hi, I'm not into game 4 overall and am still pretty sure I am playing incorrectly.

1.) If there is an open gate with a monster in the same location, do I fight the monster first before being sucked into the gate?

2.) Based on the answer to 1.), do I fight the monster guarding a gate when I get back from an Other World? The rules say I don't when I get back, but what if I fail to close the gate, then do I have to Fight or Evade the following turn before trying to close the gate again?

3.) When closing gates, can I add my Common Item bonus, i.e. guns to my fight check to close a gate?

4.) After my movement phase, when I enter a location with an open gate, I automatically go to the other world location, left hand side. Do I have an Other World encounter right away or does my turn end as soon as I enter the Other World location? Then, do I have an Other World encounter on the left side before I can move to the right side of the Other World? Is there only one or are there two Other World Encounters?

5.) Encounter Card Effect: A gate and a monster appear; What the hell happens here? Do I just lose a turn or... do I have to get sucked into the gate, have an encounter, then come back and then fight the monster before or after I get sucked through the gate, ALL in one turn??? Then the gate disappears and the monster stays if I'm fighting it? This is very confusing. I know there's a delay in there too...help.

6.) Lastly, Common items. Guns for example, do I exhaust them or is their effect permanent? For example, if I'm fighting a gug, I use my .45; Do I flip he card over and it's done for all of combat with this gug, or is it upkeep next round of the fight with gug, Or is it just permanent as long as I have the card?

PLEASE HELP??!!

A lot of these questions are answered by the general principle of following the phase order (Upkeep, Movement, Arkham Encounters, OW Encounters, Mythos) extremely strictly and reading the rulebook and FAQ carefully to find out what applies in each phase. Once you get the hang of that - which can take a few games - everything starts to make a lot more sense!

1. You arrive at the gate in the Movement phase, and fight the monster. If you're still there in Arkham Encounters you get sucked through the gate. If you arrive at the gate in the Arkham Encounters phase (rare but possible) you get sucked through the gate and don't have to fight the monster.

2. You don't have to fight or evade it in the turn you return to Arkham. You do have to fight or evade it if both of you are still there next turn. (Note that if you return to Arkham from an Other Worlds encounter, rather than in Movement, it'll be the next turn by the time you make your check.

3. No. Guns only add to Combat checks, not Fight checks in general.

4. Enter gate (Arkham Encounters, turn 1). Have OW encounter (OW Encounters, turn 1). Move to other half (Movement, turn 2). Have OW encounter (OW Encounters, turn 2). Return to Arkham (Movement, turn 3).
In theory, that is... OW encounters might delay you, or return you to Arkham earlier, or in rare cases do something else again. Have fun discovering!

5. The gate appears (add a doom token, too), you get sucked through it and delayed in the Other World. You'll have an OW encounter that turn, and probably two more (because of the delay) before you can get out. The monster that appeared remains on the gate until a Mythos phase moves it away - you won't have to fight it unless it's still there when you get back.

6. Unless a weapon says explicitly that it's exhaust to use (none in the base game, but a few in some expansions) or discard to use (Dynamite, Holy Water), you get its effect as long as you have the item (and have the hands spare to hold it, that is - you can't use a Rifle and a .45 at once, of course). Exhaust to use say whether it's exhaust for the entire fight, or exhaust just for the next round (spells are entire fight as long as you keep 'holding' them). Discard to use is generally only that round of the fight - if it doesn't work you'd better have packed a spare!

1) You have to fight or evade them if you end your movement at the same location as they are. So, if you move to a gate with monsters, fight/evade the monsters first, then enter the gate.

2) You don't have to fight them in the first round (still, you might if you want to), but in the following turn you have to fight or evade them.

3) Nope, weapons only grant a combat-bonus. What you need is "fight", so weapons don't help you much there.

4) Use the phases, they make it more simple:

Movement phase: You walk to the gate

Encounter-in-Arkham phase: You get sucked in and enter the left half of the other world

Encounter-in-Other-Worlds phase: As you are in another world now, you get an encounter.

