Automatic monsters

[kosbour]

The rules state that When all the rooms have been explored, I may draw a Monster card (if I want to) if I enter a room with no monsters during my turn.

Does this apply even if I enter a room after running away from combat?
And is it mandatory to draw a Monster card (assuming this is my choice) as soon as I enter room or I can buy a level or two, arrange as good as I can my items in play and then fight the monster?

[Clipper]

You can only choose to draw the monster when you enter the room. It has been officially ruled in the past that you can do this immediately after Running Away (provided you survive) as that is entering a room during your turn.

You cannot wait and do other things before drawing the monster. You have to make the choice immediately.

[Andrew Hackard]

Do you have a link to that ruling? I'm pretty sure the intent of the rule was to take the place of exploring a room, which would mean you can't draw a monster when you Run Away into an empty room, just when you make a move that you could use to explore if you had room tiles left. (Recall that you cannot explore by Running Away.)

[Clipper]

Here's one of the threads. I think I remember it being ruled in a few other threads too.

Personally, I dislike the rule and house rule against it by saying the Automatic Monster ability only counts if you use a Move action to perform it, thus excluding all other effects that allow you to enter a room. That way makes the end-game a lot better as you need to normally make at least three moves (i.e., one to face an Automatic monster to get back to Level 10, one to get back to a room adjacent to the Entrance (if there are no Portals) and a third to enter the Entrance) before you would be able to fight a Boss again, rather than being able to fight them with every single Move, fighting an Automatic Monster immediately upon Running Away each time, then moving straight back into the Entrance.

Thus, if you are considering reversing the previous rulings, I certainly wouldn't argue...

[MunchkinMan]

The rules do say, "[I]f you enter a room with no monsters during your turn..." I will admit I was probably taking a liberal view of what "entering a room" entailed, and I don't think I missed the notion that it was after Running Away from the Boss Monster. I'm still unsure of how I feel about it, given the wording.