Before the dealer starts putting stakes on a new scene, the players should be given the chance to gather information. This is their opportunity to direct the dealer’s narration in the upcoming scene and to set their characters up for the actions the group wants to see them get to perform.
To start a new scene, the dealer should quickly describe what the team can see at a first glance. Then the dealer opens the table for gathering info, and the team may set about investigating their environment, noticing things as they pass, flashing back to an NPC's warning, or putting together clues they have seen earlier. As they do, each player of a team member may ask the dealer one of the following questions each time they gather information:
- What is dangerous about our situation?
- How can we find what we’re looking for?
- What common knowledge might help here?
- What secret, technical, or otherwise uncommon information might help here?
- What do we want this character to do?
- What is our end goal in this area?
The dealer is not the final authority on the answers to these questions. In fact, if you have an answer you want to volunteer, you may present it along with the question. As the central narrator, the dealer is allowed to modify the information gathered by the players to work with the current story, but should also ensure that answers volunteered by their players enter the narrative in some form.
After the players have gathered information, the team should begin moving into the scene's action. The dealer should incorporate as much gathered info as they can, and leave hints how the parts they can’t incorporate might come to realization. The information gathered by the players is also an excellent starting point for gauging how intense the stakes should be for the upcoming scene: trepidatious and investigative questions should lead to low-stakes explorative scenes, while direct questions about overcoming an approaching threat should lead to high-stakes scenes.