Hi everyone

Had a great time after the first play. Got a couple of questions for you, hope you can help?

1. Investigator Movement - Do you have to move the full amount of speed or can you stop before hand?

2. When moving investigators, can you move through spaces with a monster in it, in order to get to the location you want to, or do you have to stop and encounter?

3. Flying monsters - When a monster is in the sky, the rules say it will go to the investigator in the streets. Does that mean when you finish your move in a street or does it swoop down on investigators when they land on a street space during moving?

4. Monster appears - When a Mythos card says "a monster appears" on a space where there is no investigator, I'm not sure how long it stays in play for, as the rules say it does not stay on the board as a gate didn't open? (Hope I've explained that well enough).

5. We played with AO Yig. The card has references on there, when do those items take place...something about cultists i think?

6. We had a monster surge and had to spawn 7 monsters as there were 7 gates open. We put out 2 then that took us over the monster limit, 4 then went into the outskirts, we then cleared the outskirts, raised the terror level, removed an ally and then put the last one in the outskirts. Was that right?

I think that was it for now, sorry for so many. Such a shame i didnt get to finish the game due to time running out, but loved it and will be back for more.

Really appreciate your help, thank you.

Hi! Glad you enjoyed yourself!

1. You don't have to use all your movement points if you don't want to. Sometimes you only want to go a few spaces, but don't have enough focus to drop your speed low enough to have decent sneak. Of course, needless to say, unused movement points don't carry over between rounds.

2. Each time you enter a location or street with monster(s), you need to do something about each of them. "Something" means any combination of combat or evading battle. If you manage to evade battle with all of them, you can continue moving. If you fail evading or deliberately enter combat on any of the monsters, the rest of your movement points are gone. You will have to remain where you are (assuming you're not knocked unconscious or driven insane, of course).

3. Flying monsters are just like any other monster--they only move if their symbol comes up during Mythos. That said, if there's one in the sky and its symbol comes up, it will move immediately to the investigator in the street. If there are multiple targets, it goes to the one with the lowest Sneak. If there's a tie there, the First player decides. So sometimes you can be in a street during mythos and be safe from flying monsters.

4. Not sure what you mean here. "A monster appears" is text reserved for Arkham Encounters. If an investigator has a random location encounter that says "A monster appears," they have to deal with that monster immediately: if they evade battle or are knocked insane/unconscious, the monster returns to the cup. If they defeat the monster, they keep it as a trophy (except Mi-Go and Warlocks, of course). Therefore, this monster never stays on the board, and as a result, it does not count against the monster limit. And If there is an elder sign token on the location, then no monster appears.

5. Each AO has a general ability and a worshipper ability. Yig's worshipper ability is that all Cultists have a +0 combat modifier and 4 stamina damage, as opposed to the +1 combat and 1 stamina damage shown on the Cultist monster. So when you fight a Cultist, you have to bear those things in mind. Yig's special ability is that a doom token is added to his track whenever an investigator defeats a Cultist or is Lost in Time and Space (another thing to consider when dealing with a Cultist). These effects are in play for the entire game--even though they don't mean anything during final battle.

Many AOs have a Start of Battle ability and an attack. Yig's SoB ability is that everyone is cursed, and characters who already own a curse are devoured. This ability and his printed attack only take effect during Final Battle at the end of the game, if you don't win before he awakens.

6. It sounds like you did it right, as long as you note that the outskirts "pops" when it goes 1 over the limit. Therefore, if the outskirts limit was, say 5, and it already had 2 monsters on it, then it could hold 3 more monsters without effect. When another monster gets put on it, it clears out and the terror level rises by 1. Any more monsters then start to collect onto the Outskirts.

In other words, if the Outskirts limit is 5, there are 3 monsters there already, and you have to put 5 into the outskirts, this will happen:

• The first two monsters are put in the outskirts without effect, as the outskirts is now at 5--which is its limit.
• The third monster "pops" the limit; the terror level is increased by 1, the outskirts is cleared.
• The remaining two monsters are put into the outskirts.

Hope this was a help. Happy Arkhaming!

Thanks Tibs.

The monster appears I'm sure was on the mythos phase and it said 2 appear in easttown streets, slum murders headline. I got confused by the rules saying they don't stay in play, if they didn't appear by a gate opening, so I assumed as no-one was there they were returned to the monster cup...take it that was wrong?

Monsters appearing from Encounter cards don't stay in play after encountered. However, if a monster appears because of a Mythos card's ability, they do stay in play. There is a difference between the two.

Arkham has a fairly steep learning curve for your first 5-10 games, we all have forgotten/misread/made up rules at some point in the game. If you are ever not sure about something, check the rules (things may appear in more than one spot, or may not be exactly in the section you'd think). If that doesn't clear it up, check the official FAQ, have a little look around here, and if you still need clarification on something, feel free to ask us. More often than not, someone has encountered the same question or problem somewhere along the line.

Couple o' things:

Regarding movement through spaces with monsters in them: Tibs said, "Each time you enter a location or street with monster(s)..." The rule is actually when you try to LEAVE a space with a monster, or try to end your movement on a space with a monster. I'm sure that Tibs was just using casual language--I've used the same phrase before myself--but the rabid rulehounds will eat us all if you accidently latch onto casual language as rule language during these early formative games.

Regarding the Outskirts: I agree that you played the Outskirts correctly, and I am impressed that you did so, but something from your example seemed...off. It seems like you got a handle on the Monster Limit and the Outskirts Limit, but you might be ignoring the Open Gate Limit. All Limits are dependent upon the number of players (or number of Investigators if playing more than one per player), which is information you did not provide. However, if your Outskirts "popped" at 4...then your Outskirts Limit was 3...then your number of players was 5, yes? Five players means an Open Gate Limit of 6. You also said your monster surge was with 7 Open Gates...sorry to say the Ancient One should have awakened once that seventh Gate was opened. Check the back cover of the rulebook: all the Limits are down the rightmost side.

