RuleSage cited table rulings
← Photosynthesis

You asked

How do I setup the game?

Answered counted as answered

1. Set the main board in the center of the table [1]. 2. Give each player 1 Player Board, 1 Light Point Tracker, 6 Seeds, and 14 Trees (8 small, 4 medium, and 2 tall) that match the tree variety on their Player Board [1]. 3. Stack the Scoring Tokens in 4 piles next to the board in descending order so the highest scores are at the top of each pile, organized by their shade of green and number of leaves [1]. (Note: In a 2 player game, leave the 3 darkest green Scoring Tokens that have 4 leaves printed on them in the box) [1]. 4. On each Player Board, place 4 Seeds, 4 Small Trees, 3 Medium Trees, and 2 Large Trees on the corresponding open spaces [1]. 5. Set the Light Point Tracker on '0' [1]. 6. Place the remaining 2 Seeds, 4 Small Trees, and 1 Medium Tree alongside each Player Board [1]. 7. Place the Sun Segment on the sun symbol printed on the board, ensuring there is enough space around the board to move the sun freely to each of the 6 positions [1]. 8. Set the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Revolution Counters on the edge of the board in numerical order (unless playing the advanced version, in which case leave the 4th counter in the box) [1]. 9. The youngest player starts the game and takes the First Player Token [1].

[1] RULEBOOK Photosynthesis — Rulebook · p.2 · set-up · playInG a round
🔧 debug — where this ruling came from
outcome
ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile
live
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only)
gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings
search 366 ms · ask 4756 ms · total 5133 ms
single-flight (PR-5)
queued 0 ms · generation 5133 ms
retrieval refs (raw)
[{"page": 2, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "Ê Set the main board in the center of the table. A Ê Give each player 1 Player Board, 1 Light Point Tracker, 6 Seeds, and 14 Trees: 8 small, 4 medium and 2 tall ones (matching the tree variety on their Player Board). B Ê Stack the Scoring T okens in 4 piles (according to their shade of green and num", "headingPath": "set-up · playInG a round", "sharpsignalDocId": 143}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.016129, "snippet": "To grow a seed or tree on the board, players can only take a new tree from the available area. T rees and seeds that are replaced from the main board are then placed back on the Player Boards, on the topmost available space. If no corresponding spaces are open, the tree or seed is discarded into the", "headingPath": "· growing a Tree: · endInG a round · end of the Game · advanced varIatIon", "sharpsignalDocId": 143}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.015873, "snippet": "Author: Illustrator: Hjalmar Hach Sabrina Miramon 2 to 4 Players - 8 and up - 45-60 Minutes Several varieties of trees compete to grow and spread their seeds in the sunlight of this small, but fertile, forest. As each tree grows its leaves are touched by the sun's rays, collecting Light Points and c", "headingPath": "IntroductIon · Game components · object of the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 143}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.015625, "snippet": "The player with the First Player T oken moves the Sun Segment clockwise to the next angle on the hexagonal board. Light points are then counted based on the new position of the sun. (Note: the sun doesn't need to be moved when starting the first round of a game). Players get light points for each tr", "headingPath": "1- The PhoTosynThesis Phase:", "sharpsignalDocId": 143}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.015385, "snippet": "Points accumulate from round to round and are scored as follows: Ê A Small Tree scores 1 point Ê A Medium Tree scores 2 points Ê A Large Tree scores 3 points No points are scored for seedlings. Each tree casts a shadow on side opposite the sun as follows: Ê Small T rees cast a 1 space shadow Ê Mediu", "headingPath": "1- The PhoTosynThesis Phase: · Shadow sizes: · 2- The life CyCle Phase: · possIble actIons · · PlanTing a seed:", "sharpsignalDocId": 143}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.015152, "snippet": "Giovanni Intini, Riccardo Sandroni, Karim Khadiri, Angela Lovat, Isabella Fattori, Lorenzo \"Lollo\" Cudicio, Chiara Pezzi, Gabriele Zuttion, Ivano Da Ronco, Pigiu, Roberto Pestrin, Federico Formentini, Davide Bardelli, Marco Piasentier, Filippo Bertolini, Carlo Burelli, Emanuele Degano, Quarta Dimens", "headingPath": "credIts:", "sharpsignalDocId": 143}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.014925, "snippet": "A seed or tree can be replaced only by a tree that is the next size up. Ê Growing from a Seed to a Small Tree costs 1 light point Ê Growing from a Small Tree to a Medium Tree costs 2 light points Ê Growing from a Medium Tree to a Large Tree costs 3 light points", "headingPath": "· growing a Tree:", "sharpsignalDocId": 143}]
citations (raw)
[{"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "set-up · playInG a round", "sharpsignalDocId": 143}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
no registered errata card matched this query; base-rulebook boost: not recorded (this ruling predates it); rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base-rulebook boost: not recorded (this ruling predates it)
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)
debug row retained until
Oct 31, 2026 14:17

score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. How many arms fused this ruling was NOT RECORDED (it predates the boost trail, ran on the path that stored none, or stored one that could not be read), and the ceiling depends on that count (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60): 2 arms top out at 0.03279; 3 arms top out at 0.04918. So a score above 0.03279 here is not an anomaly: it is arithmetic proof a boost arm voted, and the measured band 0.016–0.033 (taken on two-arm asks) is what does not apply. 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 rankdocumentheadingpage fused RRF scoresnippet chars
#1 RULEBOOK Photosynthesis — Rulebook (corpus doc 143) set-up · playInG a round p.2 0.032787 (at the 2-arm ceiling (0.03279) — the top of a 2-arm fuse; whether more arms ran here was never recorded) 300
#2 RULEBOOK Photosynthesis — Rulebook (corpus doc 143) · growing a Tree: · endInG a round · end of the Game · advanced varIatIon p.4 0.016129 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded)) 300
#3 RULEBOOK Photosynthesis — Rulebook (corpus doc 143) IntroductIon · Game components · object of the Game p.1 0.015873 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded) 300
#4 RULEBOOK Photosynthesis — Rulebook (corpus doc 143) 1- The PhoTosynThesis Phase: p.2 0.015625 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded) 300
#5 RULEBOOK Photosynthesis — Rulebook (corpus doc 143) 1- The PhoTosynThesis Phase: · Shadow sizes: · 2- The life CyCle Phase: · possIble actIons · · PlanTing a seed: p.3 0.015385 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded) 300
#6 RULEBOOK Photosynthesis — Rulebook (corpus doc 143) credIts: p.4 0.015152 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded) 300
#7 RULEBOOK Photosynthesis — Rulebook (corpus doc 143) · growing a Tree: p.3 0.014925 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded) 261

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.

#documentheadingpagequote chars
[1] RULEBOOK Photosynthesis — Rulebook (corpus doc 143) set-up · playInG a round p.2 no quote on the wire
timing split
retrieval 366 ms · first delta 2704 ms · total 5133 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 366 ms · ask 4756 ms · gateway work 5133 ms · total 5133 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read)
2617
tokens out (what the answerer generated)
329
tok/sec
138.1 tok/sec — 329 output tokens in 2.383 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child)
answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 21s ago)
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.
outcome
ANSWERED — Answered
abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered)
answered — no abstain rationale applies
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

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 65), 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.