Ruling — Tiny Epic Dinosaurs

← Tiny Epic Dinosaurs

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Tiny Epic Dinosaursbg-291508-en-1e

The game is played through a series of phases in rounds:

Setup

1. Place the 4 Action Mats in a row in alphabetical order from 'A' to 'D'.[1]

2. Place the Round Mat to the left of the Action Mats and the Round Marker on the '1' space of the round track.[1]

3. Place the 5 colors of Dinosaurs (sorted by color) and the Barriers so they are easily reached by all players.[2]

4. Place the Wrangler Die near Action Mat 'A'.[2]

5. Give the First Player Marker to the last person to visit a natural history museum, or determine it using your own method.[2]

6. Give starting bonuses to players clockwise from the first player: the second player's Plant Marker on '1', the third player's Meat Marker on '1', and the fourth player's Supply Marker on '1'.[2]

7. Give each player 1 Ranch Mat, 1 Player Mat, 4 Ranchers, and 1 Lead Rancher in their chosen color.[1]

8. Players place 3 Ranchers and the Lead Rancher onto their Player Mat in the Ranchers area, and place the final Rancher on the '4' space of the Round Mat's track.[1]

9. Players place a Plant, Meat, and Supply Marker to the left of their Player Mat's resource track.[1]

10. Place the Contract Mat above the Action Mats.[1]

11. Shuffle the Public Contract Deck and place it face-down on the 'Public Contracts' space on the Contract Mat, then deal cards into a face-up row equaling the number of players +1.[1]

12. Shuffle and deal 2 Private Contract Cards face-down to each player; players select 1 to keep and return the other to the deck.[1]

13. Shuffle the Private Contract Deck and place it face-down on the 'Private Contracts' space on the Contract Mat.[1]

14. Place the Research Mat below the Action Mats and shuffle the Research Cards into a face-down deck on the Research Mat, dealing 3 cards face-up into a row.[1]

Gameplay Phases

1. Resource Collection: Gain resources from all unoccupied spaces in your Ranch.[3]

2. Assign Ranchers:

* Starting with the player who has the First Player Marker, players take turns assigning Ranchers to empty action spaces on the Action Mats and performing the action.[4]

* On a turn, a player must place a single Rancher (either Lead or regular) onto one empty action space.[4]

* A Lead Rancher counts as 2 regular Ranchers for both placement and blocking opponents.[4]

* To take an action space already occupied by opponents, a player must place 1 more Rancher than the player with the highest number of Ranchers on that space.[4]

* Players cannot place Ranchers onto an action space where they already have Ranchers.[4]

* If a player has no Ranchers left to place, they are skipped.[4]

* The phase continues until all players have placed all of their Ranchers.[4]

3. Retrieve Ranchers: Take back all Ranchers from Action Mats, and Ranchers and Dinosaurs from Medical Leave.[3]

4. Arrange Ranch: Place all Dinosaurs and Barriers from your Holding Area into your Ranch.[3]

5. Feed Dinosaurs: Feed Dinosaurs in your Ranch; if you cannot, unfed Dinosaurs escape.[3]

6. Breathe Dinosaurs: For each 2 of the same Dinosaur in an Enclosure, gain and place a newborn Dinosaur into your Ranch.[5][3]

7. Medical Leave: (Note: This is an effect of certain actions) Immediately send your Rancher(s) to Medical Leave.[3]

8. Refresh for Next Round:

* Draw new Contract and Research Cards, and advance the Round Marker.[3]

* When the Round Marker reaches the 'Round 4' space, all players take a new Rancher and add it to their Ranchers area, and draw one new Private Contract Card.[6]

Solo Play (The Rival Rancher)

1. Set up for 2-player game by choosing 1 Player Mat to be the Rival Ranch, flipping it to the Rival Ranch side, and placing it near your Player Mat.[5]

2. Place 3 Resource Tokens next to the Rival Ranch Mat's resource track at '0'.[5]

3. Shuffle 8 Rival Rancher Cards into a face-down deck next to the Rival Ranch Mat.[5]

4. Place the Rival's Lead Rancher on the 4

[1] RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook · p.4 · PROLOGUE · GAME SETUP

