Ruling — Watson & Holmes

← Watson & Holmes

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Watson & Holmesbg-182694-en-1e

Setup

1. Choose a case and take out the corresponding Case Booklet and Location Cards.[1]

2. Place Location Cards face up in the center of the table.[1]

3. Place the Carriage Stop Card, Watson Card, and the face-down Holmes Card next to the Location Cards.[1]

4. Place Carriage, Police, Call Off, and Lockpick tokens in a Supply accessible to all players.[1]

5. The player with the Start Player Token reads the Case Booklet introduction and any Special Rules aloud.[1]

6. Each player chooses a Player Pawn and takes the corresponding Player Token.[1]

7. Unless otherwise indicated, each player receives 10 Carriage Tokens, 1 Police Token, a piece of paper, and a pen.[1]

8. Shuffle Character Cards and deal one face down to each player; players look at their own character but keep it hidden.[2]

9. In games with more than 5 players, the first 5 players receive Police Tokens; the sixth and seventh players (if any) start with a Call Off Token each.[2]

The Game

Each round consists of two phases: the VISITING PHASE and the INVESTIGATION PHASE.[2]

Visiting Phase

1. Starting with the player who has the Start Player Token and continuing clockwise, each player chooses a Location Card to visit and places their pawn on it.[2]

2. If the location is free, the player decides to go on foot (placing only the pawn) or by carriage (placing one or more Carriage Tokens on the card).[2]

3. If the location is occupied, a player must play more Carriages than the occupying player to outbid them.[2]

4. When a player is outbid, they take back their pawn and all but one of their Carriages; the remaining Carriage goes to the Supply.[2]

5. A player can choose to visit the Carriage Stop Card instead of a Location Card; they do not read clues, but gain 3 Carriages at the end of the phase.[3]

6. A player can spend 4 Carriages to take the Watson Card (only one player can do this per round).[4][3]

7. To visit a location with a Police Token, a player must either use a Call Off Token to remove the token during the Visiting Phase or use a Lockpick Token during the Investigation Phase.[3][5]

8. During the Visiting Phase, players may also perform actions on their Character Cards.[6]

Investigation Phase

1. The holder of the Watson Card may choose the Location Card of another player to be read aloud at the start of this phase.[4]

2. Players read the clues and information on the Location Cards.[7]

Solving the Case

1. If a player visits 221B Baker Street, they must write answers to all questions from the Case Booklet on their paper.[8]

2. The player checks their answers against the reverse of the 2/21B Baker Street Location Card.[8]

3. If all answers are correct, the player wins the game.[8][6]

4. If the attempt is incorrect, the player must inform others they failed and state how many questions they got correct (without revealing which ones).[8]

5. If a player fails, they continue the game only as the "voice of Sherlock Holmes".[8]

6. If multiple players attempt to solve the case in the same round, the order is determined by who has the most remaining Carriages.[8]

Ending the Game

1. The game ends when a player correctly answers all questions at 221B Baker Street.[6]

2. If a player is the only one left (all others eliminated), they may play a limited number of extra rounds as they have Carriages, up to a maximum of 4.[6]

3. If the attempt at 221B is unsuccessful, all players lose.[6]

4. The winner shows the correct answers and reads the solution aloud from the Case Booklet.[6]

[1] RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook · p.5 · CASE BOOKLETS · SETUP

[2] RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook · p.5 · 6- AND 7-PLAYER GAMES · GAMES WITH FEWER THAN 4 PLAYERS · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. VISITING PHASE

[3] RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook · p.6 · You have no Call Off Token nor Lockpick Token: You cannot choose this location. · You have a Call Off Token and a Lockpick Token: · WATSON · CARRIAGE STOP

[4] RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook · p.7 · DR WATSON · EXPERT VERSION (without the Watson Card): · SHERLOCK HOLMES

[5] RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook · p.6 · 1. VISITING PHASE · LOCATIONS WITH POLICE TOKENS · EXAMPLE:

[6] RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook · p.7 · END OF GAME · CHARACTER CARDS · IRENE ADLER · WIGGINS (only used in games with 4 or more players)

[7] RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook · p.4 · CASE BOOKLETS

[8] RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook · p.6 · SOLVING THE CASE · WATSON AND HOLMES CARDS

