Hide Prefix

[Asmo]

I just purchased RW and I’m loving it.

I use the prefix to number my quests (under Events) to sort them in the order as they (should) appear. It seems the players can see the prefix also and thus they will know that if they see i.e. “3. Bring X to Y” there must be quests 1 and 2 also.

Is there any way to hide the prefix from the players? Could not find any info on the forums/manuals but sorry if this is asked/answered before.

Thx


(Dutch is my native language, so please excuse me for bad grammar)

[Vargr]

First off, welcome to the fora.

Then, had a look around and I don't think you can actually hide the prefix from the players.

It could be useful to be able to hide it.

[Bobifle]

It's not a direct answer to your question, but I have similar issues with quite a lot of thing in RW.

Making sure you don't give away information to players is sometimes very difficult and you have to constantly keep this in mind when writing snippets you may reveal to players.

I came to this conclusion : you don't reveal anything to players. I only use the player view for maps, pictures and portraits. Everything else is for the GM eyes only. I may reveal topics, but much later for reference when it won't really matter if the players realize that there was a quest 1 and 2 because the story would have moved forward anyway.

This is very personal, some very well organized people surely make the fog of world work, but I'm just suggesting that to gain prep time you can choose if you want not to reveal anything, after all, all your players should pay attention and take their own notes

[AEIOU]

This issue has come up in the past and had a really good discussion. Prefixes, suffixes and aliases are convenient but not hideable bits of data. This may change in the future when the devs come up for air. The gist of the issue was people were seeking was a way to help their players not be tempted by metagaming.

From memory and paraphrasing, here are some of the workarounds that came up in the past:
• Don't use prefixes, suffixes or aliases. This is really hard as encounter numbers are the industry standard. And it limits your use of RW at the table.
• Don't stress over it and ask your players to be mature and to not metagame. Find more mature players.
• Don't reveal topics until after a session, after a level is "complete" by the party or after a period of time.
• Add some extra numbers without corresponding content. Players fixated on finding that "last room" (that doesn't exist) they just know is there will freak out over their inability to complete the level.

[Vargr]

Originally Posted by AEIOU

• Add some extra numbers without corresponding content. Players fixated on finding that "last room" (that doesn't exist) they just know is there will freak out over their inability to complete the level.

This, my good Sir, is evil!

I quite like it :-)

[Asmo]

Thanks for the replies. As said I’m loving RW and I can live with the fact it cannot be hidden (yet). I intent to show the players snippets so they can use the player version as an history log.

Lots of good tips, so I’ll work it out. Thx!

[MNBlockHead]

Originally Posted by AEIOU

Don't reveal topics until after a session, after a level is "complete" by the party or after a period of time.

This is what I do. Not because I'm worried about them seeing the prefixes, as I hand't thought about that until reading this thread, but because I find it is distracting to be revealing items during game. One the one hand, it makes for more post-game work, but it helps me keep things running smoothly. Also, I don't always have everything perfectly baked, previewed, and tested. When later going over the topics to reveal, I frequently find snippets I need to split or things that should be GM notes, etc. I don't want to be doing editing during the game or risk revealing too much in game, so I do it after the game as a historical record. It is just easier that way for me.

During the game, I mostly use player view for map reveal, which works very well. Saves ink and time for printing out and players needed map as they go along—unless getting lost in the maze is part of the challenge.

[davidp]

Originally Posted by AEIOU

... aliases are convenient but not hideable bits of data...

Just to set the record straight, aliases are revealable/concealable. It is the main topic name that is not separately revealable.