Discern Realities. I’m curious about the list of questions the move has. Do you always try to shoehorn whatever somebody is asking into one of these questions? Do you allow any old question to be asked instead? I’m finding many questions that children ask often do not really line up neatly with those provided by the move.
Discern Realities.
Discern Realities.
I usually go with that list rather strictly.
The book says:
“Unless a move says otherwise players can only ask questions from the list. If a player asks a question not on the list the GM can tell them to try again or answer a question from the list that seems equivalent.”
There is an addition to such kinds of moves in Apocalypse World: Dark Age that goes like this:
“Ask a question of your own. If the MC chooses to answer it, it stands; otherwise, retract it and ask 1 of the above instead.”
I think the questions under the basic move help to drive the players and the GM into creating more interesting fiction.
Also, there are some magic artifacts and Playbook advancements that specifically give the ability to ask any question. It’s not the biggest deal, but if you allow players to ask whatever they want, it kind of makes those redundant.
It sounds like you’re not interested in using those questions though. Have you had a bad experience because someone in your group had to stick to the questions as listed? (edit- Er, wow, I guess I totally missed your last line there. One way or the other, if whatever you decide to do is fun for everybody, there’s no harm done!)
I see the questions as guidelines only. As GM one has to do the current fiction justice, and also allow players to have agency. That sometimes means making rulings about what questions are appropriate or not.
Adding questions to Discern Realities is something custom moves can do.
I like to ask how the question that the player is asking relates to their situation. Ok, you want something useful or valuable – what would be valuable to your current situation? An escape route? A weapon? A crafty lie?
I stick strictly to the questions on the list. I tell my players that if the information they want to know can be found out by one of those questions, they they have to ask that question. But by the same token, if what they want to know can’t be answered by one of those questions, then the move doesn’t trigger. I just have the player ask and I answer them honestly.
Whenever someone DRs, I info-dump them no matter what the die result is. They learn all kinds of stuff appropriate to however they were discerning. And that may include answering a bunch of questions.
The rules questions are on TOP of all that info, for me.