Great post. On the subject of whether it’s the player or what, I think the beauty of the psychic maelstrom in AW is that it allows us to break the fourth wall. It’s really, really ambiguous in this game whether the maelstrom conversations are “in the fiction” or happening at a higher level.

When the maelstrom is asking questions, it’s pretty hard to say exactly, whether it’s actually gleaning information from the character in the fiction, or whether it’s me (Paul) asking you (whatever your name is) what your character thinks or feels, and whether you care about that. That blurring of the lines is delightful, in a way, because we can go either way and it still works.

Question:

So, you ask the questions “out of character”. Even if you address the character and not the player, you’re asking just as you would as the MC.

How do you introduce/explain this to the players? Do you just use the opportunity of an “open your brain” to have a conversation (after all, the MC can ask questions at any time – as can anyone else), or do you explain or misdirect in some way, like to say that “you feel the maelstrom reaching inside your brain and learning from you” or any other kind of “framing” of this transfer of information that’s happening?

For instance, if it’s the first “open your brain” roll in a game with a new player, what would you say to them, how would you frame it?