These issues came up in a game we recently played:

1) Servants of Glaaki: Well, what to do if you have hit the monster limit? We had 4 players and you can theoretically see a situation where 4 servants get stuffed into the Outskirts, then the 5th one goes in, immediately awakening Glaaki. When the first two came out the same turn while at our monster limit, we stuck them on the board so that they could be found and killed to prevent all 5 being in play simultaneously and made an exception to having hit our monster limit. Should we have stuck them into the outskirts? If they had gone into the outskirts, they would still then be considered to have *come into play* so that we'd still have been forced to discard items, right? Perhaps, under a strict interpretation, they should have gone into the outskirts and we should simply have let the outskirts fill up to return them to Glaaki's sheet. Of course, that raises the terror level, which leads to an ally leaving town, which leads to a Servant of Glaaki coming into play right back into the outskirts if you haven't killed monsters on the streets!...but this is Arkham Horror so maybe that's just life when great evil is coming to town. How would you deal with this?

2) Sealed gate at the Silver Lodge, plus a Mythos card stating a ritual at the Silver Lodge unleashes 2 monsters into the streets by the Lodge. A loose interpretation would say that given the Headline text of the Mythos card, the monsters originated through a location that is sealed, therefore no monsters appear. A strict interpretation would say that only gate openings from encounters & the gate opening subphase of the Mythos phase, not the flavor text interpretation, can be stopped by a sealed gate. I lean towards the loose interpretation. (But then, what if the Scientist Investigator is at the Silver Lodge during the Mythos phase? Her special power stops gates and monsters from appearing at her location--does the ritual fail?)

3) If you are delayed, can I assume you do *not* get an encounter while delayed? This is in relation to the FAQ, which specifically mentions the need to delay folks sucked in through a gate in Arkham Encounter phase, so that they get "two encounters instead of one" in the Otherworld phase to loosely paraphrase. I interpret this as the investigator is tipped over (delayed) during the Otherworld phase immediately after the Arkham Encounter phase where they get sucked in so nothing happens in that Otherworld phase; next turn you stand them up in Movement phase, get an OW encounter (#1) as usual, then OW encounter #2 next turn after moving to the right half of the OW, etc. BUT... if you apply this in Arkham, like at Ma's Boarding house where you can get an encounter where you're stuck listening to somebody's rambling stories: you tip your character over in that Arkham Encounter phase, then next turn you stand him upright in Movement phase, so you are undelayed and can't leave Ma's Boarding House, then Arkham Encounter phase comes, and you have another encounter? (Funnily enough, if you don't search for allies by trading in trophies, you might draw the same encounter forcing you to listen to more stories and get delayed again! How thematic.)

What say the wizards of rule parsing here?

No parsing necessary, actually.

1) Servants of Glaaki are Spawn monsters (indicated by the red circle on the front). They never count against the monster limit, so they'll always be in town. Same goes for Children of Abhoth, Riot monsters (King in Yellow expansion) and the Dunwich Horror itself. This is in the DH and KiY rulebooks, but new players miss it sometimes.

I should also mention that Mythos effects that put monsters back into the cup (Rivertown residents take back streets, Feds Raid Arkham) do not apply to spawns. This is not in the rulebook, but was clarified by the designer.

2) That Mythos card's effect is simply to put two monsters into French Hill streets. The seal at the STL does not affect that. All Mythos cards that dump monsters into streets are unaffected.

3) It does not matter if you're delayed, you still get an encounter. The confusion over the FAQ is that when a gate opens on top of you, you get sucked in and delayed. If you weren't delayed, then you'd likely get only one encounter in the Other World--that's why the FAQ says "gets two encounters," it means, "should not get fewer than 2." As a result, if a gate opens on you during the Arkham Encounter phase, you can expect to get three encounters before returning.

Another random question on closing gates. I realized that there is no specific text prohibiting you from spending 5 clue tokens to seal a gate when you aren't in the same space as the gate. So I can spend 5 clues to seal a gate I close using a magic item that lets me roll against my Lore to close a gate? And I would get the gate as a trophy too, I assume? (I know there are some encounters, like in Science Building, that specifically tell you that you don't get the gate as a trophy.)