So says the rulebook. So plays 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 82 ms · ask 6580 ms · total 6665 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 6665 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 5, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "In games where there are more than 5 players, only the fi rst 5 players are given Police Tokens (the Start Player and the 4 players continuing in a clockwise direction). The sixth and seventh players, if any, start the game with a Call Off Token each. Lastly, and unless indicated differently in the ", "headingPath": "6- AND 7-PLAYER GAMES · GAMES WITH FEWER THAN 4 PLAYERS · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. VISITING PHASE", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.048131, "snippet": "8 IMPORTANT : The game components are limited. If, during a game, a player would gain a token and there is no token of that type in the Supply, they simply do not gain the token. No player can have more than 1 Police Token, 1 Call Off Token, and 1 Lockpick Token at any one time. i.e. the most each p", "headingPath": "CASE BOOKLETS · SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.046635, "snippet": "If a player decides to go to 221B Baker Street, they must write their answers to all of the questions set by the Case Booklet on their paper. They should answer the questions as fully as possible. Once written, the player checks if their answers are correct by comparing them with the answers on the ", "headingPath": "SOLVING THE CASE · WATSON AND HOLMES CARDS", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.046452, "snippet": "6 6 Each case comes with its own corresponding booklet which introduces the circumstances of the incident, sets the questions that the players have to solve to win the game, and the solution provided by Sherlock Holmes. The booklet also contains any additional rules that are unique to that particula", "headingPath": "CASE BOOKLETS", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.046432, "snippet": "If a player does not have enough Carriage Tokens to compete for a particular Location Card, they must visit a different location. During this stage, turns continue from player to player until all pawns have been placed on one of the Location Cards. At this moment, the last player who placed his or h", "headingPath": "1. VISITING PHASE · LOCATIONS WITH POLICE TOKENS · EXAMPLE:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.045921, "snippet": "During the Visiting Phase, on a player's turn, they can pay 4 Carriages to take the Watson Card and place it in front of them. Only one player can do this each round. At the start of the Investigation Phase of this round, the holder of this card may choose the Location Card of another player which i", "headingPath": "DR WATSON · EXPERT VERSION (without the Watson Card): · SHERLOCK HOLMES", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.044776, "snippet": "The game ends when a player who has chosen to visit 221B Baker Street correctly answers all the questions set in the Case Booklet. extra rounds as they have Carriages, up to a maximum of 4. After the extra rounds, they must then visit 221B and try to solve the case. If successful, they win the game,", "headingPath": "END OF GAME · CHARACTER CARDS · IRENE ADLER · WIGGINS (only used in games with 4 or more players)", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.029911, "snippet": "You have a Call Off Token: you must discard the Call Off Token during the Visiting Phase to remove the Police Token. You have a Lockpick Token: To read the card during the Investigation Phase, you must discard a Lockpick Token. To remove the token, a player can (before placing his or her pawn on the", "headingPath": "You have no Call Off Token nor Lockpick Token: You cannot choose this location. · You have a Call Off Token and a Lockpick Token: · WATSON · CARRIAGE STOP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "CASE BOOKLETS · SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "6- AND 7-PLAYER GAMES · GAMES WITH FEWER THAN 4 PLAYERS · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. VISITING PHASE", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "You have no Call Off Token nor Lockpick Token: You cannot choose this location. · You have a Call Off Token and a Lockpick Token: · WATSON · CARRIAGE STOP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "DR WATSON · EXPERT VERSION (without the Watson Card): · SHERLOCK HOLMES", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "1. VISITING PHASE · LOCATIONS WITH POLICE TOKENS · EXAMPLE:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "END OF GAME · CHARACTER CARDS · IRENE ADLER · WIGGINS (only used in games with 4 or more players)", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "CASE BOOKLETS", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SOLVING THE CASE · WATSON AND HOLMES CARDS", "sharpsignalDocId": 1297}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1297 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1297 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 0.90548 of 2899 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 6, 2026 14:11 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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	6- AND 7-PLAYER GAMES · GAMES WITH FEWER THAN 4 PLAYERS · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. VISITING PHASE	p.5	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	CASE BOOKLETS · SETUP	p.5	0.048131 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	SOLVING THE CASE · WATSON AND HOLMES CARDS	p.6	0.046635 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	CASE BOOKLETS	p.4	0.046452 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	1. VISITING PHASE · LOCATIONS WITH POLICE TOKENS · EXAMPLE:	p.6	0.046432 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	DR WATSON · EXPERT VERSION (without the Watson Card): · SHERLOCK HOLMES	p.7	0.045921 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	END OF GAME · CHARACTER CARDS · IRENE ADLER · WIGGINS (only used in games with 4 or more players)	p.7	0.044776 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	You have no Call Off Token nor Lockpick Token: You cannot choose this location. · You have a Call Off Token and a Lockpick Token: · WATSON · CARRIAGE STOP	p.6	0.029911 (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 20 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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	6- AND 7-PLAYER GAMES · GAMES WITH FEWER THAN 4 PLAYERS · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. VISITING PHASE	p.5	#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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	DR WATSON · EXPERT VERSION (without the Watson Card): · SHERLOCK HOLMES	p.7	#6	0.045921 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	SOLVING THE CASE · WATSON AND HOLMES CARDS	p.6	#3	0.046635 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	END OF GAME · CHARACTER CARDS · IRENE ADLER · WIGGINS (only used in games with 4 or more players)	p.7	#7	0.044776 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	You have no Call Off Token nor Lockpick Token: You cannot choose this location. · You have a Call Off Token and a Lockpick Token: · WATSON · CARRIAGE STOP	p.6	#8	0.029911 (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
#6	RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	CASE BOOKLETS	p.4	#4	0.046452 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	CASE BOOKLETS · SETUP	p.5	#2	0.048131 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	1. VISITING PHASE · LOCATIONS WITH POLICE TOKENS · EXAMPLE:	p.6	#5	0.046432 (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 Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	CASE BOOKLETS · SETUP	p.5	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	6- AND 7-PLAYER GAMES · GAMES WITH FEWER THAN 4 PLAYERS · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. VISITING PHASE	p.5	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	You have no Call Off Token nor Lockpick Token: You cannot choose this location. · You have a Call Off Token and a Lockpick Token: · WATSON · CARRIAGE STOP	p.6	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	DR WATSON · EXPERT VERSION (without the Watson Card): · SHERLOCK HOLMES	p.7	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	1. VISITING PHASE · LOCATIONS WITH POLICE TOKENS · EXAMPLE:	p.6	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	END OF GAME · CHARACTER CARDS · IRENE ADLER · WIGGINS (only used in games with 4 or more players)	p.7	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	CASE BOOKLETS	p.4	no quote on the wire
[8]	RULEBOOK Watson & Holmes — Rulebook (corpus doc 1297)	SOLVING THE CASE · WATSON AND HOLMES CARDS	p.6	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 82 ms · first delta 2189 ms · total 6665 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 82 ms · ask 6580 ms · gateway work 6665 ms · total 6665 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3998
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 869
tok/sec: 199.2 tok/sec — 869 output tokens in 4.362 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 48s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 24h, checked 0s 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 1227), 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.