From what I understand, the heroes aren't supposed to be told about the "Additional Rewards" they can earn, it's not part of the information that's given to them during setup.

But to my gaming group this seemed really bizzare, and we played with me (The Imperial Player) specifically calling out how they can earn the additional reward for every mission (and getting my ass beaten nearly every time ).

How do you guys do it, and why? It just seems pretty unfair that the heroes might miss out on a reward in a mission just because they didn't know they had to specifically do this or that action in this or that arbitrary time-frame.

There is also the fact that if you have played the mission one time before, you'd know about the additional rewards anyways. Are rebel players supposed to use a notepad to scribble down "secrets" about missions for when they replay them later? Because some of these additional rewards are pretty big.

Technically you read the section as-is at the end of the mission. You do not read the section before the mission!

I have a house rule that I don't tell about any unearned additional rewards, or the reason why the rebels received a certain amount of credits.

I always found the additional rewards a bit odd (for both sides).

I know Jabba’s Realm includes additional rewards in a lot of its missions. Can anyone confirm if the story text does a good job laying out hints/clues for the Rebel players to figure out?

I don't think you will need to hint at it beforehand.

I don't think you will need to hint at it beforehand.

They are consolation prizes for partial successes rather than additional rewards. So, if the rebels choose to go after their objective instead of going for crates, they don't lose as much if they still fail. The same applies to the imperial player - coming up a little short of the objective is still beneficial.

I have house rules for this because, imo it leaves a bad taste in people's mouths to have secret objectives that only one player knows about. The other part of that rule is that only the losing side can earn those bonus rewards, and the imperial players explains the bonus objectives as soon as they become relevant.