So i've just started getting into AH, andI have some questions.

1) You land on a gate that has monsters. Do you have to fight/evade them or do you get sucked through the gate before that happens?

2) If you attempt to leave an area that has a monster in it and you fail your evade check do you fight it during your movement phase or does that happen during the encounters phase?

3) When fighting the Ancient do you get to trade items and clue tokens during the upkeep phase?

4) You don't fight monsters when you return to Arkham, you just fight the gate to close it. That presumably means if there is a monster there as well that during the following movement phase you have to evade/fight the monster?

5) You fail your evade check on a monster. Do you have to fight it then or can you make an immediate flee check as your combat action?

6) If you successfully flee as a combat action you do not get to keep moving?

wallacer said:

1) You first fight or Evade the monster, then enter a gate. That's because fighting monsters takes place during Arkham movement, and entering a gate takes place during Arkham Encounters. However, if a gate opens on you from a mythos card (or an encounter) and a monster is also drawn there, you are immediately drawn through the gate and delayed and do not have to fight that monster.

2) You fight them during your movement phase.

3) Yes, you can trade items during upkeep with the Ancient One, and for purposes of the Final Battle, all investigators are considered to be in the same location, so you're free to trade items with any investigator, regardless of their actual location. However, you are NEVER allowed to trade clue tokens unless some other game effect allows this (none come to my mind right off hand).

4) Yes, because the closing and sealing of gates happens during your Other World Movement phase, which occurs after all Arkham movement. Fighting monsters takes place during Arkham movement, therefore it takes place prior to Other World movement. The next turn, you'd be in your movement phase, with the monster also there. So yes, the turn after you close a gate, you'd have to Evade or Fight it.

5) After failing an evade check, you make a Horror check, and then a combat check. If you fail the combat check, you may then attempt to Evade it again (unless the monster has Ambush). Repeat as needed (however, you only have to make the Horror check once, regardless of how many times you make the Evade and/or Combat check).

6) Fleeing (Evading), if done prior to the Combat check does not end your movement. If you make a Horror then combat check, then your movement ends, regardless of if you evade the monster later or failed at an Evade check prior.

Hope that helps.

Great, thanks for the quick reply. I'm playing it again tonight so these'll come in handy.

Would just like to point something out on #4 that my group didn't realize for a long time. If you return from another world, you MAY engage the monster in your area, if you want. This is really helpful if, say, you're a fighty-type and know for certain you can axe the monster then close the gate, leaving you free to move around next turn. It's really just to let you close without having to deal with any nasties (and potentially get sent to the hospital/asylum) but it can save a whole turn if you get them out of the way the turn you get back.

Cimmerz said:

3-There's a couple I can think of. Coded Messages and there's a Mythos card that let's you trade clues for one turn. Though neither if them work in the final battle.

5-Actually if you fail an evade check, the monster deals its combat damage to you, then you take the horror check, then you can attempt to evade again, but you can't move even if successful.

"If the investigator passes the Evade check, he evades the
monster and the player may continue his turn as normal,
whether continuing movement or interacting with the
area. If the investigator fails the check, the monster
immediately deals its combat damage to him and combat
with the monster begins (see “Combat,” later in these
rules).
Example: Ashcan Pete moves from the Merchant
District into Northside, where a Star Spawn is waiting
for him. Pete wants to continue moving to the Curiositie
Shoppe, so he must evade the Star Spawn. Pete’s current
Sneak is 4 and the Star Spawn’s Awareness is –1, so he
rolls three dice, hoping for at least one success. If he
passes the check, he has evaded the Star Spawn and may
continue moving. If he fails, the Star Spawn damages
him for 3 Stamina and he enters combat with it."

mattherobot said:

Is there an official clarification for this somewhere? I never found it, and even though I was aware of the interpretation, I never played that way. It would make things a great deal easier sometimes, that's for sure.

"During the turn he returns to Arkham from an Other
World, an investigator does not have to evade or fight
any monsters in the gate’s location." (p. 18)

(emphasis added)

Granted, wording isn't often seen as a FFG strongpoint. I do think they would've worded it "does not evade or fight..." if there was no choice (or something like that, with no seeming option).

Cimmerz said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but closing/sealing happens during Arkhan Phase.
And there is no distinction between Other World and Arkham movement. Movement occurs simultanious (Other World and Arkham I mean - first player first - clockwise)

When you do things in the right order there isn't much confusion. There are only a lot of things you have to remember in what Phase it's handled.
When you return from the Other World (during Movement Phase), normaly you should 'confront' the monster(s) at that gate location (because evading or fighting monsters happens during Movement Phase) BUT the rules say specifically that you MAY ignore the monsters at the gate location when you move from the Other World IN SAME ROUND! So if you get out of the Other World during the Mythos Phase (end of previous round) than you HAVE to deal with the monsters.

Mattherobo is right, if you want, you can combat the monsters after you move from the Other World to Arkham, during Movement Phase.

