Ruling — Near and Far

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Near and Farbg-195421-en-1e

Near and Far can be played in four different modes:

* **The First Adventure:** Recommended for new players, this mode introduces basic mechanics and stories using Map 1 (Glogo Caverns).[1] Players read quests from Map 1 in the storybook and follow basic rules, ignoring rules in shaded boxes.[1]

* **Campaign Mode:** This mode takes players through the entire world, playing maps consecutively from Map 2 (Broken Plains) to Map 11 (The Last Ruin).[1] Players read map-based quests from the storybook and use basic rules plus all rules in shaded boxes labeled Campaign Mode.[1] Players must keep track of experience points, talents, keywords, and side quests on character cards.[1]

* **Arcade Mode:** These are short, action-based adventures.[2] Players choose any map from 1-11 and use Arcade Mode cards instead of reading quests from the storybook.[2] Players use basic rules plus all rules in shaded boxes labeled Arcade Mode.[2]

* **Character Mode:** Players take one of eight unique characters on a journey to find the Last Ruin.[2] Players play through a selection of 3 or more maps (chosen from Maps 2-10), ending on Map 11.[2] Players read character-specific quests from the storybook and use character cards to track quests, experience points, talents, and keywords.[2] Players use basic rules plus all rules in shaded boxes labeled Character Mode.[2]

**Setup**

1. Place the town board on the table, "dusk" side face up.[3]

2. Place 3 pack birds per player on the stables.[3]

3. Shuffle the treasure cards and place the stack face down on the Mystic's Hut.[3]

4. Separate the animal companion tokens from the adventurers.[3]

5. Put the adventurers in the cloth bag and place it next to the town board.[3]

6. Draw 5 adventurers and place them face up in the adventurer spaces on the upper left of the town board.[3]

7. Place the 4 chief cards near the town board, face up.[3]

8. Turn the atlas to Map 1: Glogo Caverns and place the atlas below the town board.[3]

**A Player's Turn**

A player may do one of two things on their turn: visit town OR adventure.[4]

**Visiting Town**

1. Move the character standee to one of the buildings on the town board and take the action on that building.[4]

2. If the building is occupied by another player, you must duel them for the right to take that location's action, unless you are visiting the Saloon.[4]

3. If a player is already in town at the beginning of their turn, they must either go adventuring or move to a new, unoccupied building and perform that new building's action.[4]

4. All players must visit town during the first round of the game.[4]

**Building Actions (Town Hall)**

Players may perform any or all of the three actions (each only once, in any order):

1. **Trade:** Pay up to 5 goods to gain 1 good, or pay 1 good to gain up to 5 goods, based on the values in the provided table.[4] Adventurers and chiefs cannot be traded.[4]

2. **Reputation:** Pay any amount of coins/gems to gain or lose 1 reputation for each one spent, adjusting the reputation marker on the reputation track.[4]

3. **Discard:** The player may discard 1 unpurchased artifact card from their hand.[4]

[1] RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook · p.4 · How do I play Near and Far? · First Adventure · A sweeping story across each map in the Near and Far game atlas

[2] RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook · p.5 · A short game with fast-paced choices and no campaign elements · Character Mode

[3] RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook · p.8 · Arcade Mode · Character Mode · Campaign Mode · Setting up the Game

[4] RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook · p.15 · A Player's Turn · Visit Town · Town Hall

