So I was playing as the keeper last weekend.

I had the Gun Lock mythos card in my posession.
One of the investigators wanted to attack my Hound of Tindalos, stepped in the room and decided to attack with his .45.

At this point I decided to play my Gun Lock mythos card.
The targeted investigator said I had to play the card before I know he was going to attack ...
I didn't agree on that.

In my opinion, it's ridiculous to play the Gun Lock mythos card if you don't even know the investigator is going to attack using a gun (.45 for instance), or even don't attack at all.

So my question is: is it fair to play this card at the moment the investigator wants to attack a monster using his gun, and you're aware of that fact ...

Rules say you use your mythos card at any time when investigator spends one of his movement or action points.

You were right.

Rules say you use your mythos card at any time when investigator spends one of his movement or action points.

You were right.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Not sure what rules you're looking at:

"There are four points during an investigator’s turn at which
the keeper may play a Mythos card."

and

"The points when the keeper may play a Mythos card are:
• Start of an investigator’s turn
• Immediately after an investigator’s first Movement Step
• Immediately after an investigator’s second Movement Step
• Immediately after an investigator’s Action Step" (p. 16)

So the Keeper has to play the card before the investigator decides to take the action.

Dam said:

In the OP, investigator moves, then wants to shoot at the Hound, so the Keeper has to play Gun Lock after the investigator's Movement Step (thus before his Action).

What is gun lock effect?
I just checked my mythos deck and there is no card with such name.

My reading of the rules is the same as Dam's.

It looks like you can play before or after a movement or action, but you can't use the card to interrupt that movement or action.

The main problem here is investigators dont wait for keeper to declare his actions and rapidly use all of their move and action points.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Well, for one the Keeper does drawing of combat cards and for another, as soon as the investigator miniature is placed in the room, just saying "wait" should cover things.

Dam said:

I think that is just one of the tricks to being a good keeper; knowing what you want to play and anticipating your investigators moves. You have to be one step ahead of them to plan out your moves. If you are reactive, you will get caught like that. But, if he is going to move 2 spaces, stop him after the first, or, tell him to take his moves slowly this round. There are plenty of ways to make sure you get in your hits.

Did you mean the "Gun Jam" Mythos card? If so, I think your investigators were right. The Mythos card says "You may not used Ranged weapons this turn". This card is just for the keeper to take options off the board for the investigator that turn, so you need to, as The Keeper, decided when your being threatened by ranged weapons and preventing it from happening that turn regardless of whether the investigator intended to use the weapon or not.

That is my reading of it, anyway

Thanks for the replies fellas.

"Prevent investigator actions or movements" instead of "interrupting" seems ok to me.

But I also agree with MyNeighbourTrololo, I often had the problem investigators were too quick ... but we were only playing MoM for the third time.
I guess this will be solved when we get a bit more experienced in the game

mouseman said:

I indeed meant the Gun Jam.

But still ... I find it a bit ridiculous to play this card if you don't even know the investigator is going to use it.

It would be much cooler, story wise, if you could play this card when the investigator used his action step to attack a monster.
Ok, it would be painfull for the investigator but what the heck

*Harvey pulled out his .45, ready to pump some lead in this biiiiiiiiiiig m*thef*cker. Harvey starts to panic when he realizes the .45 is jammed. The monster attacks and slices Harvey in two pieces *

The title of the card suggests something that an investigator shouldn't logically encounter until he tries to fire the weapon. Alas, the rules don't allow for the actual use of the card to match the logical scenario its title suggests. So you just have to use it as an option-limiter rather than a mid-attack "screw you" to the investigator.

I believe a weapon can only be jammed if it's triggered. It can't be jammed by itself into a player holster, and even if it can, it won't be automatically fixed on the next turn, without the investigator even noticing it was jammed before.

So, it seems logical to me that the Gun Jam card should be used when a player attempts to use a gun. And, since he finds out the weapon is jammed, the investigator might use another weapon (not ranged) or his bare hands to attack the monster on the same turn.

Why couldn't it be jammed in a holster? Maybe he forgot to clean it or more likely the insidious forces in the house did something to the gun that isn't apparent from the outside.

Dam said:

Rule #1: if there's no good explanation, the evil forces in the Mansion did it
But seriously, Henry McCaster's way of thinking was the reason I opened this topic.

Maybe we should not try to think 'logical' ... after all .... we're in the Mansion of MADNESS !!!

Dam said:

Sure, the Mythos card itself means that the evil forces are working against the investigator's weapon. But, quoting myself: "...even if it can, it won't be automatically fixed on the next turn, without the investigator even noticing it was jammed before."

What I mean is: The dark forces wouldn't just jam the gun, wait for the player to use it, and if he doesn't, just fix the gun again so he can use it later unaware that evil forces ever touched it...

Of course, is just a game, and we can explain everything using the occult (Sure, who says the jam has to be mechanical? It can be only pure energy holding the gun from working, and in the next turn this energy is focusing in some other evil deed). I'm only pointing that, IF the gun is mechanically jammed, it wouldn't fix by itself. Neither the evil forces would like to fix it for no reason.

But, since there are many interpretations on how the gun is jammed, than the original question cannot be truly answered, so it's up to the keeper to explain to the investigators what happened.

I still prefer to play the card after the player try to shoot a monster, so I tell him "sorry, you gun is jammed, would you like to attack the monster with something else or flee?

Cheers, everyone!