1. It's unclear. I've been playing so far that it does. Was I wrong?

2. If she's on a gate she explored and a mythos card shows her location, does the monster surge is prevented?

1. Kate's ability to prevent a monster and/or gate from appearing has been [almost] universally interpreted to mean "in Arkham" vice in an Other World. When you stop and think about it, no gates appear while in an Other World and her special power should not operate in the monster's realm.

2. Yes, Kate's ability also prevents a Monster Surge from occurring at the location.

The Professor

Well gates don't appear in other worlds but monsters do.

Any more takes on this matter?

For what it's worth, I agree.

What good is a dimensional stabilizer when you're actually in the dimension where the monsters are roaming, and:

If the gate does not appear on Kate's location that already has a gate, then there isn't a monster surge.

The text says they don't appear, so I would assume they don't appear unless an official ruling was given stating otherwise.

Unique Ability: Science! - Any Phase: Gates and monsters cannot appear in Kate's location due to her flux stabilizer. Monsters and gates do not disappear if she enters their location, however, and monsters can move into her location as usual.

I think the key is the term "location". This refers to the round circles in Arkham. In the other worlds, we have "areas". Of course, location could be used generically here but until otherwise noted I interpret it techncally.

"2. PLACE INITIAL CLUES
Place one Clue token on each location on the board that
has a red diamond above it. These locations are unstable
and represent the places where dimensional gates can
open and monsters can appear. Locations are identified
by circular illustrations overlaying the Arkham portion
of the game board (for example, Silver Twilight Lodge
and Ma’s Boarding House)."

I think that if her ability wasn't meant to work in other worlds, it would say something like "this doesn't work in other worlds" or something like that. Notice that Darrel's ability says at the end that his ability doesn't work in other worlds.

I interpret it as working in Other Worlds. The term "location" unfortunately is used for areas that are not locations too often in AH to be specific enough, especially for a Base Set investigators.

The argument that it doesn't work in an Other World because the monster comes from there is flawed.

1. Not every monster is native to every Other World.

2. The ability shouldn't work on Moon monsters in Arkham then because they are from our world.

"Location" is often misused as a term. If Kate was in a street when a Mythos card effect placed monsters in her street, would her ability prevent it?

Darrell's ability says it doesn't work in the Other World, but it can't work in the Other World. It states that it is for Arkham Encounters, not Other World encounters. Sure, if you're sent from Arkham to the Other World to have one encounter and return, you're no longer in Arkham for that encounter.

Kate's ability needs such a clarification; Darrell's and Gloria's don't.

Hurm.

Taking a close look on the rules, every time the term "location" is used, it refers to a stable or unstable location. If something works on locations and other worlds, the "other world areas" are mentioned as well.

Therefore, I start believing that Kate's ability really isn't ment to work in other Worlds. After all, it's hard to stabilze the world if the world you're in is based on crazyness....

No. The term "location" also refers to streets. Why shouldn't it refer to other worlds? Also I still believe that if her ability wasn't meant to work in other worlds it would say so.

kroen said:

Okay. We got another thread on that debate running now, so... could you please tell me where exactly the "location" definitely refers to a street? A text where we're absolutely sure that the term "location" refers to a street as well, since it wouldn't make much sense otherwise? (Therefore, the "naacal key" is out, in my opinion)

Here you go:

His ability would be absolutely retarded if he couldn't sail to aquatic streets or get a bonus while fighting monsters in aquatic streets.

Okay, good shot.

I just took a look at the kingsport rules. As it seems, all they talk about are "aquatic locations", nothing about "aquatic street areas" or the such.

So, we can say for sure that the "aquatic location" refers to any place with a wave icon, no matter if location or street area. Still, what about the simple term "location"? Is there any other card or rule from the base game (where kate joined the game) that refers to something else than locations when using the term "location"?

Is there an Aquatic street location in Kinsport? I don't have it in front of me, but I thought it was a "encounter" location.

Edit: Thank you boardgame geek. I didn't realize just exactly how many Aquatic locations there were in Kingsport, and yes two of them are Streets.

