Ruling — Via Nebula

← Via Nebula

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Via Nebulabg-191231-en-1e

To play Via Nebula, follow these procedures:

Setup

1. Place the board in the middle of the table.[1]

2. Choose a first player at random, who shuffles and deals 2 private contracts to each player.[1]

3. The first player shuffles the neutral contracts and places them face down on the board.[1]

4. Reveal the first 4 cards of the draw pile and place them face up on their spaces.[1]

5. Place the end-of-game card on its dedicated space.[1]

6. Place all resources near the board to create a general reserve.[1]

7. Swap each of the 4 special exploitations with a batch of 5 resources of the kind indicated on the token to create neutral exploitations.[1]

8. Form a reserve with the remaining meadow tiles by the side of the board.[1]

9. Each player takes a guild board and all elements of their chosen color.[1]

10. Place 5 buildings, 3 building sites, and 2 craftsmen on their dedicated spaces (the 3rd craftsman returns to the game box).[1]

11. Place 4 stacks of 3 meadow tiles on your board.[1]

12. Randomly remove one special exploitation token and put it back in the game box.[1]

13. Shuffle the remaining exploitation tokens (special and regular) face down and place one on each meadow space of the main board, then flip them over to reveal their front.[1]

Game Turn

1. The first player starts, and the game proceeds clockwise.[2]

2. On your turn, you must carry out 2 actions from the following 6 options:[2]

* A - Place a craftsman: Place one available craftsman onto any space containing an exploitation token; take that token and put it face down next to your guild board, then place the indicated resources on the space.[2]

* B - Place a building site: Take one of your own building sites and cover a free half of a ruins space not already covered by another building site or building.[2]

* C - Explore a fog space.[2]

* D - Explore a petrified forest (this action costs two actions).[2]

* E - Transport a resource to one of your building sites: Choose and take a resource from any exploitation occupied by one of your craftsmen, an opponent's craftsman, or no one; transport it to one of your building sites following an uninterrupted path of empty meadow spaces.[3]

* F - Erect a building: Erect a building on one of your building sites containing all the resources required by a contract (either a contract in your hand or one of the four face-up on the main board).[3]

3. You may carry out the same action more than once during your turn, but action D costs two actions.[2]

End of Game and Scoring

1. The game ends after a player has erected their fifth and last building.[4]

2. That player receives the end-of-game card and their turn ends immediately.[4]

3. All other players get one final turn.[4]

4. All players must collect any resources left on their building sites or exploitations and place them on the storage area of their guild board.[4]

5. Perform the final scoring round by adding:

* Points on your exploitation tokens.[4]

* Points on your fulfilled contracts.[4]

* The reward for your explorers (2, 4, 6, or 8) depending on how many you revealed.[4]

* 2 points from the end-of-game card (for the player who triggered the end of the game).[4]

6. Deduct 1 point for each resource present in your storage area.[4]

7. The player with the highest score wins; in a tie, the player with the least resources in storage wins; if still tied, players share the win.[4]

[1] RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook · p.4 · THE BOARDS IN DETAIL · GAME SETUP (4 PLAYERS)

[2] RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook · p.5 · AIM OF THE GAME · GAME TURN · A - PLACE A CRAFTSMAN · Notes :

[3] RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook · p.7 · EXPLORERS · E - TRANSPORT A RESOURCE TO A BUILDING SITE · Notes : · F - ERECT A BUILDING

[4] RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook · p.9 · END OF GAME · NOW ADD UP: · VIA NEBULA FOR 3 PLAYERS · VIA NEBULA FOR 2 PLAYERS

