'lo folks - quick question about closing conditions.
As you can see, I'm wondering how you folks deal with a location that has been emptied of cards and the close roll has failed on the first go. On the next turn, with no cards to draw from the location deck and someone stuck there, is the roll still required or are you closing that as an auto-close which takes up the characters turn, but does then shut the door on the location?
It strikes me that I just want someone else to say they take the easy route like I want to :)
If there are no cards at a location, a character can attempt to close it on their turn. If they fail, then the location is still open, and they, or another character, can try again on their next turn. The only other way to close it, is to have the Villain flee there, and then defeat them at that location. Not what you wanted to hear, but that's how to do it, if you want to strictly follow the rules as written.
Polyphemus is correct. There is no auto-close of empty locations, just one new attempt during your turn to close. This happens AFTER explores, before resetting your hand.
From the rulebook section on the turn:
"If your character is at a location that has no cards
remaining and has not been closed, at this time you may make one
attempt to close it"
The character that is there is not 'stuck'
Ah, it was a specific set of circumstances where Meri was at a location which required a check to move (that she failed) and a check to close (that she was having no end of trouble with). Blessings were thin on the ground (and thinner in the hands of the six party members) and it was an infuriating turn-burn.
Not to worry - worked out in the end :)
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To add to what others have said,
If a location deck has no cards in it, you may attempt to close it on the turn of any character present at that location. Note: this attempt comes AFTER the movement phase and after the first exploration... as such you generally will be spending an entire turn on each such attempt to close a location.
The other thing to note with timing is that if a Henchman is the last card in the location deck then you will get TWO chances to close the location.
1) as soon as you defeat the Henchman (as a benefit of defeating the Henchman, which is part of the encounter phase, which is part of the Explore part of your turn.)
2) after the encounter you then finish the Explore part of your turn and move onto "Try to close a location if it doesn’t have any cards (optional)."
So there's no need to throw blessings at the first check. If you have even a small chance of passing it naturally you might as well try because you're then going to get a second bite at it immediately.
The other thing to note with timing is that if a Henchman is the last card in the location deck then you will get TWO chances to close the location.
1) as soon as you defeat the Henchman (as a benefit of defeating the Henchman, which is part of the encounter phase, which is part of the Explore part of your turn.)
2) after the encounter you then finish the Explore part of your turn and move onto "Try to close a location if it doesn’t have any cards (optional)."So there's no need to throw blessings at the first check. If you have even a small chance of passing it naturally you might as well try because you're then going to get a second bite at it immediately.
Good point! (Though let's all take a moment here and collectively hope the henchman is NOT the last card of the location deck ;) )
Good point! (Though let's all take a moment here and collectively hope the henchman is NOT the last card of the location deck ;) )
Yes, but, as I've noted elsewhere, we shuffle the henchmen and villains into the bottom half of each location deck so it seems to happen at least once per scenario when I play!
With a six character game and well shuffled location decks, the henchman being the last card is about 57% likely in at least one location, so it should happen at least once/scenario most of the time anyway even without the last 5 house rule.
Wow... I had to run the calculations myself to believe it, but you're absolutely correct. Even with only 4 players (and thus 6 locations), the chance of a henchmen/villain initially being found on the bottom of at least one location deck is a little under 47%, which is a little higher than I expected.
Still, I guess that since the probabilities of a henchmen being found on the exact top of a location deck are the same (at least without using Happy's method above), at least we're likely to get a quick location close as well!