I was wondering if anyone else when playing through a mission for the first time with players share info with them before hand.

I've noticed that first time through a mission players are so blind that as the imperial player it can lead to massive advantages.

So now when we do a mission for the first time I read the the turning points of a mission.

E.G turn 2 i get extra reinforcements (without telling them who)

or

once you open a door a secondary timer starts and tell them the conditions for the next part so they can plan a bit especially when blind.

Does anyone else do this?

I would not recommend doing that. The players just need to adapt to the changing situation. As they get more powerful with upgrades and rewards, surprise becomes one of the few advantages you will have as the Imperial player.

I don't recommend this either. Personal opinion, but I think the surprises add a lot to the fun and helps simulate a "chaotic warzone".

So long as you tell them the bits in the mission briefing (and make a particular point of emphasising anything marked with the Rebellion symbol), that's almost always (except in Generous Donations...) enough for them.

Granted, the very first mission we played - Aftermath - no-one really knew what happens when you open a door. There's no models on the map, after all, and there's no general rule anywhere in the game that says "when the heroes open a door, something will happen" (it's just that pretty much every mission with a door has a special rule for each door). But they learned very fast, and now, my group assume - as all Hero players do, I'm sure - that when they open a door, there will be something inside, and it will probably be something bad. More generally, they may not know that anything specific is going to happen at the end of any particular turn, but they must surely have figured out that often, things happen at the end of turns. They won't know what, but must always be prepared for it.

(Often, my hero players actually ask outright: "are more troops going to turn up when we destroy this console?" or whatever. I never lie to them, but I might say something like "I've not mentioned anything about that, have I? So I can't tell you. But... put it this way... you've played this game a few times now, right? What do you think?")

Beyond that... things will happen, outside of their control, that they just have to deal with. They are after all heroes, fighting against apparently impossible odds (and still often being successful anyway). Remember when Han Solo went running after the Stormtrooper on Cloud City, shouting a war cry? Then he ran into a whole squad of Stormtroopers and, outnumbered twenty or more to one, he turned around and ran back again, shouting in fear this time? Nobody warned him, "hey, Han, good buddy, there's twenty Stormtroopers ahead, maybe consider that discretion is the better part of valour, pal." He made a decision, with imperfect information, and had to deal with the consequences. It made for an exciting movie... and the same kind of thing makes for a fun game.

Sometimes, the fog of war means that bad decisions are made... we just played Preventative Measures, and one hero rushed ahead to open the door to where Draylen was being held, on his own. They knew from the mission briefing they had to get there in under three turns, so tried to do it as fast as possible - and it was a mistake, because the one hero struggled to protect him once the door was open. On the one hand, it was a mistake that they couldn't really have predicted ahead of time - but on the other hand, they won the mission anyway (I only needed to do one more wound!); it took hard work and they felt like they were up against insurmountable odds, but that just made it all the more rewarding.

Read each event fully (both the flair text and the associated rules) when it happens, including mission briefing. Rebels quickly learn not to destroy / open a door as their second action, and surely not in their last activation.

Note that more often than not there are subtle hints in the flair text for future events.

I sometimes will drop hints if my Rebels are falling behind or losing focus on the mission, but I've never outright read the events. I tried implementing a search action where they could say search next to a door or a terminal for extra clues using an action and I would give them little tidbits of the flavor text, but I found it to mess with the balance and decided I was better off leaving the game design to the pros

For a brand new set of players, I am nice enough to put the deployment cards used in triggered events facedown near the tiles they will be placed once triggered. But that's usually only for the first or second mission until they get the hang of it.

For a brand new set of players, I am nice enough to put the deployment cards used in triggered events facedown near the tiles they will be placed once triggered. But that's usually only for the first or second mission until they get the hang of it.

That *is generous. I usually remind the players of the goals at the top of every round. But I'm not being sarcastic, that is generous.

It's only for *NEW* players (I do a LOT of demo games), and the cards are facedown. So it's not like they know what's in there, just that SOMETHING is. Generally, just for Aftermath and whatever other mission I end up running them through.

Personally, I have much more fun as an Empire player if the rebels are versed enough in the rules to bring their "A Game", then I can bring my "B- Game" and everyone has a good time.

I'm not at home, so, I don't have my campaign book on me, but, the mission where you meet Luke and Vader, trying to get Luke to his Skyhopper, my players spent a good 10 minutes debating opening the door. They were mortified about what was behind the door. They almost had coronaries when they saw it was Vader. I had to remind them that the mission was NOT to kill him, just stop from killing anyone else.

As to what I tell them? I tell them what they need to do to win... or lose. I always tell them if there is a time limit, (I find that is only fair, some missions the team NEEDS to split up to complete the mission on time). I don't tell them what the "book marks" are or what will happen when they trigger. Other than that, I follow the rule book as to what I do and do not tell them.

