1. On page 12 of the new FAQ, Garven Dreis is listed. The second paragraph says "A ship may spend a focus token during an attack even if there are 0 "eyeball" results to change" Can someone explain this? I'm guessing this is referring to spending a focus token per instructions on an upgrade card? I run Garven and often pass focus tokens to another ship equipped with R5-P9 but never passed one unless an "eyeball" was rolled.

2. Jan Ors: "Once per round, when a friendly ship at Range 1-3 preforms a focus action or would be assigned a focus token, you may assign that ship an evade token instead." If Jan is used, the evade token replaces the focus token and the focus token is discarded, right?

1) You don't have to roll an eyeball to pass the focus. You could roll all hits with Garven and still "spend" the focus token to pass it on. Or when defending, you could roll nothing but blanks but again "spend" the token to pass it on.

2) Yes. The ship receives an evade token instead of a focus token.

1 hour ago, Dr Zoidberg said:

1) You don't have to roll an eyeball to pass the focus. You could roll all hits with Garven and still "spend" the focus token to pass it on. Or when defending, you could roll nothing but blanks but again "spend" the token to pass it on.

WOW! This is huge for my R5-P9 equipped ship. I've been limiting myself thinking I couldn't pass the focus.

While the Focus token that Garvin "spends" doesn't need to actually do anything he DOES have to have a legitimate reason to spend it. If he takes a Focus action but then never performs an attack or is attacked he may not encounter a situation where he even could spend a Focus token; in this case he can't simply "pass" the token without having something to spend it on.

47 minutes ago, StevenO said:

While the Focus token that Garvin "spends" doesn't need to actually do anything he DOES have to have a legitimate reason to spend it. If he takes a Focus action but then never performs an attack or is attacked he may not encounter a situation where he even could spend a Focus token; in this case he can't simply "pass" the token without having something to spend it on.

How do you legitimately "spend" a focus token if it doesn't do anything? I understand your point about having a focus but not spending it in an attack or defense and not being able to pass it on. That's how I've been playing. However, what's the point of the post in the FAQ about Garven?

There are certain times you can spend a Focus token. Now if that Focus token actually does anything when you spend it is unimportant but there are only certain times you could spend the token.

Let's say that a Focus Token is like operating a door. If there is no door then obviously you may not operate it. Now when you reach a door you can use your ability to operate a door; however, depending on the state of the door you may not need to operate the door to get the desired result but that is the only time you could "spend" your ability. Of course you don't actually "spend" your door opening ability but there are only certain times it could be used.

The bottom line is that 0 constitutes all. If you are attacking and roll no focus results, you can spend a focus to change all of your focus results to hit/evade results. All is just all of zero in this case.

What would make it not legitimate is something like Omega Leader. If you were locked by OL and defending against him, you are not allowed to modify dice, so you may not spend a focus token to change your focuses into evades. You may not spend it and merely get no effect from it when you have focus results, and having no results does not mean that you can spend it because it won't actually modify any dice (or even if you have no dice to modify!).

So 'legitimate' simply means that you are allowed to perform the standard focus effect.

Quote

• Focus: The attacker can spend a focus token to change all of his [Focus] results to [Hit] results.

Notice that the ability does actually check to see if you have any focus results, so you may spend it to 'focus up' even if there are no dice to change, so long as you are allowed to modify dice. 0 is a legitimate definition of all.

So the point of the FAQ entry is that people often mistakenly believe that you have have at least 1 focus result in the dice pool to spend a focus for it's standard effect. This is not the case. Does that makes sense?

7 hours ago, drail14me said:

If Jan is used, the evade token replaces the focus token and the focus token is discarded, right?

No, the focus token is not discarded, it is never assigned. This is an instead, so this completely replace the focus token assignation.

1 hour ago, InquisitorM said:

The bottom line is that 0 constitutes all. If you are attacking and roll no focus results, you can spend a focus to change all of your focus results to hit/evade results. All is just all of zero in this case.

What would make it not legitimate is something like Omega Leader. If you were locked by OL and defending against him, you are not allowed to modify dice, so you may not spend a focus token to change your focuses into evades. You may not spend it and merely get no effect from it when you have focus results, and having no results does not mean that you can spend it because it won't actually modify any dice (or even if you have no dice to modify!).

So 'legitimate' simply means that you are allowed to perform the standard focus effect.

Notice that the ability does actually check to see if you have any focus results, so you may spend it to 'focus up' even if there are no dice to change, so long as you are allowed to modify dice. 0 is a legitimate definition of all.

So the point of the FAQ entry is that people often mistakenly believe that you have have at least 1 focus result in the dice pool to spend a focus for it's standard effect. This is not the case. Does that makes sense?

Ok, so in my case, Garven can "spend" a focus token anytime he attacks or defends to change all his "focus" rolls to "hits" even though I roll no "focus". So, basically, Garven can "spend" and pass his Focus Token every combat phase?

Yep.

39 minutes ago, muribundi said:

No, the focus token is not discarded, it is never assigned. This is an instead, so this completely replace the focus token assignation.

So what you're saying is Jan triggers in the Activation Phase when Actions are taken?

Here's my example. I have Garven Dries who passes focus tokens. I have a Gold Sqd Y wing with R5-P9 that uses focus tokens to regen shields.

During Activation, Garven takes a focus and the Y takes a focus. If I wanted to use Jan, then I would have to immediately swap the Y's focus for an evade at that time?

During Combat, Garven shoots first. I can choose to "spend" the focus token even if I didn't roll a focus and then pass the focus to the Y?

