This is a situation I would usually ask FFG about, but I'm almost afraid to know what they'll answer, so I thought I would get opinions here first (and if you know the designers' official position on it, feel free to tell me--just break the news gently).

The Relationship Card entitled Members of the Book Club (LatT) enables one member of a partnership to use the same tome immediately after the other member of the partnership has used it, even if it has been exhausted or discarded. However, the card does not specify anything about what the partner not holding the Tome card has to do about satisfying the Movement Points requirement. Since, by definition, it will not be that player's turn during the Movement Phase, it has occurred to me that maybe the intent is not to require a Movement Points expenditure, just the passage of the Skill check. On the other hand, if Movement Points are required, it would raise questions such as whether a partner who has already taken their turn during that Movement Phase can even use this option, since they will no longer have Movement Points (likewise for a partner in an Other World). It might also require a partner whose Movement turn is yet to be executed to keep track of MPs already expended, a situation for which I can't think of a parallel with other game effects.

Since both of these options seem either extreme or cumbersome, I've adopted a compromise which basically assumes that the partner of the cardholder gets an additional Movement Phase on the house as a part of this feature. They must still supply MPs, but they may do that based on their current values, regardless of whether or not they have moved yet on that turn. The only restrictions are that if the non-cardholder uses an exhaustible item (e.g., Map, Motorcycle), to supply the points, it remains exhausted for the rest of the turn; and that no one in an Other World can use the ability, since they never have Movement Points.

Another issue with this ability is that of discarding. At first, I thought it made sense to have only a successful tome-reading attempt by the holder of the Tome trigger a discard; but then I realized that that method was open to abuse, since the holder of the Tome could keep making low-probability attempts to read it and failing them, in order to give their partner repeated uses of a discardable tome. Therefore, I now play that the first successful read by either partner (except,of course, for the other partner's attempt on that same turn) triggers the discard.

What does everyone else think?

It's been a while since I've tackled this particular relationship, but these are my thoughts:

1. If either partner successfully reads the tome, it is discarded as normal. This prevents the holder of the tome from gutting her Lore and constantly failing the check while her partner continues to pass the check over a number of turns to get the reward. Old Journal, De Vermis Mysteriis, and Eltdown Shards would all become stupidly powerful, to name a few.
2. The tome requires an expenditure of movement points to attempt to read it (i.e. activate it). The relationship card offers the partner a free activation. No movement points are required of the partner, which is convenient—because, as you addressed, movement points are not defined for an investigator who is not currently taking a turn.

With regards to 2: I don't recall if there are tomes that require spending sanity (for example) to attempt to make the check, and for that I would suggest that the partner does have to spend the sanity because he indeed has sanity to spend. So maybe I should just say that movement points aren't required of the partner, because I feel they cannot be.

No need to spend movement points for the second investigator. The card's wording is rather sound at this purpose: you may immediately attempt using the tome. Hence, you roll the dice.

:ninjaed by Tibs:

Also, I second his reading to discard / return to the box the item if either of the readers successfully reads it.

SemiAddict,

I'm in agreement with Tibs and Julia...the only point I wanted to make clear from how I play it is that if Player A has successfully read it and it needs to be discarded, Player B will have a chance to read it, as well...in the end, the item is discarded, whether Player's B reading proves successful or not. Obviously, if both players fail to read it, then it remains with Player A.

Cheers,

Joe

Thanks Tibs et al. It's a relief to see that there's something I've actually been doing too conservatively. This ability is turning out to be more useful than I thought it would before trying it (I wouldn't say that it's stupidly powerful, but I like that phrase--I'll probably be overusing it now).