Okay, just imagine Kate went to an Other World, she's back and miss to close the gate.

During the Mythos Phase, the Myth Card indicates a gate to open at Kate place.

What happened exactly ? I have an idea, but wanted to be sure. I would say that there is a monster surge from that gate and all the monsters which should have appeared on Kate place are prevented. So 3 gates (A,B,C) and 4 monsters. Usually A will have 2 monsters and B & C one each. But there, with Kate on gate A, there are only 2 monsters appearing on B & C.

Right ?

An excellent question. Certainly, if Kate can't stop monster surges, your interpretation about the monsters is correct, but i'm honestly not sure whether Kate's ability works on monster surges. Basically, the sequence goes: location for gate opening is set, player determines that there's already a gate there, monster surge occurs instead. The question is whether Kate's ability activates before step 2 of the sequence. Anyone?

Everything was FAQed a long time ago (read: ASKED) and there was a lot of debate around this. That's the way I play:

a) if the surging gate is Kate's location, the surge is cancelled. No monster appears from any gate on the board

b) if the surging gate is not Kate's location, the surge is not cancelled. All monsters appear as usual on all gates but the one Kate's squatting on

The key is that a gate cannot appear at Kate's. The monster surge is triggered by a gate appearing at a certain location. Thus, if she's at the location, the gate cannot appear. Hence no surge at all. If she's not at the location, she prevents as normal the monster appearing at her location, but not the surge

I was quite sure it was FAQed. Typically the kind of nasty question

Mmmm... Julia, i'm not completly agree with you.

Quoting the rule book : "1. Open Gate and Spawn Monster
The first player begins by looking at the lower-left corner of the mythos card he has drawn to see where the dimensional forces are assaulting Arkham this turn."

It says where the bad guys are attacking, and then depending on the board the attack vary. I'm not reading monsters surges as something replacing an opening gate, but as a different kind of attack. As adding 2 Doom tokens is a different kind of attack. I'm not sure i'm quite clear. But, i'm not fully convicted by your answer.

And you says it was asked for the FAQ. But was it answered ? Are you playing it the way it was answered, or the way you think it should be answered ?

Hugues said:

Were the new FAQs published? Sadly, no ::sobbing::

As for your doubts.. my point is this one: let's say Kate is in a location with no gate and the Mythos card instructs a gate to be opened there. Is it opened? No. The effect of opening is cancelled.

What causes the surge to happen? A gate opening in a location where an already existing gate is open. So, what triggers the surge is the opening (no surge if the gate opens elsewhere or we have double doomers or double terror cards). Kate power blocks the opening. So no surge at all.

As for the way I play, it's the most logical (to me, at least) and I think it's the way Tibs suggested to play this a lot of time ago, on these forums!

Ok, you can check Tibs' words here (reply 42)

Julia said:

Well, i get your points, no problem at all. It's just that, if you check the english rule version, on page 9 middle column, "B Location has open gate", it doesn't say that the gate opening is prevented, it looks like that it's something else than an opening gate that's happening. That's the reason it sounds a little bit .. tricky.

But, i'll go that way. Kate is preventing monster surge if centered on her and only monsters if centered elsewhere. (Sometimes, i'm wandering why i'm thinking about such situations... What are the odd... Really ?)

Hugues said:

That's a good question. No sooner than 2 months ago I had for my very first time a monster trying to appear at Kate's when she was in an OW. Never thought about it ::laughter:: And I still have no idea of 99% of the Epic Battle cards, since I generally never have final battles. Sometimes I think I should play Final Battles regardless of the result of the game, just to learn the cards properly, but generally the game is already long enough to prevent me from trying :-)

It was my general impression that if a monster surge occurs at some location other than Kate's, the surge still occurs (like Julia said), allocating the monsters as evenly as possible, as though Kate weren't there. Then, when it comes time to actually DRAW and PLACE those monsters, all the ones that were supposed to go to Kate's location instead simply aren't placed. In other words: Kate's ability doesn't merely redirect them to other gates, resulting in the same number of appearing monsters overall.

And no, the new FAQ has not been published. But I did ask about New Hastur, the Lost in Time and Space conundrum, and a couple final combat questions that have been bugging me.

Julia said:

I seem to recall a ruling that Kate blocks "a monster appears" even in OWs, scratch it down to another location is not just a location, sometimes it's also a space or area.

Well, flux stabilizer prevents otherworldy being and stuff from appearing in our world. How the hell it's going to work in the other world where they live?

It's like you prevent yourself from meeting your collegue at the work using some device.

Dam said:

Yeah, Dam is right. It was clarified in some FAQ or some official answer scattered elsewhere. No monster may appear at Kate's,e ven if in an OW

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Monsters appear in Arkham because they're arriving through otherworldly gates. Why can't they similarly be able to jump between these different worlds? "A monster appears" in the Dreamlands may be due to a monster entering from another world. After all, why should a Ghoul emerge from a gate to R'lyeh?

Tibs said:

Because, uhm, Arkham is assaulted by otherwold forces, not otherwold is assaulted by forces of Arkham?

Monsters dwell in the other worlds, that's it, when they appear there, they tecnically move into Kate's "location" or she moves into their, which from her stabilizer doesn't prevents.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Have you ever met Patrice? ::laughter::

if a monster moves to her in an other world, or if she moves to a space with a monster in it (can only see it happening with the deep one transforming personal stories, and even that is a stretch). if they appear as part of an encounter, she blocks it.

MNT, re-read what I said. Monsters that assault you in Other Worlds may not necessarily be doing so because they reside there: they could be jumping portals from other worlds to attack you, in the same way that they occasionally enter Arkham. Arkham is essentially its own dimension, just like Celaeno and the Dreamlands. There's nothing intrinsically special about it, except we're playing a game where the protagonists all originate in Arkham, so we get the human perspective of it.

Kate's stabilizer stop ripples in spacetime that allow gates and monsters to appear. While in the Other World, she prevents gates from opening on her (impossible) or monsters jumping through the ripples to assault her.

Tibs said:

Then other investigators can't enter Arkham from LiTaS in her location and can't leave OW if she's on the gate location they are trying to leave to. Re-read what I said.

Yes, all investigators originate in our world, and thats why stabilizer prevents otherwoulrd beings into our world. But why the hell would it prevent otherworld beings in the OTHER WORLD? OH LOOK AT ME IM A DEEP ONE AND I CAN'T LEAVE MY CAVE TO ASSAULT THIS SCIENTIFIC GIRL WHOS JUST PASSING BECAUSE HER DEVICE WON'T LET ME HERP DERP. Investigators too insignificant for the AO's to specially hunt for them. Thats why in other worlds they just meet the monster, not getting assaulted by them from random gateshift.

Have you ever met Patrice? ::laughter::

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

My point is that the Deep One is not necessarily sitting in a nearby cave.

And it would be too tedious to re-write her ability to prevent appearing from LiTaS. Or maybe LiTaS investigators appear nearby the location and then wander into it.

But, whatever. Play as you wish.

Tibs said:

Sure, but if we make too many justifications, the ability will be all technicalities and little use.

Julia said:

I got a pretty good chuckle out of that, thanks

Einlanzer80 said:

::laughter:: you're welcome :-)

Julia said: