The other thread made me realize this problem. The FAQ states that you are delayed when you are drawn through a gate that opens on top of you, so that you will not get through the OW after only one OW encounter. But I think this means there is an error in the rule "Important: If an investigator is drawn through a gate that appears as a result of an encounter (such as “A gate appears!” or “A gate and a monster appear!”) then he is delayed, just as if he had been drawn through a gate in the Mythos Phase."

If the gate opens on you in the Mythos Phase, you need to be delayed to have two OW encounters since there is a Movement Phase before the next OW Phase. Makes sense.

But if a gate opens on you in the Arkham Encounters phase, you will have three OW encounters because there is NOT a Movement Phase before the next OW Phase. It seems like you should only be delayed if drawn through during Mythos Phase for this reason. Tthe explanation in the FAQ specifically states that the purpose of being delayed is to prevent a 1-turn OW journey. Why would they want you to have this situation:
Turn 1 AE Phase: gate opens and draws you in (delayed)
Turn 1 OW Phase: you get OW encounter
Turn 2 Move Phase: stand up
Turn 2 OW Phase: second OW encounter
Turn 3 Move Phase: move to OW area 2
Turn 3 OW Phase: third OW encounter
Turn 4 Move Phase: return to Arkham
There is no point to this, especially since the FAQ is very clear about the reason for being delayed.

The same thing is true if a gate opens on you in the Movement Phase (as with Naacal Key). In that case you started the turn in Arkham and therefore have movement points. But when the gate draws you through, you are in an Other World. The rules for OW movement say this:

"If an investigator is in an Other World at the beginning of the Movement Phase, he receives no movement points. Instead, his movement depends on whether he is in the first (left) or second (right) area of the Other World."

So that means you don't get to move to the second area of the OW right away, since you weren't in the OW at the beginning of the movement phase. Therefore you don't need to be delayed, you will have the appropriate 2-turn OW journey.

Conclusion: According to the FAQ, investigators should not be delayed when drawn through a gate UNLESS it is necessary to prevent a 1-encounter OW journey. That means you are delayed only if you are drawn through during the Mythos phase. Any other phase should NOT delay you. Is there any reason investigators SHOULD be penalized with a 3-turn OW journey? Please explain if there is, because otherwise I think I just found a very important house rule.

Gates opening in Arkham Encounters thematically, I think, happen as a result of investigator failures - you accidentally poke something unstable or otherwise mess things up (explicitly in Independence Square at http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/wiki/images/f/f1/Downtown7.png for example) and a gate opens unexpectedly. You're disoriented as a result and delayed.

Mechanically this also makes sense, I think: "A gate and a monster appears" tends to only appear as an encounter at the most unstable locations that are generally fairly unfriendly to investigators, so a bit of extra punishment for taking a bad risk seems reasonable.

Your conclusion is incorrect. The delay is in there to ensure gates that open up during Phase 5 will most likely generate 2 OW encounters on the subsequent turns. But to remain consistent, you are delayed anytime a gate opens unexpectedly on you, even if this will most likely cause 3 OW encounters.

The important thing is to be delayed as a "punishment" (or "risk" as described in the post above), not shoot for a perfect 2 OW encounters. Many encounters will delay you further or send you back earlier so the OW is anything but consistent. But getting delayed due to gate openings IS consistent.

If you don't like the rule, then houserule it to accomodate your tastes.

So it's a punishment for getting caught by a certain encounter card? I guess if that's what they intended then it doesn't have to be consistent. And it's certainly easier to keep things as they are rather than make a house rule anyway.

OP is just wrong. The 3 encounters is what was always intended.

I know that it's supposed to be 3 encounters in the OW when this happens, but we usually house-rule that you just skip your OW encounter phase that turn - the investigator is too disoriented from violently being dragged into another world to do anything meaningful. One thing that's so great about this game is that the details of the rules can be tweaked to fit each player group.

Bexarath said:

Do anything meaningful is one thing. Have anything happen to you is another—and usually how things go in the Other World. Disorientation can't ward off a lurking Star Spawn.

Tibs said:

Perhaps. But then, there's no real reason that more would happen in the OW either... Like I said, I'm not saying it's correct - because it's technically not - it's just how we like to play it.

Right there with you, Sothis. I thought EXACTLY as you did for a LONG time, even while many grognards quoted the manual at me. (No offense of course, fellas: jes' tellin' a story. ) Why did it seem like an Arkham Gate Surprise was more "punishing" than a Mythos Gate Surprise?

So I'm going to tell you how it was fixed for me, in my head. I can't say this will work for you, but this same dilemma comes up a lot for new players, and no one else has brought it up yet. Credit for this revelation comes from the Great Millmaster, still M.I.A. from the boards, still dearly missed.

The trick is twofold: you begin by coupling the "two OW Encounters" idea with the slightly broader idea of "an Investigator gets one Encounter per turn." (Yes, I know about Streets, but that's not important right now.) Every turn, an Investigator is "somewhere", whether in town or offworld, and has an Encounter while they are there. The other part of the trick is to view entering a Gate in the Arkham Encounter Phase as something of an extension to your Movement Phase. If Investigators move to an Open Gate, they don't have their Encounter there; they relocate to an Other World and have that turn's Encounter offworld instead.

Got all that? So it's not REALLY all that different if you draw a card that says "A gate appears!" or similar. Sure, you drew an Arkham Encounter card...but you didn't REALLY have an Encounter, did you? That Arkham Encounter card simply told you to go somewhere else for your Encounter that turn. Consider those Woods Encounter cards that tell you to go to the Black Cave or the Historical Society and "have an Encounter there". The first card isn't an Encounter, it's "movement" outside of the Movement Phase, taking you to your second card, your actual Encounter for that turn.

And then, when THAT turn is over, you are now looking at your two "official" OW Encounters. Hence, the delayed mechanic, applying to both situations (Arkham and Mythos) equally.

Does that help? It did for me.

jgt7771 said:

I also had a difficult time with this concept becuase I was under the impression that investigators were only allowed a single encounter per turn (with the exception of encounter cards that sent you to a different location and told you to draw a new encounter card from there). In my mind, I just assumed that since they drew an encouter card, that was it.

Once I was told to simply look at what elements were in play during each phase, it made sense. It doesn't matter when you got there or how you got there. Simply, if during the Otherworld encounters phase, you are in an Otherworld location, you have an encounter there, end of story.