Ruling — Trails

← Trails

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Trailsbg-338628-en-1e

Setup

1. Find and shuffle the five Trail sites, then place them side-by-side, showing their day side.[1]

2. Place the gray rock, green leaf, and red acorn resource cubes below their matching Trail tiles.[1]

3. Place the Bird Trophy below the site.[1]

4. Place the Trailhead tile to the left of the Trail and the Trail End tile to the right, ensuring they are flipped to the side showing the correct player count.[1]

5. Shuffle the Badge deck and place it facedown below Trailhead.[1]

6. Draw and place 2 Badge cards face up at Trailhead and Trail End.[1]

7. Each player draws a Badge card from the deck into their hand; this is kept secret.[1]

8. Shuffle the Photo deck and place it faced to the right below Trail End.[1]

9. Place the Wildlife bear on the middle Trail tile.[1]

10. Place the Wildlife die within reach of all players.[1]

11. Place the Sun token above Trail End pointing to the rightmost icon on the Sun Track.[1]

12. Randomly determine the first player.[1]

13. For a 2 or 3-Player Game, each player places their Hiker on Trailhead facing the Trail.[1]

14. For a 4-Player Game, the first player and the player to their left place their Hiker on Trail End facing the Trail, while the other two players place their Hiker on Trailhead facing the Trail.[1]

15. Give each player a Hiker, its matching Canteen, and an acorn, rock, and leaf resource.[2] Ensure Canteens start on the filled side.[2]

On Your Turn

1. Move your Hiker 1 or 2 tiles along the Trail in the direction your Hiker is currently facing.[3]

2. Alternatively, you may use your filled Canteen to move your Hiker any number of tiles in the direction you are facing, then flip the Canteen to its empty side.[4]

3. Take the action shown on the new Trail tile you land on:[3]

* Day Actions: Gain 1 acorn, 1 leaf, or 1 rock; exchange 1 resource for 2 of a different type; or pay 1 of any resource to take a Photo action.[3]

* Night Actions: Gain 2 acorns, 2 leaves, or 2 rocks; exchange 1 resource for 1 each of the other 2 resources; or take a Photo action for free.[3]

4. If you land on a site with the Wildlife bear, you may choose to take the site's action before or after the Wildlife action.[4] Roll the Wildlife die, then move the bear to the site matching the die icon (or any site if you roll the side of the die, excluding Trailhead or Trail and Trail End).[4]

5. If you reach Trail End, you gain the current Sun bonus (either the bonus the Sun is pointing to if it is over the Sun Track, or the site's action if it is over a Trail site) and then move the Sun one space toward Trailhead.[5]

6. If you reach Trailhead or Trail End, you may earn Badges by returning resources matching the cost and placing the Badge face up in front of you.[5] You may earn the two face-up Badges there and/or the Badge in your hand.[5]

7. If you earn a Badge, you may immediately take its one-time bonus action if you are prepared.[5]

8. If you take a Photo action, you may either draw 2 Photo cards and keep one (discarding the other) or take the top card from the Photo discard pile.[4]

9. At the end of your turn, check the following:

* You have no more than 8 resources (if you have more, choose 8 to keep and return the rest to the supply).[6]

* You have a reserved Badge in hand.[6]

* There are 2 face-up Badges at each end of the Trail.[6]

10. After the end of turn checks, the player to your left takes the next turn.[6]

Ending the Game

1. The game continues until a player reaches Trail End while the Sun is on the final, leftmost spot of the Sun Track; that player takes a free Photo and places the Sun in front of them.[6]

2. Each other player takes one more turn in turn order.[6]

3. The game ends once the player to the right of the player with the Sun has taken the last turn.[6]

4. Tally points:

* Reveal Photos and

[1] RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook · p.3 · PLAYER SETUP

[2] RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook · p.2 · WELCOME TO TRAILS! · COMPONENTS · GAME OVERVIEW · CONTENTS · GAME END · PLAYER SETUP

[3] RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook · p.4 · ON YOUR TURN · TRAILHEAD · TRAIL END

[4] RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook · p.5 · TRAIL END · WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES

[5] RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook · p.6 · WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES

[6] RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook · p.7 · WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES · GAME END

