Apocalypse: Do Closed Seals count towards the Seventh Seal?

[RoadieRich]

So I've checked the rules and the FAQ, but there seems to be no clear answer.

When counting Seals for determining the end of game, do you count every seal that has been opened in the game, or just the ones that are *still* open, and not those that have been closed?

I can see the first being problematic in long blended games, when there may be a long time between seals being opened, but it does seem more thematic.

[Mister Ed]

Only open Seals count. Closed Seals are supposed to be put back on the bottom of the Seal deck, anyway, so the only way you'd even know how many there were is if you were doing some bookkeeping.

[MunchkinMan]

Though the wording could be more explicit, it is such that if the 7th Seal is opened, the game ends, not after 7 seals have been opened. That means that if a Seal is closed, then it's not there anymore to be counted. In other words, if the 5th Seal is closed, then the 5th Seal is not open, and the next Seal to be opened will be the 5th Seal.

[Andrew Hackard]

To put things VERY plainly: closed Seals don't matter. Only pay attention to the Seals that are currently, at this very moment, open.