Tsk. Much of the plot was made up as it went along in the CCG, but I'm talking about the RPG. Much that was known in the CCG was still deliberately hidden in the RPG publications because of some strange belief that the GM should be "surprised" by the plot twists rather than complicit in delivering them to their players.
Not being aware that the Scorpion Coup, followed by the removal of the Scorpion Clan and destruction of the Akodo family was about to happen could cause real problems to someone using characters with those backgrounds who wanted to continue to make use of the published material
>
> Matters such as not knowing about Ontonamangu and the machinations
> of the Lie (this is really 2nd ed) meant that the players reacted in
> character rather well to the supposed betrayals and treacheries that
> the clans inflicted on each other.
This sounds more like the 2nd CCG Story Arc, that was skipped entirely in the RPG in the rush to leap on the d20 bandwagon, but unfortunately not jetisonned entirely, so a lot of the "dual stat" books reference things that make no sense to someone only familiar with the original RPG material.
> The opportunity was there for them
> to band together and try to find out what was going on but very,
> very, VERY few of them took it
...Which is just as well, since the potential GM was never told what was going on, so would be lining themselves up for an awful lot of retconning when it was finally revealed...
> and were content to start a series of civil
> wars and feuds... Which we would not have gotten if everyone could
> say, "Oh, its just a ninja trick, we're still bestest buddies
> despite your blatant murders of our courtiers and treacherous
> attacks on our armies."
>
Now that depends entirely on your players. No doubt there are players
who would take that attitude from the outset. Others would at least
make the effort to have their characters discover evidence that could
lead them to suspect a ninja trick, while others still would relish
the chance to ignore any hints of Ninja involvement to give them the
chance to persue feuds with members of other clans (be they PC or NPC)
Concealing facts from a GM stifles creativity, because they are unable to determine what areas are genuinely "unknown" and ripe for development and what areas are actually going to turn out important for future plot development. Where this is in a "stand alone" supplement this is not so important, but when the material is part of an ongoing campaign or metaplot then a "wrong" decision can end up invalidating future books.
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