Ruling — In the Footsteps of Darwin

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: In the Footsteps of Darwinbg-376683-en-1e

Setup

1. Place the Journey board, Journey side up, in the center of the table and place the Beagle on its starting space.[1]

2. Give a Naturalist's notebook to each player.[1]

3. The last naturalist who traveled by ship takes the Darwin token to start the game (if no naturalist has ever traveled by ship, use a favorite method to determine who plays first).[1]

4. Place the Guide, Publication, and Compass tokens on the dedicated spaces of the Journey board.[1]

5. Take 12 tiles from the box for each naturalist in play and form several face-down piles next to the Journey board.[1]

6. Take another 9 tiles from the box and place them face up on each of the 9 spaces of the Journey board.[1]

7. Deal a Theory tile to each naturalist, who must place it face up on their topmost Theory space at the top right of their notebook.[1]

8. Form two face-down Theory draw piles and place them on the dedicated spaces of the Journey and draw 3 of them to place face up on their dedicated spaces.[1]

9. Each naturalist takes a Guide token and places it on the dedicated space.[1]

Playing the Game

Naturalists take turns in clockwise order, starting with the naturalist controlling the Darwin token.[2] On a turn, a naturalist performs these two steps in order:

1. Study an Animal or Take inspiration from a Character

* At the beginning of a turn, a naturalist may use a single Guide (by returning the token to the Journey board) to perform one special action:

* Sail: Move the Beagle one space back or forward.[3]

* Probe: Discard the 3 tiles facing the Beagle and place them face down in any order at the bottom of any draw pile, then replace them with 3 tiles from any draw pile.[3]

* The naturalist chooses one of the 3 tiles facing the Beagle and places it onto their notebook.[2]

* If studying an Animal:

* Place the animal on the space in the notebook matching its ecosystem and class.[4]

* Resolve immediate bonuses, which may include:

* Discover: Earn 1, 2, or 3 VP at the end of the game.[4]

* Chart: Earn VP depending on the number of Compasses owned at the end of the game.[4]

* Survey: Immediately take a Compass token and place it in the Survey area of the notebook (limit of 5 tokens).[4]

* Hire a guide: Immediately take a Guide token and place it on an empty Guide space in the notebook (limit of 2 tokens).[4]

* Emblematic: Take the Darwin token from whoever controls it and place it next to your notebook (earns 2 VP at the end of the game if controlled).[4]

* If studying an animal from a class and ecosystem already studied, place the tile on top of the previous one; the covered tile's VP or icons are ignored.[5]

* If taking inspiration from a Character:

* Place the tile on an available space on the left side of the notebook and gain its bonus.[6]

* You may not be inspired by more than 3 characters.[6]

2. Voyage of the Beagle

* Move the Beagle as many spaces forward (following the arrows) as the distance between the Beagle and the selected tile (1, 2, or 3 spaces).[2][6]

* Draw a new tile and place it face up on the empty space of the Journey board.[6]

Ending the Game

The game ends when the last tile from the draw pile is placed onto the Journey board, or once each naturalist has placed exactly 12 tiles (Animal or Character) on their notebook.[7]

Scoring

Naturalists score VP in the following categories:[7]

* Achievements: Based on specific completed goals (e.g., Darwinism, Mentor, Expert, etc.).[7]

* Publications: 5 VP for each Publication written.[7]

* Theories: Score VP from Theory tiles.[7]

* Darwin Token: 2 VP if controlled.[7]

* Discoveries: Add VP from visible discovered animals.[7]

* Chart: Multiply the number of visible Compass icons owned by the number of Compasses in the Survey area.[7]

The naturalist with the most VP wins. In the event of a tie, the naturalist with the most VP in the Theory category wins. If still tied, the naturalists share the victory.[7]

[1] RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook · p.4 · Theme and goal of the game · Before your first game: · Setup · Designers' note:

[2] RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook · p.6 · What's on an Animal tile? · 1 Study an Animal or Take inspiration from a Character · What's on a Character tile?

[3] RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook · p.9 · Use a Guide · Exemple :

[4] RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook · p.7 · Study an animal

[5] RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook · p.10 · Develop a Theory · Write a Publication

[6] RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook · p.8 · Take inspiration from a character

[7] RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook · p.11 · End of the game · Score VP in the following categories: · Achievements · Example : Anna scores:

That's the page. Back to the table.

🔧 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 85 ms · ask 6342 ms · total 6429 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 6429 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 9, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "At the beginning of your turn, before selecting an Animal or Character tile, you may use a single one of your Guides (by returning the token to the Journey board) to perform one of the following special actions: Sail : move the Beagle one space back or forward. Then, play your turn as usual. Example", "headingPath": "Use a Guide · Exemple :", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.048387, "snippet": "Players are junior naturalists just arrived aboard the Beagle to help Charles Darwin finish his book On the Origin of Species. During this journey, you will study animals, carry out cartographic surveys, publish your findings and develop theories. Your goal is to score more Victory Points ( VP ) tha", "headingPath": "Theme and goal of the game · Before your first game: · Setup · Designers' note:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "If the tile is a Character tile, place it on an available space on the left side of your notebook, then gain its bonus. You may not be inspired by more than 3 characters. Characters' bonuses are detailed on page 12 of this rulebook. Example : Anna takes inspiration from Conrad Martens. She places th", "headingPath": "Take inspiration from a character", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "1 Class of the animal Arthropod Mammal Bird , Reptile 2 Name (English and Latin), size and ecosystem of the animal. America Africa Asia Oceania 3 Bonus when you study the animal (either an immediate or an endgame bonus). 4 Emblematic animal icon. Starting with the naturalist controlling the Darwin t", "headingPath": "What's on an Animal tile? · 1 Study an Animal or Take inspiration from a Character · What's on a Character tile?", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Take the animal and place it on the space in your notebook matching their ecosystem and their class, then resolve their immediate bonus, if any: Discover: these animals are an important discovery for the scientific community: they will be worth 1 , 2 or 3 VP at the end of the game. Example : Anna st", "headingPath": "Study an animal", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "When you study an animal from a class and an ecosystem you already studied, place the tile on top of the previous one, then resolve its immediate bonus, if any. The covered tile remains there but any VP value or icon on it will now be ignored. If you cover another icon ( , , ), nothing happens: you ", "headingPath": "Develop a Theory · Write a Publication", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 12, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Doctor. A surgeon working for the English Navy, he officially travelled aboard the Beagle as a naturalist. During his career he took part in other expeditions, including one aiming to find the South pole. Score 4 VP at the end of the game. Hire a Guide . IMPORTANT : you may never have more than 2 Gu", "headingPath": "Robert Mc Cormick (1800-1890)", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "When the last tile from the draw pile is placed onto the Journey board, the game ends. This happens once each naturalist has placed exactly 12 tiles (Animal and/or Character) on their notebook. Publications : score 5 for each Publication you wrote. Theories : check your Theories and score their VP (", "headingPath": "End of the game · Score VP in the following categories: · Achievements · Example : Anna scores:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Theme and goal of the game · Before your first game: · Setup · Designers' note:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "What's on an Animal tile? · 1 Study an Animal or Take inspiration from a Character · What's on a Character tile?", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 9, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Use a Guide · Exemple :", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Study an animal", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 10, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Develop a Theory · Write a Publication", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Take inspiration from a character", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}, {"page": 11, "quote": null, "headingPath": "End of the game · Score VP in the following categories: · Achievements · Example : Anna scores:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1103}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1103 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1103 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 0.89272 of 3281 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 6, 2026 13:58 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 In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Use a Guide · Exemple :	p.9	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Theme and goal of the game · Before your first game: · Setup · Designers' note:	p.4	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 In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Take inspiration from a character	p.8	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 In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	What's on an Animal tile? · 1 Study an Animal or Take inspiration from a Character · What's on a Character tile?	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 In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Study an animal	p.7	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 In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Develop a Theory · Write a Publication	p.10	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 In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Robert Mc Cormick (1800-1890)	p.12	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 In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	End of the game · Score VP in the following categories: · Achievements · Example : Anna scores:	p.11	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 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 In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Use a Guide · Exemple :	p.9	#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 In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Study an animal	p.7	#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
#3	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	What's on an Animal tile? · 1 Study an Animal or Take inspiration from a Character · What's on a Character tile?	p.6	#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
#4	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Robert Mc Cormick (1800-1890)	p.12	#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
#5	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	End of the game · Score VP in the following categories: · Achievements · Example : Anna scores:	p.11	#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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Take inspiration from a character	p.8	#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
#7	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Develop a Theory · Write a Publication	p.10	#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
#8	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Theme and goal of the game · Before your first game: · Setup · Designers' note:	p.4	#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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Theme and goal of the game · Before your first game: · Setup · Designers' note:	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	What's on an Animal tile? · 1 Study an Animal or Take inspiration from a Character · What's on a Character tile?	p.6	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Use a Guide · Exemple :	p.9	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Study an animal	p.7	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Develop a Theory · Write a Publication	p.10	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	Take inspiration from a character	p.8	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK In the Footsteps of Darwin — Rulebook (corpus doc 1103)	End of the game · Score VP in the following categories: · Achievements · Example : Anna scores:	p.11	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 85 ms · first delta 1327 ms · total 6429 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 85 ms · ask 6342 ms · gateway work 6429 ms · total 6429 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3553
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 1008
tok/sec: 200.8 tok/sec — 1008 output tokens in 5.021 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 18s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 24h, checked 2s 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 1033), 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.