Does Metaplot ever work? Forked Thread: Greyhawk 4e

[S'mon]

Forked from: Greyhawk 4e: Back to the Beginning...

Personally I don't think metaplot/timeline advances by the publisher have worked well in any RPG setting. From Cyberpunk to Traveller to Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, there seems to be a strong inbuilt tendency towards entropy and setting-decay. Hmmm...

I'm wondering what other people think about Metaplot/Timeline Advance by Publisher in RPG settings. Do you think any or most work well? Are there examples you've liked and enjoyed in-play? All the examples I can think of range IMO from marginal fail to Epic Fail, when it comes to actually using them in an RPG campaign. They seem designed more to appeal to readers who don't actually play.

Here are some I'm thinking of:

Greyhawk: From the Ashes
Forgotten Realms: 4e?
Mystara: Wrath of the Immortals/sinking of Alphatia.
Cyberpunk: Cybergeneration, anything after 2020
Dark Sun: 'ruined' right after publication, by release of the 1st novel!
Traveller: The New Era, sunk GDW.
Vampire: ? - I'm not familiar with Vampire: TM, but I hear it's the grand-daddy of metaplot.

 

[Ahnirades]

Although initially skeptical I thought the Storm of Chaos updates to WFRP were excellent. That said, things only began to gel once the authors embraced the apocalyptic significance of the changes instead of trying to pretend that things were kind of the same as they'd always been . The Thousand Thrones, with it's post-war, messianic fervour and hysterical militancy is a superb example of how a decent bunch of writers can take an unexceptional metaplot and run with it.

 

[S'mon]

Although initially skeptical I thought the Storm of Chaos updates to WFRP were excellent. That said, things only began to gel once the authors embraced the apocalyptic significance of the changes instead of trying to pretend that things were kind of the same as they'd always been . The Thousand Thrones, with it's post-war, messianic fervour and hysterical militancy is a superb example of how a decent bunch of writers can take an unexceptional metaplot and run with it.

Thanks - what I'm interested in is, how did this benefit your game? How did it work in-play?

 

[Ahnirades]

Thanks - what I'm interested in is, how did this benefit your game? How did it work in-play?

The Storm of Chaos ushered more openly anarchic elements into the setting, which made it easier (for me) to run games that focused on more than the usual investigative stuff. The charged, changing atmosphere allowed for adventure ideas that the Old World, with it's slow corruption and calcified nation states typically didn't support. Roving war bands, collapsing institutions, mass panic, shattered cities, messianic cults, traumatised refugees - the northern empire went from being a simmering nest of gothic intrigue into the late medieval equivalent of Apocalypse Now, opening up all kinds of fresh perspectives and play opportunities.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Metaplots in campaign settings have never worked for me. I hate them with a passion. Metaplots are for DMs, not publishers -- the DM should have maximum flexibility to take his/her game where it will without having to worry about that being erased in the next campaign supplement. I've found in my own campaigns that I've always had to "undo" things from later publications if I'm to run a campaign in a setting where the books are available for players. Examples: 3E FRCS -- "ignore anything it says about the destruction of Tilverton. The town is still there and is quite normal"; Greyhawk: "Ignore references to a country run by the Scarlet Brotherhood. They're a shadowy secret society that none of your characters has ever heard of ...".

I'd much prefer campaign settings that are static ... they come out set in 576 CY or 1357 DR (or whatever) and then never advance an iota. Subsequent supplements detail a specific area, but are set in the same timeframe. Adventures might show relations between various groups, but don't advance any particular "plot". That leaves setting advancement wide open to DMs (or Living campaigns) and means that you can pick up a setting book or restart a campaign without needing the history of what has gone before ...

Except it doesn't sell more books, or revised campaign settings, since the publisher needs to differentiate the "new & improved" product from the one that came beforein order to resell the "new" version of the campaign setting.

 

[Crothian]

In Vampire the Masquarade the metaplot was cool to read as it was a story that brought on the end of the world eventually. It was not that great to follow for players unless they were powerful.

Changeling the Dreaming though had an easier metaplot that wasn't advanced as often or as by great leaps and bounds. It worked a lot better for us.

 

[Staffan]

I'd much prefer campaign settings that are static ... they come out set in 576 CY or 1357 DR (or whatever) and then never advance an iota. Subsequent supplements detail a specific area, but are set in the same timeframe. Adventures might show relations between various groups, but don't advance any particular "plot". That leaves setting advancement wide open to DMs (or Living campaigns) and means that you can pick up a setting book or restart a campaign without needing the history of what has gone before ...

I kind of agree, except I think it's OK for adventures to push a plot forward. I'd just want each adventure (or occasionally adventure series) to take place in it's own "alternate reality" so to speak.

For example, you could have an adventure series in Eberron where the Emerald Claw tries to take over Karrnath and get rid of king Kaius. You could have another where House Cannith reveals the stockpile of warforged they've built up since the War, and try to take over Breland. A third adventure series could be about the Inspired and their machinations. However, all these adventures should start from a common status quo, and they shouldn't be referenced in future adventures/sourcebooks, except as sidebars ("If your group played through the Emerald Bone adventure series, some things might have changed in the city of Rekkenmark. Warlord X will be dead, and...")

 

[Serendipity]

Greyhawk: From the Ashes
Forgotten Realms: 4e?
Mystara: Wrath of the Immortals/sinking of Alphatia.
Cyberpunk: Cybergeneration, anything after 2020
Dark Sun: 'ruined' right after publication, by release of the 1st novel!
Traveller: The New Era, sunk GDW.
Vampire: ? - I'm not familiar with Vampire: TM, but I hear it's the grand-daddy of metaplot.

Aside from the Greyhawk stuff and the Realms (the former because I think *most* of the post 1e era Greyhawk stuff kind of stunk and the later because I don't like the Realms) I'm kind of a fan of most of the above. Cyberpunk didn't appeal to me but Cybergen did, I liked what they did with Mystara and after 10+ years in the Third Imperium I was ready for a change.
Of course, I'm also used to being in the minority on most of the above.

I think that metaplot when a) executed well, from a vision that doesn't get tossed around between too many different people and b) pushed as a GM tool rather than holy writ can be a very dynamic (and, honestly, optional) tool in the GMs arsenal.

When it dominates the game (Realms, Vampire) or pushes the PCs off to the sidelines (Realms, Vampire) .... eh that sucks.
ETA: the worst examples, IMHO, are pro'lly what they did to WFRP and L5R, both of whom have metaplot dicatated by the outcome of miniatures and card games respectively.

I'd love to chime in on Dark Sun but I've never found anyone who actually PLAYED it - which is a shame.

 

[Ahnirades]

I kind of agree, except I think it's OK for adventures to push a plot forward. I'd just want each adventure (or occasionally adventure series) to take place in it's own "alternate reality" so to speak.

This would be my preferred method. It gives writers the opprtunity to go nuts without permanently altering any of the core assumptions. Exalted (1E) did this very well with The Locust Crusade.

 

[Klaus]

Metaplots never work for roleplaying supplements. Want to tell a story set in your universe? Write a book or a comic.

The worse thing about metaplots is that past supplement become incompatible with newer ones. You couldn't, for instance, use your City of Greyhawk boxed set with products released after From The Ashes.