MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Ah! In that case I was misunderstood. You are absolutely right, the bonus is not compounded for special skill checks. Sorry for that misunderstanding

Yeah, simply think about the effect of she passing her PS as a permanent Voice of Ra. Needless to say, you can give her a normal Voice of Ra, and if you pair her with the Terrible Old Man... it starts getting an impressive character

What's so special about Terrible Old Man?

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Yep, right, you don't have Kingsport, IIRC. +1 Fight, +1 Luck & pay 1 focus and exhaust to gain 1 Sanity. Dramatically helpful

We talking about Minh? Yeah, she can be a wrecking ball. Give her Voice of Ra and the Seven Cryptical Books, and her ally can be whomever you please. If it's Granny Orne then she's just nuts.

If you lose combat vs a Child of the Goat you are delayed. What happens when you lose this combat in a location with a gate? Are you sucked through and delayed or do you stay in Arkham?

I would say that you would enter the Gate, delayed, as per the Arkham Encounter Phase and have three Other World Encounters

But being delayed doesn't removes your explored marker as you wasn't moving from your gate?

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Nope. If you have the explored marker, even if being delayed, you still keep it. The condition for losing the explorer marker is to leave the location with the gate you have just explored. When delayed, you stay on the spot, so nothing really happens.

@unclejo: yeah, if you are about to enter an OW and there is a Child of the Goat guarding the gate and you lose your combat check against her, then you enter the OW as usual during the Arkham Encounters Phase, but you're still delayed, so you have to have an OW encounter during the OW Encounters Phase in the turn you enter the gate. Then, during the following turn, since you're delayed, you cannot move during movement to the Second Area, and must face another OW Encounter in the First Area of the OW you're currently in. As The Professor said!

Hello everyone,
I have some questions, so I hope someone could answer them. I'm new here so I hope this is the (or a) right spot to pose them

(1) If you have a skill card like +1 Sneak, "gain 1 extra die when spendig clue tokens". Do BOTH effects also work for evade checks?
(2) I have some questions about flying monsters movement? I think I played it wrong until now neglecting some differences between street areas and locations.
(a) Can flying monsters move directly to the sky from a location?
(b) If a flying monster which stands on the street is about to move, and next to it is an investigator in a location. Will it move to the investigator or to the sky?
© If a flying monster is in the sky and there are no investigators on any street area, then it stays in the sky, right?
(3) If you are delayed (by Arkham encounter for example) when a gate opens under you (in the Mythos phase for example), for how long are you delayed? [Note: I've already read the following answer somewhere: "just until your next movement phase, since being delayed is a Boolean value". But this is not entirely true because you can be delayed for two turns (as mentioned in the FAQ: "stay here for 2 turns and gain 2 Clue tokens")]
(4) When some encounter instructs you to be lost in time and space, do you also lose half of your items/clue tokens? And what if you are lost in time and space because there are no gates you're allowed to move to in your movement phase when returning from an other world? [the last question is answered by House rule 7 of Richard Launius found under "Support", but I always assumed you did not lose anything]
(5) What happens if a clue appears at a location (in Mythos phase) with both a gate and at least one investigator? It is lost, right?
(6) If something says "lose 1 sanity for each die that did not result in a succes" (or something). Do you then lose 1 sanity multiple times, or do you lose a bunch of sanity once? To be more clear: what if Harvey Walters [ability: sanity losses are reduced by 1] gets this and fails with 5 dice. Does he receive five times a sanity loss of 1-1=0 or does he receive a sanity loss of 5-1=4?
(7) I have some questions about the cards "A gate and a monster appear":
(a) How many monsters do appear if you play with 5+ players? 1 or 2?
(b) Does the investigator which is drawn through the gate get an Other World encounter in this game turn (so the phase immediately after he was sucked through the gate)?
© If (b) is NO: is there somewhere where this is EXPLICITLY stated in the game rules (I can't find it, only the implicit statement that you become delayed, else you would explore the gate with just 1 other world encounter)?
(d) If (b) is NO: are there other reasons for you not getting a other world encounter while in the other world (apart from obvious cases as in "lose your next turn")? So: do you get one after being drawn through a gate by failing a combat check with a nightgaunt during the movement phase? And what if this happens during the Arkham Encounter phase?
(e) If (b) is NO: What is the reason for this? Wouldn't it be more logical to give you an Other World encounter, and not delaying you. You would still have to do two Encounters in the other world before returning to Arkham. Or does this break the game in some way or another?
(f) If (b) is YES: then why are you also delayed?
(g) What happens to all other investigators in this location? Are they also delayed? Or does this depend on the fact if they've already received an
(8) This question is in response to the fact that the secondary abilities of "Bull whip" and "Cross" can be used without using hands for it.
(a) Do you need to use your hands for the shotgun to use its ability "sixes count as two successes"?
(b) If (a) is NO: Then how can one distinguish between secondary abilities needing the hands and secondary abilities not needing them?
© If (a) is YES: doesn't that make the shotgun really overpowered in combination with some +8 weapon combination?
(d) Also, does that ability of the shotgun work against physical immune monsters? And how about the secondary ability of the bull whip and the secondary ability of the cross (against magical immune monsters)?

