[DL] Re: Format Questions [Goff]

[Xotzil@aol.com]

>>How many of posses out there just use the Marshal's books?

Though I've been reading/buying the books since the beginning, I've never had a group, and have only played at the major cons (working hours kinda preclude me from playing at all during the week, and weekends are usually my "catching up with life" time). However, I HAVE managed to get some interest from some friends, and may in fact be getting a HOE group together soon.

And YES, I am one of those people who go to the cons, look at the table and whine "But I HAVE all this stuff already..." :-P

>>How many players purchase _only_ the book appropriate to their particular
>>character?

I don't want to sound like a suck-up (though I probably will), but if I were a player only, I'd still probably buy all the books. Quality of ideas and writing is too damned high not to.

>>How many Marshals _don't_ want the players reading the Posse sections in
>>each book?

I actually quite like the idea of being able to hand players a section and saying "Read this." While I probably COULD explain things so that they'd understand it, it saves time when I don't have to, and Pinnacle tends to be very careful to see to it that there's nothing in there that they shouldn't be reading anyway.

>>Now, obviously, some books (in spite of player info) are purely Marshal
>>draws (RVC II comes immediately to mind here) and some don't even have
>>player info at all (adventures). What I'm interested in is for
>>setting/informational sourcebooks like, say, the Back East and other
>>location books, Tales o' Terror, etc.

The "Epitaph" setup is great (IMnsHO). Gives a good feeling of setting and style to have it set up that way, particularly in regard to there being a source in the game itself that is known to the players as providing such information.

>>I doubt we'll change the format, but I'm wondering about the space devoted
>>to the Posse section in these works. If only the Marshal is buying/reading
>>them, we'd best be serving you guys by reducing the size of the Posse
>>sections in these books and _increasing_ the Marshal section.

Personally, I think that it's good to be able to read things both ways (ie, what the posse is told and what the actual case is). Usually, there is enough falsehood in the posse details to confuse players who have read that section even if the Marshal didn't want them to, which is as it should be. It also is, in many ways, a good primer towards giving your party misinformation with your own ideas. They don't have to be told everything that's going on, and they certainly don't have to be told it accurately. While this isn't the IDEA behind the Epitaph, it still doesn't give away the goods, and underlines the old idea that only a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

--Jacques