Dear All,

I have some questions regarding some issues of the game:

1)

I understand that clue tokens are removed when a gate appears in that particular location, but what if a gate is already there, and then a clue appears as a result of another gate? Do you still get to put the clue token there, or ignore it?

2)

When monster surges occur and too many monsters appear, the terror track hits 10. Thus there is no longer a limit for monsters on the streets, but what about the ones still in Outskirts? Do they return to the Arkham board? And if so, where?

3)

Can a player camp at Unique shop and waste turns flipping thru the shop for elder signs? I heard somewhere that this is cheating so the player MUST always buy 1 item from the 3, and if he cannot, he must leave the place. If this occurs, when is he allowed to return to the shop?

4)

When a player walks PAST a street, do the monsters in the sky attack him? Or does this only occur if he ends his movement on the streets?

Wanderer999 said:

1) no clue is put on any location with an existing gate on it (ref. AH rulebook, page 10: Most mythos cards indicate a location where a Clue
token appears. Place a Clue token on the indicated location unless there is an open gate there)

2) beware that monster surges and the terror track hitting 10 are not directly related. If you have a mosnter surge and Arkham has already reached the monster limit, the exceeding monsters are put in the Outskirts. Once the Outskirts are full, any new monster that should reach the Outskirts, causes the Terror to rise by 1 and the Outskirts to be cleaned (return all the monsters to the cup). So it's pretty a long way to have Terror hitting ten via this way. As far as the monsters in the Outskirts are concerned, I think there are two situations possible:

a) the Terror hits 10 because the Outskirts are full and a new monsters should be added there. In this case, you won't have any monster in the Outskirts (9 Terror + Outskirts full: adding a new monster causes the Outskirts to be cleaned and a +1 Terror, so no monster left in the Outskirts)

b) a particular game situation triggers the increase of the Terror (for example, a Mythos card informing everyone an entire family was slaughtered makes the Terror rise by 1); in this case, I'd say that the monsters in the Outskirts remain in the Outskirts, and that's all (you cannot add any monsters there anyway). Not so sure about this point, it never ever happened to me to have to face this situation.

3) Basically, when you go shopping for Unique Items, you draw 3 items and have to buy 1. It was clarified in the official FAQ:

Q: Why wouldn’t investigators just camp out at the Curiositie Shoppe and buy the four elder signs?
A: If an investigator shops at the Curiositie Shoppe or General Store, the investigator must purchase one of the three items drawn if he or she has enough money to do so. The other two items drawn are discarded to the bottom of the deck. This makes it significantly harder to “browse” the Unique Item deck looking for elder signs.

Rember also this other FAQ entry:

Q: How exactly do location special abilities work?
A: The investigator may use the printed action on a location rather than draw an encounter card for that location during the Arkham Encounters Phase. When he does so, he must be able to meet the requirements (have at least $1 to shop with, or have Clue tokens, gates trophies, or monster
trophies to spend, etc.). In other words, players may not use the special ability of a location if they cannot actually resolve it.

4) not so sure I got your questions. Flying monsters move during the Mythos phase, whenever their dimensional symbol is triggered. In case this happens, they move to investigators in the streets (hunting for the investigator with the lowest Sneak value - first player breaks ties). Investigators move during the Phase II, Movement. If there are Flyers in the street, they are handled like all monsters: you can evade them, or fight them. In the first case, if you succeed, you can go on with your movement. In the second case, your movement ends (a fight always stops your movement)

Hope this helps!

Wanderer999 said:

2) I've found myself in that situation, I think the Terror track hit 10 because of a failed Rumor and there were monsters in the Outskirts. I just returned the monsters in the Outskirts to the cup, seems weird to just leave them out of play.

3) If you have at least 1$ you can camp, but you must buy one item. If you cannot afford anything, you just stay where you are without leaving the location, but then why keep camping if you can't afford an Elder Sign?

Wanderer999 said:

When a gate is open at a particular location, the gate replaces the location completely. No clues appear there, investigators who manage to stop there cannot have an encounter at that location, etc. There is only the gate, until it gets closed.

Wanderer999 said:

They don't go out into streets, IIRC. I would put them back in the cup personally, although I'm not actually sure if the rules say anything about it.

