We have a following encounter for the Independence Square location:

You touch Founder's Rock. Make a Luck (-1) check. If you pass, there is an electrifying shock that opens your mind to the elder things of eons past. Lose 1 Stamina, but gain 2 Clue tokens and draw 1 Spell. If you fail, you find a strange carving. As you finger the grooves, a gate opens here and you are drawn through it.

I'm interested in "failure" part. We have here an opening gate. Question: Does this gate remain open further on and acts in all regards as a gate opened during Mythos phase? And second, does it increase the doom track?

In FAQ it is written:

Q: When a location card says “a gate and a monster

appear,” is a doom token added to the doom track?

A: Yes.

I assume it works the same here, but just without a monster. But I need confirmation. Thanks.

AFAIK all gates that open, either through encounters or mythos phase, add to the doom track and remain on the board until closed. Page 22 in the core rulebook, under "Monsters in Encounters":

Many encounters state that "A gate and a monster appear!" For these encounters, both the monster and the gate stay on the board.

Add to that the answer in the FAQ and it seems fairly clear that the gate in your encounter should add to the doom track and remain in play. Also consider that if the gate were not to remain, the character drawn through it would have to be lost in time and space upon re-entering Arkham (unless another gate to the same other world location is open, but this is less often the case) which is a cruel and unusual punishment even for this game.

Yeah, I guess you're right. I just got confused by the fact that there is rule about gate and monster which stay in game, and another rule about just monster appearing in encounter and then disappearing from game. Tricked into thinking that there was some special rule about only a gate.

P.S. It also didn't help that in my language's translation of the game the card says only about investigator being sucked through the gate and nothing about it opening.

The correct sequence is:

- a gate opens & the investigator is sucked in the matching OW

- a doom token is added to the doom track

- a monster emerges from the gate

the gate stays on the board (otherwise, gamewise talking, it'd be broken: some locations have plenty of gate openings, and if gates were not meant to stay, this would result in a crazy boost to the doom track. Not to mention that it's very likely that an investigator sucked through the gate, in case the gate is discarded, would be forced to stay two turns in OWs before being sent LiTaS)

The monster (monsters in a 5+ investigator game) stays as well. The only monsters that do not stay on the board are those summoned via specific encounters saying "a [enter adjective] monster appears!".

Lemme know if this clarifies your doubts

Wait a minute. In this encounter's text there is nothing said about a monster appearing. Is it implied that every time for whatever reason a gate opens - a monster appears from it, whether it is mentioned in the text of the card or not?

On page 9 this time:

... a gate that appears as a result of an encounter (such as "A gate appears!" or "A gate and a monster appear!")...

While it says nothing about monsters always appearing through gates, it is clear that there are two types of gate encounters: with and without monsters. I can't find anything about monsters always appearing if a gate appears through an encounter and would therefore say that a gate can appear on its own. That is how I have played it.

I'm guessing Julia is a bit senior to me in Arkham lore on the other hand, so probably go with what she says. Until you are the first player and can make the decision yourself, that is

On page 9 this time:

... a gate that appears as a result of an encounter (such as "A gate appears!" or "A gate and a monster appear!")...

Yes, I also noticed that. And that made me confused. I think the rules should be elaborated a bit more on this one, at least in the FAQ.

Yeah, that's tricky. It was debated to death through the years (and I think Kevin said at some point how to resolve this). The point was that you need to combine two rules (and I agree, the wording sucks):

- the encounter instructs you to open the gate. The gate stays on the board (FAQ, pag 4, "Monsters in Encounters" section, lines 2-3 of the dedicated paragraph)

- rules for opening gates instruct to spawn monsters according to the number of investigators

Combining the two will result in the fact that monsters are always spawned whenever a gates open (regardless of the text of the encounter being "a gate appears" or "a gate and a monster appear"). This has been the general consensus of the board in the last 8 years.

(after lunch, I'll try to dig out some threads about that)

Thanks, Julia!

I'm mildly OCD so now I start to think about a monster appearing through the gate after a gate and a monster appear (i.e. a second monster). But i know its stupid.

Combining the two will result in the fact that monsters are always spawned whenever a gates open (regardless of the text of the encounter being "a gate appears" or "a gate and a monster appear"). This has been the general consensus of the board in the last 8 years.

It does make sense in its own Arkhammy way. When the gate and monster both appear through an encounter, you must evade or fight a monster before being drawn into the gate as well as draw another monster after you have reached the other world. I shall have to remember to unleash this concept on my poor unsuspecting gaming group at the next opportunity!

I'm mildly OCD

You will do fine in the eternal struggle against the Great Old Ones in that case! Ia Cthulhu Fthagn!

Thanks, Julia!

I'm mildly OCD so now I start to think about a monster appearing through the gate after a gate and a monster appear (i.e. a second monster). But i know its stupid.

LOL. Don't overthink about this.

Allow me to share a personal thought here (stemming from the many years spent writing in this fora and playtesting / editing other FFG games): at the very beginning of Arkham history, there were very few people working on these projects (just compare, if you wish, the number of testers for Arkham or the first Descent to the number of testers for the actual bestselling games, such as X-Wing or Eldritch), and clearly there was a lot less time to check wording, interactions, consistencies. Some mishaps happened. Just look at the mess done with "area vs location": sometimes "area" is used as a substitute for location, some others it's intended as "street area or location". And the list could be rather long. The general idea was the one I posted some posts above: gate, investigators sucked in, doom token added, monster spawned. Stuck to this one, and you'll be fine

Combining the two will result in the fact that monsters are always spawned whenever a gates open (regardless of the text of the encounter being "a gate appears" or "a gate and a monster appear"). This has been the general consensus of the board in the last 8 years.

It does make sense in its own Arkhammy way. When the gate and monster both appear through an encounter, you must evade or fight a monster before being drawn into the gate

This was clarified in the DH FAQ, IIRC: gate first, then monster(s). Investigators eventually present at the location must not deal with the emerging creatures because they are already in the OW.

That's one thread I found. I imagine names of people are not of great help for you guys that are new to the game, but Brian (ColtsFan76) is the living recipient of the highest Arkham knowledge around. As you see, he agrees the only one "a gate appears" encounter is just an unfortunate mistake, not detected during the editing / proofreading of the card.

I'm mildly OCD

You will do fine in the eternal struggle against the Great Old Ones in that case! Ia Cthulhu Fthagn!

Lol, yeah, its like I don't have to pay sanity cost when reading spells but my sanity is halved. )))

That's one thread I found. I imagine names of people are not of great help for you guys that are new to the game, but Brian (ColtsFan76) is the living recipient of the highest Arkham knowledge around. As you see, he agrees the only one "a gate appears" encounter is just an unfortunate mistake, not detected during the editing / proofreading of the card.

Thank you very much, Julia. Also funny that OP in this thread said the same thing about second monster, lol. ))

This was clarified in the DH FAQ, IIRC: gate first, then monster(s). Investigators eventually present at the location must not deal with the emerging creatures because they are already in the OW.

I feel like my sanity is going because I already knew that but conveniently forgot it to make a spectacle of myself. Are we certain that parts of this forum aren't actually the script for the King in Yellow?

It's been six years and I haven't changed my stance. Gates always spawn monsters, and any variation in wording is just a combination of oversight and just simple word variation for variation's sake.