I went with revealed linear.
When the PCs are being created, I talk to them about the characters personalies, goals, and where, story wise they wan the character to be in a year, in 2, in 5. Then I take what kind of stories the PCs want to tell with thier characters, mix them up, and come up with intervweaving plots to give them the opportunity to do what they wanted to do with the characters.
So there is sort of a metaplot - but it was created not by me, but by my players/characters' desires and wants rather than mine. I have a base world usually in mind, and then when the PCs are built I completely tailor said world to them.
For Example - I have a SF universe with knightly types and a corrupt government.
Mark wants to have "the last of the noble nights, who's father is a major bad guy, and he wants to redeem him" - so I change the world so that the knightly order is in history, and develop NPCs and plot thread to lead to the reveal and saving of the character's father.
Harry want to run a down on his luck smuggler with a heart of gold, and want his character storyline to be the personal redemption of the character. I work out situations that allow the character to choose the right thing to do.
Peter just want to run a big combat moster, also as a bit of comedy relief. So I set that up, and have plenty of combat, and pilot stuff.
Carrie wants to play a princess who's family has been fighting the corrupt government. And she tells me "I want to have a big secret in my past, that I find out about in play, and I want you to come up with it" - so I decide that her and Mark's characters are siblings.
Then I start running the adventure where they all meet, and work together and away we go.