Background:
Several cards, in particular Animate Weapons and Dance of the Monkey God, state that they affect ‘heroes in the dungeon’. During outdoor encounters, of course, there are no heroes *in the Dungeon* so these cards have no affect.
Of course, when these cards were written there were *only* ‘in dungeon’ operations for the heroes (barring an individual hero being temporarily in town). Many people argue that because of this, 'in the dungeon' should be treated as meaning 'in play' (or something similar) so that these cards would work during encounters.
An argument can be made that these cards are too powerful for use in Lt encounters anyway. Although they are expensive in terms of Treachery, with a 2 Event and 3 Trap Treachery, which is entirely reasonable by mid-late campaign, an OL can guarantee casting DotMG on his first turn. Upgraded (Silver/Gold/Diamond) monsters make very, very short work of monkeys!
Wind Pact is a counter, but becomes a *required* skill, something which is probably best avoided. These cards are also prime examples given when people ask for recommendations of cards that should be banned or modified in order to improve the game.

Question:
Q. Can Dance of the Monkey God, and similar cards which affect figures “in the dungeon” affect figures during outdoor encounters?
A1. Yes. Treat ‘in the dungeon’ as meaning ‘in play currently’ for outdoor encounters.
A2. No. These cards cannot be played during outdoor encounters.
A3. No. The OL can play these cards during outdoor encounters but they have no effect, beyond wasting a lot of precious resources!

Suggested addition to A1 (or to the Background):

Yes,... Besides Wind Pact, the heros also have several Feat Cards that can potentially save them from these powerful cards (Foiled Plans, Preventing Evil, Disarm), so there is no balancing issue and the heros should plan accordingly when attacking a Lt.

I feel it incumbent to point out that not everyone owns every expansion, and FFG seems to go to considerable lengths to ensure that they don't have to. Dance of the Monkey God is from AoD, while Wind Pact is from WoD and feats are from ToI, so it is entirely possible to have the one without either of the others being available.

I think it is exceedingly unlikely that FFG will intentionally justify any answer on the grounds that a counter exists in an "optional" expansion (or two), but quite plausible that the question will be answered by someone who doesn't realize that those all come from separate expansions if we don't point it out.

If those cards are not allowed, then the only trap cards with any effect on encounters would be the space traps (or "trap (space)").

No doors => no door traps

No chests => no chests traps

No treasure => no dark relic traps

What's left? Space traps and beggining-of-OL-turn traps. If the latter aren't allowed, that's a poor choice for those who don't have the WoD. On the other hand, as Antistone sais, allowing them gives the OL a lot of power in games without the ToI. It would have to deppend on what expansions the players own.

Galvancito1 said:

It isn't a poor choice. The best trap cards for Lt encounters in RtL are space traps and a Dark charm. A limited choice of the best cards is a better choice than a wide choice of crap cards.
With Poltergeist and 1 Crushing Block Removed, Events have the most limited good choices.

Corbon said:

Ok, "narrow" was a better word than "poor" here. But anyway, you can't dark charm a hero who is in the town (I mean, normally). So if you forbid Dance of the Monkey God nor Animate Weapons because heroes aren't inside the dungeon, why doesn't the prohibition extend to Dark Charm too? It's the same kind of card. I remember having read on the JitD manual (I'll have to find it again anyway) that traps have no efects on heroes who are in the town. I mean no traps at all.

So either this rule doesn't apply here (and every trap card is playable), or the rule applies in a very selective way. Or my memory is playing dirty triks at me. I'll have to check it again.

What I try to say is that Dark Carm is like a smaller version of Animate Weapons, and it should be treated just the same, allowing or forbidding both of them.

