Ruling — Forbidden Desert

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Forbidden Desertbg-136063-en-1e

### Setup

1. Examine the 24 desert/city tiles and turn them all desert-side up.[1]

2. Shuffle the tiles and randomly place them desert-side up in a 5 x 5 square grid with a hole in the middle.[1]

3. Add 8 Sand markers to the board with the lighter colored side facing up, and place the remaining markers in a supply pile.[1]

4. Remove the 4 flying machine parts from the machine and place them nearby.[1]

5. Insert the Sand Storm meter into the holder and set the meter clip according to the number of players and desired difficulty level.[1]

6. Separate the cards into the Storm deck, Equipment deck, and Adventurer cards, then shuffle the Storm and Equipment decks and place them face down.[1]

7. Shuffle the 6 Adventurer cards and randomly deal 1 to each player.[2]

8. Players read their roles and powers aloud.[2]

9. Attach a meter clip to each player's Adventurer card to cover the top mark of their canteen (usually 4).[2]

10. Place a pawn matching the color of your Adventurer card on the 'helicopter crash' tile.[2]

### Order of Play

1. The thirstiest player goes first, and play continues to the left.[3]

2. On every turn, draw Storm cards equal to the Sand Storm level.[3]

3. Take up to 4 actions (0, 1, 2, 3, or 4).[3]

4. Select any combination of the following actions:

* **Move**: Move a pawn to an adjacent, unblocked tile (up, down, left, or right, but never diagonally) or between unblocked tunnel tiles for 1 action per move.[3] A tile is blocked if it has 2 or more Sand markers.[3] You may never move through the empty space containing the Sand Storm.[3]

* **Remove Sand**: Remove Sand markers from your tile or an adjacent tile (up, down, left, or right) for 1 action per marker.[3] Place removed markers back into the supply pile.[3]

* **Excavate**: If your pawn is on the desert side of a tile with no Sand markers, you may excavate it for 1 action.[3] Flip the tile to its 'excavated' (city) side, ensuring the icon is in the lower right corner relative to North.[3] Note that you cannot undo an excavate action.[3]

* **Pick Up a Part**: For 1 action, you may pick up a revealed Flying Machine part on an unblocked and excavated tile and place it in front of you.[3] If the part is on an unexcavated tile, you must excavate it first.[3]

### Additional Rules

* **Sharing and Passing**: Players on the same tile may share water and pass equipment cards for free at any time.[4] To share water, one player moves their canteen meter down and the other moves theirs up by the same amount (not exceeding the maximum).[4]

* **Storm Effects**: When a "Sun Beats Down" card is drawn, all players not on a tile with a Tunnel or protected by a Solar Shield must drink 1 water (lower the water meter).[5]

* **Equipment**: Equipment cards are drawn from the Equipment deck and kept by the player who possesses them, though they can be passed for free to others on the same tile.[6]

### Winning and Losing

* **Winning**: Once the team has collected all four parts, all players must race to the Launch Pad tile (which must be unblocked) to assemble the machine and take off.[3][5]

* **Losing**: The game ends in defeat if any of the following occur:

* **Thirst**: A player reaches the symbol on their canteen.[5]

* **Buried**: You need to add a Sand marker to a tile but none remain in the supply.[5]

* **Swept Away**: The Sand Storm meter reaches the symbol.[5]

[1] RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook · p.2 · 1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards

[2] RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook · p.2 · 7. The Adventurers Appear

[3] RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook · p.3 · Order of Play · 1. Take Up to 4 Actions · Move · Remove Sand · Excavate · Pick Up a Part

[4] RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook · p.3 · Share Water and Pass Equipment · The Water Carrier spends 4 actions:

[5] RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook · p.6 · Sun Beats Down · When the Storm Draw Pile Runs Out · Winning the Game · Losing the Game

[6] RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook · p.4 · Water (3 tiles) · Gear (12 tiles) · Part Location Clues (2 tiles for each flying machine part)

