Ruling — Carpe Diem

You asked

How do I setup the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Carpe Diembg-245934-en-1e

Before the first game, carefully punch all pieces out of the component boards.[1]

1. Place the game board in the center of the table.[1]

2. Assemble 4 random frame parts into a square frame and place them in front of you.[1]

3. Place 1 city district board inside the frame so that the handle of the shovel in the center points to the top right.[1]

4. Place 9 writs on the nine writ spaces on your city district board.[1]

5. Place 1 resource board next to your district to serve as a reference and storage.[1]

6. Place 1 patrician in a color of your choice on any unoccupied rectangle outlined by blue in the center of the game board.[1]

7. Place 5 marker discs in the color of your patrician on the basket on your resource board.[1]

8. Separate the 60 forum cards into piles according to their backs (A, B, C, D) and shuffle each stack.[1]

9. Take a number of cards from each pile depending on the number of players:

* 2 players: 8 cards (2 A + 2 B + 2 C + 2 D) [1]

* 3 players: 10 cards (2 A + 3 B + 2 C + 3 D) [1]

* 4 players: 12 cards (3 A + 3 A + 2 C + 4 D) [1]

10. Shuffle these cards thoroughly and place them faceup on the forum spaces of the game board.[1]

* In a two-player game, leave all corner spaces empty.[1]

* In a three-player game, leave two opposing corner spaces empty.[1]

* In a four-player game, all twelve spaces are used.[1]

11. Return the remaining forum cards to the box.[1]

12. Shuffle the 24 fountain cards and place them in a face-down pile next to the game board.[2]

13. Sort the 66 victory point cards into five piles according to their point value.[2]

14. Separate the white and black building tiles and shuffle each stack separately, placing them facedown in piles next to the game board.[2]

15. Place four randomly selected white building tiles on each of the blueprint tile spaces on the game board and turn them all faceup.[2]

16. Place one randomly selected black building tile on each of the square spaces on the bottom margin of the game and turn them all faceup.[2]

17. Place the 20 goods, all coins, and all bread tokens in separate piles next to the game board.[2]

18. Give the starting player token to the player who was born furthest from 1 BC (or the youngest player).[2]

19. The starting player places one of their five markers on the 0 space of the prestige bar in the top margin of the game board.[2]

20. In clockwise order, the other players each stack one of their markers on top of the starting player's marker.[2]

21. Distribute victory point cards to players in clockwise order:

* 2 players: Starting player 8, Second player 9 [2]

* 3 players: Starting player 8, Second player 9, Third player 13 [2]

* 4 players: Starting player 8, Second player 9, Third player 10, Fourth player 11 [2]

[1] RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook · p.2 · GAME SETUP · Each player takes: · 3 players · 4 players · Game Setup

[2] RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook · p.3 · Each player takes: · 2 players · 3 players · 4 players

Question closed. Friendships intact.

🔧 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 4910 ms · total 5112 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 5112 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 2, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "Before the first game, carefully punch all pieces out of the component boards. Place the game board in the center of the table. 4 random frame parts. Assemble them into a square frame and place them in front of you. 1 city district board. Place it inside the frame so that the handle of the shovel in", "headingPath": "GAME SETUP · Each player takes: · 3 players · 4 players · Game Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.047643, "snippet": "Example: 3-player Board Setup Fountain Cards Victory Point Cards Goods Coins Bread Tokens City District Board Starting Player Token Shuffle the 24 fountain cards and place them in a face-down pile next to the game board. Sort the 66 victory point cards into five piles according to their point value.", "headingPath": "Each player takes: · 2 players · 3 players · 4 players", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.045724, "snippet": "An exciting tile-placement game set in ancient Rome. Players: 2-4 Ages: 10+ Playing Time: 45-75 minutes Rome, 1 BC. As influential patricians-members of the founding families-you set out to improve your city district. Ensure your city's prosperity with profitable buildings and beautiful landscapes. ", "headingPath": "INTRODUCTION · GAME CONTENTS", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.045455, "snippet": "The game consists of four building phases of seven rounds each. At the end of seven rounds, all 28 building tiles will have been chosen or discarded. Each Building phase is followed by a Forum phase. Players visit the forum in order of position on the prestige bar. The player who has progressed fart", "headingPath": "2. F R M P ASE", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "The game is played in four Building phases, each consisting of seven rounds. Each Building phase is followed by a Forum phase. During the Forum phase, all players calculate victory points for the previous Building phase (see page 8, Forum phase). The starting player begins, then the turn moves to th", "headingPath": "PLAYING THE GAME · Movement Rules · Phases 2-4 · 2- and 3-player Games", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "The game consists of 4 building phases of 7 rounds each. At the end of each Building phase, a Forum phase occurs, and victory points for that phase will be calculated. Move your patrician to either of the two adjacent blue rectangle spaces, and choose a tile from the attached blueprint to integrate ", "headingPath": "Playing the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "The first building tile selected must be placed on the shovel space. All subsequent tiles must be placed adjacent to a tile that is already on the building board. Tiles may not be placed diagonally. Tiles may be rotated to any orientation but must be placed so that all sides match the adjacent tiles", "headingPath": "1. B I DI G P ASE · Landscapes · Landscapes:", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.030622, "snippet": "These cards require you to pay a specific quantity of the same goods (A cards) or different goods (B cards). Any or all goods can be replaced by coins. You may pay three bread to meet the requirement in the top half of a card. If you can pay multiple sets of the requirements shown on the top half of", "headingPath": "A and B Cards (red stripe cards) · Forum Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAME SETUP · Each player takes: · 3 players · 4 players · Game Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Each player takes: · 2 players · 3 players · 4 players", "sharpsignalDocId": 481}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 481 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 481 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 0.87697 of 2219 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Oct 19, 2026 06:14 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 Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	GAME SETUP · Each player takes: · 3 players · 4 players · Game Setup	p.2	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	Each player takes: · 2 players · 3 players · 4 players	p.3	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 Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	INTRODUCTION · GAME CONTENTS	p.1	0.045724 (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 Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	2. F R M P ASE	p.8	0.045455 (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 Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	PLAYING THE GAME · Movement Rules · Phases 2-4 · 2- and 3-player Games	p.4	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
#6	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	Playing the Game	p.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))	300
#7	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	1. B I DI G P ASE · Landscapes · Landscapes:	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
#8	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	A and B Cards (red stripe cards) · Forum Cards	p.9	0.030622 (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 14 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 Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	GAME SETUP · Each player takes: · 3 players · 4 players · Game Setup	p.2	#1	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	Playing the Game	p.4	#6	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
#3	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	2. F R M P ASE	p.8	#4	0.045455 (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
#4	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	END OF THE GAME · Scoring Victory Points · End of the Game	p.11	#10	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
#5	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	A and B Cards (red stripe cards) · Forum Cards	p.9	#8	0.030622 (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
#6	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	INTRODUCTION · GAME CONTENTS	p.1	#3	0.045724 (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 Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	PLAYING THE GAME · Movement Rules · Phases 2-4 · 2- and 3-player Games	p.4	#5	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 Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	Each player takes: · 2 players · 3 players · 4 players	p.3	#2	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))	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 Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	GAME SETUP · Each player takes: · 3 players · 4 players · Game Setup	p.2	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Carpe Diem — Rulebook (corpus doc 481)	Each player takes: · 2 players · 3 players · 4 players	p.3	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 198 ms · first delta 1149 ms · total 5112 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 4910 ms · gateway work 5112 ms · total 5112 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3481
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 774
tok/sec: 199.4 tok/sec — 774 output tokens in 3.881 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 0s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 2h, checked 2s 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 412), 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.