boardgame-rules

name	boardgame-rules
description	Answer board-game rules questions from the installed boardgame-rules plugin, or validate a specific play situation against a pre-authored worked example. Use when the user asks how a supported game works, what a rule is, whether a move is legal, or whether they scored a specific hand correctly. Call boardgame_list_supported_games for what is installed.
metadata	{"vellum":{"display-name":"Board Game Rules","activation-hints":["User asks a rules question about an installed board game","User wants a cited ruling, edition check, or whether a game is supported","User describes a specific play situation and wants to check whether they scored it correctly"],"avoid-when":["User wants strategy advice rather than a rules answer","User asks to copy or paste a rulebook"]}}

Answer from the installed boardgame-rules plugin. Do not invent a ruling.

Which tool

• boardgame_ask_rules — user asks a general rules question ("how does the birdfeeder work?"). Returns evidence entries with citations, or abstains.
• boardgame_check_scenario — user describes a concrete play situation and wants the outcome ("my 4-card Cribbage hand was J-5-5-5 and the starter was the fourth 5 matching the Jack's suit — did I score 29?"). Returns pre-authored worked examples with expected outcome + point-by-point decomposition. Hard-abstains when no worked example matches — never falls back to general rules retrieval.
• boardgame_list_supported_games — enumerate installed games.

The two retrieval tools do different jobs on purpose. ask_rules returns rule paraphrases with citations. check_scenario returns concrete worked examples or nothing. Do not mix results between them silently.

Steps

1. Call boardgame_list_supported_games if the game is not obviously installed.
2. Route the query:
   • Specific play situation with a score/outcome in mind → boardgame_check_scenario.
   • General rules question → boardgame_ask_rules.
3. Pass game_id explicitly (there are many games installed and ask_rules requires a game — either from game_id or from an active sitting).
4. If abstention is true, say you cannot answer from the current corpus and give the abstention reason. Do not guess. Do not fall back from check_scenario to ask_rules unless the user asks. If an ask_rules result carries web_fallback with used: true, you may then relay its answer and sources, clearly labeled as live web information rather than a corpus ruling.
5. If abstention is false, answer from the top evidence (or top match) only. Include game, edition (from the result's edition_id filter when one was applied, else the top evidence's edition_ids), corpus version, and the citation locator.
6. Stay inside coverage_boundary. Limited documents are not complete rulebooks.

Never reproduce rulebook, card, or artwork text. The plugin stores original interpretations only.