Ruling — Descent: Journeys in the Dark

← Descent: Journeys in the Dark

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Descent: Journeys in the Darkbg-17226-en-1e

### Setup

1. Choose Overlord Player [1]

2. Choose Heroes [1]

3. Set Up Hero Markers [1]

4. The first hero shuffles the cardboard hero sheets and deals one randomly to each hero player, starting with himself and continuing clockwise (or hero players may choose heroes, starting with the first hero and continuing clockwise) [1]

5. Each hero player receives the number of wound and fatigue tokens indicated on his hero sheet, 300 coins, one set of order tokens (1 aim, 1 dodge, 1 guard, and 1 rest), and one hero turn token [1]

6. The overlord player places any monster figures, doors, or markers indicated in the start area of the quest [2]

7. If a chest is indicated, the overlord draws a random chest Maker from the appropriate pile, looks at its back, and places it face up in the indicated space on the board [2]

8. Hero players separate the three skill decks (subterfuge, fighting, and wizardry) and shuffle each individually [3]

9. Hero players draw the number and type of skill cards indicated on their hero sheet, and may trade in one card for a new card from the same deck, one player at a time, starting with the first hero and continuing clockwise [3]

10. Hero players may use money to purchase items from the town shop deck or purchase healing or vitality potions for 50 coins each [3]

### Round Sequence

1. The round begins with the hero players taking turns [2]

2. Each hero player may only be chosen to take a turn once each round [4]

3. The hero players collectively choose the order in which they take their turns each round [2]

4. Once all heroes have had a turn, the overlord takes his turn [4]

5. After the overlord player has taken his turn, the round is over and the next round begins with the heroes taking their turns once again [2]

### Hero Turn

A hero player's turn is divided into three steps:[4]

1. Step 1: Refresh cards (the player refreshes all exhausted cards by returning them to their upright position) [4]

2. Step 2: Equip items (the player chooses which items to equip, subject to limits) [4]

3. Step 3: Take an action (the player must choose one of four possible actions) [4]

4. After the hero has resolved his entire action, his turn is over and play passes to the player on his left [4]

### Overlord Turn

The overlord player's turn consists of the following steps:[5]

1. Step 1: Collect Threat and Draw Cards (the overlord collects one threat token for every hero and draws two cards; he may discard cards to collect extra threat tokens and must discard down to eight cards or less) [5]

2. Step 2: Spawn Monsters (the overlord may play one spawn card, paying the indicated threat cost, and place the indicated monsters on the board) [5][6]

3. Step 3: Activate Monsters (the overlord may activate each monster on the board once during his turn by declaring which monster is activating and consulting reference cards; an activated monster may move up to its speed and make one attack) [5]

4. The overlord may play power cards in step 3 before activating his first monster [7]

5. After the overlord player has had the chance to activate every monster on the board, his turn is over [5]

[1] RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook · p.6 · Overlord Cards · Monster Reference Cards · Game Setup · 1. Choose Overlord Player · 2A. Choose Heroes · 3A. Set Up Hero Markers

[2] RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook · p.7 · 5B. Put Starting Pieces on the Board · Hero Turn Order · The Round Sequence · One Round Consists of:

[3] RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook · p.6 · 4A. Deal Starting Skill Cards · 5A. Purchase Starting Equipment

[4] RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook · p.8 · One Round Consists of: · Step 1: Refresh Cards · Step 2: Equip Items · Step 3: Take an Action · A. Run

[5] RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook · p.9 · Overlord Player ' s Turn · Step 1: Collect Threat and Draw Cards · Step 2: Spawn Monsters · Step 3: Activate Monsters

[6] RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook · p.12 · Spawning Monsters · Other Rules · Ammo

[7] RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook · p.12 · Discarding Overlord Cards · Spawn Cards · Power Cards

The sage rests. The game continues.