Also, on discarding items: What does it mean when you have an item that can't be lost or stolen unless you choose to allow it? This would seem to imply that it's not helpful unless most or all items are of this nature, i.e. reduced to 0 stamina and you have 2 items, so discard one. But only one item has this text, so you're still forced to discard the other item.

I would probably rule that you couldn't seal the gate if you weren't there. I think you would get the trophy though, just closing it with such an item.

As for discarding items, you could choose to discard the item if you didn't want to lose a better one. But basically it will mean no matter how far you get knocked down, you are still going to have that item. You could theoretically fall unconscious four times in a row, and having nothing except that item. But you would still have it unless you wanted to get rid of it.

The rules state once you successfully close a gate, you may attempt to seal it:

If an investigator successfully closes a gate, he may
immediately spend five Clue tokens to permanently seal
it.

There is no requirement that you attempt to close it by skill checks (i.e. spells can work) and no requirement that you are present on the gate (i.e. you can seal it from a far).

So i would rule that yes, you can seal a gate from a far.

Octoparrot said:

Well, those items are useful if you're going to engage Ithaqua in Final Combat.

Regarding the sealing from afar: What kind of items/spells would allow you to do this? From the top of my head I cannot think of any (though I don't have the Kingsport and Black Goat expansions, so maybe it's something in on e of these?)

In Dunwich, De Vermiis Mysteriis is a tome that allows you to close from afar buyt specifically denies sealing it afterward. Walking the Ley Lines is a mission that lets you close all gates. No mention of excluding sealing, so I would allow this one to seal as many as you can if you had the clues.

I thought there were some more but I can't seem to find them right now.

Doesn't Walking the Ley Lines mean that you immediately win the game by closing all gates? So in this case you wouldn't have to seal them anyway.

ninniach said:

You still need gate trophies equal or greater than the # of investigators. If you complete WtLL with 3 gates open in a 4-inv game for example...

An interesting distinction: sealing gates with clues can be done from elsewhere, but elder signs require you to be on the location (page 18). It makes sense, but it's a limitation on Elder Signs that isn't obvious until it comes up in a game.

ColtsFan76 said:

The usual one for us is the Blue "Other" OW encounter "You've completed your task [...]" that immediately closes the gate and then makes you make a Speed check (-2, I think) to be on the right side of it when it happens, and LiTaS otherwise. I've sealed gates with clues from LiTaS in that situation rather than spending them to escape but not be able to seal.

Question: in this circumstance, if Yig or Yog-Sothoth is the Ancient One, do you seal the gate with clues before or after moving to LiTaS? Page 18 says "immediately" after closing a gate you can spend the clues, which suggests "before", but my memory of the wording of the encounter suggests that the closing happens after the rest of the encounter.

On the one hand, the text mentions LiTaS first, and closing the gate second.

On the other hand, the card says "You've completed your task..."
Well, what was your task if not to seal the gate once it's been closed?

Dam said:

And on top of that, WtLL requires that you sacrifice 4 gate trophies as well. So most likely any trophies you would have had count against the end game are being spent.

You've completed your task, but now you must escape before the portal closes! Pass a Speed (-2) check to return to Arkham. If you fail, you are lost in time and space. In either event, you automatically close the gate you entered through.

Tough call. Skill check happens first, then movement, then closing the gate. But on the other hand, an event is supposed to be completed before anything else can interrupt it. So I would say the encounter is completed in full, including the chance to seal it before Yig or Yog's abilitied kick in.

this descusion right here, made me realise 75% of my defeats are owed to not playing it this way....lol....closing gates from a far shold be sent to kevin and answerd promptly.

I don't know. I'm still pretty unsure on this one. I will wait until there is an official ruling on it before I allow my players to remotely seal gates.

There are just so many factors of intended wording vs. literal wording vs. inherited wording that could be argued both for and against here, that I'll play it the way I always have until I'm told different.