Certain items and skills read, "Upkeep: This item/skill/spell does not refresh unless you spend of your focus to do so." (e.g. Yithian Rifle, Endurance skill). Can I read that as "This item only refreshes if you do NOT move your skill sliders at all this upkeep phase"? Otherwise, how can characters with no way to spend focus (Wilson Richards and Trish Scarborough) refresh those skills?

Secondly, to keep a Bast token, you are required to "spend all of your focus". Does that mean you cannot move your skill sliders (as per previous paragraph), or does that mean you must move your skill sliders a TOTAL of your focus? If that's the case, how do the above mentioned 2 characters resolve that? Also, does twiddling your skill slider (say Fight from 1 to 2, then back to 1) count as moving 2 Focus?

Thanks for any help. Those items/skills tend to confuse me, especially since the writing on Bast's Guardian sheet seems to differ from those on the cards.

Spending all your focus for use on an item means you can't use the focus to move your skill sliders that turn. Each upkeep you have a limited amount of focus to spend, and you can either spend it on moving skill sliders or on anything else (like the Yith RIfle). The word "spend", in AH, is used to imply a cost whcih you have to give up in order to obtain an effect, and you have to pay the cost for that specific purpose - you can't get two effects off the same cost. However this is an area of the game that's really unclear, and the main reason I think it works this way is that no other way makes sense, including (in some cases) the way described in the rulebook.

Trish Scarborough has Focus 1. She just can't spend that focus on moving skill sliders. She can still spend it on refreshing items. (Although actually, I've just noticed that Trish's "Abnormal Focus" ability says " does not" rather than "cannot ", and if you interpret that literally, it implies that moving a skill slider simply doesn't require her to spend any Focus. So it's another poorly-worded card, but the intention is clear I think.)

Wilson Richards has been "clarified" (by which I mean, he's had an errata): he has Focus 4, and the same special ability as before. So he can put his Skill Sliders whereever he wants every turn, but there's a number you can refer to if you need to. This was mainly to sort out Yibb-Tstll I think.

So both these characters actually DO have focus they can spend, and the problem wouldn't arise anyway. There are lots of other fascinating rules ambiguities to do with focus though. I think that moving a skill slider one space in one direction then moving it back probably does count as using 2 Focus. The rulebook describes using Focus in terms of the action of moving a slider one stop , rather than in terms of where the slider ends up . But it's a bit of an odd question, since

a) almost nothing in the game forces you to spend Focus (although one or two things will force you to move skill sliders, but they won't involve Focus itself), and

b) moving a slider during the upkeep then moving it back immediately during the same upkeep has no game impact at all and it'd be a bit harsh if your fellow players were so strict that they wouldn't let you shuffle your sliders around before deciding on the final configuration.

Yup, thanks, that's generally what I believe. So my only contention now is Bast's "Protector of Cats" ability, which says the investigator must spend all his focus to keep his token. I would believe that spending all focus on Yith rifle or Endurance would suffice, or moving your skill slider so many slots, but it's weirder for Wilson and Trish, since despite the value of their focus, they more or less cannot ever spend all of it.

That is, if I read "spend" as that your skill slider must be moved, or the Focus must otherwise be used to do something.

(Hey sorry man, I just edited my first post and I think the change went through after you responded, so it might say more now)

I don't agree about the Bast thing... I think spending all focus on keeping a Bast token is exactly equivalent to spending all focus on keeping a Rifle refreshed, and you can only spend 'all your focus' on one thing each turn.

Thanks. Yeah, posted before your editing, sorry about that.

While I see where you're coming from, it's the wording on the Bast card that is confusing. "At the start of each turn... (each investigator) must either spend all of his Focus or discard the token." The problem is, it isn't mentioned to spend all of your Focus to do what. That is, I can interpret it as that if my character has 2 Focus, and I only spend 1 (in skill slider movement), I discard the Bast token. If I spend all 2, I keep it.

I believe if it's as you said, they should write, "... spend all your Focus to keep the Bast token, or discard it."

Anyway, it's with my interpretation that the Trish and Wilson issue comes in. I feel that Wilson can ignore it as long as he spends 4 focus (even in that funny twiddling movement), but Trish can never spend her focus (since as you said, her ability should not allow her to use focus in any manner, or at least, should not).

She could spend it if she had a Yithian Rifle! Heh heh. Otherwise you're right, she'd be screwed.

I think it's just screwy wording on Bast, tbh, and you should probably be able to voluntarily spend your focus on keeping the Bast token.

Yup. No worries about it, I'll consult my usual group of Arkham friends the next time we play and probably will house-rule it. Would love to get official ruling though.

But if what you said is true, Bast is a worse Guardian than I thought. I'm already on the belief that he's the weakest Guardian, since "The Story Continues..." almost never appear (thanks to 6 expansions), and it's just freaking expensive to spend all focus every turn to shoo monsters away (oh yeah, plus 2 bucks).