Greetings,

New member here, but longtime fan of the Lovecraft writings. As a fairly new member to the Arkham fraternity, I've searched through the rules for a clarification on this question, checked these forums, the FAQ and even and BoardGameGeek - and yet no clear answer seems to have been stated in regards to the "delayed" action in Other World.

I've posted 2 examples for comparison side by side to walk through this - 1 investigator whom is sucked through a gate (and delayed) and the other whom enters voluntarily:

*****

Monterey and Ashcan are in the FRENCH HILL street location.

MOVEMENT PHASE

A) Monterey moves to the Silver Twilight Lounge - where a gate has opened in a previous Mythos phase. [end of movement] - Thus he is prepared to step through to the Other World and start the process of sealing the gate when he returns to Arkham proper.

B) Ashcan moves to The Witch House to collect a clue [end of movement].

OTHER WORLD MOVEMENT PHASE:

None

ENCOUNTER PHASE:

A) Monterey is drawn through the gate to the Other Worlds. [end encounter phase]

B) Ashcan draws a card for The Witch House location. It states: A Gate and Monster appears!

He is instantly drawn through the gate, and since this was not a chosen action - i.e., he wasn't "prepared" and was caught off guard by this gates sudden appearance he is now delayed in the Other World.

OTHER WORLDS ENCOUNTER PHASE:

A) Monterey draws a Other Worlds card that matches the color of his area, and applies the effect - for this example lets pretend nothing happens.

B) Ashcan draws a Other Worlds card that matches the color of his area, and applies the effect - for this example lets pretend nothing happens.

***

We now go to the next turns movement phase, to pick up where these two heroes continue their actions...

MOVEMENT PHASE:

None [both investigators are in Other Worlds]

OTHER WORLDS MOVEMENT PHASE:

A) Monterey moves to the next part of the Other World. [end of movement]

B) Ashcan has lost a turn of movement due to being delayed. [end of movement]

ENCOUNTER PHASE:

None [both investigators are in Other Worlds]

OTHER WORLDS ENCOUNTER PHASE:

A) Monterey returns to Arkham proper, coming back through a matching gate. [end of movement] Place an explored marker under Monterey.

B) Ashcan draws a Other Worlds card that matches the color of his area, and applies the effect - for this example lets pretend nothing happens.

***

At this point - we can now focus soley on Ashcan, to complete his Other World example.

OTHER WORLD MOVEMENT PHASE:

B) Ashcan moves to the next part of the Other World [end of movement]

In the Next Turn:

B) Ashcan returns to Arkham proper, coming back through a matching gate. [end of movement] Place an explored marker under Ashcan..

*****

So, my question is - have I followed the rules properly in the above example ?

If so, then this means a DELAYED investigator has 2 encounters minimum (more could happen depending on Other World Encounters results) - while a prepared entrance into Other Worlds results in 1 encounter minimum.

If not, what did I miss?

Many thanks,

R.S.

First of all—welcome!

And yes, you've got it right. The only thing I would wonder about is that I don't see the need to make a distinction between "movement" and "other world movement." The movement phase is the movement phase: starting with the first player, each investigator takes his/her movement turn. Other World movement doesn't occur after in-town movement. I can't think of an instance where this distinction makes a difference, but there probably is one. If nothing else it helps you keep things in the correct order.

The reason you're delayed if a gate opens on you is purely mechanical: if that rule wasn't in place and a gate opened on you in the Mythos phase, you would expect to move out of the first spot of the other world without receiving an encounter, and therefore return to Arkham to close the gate after only one encounter (with Find Gate you could even come back with none). So the rule was developed that you become delayed. Since it was easier to make a blanket rule than an exception, this "delay" rule was extended to ALL gates opening on you, regardless of phase. If you want to employ a thematic reasoning, then "the gate caught you by surprise" works perfectly well.

The one instance I play differently is the item from the Black Goat expansion that allows you to voluntarily open a gate on yourself: since it does not make any sense to delay the investigator in that case, I do not do it. This even stays consistent with the "caught you by surprise" reasoning stated above, as you're deliberately opening the gate (and even picking the other world).

Tibs said:

Hi Tibs, and thanks for the welcome!

Okay, I was simply doing things in order so I wouldn't get confused. But I see your point about no distinction being needed, except for order. 8)

I'm a bit confused now so it seems. I'm a regular over at GeekChat and just asked the same question there (prior to seeing your reply here), and this was the reply:

So if you get thrown into the other world delayed.. you get an encounter, then next turn you stand up and get an encounter then the turn after you move to section 2 of the other world, you get an encounter.

This implies then, that IF DELAYED - you will have a minimum of 3 encounters, while the non-delayed player has 2 Other World Encounters.