If someone could answer some or all of these questions, I'd be really glad!

1) Both effects work for Sneak checks, and all Evade checks are Sneak checks, so yes.

2a) Yes. They just can't go from Sky to Location: only to Street.
2b) No; see above.
2c) Yes. Its movement is not applicable, so it doesn't go anywhere.

3) You are either delayed or not delayed. If something tells you to be delayed when you already are, nothing special happens (as evidenced by the FAQ example). If you're delayed at the start of your movement phase, you are no longer delayed--specifically, your entire movement is to lose your "delay" status; you don't receive movement points when in town or advance when in an OW. To be delayed multiple turns in a row would require you repeatedly to be delayed as a result of encounters.

4) No, this only occurs when you are unconscious or insane. Lost in Time and Space is just an additional consequence if you happen to be in an Other World when you go insane/unconscious.

5) As far as I know, clues cannot exist on the same spaces as gates, so it doesn't even appear for the investigator to instantly claim.

6) You lose a bunch of sanity once. It's essentially a "Lose X" situation. Harvey does not, therefore, cancel the entire thing.

7a) Two monsters emerge from each gate: this includes those opened by encounters.
7b) Yes: his being drawn through and the OW Encounter phase are two independent phases. This was designed deliberately, rather than to have one single "encounter" phase. Also, being delayed will not preclude your encounter.
7cde) N/A.
7f) You are delayed so that, if a gate opened on you during the Mythos phase, you wouldn't expect to return after having merely one encounter. It was easier to just make you delayed for all surprise gates rather than to make a phase destinction.
7g) They all go in, and they're all delayed. They necessarily must all be lacking an Explored token, because if they had one, there'd already be an open gate there.

8a) Yes: this ability specifically refers to attacking with the shotgun. Just having the cross will boost your horror checks, and the whip's ability is like a "last-ditch" Indiana-Jones-style maneuver.
8b) N/A
8c) I think you meant to say "no" here; you do not get the bonus unless you use the shotgun as your attack.
8d) Yes. Physical Immunity and Resistance ONLY affect combat bonuses. Feel free to play otherwise; I know a couple people who do. And those other items still lend their secondary abilities because they are not combat bonuses.

Tibs: Are you absolutely sure about not losing items or clues when an encounter says "You are LiTaS"? As florrat said, Richard Launius's house rules say that you do lose them.

All you lose is a turn. To lose anything else, you'd have to be sent there by going insane or unconscious. But then, the losses are a result of going insane or unconscious.

That's what I used to think to, before I read the house rules. The word of the designer is generally the final word. Or has it been confirmed elsewhere that being LiTaS from an encounter (or similar things) does not cause you to lose items or clues?

I just had a read over the clause of interest. I guess I never caught that before.

I believe this was just an accidental mis-citing of the rules, to underscore the point that the gate-closing investigator has caused another severe misfortune.

Page 17 of the rules says:

Any investigator who is lost in time and space is immediately
moved to the Lost in Time and Space area of the
board. The investigator is now delayed, and the player
should place the investigator marker on its side. The
investigator loses his next turn, remaining in the Lost in
Time and Space area. The player may only stand his
investigator marker back up during the Movement
Phase. On the following turn, at the start of the Upkeep
Phase, the player may move his investigator to any location
or street area of his choice in Arkham.

