In this work we report on the influence of surface steps on the growth structure, the energetics and the electronic-properties of Ag on a stepped Ru(101̄17) surface as deduced from TDS, AES, LEED, ARUPS and PAX measurements. Increased desorption temperatures as well as PAX data suggest a selective “decoration” of the surface step sites at low Ag coverages. In particular no Ag island formation is detected neither with PAX, nor with LEED, nor with ARUPS for θ Ag < 0.2 ML, in contrast to the findings on flat Ru(0001). As an interesting consequence, a significant change in the Ag valence band spectra is observed. While already 0.05 ML Ag on a flat Ru(0001) surface exhibit a clear 4d-spin-orbit- and crystal-field-splitting of 1.35 eV no such splitting is detectable for up to 0.15 ML Ag on the stepped surface. Furthermore, a quasi-one-dimensional Ag band structure is suggested by ARUPS data for these low Ag coverages showing a dispersion of the Ag d-states only parallel but not perpendicular to the substrate steps.