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Combat is often referred to as a unit of activity against one monster (i.e. do _ during this combat, or gain _ for this combat). Does this mean that investigators are able to trade items in between combatting two different monsters? The rules under Trading Equipment say:

An investigator in the same street area, Other World area, or location as another investigator may trade money, Common Items, Unique Items, and Spells. This may be done before, during, or after movement, but not during combat.

So, the question is whether once you're finished combat with a monster if there is a slice of time where you're not 'in combat' before you face off with the next one.

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The FAQ attempts to clarify this but the answer to the Q here is still not crystal clear even after the clarification=)

Q: Exactly where, when, and what can investigators trade?

A: Investigators may trade any time during the Movement Phase when they are in the same location, street area, or Other World area except during combat. They may trade before, during or after movement, which means trading does not end a move.

I would say "yes, there's a period of time in between combats you can trade" however. I think it is pretty clear all the combats do not happen at the exact same time (and rather are sequential). Without the FAQ, I would have said "no" because the word phase was not used (and it is other places "end of Mythos Phase") and would have guessed they meant actual movement rather than the Movement Phase. However, the FAQ specifically says "Movement Phase" which I think makes this more clear. While you are still fighting it's still the movement phase and being that it's not over you can trade as long as not in combat.

The other thing I looked for was a multi-monster combat example, to see if they used a word like "immediately" but there was no such example I saw in the FAQ or the Rules. This might be an additional guider if you can find it.

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  • I think I agree, by the letter of the rules, but it does feel like something that could've also been an oversight, and in the spirit of "the world is not nice to you in Arkham" it'd be fair not to allow this. (Most of the time it won't matter anyway; the one time when it really does is if you're worried the first monster might kill you and don't want to be holding all the items when that happens.)
    – Cascabel
    Jul 31, 2015 at 16:24
  • Also, the usual fallback is to rule based on flavor, but in this case that's kind of hard. It already makes no sense that there are two investigators in the area and one is just standing there while the other fights off all the monsters. (I suppose you could say that the investigators are in some iffy hiding place until they move, and once they do, they get spotted... in which case it wouldn't make sense to be able to trade between combats.)
    – Cascabel
    Jul 31, 2015 at 16:31
  • I think maybe a better way to think of it is that the movement phases are, as best as they can, conceived of as happening simultaneously when they can be. "I evaded Monster A on Space X while you evaded Monster B on Space Y." So along those lines, if you enter and evade a monster, then I do so and fail, maybe it's not that one happened after the other, but that we both tried to and it noticed me and engaged me. Maybe I fought it off all in a matter of seconds plunging my knife into it, and in that brief kung fu pause, you tossed me your knife as I turned to face the next one. Seems believable.
    – Joey
    Jul 31, 2015 at 19:10
  • Great quote on the rules btw, I totally thought from the base rules section that trading was allowed also during other phases, like the Encounters phase.
    – Joey
    Jul 31, 2015 at 19:18

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