Dual-Gate Monster Surges

By SMulhern, in Arkham Horror Second Edition

Played a 4-player game (3 open gates) when "The Evil is Everywhere" headline came up (from Lurker).

Independence Square and the Woods already had gates on them . Does the Monster Surge produce 8 monsters total (4 players, 2 monster surges)?

Thanks in advance.

-- S.

SMulhern said:

Played a 4-player game (3 open gates) when "The Evil is Everywhere" headline came up (from Lurker).

Independence Square and the Woods already had gates on them . Does the Monster Surge produce 8 monsters total (4 players, 2 monster surges)?

The Lurker rules, AFAICT, don't explain what you're supposed to do with those cards. Which is kind of annoying.

Since the text of the cards says "two gates open this turn", one would assume that you simply resolve each location separately using the rules from the base set. Ergo, each location with a gate currently open would trigger Phase V.1.B and, yes, you would get two monster surges.

The only way that wouldn't be true is you were somehow trying to resolve the locations simultaneously. Basically, if you think "one of these locations has an Elder Sign, so a gate doesn't open in either location" is a reasonable interpretation, then you could similarly conclude that there's only one monster surge. But I think that's a self-evidently wrong interpretation.

Resolving each location separately doesn't resolve all potential issues, however, due to certain sequencing issues. I see two choices;

(1) The first player chooses the order in which the locations are resolved.

(2) The top location is resolved first; then the bottom location.

Method 1 is typically used to resolve unresolved simultaneity in the rules, so I'd go with that.