I looked around a little bit and couldn't dig up anything, so I am hoping there is a definite answer to this. if not, just wondering how you play it (or would play it). When a gate appears in the mythos phase, 1 monster appears if 1-4 investigators are playing, and 2 monsters appear if 5-8 investigators are playing. No problem.

So what happens when you pick up an encounter card where it says "A gate and a monster appear", or (worse yet) just "A gate appears" (if htere are any)? Do you follow the card literally since it is an extra gate on the turn and is already difficult enough having it, or do the number of monsters appear as per the number of investigators as above?

Also, when playing with the Goat of the Black Woods herald, and 5-8 investigators, does each gate get 2 monsters plus a third hexagon monster? Or do you follow the herald's wording literally and only add 1 regular monster and 1 hexagon monster no matter how many investigators are in?

The reason I ask is because we usually have 5 players, and so I have been playing each encounter phase gate as getting 2 monsters despite what the card actually says, and am no startin gto question myself if this is correct since this is an extra gate (non-mythos) and if more than one monster is intended. I also played BGotW herald gates getting 3 monsters each with the extra hex and again, questioning myself if I am adding extra difficulty than what was intended, even with more than 4 investigators. So let me know if this has already been clarified, or how you all play it if it hasn't. The only thing I have to go by is the rulebook under the rules for opening a gate in the mythos phase, it says exception: for 5 or more investigators, draw 2 monsters instead of 1. Which is what I have been doing in the case of encounters (which isn't in the mythos phase, so it may not apply) and the herald (where it says draw one monster from the cup as normal).

Uh... I don't remember if it's clarified, so don't quote me on this, hopefully Tibs or Dam can say something on this issue? I will say this though, I'd place two monsters on the gates. One reason I'd justify this inclination is FFG makes typos, period (there's no reason to think that in terms of game mechanics they'd want a gate without a monster appearing for that one "a gate appears" card). Another reason is the double monster rulings were put out a few years after the original cards were printed. Yeah, there should be an official ruling saying 2 monsters per gate in these cases (but as I said before, I don't remember if there's been one yet).

And yes, I'm pretty sure you'd get three monsters with BGotW (that sounds vaguely familiar to me, maybe it is in the proto FAQ). Yep, that last one definitely is.

Q: If you are using the Black Goat of the
Woods (Herald) in a 5+ player game, how
many and which types of monsters are
supposed to come out of each gate? How
many are hexagon monsters?

"A: Three monsters: 1 hexagon, 1 normal, 1 hexagon"

Essentially I follow the rule of thumb that a gate opening causes two things: a monster and a doom token. Whether or not you extrapolate this to include "a gate appears" encounters is a matter of personal taste.

Anyway, yeah, since the "two monsters per gate" rule came out later, I'd say that there's no reason it won't apply to gates opened during the AE phase. I mean, there doesn't seem to be anything else special about them (you're still delayed, they can still cause DOR tokens, etc).

And yes, you get three monsters (not two) with the Black Goat herald, in the order Avi mentioned.

However I do not recall two rules:

1. From what cup do you draw when you get a "monster appears" encounter?
2. What happens if you run out of monsters in one cup, but not both?

Currently I play this way:

1. You draw from the "non-hex" cup (I consider it the "main" cup and the other the "backup")
2. You draw from the other cup (the AO doesn't awaken unless both cups are empty)

If either of these have been clarified then I don't remember and can't check since my Adobe Reader is wonking out.

Another prime example of the insane rules to the game where insanity is prefered choice of many!

Hi all, I have been prowling this board for some interesting info when I stumbled upon this. Based on what you guys mentioned above, by default when a gate appears, a monster also appears. I am confused here. Does this mean that when a gate and a monster appears, you draw TWO monsters since one is from the default rule mentioned, and the other is from the card description?

Wanderer999 said:

It's a special ability of a Herald (The Black Goat of the Woods), that appeared in The Black Goat of the Woods expansion set. This Herald forces you to have two monsters cup, one with hexagonal monsters, the other one with the rest. Whenever a new gate appears, you have to draw 2 monsters, one from the normal cup, one from the hexagonal one.
Under any normal circumstances, you have to draw one monster per gate, unless you're playing with 5 or more investigators (in this case you have to draw 2 monsters per gate)

No, the card description is just redundant. Perhaps it's a reminder that an opening gate should also produce a monster, but since the monster behaves fundamentally different than one from an encounter that reads, "a monster appears!" (that is, it will stay on the board and the investigator who drew the encounter card does not deal with it immediately), then it was just a poor choice of wording.