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 149 ms · ask 5781 ms · total 5933 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 5933 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 11, "score": 0.046244, "snippet": "Card_Back_ViaNebula.indd 1 15/12/2015 08:59 Remove an exploitation token of your choice from the main board and put it back in the game box. Replace it with the resources depicted on the removed token; do not place a craftsman. This opens a new neutral exploitation. This card offers no power but rew", "headingPath": "SHORTCUT (2) · ABUNDANCE (2) · ARCHITECT (1) · ADVENTURERS (2) · MAYOR (1) · CARAVAN (2) · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "1 Note : adjustments for a game with 2 or 3 players are to be found at the end of the booklet. Place the board in the middle of the table. For your first game, we suggest you use the beginner side. 2 4 5 Choose a first player at random, who shuffles and deals out 2 private contracts to each player. ", "headingPath": "THE BOARDS IN DETAIL · GAME SETUP (4 PLAYERS)", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "T O COLLECT POINTS (REPRESENTING GLORY, PRESTIGE, AND RICHES), YOU WILL MAINLY FULFILL CONTRACTS AND OPEN EXPLOITATIONS. THE PLAYER WITH THE MOST POINTS AT THE END OF THE GAME IS DECLARED THE WINNER AND HERO OF NEBULA! The first player starts, then the game proceeds clockwise. On your turn, you must", "headingPath": "AIM OF THE GAME · GAME TURN · A - PLACE A CRAFTSMAN · Notes :", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "When you explore, you use the meadow tiles placed on your guild board. When depleted, each pile reveals an explorer. At the end of the game each explorer rewards you with 2 points. Note: if you want to explore but happen to have run out of tiles, you may use the tiles from the reserve, as long as th", "headingPath": "EXPLORERS · E - TRANSPORT A RESOURCE TO A BUILDING SITE · Notes : · F - ERECT A BUILDING", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "T HE GAME ENDS AFTER A PLAYER HAS ERECTED HIS FIFTH AND LAST BUILDING. THAT PLAYER IS GIVEN THE END-OF-GAME CARD AND HIS TURN IS IMMEDIATELY OVER. AS STATED ON THE END OF GAME CARD, ALL OTHER PLAYERS THEN GET ONE FINAL TURN, AFTER WHICH ALL THE PLAYERS MUST COLLECT ANY RESOURCES LEFT ON THEIR BUILDI", "headingPath": "END OF GAME · NOW ADD UP: · VIA NEBULA FOR 3 PLAYERS · VIA NEBULA FOR 2 PLAYERS", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "T HE CARDS USUALLY OFFER A POWER. THE POWER OF A CARD MAY ONLY BE USED IMMEDIATELY UPON FULFILLING THAT CONTRACT (ERECTING THAT BUILDING). IF IT IS NOT USED AT THAT TIME, THE POWER IS LOST AND MAY NOT BE USED AT A LATER TIME IN THE GAME. SOME POWERS APPEARING ON THE CARDS MAY CONFLICT WITH THE GENER", "headingPath": "POWERS OF THE CARDS · QUIET TOWN (2) · EXPRESS DELIVERY (2) · SECRET PLAN (2) · SHORTCUT (2)", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.030415, "snippet": "Spaces for thc contract cards Unused zone Ruins Empty meadow space Fog space Petrified forest Space for building sites Storage area Spaces for craftsmen MAIN BOARD GUILD BOARD Draw pile of neutral contracts Space for the end-of-game card Forbidden spaces Exploitation token (on meadow) Exploitation U", "headingPath": "COMPONENTS · THE BOARDS IN DETAIL", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "1) Replace your building site and the resources on it with one of your buildings. The resources go back to the general reserve and the building site returns to your guild board; 2) Immediately use the power of the card if you wish to do so; 3) Place the fulfilled contract card face down next to your", "headingPath": "YOU MUST THEN:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "THE BOARDS IN DETAIL · GAME SETUP (4 PLAYERS)", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "AIM OF THE GAME · GAME TURN · A - PLACE A CRAFTSMAN · Notes :", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "EXPLORERS · E - TRANSPORT A RESOURCE TO A BUILDING SITE · Notes : · F - ERECT A BUILDING", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}, {"page": 9, "quote": null, "headingPath": "END OF GAME · NOW ADD UP: · VIA NEBULA FOR 3 PLAYERS · VIA NEBULA FOR 2 PLAYERS", "sharpsignalDocId": 1165}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1165 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1165 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 0.90333 of 2793 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 5, 2026 15:22 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 Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	SHORTCUT (2) · ABUNDANCE (2) · ARCHITECT (1) · ADVENTURERS (2) · MAYOR (1) · CARAVAN (2) · …	p.11	0.046244 (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 Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	THE BOARDS IN DETAIL · GAME SETUP (4 PLAYERS)	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))	300
#3	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	AIM OF THE GAME · GAME TURN · A - PLACE A CRAFTSMAN · Notes :	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
#4	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	EXPLORERS · E - TRANSPORT A RESOURCE TO A BUILDING SITE · Notes : · F - ERECT A BUILDING	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
#5	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	END OF GAME · NOW ADD UP: · VIA NEBULA FOR 3 PLAYERS · VIA NEBULA FOR 2 PLAYERS	p.9	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
#6	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	POWERS OF THE CARDS · QUIET TOWN (2) · EXPRESS DELIVERY (2) · SECRET PLAN (2) · SHORTCUT (2)	p.10	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 Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	COMPONENTS · THE BOARDS IN DETAIL	p.3	0.030415 (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 Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	YOU MUST THEN:	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

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 12 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 Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	THE BOARDS IN DETAIL · GAME SETUP (4 PLAYERS)	p.4	#2	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
#2	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	END OF GAME · NOW ADD UP: · VIA NEBULA FOR 3 PLAYERS · VIA NEBULA FOR 2 PLAYERS	p.9	#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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#3	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)		p.1	#10	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
#4	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	MARTIN WALLACE · VINCENT JOUBERT	p.12	#12	0.013889 (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
#5	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	POWERS OF THE CARDS · QUIET TOWN (2) · EXPRESS DELIVERY (2) · SECRET PLAN (2) · SHORTCUT (2)	p.10	#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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	SHORTCUT (2) · ABUNDANCE (2) · ARCHITECT (1) · ADVENTURERS (2) · MAYOR (1) · CARAVAN (2) · …	p.11	#1	0.046244 (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 Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	EXPLORERS · E - TRANSPORT A RESOURCE TO A BUILDING SITE · Notes : · F - ERECT A BUILDING	p.7	#4	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 Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	AIM OF THE GAME · GAME TURN · A - PLACE A CRAFTSMAN · Notes :	p.5	#3	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))	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 Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	THE BOARDS IN DETAIL · GAME SETUP (4 PLAYERS)	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	AIM OF THE GAME · GAME TURN · A - PLACE A CRAFTSMAN · Notes :	p.5	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	EXPLORERS · E - TRANSPORT A RESOURCE TO A BUILDING SITE · Notes : · F - ERECT A BUILDING	p.7	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Via Nebula — Rulebook (corpus doc 1165)	END OF GAME · NOW ADD UP: · VIA NEBULA FOR 3 PLAYERS · VIA NEBULA FOR 2 PLAYERS	p.9	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 149 ms · first delta 1514 ms · total 5933 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 149 ms · ask 5781 ms · gateway work 5933 ms · total 5933 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3136
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 858
tok/sec: 196.8 tok/sec — 858 output tokens in 4.359 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 57s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 7s 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 1095), 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.