Don't tell them. Openly bulls**t them even. As the Imperial, your primary strength is seemingly unlimited resources and surprises. Rebels have ever-stronger heroes and will become more powerful as the campaign progresses, so surprising players in unexpected ways is one of your biggest strengths.

I played MHD-19's mission the other day, duringa side mission for the standard campaign. The rebels opened a door to rescue the captive inside. I got to add the threat level and deploy a unit.

I chose a Wampa. Which immediately pounced on the helpless captive. My opponent had completely annihilated the outside guards, but only one character was in position to attack the Wampa, so I came within a single damage of killing the hostage before they managed to stop the rampage and start healing the captive.

Don't tell them. Openly bulls**t them even. As the Imperial, your primary strength is seemingly unlimited resources and surprises. Rebels have ever-stronger heroes and will become more powerful as the campaign progresses, so surprising players in unexpected ways is one of your biggest strengths.

I played MHD-19's mission the other day, duringa side mission for the standard campaign. The rebels opened a door to rescue the captive inside. I got to add the threat level and deploy a unit.

I chose a Wampa. Which immediately pounced on the helpless captive. My opponent had completely annihilated the outside guards, but only one character was in position to attack the Wampa, so I came within a single damage of killing the hostage before they managed to stop the rampage and start healing the captive.

Don't tell them. Openly bulls**t them even.

I can't completely agree with this Cactus, (I do like the Wampa blindside tho, that is nice). I think you NEED to tell the heroes what they need to do to win or lose the mission. Everything else is fair game, but, they NEED to know, rules wise, what is required.

Don't tell them. Openly bulls**t them even.

I can't completely agree with this Cactus, (I do like the Wampa blindside tho, that is nice). I think you NEED to tell the heroes what they need to do to win or lose the mission. Everything else is fair game, but, they NEED to know, rules wise, what is required.

You need to tell them the mission objectives, the win conditions, etc. But personally, I think that you also have to let them fail to a certain extent. If they've been through 3-4 missions, and ask what happens if the door opens, you turn to them, look them dead in the eye, and tell them that Yoda will personally grant them the title of Jedi Master and wipe all enemies off the board

Ah, got it. In that case Cactus, we are in full agreement. Commence Wampa sillinesses.

In the aforementioned mission, (the one where you have to face Vader to get Luke off planet). My players were panicking about opening the door and I sat in my chair giggling

edited for clarification

I can just see it too, like some Jigsaw deathtrap stuff.

"I want to play a game... You see across the room is a hungry wampa. Your friends will burst through that door, triggering the trap and releasing the wampa. They will have moments to kill the ravenous beast before he consumes you."

Or as I call them, Polar Drop-Bears.

So... the heroes ended up with .... Terminal Frost Bite?

I must disagree with the (evil) crowd. I detest the hidden information for several reasons. First, it limits the ability to play campaigns coop. Descent is very similar to IA, and my wife and I have had a much better time playing it coop and managing the overlord cooperatively as well. Can't really do that when half the information is hidden.

Secondly... everyone knows SOMETHING is going to happen, so the surprise is not really a bonus for me. It's more a matter of 'who is gonna show up to steamroll me when I push this button' than 'oh my god, I didn't see that coming.' So I don't think it really adds flavor so much as anger/frustration. I can see having something like this happen in major missions once in a while, but every single mission has at least one gamechanger and they're all really well foreshadowed.

One of the worst ones is in the very first mission, when all of a sudden immobile, non-sentient, permanent terminals suddenly get more armor. I can understand if you were hacking them that the security system might crack down, but you are SHOOTING them. It just makes things more difficult and doesn't make much thematic sense.

Second on my list is Homecoming, which I find unwinnable unless the Imperial purposefully loses.

One of the worst ones is in the very first mission, when all of a sudden immobile, non-sentient, permanent terminals suddenly get more armor.

The way I've always explained it to my players when it happens is the following;

The Imperial Officer who spawns at the same time as the trigger types something into a terminal, and they see reinforcement panelling clank into place around the terminal. Coming up from the floor or whatever...

Alternatively, if you choose to close the door again, you could simply say that the Office shouts to his troops that the Rebel Scum are almost inside, and he's trying to lock the door again to hold them at bay.

A little showmanship can go a long way to explain the seemingly random triggers that can sometimes occur...

Talking about flavor text, this is what I used in the Play by Forum campaign:

Lockdown
The Imperial Officer is dead and a dead-man's switch triggers. All available power in the facility is redirected to the remaining terminals to prevent tampering and keep the transmissions going.
* Each terminal has 7 health instead of 4.