invoke Ra action).[1][2]

8. During an auction, players take turns bidding with faceup sun disks by placing them on the edge of the board, starting with the player to the $\text{left}$ of the Ra player and continuing clockwise.[3]

9. Each subsequent bid must be a higher value than the current bid; bidding ends with the Ra player.[3]

10. The Ra player must bid if the auction track is not full and all other players have passed.[2]

11. The highest bidder takes all tiles on the auction track and the sun disk from the sun space (placing it facedown).[3]

12. The highest bidder places the sun disk used for the winning bid faceup in the sun space.[3]

13. After an auction ends, play continues with the player to the left of the Ra player.[2]

End of Epoch

1. An epoch ends immediately when all players' sun disks are facedown or when a Ra tile is placed in the final space of the Ra track.[4]

2. At the end of an epoch, players score points based on their tiles.[4][5]

3. Players discard all tiles that do not have a scarab icon to the game box, while tiles with a scarab icon stay for the entire game.[4]

4. Players take or return the appropriate number of tablets to track their score.[4][5]

5. Players flip all of their sun disks faceup.[4]

6. The player with the highest-numbered sun disk in front of him takes the first turn of the next epoch.[4]

7. All tiles from the Ra track and auction track are discarded to the game box (unless the Ra tile was placed in the final space, in which case no auction occurs).[4][2]

Winning the Game

1. The game ends after scoring at the end of the third epoch.[6][4]

2. The player with the highest score wins.[6]

3. If there is a tie for the highest score, the tied player with the highest-numbered sun disk wins.[6]

[1] RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook · p.4 · Setup · 1. Place Game Board · 2. Place Ra Statue · 3. Mix Tiles · 4. Distribute Starting Tablets · 5. Sort Sun Disks · …

[2] RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook · p.5 · Ra Tiles · Invoke Ra · Spend God Tile(s) · Auctions

[3] RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook · p.5 · Bidding with Sun Disks · Winning an Auction

[4] RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook · p.6 · Organization · Disasters · Epochs

[5] RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook · p.7 · Scoring · Tablets · End of Each Epoch · Pharaohs · Gold · Gods · …

[6] RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook · p.8 · Monuments · Winning The Game

Rule found, game on.

🔧 debug — where this ruling came from

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile: live,vps
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only): gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings: search 72 ms · ask 9613 ms · total 10699 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 1013 ms · generation 9686 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 4, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "To set up a game of Ra , perform these steps: Place the game board in the center of the play area. Place the Ra statue next to the game board. Place all 180 tiles in the cloth bag and thoroughly mix them. Each player takes two 5-point tablets and places them facedown in front of him. Then, place all", "headingPath": "Setup · 1. Place Game Board · 2. Place Ra Statue · 3. Mix Tiles · 4. Distribute Starting Tablets · 5. Sort Sun Disks · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.048387, "snippet": "The first Ra tile drawn in each epoch is placed on the Ra track on the starting space indicated by the number of players in the game. The starting spaces on the Ra track for each player count. Each subsequent Ra tile drawn this epoch is placed on the Ra track in the next empty space to the right. Af", "headingPath": "Ra Tiles · Invoke Ra · Spend God Tile(s) · Auctions", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "At the end of an epoch, each player scores points based on his tiles. Then he takes the appropriate number of tablets from the supply to track his score. The scoring reference cards provide a quick and easy way to help players determine their scores. Players track their scores using tablet tokens, w", "headingPath": "Scoring · Tablets · End of Each Epoch · Pharaohs · Gold · Gods · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "During an auction, each player takes a turn bidding with his sun disks. The winner will take all tiles on the auction track as well as the sun disk currently on the sun space. Bidding in each auction begins with the player to the left of the Ra player and continues clockwise. When it is a player's t", "headingPath": "Bidding with Sun Disks · Winning an Auction", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Players must keep all of their tiles faceup in front of them at all times. Each player must keep his tiles organized in a manner which allows his opponents to easily determine what tiles he currently has. Any sun disks that have not yet been used during the current epoch must also remain faceup. Pla", "headingPath": "Organization · Disasters · Epochs", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "There are eight types of monument tiles: A player gains points by collecting different types of monument tiles and for collecting multiple monument tiles of the same type, as follows: Each group of three identical monument tiles is worth 5 points. Each group of four identical monument tiles is worth", "headingPath": "Monuments · Winning The Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Each player adds the values on his faceup and facedown sun disks to obtain his total. The player with the highest total gains 5 points. If two or more players tie for the highest, each tied player gains 5 points. The player with the lowest total loses 5 points. If two or more players tie for the low", "headingPath": "Sun Disks", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "Game Design: Reiner Knizia Producer: Molly Glover with Jason Walden Technical Writing: Adam Baker, Steven Kimball, and Alexandar Ortloff Rules Consultant: Christopher Dearlove Editing & Proofreading: Richard A. Edwards, Sean O'Leary, and Heather Silsbee Graphic Design: Edge Studio and Monica Helland", "headingPath": "Credits", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Setup · 1. Place Game Board · 2. Place Ra Statue · 3. Mix Tiles · 4. Distribute Starting Tablets · 5. Sort Sun Disks · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Ra Tiles · Invoke Ra · Spend God Tile(s) · Auctions", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Bidding with Sun Disks · Winning an Auction", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Organization · Disasters · Epochs", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Scoring · Tablets · End of Each Epoch · Pharaohs · Gold · Gods · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Monuments · Winning The Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 160}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 160 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 160 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)
answer fence: passed — letter density 0.89665 of 3135 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Aug 26, 2026 08:26 UTC