(...) next turn (...)

Movement phase: You walk to the right half of the other world

Encounter-in-Arkham phase: You're not in Arkham, so skipp that.

Encounter-in-Other-Worlds phase: 2nd encounter here. If everything works out well, you return home in the 3rd round.

So there are usually 2 encounters in other worlds.

5) It's like with mythos cards: The gate opens, then you get sucked in and delayed, then the monster appears. Don't forget to add a doom token to the track.

Since you are delayed, you'll have to survive 3 turns this time before you return to Arkham and have the chance to close or seal the gate.

6) Cards are permanent as long as their text doesn't say anything like "exhaust to (...)", so you .45 helps you out as for so many fights as you like.

[Edit] Argh, a sec too late...

cim said:

I concur. They specificly says "+X to combat checks". If they were only one round, the text would be "Any Phase: Discard before making a cobmat check to gain +X to that check.

Yes I know it doesn't make thematic sense to use dynamite again after you already blew it but that's the rules.

kroen said:

Actually... no.

If something discarded gives you a combat bonus until the end of the combat, it actually says something like "add +8 to combat checks until the end of this combat"

kroen said:

What do you mean, you 'concur'? You just said the exact opposite, didn't you?

This hadn't occured to me before, but Kroen is right about the way Dynamite is worded. It's really ambiguous. This MUST have come up before.

I'll have to agree, the wording is difficult.
Looking at the "exhaust" items, half of them says "Exhaust before making a Combat check to gain +X to that check", what is clearly ment for one check only, and the other half says "Exhaust to gain +X to Combat checks until the end of this combat".

The "discard" items, on the other hand, are worded somewhere in between.

But, let's use some common sense.

If you blow up your dynamite or throw your molotow cocktail at a monster, it's most unlikely that you can do the same thing again a few seconds later ...using the same object.

Guys, thanks a lot that actually clears a lot of things up.

Vitus_Prem said:

First of all, "half"? lol? there's only one weapon that's exhausted and gives bonus until the end of the combat, and it's the .357 magnum. The rest (and there are alot of them) are only for a single check. So no, no half, not even close.

Second, the wording couldn't be clearer:

As long as you devote hands for it, you will indeed have the bonus until the end of the combat. Otherwise it would say "+8 to a Combat check". And if you really need thematic reasoning, then maybe the dynamite made a large hole in the ground and you push the monster to it, or you push the monster to the flames from the molotov or you didn't wasted all your holy water in the first spray. But again, thematic doesn't matter here as these are the rules.

No that's not true. Discard-to-use items like Dynamite, Holy Water, and Powder of Ibn-Ghazi are one-time use. You don't get them for multiple round of combat. This was confirmed by Kevin in a "how do I use X type of item" FAQ. Dynamite doesn't continue exploding for multiple combat rounds.

I would like a link to that, because the way I recall the FAQ Kevin said they do affect multiple rounds of combat. Otherwise why do they say "combat checks" and not "to a combat check"?

Proof or it didn't happend.

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=5&efcid=1&efidt=895 (the sticky thread above)

Second post, about half way in. Lots of other useful answers in that thread, too. The wording on the card is described as "archaic".

My bad, thanx. I still think the wording should've been clearer though.

kroen said:

The keyword is "items", kroen. Just look up the text of most of the spells, they have the exact same wording.

Thanks to Tibs; I knew I read something alike somewhere, but coudn't quite remember where... as it seems, some common sense is all you need to get the rules right.

Indeed, the Magnum is the only item like it. No other item is exhaust-to-use, pay-to-reload, and effective over multiple rounds in one monster combat.

I wonder if it just suffered the effects of the "Black Goat item madness" like half of the others?

Other notable vagaries:

• Steal Life (successes on combat check or spell check?)
• Call Ancient One (why just one success to pass??)
• Naacal Key (why are you delayed if you opened the gate? Can you open it in a street?)
• Ritual Blade (is the spell bonus effective without equipping the knife? Probably, like the cross horror bonus.)
• Gray's Anatomy (why is this a common item? And why not a tome?)

