When does the next phase of your turn begin?

[FossilMan]

I am not quite a new Munchkin player but I thought this question would go nicely in this forum.

We were playing a game of Apocalypse the other night and the person to my right asked if she could use the Scientist power to trade in a door for the treasure. I thought that the answer should be no because she had already looted the room and was already in the next phase of her turn. The power says that before the charity phase of your turn. Another player argued that she could still be in the loot the room phase.

The question:
When does the next phase of your turn begin? Is it after you draw the loot the room card? Additionally, does your turn end and the next begin immediately after charity is over?

To me the rules cover this quite clearly and don't say anything about a "buffer" time to read cards and therefore would move directly to the next phase after the action is completed but if the other player thought that it could then I could be wrong. Thank you guys!

[Clipper]

The Charity phase doesn't begin until you say it does. It essentially is the phase you use to end your turn. Her move was perfectly valid.

The phases described in the rules are things you must pass through in order to complete your turn and must be performed in sequence, but they do not fully encompass your turn. For example, you can also play cards and use abilities between Kicking Open The Door to a non-monster and Looting The Room.

Having said that, there is no buffer time between Charity and the beginning of the next player's turn. Handing off your excess cards to the lowest player (or discarding them) is the last thing you do on your turn and the next player's turn also immediately starts.

[FossilMan]

Originally Posted by Clipper

The Charity phase doesn't begin until you say it does. It essentially is the phase you use to end your turn. Her move was perfectly valid.

The phases described in the rules are things you must pass through in order to complete your turn and must be performed in sequence, but they do not fully encompass your turn. For example, you can also play cards and use abilities between Kicking Open The Door to a non-monster and Looting The Room.

Having said that, there is no buffer time between Charity and the beginning of the next player's turn. Handing off your excess cards to the lowest player (or discarding them) is the last thing you do on your turn and the next player's turn also immediately starts.

However, would you not be in the loot the room phase if your next action is to Loot the Room or Look for Trouble? Yes you can do things before it but once you loot the room you are no longer in that phase. I see what you are saying. Your example unfortunately wasn't enough to convince be because of course you could play something before doing the action in the Loot the Room phase but that doesn't mean you aren't in the Loot the Room phase. I guess to me there should be no grey areas and saying that you are not in the Charity phase even if you have already looted the room is a grey area.

The power of a Scientist then would be that if you don't like your looted door then you can trade it in for a treasure essentially. Was this the intended purpose of Scientist? To me I would think that's a little overpowered but not too much so. I don't really know. After thinking about it more that power seems really awesome if that's the intention.

[Andrew Hackard]

OFFICIAL ANSWER: A Scientist may use Atomic Transmutation at any time after battling a monster/Looting The Room and before giving Charity or passing the turn. However, using Transmutation signals that one is ready to proceed into the giving of Charity and the end of one's turn, so it's poor form to Transmute if you're still planning on doing other things, such as selling Items (except to avoid Charity, and yes, trying for an expensive Treasure with Transmutation is reasonable) or conducting a trade.