16 thoughts on “Hi everyone.”

  2. Any time the MC is called to ask questions, they should be personal, intimate, prodding, and/or (mis)leading.

    The character may, or may not. actually know the truth — the player’s answer still reflects what the character believes to be the truth… at least for the moment.

    The tailored nature of such MC questions makes it difficult to make a list of generic questions that would have more usefulness than those already associated with player moves — any of which could form the basis of an MC question.

    You might generally start with;

    Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, Would, Should, Could, Did, Does, Can, Will, Have, Was.

    attach a subject in relation to an object and/or sentiment, then go from there.

    Why do you see (someone) always hanging around (person/location/with a thing)?

    Doesn’t matter, the character might be wrong, but now you know what the character believes based on the players assessment of the fiction involved.

    fwiw; that is my take on it…

    I think I remember seeing a list of awesome questions once, but couldn’t figure out how they would really be useful to the emerging needs… and I did try.

  3. Yes, I agree that you must adapt your questions to the character. But it was a list of questions that were easily usable. From memory, some of them were :

    – Why did you kill your parents ?

    – There was someone dear to you that you left to die. Who and Why ?

    – If, right now, you could savagely kill someone, who would it be ?

    – Have you ever eaten human flesh ?

    – What’s your more embarrassing secret ?

    And so on. Just. Barthing. Apocalyptica.

  4. Those questions are good, and I can totally get behind occasionally getting up in a player’s face like that…

    but;

    Asking a, “Why did you… [something not established]?”; question too often, can make players feel like they are being harassed. Getting too confrontational with player agency too often, is just a bad idea… every now and then, however, and timing is everything.

    I have gone looking for this list three times, I do remember it, but can’t find it ether. Best lead I could find;

    http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/16220/give-me-your-best-provocative-questions/p1

  5. Yes, but it was just some questions I remember vaguely. The player can of course says that his character never left anyone to die, then you can just ask him why. But it never happened in my experience.

    Thanks for the link.

  7. And since I have these classifiers in mind now, the terms got me associating with realworld interactive questions and didactic conversational methods.

    So, I bet a bit of lawyering skill might help;

    http://www.benchmarkinstitute.org/t_by_t/objections/cheat_sheet.htm

    As this is a useful realworld skill;

    http://business.nuvvo.com/lesson/5277-neutral-and-leading-questions

    Cool, the apocalypse world engine really is about having a conversation with game rules… and effectively hones your debate, interrogation, and witness examination skills, by giving oratorical studies a practical and entertaining way to exercise. Sly move, Vincent Baker… trying to trick people into learning stuff without knowing they are.

  9. That last list is an awesome base to work with. Need more Apocalyptica but to start with…

    Instead of “what is the sweetest thing that you have ever done ?” => “What is the cruelest thing that you have ever done ?”

    By the way, about trolling. I would agree that for most RPG that it could be considered trolling, but in AW, it is in my humble opinion an efficient way to install a survival-at-any-cost atmosphere.

    Again, thanks for taking the time to find those links.

  10. It doesn’t matter if it’s apocalypse or candyland, if you are blatantly leading the witness (or the player with presumed agency over their character) into fraudulent admissions of testimony, it is unethical and unprofessional because it is underhanded and socially rude…

    Using that tactic too often, or in bad taste and poor timing, is not likely to win you MC of the year.

    do it, but do it sparingly, and be sure you are not building an undercurrent of animosity, by aggressively undermining the player’s agency over their playing pieces, that is all I am saying.

  11. Wow, er… Ok. First of all, when I’m asking those question, the main purpose is to Barth forth Apocalyptica and to get something to work on during play. It is not a way to advance one predetermined agenda. How could it be ? Those leading questions are most of the time not directly related to the current situation. But maybe I should tell my players that they can just say : “hey, wait ! It never happened !”

    Apart from a few con games, I mc mostly with the same group of people (experienced players too). Me being too directive never came up.

  12. I am speaking of properly phrasing and framing the question, not of whether the questioning should be done.

    A leading question or suggestive interrogation is a question that suggests the particular answer or contains the information the examiner is looking to have confirmed, and may be phrased or delivered in a subtile manner that traps the questionee — possibly without them even being aware they had a choice.

    A more blatant and unethical form of leading is with loaded questions which are objectionable because they contain implicit assumptions (such as “Have you stopped beating your wife?” indirectly asserting that the subject has beaten her at some point).

    Am I saying do not use this tactic?

    No… I am saying use this tactic sparingly… even given that someone might be consciously unaware that they were duped, it does cause indirect discomfort and a subtle hostile tone to develop in the conversation over time. Even if everyone appears to be going along with such misdirection, there could be latent or underlying animosity being built… and in effect it is a tactic that challenges player control over their character, like a genie tempting them with that fourth wish that unravels all of their dreams through their greed, it is rather subtly hostile.

    This was all in relation to the trolling question;

    “Why did you kill your parents?” which assumes that the character’s parents are dead, and that the character is guilty of patricide… all without any previous evidence provided that such things are factual… or even plausible. Some people will not notice the trap, some will walk into it willingly, but most people will be agitated by the implicit hostility — consciously aware of their agitation or not.

    Troll if you must, but be aware of the stress caused by agitating the fish.

  13. for your troubles of suffering the previous explanation — have another 50 illuminating character questions, that are sure to develop intense drama and deepen a character’s presence in the events around them;

    http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/07/13/50-questions-that-will-free-your-mind/

    Decisions are being made right now. The question is: Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?

    and one sorted by categories;

    http://storycorps.org/great-questions/

    What are the hardest times you have ever had to endure?

    It may just be my preference, but I think of it as getting to know more about the character — we already know how screwed the world is;

    http://marshalljonesjr.com/100-questions-to-ask-people/

    Would you rather be hated or forgotten?

  16. Like the nanoplague from Revolution…

    an all pervasive maelstrom of sentient omnipotent animus with a sapient psyche… definitely works, if the players establish a table consensus for that kind of apocalypse.

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