Never got the starter kit to the table this summer but looks like ill be GMing a group of beginners and first time players soon and to ease things for both myself (im more or less a beginner as well) and the players im thinking of removing the agendas and either removing "Lucas" altogether or make sure its a NPC I could use if needed.
I think we will have more than enough to get our heads around that removing agendas and hidden information between the players might be a good thing.
Ive read through the scenario and cant find anything that would be completely ruined by doing this, aside from the tension that might arise as players act upon different goals. And the story points but I can reward them based upon other things.
But if anyone see anything that would be a big problem with this please tell me before I make the decision