Rules Questions / Clarifications to Obscurely Worded Rules

[Velz]

Just got the DVD game and a few things came up and I can't find rules clarifications anywhere...

The game rules are too open to interpretation so wanted a moderator to deal with very competitive players and to clarify the rules for people that look to interpret the rules as widely as possible regardless of the clear intention of the rules. Because of that some of these questions may seem silly to people... less competitive.

1. If someone wins a duel and another player has keys stacked on a rack...
   
   1. Can the winner move the keys around to get the key on the bottom of the stack?
      
   2. If not, can I purposely stack keys before the rack is full to increase my chances I'll lose a duplicate key or the Black Key?
2. What happens if the Chosen One keeps cheating (Abusing the fact that they're the chosen one)?
   
   
3. The Black Key rule is written like this "If you are handed the Black Key while waiting on the stone outside the Well of Fears, on your next turn you must roll the dice and continue moving around the board." - That is oddly specific. Is that just the stone just in front of the Well of Fears?
   
   1. If its not just that stone, but every stone, "on your next turn you must roll the dice and continue moving around the board." does not explicitly say you can't give the key back to the other player before you move. So can you?
      
      
   2. If you land on a Black Hole and a player is there, can you give them the key...
      
      1. Before Encountering the Black Hole?
   3. If the player who has the Black Key is already on the Black Hole and you land on them, also getting in the Black Hole, Can they, at the beginning of their turn, give the Black Key to the other player?
      
      1. If they do this, can the other player do the same on their next turn, since they can't "Move Around the Board?"
   4. If, on the other hand a Black Hole really is out of the game, there is a rule that says if you own your own color key you can continue moving around the board...
      
      1. Does that mean if you are in the Black Hole or Banished by the Gatekeeper you are effectively not in the Black Hole?
         
      2. Can you give your Black Key to the player in the Black Hole before you move or is that player not in the game?
         
      3. If that player really isn't in the game are they not a legal target for Duels?
   
   
4. If you get out of the Black Hole by rolling your number, do you move the number your rolled (your number) or do you roll the dice again for a more random result?
   
   
5. What do you do if someone just won't take their turn and is purposely running out the clock?
   
   
6. If you rolled 2 dice and rolled a big number like 12, chances that the Gatekeeper shows up during the middle of your movement seems pretty high...
   
   1. Do you continue moving your full 12 spaces or stop half way through?
      
   2. If you do continue moving and the Chosen one interrupts that as Cheating, is that valid?
7. If a player just finished moving and encountering the space they were in (But its still not fully clear to the rest of the players that they were done) then the Gatekeeper ask who's turn it is, who's turn is it? The next player or the person who just finished moving and encountering the space?

EDIT: Fixed some formatting, spaced out questions.

[Prophecy Productions]

I just joined this fandom, so I can only answer Q. 6 a. confidently. When the Gatekeeper calls on you, you must stop completely - yes, even in the middle of a turn.

At least, that's how I interpret the rules. I honestly think most of these issues can be solved by agreeing on interpretrations together, like creating "House Rules". As long as the game is still fair (well, as fair) and everyone has fun, you can make some wiggle room for the gray areas.

[marr0w]

I'm a little late in replying to this, so I apologize. However, welcome to the Other Side! Unfortunately there's always been a bit of disconnect when it comes to following the rules to the letter. Some things are especially vague, others are blatantly contradictory.

You can take it a few different ways, but ultimately it does come down to "house rules" for the most part. Everyone has their own interpretation of the rules. Personally I find that to be one of the more amusing things about the games. Obviously the first priority is to make sure that the game is fun. If you're not enjoying yourself, you're doing something wrong.

But also there's an aspect of "the Gatekeeper loves chaos." These little vague quirks are meant to confuse you and spice things up a bit more than they are intended to be followed to the letter. One of the first things you have to do when you play the original game (assuming you're on a first edition of it) is to remove the backwards card from the Time deck that literally breaks the game if you play it. Then there's the question of die versus dice. Do you roll one die or two? Does the cracked grave still count as only one space? And so forth...

I personally used to add rules when I played with friends. Like making it so that you could only smoke if you where banished and making a "black hole" area where you'd have to get up and move to while you waited to be released. Would that be fun in every game? No. But it was a blast when we where all on the same page and it made it a little more interesting instead of sitting around watching everyone else play when your luck was bad.

Ultimately you have to do what makes sense for you and your friends and keeps everyone having fun. Maybe when the chosen one is cheating the rest have to keep a closer eye on them and punish them back for cheating? The game is a show and the Gatekeeper is watching. Make it worth his time!

However in all seriousness the rules do often say that when you have to stop - you stop completely. This generally extends to the Black Hole. You aren't supposed to be playing at all while you're banished unless specifically told to do so - and that includes trading keys and cards while you're in the hole. This is why we have lines of dialogue that mention "growing weak while the others grow stronger" or "even if you are in the black hole" across all the games from time to time. Duels probably shouldn't be applicable to the banished, but you know the Gatekeeper would be on board for making them suffer.

I'm sorry this is rather heavily skewed towards the original VHS game as opposed to the DVD, but some things are easier to explain when you look across the series as a whole. Hopefully this helps!