can my players read the campaign guide prologue?

[calfeld]

I liked the prologue in the 4e campaign guide and would like to hand it out to my players. Will this get me in trouble, specifically re spoilers?

Thanks,
c.

 

[Marius Delphus]

(quoting myself from another thread) I'd venture to say that there are several mild spoilers. For example (and IMO):

• At least one of the characters who takes the stage in the November section should be completely unknown to the players before adventure six.

• In the November section, at least two characters whose POV we get ruminate meaningfully on other characters, and topics, that should be the subject of gradual reveals to the players.

• The second character whose POV we get in the December section reveals clues about how the heroes ought to approach a couple of encounters in adventure one.

That said, I don't think there are any *major* spoilers, and so if you're sure your players can keep a few tidbits of OOC knowledge from their characters, go right ahead.

 

[Morrus]

And quoting myself from yet another thread (this question comes up a lot!) - I don't think there's much issue with the first half of it. The second half (from "December"), though, pretty much tells the players what the first encounter is going to be since it's from the POV of the bad guy arranging the actual ambush.

 

[calfeld]

Thanks, both of you!

Where are these other threads? Maybe I'm missing the obvious, but I can't find any other WotBS forum.

c.

 

[Morrus]

One is in this forum, the other's over in Generap RPG Discussion (I think its dropped off the first page by now though).

 

[Walker N. Waistz]

I have made my own PDF of the prologue that excises everything that spoils that first encounter. It ain't as pretty by a longshot as the campaign guide, I just cut and pasted the text and some graphics and used MS Word-- but it seems like an effective way to pass out the prologue to the players without giving anything away. I even scooped two nice paragraphs of non-spoilery description out of the last section and put them into the previous one, because they do a fair job of describing Gate Pass as a city.

If I did this right (I've never attached a file to a post before), the PDF should be attached. Feel free to use it.

To my mind, the stuff in the November part just foreshadows the campaign itself, and doesn't ruin anything at all. No encounters or challenges are undermined. Not to mention, by the time we get to the later modules where these characters show up, players in my group will probably have forgotten, say, Darius's inner monologue. If you're worried about any spoilers in the November section, this probably won't work for you, but otherwise, I'm putting this up as a game aid for anyone who wants their players to read the prologue without knowing what the first combat will look like.

EDIT: Morrus, this is okay, right? I figure since the Campaign Guide was a free product, you wouldn't mind packaging the prologue in a player friendly way, since there are so many free game aids people have made already, but if this isn't alright, obviously you can delete this post!

 

[calfeld]

What I'm currently thinking is to hand them the prologue as an end of campaign reward. It will provide, hopefully, some missing backstory and remind them of how it all began.

 

[amethal]

What I'm currently thinking is to hand them the prologue as an end of campaign reward. It will provide, hopefully, some missing backstory and remind them of how it all began.

My players have nearly finished the (3.5) campaign, and I will definitely suggest they read the 4th edition prologue. Its well worth reading, and there's nothing in there that spoils adventure 12

 

[brightgoat]

Walker, The edited prologue document you made is great. I'm giving it to my players.

 

[EditorBFG]

D'oh! I should've thought about the prologue as a possible player handout! As written, it totally spoils the first encounter-- I could've easily written it spoiler-free.

MORRUS: I emailed you a week ago about an important question related to WotBS (I also replied to your email back in March), but I haven't heard back... are our email accounts not getting along again? Let me know if you have received or replied to these emails.