Ruling — San Juan

← San Juan

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: San Juanbg-8217-en-1e

Setup

1. Select a starting player and give them the governor placard.[1]

2. Place the 5 role placards next to each other in the middle of the table.[1]

3. Shuffle the 5 trading house tiles face down and place them in a stack next to the trader placard.[1]

4. Place the role placards, trading house tiles, and card supply in the middle of the table.[2]

5. Each player takes one indigo plant card and 4 cards for his starting hand.[2][1]

6. Place the remaining cards as a face down card supply next to the role cards, with a discard stack opposite them.[1]

7. Place the scoring pad and pencil to the side.[1]

Gameplay

The game is played over several rounds, usually between 11 and 14 rounds.[2] The game ends as soon as a player has 12 buildings in his play area.[3]

A Round:

1. The governor (the starting player) begins.[2]

2. The governor selects a role placard from the middle of the table, places it face up in his play area, and takes the associated action.[2]

3. The next player (the left neighbor) selects a role placard from the middle of the table, places it face up in his play area, and takes the associated action.[2]

4. This continues clockwise around the table until each player has taken the action once.[2]

5. (Note: In a 2-player game, after the opponent has selected a role and both have taken the associated actions, the governor selects a second role, with both players taking the associated action, before the round ends).[2]

6. When all players have selected a role and taken the associated actions, the round ends.[2]

7. Players return used role placards to the middle of the table.[2]

8. The left neighbor of the governor takes the governor placard and becomes the new starting player for the next round.[2]

Role Actions:

* Builder: The player who chose the role may build any one building by placing a card from his hand face up in his play area and discarding cards equal in number to the building cost.[4] The builder's privilege allows him to reduce the building cost by 1 card, but not below 0.[4] Other players may then each build one building as above, but without the privilege.[4]

* Producer: The player who chose the role begins goods production by taking one card from the card supply and placing it face down on an empty production building.[5] He may use his privilege to place one other card from the supply on another empty production building.[5] Next, each other player, in clockwise order, places one card from the supply on an empty production building.[5]

* Trader: The player who chose the role turns over the top-most face down trading house tile to determine prices.[5] He announces which goods he will sell, selling one as a basic action and one other as a privilege.[5] He takes the goods from production buildings and places them face down on the discard stack, then draws cards from the supply equal to the prices of the goods sold.[5] Next, each other player, in clockwise order, may sell any one of his goods for the price shown on the tile.[5] Finally, the trader places the used trading house tile face down under the stack.[5]

* Councillor: The player who chose the role takes 5 cards from the supply (2 as the action and 3 as the privilege), looks at them, adds 1 to his hand, and discards the other 4 face down.[6] Next, each other player takes 2 cards, looks at them, adds 1 to his hand, and discards the other face down.[6]

* Prospector: The player who chose this role draws 1 card and adds it to his hand as a privilege; there is no action for other players.[6]

Ending the Game

1. The game ends when a player has 12 buildings in his play area.[3]

2. Players record their victory points (VP):[3]

* Building victory points [3]

* Cards under the chapel [3]

* Value of 6-value buildings [3]

* Palace [3]

3. The player with the most victory points is the winner.[7][3]

[1] RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook · p.2 · PREPARATION

[2] RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook · p.2 · PLAYING THE GAME

[3] RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook · p.6 · the following rounds:

[4] RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook · p.3 · The roles · Builder (builder phase ❖☎ all build a building) · Note:

[5] RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook · p.4 · Each role · Note:

[6] RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook · p.5 · Note: · Prospector (prospector phase ❖☎ no action)

[7] RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook · p.1 · OVERVIEW · CONTENTS

