The Great Ritual with expansions

By Cim2, in Arkham Horror Second Edition

Posted at

The Great Ritual: fail penalty, draw two mythos cards and ignore everything but the gate on the first

With a combination of various bad effects, we failed The Great Ritual last night, and a question came up - what happens if you draw something other than a normal gate for the first card?

  • Do all flying monsters move if the first card is a gate burst and the second one isn't? (If so, do they move immediately on the first card, or as part of monster movement from the second?)
  • What do you do with "no gates open, but" cards: does the double-doom count as the gate opening? (Similarly, double-terror from Intermission)
  • What about Next Act Begins or Strange Sightings? They have different wording to double-doom or double-terror cards, and nothing in the "gate symbol" part of the card.
  • If the first card doesn't have a gate on it, do you discard it and try again, or just get lucky?
  • What do you do with The Story Continues if it's the first card?

My initial thoughts are: Yes (with the second card), yes, no, get lucky, shuffle and re-draw a new first card. However, I can see arguments for all alternatives...

Similar questions could be asked about the "ongoing effect" of Endlessly Breeding. Intermission doesn't have a monster movement pattern, and do gate burst cards make all flying monsters move if the gate part of the card is being ignored entirely?

Posted at

cim said:

With a combination of various bad effects, we failed The Great Ritual last night, and a question came up - what happens if you draw something other than a normal gate for the first card?

  • Do all flying monsters move if the first card is a gate burst and the second one isn't? (If so, do they move immediately on the first card, or as part of monster movement from the second?)
  • What do you do with "no gates open, but" cards: does the double-doom count as the gate opening? (Similarly, double-terror from Intermission)
  • What about Next Act Begins or Strange Sightings? They have different wording to double-doom or double-terror cards, and nothing in the "gate symbol" part of the card.
  • If the first card doesn't have a gate on it, do you discard it and try again, or just get lucky?
  • What do you do with The Story Continues if it's the first card?

My initial thoughts are: Yes (with the second card), yes, no, get lucky, shuffle and re-draw a new first card. However, I can see arguments for all alternatives...

Similar questions could be asked about the "ongoing effect" of Endlessly Breeding. Intermission doesn't have a monster movement pattern, and do gate burst cards make all flying monsters move if the gate part of the card is being ignored entirely?

Do all flying monsters move if the first card is a gate burst and the second one isn't? (If so, do they move immediately on the first card, or as part of monster movement from the second?)

reply: No, it's not really the gate opening though its part of the gate opening IMO. I can the argument for both sides of this though.

What do you do with "no gates open, but" cards: does the double-doom count as the gate opening? (Similarly, double-terror from Intermission)
What about Next Act Begins or Strange Sightings? They have different wording to double-doom or double-terror cards, and nothing in the "gate symbol" part of the card.

reply: unlucky and Lucky you. Everything is ignored but the game opening and it's not a gate opening. but no clue gained either.


If the first card doesn't have a gate on it, do you discard it and try again, or just get lucky?

reply: lucky.


What do you do with The Story Continues if it's the first card?

reply: mmmm. We'll its not a gate opening so it would be ignored. The only reason the card is in there for me, however is for Bast. I wouldn't reshuffle the cards anyway, but I would count if for Bast, even though probably shouldn't.