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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8168594" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Yeah. I give out neighborhood-level maps of every city the PCs enter. I almost never make it difficult for them to find what they need/want (or at least, where what they need/want would be).</p><p></p><p>In a game where the Hive is a known entity, not much. OTOH, if the Hive (or the PCs) were a moving into new territory, this could a form of foreshadowing (to the extent that's a thing in Blades).</p><p></p><p>I guess I'd rather reveal they're dangerous, unless there's a way to measure the reputation of NPC groups. Have them lay waste to something/someone, leave that symbol around.</p><p></p><p>That's true, to an extent. It's also true that once you reveal a secret, you have to honor it. If the PCs never come across a secret, it might not ever be a factor for them; if it's never a factor or otherwise revealed, that space is (possibly) available for something else, should it need to be, without needing to worry about remaining consistent with every detail of the prior secret. Or, the secret could evolve into a different secret, I suppose. I'm not in favor of information-hoarding, but I'm not opposed to knowledge being ... hard (if not impossible) to obtain, on occasion.</p><p></p><p>Huh. So ... if the PCs are trying to figure out who's been impersonating people in the dwarven stronghold, and they guess doppelgangers, and it turns out to be oni ... That doesn't sound quite like what you're talking about.</p><p></p><p>So ... if they find out that an NPC wizard they've trusted (and always taken to be human, as she presented herself) is an ancient silver dragon with wizard levels ... maybe that's closer? (I think I figure it out around session 36, and I revealed it in session 62, which is about a year, real-world.)</p><p></p><p>Um. Because the PCs aren't local, so they wouldn't know all the details. Also, I'm probably going to improvise the details of the interactions; the PCs will learn about them roughly the same time I do. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="😉" title="Winking face :wink:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" data-shortname=":wink:" /></p><p></p><p>Pretty much exactly as it goes.</p><p></p><p>Generally speaking, it's more about flexibility for me in the moment. That, and giving them a bunch of information about the factions (if they don't go looking for it) seems as though I'm somewhere between encouraging them to join a faction and forcing them to--and neither is my intention (in fact, I think I'd kinda prefer they not ...).</p><p></p><p>These days I mostly prep large-scale things, and let the details come out in play. I use my wife's notes to stay consistent. I prep big things when I need to, and otherwise just prep small things.</p><p></p><p>It's a tool. I think some of the principles from that kind of play can go a long way toward improving the experience at the table in games that otherwise aren't built for it, but I haven't really found a need to do much else in this direction.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8168594, member: 7016699"] Yeah. I give out neighborhood-level maps of every city the PCs enter. I almost never make it difficult for them to find what they need/want (or at least, where what they need/want would be). In a game where the Hive is a known entity, not much. OTOH, if the Hive (or the PCs) were a moving into new territory, this could a form of foreshadowing (to the extent that's a thing in Blades). I guess I'd rather reveal they're dangerous, unless there's a way to measure the reputation of NPC groups. Have them lay waste to something/someone, leave that symbol around. That's true, to an extent. It's also true that once you reveal a secret, you have to honor it. If the PCs never come across a secret, it might not ever be a factor for them; if it's never a factor or otherwise revealed, that space is (possibly) available for something else, should it need to be, without needing to worry about remaining consistent with every detail of the prior secret. Or, the secret could evolve into a different secret, I suppose. I'm not in favor of information-hoarding, but I'm not opposed to knowledge being ... hard (if not impossible) to obtain, on occasion. Huh. So ... if the PCs are trying to figure out who's been impersonating people in the dwarven stronghold, and they guess doppelgangers, and it turns out to be oni ... That doesn't sound quite like what you're talking about. So ... if they find out that an NPC wizard they've trusted (and always taken to be human, as she presented herself) is an ancient silver dragon with wizard levels ... maybe that's closer? (I think I figure it out around session 36, and I revealed it in session 62, which is about a year, real-world.) Um. Because the PCs aren't local, so they wouldn't know all the details. Also, I'm probably going to improvise the details of the interactions; the PCs will learn about them roughly the same time I do. 😉 Pretty much exactly as it goes. Generally speaking, it's more about flexibility for me in the moment. That, and giving them a bunch of information about the factions (if they don't go looking for it) seems as though I'm somewhere between encouraging them to join a faction and forcing them to--and neither is my intention (in fact, I think I'd kinda prefer they not ...). These days I mostly prep large-scale things, and let the details come out in play. I use my wife's notes to stay consistent. I prep big things when I need to, and otherwise just prep small things. It's a tool. I think some of the principles from that kind of play can go a long way toward improving the experience at the table in games that otherwise aren't built for it, but I haven't really found a need to do much else in this direction. [/QUOTE]
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