RuleSage cited table rulings
← Shallow Sea

You asked

How do I play?

Abstained — no grounded answer; closest passages below counted as honest abstain

Asked with: Shallow Seabg-428440-en-1e

I looked through Shallow Sea's rulebook and couldn't find a solid answer to that one — and I'd rather tell you so than guess at your table. Try asking it another way, or ask me about setup, turns, or how the game ends: those I know cold.

The closest rulebook passages are below — check them before ruling.

RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook · p.13 · SCORING
In Shallow Sea, you can earn achievements whether you're playing solo or with multiple players. Use the Achievement Record Sheet below to track accomplishments for up to 4 players. Complete all achievements to reach Legendary Mariner and make your name shine! Follow these steps to play in Achievemen
RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook · p.12 · SOLO MODE
Try the Solo Mode to test your skills or challenge friends to see who can achieve the highest score! For a richer experience, consider using the Achievement Mode - Scenarios to enrich your solo play! (See page 14)
RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook · p.3 · GAME SETUP
Select 1 card from each of the Orange and Blue Ecosystem Cards and place them face up next to the Pools. Return unused cards to the box. For your first game, we recommend using Cryptic Coloration (Orange #1) and Bountiful Caves (Blue #2) . NOTE Each player places an Ocean Board in front of them. Eac
RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook · p.4 · GOAL OF THE GAME
Each player takes a turn, clockwise, until the end of the game. During your turn, perfom the following actions in the order:
RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook · p.12 · GAME SETUP
Prepare a standard game (see page 3) EXCLUDING Ecosystem Cards. NOTE For your first game, use the provided Sealife Tile setup below.
🔧 debug — where this ruling came from
outcome
ABSTAINED — Abstained — no grounded answer; closest passages below
warm abstain
  • this ruling — W1 — generic warm abstain · receipt: none (generic)
corpus profile
live,vps
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only)
gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings
search 92 ms · ask 2629 ms · total 4838 ms
single-flight (PR-5)
queued 2114 ms · generation 2724 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read
[{"page": 13, "score": 0.048652, "snippet": "In Shallow Sea, you can earn achievements whether you're playing solo or with multiple players. Use the Achievement Record Sheet below to track accomplishments for up to 4 players. Complete all achievements to reach Legendary Mariner and make your name shine! Follow these steps to play in Achievemen", "headingPath": "SCORING", "sharpsignalDocId": 64}, {"page": 12, "score": 0.047875, "snippet": "Try the Solo Mode to test your skills or challenge friends to see who can achieve the highest score! For a richer experience, consider using the Achievement Mode - Scenarios to enrich your solo play! (See page 14)", "headingPath": "SOLO MODE", "sharpsignalDocId": 64}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.046175, "snippet": "Select 1 card from each of the Orange and Blue Ecosystem Cards and place them face up next to the Pools. Return unused cards to the box. For your first game, we recommend using Cryptic Coloration (Orange #1) and Bountiful Caves (Blue #2) . NOTE Each player places an Ocean Board in front of them. Eac", "headingPath": "GAME SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 64}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "Each player takes a turn, clockwise, until the end of the game. During your turn, perfom the following actions in the order:", "headingPath": "GOAL OF THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 64}, {"page": 12, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Prepare a standard game (see page 3) EXCLUDING Ecosystem Cards. NOTE For your first game, use the provided Sealife Tile setup below.", "headingPath": "GAME SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 64}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "3. IF ANY TILE MEETS ITS CONDITION, COMPLETE AND GAIN A SEASHELL At any point during your turn, if necessary, you can perform the following as a Free Action.", "headingPath": "2. PLACE THE SELECTED TILE AND FISH IN YOUR OCEAN", "sharpsignalDocId": 64}, {"page": 15, "score": 0.030118, "snippet": "Play using the standard game rules. You can achieve multiple achievements in a single game! | NO | OBJECTIVE | COMPLETED | | 1 | Score 130+ VPs. | | | 2 | Score 145+ VPs. | | | 3 | Score 160+ VPs. | | | 4 | Score 170+ VPs. | | | 5 | Score 180+ VPs. | | | 6 | Score 190+ VPs. | | | 7 | Complete all Co", "headingPath": "ACHIEVEMENT MODE - STANDARD GAME RULES", "sharpsignalDocId": 64}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "At the end of your turn, refill the empty spots in the Pools with new Tiles and Fish, ensuring that there are 5 Coral Tiles, 5 Sealife Tiles, and 5 Fish available in the Pools. Once fully refilled, the next player takes their turn.", "headingPath": "SPEND 2 SEASHELLS TO MOVE AN INCOMPLETE FISH", "sharpsignalDocId": 64}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show
[]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 64 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 64 boosted
answered-before recall
no past answered ruling for this game matched closely enough
similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)
debug row recorded
Aug 29, 2026 19:10 UTC

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 rankdocumentheadingpage fused RRF scoresnippet chars
#1 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) SCORING p.13 0.048652 (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 Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) SOLO MODE p.12 0.047875 (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)) 213
#3 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) GAME SETUP p.3 0.046175 (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 Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) GOAL OF THE GAME p.4 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)) 124
#5 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) GAME SETUP p.12 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)) 132
#6 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) 2. PLACE THE SELECTED TILE AND FISH IN YOUR OCEAN 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)) 157
#7 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) ACHIEVEMENT MODE - STANDARD GAME RULES p.15 0.030118 (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 Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) SPEND 2 SEASHELLS TO MOVE AN INCOMPLETE FISH p.4 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)) 231

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 80 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 atdocumentheadingpage fused rankfused RRF scorecarried byhow it got its slot
#1 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) GAME SETUP p.3 #3 0.046175 (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
#2 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) GOAL OF THE GAME p.4 #4 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)) vector + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#3 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) ACHIEVEMENT MODE - MODIFIED GAME RULES p.15 #9 0.02967 (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 re-ranker chose it
#4 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) SOLO MODE p.12 #2 0.047875 (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
#5 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) 1. SELECT 1 TILE AND 1 FISH FROM THE POOL p.4 #18 0.013333 (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 Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) GAME SETUP p.12 #10 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)) vector + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#7 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) SCORING p.13 #1 0.048652 (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
#8 RULEBOOK Shallow Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 64) ACHIEVEMENT MODE - SCENARIO p.14 #11 0.028373 (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 re-ranker chose it

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.

#documentheadingpagequote chars
timing split
retrieval 92 ms · first delta 2638 ms · total 4838 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown
queued 2114 ms · retrieval 92 ms · ask 2629 ms · gateway work 2724 ms · total 4838 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read)
2023
tokens out (what the answerer generated)
9
tok/sec
191.5 tok/sec — 9 output tokens in 0.047 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child)
answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 25s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage)
reachable (for 23h, checked 6s 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.
outcome
ABSTAINED — Abstained — no grounded answer; closest passages below
abstain rationale
I don't have enough information.
BOILERPLATE, not reasoning: this is the answerer's fixed abstention phrase, the same sentence it emits whenever it declines. It records THAT the answerer declined and never why — no per-ruling reason was captured, because none was sent. Hostile corpus/LLM text, rendered escaped
decision
NOT_SETUP_SHAPED — no setup-shape pattern matched this question

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 11), 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.