Looking at your explanation, you're right. And I agree with your comments on both sections.
> Greg is, I
> think, responding in this quote to a question that boils down
> to 'what
> if we're playing Lunars in the Sartar Rising arc?' Well, the
> answer is
> 'you're not going to get specifically supported', and that seems
> perfectly reasonable to me.
And to me. That would be just too far.
> You have to make some assumptions when
> writing a scenario, or you'd never get anywhere. And, in
> Sartar Rising,
> the default assumption is that you're Heortling clansfolk
> with a desire
> to rebel against the Empire. If you wish to do something else
> with it, you'll have to adapt it.
Almost anything that makes you actively pro-Rebellion would do, I would hope. But being on the "wrong" side is much, much, harder.
> It's more a question of making sure the
> GM doesn't, in his inevitable adaptation to suit his own group, put in
> some incident that makes it undeniable that they're lovers (or whatever)
> - because the GM assumes that won't matter much further down the line.
Yes, exactly. If Issaries simply don't know yet, for instance, the date and place where Kallyr and Danar met, then they can't tell you: and if you decide to play through that, you'll have to make the decision yourself and take the risk. But if they do know, and it will come out eventually - why risk wrecking people's fun?
> Greg's answer to *that*, I believe was that, without gradual revelations
> of this kind, the Narrator will not be entertained, and will be less
> likely to buy the next scenario in the series.
A concept that completely baffles me. And you, and LC, from the sound of it - you both expressed it far better than I have in the past. But I can still augment :)
I *want* the story arc right in there from the beginning, so I can foreshadow it, get all the NPCs lined up in the right places, put minor relationships and bits of knowledge in there long before they're needed, and above all, refrain from accidentally contradicting it. Surprises for the GM, by all means, but not in the major plot thread. There *will* be surprises, unless the whole of Book 3 is included in Book 2, and the whole of that in Book 1. But in any case, I don't buy supplements for surprises as such, I buy them for the descriptions, the plot ideas that I wouldn't have thought of, the minor NPCs - the detail, rather than the skeleton.
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