retrieval — what the passage search returned

what this block IS: the PASSAGE SEARCH's own results — the same search that fills this page's closest-passages list — and NOT the passages the answerer read. Answering runs its OWN retrieval: a far wider candidate pool, re-ranked down to a final handful, plus floors this search never applies — the base rulebook, surviving errata corrections, and one slot per book on a multi-book read. Each of those armed only if THIS ask sent what it needs: the boost block names the ids it forwarded, and the scope line names the books it read. A document the answer CITES that no row here names is therefore EXPECTED, not a defect: two searches, two candidate pools, two orders. The answerer's own final rows are shown in their own block below, beside these and never mixed into them.

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 Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Setup · 1. Place Game Board · 2. Place Ra Statue · 3. Mix Tiles · 4. Distribute Starting Tablets · 5. Sort Sun Disks · …	p.4	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Ra Tiles · Invoke Ra · Spend God Tile(s) · Auctions	p.5	0.048387 (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 Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Scoring · Tablets · End of Each Epoch · Pharaohs · Gold · Gods · …	p.7	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 Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Bidding with Sun Disks · Winning an Auction	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 Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Organization · Disasters · Epochs	p.6	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 Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Monuments · Winning The Game	p.8	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 Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Sun Disks	p.7	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 Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Credits	p.8	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

what the answerer read — the passages it actually had in front of it

what this block IS: the passages the ANSWERING read put in front of the answerer, in the order it read them — the other half of the two reads described above, and the one that decides what the answer could possibly say. Each row names the book it came from and where in that book it sits, what it scored when the search arms were fused, which arm carried it there, and whether the re-ranker chose it or a floor guaranteed it a slot. A row here that no passage-search row names is EXPECTED: a far wider pool, re-ranked, with floors the passage search never applies.

candidate pool: the answering read scored 10 passages, out of a ceiling of 80 set gateway-side. Both figures are reported by the gateway for THIS ask — measurements of what actually happened, not constants read out of anyone's source and printed here on faith.

floors armed for this ask: the base rulebook — armed · surviving errata corrections — not armed · one slot per book on a multi-book read — not armed. Every floor is stated on every ask, armed or not, so a floor that did not apply here is never mistaken for one this app does not know about.

arms fused for this ask: vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm. Stated separately from the rows because an arm that ran and carried nothing is a different fact from an arm that never ran.

read at	document	heading	page	fused rank	fused RRF score	carried by	how it got its slot
#1	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Setup · 1. Place Game Board · 2. Place Ra Statue · 3. Mix Tiles · 4. Distribute Starting Tablets · 5. Sort Sun Disks · …	p.4	#1	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Monuments · Winning The Game	p.8	#6	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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#3	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Organization · Disasters · Epochs	p.6	#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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#4	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Bidding with Sun Disks · Winning an Auction	p.5	#4	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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Components	p.3	#9	0.014493 (below 0.016, the low end of the measured band — a weak fuse (that band was taken on two-arm asks; only its low end, one arm's #1 vote, carries over to a 3-arm one))	vector	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Ra Tiles · Invoke Ra · Spend God Tile(s) · Auctions	p.5	#2	0.048387 (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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#7	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Scoring · Tablets · End of Each Epoch · Pharaohs · Gold · Gods · …	p.7	#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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Sun Disks	p.7	#7	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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Setup · 1. Place Game Board · 2. Place Ra Statue · 3. Mix Tiles · 4. Distribute Starting Tablets · 5. Sort Sun Disks · …	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Ra Tiles · Invoke Ra · Spend God Tile(s) · Auctions	p.5	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Bidding with Sun Disks · Winning an Auction	p.5	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Organization · Disasters · Epochs	p.6	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Scoring · Tablets · End of Each Epoch · Pharaohs · Gold · Gods · …	p.7	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Ra — Rulebook (corpus doc 160)	Monuments · Winning The Game	p.8	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 72 ms · first delta 1958 ms · total 10699 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 1013 ms · retrieval 72 ms · ask 9613 ms · gateway work 9686 ms · total 10699 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3109
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 1010
tok/sec: 132.2 tok/sec — 1010 output tokens in 7.639 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 42s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 1s ago)
answerer node (the seat proxy's own header — this probe, not this ask): node1
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 82), 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.