We are new to Arkham Horror but enjoying it a bit. I was playing the Novelist- can't remember her name, but she has the OW ability that allows her to draw two OW cards that match her color, and choose the one to encounter. I was sucked through a gate and eventually came out and got an explored token. On my Arkham Encounter phase I found myself unable to seal the gate, and instead simply wanted to reenter the gate, hoping my ability would pay off for me. We couldn't find any rules the either forbade or permitted this. Help!

I think as long as you don't move from that location, you don't lose the explored marker. You don't have to move unless an encounter or something forces you to. You still have to deal with any monsters that may come through there, ect..

So as long as you stay there, you don't have to go through the gate just to try and reseal it again.

What I'm asking is this: can an explorer CHOOSE to reenter a gate that they have explored?

Someone is going to ask this: Why would you choose to?

Reposted from a different forum:

If the OW has particularly good colors (blue and green) and you get to draw two of them, you are pretty likely to get good stuff in the OW. I could see many time where re-entering the gate would be desirable, if you didn't have enough clues to seal it and there was a monster in the street that you can't evade or defeat, it could be better to re-enter the gate and try to earn some more clues or items through OW encounters instead of waiting around for the monster to be defeated or leave.

That's why.

If you looking for hail mary Clues from the OWs often, you're going to lose games. Sometimes desperate measures pay off, most of the time they don't.

As to the explored marker, don't see any choice in the matter, if you return to Arkham, you get an explored marker.

It's easy enough to go back though. Set your speed so you have two movement points. Go into the street to lose the explored marker and then return to the gate area. I agree that it doesn't seem worth it to me. Even with two cards to chose from, you aren't necessarily going to get a shot at those clues.