Wanderer999 said:

Not so much cheating, but rather not very sporting. The FAQ entry others have quoted put a bit of a kibosh on this practice. You must buy something if you can buy something. If you can't buy anything then you don't buy anything. I don't believe you get kicked out of the store in either case. You can continue shopping next turn if you like. Technically you can still camp out there, but if you have a lot of money you will find it dwindling on forced purchases. And, like Tox said, there's not much point in camping if you don't have the moolah for the Elder Sign when it appears.

Wanderer999 said:

Monsters in the sky don't attack anything. Monsters in the sky will MOVE to an investigator in the street if there is one out there when the monsters are moving during the mythos phase (and then only if the flying monster's symbol was drawn!) Combat will not occur until the investigator movement phase, at which point he must deal with any monsters, flying or not, that are in the same location as him.

Flying monsters like to swoop around for a while and build tension before they strike =)

Whoah this is all so much valuablr information! I think I'm getting an overload here...

Please help me one more time. Based on what you guys said above:

1) In a 3 player game, the monster limit in Arkham is 3+3= 6. If there are suddenly 7 monsters or in the case of a monster surge (which adds at least 3 more due to players if not gates), then the amount of monsters is now 7 or 10. The extra 1 or 3 monsters all go to the Outskirts, but the 6 monsters already in Arkham still remain there. This is when the terror track increases by 1, and the monsters in Outskirts are ALL removed. Did I get everything correct? In this case, why even bother drawing monsters from the cup and placing them in Outskirts? We can just add one to terror track and move on, instead of drawing monsters from the cup, placing them in Outskirts, and then removing them back into the cup after adding 1 to terror track....

2) Flying monsters never attack? For this matter, all monsters don't attack if an investigator walks past? I remembered reading somewhere that an investigator must always kill or attempt to sneak past a monster before he can continue walking if he crosses a monster. Based on what you said, a flying monster starts with a gate opening, and flies into the sky if it is his symbol to move, and if there are no investigators in the same neighbourhood. Then the flying monster stays there until its symbol is drawn and it flies down to any investigator in the streets, starting with the one of lowest sneak. As long as there are no investigators who ended their turns in the streets, the flying monster will NEVER do anything. Is this correct?

1) I don't see why you shouldn't feel free to notch up the terror level without drawing the Outskirts monsters which are gonna be returned anyway

2) Yeah, but there are plenty of encounters that kick you out into the streets. And wandering monsters with a heavily negative sneak modifier could well tie you up. Once got tied up with a lowly cultist only to have the Servitor come and get me at the end of the round.

1) Make sure you remember the limit of the number of monsters you can have in the Outskirts before the terror level increases. So using your example of 3 players with 6 monsters in play, lets say that there are 5 monsters in the Outskirts, when the surge occurs spawning 3 monsters they all go to the Outskirts, the first causes you to go over the Outskirts limit for 3 players so you raise the terror level by one and move that one monster and the original 5 back to the cup. The other 2 monsters remaining from the surge then are placed in the Outskirts (Unless the terror level just hit 10, then they are placed in Arkham)

That's my understanding anyway.

Xiayose said:

Omg.... U guys are all telling me different things

Just to reduce the confusion, I hope that your quote above was a typo and that u meant to write 'the original 6 back to the cup' instead of 5.

Now I wonder who's right T_T

Yes, he meant 6. Otherwise he is right in that you add them one at a time.

Hmm, I should have been clearer with what I was saying. For the example there are 3 players that means the maxes are 6 monsters in Arkham and 5 in the Outskirts.

Before Gate Surge: Monsters in Arkham: 6

Monsters in Outskirts: 5

Terror Track: 0

The surge occurs causing 3 monsters to appear. The first monster goes to the outskirts, this causes the 5 monsters in the Outskirts and the first monster from the surge to return to the cup, and the terror level goes up one. The remaining two monsters from the surge then go to the Outskirts.

