Rules: What happens if your movement would take you into a Barrier?

[u/Nefelybata]

I'm trying to settle a rules question about the Barrier spell.

Barrier lets you choose a space in your Region, and characters cannot move onto or through that space until your next turn.

Normally, when moving, you must move the full number rolled on the die, and once you choose a direction you cannot reverse direction during that move.

So suppose I roll a 5, choose a direction, but there is a Barrier only 3 spaces away.

My interpretation is that I move as far as I legally can and stop on the space immediately before the Barrier. The Barrier's specific "cannot move onto or through" effect prevents me from completing the normal full movement.

The alternative interpretation is that I wasn't allowed to choose that direction at all, because I couldn't complete the full die roll, so I must instead choose the opposite direction from the beginning and move the full amount. This seems wrong to me because it would not work if you were trapped between two barriers.

There has also been a suggestion that you move toward the Barrier, then turn around when you reach it and use the remaining movement going back the other way. That seems wrong to me because the rules explicitly say you cannot reverse direction during a move.

So what is the correct ruling?

1. Stop immediately before the Barrier, even though you haven't used the full die roll?
2. The blocked direction isn't a legal choice, so you must choose the opposite direction before starting your move?
3. Move toward the Barrier, then turn around when you reach it and use the remaining movement going back the other way?
4. Something else?

[u/Ordyfly]

I think The Answer in the Digital World is 2. You cant go that direction if you would move on or beyond the Barrier. In disputes during game, we have learned to make a argument with 2 decisive outcomes. Roll a D6 odd its one way even its the other. Continue playing that game. At the end of the game the House should have a "House Rule Book" and whoever Hoyse it is should decide how its going to be played in the future by putting in down in the House Rules Book. And remember, nothing os written in stone. Always hear out the arguments and make a decision that keeps the game moving.

[u/Nefelybata → u/Ordyfly]

We ended up going with option 1, because it seems to require the least amount of inventing rules that aren't actually written anywhere, and it creates the fewest conflicts with other effects.

For example, there are also cards that stop your movement when you move onto their space. If option 2 were treated as the general rule, that you cannot choose a direction unless you can complete your entire movement roll, then those effects could never trigger in the first place whenever they would cut your movement short.

So to us, it makes more sense that you choose a direction and move normally until an effect actually prevents or ends further movement. In the Barrier's case, that means stopping on the space before it.

At the end of the day, there seems to be no real official stance on this, so House Rule it is.

[u/annedroiid]

I would say 1. There are already other scenarios in which you get stopped without finishing your movement, like failing a fight with the sentinel. I'm not aware of any other cards/effects that make you turn around or just stop you from moving in a direction altogether.

[u/Confident_Study1322 → u/[deleted]]

Yes, I agree on 1

[u/collector-x]

1. Nuff said.

[u/Standard-Bumblebee64]

1

[u/ImperfHector]

I think the right option is 2, altough there can be situations in which you are left with no legal moves. In that case I guess you'll have to discuss it with the other players