I fail to see how a part can deal with a crushing blow and animate weapons on the same LT encounter. We always take wind pact as a skill to prevent crushing blows. if you have to wind pact animate weapons then you are also doomed anyway. I know it cause i have seen both sides as an OL and a player and i know that if i employ that kind of tactic there is no way the players can survive it. Pick an avatar with low event and trap costs buy 4 trap 3 event fill up with danger, CB, and animate weapons and clearly there is no way to deal with that. Don't come saying about preventing evil which at beast will show up 3 or 4 times in a campaign cause there is no way to have it twice in a row and since the Ol has 4 Lt's it's pretty easy to destroy any team with a combo like that and even more at higher levels. The best level to do that would be gold. I would have amassed my treachery by then upgraded my beasts and then bammmm almost everyone can one shot him self in gold. Animate weapons and 2 spare dark charms. Possibility of winning an LT encounter 0,01%

Galvancito1 said:

Umm, did you read the background?
Dark Charm does not require the target to be 'in the dungeon'. Animate Weapons and Dance of the Monkey God specify targets "in the dungeon". Heroes in an encounter are not in a dungeon.
Maybe your language edition has 'accidentally' dropped this from the cards? I believe the german language edition did.

Heroes not be affected while in town is a completely different rule.

Drglord said:

This is going to sound rude, but I honestly don't mean it rudely. It just feels like some shock tactics might be in order.

Your failures aren't worth changing the rules over.

Dealing with Animate Weapons and Crushing Blow is trivially easy. The heroes simply Unequip their weapons each turn. It costs them tactically (2MP/turn, often from fatigue, and cannot guard) but is not at all difficult and cheap compared to the problems that could be caused by 2 Trap treachery used in other ways.
And it protects against Dark Charm.

Corbon said:

I've found it in the core game english rulebook. Page 18, bottom left corner: " Note: All heroes in the town are considered adjacent to each other and cannot be targeted by overlord cards. " This can support answers A1 and A3 depending on how you interpretate it.

Cards that affect more than one hero (like Animate Weapons or Dance of the Monkey God) specify "in the dungeon" because, otherwise, heroes could argue that since at least one of them is in the town (not in the dungeon) the whole trap is useless. Counterwise the OL could say that since there is at least one hero in the dungeon the card still applies to all. This way it is clear that only the heroes who are in the dungeon (not in the town) are affected. Up to this point, this looks just as a clarification, so it supports A1.

However, this for outside encounters, being "in the dungeon" and "not being in the town" are not equivalent. As you said, heroes in the forest or on board are not exactly in a dungeon. So since no hero is in a dungeon the cards can be interpretated as useless cards, and can only be discarded for threat. So it supports A3 too.

Therefore the question is necesary (probably as is, or maybe without A2). What I tried to say before is that Dark Carm wouldn't affect heroes in the town, just like Animate Weapons. But you are right, the card doesn't specify that the hero must be in the dungeon. It's a card that targets only one hero after all.

Revision: Added in the background about expansions being necessary for counters. Didn't seem to be any other post related to actually improving the original.

Background:

Several cards, in particular Animate Weapons and Dance of the Monkey God, state that they affect ‘heroes in the dungeon’. During outdoor encounters, of course, there are no heroes *in the Dungeon* so these cards have no affect.
Of course, when these cards were written there were *only* ‘in dungeon’ operations for the heroes (barring an individual hero being temporarily in town). Many people argue that because of this, 'in the dungeon' should be treated as meaning 'in play' (or something similar) so that these cards would work during encounters.
An argument can be made that these cards are too powerful for use in Lt encounters anyway. Although they are expensive in terms of Treachery, with a 2 Event and 3 Trap Treachery, which is entirely reasonable by mid-late campaign, an OL can guarantee casting DotMG on his first turn. Upgraded (Silver/Gold/Diamond) monsters make very, very short work of monkeys!
Wind Pact is a counter, but becomes a *required* skill, something which is probably best avoided. Some feats can also counter these cards, but not all players have access to all expansions. These cards are also prime examples given when people ask for recommendations of cards that should be banned or modified in order to improve the game.

Question:
Q. Can Dance of the Monkey God, and similar cards which affect figures “in the dungeon” affect figures during outdoor encounters?
A1. Yes. Treat ‘in the dungeon’ as meaning ‘in play currently’ for outdoor encounters.
A2. No. These cards cannot be played during outdoor encounters.
A3. No. The OL can play these cards during outdoor encounters but they have no effect, beyond wasting a lot of precious resources!

Comments: Any more discussion before it goes in the FAQ proposal document?

Probably just include a note that the powerful cards also come from expansions only, so there is no issue if using the base game only. Merely for clarity and avoiding false leads.