Environment Turns (Potential spoilers for non-GMs)

I've read thru everything over the last few days, and I've been finding the environments both really cool and relatively complex to figure out.

So, I know that the stat block gives me their dice pool, easy enough no problems. Then, on the Environments turn all their stuff acts? Hmm, bad phrasing, any minions created by the environment act on the environment turn or do they get their own turn and then the environment does things? And, am I supposed to add a threat from this pool of minions and challenges every environment turn? For example the Insula Primalis threat says "If they have no threats add one" which makes sense but then says "If they have one or more, they all act now" but, how can I have more than one if I only add 1 on the appropriate turn, unless they count the relatively rare minion from the twists as being a threat that would activate.

The twists only activate if someone rolls an overcome and rolls a minor or major twist and then chooses to let it be an environmental twist right? And the major twists can only activate once, period.

I think I understand some of this, but I still feel confused the more I think on it.

Sounds like you've mostly got it. (We're also looking at ways to clarify this in the core book.)

When an environment acts, all environment threats also act. The environment itself can either introduce a new threat or activate one of its twists on its turn as well. The same is true when someone chooses the environment to take one of their twists. The environment has access to Green, Yellow, or Red of twists/threats depending on what status the scene tracker is in.

It is generally rare that there will be more than one threat for the environment, but like you say, there are exceptions, and they'll all act when the environment does.

Hope that clears it up.

Alright. I'll go through all of your questions to the best of my ability.

All minions of the same type get their own turn in the turn order, so if a military base environment created 3 soldier minions, those soldiers don't go on the environment turn, but they do all go on the same turn. (This means if there are 20 of a type of minion and it becomes their turn, the heroes have to deal with 20 actions, so it's probably a good idea for players to keep the herd thin.) On the other hand, if you have a soldier minion and a sniper minion, those are two different types of minions, so they have two different turns.

On the environment's turn, you can do one of two things: activate a twist or introduce a threat. If you activate a twist, you take an environment twist from the appropriate GYRO section and activate it (or you make up your own cool twist. Being creative is part of the fun. And remember, some twists can actually help the heroes out.) It can be minor or major, but you're right. Specific major twists can only happen once. If you introduce a threat, you take a threat from the threat section and put it into the scene. Any minions (and I assume lieutenants) you put into play because of a threat or twist don't act until the next round.

Insula Primalis gives you a threat section that tells you to have every one of its threats act on its turn instead of taking their own. I assume it does this because it introduces a ton of unique dinosaurs and having them all take their own turn would make the round super long. In any case, as it's different from what's in the Gameplay Guide, I believe this is a special exception and not the rule.

On Insula Primalis's turn, you would first move the scene tracker, and then introduce a threat if there is no threat. If there is a threat, all of the threats act on Insula Primalis's turn. I have no idea if you still get to activate a twist or introduce another threat. Sorry.

A basic environment turn would go something like this.

Advance the scene tracker ---> Introduce a threat or activate a twist ---> Pass the turn order to the next person

I hope that helps! If I got anything wrong, please feel free to correct me.

@Racoonoo: Yeah, I'm betting the confusion was that for Insula Primalis specifically, the description suggests you should only add a thread if one doesn't already exist.

Clarifications and questions.

1) Does the scene tracker explicitly always move during the environment turn? I'm thinking of The Robot Spider Hive Scenario from the first Issue. (Books aren't in front of me, apologies for mis-naming things.) In that scenario, the Hive's turn is when the tracker moves, if I remember correctly. Is that to simulate the environment turn, since that scene has no "envrionment?" Or is there supposed to be another "envrionment turn?" in that round?

2) I had the impression that the environment specificly acted "between rounds?" Example: Bunker acts last and passes turn to Baron Blade to start the next round. Since that's a new round, should the envrionment do it's thing before Blade goes?

Or, should it be that, assuming the envrionment has yet to act, Bunker must pass to the envrionment, which then passes to Blade to start a new round? And wouldn't this mean Blade could then pass right back to the environment for its turn in the round? Yikes.     