Jan activates before the token is ever assigned. The trigger is when a focus token would be assigned. So if you declare a focus action, you can declare that you are activating Jan and assign an evade token instead of the focus token. Mechanically speaking, as soon as you put the focus token into play it is too late to use Jan.

Quote

Y-Wing activates and reveals dial. Y-Wing executes maneuver. Y-Wing declares it is taking the focus action. Player declares Jan Ors and assigns an evade token.

A focus token doesn't enter into it during that sequence. Of course, in a friendly game, there's nothing to stop you asking if you can take the focus token back – I'm just talking pure mechanics.

But yes, Garven can always pass his focus when he shoots, short of being denied modifications as I mentioned above.

6 minutes ago, InquisitorM said:

Jan activates before the token is ever assigned. The trigger is when a focus token would be assigned. So if you declare a focus action, you can declare that you are activating Jan and assign an evade token instead of the focus token. Mechanically speaking, as soon as you put the focus token into play it is too late to use Jan.

A focus token doesn't enter into it during that sequence. Of course, in a friendly game, there's nothing to stop you asking if you can take the focus token back – I'm just talking pure mechanics.

But yes, Garven can always pass his focus when he shoots, short of being denied modifications as I mentioned above.

During the combat phase, Garven passes his focus token and assigns it to the Y. Wouldn't Jan trigger then as well?

It can, yes – remembering that it's a once per turn ability. And with Jake, he can take a focus action, take an evade with Jan, and still use his own ability to boost or barrel roll.

9 hours ago, InquisitorM said:

It can, yes – remembering that it's a once per turn ability. And with Jake, he can take a focus action, take an evade with Jan, and still use his own ability to boost or barrel roll.

Though it's worth mentioning that this only works because his ability specifies "After you perform a focus action or are assigned a focus token". In this scenario he is performing a focus action (even though Jan is giving him an evade; the action was still a focus action to begin with), but isn't being assigned the token.

Generally speaking, it's good to remember that basically everything in this game can be a trigger for other abilities. That's why it's important to be precise about what's actually happening, even if giving a ship a focus, discarding, and replacing it with an evade from Jan is functionally the same in terms of the end board state.

19 hours ago, drail14me said:

During the combat phase, Garven passes his focus token and assigns it to the Y. Wouldn't Jan trigger then as well?

Jan (crew) only works once per round. If she had already given the Y-Wing an Evade token when it took a Focus action during the Activation phase, she would not be available to change Garven's passed Focus token into an Evade token during the Combat phase.

The trigger for spending focus is that you have reached the modify dice step. Rolling an eyeball is not a trigger for spending focus, reaching the modify dice step is. If you reach the modify dice step, you may send a focus token to change all eyeball results to hits/evade results. You can spend the focus to change 0 results because of this.

25 minutes ago, BadMotivator said:

The trigger for spending focus is that you have reached the modify dice step. Rolling an eyeball is not a trigger for spending focus, reaching the modify dice step is. If you reach the modify dice step, you may send a focus token to change all eyeball results to hits/evade results. You can spend the focus to change 0 results because of this.

That's NOT the only time you could spend a Focus token however. It may be the most common but there are other instances a ship could spend a Focus. For example Garven could "spend" a Focus token in the EoT to power R5-P9 and then pass that token on to someone else granted there aren't a lot of ways to use or keep the token at that point. In a hypothetical world with multiple Garven/R5-P9 ships in play one could spend a token to pass it to another who could then spend it to pass it to a third; you could spend it to recover the shield even if you can't actually get the shield because they are currently full.

Yes, if you have another trigger to allow spending a focus token it can happen then as well. The point is the trigger is what needs to be met. But, to use a metaphor, the gun can be unloaded or firing blanks.

1 hour ago, BadMotivator said:

Yes, if you have another trigger to allow spending a focus token it can happen then as well. The point is the trigger is what needs to be met. But, to use a metaphor, the gun can be unloaded or firing blanks.

Not sure that metaphor works here. A variation that may work is that you need justification to pull the trigger to get the shot off but you don't need to hit anything with the shots; may pull the trigger other times but without cause you could be getting in trouble.

I think what @drail14me is asking is what happens when Garven passess a focus token, but then triggers Jan to make it into an evade token instead. That is an absolutely valid game effect combination, even if a little surreal.

A similar game effect is Rey combined with Jan, where you assign a focus from the Rey card but change it into an evade.

It is a little counter-intuitive, because at some undefined point in the transition the focus token is "erased from existence" and an evade token appears instead. I think the easiest way to imagine this is to just assume the focus token is transformed into an evade token.

On 6/18/2017 at 0:34 PM, kris40k said:

Jan (crew) only works once per round. If she had already given the Y-Wing an Evade token when it took a Focus action during the Activation phase, she would not be available to change Garven's passed Focus token into an Evade token during the Combat phase.

Correct. But I've got two different chances to trigger Jan in a round. Either during activation or when Garven passes a Focus. I'm just happy with the FAQ update on Garven. I've had trouble passing a focus to the Y thinking I HAD to roll a focus to spend it.

Thanks for all the help guys. It all makes sense now. The only part I feel iffy with is spending a focus token to change zero dice. I guess it's a valid rule but seems kind of like.....bending the rule a bit.

11 hours ago, drail14me said:

Thanks for all the help guys. It all makes sense now. The only part I feel iffy with is spending a focus token to change zero dice. I guess it's a valid rule but seems kind of like.....bending the rule a bit.

Just wait until you see people using R4 Agromech, and you'll feel a lot better about Garven.

This discussion also ties in with the Hotshot Co-Pilot crew card, where someone attacking you doesn't actually have to roll eyeballs to be forced to spend their focus token, and same for when you're defending.