🔧 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 90 ms · ask 5737 ms · total 5829 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 5829 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 3, "score": 0.048916, "snippet": "The thirstiest player goes first and play continues to the left. On every turn, do the following things in order: Take up to 4 actions. Draw Storm cards equal to the Sand Storm level. The parts of each turn are described below. Also note that every Adventurer card shows a quick reference guide on th", "headingPath": "Order of Play · 1. Take Up to 4 Actions · Move · Remove\tSand · Excavate · Pick\tUp\ta\tPart", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.048139, "snippet": "Look at the 24 desert/city tiles to get an idea of what they look like on each side. (See 'Special Tiles and Symbols' for more.) Then, turn them all desert-side up. Important: You may not peek at the tiles once they've been turned over! Shuffle the desert/city tiles and randomly place them desert si", "headingPath": "1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.047123, "snippet": "Once you've won the Novice game, try starting the Sand Storm meter at the Normal, Elite, or Legendary difficulty settings. Also, try playing with a different mix of adventurers. When we launched Forbidden Island in 2010, we had an inkling that we had created a hit game but never thought that we'd be", "headingPath": "Difficulty · A Word from Gamewright · Credits · Archeologist · Climber · Explorer · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "Shuffle the 6 Adventurer cards and randomly deal 1 to each player. Take a moment to read aloud your role and powers written on the front of your card so your teammates know your strengths. (More details can be found in 'Meet the Adventurers'.) You'll find you need to take advantage of each player's ", "headingPath": "7. The Adventurers Appear", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "This ancient city featured an underground system of tunnels-perfect for getting around under protection from the desert sun. You may move between any two excavated Tunnel tiles for 1 action. However, you may not move to a tunnel tile that contains two or more Sand markers. Tunnels also provide shelt", "headingPath": "Tunnels (3 tiles) · Launch Pad (1 tile) · 2. Draw Sand Storm Cards · Wind Blows", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "In addition to the above actions, players on the same tile may share water and pass equipment cards at any time during the game for free . To share water, one player moves her canteen meter down 1 or more tick marks and the other player moves his water meter up the same number of tick marks. Note: Y", "headingPath": "Share Water and Pass Equipment · The Water Carrier spends 4 actions:", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.030118, "snippet": "Three desert tiles contain a water symbol in the bottom right corner to indicate that there may be water hidden underneath. When you excavate a tile with this symbol and it reveals a well, every player with a pawn currently on the tile may at once (and only once) add two water to their canteens. You", "headingPath": "Water (3 tiles) · Gear (12 tiles) · Part Location Clues (2 tiles for each flying machine part)", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "There are 4 Sun Beats Down cards in the Storm deck. When you draw a Sun Beats Down card, all players that are not currently on a tile containing a Tunnel or protected by a Solar Shield must drink 1 water. (Lower the water meter on your canteen to the next lower tick mark.) If any player reaches the ", "headingPath": "Sun Beats Down · When\tthe\tStorm\tDraw\tPile\tRuns\tOut · Winning the Game · Losing the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "7. The Adventurers Appear", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Order of Play · 1. Take Up to 4 Actions · Move · Remove\tSand · Excavate · Pick\tUp\ta\tPart", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Share Water and Pass Equipment · The Water Carrier spends 4 actions:", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Sun Beats Down · When\tthe\tStorm\tDraw\tPile\tRuns\tOut · Winning the Game · Losing the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Water (3 tiles) · Gear (12 tiles) · Part Location Clues (2 tiles for each flying machine part)", "sharpsignalDocId": 232}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 232 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 232 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 0.88608 of 2765 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row retained until: Nov 15, 2026 07:17

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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Order of Play · 1. Take Up to 4 Actions · Move · Remove Sand · Excavate · Pick Up a Part	p.3	0.048916 (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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards	p.2	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
#3	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Difficulty · A Word from Gamewright · Credits · Archeologist · Climber · Explorer · …	p.7	0.047123 (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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	7. The Adventurers Appear	p.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))	300
#5	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Tunnels (3 tiles) · Launch Pad (1 tile) · 2. Draw Sand Storm Cards · Wind Blows	p.5	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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Share Water and Pass Equipment · The Water Carrier spends 4 actions:	p.3	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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Water (3 tiles) · Gear (12 tiles) · Part Location Clues (2 tiles for each flying machine part)	p.4	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))	300
#8	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Sun Beats Down · When the Storm Draw Pile Runs Out · Winning the Game · Losing the Game	p.6	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 13 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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Order of Play · 1. Take Up to 4 Actions · Move · Remove Sand · Excavate · Pick Up a Part	p.3	#1	0.048916 (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 Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	7. The Adventurers Appear	p.2	#4	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
#3	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Navigator · Water Carrier	p.7	#11	0.014085 (below 0.016, the low end of the measured band — a weak fuse (that band was taken on two-arm asks; only its low end, one arm's #1 vote, carries over to a 3-arm one))	vector	the re-ranker chose it
#4	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Water (3 tiles) · Gear (12 tiles) · Part Location Clues (2 tiles for each flying machine part)	p.4	#7	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
#5	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Sun Beats Down · When the Storm Draw Pile Runs Out · Winning the Game · Losing the Game	p.6	#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
#6	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Difficulty · A Word from Gamewright · Credits · Archeologist · Climber · Explorer · …	p.7	#3	0.047123 (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
#7	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Share Water and Pass Equipment · The Water Carrier spends 4 actions:	p.3	#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
#8	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards	p.2	#2	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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	1. Examine the Tiles · 2. Create the Desert · 3. Place Sand markers · 4. Place the Flying Machine Parts · 5. Set the Sand Storm Level · 6. Divide the Cards	p.2	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	7. The Adventurers Appear	p.2	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Order of Play · 1. Take Up to 4 Actions · Move · Remove Sand · Excavate · Pick Up a Part	p.3	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Share Water and Pass Equipment · The Water Carrier spends 4 actions:	p.3	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Sun Beats Down · When the Storm Draw Pile Runs Out · Winning the Game · Losing the Game	p.6	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Forbidden Desert — Rulebook (corpus doc 232)	Water (3 tiles) · Gear (12 tiles) · Part Location Clues (2 tiles for each flying machine part)	p.4	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 90 ms · first delta 1453 ms · total 5829 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 90 ms · ask 5737 ms · gateway work 5829 ms · total 5829 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 2983
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 878
tok/sec: 202.4 tok/sec — 878 output tokens in 4.338 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 51s 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 158), 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.