The Laughing God said:
Mellon said:
The only thing I'm divided over is that the writers keep things secret from even the GM. This does of couse help in that it gives me a sense of mystery as well, but it really would help with my GMing if I knew how things were connected. Luckily it seems that all the reasoning and second guessing I did while we were playing House of Dust and Ash fits quite well with what was described in the rest of the campaign books as soon as they were available. But even with all the four books + lots of extra material I'm still not feeling informed properly. If I was a cynical person I might assume that this is intentional in order to keep the GM hooked for buying the next set of books that explains another slice of the meta-plot of the calixis sector...
It's a clever but well-known writer's trick ... feed players with tidbits of information, so that with each new revelation the puzzle becomes clearer, while still keeping a sense of dread and mystery, and most importantl, leave it to the players to imagine the horror themselves. That technique comes straight from Lovecraft and Chambers.
I like it as much as it frustrates me
Hmm IF it worked that way. Unfortunately, the players get to know even less so they are just confused and tired of impending "doooooom." And although keeping the entire scheme secret is not too bad, but keeping details the GM should know secret is more like sloppiness or lazyness. Also the realization that as the time you supposed to give the players some info you realize it's so vague and bland it just becomes boring and repetitive.