When you get ready to do it, do it...

Spout Lore is a little funny in its trigger.

"When you interact with an item, monster or location and reveal your knowledge about it, roll+Int."

But I can't reveal my knowledge about it until I ask, and I can't ask until I roll, but I can't roll until I reveal my knowledge, etc.  See?

So maybe that ought to be reworded?

I had the same comment. I think Sage is revising it? Maybe.

Totally needs to be reworded.

Point taken. Maybe when you bring your intellect to bare on it or unleash your knowledge and learning about it.

Or this one, which I just put in an email to Adam: "consult your vast knowledge about it"

I think you'd be fine by just dropping that one clause.

When you interact with an item, monster or location, roll+Int. On a hit, ask the GM questions.

Bam.

This brings up the age old question: what fictional difference is there between Spout Lore and Discern realities. That's why that clause is there.

The fictional difference that we try to make clear is: When you Spout Lore it's like you're Googling it, you bring up facts you already know. "Everyone knows that highland trolls are vulnerable to acid!" When you Discern Realities it's like you're Shaun from Psych, you pick up on details and draw simple conclusions. "Look out everyone, there's archers in the bushes, I saw the glint of an arrow!"

Closer to my ideal wording of the trigger would be:

"When you observe an object, monster, person or location and search your memory for knowledge..."

I think that the original idea merged the remembering / thinking part of the move with the actual revealing of that knowledge.  The spouting, as it were.

When you interact with a thing, place or person, roll+Int. On a hit, you know stuff about it.

The only problem there Michael is that we'd also have "When you interact with a person, place or thing, roll+Wis. On a hit, you notice something." One trigger, two moves. One pretty common trigger.

The only problem there Michael is that we'd also have "When you interact with a person, place or thing, roll+Wis. On a hit, you notice something." One trigger, two moves. One pretty common trigger.

It's the same thing in Apocalypse World. Read a Person, Read a Sitch.

Two similar moves, but very different questions.

And, knowing stuff and noticing stuff is very different in application.

Read a person and read a sitch have two clearly different triggers: reading a person and, well, reading a sitch. You say what you're reading. You don't say "I'm watching Yeezy to see where he goes" and then read a sitch, you don't scan the horizon for the incoming biker gangs and then read a person.

We've considered something similar for Spout and Discern. You Spout about things and Discern people, maybe. That's workable, but it doesn't make much fictional sense (why do I study things with my intellect, not my senses?) and isn't true to the source material (since skills have been around, you Search and Spot with Wis, Knowledge with Int).

Yeah, I know what you mean. I was just using those as two relatively similar moves with very different results.

Honestly, I wish Spout Lore was more like Open Your Brain. You just know or don't know. Interacting with it has little to do with it.

And, Discern Realities was the Read a Person/Sitch move, where you need to be there, examining, observing and interacting with it.

That's an interesting take on it. I need to think a little more about how Opening your Mind works, but that's a useful model.

That's an interesting take on it. I need to think a little more about how Opening your Mind works, but that's a useful model.

Of course, it doesn't have to be as wide-open as Open Your Brain maybe.

I do know in my first session real life game, people would ask me, "What do I know about...?" And, I didn't have a move for that (because Spout Lore requires interaction). I mostly just told them, or asked them what they knew. Sometimes, it felt like a roll needed to be there. Maybe not.