I guess no matter how many times you play, there's always those little questions that crop up---

1) Mythos Card "Citizens Urged To Lock Doors" - It says "Monsters appear in the Outskirts until the Outskirts limit is reached. If the Ouskirts already contains the maximum number of monsters, return all monsters in the Outskirts to the monster cup and increase terror level by 1."

Is this card saying--

A) Keep adding monster cards to the outskirts until its over the limit (in which case why bother - just raise the terror level and save yourself some time)

B) Add all future monster spawnings to the outskirts instead of to town until limit is reached?

C) Add one monster card to the Outskirts?

D) None of the above and you tell me--

2) An investigator returns from the otherworld to a space with a gate to find ANOTHER MONSTER IS THERE (it appeared during a surge). In the turn he comes back - he closes the gate.

On the following turn - Can he simply move away or does if have to fight? And if he fights (whther by choice or not) -- I.e. If combat occurs - does he also get to draw an encounter card for the space, or is the combat considered his "encounter" for that turn.

Thnx--

D)

You have to go one monster over the outskirt limit for the terror level to rise and that monster (and the monsters in the outskirts) to go back to the cup.

In other words, you fill up the outskirts if they aren't already full. If they are full, you clear them out and raise the terror level by one (it is as if you only added one monster).

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re: second question

He has to fight. You always have to fight and evade monsters when you are on their space during movement (the only exception for this is if a card says it's optional, or the turn you come out of an Other World, which also makes it optional).

Also, you always have an encounter when you are in a location during the encounters phase. Combat has nothing to do with encounters, it's in an entirely different phase (except for monster appears encounters). The only exceptions to the always have an encounter rule are if you have an ability that allows you to not draw an encounter, if your turn has been skipped (which is not the same thing as being delayed), if you were knocked unconscious or driven insane and have been sent to the hospital or the asylum, if you are somewhere that allows you to do something instead of having an encounter (provided you can pay the cost for the alternate effect, or if you are on a location with a gate (since the gate replaces the location, it's treated differently). As soon as the gate is gone, you have encounters there as normal.

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You can keep asking questions, and they'll be answered here, probably fairly promptly, but, based on the second question, I think it'd probably be a good idea for you to give the manual at least another read through (don't worry about missing things, I was still making errors 2 years into playing the game). This may sound awful, but, you might actually want to take notes (particularly of minor details that work like sentence long throwaways, it's easier than trying to memorize everything at once).

Roy Batty said:

1st Question - Let's say you have four investigators. That means, 7 monsters can be in Arkham, 4 in the outskirts. In this instance, the cards is saying "if you have 0-3 monsters in the outskirts, keep adding monsters until it reaches 4. If you already have 4 monsters in the outskirts, then return them to the cup and increase the terror level by one". You're just placing monsters to the max in the outskirts, and this happens immediately.

2nd Question - The turn he comes back from the gate is Phase 2 - Movement. The turn you come out of a gate, you can ignore any monsters at the gate's location. Then during Phase 3 - Town Encounters, you close the gate. Next turn during Phase 2 - Movement, you will have to deal with the monster as normal. Leaving or ending in a location with a monster means you must either Combat or Evade. If you Evade, you can move on like normal. If you enter Combat, whether you then Flee or kill the monster, your movement ends. If this is the case, then during Phase 3 - Town Encounters, you will draw an encounter card as normal since the gate is no longer there.

Just remember to specifically follow the phases when trying to determine what happens to an investigator.

Hey guys. Thnx for the responses!

Yes - I understand the whole idea of the max number monsters in the ouskirts vs. number of investigators.

It just seems like kind of an extra step to fill the outskirts up just to empty them out immediately It might as well say "Empty the outskirts and raise the terror level."

AFA paying close attention to phase order - That's an excellent point. I find that's true of a lot FFG games.

Cheers! And happy Thanksgiving.

Roy Batty said:

1) I think it should be played in this way: let's say the monster limit for the Outskirts is 4, meaning the 5th will clear the Outskirts and raise the terror level by one. If you haven't reached the limit (4) yet, every monster you draw goes to the Outskirts, until you have 4 monsters there. At this point, you play according the normal rules. If you have already reached the limit, then you have to put in the Outskirts the monster that will make the Outskirts be cleared and the terror track hit the next level

2) You close / seal gates during the Arkham Encounter Phase (Phase 3 of the game round) and you have to deal with monsters during Phase 2 (Movement). So, let's say you're returning from an OW during a movement phase (as normally you're supposed to do). For that round you have a free pass against every monster sitting there (regardless of how many monsters are there or anything else). During Phase 3, you close / seal the gate. In the next round, the free pass has gone: during the movement phase you have to deal with all monsters (fight them / evade them / combos of the two), as per normal rules. This happens always during Phase 2. So in case your investigator takes his stand, fights the monster and survive, then during Phase 3, he has to draw and resolve an encounter card

Roy Batty said:

You fill the Outskirts up only if they're not full, and leave it at that. The terror level does not increase in this case.

If the Outskirts are full when the special text of this card is resolved, empty the Outskirts and raise the terror level by 1.

Julia said:

Sorry guys! I answered for the third time to the same questions. For some curious reasons, when I read Roy Batty's post, I didn't see any answers at all. Mistery of the forum. Or simply I need a new pair of glasses ::laughing::