So tonight during The Grindylow and the Whale: We encountered the villain. Jirelle temporarily closed the Mangrove Swamp. Lirianne temporarily closed the Hatchery. To do so, she defeated a monster that happened to have the Aberration trait. So, she had to shuffle a random monster into another open location deck. Should the Mangrove Swap have been included as a possible destination of the monster? I decided no, since I wouldn't have treated it as open when the villain escaped, but I thought I'd see what others thought.
I guess it depends on the timing of the closing of the villain's location. If the location doesn't close until the villain is defeated, I'd say that the swamp counts as a potential destination for the random monster.
The Mangrove Swamp wasn't the villain's location. The villain was at Riptide Cove. So when we went through the villain sequence:
Attempt to temporarily close open locations.
Encounter the villain.
If you defeat the villain, close the villain’s location.
Check to see whether the villain escapes.
And...
Attempt to Temporarily Close Open Locations. When a character encounters a villain, each character at any other location may immediately attempt to fulfill the When Closing requirement for his location. If any character at a location succeeds, his location is temporarily closed and the villain cannot escape there this encounter (see Check to See Whether the Villain Escapes on page 16). Temporarily closing a location does not trigger any of the other effects of closing a location; the location opens again immediately after the encounter.
Characters may attempt to close locations in any order they wish.
So since they open again after the encounter, that seems to imply they aren't considered open while temporarily closed.
Interestingly, the random location was the Riptide Cove where the villain was faceup, since it still counted as open at that moment. Fortunately, the faceup cards rule made clear to leave the villain faceup while I shuffled in random monster.
Also of note, while summoned cards cannot cause other cards to be summoned, there is no prohibition against summoned cards causing other cards to be added or shuffled in.
Based on the wording in the book, since it specifies "the location opens again immediately after the encounter," I'd have to say that it is a truly legitimate close for the sake of all purposes until the end of the encounter, except for any normal effects that are triggered by the location closing (as specified in the rules).
An outside effect of another card is not a triggered effect by the closing of a location, so I don't believe it falls under that limitation. In that case, I believe it should go into full effect, meaning if that outside card would place a card or have an effect in or on a random open location, then the temporarily closed location is not considered open, as the rules say it is closed until the end of the Villain encounter and opens again only after the encounter is over.
Also, I do see timing as a factor, and this instance is a good example of that. The rules also say "Characters may attempt to close locations in any order they wish." So for instances of summoning random cards, it might be useful tactically to close some locations first just in case.
Sounds like you did it right to me.
...The rules also say "Characters may attempt to close locations in any order they wish." So for instances of summoning random cards, it might be useful tactically to close some locations first just in case.
I may even add, because we had the case many times, that you should cleverly decide the order of "locations temporary closing" for that reason and others.
Say I have character A facing the villain in location X, characters B and C (with B having a better chance to close than C) at location Y and character D at location Z.
Depending on many factors, I will have different "best" order for B, C and D to try to close.
Say closing Y is not costly (no card to bury...), we will have C try is luck first without spending blessings and if we are unlucky, B will try try with whatever blessings are appropriate.
But if Y is costly to close, we will obviously have B to try first.
Then depending on the type of blessings we have, and effects on other open locations, we may want to have D trying to close Z before we try to close Y, after, or even BETWEEN B and C tries (or C and B).
I just love this game...
Unofficially:
I think we mean that a temporary close does not trigger any of the permanent effects of closing a location, but the location is considered closed for purposes of effects that check to see whether locations are closed at that instant. Otherwise, the villain would be able to flee to a temporarily closed location, and we know we don't want that.
But we'll talk about it.