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 180 ms · ask 6585 ms · total 6770 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 6770 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 2, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "The game is played over several rounds (usually between 11 and 14 rounds). Each round runs as described below. The governor (the starting player) begins. He takes one of the role placards from the middle of the table, places it face up in his play area, and takes the action associated with this role", "headingPath": "PLAYING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.047619, "snippet": "Each role has an associated action (phase) for all players, taken in clockwise order, and a special privilege only for the player who selected the role (exception: prospector) . Basically: The player selecting the role is the first to take the associated action. The other players follow in clockwise", "headingPath": "The roles · Builder (builder phase ❖☎ all build a building) · Note:", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.046402, "snippet": "After each player has chosen a role and the players have taken the associated actions and privileges, the round ends. Players return the used role placards to the middle of the table. The governor's left neighbor takes the governor placard, becoming the new governor. The new governor reminds the own", "headingPath": "A new round · GAME END · The buildings", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.046343, "snippet": "The players select a starting player using any method they want. He takes the g overnor placard. Place the 5 role placards next to each other in the middle of the table. Shuffle the 5 trading house tiles face down and place them in a stack face down next to the trader placard. Each player takes one ", "headingPath": "PREPARATION", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.04598, "snippet": "ANDREAS SEYFARTH Prospector or governor - councilor or builder? Which roles will you play in the new world? You have only one goal: acquire the most wealth and fame! Who will own the most fruitful production facilities? Who will build the most important buildings? Who earns the most victory points..", "headingPath": "OVERVIEW · CONTENTS", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.045475, "snippet": "offers each player one action (exception: prospector) gives a special privilege to the player who chose the role Builder phase: each player may build one building; the builder pays 1 card less During play, the players discard cards face down to the discard stack. Because both the card supply and the", "headingPath": "Each role", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.044002, "snippet": "Producer (producer phase ❖☎ all produce goods) The player, who chose this role (i.e. the producer), begins the goods production. He takes one card from the card supply and places it face down, without looking at the face up side, on any one of his empty (i.e. where no card already lies) production b", "headingPath": "Each role · Note:", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.043301, "snippet": "put role placards back in the middle of the table governor changes - and reminds owners of the chapel checks players' hands for the card limit (7 or 12) begin the new round * Important: the number of cards in a player's hand is always available to other players. The content, of course, is not. as so", "headingPath": "the following rounds:", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PREPARATION", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PLAYING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "the following rounds:", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "The roles · Builder (builder phase ❖☎ all build a building) · Note:", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Each role · Note:", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Note: · Prospector (prospector phase ❖☎ no action)", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}, {"page": 1, "quote": null, "headingPath": "OVERVIEW · CONTENTS", "sharpsignalDocId": 459}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 459 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 459 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 0.90139 of 3174 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 20, 2026 09:26 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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	PLAYING THE GAME	p.2	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	The roles · Builder (builder phase ❖☎ all build a building) · Note:	p.3	0.047619 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	A new round · GAME END · The buildings	p.6	0.046402 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	PREPARATION	p.2	0.046343 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	OVERVIEW · CONTENTS	p.1	0.04598 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	Each role	p.3	0.045475 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	Each role · Note:	p.4	0.044002 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	the following rounds:	p.6	0.043301 (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 17 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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	PLAYING THE GAME	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
#2	RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	OVERVIEW · CONTENTS	p.1	#5	0.04598 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	The roles · Builder (builder phase ❖☎ all build a building) · Note:	p.3	#2	0.047619 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	Each role · Note:	p.4	#7	0.044002 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	the following rounds:	p.6	#8	0.043301 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	Note: · Prospector (prospector phase ❖☎ no action)	p.5	#9	0.030118 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	Each role	p.3	#6	0.045475 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	PREPARATION	p.2	#4	0.046343 (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 San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	PREPARATION	p.2	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	PLAYING THE GAME	p.2	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	the following rounds:	p.6	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	The roles · Builder (builder phase ❖☎ all build a building) · Note:	p.3	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	Each role · Note:	p.4	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	Note: · Prospector (prospector phase ❖☎ no action)	p.5	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK San Juan — Rulebook (corpus doc 459)	OVERVIEW · CONTENTS	p.1	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 180 ms · first delta 1762 ms · total 6770 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 180 ms · ask 6585 ms · gateway work 6770 ms · total 6770 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3166
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 959
tok/sec: 195.0 tok/sec — 959 output tokens in 4.918 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 18s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 6s 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 389), 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.