Well another issue, which we see on full display all the time, is that once you're in the know, you tend to enjoy a more subdued presentation. One that indulges the player's well earned pedantry and extensive pre-reading. So a player coming into it who already knows who Shar is, they see all those little things like the Diadem and the stone in the lockbox and the name, and they maybe feel pretty satisfied that things are crystal clear here, perhaps even too obvious. New player comes in, misses it completely, doesn't even know what they were supposed to be looking for, and then feels like "wait what?"

Here's another analogy, one that probably fits the current moment for a few people here hehe. Say you expect that a large part of your movie-going audience has never read Herbert, and you're worried about what might happen if you try to make a Dune film. Maybe you overcompensate like DeLaurentis and demand voice over for everything or a pregame pamphlet that sort of tanks the first impression. (I still love that flick don't get me wrong! hehe) But then once it's out there, and out of the way then it becomes a lot simpler to do something more tactful like what just dropped yesterday. The same exposition, in a much more subdued way, and which carries a little better because it rewards the person in the know, but doesn't overburden the person not in the know, while still feeling like it delivered what it needs to do. Right now, Larian is sort of caught up in both places at once, since half their audience is probably coming in fresh and the other half (well let's be honest, maybe a quarter?) have already read up and know what's what. A middle ground I think would be to do a comparatively brief expository set up, but one that is forceful and cinematic (like all the rest of their forceful cinematic material), and then to let it retreat more into the background after that. More into the realm of décor basically, but only once we're certain everyone is on the same page.

Last edited by Black_Elk; 23/10/21 03:32 AM.