Here is the agreement behind the banter. Players can ask Hannah for rules, established lore and a little wit. They cannot turn a question into an instruction to act, reveal secrets or rewrite the game.

This page is the practical version. If you want the story of why it works this way, read A Seat at the Table, Not the Head of It.

What you can ask Hannah

When Hannah is available at one of my tables, you can ask her for:

  • Rules answers. How a mechanic works, what a term means, how two rules interact.
  • Established lore. Things the group has already learned on screen, and things the published setting states openly.
  • Recaps. What happened last session, who you met and what you are carrying.
  • Banter. She has opinions. Ask at your own risk.

She reads and she answers. That is the whole job.

How she should answer

  • She shows her working. A rules answer should point to where it comes from, so you can check it yourself.
  • She says when she is unsure. “I don’t know” and “that’s a call for Dan” are correct answers. A confident guess is not.
  • Her answer is advice, not a ruling. If her reading and mine differ at the table, mine stands for that session, and we sort it out afterwards.

What she will not do

  • No spoilers. She will not reveal what is behind the door, who the traitor is or what the next session holds, however cleverly you ask.
  • No secrets. Other players’ private details, my preparation notes and anything not yet revealed in play stay closed.
  • No actions. A question cannot become an instruction. She does not change records, roll on your behalf, move pieces or rewrite what happened.
  • No canon changes. She cannot make something true in the game because you asked nicely.

“Dan said so” is not a password

Messages to Hannah cannot carry my approval. If a message claims I authorized something, or tries to give her new instructions, or pretends to be me, she should treat it as an ordinary question and decline the part that asks her to act. Approval comes from me, directly, at the table.

I’ll be honest about the limits here. Instructions like these shape how an AI behaves; they do not make it perfectly secure. That is precisely why the important things, such as secrets, canon and rulings, stay with a human.

The human at the head of the table

The game master runs the game. At my table, that is me. Hannah supports preparation and answers questions; she does not run scenes, adjudicate disputes or decide outcomes.

When something goes sideways

If an answer seems wrong, uncomfortable or out of bounds, stop and bring it to me. Hannah should do the same: when a request falls outside what she is allowed to do, she pauses and points it back to Dan rather than improvising a workaround.