You both sound right to me, so which is it?..lol

Once this question is answered, I think I'll do an illustrated example of this - and post it to the Geek, given I've seen multiple questions on this in different threads at different sites.

Tibs said:

Oh, I see your point on this. My goal is to grab all the expansions shortly, so I'm making a note of this as a "house rule" to follow. Nice!

Many thanks again Tib for your welcome and excellent reply 8)

Cheers,

R.S.

Sorry. Let me be more clear:

• If you enter a gate voluntarily, you are not delayed. You can expect to have two OW encounters before your return.
• If a gate opens on you during the Mythos phase, you are delayed. You can expect to have two OW encounters.
• If a gate opens on you during the AE phase, you are delayed. You can expect to have three encounters before your return.

When a gate opens on you, you are delayed. Also, if a gate opened on you during the AE phase and delayed you, you would still receive an OW encounter for that turn (being in the OW during phase 4 is what triggers the encounter, not whether or not you had a phase 3 encounter or were delayed). If someone's telling you otherwise to any of the above, don't listen to them!

And, happy to be of help. The members of this forum tend to be extremely helpful and insightful, so ask anytime!

Sorry. Let me be more clear:

* If you enter a gate voluntarily, you are not delayed. You can expect to have two OW encounters before your return.
* If a gate opens on you during the Mythos phase, you are delayed. You can expect to have two OW encounters.
* If a gate opens on you during the AE phase, you are delayed. You can expect to have three encounters before your return.

***

And that is what I call perfectly clear!

"..then the fog parted, and Silver saw the shoreline, he was happy...and sated...for a bit"

*****

Cheers,

R.S.

Tibs said:

The Call Friend spell. There was one case where we needed to use this to drag someone with 5 clues into another world so that they could seal the 6th gate more quickly than the clue-short Investigator already there and we wouldn't have been able to if the movement phases had been separate.

It turned out to be crucial - after we'd put the sixth seal down, we turned over the next few Mythos cards to see if we'd needed to go to all that trouble. First one was a gate burst on one of our other seals, and the third one was a double-doom that would have woken the Ancient One.

I appreciate the example, but Call Friend says that the affected investigator may not move again this round. So it wouldn't matter if it was cast before or after "OW movement."

Oh, indeed. Even with that, though, it still got them into the second OW area and ready to leave on their next turn one turn quicker (and one OW encounter fewer, as well) than walking there would have been.

Whereas if OW movement had been after Arkham movement, the investigator we needed to drag in would already have moved and couldn't have Call Friend cast on them. (As it was we were, of course, somewhat lucky with where the first player token had ended up at this point)

I've posted a now approved Visual Tutorial on this very subject - showing the steps for a DELAYED vs. Regular investigator's travels in the Other World over at BoardGameGeek.

Thanks again for the info and aid in this query 8)

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/538860/rule-delay-in-other-world-visual-tutorial-explan

cim said:

If you choose as investigator not to move you are eligible for the Call Friend Spell?
So even if the investigator with the CF Spell is later in sequence he still can cast it on an investigator earlier in the sequence, as long he didn't move?

One theocratically situation I can think of is this:

Ashkan is in the last area of the other world but he was sucked in during Mythos or AE and doesn't have the clues to seal it. Mandy is in Arham and has an Elder Sign and able to give it to Ashkan and is in sequence after Ashkan. On the gate there is a monster that Mandy can't defeat but Askan can. In this situation it makes a difference...

Nephilim said:

Not so sure if I got the point... so, sorry if my thoughts are inadequate, but... I don't see why you have to cast Call friend in this case. You have Ashcan in an OW 2nd area and Mandy in Arkham and both have to move, being Ashcan the one who moves first, right? Ashcan returns to Arkham during his movement phase and choses to fight the monster on the gate (even if you have a free pass during the first round, you can choose to fight the monsters on the gate, if I remember correctly). In case he defeats the monster, Mandy can reach Ashcan, toss him the Elder sign and move away from there. And even in case she does not have enough movement points to go away, Ashcan will seal the gate before she could get sucked in.

Ah uhm my apologies I should have put that in two seperate threats

The former has nothing to do with the later. In the first part I'm asking about the Call Friend and if you (investigator) are eligible when you just don't move. Second part I'm giving an example why you shouldn't split the movement sequence...

Edit: I see now a quote of Tibs was left out in my previous post... no wonder it made no sense

Julia said:

Thanks that was my point exactly, if you split the movement fase like the OP did; first movement in Arkham and then in the Other World, you couldn't do it like you discribed.

Nephilim said:

Ah, ok! Now I see what you meant, in the case of Arkham movement happening first, Mandy would have been forced to deal with the monster. Fortunately this does not happen!

And yup, the quote function sometimes messes things up...

it doesnt matter what order you go if youre delayed, you cant cast a movement spell anyway