After Gate Surge: Monsters in Arkham: 6

Monsters in Outskirts: 2

Terror Track: 1

I hope that's clearer

Very much so, thank you! I had all along thought that the Outskirts had no limit. But your example showed a 5, which means there is a limit. I had been playing:

6 Monsters in Arkham

0 Monsters in Outskirts

Terror Track 0

Monster Surge occurs

6 Monsters in Arkham

3 Monsters in Outskirts

Terror Track 3

Monster Surge occurs

6 Monsters in Arkham

6 Monsters in Outskirts

Terror Track 6

The Outskirts limit is listed on the back of the instuction manual for the base game. The formula for it though is 8 - (Number of Players), so with 3 players 5 is the limit.

Dear All,

I apologize for imposing on you guys time and again, but I have some more issues again after yet another session:

1)

When an investigator enters a location with both a monster and a gate, does he enter the gate immediately (ignoring the monster), and during his encounter later, draw a OW encounter card? Or does he have to sneak past the monster first, or in other cases, fight it first?

2)

When the investigator returns to Arkham from OW, and the monster is still there, does the investigator fight or sneak past the monster first before he can attempt to close the gate? Or can he close the gate first, then deal with the monster?

3)

When 2 investigators are in the same location as a monster, who gets attacked first? The one whose turn comes first, or the one with lower sneak?

4)

Can clue tokens appear at sealed locations (places with elder signs)?

5)

Flesh ward states to protect against all damage from one source. Does this mean a single attack? Or a monster source (meaning entire battle duration)?

6)

Can a player switch weapons midway during his phases or can he only switch at the start of his upkeep phase?

7)

If using one-time items like Holy Water or Powder of Ib-Giza (or something lidat), does the weapon get discarded after a SINGLE attack roll? Or can the player use it the entire battle until he kills the monster or he sneaks away?

1) If you moved there in the movement phase, you have to deal with the monster in that same movement phase. If you are still there in the Arkham Encounter phase, you get sucked into the gate, then have an Other World encounter in the Other World Encounter phase.

2) You get to ignore any monsters on the turn you return to Arkham

3) In general you only fight monsters is during the movement phase, so you wont have combat with a monster unless it is that person's movement phase.

4) Yes.

5) Just a single attack.

6) You pick which weapons/items/spells you want to use for each attack/combat round. You aren't locked into using the same items.

7) Discarded after a single attack roll.

Wanderer999 said:

I meant flying monsters won't attack while they're in the sky. =P

Monsters only attack during the investigator's movement phase, namely when he tries to leave or pass through a space containing said monsters. This goes for flying monsters, too. A flying monster will not attack when it swoops down to a street with an investigator. It will move there and then wait until the investigator's movement phase to attack, like all other monsters. If there are no investigators out in the open, then a flying monster will remain in the sky, even if its movement symbol is drawn.

Wanderer999 said:

Assuming he enters the location as part of his movement (as would be the case 9 times out of 10) then he must encounter any monsters present (ie: evade or attack) before his movement phase ends. If he is somehow moved there from somewhere else during the Arkham Encounters phase, then I think he would ignore the monsters since monsters are only dealt with during Investigator Movement. I don't know if such a thing is even possible, mind you, I'm just saying.

Wanderer999 said:

The investigator gets a freebie when returning from the OW, for the first turn. If the monsters are still there in the next investigator movement phase, then he must fight/evade them. I think all monsters on the gate space will get returned to the cup when it closes (regardless of dimensional symbol), so closing the gate will get rid of anything currently camping on you. It's been a while since I played AH, though, so I may be misremembering that rule.

Wanderer999 said:

Monsters need to be evaded/attacked when the investigator in question moves, so the person who moves first will get attacked first (unless he successfully evades everything.) Anything that's still there when the second investigator begins moving will attack him (or be evaded.) Keep in mind that actually fighting a monster (win or lose) will force movement to stop, so it's entirely possible the first investigator will still be there when the second investigator starts moving.