🔧 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 7279 ms · total 24617 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 17241 ms · generation 7376 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 8, "score": 0.047938, "snippet": "Choose any map from Map 1-11. For special map rules, refer to page 39. Choose any map from 2-10 until all players' characters have completed their first 8 quests. Then play the final game on Map 11: The Last Ruin. For special map rules, refer to page 39. Play through all the maps consecutively from ", "headingPath": "Arcade Mode · Character Mode · Campaign Mode · Setting up the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 29, "score": 0.047643, "snippet": "Play through one game on Map 1: Glogo Caverns. Play with map quests (marked on spaces on the map, see pg. 21). Play through all game maps in order (exluding Map 1, Glogo Caverns). Players will play 10 games, starting with Map 2: The Broken Plains and ending with Map 11: The Last Ruin. Players must p", "headingPath": "First Adventure · Campaign Mode · Character Mode · Arcade Mode · Campaign/Character Mode End", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.046432, "snippet": "Near and Far can be played in four different modes, allowing you to customize the depth and scope of your adventure. Recommended for any groups who are new to Near and Far The First Adventure introduces the basic mechanics and stories of the game and is the best way to get comfortable with the rules", "headingPath": "How do I play Near and Far? · First Adventure · A sweeping story across each map in the Near and Far game atlas", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 30, "score": 0.044453, "snippet": "The following is an example of a few turns taken by one player at the start of a game: Tom is the first player and starts the game. He takes his character standee from his player board and places it on the Saloon building on the town board. He pays two coins to gain one red-faction adventurer (with ", "headingPath": "Example of Play", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 17, "score": 0.042671, "snippet": "If a player wishes to visit a building occupied by another player in town, the player may attempt a duel. Winning a duel allows the active player to gain or lose 1 reputation as well as take the action of the building occupied by their opponent. How duels work: First, the active player declares who ", "headingPath": "Dueling", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 15, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "A player may do one of two things on their turn: visit town OR adventure. A player may visit town by moving their character standee to one of the buildings on the town board and taking the action on that building. Players should place their character on the picture of the building so that it doesn't", "headingPath": "A Player's Turn · Visit Town · Town Hall", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 40, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Choose one action per turn. Visit a building in town and perform the action there. If leaving town, organize party, reset hearts, and place character on the town space on the map. Move, attempt a quest, and/or build a camp. In that order. Can be done at any time in a player's turn, can be done more ", "headingPath": "Player Actions · Visit Town · Adventure · Free Action : Buy an Artifact", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 32, "score": 0.029469, "snippet": "Character Mode The diagram below shows how to use character cards in Character Mode. Each time you complete a quest, write the next quest that you will read here. Ignore these rows of boxes. They are used for Campaign Mode. If you complete every character quest on your card, you gain 7 journey point", "headingPath": "Example of Play", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "How do I play Near and Far? · First Adventure · A sweeping story across each map in the Near and Far game atlas", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "A short game with fast-paced choices and no campaign elements · Character Mode", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Arcade Mode · Character Mode · Campaign Mode · Setting up the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}, {"page": 15, "quote": null, "headingPath": "A Player's Turn · Visit Town · Town Hall", "sharpsignalDocId": 361}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 361 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 361 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 0.89474 of 2603 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row retained until: Nov 14, 2026 20:28

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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Arcade Mode · Character Mode · Campaign Mode · Setting up the Game	p.8	0.047938 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	First Adventure · Campaign Mode · Character Mode · Arcade Mode · Campaign/Character Mode End	p.29	0.047643 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	How do I play Near and Far? · First Adventure · A sweeping story across each map in the Near and Far game atlas	p.4	0.046432 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Example of Play	p.30	0.044453 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Dueling	p.17	0.042671 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	A Player's Turn · Visit Town · Town Hall	p.15	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
#7	RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Player Actions · Visit Town · Adventure · Free Action : Buy an Artifact	p.40	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
#8	RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Example of Play	p.32	0.029469 (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 60 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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	How do I play Near and Far? · First Adventure · A sweeping story across each map in the Near and Far game atlas	p.4	#3	0.046432 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Arcade Mode · Character Mode · Campaign Mode · Setting up the Game	p.8	#1	0.047938 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Welcome to Near and Far · Near and Far is an atlas game. · Near and Far is a storytelling game , · Near and Far is a campaign game.	p.3	#19	0.024415 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	A short game with fast-paced choices and no campaign elements · Character Mode	p.5	#11	0.028814 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Example of Play	p.30	#4	0.044453 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Dueling	p.17	#18	0.024423 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	A Player's Turn · Visit Town · Town Hall	p.15	#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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Starting a character mid-campaign	p.37	#10	0.028986 (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 Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	How do I play Near and Far? · First Adventure · A sweeping story across each map in the Near and Far game atlas	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	A short game with fast-paced choices and no campaign elements · Character Mode	p.5	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	Arcade Mode · Character Mode · Campaign Mode · Setting up the Game	p.8	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Near and Far — Rulebook (corpus doc 361)	A Player's Turn · Visit Town · Town Hall	p.15	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 91 ms · first delta 3489 ms · total 24617 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 17241 ms · retrieval 91 ms · ask 7279 ms · gateway work 7376 ms · total 24617 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 2810
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 787
tok/sec: 204.9 tok/sec — 787 output tokens in 3.841 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 12s 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.

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 290), 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.