D&D 5E 5e isn't a Golden Age of D&D Lorewise, it's Silver at best.

[Micah Sweet]

Very much so. I think the adherence to a metaplot does a major disservice to any setting.

It in fact ceases to be a setting, and is just a story you observe.

So you object to playing any game based on say, Star Wars, Star Trek, Legend of the Five Rings, Marvel or DC, basically anything popular in the 90s? Plus Lord of the Rings. Because all of those have metaplot.

 

[Scribe]

So you object to playing any game based on say, Star Wars, Star Trek, Legend of the Five Rings, Marvel or DC, basically anything popular in the 90s? Plus Lord of the Rings. Because all of those have metaplot.

As RPG?

SW I did, but there was no plot, it was "this is the state of things" and we didn't adhere to anything.

No to the rest.

Metaplot ruined Battletech for my group, and it's looking like 40K may follow if their writers don't get it together since adding g a metaplot.

I'll take a setting, to tell our stories, any day.

That isn't to say time won't move, that events won't happen.

But a central plot line, with a set of corporate driven characters? Nope.

 

[Azzy]

So you object to playing any game based on say, Star Wars, Star Trek, Legend of the Five Rings, Marvel or DC, basically anything popular in the 90s? Plus Lord of the Rings. Because all of those have metaplot.

Poor argument. Aside from L5R, all of those were story franchises of their own with an RPG as an afterthought. The ability to play in those settings is usually in spite of the story-driven franchises that they are based upon and one usually has to ignore the main storyline in order to make them playable.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The wrong way if you don't like metaplot. I personally derived great enjoyment from the stories of D&D setting while they lasted, and am sorry to see them go. The new way is probably better for flexibility, but I still miss the story.

No. It's the wrong way to design a D&D setting. Metaplots make the setting overly convoluted, extremely unfriendly to newer players, and actively make the setting harder to make lore for/update to future editions. There's a reason why people complain about the Spellplague and the other "disaster of the week" updates to the Forgotten Realms.

And you can have the same stories possible without a metaplot as you can with them. Just have the novels be non-canonical to the setting (like the Eberron novels). Then you can have the same setting-destroying stories you like without actually destroying the setting for everyone else.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Nevermind

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So you object to playing any game based on say, Star Wars, Star Trek, Legend of the Five Rings, Marvel or DC, basically anything popular in the 90s? Plus Lord of the Rings. Because all of those have metaplot.

Yes. I object to playing in all of those settings. Metaplots ruin perfectly good settings and make them harder to play in. There's a reason why I don't run Edge of the Empire, or any Lord of the Rings games, or any Marvel/DC games.

 

[Urriak]

Alternative take, 5E lorewise is more streamlined and useful than the metaplot bloat of 2E. What counts as a "Golden Age" in lore quality is entirely subjective, unlike sales or player activity.

Glad to see this ratio-ed the OP so much. Lore is entirely subjective, and novels/metaplot IMO detract from D&D by anchoring lore facts DMs feel they need to remember. Keeping lore more loose and flexible is much more game-able, as D&D should be.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Poor argument. Aside from L5R, all of those were story franchises of their own with an RPG as an afterthought. The ability to play in those settings is usually in spite of the story-driven franchises that they are based upon and one usually has to ignore the main storyline in order to make them playable.

Depends on what you want. You found them unplayable unless you ignore the storyline. And L5R was a CCG before it was a RPG.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes. I object to playing in all of those settings. Metaplots ruin perfectly good settings and make them harder to play in. There's a reason why I don't run Edge of the Empire, or any Lord of the Rings games, or any Marvel/DC games.

Again, your opinion, not shared by everyone. If people are going to call me out for not explicitly expressing my preferences as personal, I will do the same.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No. It's the wrong way to design a D&D setting. Metaplots make the setting overly convoluted, extremely unfriendly to newer players, and actively make the setting harder to make lore for/update to future editions. There's a reason why people complain about the Spellplague and the other "disaster of the week" updates to the Forgotten Realms.

And you can have the same stories possible without a metaplot as you can with them. Just have the novels be non-canonical to the setting (like the Eberron novels). Then you can have the same setting-destroying stories you like without actually destroying the setting for everyone else.

And yet, except for Drizzt and the last upcoming gasp of Dragonlance, we're not seeing any D&D fiction. So I guess you really can't have those stories anymore.