I recently acquired Kingsport Horror and in that extension there is a number of card that use the wording spending the focus. Until now i thought the focusing procedure was: move your slider on your character, you can do that x time, x being your maximum focus. But then you never spent any focus points.

So i am a little unsure how to exactly interpret the wording "spend your focus", while i understand the general meaning i can see several way to interpret the exact meaning slighty differently all having different consequences and how that interract with other cards.

I see 3 different ways to interpret that. To be simpler i will take the example of the Brazier of souls. we says it only refresh if "you spend all of your focus to do so". My 3 different interpretations are:

a) check if any change has been done into the characteristics since next turn if not then refresh the Brazier

b) Focus actually create focus point that you spend to move the sliders. you may spend x of those points. x being your current focus to refresh the Brazier.

c) Refreshing the Brazier is a replacement effect that take place instead of moving your sliders

Let's take a few example of card interactions and see how the different interpretations give different results.

1) an investigator have a Brazier of souls and a Ythian Rifle, both exhausted. It should to keep the same characteristic than last turn. Can he refresh both of it's weapons ? Interpretation a says yes others says no

2) what happened to same investigator but the rumor "Mistrust" has been failed previously in the game so the focus of the investigator is no 0. Can he refresh both his weapon in one turn now ? interpretation a and b both says yes.

3) What if instead of having it's focus to 0 he doesn't use his focus. For example that investigator is Wilson Richards whose errata says: he has a focus of 4 but don't use his focus to move is sliders. Can he move his sliders and still refresh a Brazier ? interpretation b says yes.

4) and now what about Trish Scarborough ? Does she have to shift all of her sliders to same position has previous turn to refresh the Brazier or can she refresh it every turn or an the contrary can she never refresh one ?

5) now let's talk about Bast. She says that an investigator either spend all of it's focus or lose the Bast token. So what happen if your refresh the Brazier. Is this considered as spending all your focus for Bast ?

6) What about Trish. If she doesn't have a Brazier to refresh or anything else with the same effect is there a way she can spend all of her focus or is she doomed to lose the Bast token every turn.

7) And now for William Richards. Can he keep the Bast Token ? What if he move 4 times his sliders or more ?

8) is the way Trish or William interact with Bats token will be changed if Mistrust is failed and they now have 0 focus ?

Thank you for your time reading all that.

I'm trying an easy answer.

Either you're using your focus for moving your skill points or you're using all you focus to do one thing .

So if you move at least one skill, you can't use your focus to refresh an item.

If you refresh one item, you can't refresh another one.

And you still can spend 0 focus if your max focus is 0. But still, you can do only one thing.

You should wait for more certified guys, but it seems to be a cost to pay for me. And you can pay just for only one thing at the time.

One thing I disagree about is the "0 focus" thing. If you have a focus of 0 you can't "spend it all."

Tibs said:

That's really interesting. I really don't know anything on the rules that would go towards this interpretation. But of course you are quite a refrence here so you're certainly right about it.

So from what you said i should fully interpret the wording on the Brazier as:

Before moving your sliders. spend all your focus if you spent at least one: refresh this weapon.

Then the answers of the different example are:

1) only one weapon (that's great any interpretation that would have given a different answer to that one would have been really strange)

2) you can't refresh any of those weapon if your focus is 0. (A little harsh but i can go with that and that avoid the double spending of 0)

3) Richard can refresh one of those weapon and still slide as a want since he don't spend focus for doing such.

4) Trish work the same as Richard for similar reason

Seems ok and very near the spirit of the card so i will buy it.

What about Bast. None of you had says anything about how she interact with those cards ?

My personal interpretation based on the previous answers would be:

5) if you refresh a Brazier that count as used all of your focus for bast token

6) Trish will always lose her bast token unless she use a Brazier or a similar effect to spend it.

7) William will work the same as Trish for similar reasons.

8) if an investigator as 0 focus he can never spend all of his focus so he will always lose the bast token no matter what.

Is all those interpretation ok ?

I am still interrested to find the rule confirming the different than 0 thingy. I suppose it would make sense if it's considered as a cost instead of an effect. But i wasn't aware that there were such a thing in Arkham Horror. I suppose i will apply the rule of thumb that is usaully used in game with such distinction that is if a sentence says "do x to do y". everything before the "to" so x in my case is a cost and everything after (the y) is the effect.

In which case everything is fine. i have a "hard" interpretation of the rules i can applies if something arise and i need to rule a conflict between 2 cards.

I think the Bast token is from the same kind of things than the Brazier. I think you have to spend all your focus dedicated in keeping the Bast token, so you wouldn't be able to refresh your Brazier.

About Tibs notice, like you, i'll be more confident in his interpretation than mine

About "paying" stuff, there is a difference between losing Sanity from a monster and paying Sanity for casting a spell. The first can be prevented thanks to Winters ability or Whiskey for example , the second can't (except with a unique item i don't remember the name, but that one do not prevent, it's more like a replacement effect).

If I recall correctly, a precedence for this was set: if an encounter says to "lose all your money or your most expensive item," you can't choose "money" if you have none.

1) Yes, you're putting all your concentration into figuring out how to [re-arm weapon / prepare yourself to use your "skill" / keep Bast's attention]. If you use any focus you'll be unable any of those.

2) It makes sense. You're utterly unable to focus. Double-spending of 0 would imply that you're better at refreshing those cards when you have no attention span.

3) Yes, which is part of what makes him awesome.

4) Indeed! Note that both of these characters would still have functioning sliders if they (somehow) had 0 focus.

5) Yes: all your focus is being committed to one task. I actually place the Bast tokens on the skill track to remind myself that "if I use it, I lose it."

6) No, keeping a Bast token requires the same effort as recharging the Brazier. She can do one or the other, but not both. Any Upkeep that she decides not to spend her focus towards the Bast token, it is discarded.

7) Not sure I understand. Wilson, you mean? No, I think keeping a Bast token should be treated exactly the same as refreshing a Brazier/Endurance/M.Fortitude/etc.

8) Correct. Nor will he refresh those specific types of cards. This doesn't seem so harsh when you stop to think about what it means to have 0 focus. That investigator is pretty much screwed anyway.

thanks for the answers. I had read the bast token text wrong i thought that to keep it, you had to have spent all of your focus on the turn on something else instead of reading that you had to spend all of your focus to keep it, same things as the Brazier. That why i had problem with it.

Everything make perfect sense now. Thank you for your time.