So if you end your movement in a space with monster, you must fight or evade them. If you end your movement on an Innsmouth space with a modifer while martial law is in play, you must pass an evade check or be arrested and taken to the Innsmouth Jail. Now the question: Which happens first? Do you fight the monsters, then make the evade check, or make the evade check and only then are you allowed to fight the monsters? When you have two monsters about to pass through a vortice, the question really is an important one . . .

I'll add a similar question: when the "Curfew" Mythos card is in effect, and you end your movement on a space with a monster, do you fight the monster first and then make the check to avoid being arrested, or do you make the check first and then, if you pass, fight/evade the monster?

I think fight then try to avoid being arrested (or indeed, do positive end of movement stuff like the street sales). Dealing with monsters doesn't necessarily end your movement - if you deal with them by successfully evading them - and if you tried to evade a monster and failed - setting your movement points down to zero, it would make sense to finish the fight before rolling for arresting (otherwise, does the roll for arresting come before or after the monster's combat damage?)

cim said:

That's how I've been playing it. Thematically, you've just finished disposing of (or evading) the monster, and then you need to deal with the police: "No, officer, there's nothing going on here. But if I were you, I wouldn't go down that alley..."

I would handle the martial law roll just like another monster: The player decides which threat to deal with first, and he deals with just one threat at a time. So if he fails an evade check he first fights the monster, and then decides wether he fights / evades another monster, or wether he rolls for martial law.

If a player voluntarily ends his movement in an area containing monsters, it's his decision again what to do first (fight / evade monster, or roll for martial law).

This is a very good question, are there any official answers out there? I would like to know this as well, having just bought IH.

Musha Shukou said:

The rules are very clear about this:

"If two or more game effects happen simultaneously, the
players choose the order in which they occur. If the
players cannot agree, the first player decides."

Martial Law checks occur at the end of your movement. Encountering monsters occur during movement.

Encountering monsters happens when you attempt to leave the space during movement, or during the end of movement phase subphase if you don't try to leave the area. So if you don't try to leave the area, encountering the monster and dealing with the law wuld be triggered at the same time, so the players would get to choose the order.

-Frank

I just treat Martial Law as another monster in the location where the player ends his movement. He can encounter it before or after any monsters that are there. Its just something else in that space to deal with or avoid.