5) If an evade check against a monster fails you get (stamina) damage, after that you can choose to evade again (but this case it's called flee). You don't have to 'fight' (horror & conbat check) the monster. If the flee attempt succeeds, you STAY there and have to deal with it again NEXT Movement Phase, if it fails you get damage etc...
Also if you started to fight a monster and didn't defeat it the first (combat) round, you can attempt to evade (flee) the next round except if the monster has 'ambush'.
Either way if you fight a monster or fail an evade check, you have to stay at that location.

Hmmm,when you get back from an Ow,can you close/seal the gate in the Arkham Enc. phase that turn or do you have to wait for the next turn ???

Sure you can do that the same turn.

Movement Phase

-> move from Other World to Arkham
-> It's in the same phase so you MAY ignore the monster(s)

Arkham Phase

-> close/seal gate

So nothing out fo the ordinary here...

Nephilim said:

But then what is the explored marker for ??? If your going to close/seal the gate right away,I see no need for a reminder that you just came out of an OW ... But maybe it's diffrent keeping track of things when there are more players,becouse I always play solo.

Btw... sometimes it's really usefull to deal with the monsters after you move from the Other World.
In the situation you have the means to fight the monster(s) but not to evade them, you can save a whole turn

Perhaps it's just a reminder? Put it to indicate you came out of the OW and don't have to deal with the monsters. When the next round begins (After the Mythos Phase, remove the token(s) to indicate you have to deal with the monsters...

...and why are there only three of these tokens in the first place

Axalara said:

If you didn't have an encounter marker, your Arkham Encounter Phase would consist of you getting sucked back in through the gate. Or if you fail the first turn, want to hang around for more turns.

Uh... something to consider:

... if you have an other world encounter that sends your investigator back to Arkham.

I'd think you don't get to close/seal a gate. The OW Encounter Phase happens after the Arkham Encounter Phase.

Am I right to assume in that case you get the explored marker, but the investigator will have to face the monsters as per normal rules during the movement phase (next turn) - without the optional part?

noth1ng said:

You are correct: you will need to face the monster since the Arkham encounter phase is not in the same turn in which you returned from the OW.

noth1ng said:

That is correct. The "does not have to fight or evade" clause only applies to the same turn in which you returned to Arkham. If you returned in the previous turn's OW or Mythos Phase, then you are fair game for monsters in the following turn's Movement Phase.

"Return to Arkham": AH don't give nuthin' away for free.

On our last game we had a few gates with multiple monsters lurking on them, so the question came up if you opt to confront one monster when you come through the gate can you choose to ignore the others? We house-ruled it as no, figuring that if you pick a fight with one you're going to attract attention and need to fight or hide from any others. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

Nephilim said:

NEGATIVE. If you fail the initial Evade Check and take damage, you IMMEDIATELY enter Combat (losing all remaining movement points), and make your Horror Check. If you are still sane after the Horror Check, THEN you have a choice of "fight or flee" (Combat or Evade Check). The rest is correct: you no longer have any movement at this point, so you cannot leave the monster's boardspace.

burning said:

The rules say, "...does not have to evade or fight any monsters...". I suppose that can be applied to each monster in turn.

I think you could encounter some of them and not others, if you wanted.

The full rule is: "During the turn he returns to Arkham from an Other World, an investigator does not have to evade or fight any monsters in the gate’s location. This rule only applies during the turn he returns to Arkham; in subsequent turns, if the investigator remains in the location, he must evade or fight any monsters there as normal."

That doesn't really make it clear, but the ordinary rules for fight/evading are resolved on a one-monster-at-a-time basis, and this applies to every situation in which you encounter monsters. The 'guarding gates' rule introduces a third option ('ignore the monsters completely') and it seems to me that this option should be slotted into the same sort of procedure. The only alternative is for the investigator to make a single decision about a whole clump of monsters, and there's not a lot of precedent for that.

Bear in mind also that there are a few ways for the composition of a clump of monsters to change during an investigator's movement, as a result of spells like Summon Monster etc. This sort of effect would be problematic if the act of ignoring the monsters takes place in a different rules framework to fighting/evading them (which occurs when movement ends in that location).

This must have come up before. I'll see if I can find an FAQ about it.

I've always played the "return from OW, want to fight monsters" so that if there are multiple monsters, if you choose to fight one of them, you have to Evade/Fight all of them OR you can choose to ignore them all for this turn (so if you Fight, the ignore bit no longer applies). Thematically I see it as you return through a gate, monsters don't notice you, then you start off blasting your shotgun, they'll notice .

Dam said:

Thematically I see it as you return through a gate, monsters don't notice you, then you start off blasting your shotgun, they'll notice .

Now...is that a shotgun with or without the sixes-are-two-successes?

flamethrower49 said:

I would be interested in an official answer, too. There are good arguments for both interpretations, and w/o an official statement we don't know for sure which one is right.

jgt7771 said:

Dam said:

Thematically I see it as you return through a gate, monsters don't notice you, then you start off blasting your shotgun, they'll notice .

Now...is that a shotgun with or without the sixes-are-two-successes?

Depends, Physical Immunity, then no, Phys. Resistance or nothing, yes .