Yes, if there is an environment, it and the scene tracker share the same spot.

I'm thinking of The Robot Spider Hive Scenario from the first Issue. (Books aren't in front of me, apologies for mis-naming things.) In that scenario, the Hive's turn is when the tracker moves, if I remember correctly. Is that to simulate the environment turn, since that scene has no "envrionment?" Or is there supposed to be another "envrionment turn?" in that round?

The spider groups all have their own turn and aren't connected to the scene tracker. Since there's no environment, the scene tracker gets its own slot. (The only thing that can go along with the scene as written is Argent Adept if he's been saved.)

2) I had the impression that the environment specificly acted "between rounds?" Example: Bunker acts last and passes turn to Baron Blade to start the next round. Since that's a new round, should the envrionment do it's thing before Blade goes?Or, should it be that, assuming the envrionment has yet to act, Bunker must pass to the envrionment, which then passes to Blade to start a new round? And wouldn't this mean Blade could then pass right back to the environment for its turn in the round? Yikes.     

The second one is correct - the environment/scene is a "character" that has its own turn slot. It has to be passed to at least once each turn. However, as a GM, keep in mind that most environments aren't explicitly working with the villain, and the decision of who to pass to isn't necessarily an "in character" decision. Unless you really want to be an aggressive GM, the environment should pass to whichever character makes the most interesting story.

Thank you for the clarifications, I appreciate the help! I am loving the system so far. 

I've read the game guide several times, I've gone over the threads, I've poured over each bit of information, but it all isn't clicking in my brain yet...

I learn more by watching/doing, so I think I'm gonna have to wait until I can see an environment in action until I fully understand how to run them...

Thank you for all the answers everyone. Would have gotten back to this thread sooner, but RL has been kicking my butt.

I guess the biggest confusion/point of contention between @davethegame and @Raccoonoo is what is the difference between Environment threats that act as minion dice and actual minions.

So, if we are looking at the Akash'Flora tree and for some reason add in "Reckless Police" (only action taking threat I can think of for Megalopolis) as an Environment threat then what do we have?

1) Robot Spiders take turns as minions, followed by Megalopolis Environment taking a turn and activating police

2) Robot Spiders take turns as minions, Police take turns as Minions, then Megalopois Environment takes a turn and does something else entirely

3) Something else entirely like the Police getting activated twice or something.

First, important to note here that a Megalopolis Environment (capital E-environment as far as rules goes and not just the setting for the scene) it would have a writeup that includes other possible twists for the Environment to do on its turn - like Insula Primalis and Tomb of Anubis have but not anything in issue 1.

1. Robot Spiders take turns as minions, followed by Megalopolis Environment taking a turn and activating police2) Robot Spiders take turns as minions, Police take turns as Minions, then Megalopois Environment takes a turn and does something else entirely 3) Something else entirely like the Police getting activated twice or something.

Robot Spiders would have their own slot in the Action Order. They're villains/bad guys/etc. 

The Environment also has a slot in the Action Order, under which the following things would happen (GM can choose which order): 1. Advance Scene Tracker, 2. have all Environment-created minions act, and 3. introduce new environment threat (if it doesn't have one already) OR activate one of its twists based on the status of the scene. 

Hope that clears it up. 

Will this be clarified in the core rulebook? Currently as written in the gameplay guide and on the GM screen, only two things happen during the environment turn. Scene tracker advances and either introduce a new threat or activate a twist. If a new threat is introduced, it is introduced in the action order like any other minion/lieutenant where they will act on the next round. Under the action order paragraph on the GM screen, there isn’t a separate entry for minion (villain) and minion (environment). The only two exceptions seem to be for Insula Primalis specifically, and for Unity’s minions which act at the start of her turn.

For simplicity, it seems better (at least for me) for environment created minions to be placed in the action order like other minion groups so you don’t have to think about the “source” of the minion.

I agree with the limited info I have, not needing to remember the origin of a new minion seems best. Especially if the environment kicks out lets say 3 or 4 different creatures, then they all get to go at the same time.