Ruling — Istanbul: The Dice Game

← Istanbul: The Dice Game

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Istanbul: The Dice Gamebg-235488-en-1e

To play the game, follow these steps:

1. Each round, players take turns in clockwise order, beginning with the start player.[1]

2. At the beginning of your turn, take income from your Mosque Tiles, if applicable.[1]

3. Roll the dice (normally 5 dice, though Mosque Tiles may add additional dice).[1][2]

4. In this phase, you may discard 1 Crystal to reroll as many dice as you want, and you may discard Crystals as many times as you like to reroll again.[1]

5. Carry out actions (normally 2 actions, although Mosque Tiles may add additional actions).[1]

* You must complete an action before you can start another.[1]

* You can carry out the same action multiple times in the same turn.[1]

* You can only use each die once per turn for 1 action.[1]

* You may discard Goods Markers to use them as dice icons of their respective color; a brown Goods Marker is considered 'wild' and can be used for any color.[1]

* If you want to take Goods Markers, Crystals, or Lira and there are not enough in the general supply, each player who owns at least 1 resource of that type must discard 1 resource of that type back to the general supply before you may take your resources.[1]

6. Pass the 5 Dice to the next player clockwise.[1]

The game ends at the end of the round in which a player has collected a total of at least 6 rubies (in a 4-player game: 5 rubies).[1][3] Complete the current round so that each player has taken an equal number of turns, then end the game.[3] The player with the most rubies wins.[3]

[1] RULEBOOK Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook · p.4 · SEQUENCE OF PLAY · Turn Summary: · 2. Roll the Dice . · 3. Carry Out Actions . · ACTIONS · The following general rules apply: · …

[2] RULEBOOK Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook · p.2 · INTRODUCTION · OVERVIEW AND GOAL OF THE GAME

[3] RULEBOOK Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook · p.6 · GAME END · MOSQUE TILES · General Rules:

Answer in hand — your move.

🔧 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 259 ms · ask 3189 ms · total 3450 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 3450 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 4, "score": 0.04866, "snippet": "Each round players take their turns in clockwise order beginning with the start player. The game ends at the end of the round in which a player has collected a total of at least 6 rubies (in a 4-player game: 5 rubies). Take income from your Mosque Tiles (if applicable). Depending on the Mosque Tile ", "headingPath": "SEQUENCE OF PLAY · Turn Summary: · 2. Roll the Dice . · 3. Carry Out Actions . · ACTIONS · The following general rules apply: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.048387, "snippet": "1 Place the game board in the center of the table with the side face-up corresponding to the number of players (2-3 players or 4 players). 2 Place rubies in all of the circular fields marked with a red dot in the various ruby trade areas on the game board. Don't use the circular fields with this mar", "headingPath": "GAME SETUP · CREDITS", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.047643, "snippet": "In Istanbul, the 'Kennerspiel des Jahres 2014' (Strategy Game of the Year 2014), you are making your way through the Bazaar district as a trader trying to be the first to acquire valuable rubies. This successful game is characterized by simple rules, fast and exciting game play, balanced strategies ", "headingPath": "More trade excitement in the bazaar! · Letters & Seals", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "As soon as any player has collected at least 6 rubies (in a 4-player game: 5 rubies), complete the current round so that each player has taken an equal number of turns and then end the game. The player with the most rubies wins! If there is a tie for the most rubies, the tied players sell their Good", "headingPath": "GAME END · MOSQUE TILES · General Rules:", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Take 4 Lira. If you discard the depicted resource: Take 3 or 4 Lira (as shown). Take 1 brown Goods Marker. Take 1 depicted Goods Marker. Take the depicted Goods Marker. If you discard 2 Lira: Take 1 depicted Goods Marker. Take 1 depicted resource and 3 Lira. Take 1 depicted resource or 3 Lira. If yo", "headingPath": "General Rules:", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "Welcome to the Bazaar of Istanbul! Are you ready for a trade competition? If so, you will need to acquire the coveted rubies faster than your competitors! You are not alone: Your assistants will collect goods and money for you. Use your income wisely to invest in improved abilities or save for purch", "headingPath": "INTRODUCTION · OVERVIEW AND GOAL OF THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Discard 2 identical goods: Take 1 Goods Marker of that same color. Discard 2 different goods: Take 1 Crystal. Discard 3 different goods: Take 1 brown Goods Marker . Discard 4 different goods: Take 2 Goods Markers of your choice (non-brown). Discard all coin icons rolled: Take 2 Lira for each. Discar", "headingPath": "The following actions are available: · Ruby trade areas for the 4 types of Goods: · Ruby trade area on the right-side carpet: · Ruby trade area on the left-side carpet:", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "TM 1", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SEQUENCE OF PLAY · Turn Summary: · 2. Roll the Dice . · 3. Carry Out Actions . · ACTIONS · The following general rules apply: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "INTRODUCTION · OVERVIEW AND GOAL OF THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAME END · MOSQUE TILES · General Rules:", "sharpsignalDocId": 982}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 982 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 982 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 0.90717 of 1228 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 7, 2026 02:56 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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	SEQUENCE OF PLAY · Turn Summary: · 2. Roll the Dice . · 3. Carry Out Actions . · ACTIONS · The following general rules apply: · …	p.4	0.04866 (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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	GAME SETUP · CREDITS	p.3	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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	More trade excitement in the bazaar! · Letters & Seals	p.8	0.047643 (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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	GAME END · MOSQUE TILES · General Rules:	p.6	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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	General Rules:	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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	INTRODUCTION · OVERVIEW AND GOAL OF THE GAME	p.2	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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	The following actions are available: · Ruby trade areas for the 4 types of Goods: · Ruby trade area on the right-side carpet: · Ruby trade area on the left-side carpet:	p.5	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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)		p.1	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))	4

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 8 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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	SEQUENCE OF PLAY · Turn Summary: · 2. Roll the Dice . · 3. Carry Out Actions . · ACTIONS · The following general rules apply: · …	p.4	#1	0.04866 (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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	GAME END · MOSQUE TILES · General Rules:	p.6	#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
#3	RULEBOOK Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	INTRODUCTION · OVERVIEW AND GOAL OF THE GAME	p.2	#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
#4	RULEBOOK Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	The following actions are available: · Ruby trade areas for the 4 types of Goods: · Ruby trade area on the right-side carpet: · Ruby trade area on the left-side carpet:	p.5	#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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)		p.1	#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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	More trade excitement in the bazaar! · Letters & Seals	p.8	#3	0.047643 (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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	General Rules:	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
#8	RULEBOOK Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	GAME SETUP · CREDITS	p.3	#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 Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	SEQUENCE OF PLAY · Turn Summary: · 2. Roll the Dice . · 3. Carry Out Actions . · ACTIONS · The following general rules apply: · …	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	INTRODUCTION · OVERVIEW AND GOAL OF THE GAME	p.2	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Istanbul: The Dice Game — Rulebook (corpus doc 982)	GAME END · MOSQUE TILES · General Rules:	p.6	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 259 ms · first delta 1455 ms · total 3450 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 259 ms · ask 3189 ms · gateway work 3450 ms · total 3450 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 2773
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 390
tok/sec: 201.0 tok/sec — 390 output tokens in 1.940 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 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 912), 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.