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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8416487" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think I've already addressed this in my post upthread with the example of Isle missing from her car shed, probably kidnapped; and in my post just upthread replying to [USER=6915329]@Faolyn[/USER].And there have also been cogent replies from [USER=99817]@chaochou[/USER], [USER=71235]@niklinna[/USER], [USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] and [USER=16586]@Campbell[/USER].But to add a few more thoughts:The "menu of questions" is not arbitrary. It's deliberate. It establishes what the game cares about. (And by changing the list of questions, you change the game. Classic D&D has wands of metal and mineral detection, and potions of treasure finding, but not wands of fancy hat detection or potions of flower finding. Those latter things might fit well in The Dying Earth, though.)The rulebook specifically addresses players asking, as their PCs, what other sorts of stuff they might no or can see (AW, p 200):He stops at a safe spot and reads the way forward, and hits with a 10. “Cool. What should I be on the lookout for?” “Dremmer sends patrols through here, of course,” I say. “You should be on the lookout for a patrol.” “Makes sense. How far will I have to go exposed?” “A few hundred yards, it looks like,” I say. “Okay,” he says. “Question 3—” “Oh no, no,” I say. “That didn’t use up any of your hold, I was just telling you what you see.” “Oh! Great. How often do the patrols come through?” I shake my head. “You don’t know. Could be whenever.” “But can’t I make that my question, so you have to answer it?” “Nope!” I say. “You can spend your hold to make me answer questions from the list. Other questions don’t use up your hold, but I get to answer them or not, depending on whatever.” “Okay, I get it,” he says. “So I’m on question 2 still? What’s my enemy’s true position?”From the perspective of "meta-mode" the point of asking the question isn't to find out what is in the GM's notes (though the GM might answer based on prep, saying what prep demands). The point is to establish some fiction - the sort of fiction that AW is concerned with - that is binding on all participants.My view is that it would be pretty straightforward for investigation to figure prominently in an AW game: go aggro, seduce/manipulate, read a sitch, read a person - those have got Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and other noir stories written all over them! But to echo [USER=16586]@Campbell[/USER], it wouldn't be much like Law & Order or Poirot.</blockquote>

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