Ruling — Dead Man's Draw

You asked

How do I setup the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Dead Man's Drawbg-149155-en-1e

1. To form the Discard Pile, remove the Loot Cards with the lowest number from each suit (nine Loot Cards with the value of 2, and one Mermaid card with the value of 4) and shuffle these ten cards together.[1]

2. Place the Discard Pile face up on one side of the Main Area.[1]

3. To form the Draw Pile, shuffle the remaining fifty Loot Cards and place this deck face down on the opposite side of the Main Area.[1]

4. The Play Area is the empty area between the Draw Pile and Discard Pile, left with enough room for ten cards to be played in a row.[1]

5. The Banks are the areas directly in front of each player, large enough to fit ten Suit Stacks (one for each of the ten suits).[1]

6. Shuffle the Gameplay Cards (including one 'Starting Player' card per player) and deal one card to each player to determine the starting player and serve as player aids.[1]

7. At the start of the game, shuffle and deal each player two Trait cards.[2]

8. Players choose one Trait card to keep and discard the second back to the game box, then reveal their chosen Trait card to other players.[2]

[1] RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook · p.4 · Set up:

[2] RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook · p.10 · Traits: · Casanova, Mermaid: · Plunderer, Key & Chest: · Treasure Hunter, Key & Chest:

The book has spoken.

🔧 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 198 ms · ask 2264 ms · total 2465 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 2465 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 4, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "The Main Area in the center consists of three parts: To form the Discard Pile, remove the Loot Cards with the lowest number from each suit. (Nine Loot Cards with the value of 2 , and one Mermaid card with the value of 4 .) Shuffle these ten Loot Cards together. Place the Discard Pile face up on one ", "headingPath": "Set up:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "If there is a Key & Chest in the Play Area when you Collect, draw as many bonus cards from the Discard Pile as you moved into your Bank . Example: Zach chooses Collect and he has five cards in the Play Area . Two of them are a Key & Chest. After he moves five cards from the Play Area into his Bank ,", "headingPath": "Key & Chest: · Map: · Oracle:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "Instead of drawing another card you may Collect. When you Collect, move all the cards from the Play Area to your Bank . Organize the cards in your Bank by suit, creating one Suit Stack for each of the ten suits. Cards in each Suit Stack should be placed in descending order ( 7 on the top down to 2 o", "headingPath": "Collect, Bank: · End of Turn: · Game End: · Determining Winner: · Tie:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "On your turn draw the top card from the Draw Pile and place it face up in the Play Area . Any time a card is placed in the Play Area , whether from the Draw Pile , Discard Pile or any player's Bank , you MUST activate the Suit Ability. The only exceptions are the Key & Chest cards whose Suit Abiliti", "headingPath": "Draw a Card: · The Most Important Rule: · Draw if you Dare!", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Instead of picking one of three random cards from the Discard Pile , you may pick any one card from the entire Discard Pile . Discard the entire Suit Stack instead of just the top card. Place the card discarded by your Cannon into your Bank instead of the Discard Pile . Mystic, Oracle: Reveal three ", "headingPath": "Navigator, Map: · Master Gunner, Cannons: · Scavenger, Cannon: · Miser, Hook:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "Collect all cards drawn before the Anchor, even if you Bust. Example: Eliza has two cards in the Play Area, a Mermaid and a Cannon. She draws an Anchor, then draws another Mermaid and gets a Bust. The first Mermaid and the Cannon are moved to her Bank . The Anchor and second Mermaid are discarded. C", "headingPath": "Anchor: · Hook: · Cannon:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.030092, "snippet": "Davy Jones' Locker: Choose only one opponent in a game. You Bank their cards when they Bust. SIREN Bank your opponents' are as soon as they are drawn from the Draw Pile. To play Dead Man's Draw with the Mermaid Suit Ability, remove the 8 and 9 value Mermaid cards from the Loot Cards. Add the 2 and 3", "headingPath": "Parry, Sword: · Mermaid Variant Rules: Sir Lovesword · Mermaid Suit Ability:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Sword: Steal the top card from any other player's Suit Stack and place the stolen card in the Play Area . You must choose a Suit Stack of an opponent that you do not have in your own Bank , even if the chosen card will cause you to Bust. Example: Zach draws a Sword. Zach has Anchor, Hook, and Cannon", "headingPath": "Oracle: · Kraken:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Set up:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}, {"page": 10, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Traits: · Casanova, Mermaid: · Plunderer, Key & Chest: · Treasure Hunter, Key & Chest:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1211}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1211 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1211 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 0.92580 of 876 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Oct 24, 2026 18:33 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 Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Set up:	p.4	0.032787 (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 Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Key & Chest: · Map: · Oracle:	p.8	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
#3	RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Collect, Bank: · End of Turn: · Game End: · Determining Winner: · Tie:	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
#4	RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Draw a Card: · The Most Important Rule: · Draw if you Dare!	p.5	0.03125 (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 Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Navigator, Map: · Master Gunner, Cannons: · Scavenger, Cannon: · Miser, Hook:	p.11	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 Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Anchor: · Hook: · Cannon:	p.7	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 Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Parry, Sword: · Mermaid Variant Rules: Sir Lovesword · Mermaid Suit Ability:	p.13	0.030092 (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 Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Oracle: · Kraken:	p.9	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

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 Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Collect, Bank: · End of Turn: · Game End: · Determining Winner: · Tie:	p.6	#3	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
#2	RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Traits: · Casanova, Mermaid: · Plunderer, Key & Chest: · Treasure Hunter, Key & Chest:	p.10	#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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#3	RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Parry, Sword: · Mermaid Variant Rules: Sir Lovesword · Mermaid Suit Ability:	p.13	#7	0.030092 (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
#4	RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Oracle: · Kraken:	p.9	#8	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 Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Key & Chest: · Map: · Oracle:	p.8	#2	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
#6	RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Anchor: · Hook: · Cannon:	p.7	#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
#7	RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Set up:	p.4	#1	0.032787 (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 Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Draw a Card: · The Most Important Rule: · Draw if you Dare!	p.5	#4	0.03125 (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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Set up:	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Dead Man's Draw — Rulebook (corpus doc 1211)	Traits: · Casanova, Mermaid: · Plunderer, Key & Chest: · Treasure Hunter, Key & Chest:	p.10	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 198 ms · first delta 1080 ms · total 2465 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 198 ms · ask 2264 ms · gateway work 2465 ms · total 2465 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 2380
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 268
tok/sec: 203.0 tok/sec — 268 output tokens in 1.320 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 37s ago)
gateway schema (read from the running child): schema head 0042_definer_search_path (live revision not readable by this principal)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 5h, 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: NO_APPROVED_CHECKLIST — setup-shaped, but no approved setup checklist exists for this game
pattern that matched: SETUP — "setup" / "set up"
matched words (in the normalized question): setup

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 1141), 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.