Ruling — Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition)

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition)bg-299121-en-1e

The game is played as a series of rounds, with each round divided into four different phases in the following sequence:[1]

1. Explorer Phase:

* Reset each explorer's stamina to the maximum number indicated on their explorer card.[1]

* Place all explorer markers back to their corresponding player boards.[1]

* Players (explorers) may play in any order, working out which order is most beneficial to them.[1]

* Each explorer must finish their turn before another player takes theirs.[1]

* On a turn, explorers can take actions such as moving, using active abilities (from explorer cards, consumable items, equipped items, destroyed explorer event cards, current chapter cards, or bound explorer event cards), interacting with the map tile, or utilizing their inventory.[1]

* Actions usually cost stamina; explorers may continue performing actions until they run out of stamina or choose to finish their turn by setting stamina to 0.[1]

* If an ability costs stamina, it can only be played by a unit on its turn.[2]

* Between actions of other explorers and monsters, or between turns of monsters and explorers, a player can play an active ability if it does not require any stamina for activation.[2]

* Each explorer in play rolls a game die unless all spawn spaces on its tile are destroyed.[1]

* If the roll is equal to or greater than the current spawn rating:

* If there are 4 or more monsters on the explorer's map tile (spawn limit), increase the monster threat by 1 and skip further steps.[1]

* Spawn a monster on the rolling explorer's map tile.[1]

* Reset the spawn rating slider to the default value indicated on the chapter card.[1]

* If the roll is less than the current spawn rating, lower the spawn rating slider by 1.[1]

2. Spawn Phase:

* Monsters play in a specific order based on the monster queue.[3]

* If the monster queue is empty, skip this phase.[3]

* The first monster in the queue takes its turn, followed by the next, until all monsters in the queue have had their turn.[3]

* If there are no spawn spaces on the tile of the rolling or activating explorer, skip further steps.[3]

* Draw a card from the monster deck; if no cards are available, shuffle destroyed monster cards to create a new one.[3]

* If there are still no monster cards available, increase the monster threat by 1 and skip further steps.[3]

* Place the monster card at the end of the monster queue (far right).[3]

* Place the monster figure on the spawn space nearest to the rolling or activating explorer.[3]

* Increase the monster threat slider by 1.[3]

* If the monster threat reaches the last position, reset it to the first position and increase the monster level by 1.[3]

* When the monster level increases, shuffle the monster cards with the corresponding level into the monster deck along with the destroyed monster cards.[3]

* If the monster level is 5, instead of increasing the monster threat, each explorer must destroy 1 equipped item or be destroyed.[3]

3. Horror Phase:

* At the start of the phase, place all horror markers next to the horror event deck.[1]

* Only one player rolls the game die.[1]

* If the roll is equal to or greater than the current horror rating:

* Reset the horror rating slider to the default value indicated on the chapter card.[1]

* Resolve the invoke horror event effect.[1]

* If the roll is less than the current horror rating, lower the horror's rating slider by 1.[1]

[1] RULEBOOK Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook · p.11 · GAMEPLAY · 1 . EXPLORER PHASE · 2. SPAWN PHASE · 3. HORROR PHASE

[2] RULEBOOK Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook · p.23 · ABILITIES · TYPES OF ABILITIES · ACTIVE ABILITIES · CONCEPT: PLAYING OUTSIDE OF YOUR TURN · PASSIVE ABILITIES

[3] RULEBOOK Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook · p.11 · MONSTER QUEUE · EFFECT: SPAWN MONSTER · EFFECT: INCREASE MONSTER THREAT

Now you know — make it count.

