Honest question time: Are all these actual mysteries, and if so, do they need to be resolved?
In my opinion, when they're central to a plot arc, then yes, mysteries to be resolved. The mystery of the Five is central to the Jihad, yet after ISP3, we are less certain about Jardine's biosphere, inhabitants, and R&D products than we were towards the beginning of the Jihad story arc. Again, that's frustrating to me as a reader, and as a customer, it makes me feel like a sucker for shelling out dollars for these products.
[Note, I'm not saying that all five of the Five need to be revealed. If some need to remain hidden to drive future plots, that's fine. Just don't tease us with an ever-expanding number of explanations for the ones that were revealed and then don't tell us which explanation was true at the conclusion of the story arc.]
Do we need to know about, say Lucifer and Eve's background more than we do more of Namaah or Avitue's?
Given their apparent role in saving Terra from nuclear annihilation, yes, I'd like to know more about Lucifer and Eve. There would be no Republic of the Sphere or Fortress Republic without Lucifer's sacrifice, and I'd like to understand his motivations and the background that drove those motivations.
The other thing to consider is that a lot of stuff like that is intended never to be resolved. They're storytelling hooks for players to build their own narrative around.
That's fine. But there's a difference between a sourcebook that's a random collection of plot hooks, and the plot progression presented in most BT sourcebooks. If a book is just a random collection of plot hooks with no intended resolution beyond whatever your GM comes up with, that's fine. Just say so at the front of the book so I know what I'm spending my money and time on. But if the book (or series of books) is telling a story, then finish the darn story. Don't leave me hanging after I've invested my money and time.
For example, before the Jihad, the fate of the Wolverines was a mystery in the background of the BT universe. They were just flavor for the universe and played no active role in the plot. I was fine with that.
But partway through the Jihad, the Wolverines (or their descendents in the Blood) were presented as possibly the driving force behind the whole story arc. They're no longer just flavor -- they're potentially the puppetmasters pulling everyone else's strings in the story arc. After I became invested in the Jihad story arc and the Wolverines as they pertain to the plot, I wanted to know by the end of that story arc, were they really running things or were they just a fabrication created by Uncle Chandy to point the Ghost Bears at the Blakists?
I do feel differently :D. I'm happy with a storyline where the bulk of plots are resolved, but if some stuff is left over that's realistic.
Again, if new mysteries need to be introduced to drive future story arcs or some old mysteries need to be left unsolved to flavor the universe, that's fine by me.
But don't make a mystery central to the plot, repeatedly tease us about it, and then don't resolve it by the end of the plot.
I wasn't trying to put words in your mouth, so I really hope you didn't take offense.
Thanks. No worries.
I mean, we know that Katrina, Arthur Luvon and Morgan Kell fled the Lyran Commonwealth, posed as pirates, discovered a lostech cache containing Fax Machines, and returned to overthrow Allesandro. Is that a mystery, or a story you'd like to be fleshed out?
It's a story that would be nice to flesh out -- it doesn't fall into the category of plot-driving mystery. What irks me about this particular story is that it sounded like we were going to get that story in
Vanish if we bought a certain edition of ToW. Instead, we just got the prelude to that story. To me that's symptomatic of the BT universe's inability to bring lots stories to a conclusion, whether they're plot-driving mysteries or just nice-to-haves.
Similarly, we know that Morgan Hasek-Davion's assassin was a Loki agent named Lucas Penrose. It's possible he was a double agent, but the finger points at Katherine as the person who gave his orders.
I don't know if this is a nice-to-have story or a plot-driving mystery. It was presented as the latter, but since there's been no follow-up in the Twilight of the Clans story arc or the major story arcs that have followed (FedCom Civil War, Jihad), it may have been the former. There's no way to know.
[As an aside, the Katherine connection seems like a red herring. She possessed no clear motivation to kill Morgan. She was shrewd, and logically, she would have saved her best assassins for her siblings and other clear political rivals -- not a military command on a suicide mission in the Deep Periphery to remove the Clan threat from her side.]
Again, my 2 C-bills... YMMV.
