This is one of the frustrating parts of adventure mode for me. You can't ask about things unless you know about them in certain ways. For example, if I ask someone about their family and they say, "My aunt Urist McMayor is the mayor of BoringTown", I can't ask about Urist McMayor. I can't get directions to Urist McMayor. Neither can I do those things for BoringTown.
Other things that frustrate me is when you kill a bandit named Cog McBandit. If you meet someone, you want to know if they liked Cog McBandit before you brag about killing him. So you ask about them (which you can do, provided that you talked to Cog McBandit at one point before killing them) and the response is always "Cog McBandit is dead". No further information is available.
Some general tips I have are:
- If you want to talk about someone, always try to talk to them directly first. This puts them on your list of people that you can talk about. Sadly, this precludes dead people.
- You can tell stories about anyone you have talked directly to. It seems to give you all the history of that person up to the point where you last met them. My RP explanation for this is that everyone gives you a biography as soon as you talk to them. So if you want to know about someone, you can tell a story about them and look at all the entries.
- If you meet someone travelling on an "important mission", always ask them their profession. This will often give you the name of their leader -- though it doesn't give you the ability to ask about them :-P
- Always ask about the local ruler, establishment you are in, local surroundings. This will allow you to tell stories about those things.
- Pay attention to rumours that other people talk about. If you are talking to them and they mention "There is a band of brigands... blah blah" and you ask where they are, you can then tell stories about those events. They also show up on you people and places you can ask about.
- I've had some luck "seeding" rumours. If you don't know anything about "Dag FeatherHead" and can't ask about him, check to see if you can tell a story about them from the region or site. If you can, tell a story. This can start rumours which you can then hear and use to put Dag FeatherHead in your list of people. Generally stick to "Dag FeatherHead killed Doren BoiledBottom" kind of stories for this to work. Sadly, it doesn't happen often.