Loss of clues and items is only mentioned with insanity and unconsciousness, and is written immediately after and analogous to the same conditions while in Arkham (except that you're carted to a hospital). If we assume that going to LiTaS without going insane or unconscious results in this penalty, then why do we assume that going to the Hospital or the Asylum outside of unconsciousness or insanity doesn't cause us to lose out items and clues? It may sound silly, but consider that Launius might have been thinking of the typical vector to LiTaS and as such it's more likely that he made a simple mistake than that the rules missed a key point. In town we assume that going unconscious is what makes you lose stuff, not the ride to the hospital. Why, in the OW, are unconscious episodes so much more benign, while the mere act of waking up in an unknown place is what does the actual damage?

Hmm...I suppose that makes sense. And as I said that, that mention from Launius really is the sole reason I play it that way. Chalk up one more for the FAQ....

Thank you for your very fast reply Tibs! But some answers lead to new questions:

9) The flying monster does not move to investigators in locations--only streets. If this monster moves, and there is no investigator in its space, and there is no investigator in an adjacent street, it will not notice the investigator in the location and will move to the sky.

10abc) No, there is no such card, and no such effect. The term "stay here next turn" is identical to "delayed." Nothing will tell you to be delayed for multiple turns.

11) Not up front: shotgun's added ability applies to the combat check it provides. Cross and Ritual Blade offer a secondary bonus to some other check. Bullwhip's additional ability is applied to some combat check, but it doesn't lend its ordinary combat bonus to the check; thus it does not need to be equipped.

I think that covers every relevant weapon. Ritual Blade is an expansion item.

To further clarify #11: the operative phrase for Shotgun is "when using Shotgun in combat." Bullwhip (and others of its ilk) does not have this phrase, so you don't need to be wielding it to use its ability.

Can you have multiple "special" cards (retainer, bank loan, etc)? In my last game one player got trapped in the newspaper by a Star Vampire and got a retainer three turns in a row. I said he could only have one, was I right?

If I use a Naacal Key, does a monster appear from the opened gate and do I add a gate token? Also am I delayed when I go through it?

Finally, if I use a gate box to leave one dimension and go to a gate that is different, what happens exactly? Can I close the gate? Am I immediately drawn through? Basically I don't "get" the gate box!

No, you can't have multiple copies of the same "special" card. This is actually stated in the rules outright.

Since a gate is opening, I don't see why a monster and doom token wouldn't be placed. But I've always thought that the fact that you're VOLUNTARILY calling the gate is grounds to assume you're not delayed. That and the fact that the item is already hard to upsell.

It's also worth mentioning that the later-released Lurker at the Threshold expansion added the new universal rule that gates in streets or stable locations may never be sealed: only closed. This also greatly inhibits the application of the Key.

The entire purpose of the Gate Box is to use any open gate as though it were an exit from your world. Thus, you receive an explored token and you consequently are not drawn through and may close the gate.

Tibs said:

And since it should be used in movement phase, you're getting drawn through it in arkham encounter phase, then you still getting an ow encounter in time and thus you shouldn't be delayed by using it.

unclejo said:

as Tibs said, you cannot have three of them. however, if you get a new one every turn you never have to roll for it, as you don't roll the first upkeep after getting it. clearly not as good as getting a new retainer, but in this case it's two times fewer with a risk of losing it, which is better than nothing.

regarding adding doom token on opening the gate, i've always assumed that opened gate = doom token, not sure if the rules point this out specifically however. i, as others, would say you wouldn't be delayed as it isn't really surprising you with a gate opening.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Well, the object is from the Black Goat expansion. If you see it thematically, the expansion gives you the instrument to be a cultist working for the AO. You have spells for summoning monsters, gates, moving monsters from here to there and some other more or less nasty stuff. Thus summoning a gate thematically is something boosting the AO's arrival.

If you don't like the thematical explanation, simply consider that there is nowhere presented (rulebooks, FAQs, collective conscience of mankind) a case when a gate is opened without a doom track to be added!

Wow, well the Gate Box just went from "what's the point in that?" to "awesomely powerful" in my estimations.