The Research Tool

Research is how the Game Master looks things up. Instead of reading whole character sheets and lore entries into the middle of a reply, the GM asks a question in plain words, like "What does the Ember Crown do?", and gets back a short answer quoted from your world's files and the game so far. It's always available to the GM, with nothing to set up or turn on.

What it's used for

"Tell me about X." Who a character is, what an item does, the key facts about a faction.
Rules and stats. How a spell works, a creature's attacks, what your rules say about a situation.
Places. What a place is, where it is, how far it is from the party, and what's inside it and around it. These answers are worked out from your maps, not just from what a location's file says.
"Did this happen already?" Earlier play, from the game's memory: past events, promises, plans and decisions that have long since scrolled away. See Game Memory.
Who someone is. When a name could mean more than one person, the answer lists everyone it might be, so the GM doesn't mix up Lysa with Lysandra.

How it finds an answer

Search. The question is matched against everything the game can search, both by meaning and by its exact words. Files the question names are added, along with the files they link to.
Pick. A fast model reads the pieces it found side by side and keeps only the ones the answer needs.
Answer. The kept pieces come back mostly as written: your files first, then earlier play in the order it happened, so a thread ends on how things stand now.

Research answers questions. For a list, like "every tavern in the city", the GM lists a folder or a file type instead.

What it searches

Each game has its own search index: a copy of your world's files made when the game starts, plus every chapter of the game's memory. It changes as the game does. When the GM or a player edits a file, research sees the change a second or two later.

Hidden files are left out. Research never returns a file you've hidden from the GM (see Context Visibility).
Right after a game starts, a big world's index may still be building. Answers say so, and when nothing turns up yet, the GM is told that rather than left to guess. It can still read any file by name in the meantime.

Why it exists

Everything the GM reads stays in its context for the rest of the reply, and a big, cluttered context makes AI slower and more forgetful (see Context Rot). Research keeps the GM's context lean: a two-line answer instead of a two-thousand-word file.

Faster turns. A lookup takes seconds, so the GM gets to the story sooner.
Better memory. The GM can recall something from hundreds of turns ago without carrying the whole game in its head.
Better answers. The GM works from the parts of your world that matter right now, not a pile of half-relevant text.

Research only reads. It can't edit, move or delete anything. And it isn't charged on its own: what it uses counts toward the turn it's part of.

Seeing what it looked up

To see what the GM asked and what came back, open Inspect turn from a reply's menu and pick Lookups. Each research step reads "Looked into the world", with every question and its answer.

Inspect turn in the game's side panel, filtered to Lookups, showing a Looked into the world step with the GM's research question and the answer that came back

If research keeps coming back with the wrong thing, look at the files it should have found. Clear names, the key facts up front, and links between related files all help. See Progressive Disclosure.

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The Research Tool

What it's used for

"Tell me about X." Who a character is, what an item does, the key facts about a faction.

Rules and stats. How a spell works, a creature's attacks, what your rules say about a situation.

Places. What a place is, where it is, how far it is from the party, and what's inside it and around it. These answers are worked out from your maps, not just from what a location's file says.

"Did this happen already?" Earlier play, from the game's memory: past events, promises, plans and decisions that have long since scrolled away. See Game Memory.

Who someone is. When a name could mean more than one person, the answer lists everyone it might be, so the GM doesn't mix up Lysa with Lysandra.

How it finds an answer

Search. The question is matched against everything the game can search, both by meaning and by its exact words. Files the question names are added, along with the files they link to.

Pick. A fast model reads the pieces it found side by side and keeps only the ones the answer needs.

Answer. The kept pieces come back mostly as written: your files first, then earlier play in the order it happened, so a thread ends on how things stand now.

Research answers questions. For a list, like "every tavern in the city", the GM lists a folder or a file type instead.

What it searches

Hidden files are left out. Research never returns a file you've hidden from the GM (see Context Visibility).

Right after a game starts, a big world's index may still be building. Answers say so, and when nothing turns up yet, the GM is told that rather than left to guess. It can still read any file by name in the meantime.

Why it exists

Faster turns. A lookup takes seconds, so the GM gets to the story sooner.

Better memory. The GM can recall something from hundreds of turns ago without carrying the whole game in its head.

Better answers. The GM works from the parts of your world that matter right now, not a pile of half-relevant text.

Research only reads. It can't edit, move or delete anything. And it isn't charged on its own: what it uses counts toward the turn it's part of.

Seeing what it looked up

To see what the GM asked and what came back, open Inspect turn from a reply's menu and pick Lookups. Each research step reads "Looked into the world", with every question and its answer.

If research keeps coming back with the wrong thing, look at the files it should have found. Clear names, the key facts up front, and links between related files all help. See Progressive Disclosure.