Settled. Play 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 91 ms · ask 6191 ms · total 11066 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 4782 ms · generation 6284 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 2, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "We hope this game inspires you to get outside and explore the wild. When playing TRAILS , you are encouraged to pick up rocks, leaves, and acorns, but when you venture to parks and trails in your area, remember to only take memories home with you. 1 Trailhead 1 Bird Trophy 4 Canteens 4 Hikers 1 Sun ", "headingPath": "WELCOME TO TRAILS! · COMPONENTS · GAME OVERVIEW · CONTENTS · GAME END · PLAYER SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.047379, "snippet": "8 RESOURCE LIMIT · At the end of your turn, if you have more than 8 resources, choose 8 resources to keep and return the rest to the supply. END OF TURN CHECKLIST · After you have moved your Hiker and completed your Trail actions, check to make sure that: You have no more than 8 resources You have a", "headingPath": "WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES · GAME END", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "TRAIL · Find and shuffle the five Trail sites. Place them side-by-side, showing their day side. Place the gray rock, green leaf, and red acorn resource cubes below their matching Trail tiles. Place the Bird Trophy below the site. TRAILHEAD / TRAIL END · Place the Trailhead tile ( 2a ) to the left of", "headingPath": "PLAYER SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "HIKING THE TRAIL · On your turn, move your Hiker 1 or 2 tiles along the Trail in the direction your Hiker is currently facing (as indicated by the hat and walking stick ). Take the action shown on the new Trail tile you land on. Here are the actions you take on each Trail tile: DAY · Gain 1 acorn NI", "headingPath": "ON YOUR TURN · TRAILHEAD · TRAIL END", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "CANTEEN · On your turn, rather than moving 1 or 2 tiles, you may use your filled Canteen to move your Hiker any number of tiles in the direction you are facing. After using your Canteen, flip it over to its empty side. It cannot be used again until it is refilled. Canteens are refilled when you visi", "headingPath": "TRAIL END · WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "EARNING BADGES · When your Hiker reaches Trailhead or Trail End, you may earn Badges. You may earn either of the two face-up Badges there and/or the Badge in your hand. You could earn none, one, two, or all three. To earn a Badge, return resources matching its cost ( A ), then place the Badge face u", "headingPath": "WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Am I allowed to move to the same Trail tile as another Hiker? Yes. Hikers do not block each other on the Trail. Can I use my Canteen to move my Hiker all the way to Trailhead or Trail End? Yes, you may go to one of those depending on the direction your Hiker is facing. What happens when I earn a Bad", "headingPath": "COMMON QUESTIONS", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "16 benjaminflouw.com thelittlefriendsof printmaking.com Dan McCarthy danmccarthy.org Nicolas Delort nicolasdelort.com tinymediaempire.com Glenn Thomas glennthomas.studio Chris Turnham christurnham.com GAME DESIGN • Henry Audubon / GAME DEVELOPMENT • Mattox Shuler, Matt Aiken, Jennifer Graham-Macht, ", "headingPath": "COMMON QUESTIONS · Benjamin Flouw · Little Friends of Printmaking · Daniel Danger · CREDITS", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PLAYER SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "WELCOME TO TRAILS! · COMPONENTS · GAME OVERVIEW · CONTENTS · GAME END · PLAYER SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "ON YOUR TURN · TRAILHEAD · TRAIL END", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "TRAIL END · WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES · GAME END", "sharpsignalDocId": 1212}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1212 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1212 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 0.90048 of 3095 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 7, 2026 03:09 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 Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	WELCOME TO TRAILS! · COMPONENTS · GAME OVERVIEW · CONTENTS · GAME END · PLAYER SETUP	p.2	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES · GAME END	p.7	0.047379 (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 Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	PLAYER SETUP	p.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))	300
#4	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	ON YOUR TURN · TRAILHEAD · TRAIL END	p.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))	300
#5	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	TRAIL END · WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES	p.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))	300
#6	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES	p.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))	300
#7	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	COMMON QUESTIONS	p.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))	300
#8	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	COMMON QUESTIONS · Benjamin Flouw · Little Friends of Printmaking · Daniel Danger · CREDITS	p.9	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 11 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 Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES · GAME END	p.7	#2	0.047379 (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 Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	PLAYER SETUP	p.3	#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
#3	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	COMMON QUESTIONS	p.7	#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
#4	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES	p.6	#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
#5	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	ON YOUR TURN · TRAILHEAD · TRAIL END	p.4	#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
#6	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	TRAIL END · WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES	p.5	#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
#7	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)		p.1	#11	0.014085 (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
#8	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	WELCOME TO TRAILS! · COMPONENTS · GAME OVERVIEW · CONTENTS · GAME END · PLAYER SETUP	p.2	#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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	PLAYER SETUP	p.3	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	WELCOME TO TRAILS! · COMPONENTS · GAME OVERVIEW · CONTENTS · GAME END · PLAYER SETUP	p.2	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	ON YOUR TURN · TRAILHEAD · TRAIL END	p.4	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	TRAIL END · WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES	p.5	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES	p.6	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Trails — Rulebook (corpus doc 1212)	WILDLIFE DIE SIDES AND THEIR RELATED SITES · GAME END	p.7	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 91 ms · first delta 1110 ms · total 11066 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 4782 ms · retrieval 91 ms · ask 6191 ms · gateway work 6284 ms · total 11066 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 2817
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 1024
tok/sec: 201.1 tok/sec — 1024 output tokens in 5.093 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 24s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 3s 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 1142), 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.