🔧 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 128 ms · ask 7747 ms · total 19227 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 11350 ms · generation 7877 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 23, "score": 0.048139, "snippet": "Only the cards in play may influence the game through their abilities. For events, the current events from the corresponding explorer and horror decks are considered in play. For items, only the equipped ones are considered in play. Consumable items can't be equipped, but their abilities can be play", "headingPath": "ABILITIES · TYPES OF ABILITIES · ACTIVE ABILITIES · CONCEPT: PLAYING OUTSIDE OF YOUR TURN · PASSIVE ABILITIES", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}, {"page": 23, "score": 0.048131, "snippet": "«Enters play» abilities are resolved only once, when the card enters play. They are marked with the special icon ( ). Different card types enter play in different ways, so their «enters play» condition and the activating unit will vary: | card type | «enters play» condition | default target | | Expl", "headingPath": "ENTERS PLAY ABILITIES", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.046871, "snippet": "◆ Choose one of the available scenarios ◆ Sort the chapter cards by putting the scenario card on top, followed by the chapter cards in numerical order ◆ If there are endgame chapter cards, set them aside (see «Enter endgame» p21) ◆ Put the chosen scenario deck on the Chapter board's bottom card spac", "headingPath": "CHOOSE A SCENARIO · VARIANT: SHORTER GAME · VERY FAST GAME (LESS THAN 1 HOUR): · FAST GAME (LESS THAN 2 HOURS): · EASY GAME: · VERY EASY GAME: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}, {"page": 28, "score": 0.045688, "snippet": "If there are no destroyed explorers then the monster actions are deterministic and are played by any player (see «Mindless monsters» below) . Otherwise the players of dead explorers become responsible for the monsters' turns (see «Scheming monsters» below) . Players of dead explorers become responsi", "headingPath": "MONSTER BEHAVIOR · SCHEMING MONSTERS · MINDLESS MONSTERS · PLAYING ACTIVE ABILITIES · MONSTER MOVEMENT · NEAREST EXPLORER", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}, {"page": 21, "score": 0.045037, "snippet": "Progress is directly linked with the development of the story through its chapters. With each new chapter, the explorers are one step closer to their fleeting salvation or doom. They must progress through the chapters until they resolve victory effect (see «Victory» p21) , or if the scenario demands", "headingPath": "CHAPTER · Explorers gain all the active abilities from the current chapter. · BLOCKING CHAPTERS · PLACE ENTRY TOKEN · PLACE EXIT TOKEN · ADD ITEM LEVEL", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}, {"page": 21, "score": 0.044343, "snippet": "Some chapters have an «enters play» ability Start a new round that serves as an intermission. Once this effect is resolved, the round starts again with the explorer phase. All the explorers are at max stamina, and all the horror and explorer markers are returned to their corresponding places. Some s", "headingPath": "START A NEW ROUND · ENTER ENDGAME · VICTORY · VARIANT: CAMPAIGN MODE", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.044103, "snippet": "The game is played as a series of rounds. Every game round is divided into 4 different phases, in the following sequence: Start the phase by resetting each explorer's stamina to the maximum number indicated on the explorer card. Place all of the explorer markers back to their corresponding player bo", "headingPath": "GAMEPLAY · 1 . EXPLORER PHASE · 2. SPAWN PHASE · 3. HORROR PHASE", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.043298, "snippet": "◆ If a chosen scenario has an endgame tile, set it aside (see «Enter endgame» p21) ◆ Take all the non-scenario map tiles (double sided) and shuffle them, flipping some tiles to mix up the sides. This creates the map tile deck ◆ Take the bottom map tile, and place it in the play area. This is the sta", "headingPath": "SETUP MAP TILE DECK, AND STARTING MAP TILE · STARTING THE FIRST CHAPTER", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 11, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAMEPLAY · 1 . EXPLORER PHASE · 2. SPAWN PHASE · 3. HORROR PHASE", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}, {"page": 23, "quote": null, "headingPath": "ABILITIES · TYPES OF ABILITIES · ACTIVE ABILITIES · CONCEPT: PLAYING OUTSIDE OF YOUR TURN · PASSIVE ABILITIES", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}, {"page": 11, "quote": null, "headingPath": "MONSTER QUEUE · EFFECT: SPAWN MONSTER · EFFECT: INCREASE MONSTER THREAT", "sharpsignalDocId": 1279}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1279 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1279 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 0.91811 of 2821 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 7, 2026 03:13 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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	ABILITIES · TYPES OF ABILITIES · ACTIVE ABILITIES · CONCEPT: PLAYING OUTSIDE OF YOUR TURN · PASSIVE ABILITIES	p.23	0.048139 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	ENTERS PLAY ABILITIES	p.23	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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	CHOOSE A SCENARIO · VARIANT: SHORTER GAME · VERY FAST GAME (LESS THAN 1 HOUR): · FAST GAME (LESS THAN 2 HOURS): · EASY GAME: · VERY EASY GAME: · …	p.10	0.046871 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	MONSTER BEHAVIOR · SCHEMING MONSTERS · MINDLESS MONSTERS · PLAYING ACTIVE ABILITIES · MONSTER MOVEMENT · NEAREST EXPLORER	p.28	0.045688 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	CHAPTER · Explorers gain all the active abilities from the current chapter. · BLOCKING CHAPTERS · PLACE ENTRY TOKEN · PLACE EXIT TOKEN · ADD ITEM LEVEL	p.21	0.045037 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	START A NEW ROUND · ENTER ENDGAME · VICTORY · VARIANT: CAMPAIGN MODE	p.21	0.044343 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	GAMEPLAY · 1 . EXPLORER PHASE · 2. SPAWN PHASE · 3. HORROR PHASE	p.11	0.044103 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	SETUP MAP TILE DECK, AND STARTING MAP TILE · STARTING THE FIRST CHAPTER	p.10	0.043298 (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 57 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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	EXAMPLES OF AFFECTED UNITS:	p.25	#16	0.026014 (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
#2	RULEBOOK Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	SETUP MAP TILE DECK, AND STARTING MAP TILE · STARTING THE FIRST CHAPTER	p.10	#8	0.043298 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	ENTERS PLAY ABILITIES	p.23	#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
#4	RULEBOOK Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	MONSTER QUEUE · EFFECT: SPAWN MONSTER · EFFECT: INCREASE MONSTER THREAT	p.11	#21	0.024269 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	ABILITIES · TYPES OF ABILITIES · ACTIVE ABILITIES · CONCEPT: PLAYING OUTSIDE OF YOUR TURN · PASSIVE ABILITIES	p.23	#1	0.048139 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	CONDITIONAL EFFECTS	p.26	#14	0.026141 (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
#7	RULEBOOK Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	GAMEPLAY · 1 . EXPLORER PHASE · 2. SPAWN PHASE · 3. HORROR PHASE	p.11	#7	0.044103 (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 Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	EXAMPLES OF AFFECTED UNITS:	p.25	#19	0.024642 (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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	GAMEPLAY · 1 . EXPLORER PHASE · 2. SPAWN PHASE · 3. HORROR PHASE	p.11	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	ABILITIES · TYPES OF ABILITIES · ACTIVE ABILITIES · CONCEPT: PLAYING OUTSIDE OF YOUR TURN · PASSIVE ABILITIES	p.23	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Machina Arcana (Second/Third Edition) — Rulebook (corpus doc 1279)	MONSTER QUEUE · EFFECT: SPAWN MONSTER · EFFECT: INCREASE MONSTER THREAT	p.11	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 128 ms · first delta 3642 ms · total 19227 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 11350 ms · retrieval 128 ms · ask 7747 ms · gateway work 7877 ms · total 19227 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3193
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 822
tok/sec: 199.2 tok/sec — 822 output tokens in 4.126 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 23s 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 1209), 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.