Ask questions and build on the answers

Ask questions all the time, all over the place.

Ask questions to establish intent. "Before you all head out in the morning, is there anything else anyone wants to do?"

Ask questions to clarify intent and get yourself on the same page as the players. "Yeah, I guess you can get around him. But what are you hoping to accomplish here?"

Ask questions to clarify the fiction. "Sure, you can Seek Insight. What does that look like?"

Ask the characters what they're thinking or feeling. "Caradoc, you're standing there, bleeding from where Wynfor stabbed you, and the look in his eye—you barely recognize him. What's going through your head right now?"

Ask the characters about their past or their day-to-day lives. "Rhianna, who taught you how to hunt and track?" "Blodwen, you live with your mother, right? Any other siblings? What's the place look like inside?"

Ask the characters about things they would know. "Rhianna, you've met Brennan before. What's his most distinguishing feature?"

Ask the characters about things they've heard or what they believe, where their answers might not be entirely true. "Blodwen, what stories have you heard about the Quiet Twins and how they came to haunt the Stream? What do you think the truth is?"

Ask questions that assert details while asking for input. "Vahid, what have you noticed that all the missing children have in common?" "Rhianna, what little ritual do folks always do when crossing the Stream?"

Ask the characters to paint the scene for you, by asking them for details on a theme. "What here tells each of you that this is a place touched by the Fae?" "What do you see here that you've seen a thousand times before?" "What's the most striking thing about the Flats in early spring?"

Ask questions that do more than one of the above. "Caradoc, when you all got back to town, whose reaction surprised you the most? How did they react, and how did you feel about it?"

Reincorporate their answers into the fiction, right away or later on. Don't shut down their answers unless it's to point out a contradiction. Ask follow-up questions. Think about what their answers imply and extrapolate from there. Their answers might surprise you—that's part of the fun—but carry on as if that answer has always been a true and obvious part of the established world.

When you ask your players to contribute to the fiction, it helps you play to find out what happens. Your players will always come up with details that you wouldn't, and that makes the world you're all creating a little more surprising. When you build on the details that players have established, it helps you portray a rich and mysterious world. People are often more invested in things they helped create, and when you bring up a character or a detail that they introduced four sessions back, and it matters, that really brings the world to life.

Be a fan of the player characters The PCs are the protagonists of the story. Keep the focus of the game on them. Root for them. Celebrate their victories. Lament their losses. Let yourself wonder things about them, and then find ways to get the

answers through play. Care about them. Be

their fans.

Being a fan of the player characters doesn't mean letting them do whatever they want. You're the author of their adversity. You need to punctuate their lives with adventure. Threaten them. Hurt them. Go after the things they care about. Give them all sorts of difficult choices.

But also: give them opportunities, both to shine in the moment and to make things better in the long run. Let them enjoy the things they work for.

Stonetop gives the player characters lots of agency. Respect that. Don't shortchange them out of their moves or their rolls. See what they do with their power, status, and competence. Play to find out what happens.