So, to be clear; If the Encounter Card Effect says "A gate and a monster appear" then that adds to the Doom Track as well? I'm not talking about a Mythos card. Thanks again guys.

Oh, and can you use a SPELL and a Weapon i.e. gun in the same round of combat as long as both cards do not exceed 2 hands?

Yes. The only time you do not add a doom token when you place a gate marker on the board is a gate burst on a sealed location.

And, yes - you can combine spells and other combat items freely as long as you don't spend more hands than you've got.

Hi all, another noob question here, apologies if this has been answered before but I couldn't fine anything.

If my character is in an Other World when the Ancient One awakens do I still get to participate in the battle?

Thanks for your help!

Investigators in other worlds can still participate in the final battle... the only ones that can't are those who are Lost in Time and Space when the ancient one awakes... they are devoured immediately.

Vitus_Prem said:

never really liked that rule

Yeah, it always seemed a bit pointless. What are you supposed to do about it? Try very hard not to be lost in time and space? But you should be trying to do that anyway, so it seems a shame to exclude someone from the fun of the final battle just because they got LiTaS at the wrong time.

Makes traveling through other worlds even more risky as the end comes near... I always liked that extra-thrill.

Not to mention, it gives Yig that much more power. If getting LiTaS gives Yig his last doom token, then you're screwed

1.) Fighting/evading monsters occurs during the movement phase. Entering gates occurs during the Arkham Encounter phase. So while you don't do both at the same time, the order of phases sorts this out. (Yes, you do)

2.) You can choose not to deal with any monsters on your gate the turn you come back from the Other World. But if you come back by an Other World encounter or a Mythos effect, then a new turn will have begun before your next movement phase (which is when you deal with monsters), so you wouldn't get a freebie in that particular case.

3.) Closing gates require a fight or lore check. Weapons and attack spells do not add to fight checks, they only add to combat checks. Combat checks are based in Fight, but they're the same thing. So no cards will help your roll unless they grant a bonus to Fight or Lore, specifically.

4.) First, you do not automatically go in during movement. You go in during Arkham Encounters. What happens to you is a direct result of phase order:

• Movement: you move to an open gate.
• Arkham Encounters: you enter the gate (you have no choice)
• Other World encounters: since you are in an Other World, you have an Other World encounter.

You will automatically move to the 2nd space during the next movement phase, unless you're delayed or your encounter sends you back home.

Usually you should get two encounters. Sometimes it will be more, sometimes fewer. If a gate opens on you during Arkham Encounters phase, expect to have three (you will have one the phase right after you're drawn in, but will still be delayed until next turn's movement).

5.) Gate and Monster appear is exactly the same as during Mythos. If there's a seal, nothing happens. If there's not, you're drawn into the gate. Only difference is that you can expect to have one more OW encounter before returning, as stated above.

6) Most weapons just grant a bonus to combat checks, and that bonus applies as long as you devote hands to it. Attack spells, on the other hand, get exhausted when cast; as long as you devote hands to it during combat with that monster, you will continue to get the bonus. Once it's out of your hands the bonus ends, and you can't cast it again until it refreshes next upkeep. But if you devote hands to such spells and you fail to cast them, then those hands are tied up for one round of combat.

The Dunwich expansion has weapons that are one-per-round use.

GalaxyUC said:

Yes, it's just like a regular gate opening during the Mythos phase (+1 doom and a monster)

Yes, up to two hands of stuff. But like I said above, if you fail the spell, you can't trade it out for something else until you've survived at least one round of combat. If you do pass the spell, then you can use it for as many rounds of that combat as you like (except during Final Combat; it needs to be cast every round).

Ok, another question! When a location has been sealed with an Elder Sign the rules state that 'no new gates or monsters can appear at this location' (or words to that affect, i don't have the rulebook in front of me) does this also include the 'temporary' monsters that can pop up as a result of a location card?

Cheers!