Please, no discouragement. All meant in the best way possible to get you up to Full Status of Rule Comprehension.

Finally...Welcome to the Carnival, Papafuzzylugs!!!

jgt7771 said:

Yes, it is casual. But this is usually the way I envision having to deal with the monsters. However, note that if you're in a space with a monster when it's your turn to move, and you choose not to move at all, you still have to deal with the monster. So saying "enter" or "leave" are both a bit misleading.

Thanks for the pointers guys. I can't remember the exact details of the game as wanted to keep the game flowing, to keep my brother interested. Should have made a note. Think I've got a handle on the game...so much to look out for, which is waht makes it so enjoyable.

Still not completely sure about the monster encounters though from your comments. I understand that if you draw a location encounter card they appear on the location you're on, so you have to evade or combat. Are you saying then, that the example I used on the mythos card regarding 2 monsters appearing in the easttown streets, with no investigator there, means they stay in place until they are encountered. Then if evaded they go back in the cup or if defeated they are kept. (sorry it's a bit long winded)

Got a friend who sounds up for playing the game, so can't wait to try again. Is Yig the best one to start with?

Also anyone played Pandemic?

Thanks again for your comments, been really helpful.

papafuzzylugs said:

Think of it this way as a good rule-of-thumb: if a monster is placed during the Mythos Phase, it is PERMANENT until defeated in combat by an Investigator (like a monster trophy) or some other card (like some Mythos cards that remove monsters from neighborhoods). So in those cases that place 2 monsters in a Street space...they stay on the board, ready to move around the Streets like any other monster summoned by a Gate. If you evade them, you merely end that encounter with them, but it doesn't take them off the board.

Yig is a good Ancient One, but he's a bit fast and frantic. He makes Cultists a threat to raise his TINY Doom Track. Now that could be what you want, since you might have players that want a faster game (no time to lose their attention).

Alternatively, Ithaqua makes Cultists beefier in combat, and makes the Streets a bit more dangerous, which usually results in players having to duck "indoors" in places they might not normally intend to go...could lead to more and varied Encounters. Final Battle is the easiest to prepare for: Fight vs Fight.

Nyarlathotep kinda leaves the board alone for the most part, allows players to encounter the Board without too much interference. The Masks are really fun if they hit the board, and the Final Battle isn't that much harder than Yig's.

If you want to go "Full Tutorial", there's always Azathoth. Huge Doom Track. No Board Effects (almost). No Final Battle (just BOOM, you lose). Good for rookies trying to learn all the gameplay.

papafuzzylugs said:

To elaborate:

Monsters appearing from Location or Other World encounters must be evaded or fought straight away, if you defeat them you gain the trophy, if you lose to them or evade they are returned to the cup.

Monsters appearing from Mythos card abilities are treated exactly the same as monsters that appear when gates open, that is, they remain on the board indefinitely until defeated and claimed as a trophy, or an effect removes them (such as closing a gate with their dimension symbol, or another Mythos card tells you to remove all monsters from the Easttown streets and locations).

Thanks guys that's excellent. Great info on the AO's too. As a new player, what would you say are the bst tactics to take. Visit locations to maybe gain more weapons, elder signs etc, or get as many clue tokens on the board and start closing gates asap? I'm sure it will depend on the AO, but your expert guidance would be superb.

Is Battlestar Galactica really good? I'm loving the co-op games at the mo

papafuzzylugs said:

It depends A LOT on the number of investigators involved in the game:

• 1 investigator: why are you playing this? 1-investigator play is only good for teaching yourself the game, or for the novelty. It's almost impossible to win except by final combat, and final combat tends to be very easy against 1 investigator, which is not in spirit of the Mythos. (Although most of Lovecraft's stories revolved around one protagonist undertaking a mission alone)
• 2 or 3 investigators: You have no wiggle room. Your strategy is to get as many clues to as many characters as possible, granting the occasional dispatching of a problematic monster or to send someone to shop, usually for an Elder Sign. You have no spare time to visit stable locations. The vast majority of my early games (60+) were 2-investigator, and we rarely got to see any stable encounters. There are still lots of encounters in the base game I've never seen. You'll probably go to final combat about half the time, but at least the AO will be a little bit of a challenge.
• 4 or 5 investigators: You now have enough characters running around so that you aren't forced to assign the role of "sealer" to everyone. In fact, if you sent everybody to get clues on the board, they'd be spread too thin to be of any use. You can have a fighter character or two, and still have characters with no immediate tasks check out the stable locations. In 5+ investigator games, each newly opened gate spawns 2 monsters instead of 1, so a fighter character is vital. Also take note that with 4 characters, a victory by having all the gates closed (and enough gate trophies) now because a viable tactic.
• 6+ investigators: Haven't played too much of these, but at this point the maximum gate limit is so low that you'll probably have to send characters into gates just for the sake of closing them, and not sealing them--just to keep the gate numbers down. Don't assign sealing tasks to more than three characters, as clues will become scarce. Have a fighter or two, or three. There should be tons of money to go around, so you can go shopping for top-notch items. If you pick up an elder sign or two, then you'll have more characters ready to seal. There will be lots of opportunities to take advantage of stable-location encounters, which tend to be less dangerous and more beneficial. Winning the game by closing all gates now because a significant strategy, and coordinating the investigators to pull it off is something to consider. But it's hard to win this way without a couple of seals down first