[2] RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook · p.5 · GAME SETUP

[3] RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook · p.2

[4] RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook · p.7 · ASSIGN RANCHERS · OCCUPIED ACTION SPACES: · COSTS TO PERFORM ACTIONS:

[5] RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook · p.14 · SOLO PLAY MODE: THE RIVAL RANCHER · SETUP:

[6] RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook · p.13 · REFRESH FOR NEXT ROUND · ROUND 4: NEW RANCHER AND PRIVATE CONTRACT · END OF GAME/SCORING · All players gain from:

One rule clearer, zero feelings hurt.

🔧 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 221 ms · ask 7065 ms · total 7288 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 7288 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 15, "score": 0.047131, "snippet": "The only phase that the Rival participates in is . Instead of placing Ranchers, the Rival reveals one Rival Rancher Card. At the start of the phase, shuffle the deck of Rival Rancher Cards Rival Rancher and deal out 4 face-down cards above the deck. Set the remaining cards aside without revealing th", "headingPath": "SOLO GAMEPLAY · THE RIVAL'S TURN · 1. DRAW AND PLACE A RIVAL RANCHER CARD · ASSIGNING RANCHERS ON YOUR TURN", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 14, "score": 0.046875, "snippet": "Just when life seemed perfect on the ranch, out of nowhere a cutthroat ranching company has set up shop on the opposite side of the island. They have frighteningly efficient ranchers that wrangle and sell dinosaurs with seemingly 'robotic' productivity. Do these opportunists spell the end of your di", "headingPath": "SOLO PLAY MODE: THE RIVAL RANCHER · SETUP:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.046642, "snippet": "Draw Public Contract Cards to fill the Contract row up to the number of players +1. Round Discard all face-up Research Cards in the row to the Research Mat's ' Discard Pile ' and then draw 3 new cards , placing them face-up in the row. If the Research Deck is ever empty, shuffle the discard pile to ", "headingPath": "REFRESH FOR NEXT ROUND · ROUND 4: NEW RANCHER AND PRIVATE CONTRACT · END OF GAME/SCORING · All players gain from:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.046244, "snippet": "Immediately gain Barriers in the amount shown and place them into your Holding Area . When gaining the First Player Marker , immediately take it from the player who has it. If you already have it, you simply keep it. If a space has 2 actions, you must perform at least one of the actions, but you may", "headingPath": "BARRIERS AND FIRST PLAYER MARKER: · CONTRACTS: · MOVE A DINOSAUR FROM HOLDING AREA: · REARRANGE BARRIERS: · RESEARCH:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "Place the 5 colors of Dinosaurs (i) , sorted by color, and the Barriers (ii) so they are easily reached by all players. Place the Wrangler Die (iii) near Action Mat ' A '. Give the First Player Marker to the last person to visit a natural history museum, or determine first player using your own meth", "headingPath": "GAME SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "4 Place the 4 Action Mats in a row in the middle of the table in alphabetical order from ' A' to ' D .' These mats are double sided, Gain a Dinosaur Immediately send your Rancher(s) to Medical Leave effect. so select the side that lists the appropriate number of players in the game ( noted at the to", "headingPath": "PROLOGUE · GAME SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "Starting with the player who has the First Player Marker, players take turns assigning their Ranchers to different ' action spaces' on the Action Mats and performing actions. On your turn, you must place a single Rancher (either Lead or regular), onto one empty action space. Then you immediately per", "headingPath": "ASSIGN RANCHERS · OCCUPIED ACTION SPACES: · COSTS TO PERFORM ACTIONS:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 18, "score": 0.030214, "snippet": "Now check the row of Public Contract Cards, one by one going from left to right , to see if the Rival has Dinosaurs in its Ranch to fulfill a Contract. If it does, discard the necessary Dinosaurs from top to bottom and then add that Contract to the Rival's play area. The Rival can only fulfill 1 Con", "headingPath": "3. CHECK FOR FULFILLED CONTRACTS · OTHER ROUND PHASES · ROUND 4: A FIFTH RIVAL RANCHER CARD Resource Collection Leave Gain resources from all unoccupied", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PROLOGUE · GAME SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAME SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "ASSIGN RANCHERS · OCCUPIED ACTION SPACES: · COSTS TO PERFORM ACTIONS:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 14, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SOLO PLAY MODE: THE RIVAL RANCHER · SETUP:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}, {"page": 13, "quote": null, "headingPath": "REFRESH FOR NEXT ROUND · ROUND 4: NEW RANCHER AND PRIVATE CONTRACT · END OF GAME/SCORING · All players gain from:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1020}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1020 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1020 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 0.89064 of 3228 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 6, 2026 14:01 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 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	SOLO GAMEPLAY · THE RIVAL'S TURN · 1. DRAW AND PLACE A RIVAL RANCHER CARD · ASSIGNING RANCHERS ON YOUR TURN	p.15	0.047131 (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 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	SOLO PLAY MODE: THE RIVAL RANCHER · SETUP:	p.14	0.046875 (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 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	REFRESH FOR NEXT ROUND · ROUND 4: NEW RANCHER AND PRIVATE CONTRACT · END OF GAME/SCORING · All players gain from:	p.13	0.046642 (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 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	BARRIERS AND FIRST PLAYER MARKER: · CONTRACTS: · MOVE A DINOSAUR FROM HOLDING AREA: · REARRANGE BARRIERS: · RESEARCH:	p.9	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
#5	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	GAME SETUP	p.5	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
#6	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	PROLOGUE · GAME SETUP	p.4	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
#7	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	ASSIGN RANCHERS · OCCUPIED ACTION SPACES: · COSTS TO PERFORM ACTIONS:	p.7	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
#8	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	3. CHECK FOR FULFILLED CONTRACTS · OTHER ROUND PHASES · ROUND 4: A FIFTH RIVAL RANCHER CARD Resource Collection Leave Gain resources from all unoccupied	p.18	0.030214 (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 30 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 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	GAME SETUP	p.5	#5	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 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	SOLO PLAY MODE: THE RIVAL RANCHER · SETUP:	p.14	#2	0.046875 (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
#3	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	SOLO GAMEPLAY · THE RIVAL'S TURN · 1. DRAW AND PLACE A RIVAL RANCHER CARD · ASSIGNING RANCHERS ON YOUR TURN	p.15	#1	0.047131 (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
#4	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)		p.2	#10	0.027864 (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
#5	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	REFRESH FOR NEXT ROUND · ROUND 4: NEW RANCHER AND PRIVATE CONTRACT · END OF GAME/SCORING · All players gain from:	p.13	#3	0.046642 (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
#6	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	BARRIERS AND FIRST PLAYER MARKER: · CONTRACTS: · MOVE A DINOSAUR FROM HOLDING AREA: · REARRANGE BARRIERS: · RESEARCH:	p.9	#4	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 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	ASSIGN RANCHERS · OCCUPIED ACTION SPACES: · COSTS TO PERFORM ACTIONS:	p.7	#7	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 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	PROLOGUE · GAME SETUP	p.4	#6	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 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	PROLOGUE · GAME SETUP	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	GAME SETUP	p.5	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)		p.2	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	ASSIGN RANCHERS · OCCUPIED ACTION SPACES: · COSTS TO PERFORM ACTIONS:	p.7	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	SOLO PLAY MODE: THE RIVAL RANCHER · SETUP:	p.14	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Tiny Epic Dinosaurs — Rulebook (corpus doc 1020)	REFRESH FOR NEXT ROUND · ROUND 4: NEW RANCHER AND PRIVATE CONTRACT · END OF GAME/SCORING · All players gain from:	p.13	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 221 ms · first delta 2138 ms · total 7288 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 221 ms · ask 7065 ms · gateway work 7288 ms · total 7288 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3533
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 1024
tok/sec: 201.3 tok/sec — 1024 output tokens in 5.087 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 29s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 9s 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 950), 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.