Steve-O said:

Rules about dealing with monsters after a movement happening in the Arkham Encounter phase is something that changed at least a couple of times through the years. If I remember correctly what Tibs said in a different thread, the actual tendency is that you have to deal with the monster(s) before having the encounter (for example, during AE phase, the janitor of the Historical society offers you a lift to Independence Square. There is a monster over there, so you have to defeat / evade the monster before drawing the new encounter)
Anyway, I've always played this way, it seems to me the most correct / logic way to play this kind of situation (I don't see any reason why. if you enter a location during movement, then the monster is there, waiting for you, but if you enter the same location in a different phase, the monster should have a coffee break. But maybe it's just me ::laughing:

Steve-O said:

I think all monsters on the gate space will get returned to the cup when it closes (regardless of dimensional symbol), so closing the gate will get rid of anything currently camping on you. It's been a while since I played AH, though, so I may be misremembering that rule.

Unfortunately, closing / sealing a gate makes only the matching dimensional symbol monsters to be removed from the board (remember to check the dimensional symbols of all monsters, even those in the Sky or in the Outskirts)

Julia said:

Oh, unfortunate that. Perhaps this was a rule from the older 1980s edition of the game? On the whole I think the new edition is improved in pretty much every way, but there are a few throwback rules I rather enjoyed from the previous edition. Like losing sanity if you close the last gate to a world another investigator is currently in. >=)

Steve-O said:

Actually if you look at the optional rules from the support page they have rules for removing monsters at the same location as a closing gate, and for investigators losing sanity when closing another investigator off from Arkham.

Steve-O said:

This is something I like too :-)

One FINAL question :x

If a space has mutliple monsters (e.g 5) and you enter the space, do you have to fight/evade just one and then end your turn, or do you haev to fight/evade ALL 5 of them before you end your turn?

Wanderer999 said:

You have to deal with all monsters present in the location you enter. So, if you have 5 monsters in the same place, well... it's better if they aren't all as tough as the Star vampire (well, unless you are Hank in good shape with a good equipment or you're equipped with the Flute of the Outer Gods), otherwise maybe it's better to wait a couple of rounds and see whether the stacked monsters move in different directions, so it's easier to have some investigator going to kill them all

Steve-O said:

That is...interesting. While I understand the logic, our group has never played it like that ( when you move to a Gate, you go through it. period. ).

If you would have to bust through every single monster just to get inside a Gate, the game would slow down to a crawl. And not to mention become way more difficult ( exceedingly so ). Following a particularly nasty Monster Surge, there might be anything from 2-4 monsters standing on top a Gate. Good luck trying to work your way past all of them! The game is not exactly easy as is. YMMV.

Aajav-Khan said:

Yup, it is more difficult. But the rules are very specific on this topic: whenever an investigator ends his movement in a location / street area containing some monsters, the investigator has to deal with them. And this happens during the Phase II, movement. You enter through a gate only during Phase III, Arkham encounters, and so there is no way to skip the "monsters-dealing" thing.

But this gives you also greater opportuinities for good strategies. Imagine you have two investigator, (A) in the second area of an OW, while (B) is in an Arkham location. The first one to move is (A), who returns to Arkham during the movement phase. Unfortunately, he has not enough clues to seal, but (B) has an Elder sign. (B) moves after (A) has move, and reaches (A) on the gate, tossing him the Elder sign. Then all other investigators move, and then again (A) during Phase III, Arkham encounters. He seals the gate with the Elder sign. Thus (B) is not sucked through the gate, because his encounter phase starts after (A) has sealed.

Wanderer999 said:

Xiayose is right: monsters are always put to the outskirts one at the time, everytime checking if it doesn't flow and there is an answer int the KW-thread:

Q When the Outskirts fill up and the Terror Track increases by 1, all monsters in the outskirts return to the monster cup. So when the terror track goes from 9 to 10 in this manner, all monsters return to the cup as well. However, if the terror track increases to 10 by some other means, there is no way for the Outskirts to be emptied. What happens to these monsters: do they remain in the Outskirts until the end of the game? Or are they returned to the cup like normal? (AH)
A They should be returned to the cup once the terror level hits 10.

So it is possible that you are on level 9 and eg two monsters still in the Outskirts, when an event tell you to increase the terror level with 1 thus reaching 10, those 2 monsters in the Outskirts are returned to the cup .

Xiayose said:

I realize that this is only an example. But I thought in a surge, it is the number of players or the number of gate open (whichever is greater). So if there were 4 gates then 4 monsters would surge?