"Location" as defined by the rulebook only refers to the round areas on the board. Streets and Other Worlds are not locations, but they are considered areas.

However, official cards often use the term "location" when area is meant. I think there are instances where "location" was written but official word said that "area" was meant. I can't think of an example, but I am sure Tibs or ColtsFan will be able to name one. Therefore, the use of location on a card can be ambiguous.

Edit: About the second question: She will not prevent the monster surge, but no monsters are put on her gate. So decide where each monster is put, and those put on her gate will return to the cup instead.

Morgaln said:

I find that hard to believe. Why would a monster surge occur if the gate can't open in that location? Only when a gate can open on a location of another gate a monster surge occurs.

What a location is is absolutely clear in the rules text. If FFG has possibly misused the term in other places is really irrelevant. Game authors do it all the time. They take a common generic term like "location" and make it a rule, so they don't have to write 'stable or unstable location' and can just write 'location'. Then they forget their own defintion.

As to Silas, remember the games are only playtested with the base game. There are no aquatic streets in Arkham. There may or may not be aquatic streets in Innsmouth. In fact, I wondered about that when they made the aquatic rules in Kingsport. Merchant streets flood in the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh but are not aquatic in for Kingsport purposes.

Kate is already one of the stronger investigators even with the conservative intepretation. So we won't be playing her power works in either the Other Worlds or street areas. Besides it makes sense to me for the various reason outlined by other posters. In nearly 300 games, I cannot remember the time monsters have appeared in Kate's street area.

I also agree with the interpretation that Kate only prevents monsters appearing in her space, even in monster surges.

The Harsher the Better.

But Kate doesn't only prevent monsters... she also prevents gates... and why would the monster surge occur in the first place if the gate can't even appear in her location?

mageith said:

My 2 cents....

Please center around the idea of "...and monsters can move into her location as usual."...thinking at her abillity at the time there was only the base game....how could monsters move in her location ?... stalkers didn't exist...

I think that was just to make clear that if she's in the streets, monsters can still move into her during the mythos phase. As I said, I've been interpreting rules in many games for a long, long time, longer than most of the people on the forum are old. Plus I'm always writing rules for my home groups. It's easy to trying to define something like "location" for short cutting the rules then forgetting your definition and using it in its generic sense.

Also my rules quote is from the revised rules, but that doesn't mean they still rethought of everything.

Bottom line, of course, is that AH is usually played in groups who accidentally or on purpose play with their own house rules and so we can play this in a way that makes sense to the owners. It makes sense to me that Kate cannot stop monsters from appearing in half of an Other World and can't stop monsters in streets which really are an abstraction of a whole bunch of streets and not just one street. On the other hand, a location, for the most part, is a small area (some exceptions like the graveyard, woods and unvisited isle, etc.)

Mageith, I think you misunderstood Star Burn's point. Kate's text says: "monsters can move into her location as usual". The term "location" is used, although in the base set, monsters could only move into the same area as an Investigator when said Investigator was in a street. "Location" seems to be misused in Kate's effect text in this instance and could therefore also be misused in the other instance.

Admittedly, there is the single exception of Hound of Tindalos, but somehow I doubt they would have added that sentence just for that one monster.

mageith said:

Hey........

Kingsport Horror gave us two "aquatic" markers designated for the River Docks and the Unvisited Isle. Is Innsmouth going to ignore that? Is FFG going to include those markers in Innsmouth for people who don't have Kingsport?

I suppose my question is...at what point is it "universal" that the Docks and the Isle are "aquatic", regardless of what expansions anyone has?

(Sorry if that's off-topic. I gave up trying to figure out what "location" means since everyone has their own version of it. I play it my way per any given situation, and that works for me.)

It does include aquatic markers. It says so in the innsmouth page.

Also, why are the aquatic markers so big? why can't they be the same size of the aquatic pics printed on the board, or better yet- why couldn't we get aquatic stickers?

Morgaln said:

Forgot the hounds of tindalos <.<