🔧 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 76 ms · ask 8819 ms · total 8896 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 8896 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 9, "score": 0.046635, "snippet": "Important: The overlord may play cards that say 'Play at the start of your turn' any time before activating his first monster for the turn. The overlord player collects one threat token for every hero, and then draws two cards from the top of the overlord deck. The overlord player may then discard o", "headingPath": "Overlord Player ' s Turn · Step 1: Collect Threat and Draw Cards · Step 2: Spawn Monsters · Step 3: Activate Monsters", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.046452, "snippet": "Finally, the overlord player places any monster figures, doors, or markers indicated in the start area of the quest. If a chest is indicated, the overlord draws a random chest Makers from the appropriate pile, looks at its back, and then places it face up in the indicated space on the board. Play no", "headingPath": "5B. Put Starting Pieces on the Board · Hero Turn Order · The Round Sequence · One Round Consists of:", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.045945, "snippet": "take a turn, and so on. Each hero player may only be chosen to take a turn once each round, and once all of the heroes have had a turn, the overlord takes his turn. If the player's cannot decide on the order in which to take their turns, the first hero decides. Some cards are exhausted when they are", "headingPath": "One Round Consists of: · Step 1: Refresh Cards · Step 2: Equip Items · Step 3: Take an Action · A. Run", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.045591, "snippet": "The hero players separate the three skill decks (subterfuge, fighting, and wizardry) and shuffle each of them individually. Then the hero players draw their skill cards, each player drawing the number and type of skill cards indicated on his hero sheet. Each hero player may then choose to trade in o", "headingPath": "4A. Deal Starting Skill Cards · 5A. Purchase Starting Equipment", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.044776, "snippet": "The overlord player draws these cards each turn. He can play them to spawn new monsters, take special actions, or gain permanent powers that last throughout the game. For more information on overlord cards, see page 21. These cards list the game rules and statistics for the different monsters in the", "headingPath": "Overlord Cards · Monster Reference Cards · Game Setup · 1. Choose Overlord Player · 2A. Choose Heroes · 3A. Set Up Hero Markers", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.043905, "snippet": "should only assemble map pieces⎯he should not place any doors, figures, props, etc. on the map at this time. The overlord player places the compass rose token and the town marker near the board as well. 5B. Put Starting Pieces on the Board Finally, the overlord player places any monster figures, doo", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.042498, "snippet": "The heart of Descent: Journeys in the Dark is the quest. Before every game, a quest must be chosen. Each individual quest tells you how to set up the game, explains any special rules, and describes the conditions by which the hero players and overlord player alike can win the game. Feel free to inve", "headingPath": "Quests · Object of the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Line of sight is blocked by walls, closed doors, other figures, and blocking obstacles. Thus you cannot, for instance, shoot directly through one monster to hit another monster behind it. Next, the attacking player counts the number of spaces from the space occupied by the attacking figure to the ta", "headingPath": "Step 2: Confirm Line of Sight · Step 3: Count Range and Roll Attack · Step 4: Determine Attack Success · Step 5: Power Enhancements, Power Surges, and Fatigue", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Overlord Cards · Monster Reference Cards · Game Setup · 1. Choose Overlord Player · 2A. Choose Heroes · 3A. Set Up Hero Markers", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "5B. Put Starting Pieces on the Board · Hero Turn Order · The Round Sequence · One Round Consists of:", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "4A. Deal Starting Skill Cards · 5A. Purchase Starting Equipment", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "One Round Consists of: · Step 1: Refresh Cards · Step 2: Equip Items · Step 3: Take an Action · A. Run", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 9, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Overlord Player ' s Turn · Step 1: Collect Threat and Draw Cards · Step 2: Spawn Monsters · Step 3: Activate Monsters", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 12, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Spawning Monsters · Other Rules · Ammo", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}, {"page": 12, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Discarding Overlord Cards · Spawn Cards · Power Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 600}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 600 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 600 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 0.91663 of 2555 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row retained until: Nov 22, 2026 17:18 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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Overlord Player ' s Turn · Step 1: Collect Threat and Draw Cards · Step 2: Spawn Monsters · Step 3: Activate Monsters	p.9	0.046635 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	5B. Put Starting Pieces on the Board · Hero Turn Order · The Round Sequence · One Round Consists of:	p.7	0.046452 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	One Round Consists of: · Step 1: Refresh Cards · Step 2: Equip Items · Step 3: Take an Action · A. Run	p.8	0.045945 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	4A. Deal Starting Skill Cards · 5A. Purchase Starting Equipment	p.6	0.045591 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Overlord Cards · Monster Reference Cards · Game Setup · 1. Choose Overlord Player · 2A. Choose Heroes · 3A. Set Up Hero Markers	p.6	0.044776 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)		p.7	0.043905 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Quests · Object of the Game	p.3	0.042498 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Step 2: Confirm Line of Sight · Step 3: Count Range and Roll Attack · Step 4: Determine Attack Success · Step 5: Power Enhancements, Power Surges, and Fatigue	p.10	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

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 54 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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Overlord Player ' s Turn · Step 1: Collect Threat and Draw Cards · Step 2: Spawn Monsters · Step 3: Activate Monsters	p.9	#1	0.046635 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Overlord Cards · Monster Reference Cards · Game Setup · 1. Choose Overlord Player · 2A. Choose Heroes · 3A. Set Up Hero Markers	p.6	#5	0.044776 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Spawning Monsters · Other Rules · Ammo	p.12	#14	0.026585 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Discarding Overlord Cards · Spawn Cards · Power Cards	p.12	#12	0.02895 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	4A. Deal Starting Skill Cards · 5A. Purchase Starting Equipment	p.6	#4	0.045591 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Quests · Object of the Game	p.3	#7	0.042498 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	One Round Consists of: · Step 1: Refresh Cards · Step 2: Equip Items · Step 3: Take an Action · A. Run	p.8	#3	0.045945 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	5B. Put Starting Pieces on the Board · Hero Turn Order · The Round Sequence · One Round Consists of:	p.7	#2	0.046452 (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 Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Overlord Cards · Monster Reference Cards · Game Setup · 1. Choose Overlord Player · 2A. Choose Heroes · 3A. Set Up Hero Markers	p.6	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	5B. Put Starting Pieces on the Board · Hero Turn Order · The Round Sequence · One Round Consists of:	p.7	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	4A. Deal Starting Skill Cards · 5A. Purchase Starting Equipment	p.6	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	One Round Consists of: · Step 1: Refresh Cards · Step 2: Equip Items · Step 3: Take an Action · A. Run	p.8	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Overlord Player ' s Turn · Step 1: Collect Threat and Draw Cards · Step 2: Spawn Monsters · Step 3: Activate Monsters	p.9	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Spawning Monsters · Other Rules · Ammo	p.12	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Descent: Journeys in the Dark — Rulebook (corpus doc 600)	Discarding Overlord Cards · Spawn Cards · Power Cards	p.12	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 76 ms · first delta 3083 ms · total 8896 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 76 ms · ask 8819 ms · gateway work 8896 ms · total 8896 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3294
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 764
tok/sec: 133.4 tok/sec — 764 output tokens in 5.725 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 21s 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 60h, checked 9s 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 532), 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.