I've forgotten; do you redraw the first mythos card if it's not a gate, or only if it's a rumor?

I play that the first card must be a non-rumor gate. Double doom, double terror, the next act begins, etc. all get redrawn. There is no rule against starting with one of those non-gate cards. The rulebook just mentions placing a gate and not forgetting a doom token because that's all they had back then. I just think it's weird not to start with a gate and a monster on the board.

And now that I think of it, I guess that means I would keep a double-gate non-doom token card too.

I think the proto-FAQ clarified that the first mythos card had to be a gate.

If you draw a double-gate for the first card, and the Lurker is the herald, do you draw one Reckoning card? It says to ignore the initial gate, not gates in the initial mythos.

(Similarly, Lurker+Zhar+doubles in initial mythos)

I would think that both the gates would be considered the initial gates, thereby meaning not to draw a reckoning card.

Is there anything you can quote to show that it has to be a non-gate mythos? 'Cause I always thought they made the rule that in order to win by having no gates on the board, you had to have at least as many gate trophies as players, to prevent a win with the very first mythos card. This would mean, then, that you COULD have a non-gate mythos.

Musha Shukou said:

I have never seen the ruling, that's just how I played it so that the investigators have something to start working towards. Also, there is a rare case if non-gate mythos cards are allowed, a 1-investigator game with Akachi could be won before her first turn since she starts with a gate trophy. But I don't think that's why they would have ruled it, like I said, it would be so the investigators can immediately have a goal. Starting with a double doom or double terror, all they can do is have encounters and not even have the option to start to actually beat the game.

Game Setup
If a Rumor is drawn during step 14 of Game Setup, discard it and draw again until you draw a Mythos Card that isn’t a Rumor. (Page 5 in the first printing of the Arkham Horror rules)

If a Mythos Card with no gate is drawn during step 14 of Game Setup, discard it and draw again until you draw a Mythos Card that depicts a gate.

That second paragraph is from the proto-FAQ.

And:

Q: What happens if Dagon is the Herald and the additional Mythos card drawn is a rumor?
A: Draw again.

Based on this, I'd say that ALL gates that open as a result of the "turn 0" mythos card count as "first" gates, so no Reckoning card would be drawn.

You know this made me think of yet another way you could lose before the first turn and again it involves Dagon. Zahar + Dagon. With a particularly bad string of luck rolling on Zahar's ability during the setup mythos you could end up with too many gates If you draw a double gate on any one of the draws in a 7-8 player game, fewer players if you draw 2 with no redundant gates. Would be very rare but could happen.

But if the second Mythos card drawn by Dagon can't be a rumor, then it probably also has to be a gate (and therefore can't be a double-doom). This probably applies to ALL mythos cards activated at Turn 0.

Really you only need Zhar and unlucky opening rolls and draws.

Oh yeah I forgot that his power stacks on itself. What was up with Innsmouth being the "kill you before the first turn" expansion?