A Campaign Without a Metaplot?

[apoptosis]

We are running a TSOY game with no metaplot.

It is a retroactive game sort of.

The game started with the characters meeting at a tavern. The characters are at the end of their adventuring career and are telling stories about the "old days."

A player then picks a story they want the next 'adventure' to be about. A couple of sessions or so and the story is completed and the next player at the table comes up with the idea for the next story. In this way it is more like an old Conan book, a bunch of stories that are not strongly related to each other. Each player is allowed to pick an element (old NPCs, villians, monsters, ideas etc.) that need to be present in the new story, so all players have some role in crafting the new story.

The players come up with the new story at the end of a session (so I can prepare) and are supposed to start it off as "Remember the time...."

We haven't figured out what to do if a player character dies in the stories (how can they then be at the tavern since they are dead) but will deal with that when it happens.

This way of playing has no metaplot but individual story elements will carry over from story to story if a player finds something interesting. It also allows characters to travel from one part of the world to another and completely handwaiving all travel. Matter of fact the story can start with any elements already in place (characters are in a dungeon, one of the characters being the mayor of a city, we once started at the end of a battle where their side has basically lost). The players can also switch out characters if they want though they have never done this. The characters all have the conanesque morality which makes it a little easier.

 

[Mallus]

The game started with the characters meeting at a tavern. The characters are at the end of their adventuring career and are telling stories about the "old days."

That was a fantastic idea.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

IME, campaigns without some framework plot depend on the players involved to drive the plot foward. My home-brew games generally do not have any over-riding plot line {to start with} and the players choose which way the game will go.

For example, my next 4e campaign is losely planned as the group of heroes arrive in the newly founded Lhazaar Principalities, refugees from the War of the Burning Sky back in Sarlona. The Dhakaani Empire is still strong and the FrostFell is encroaching from the north, driving many of the creatures that live off the Fell's fringes deeper south.

{plop} Y'all are the 'fresh meat' in town and broker than that 1 legged begger over there.... whats your plan?

I have some ideas about adventures in the area and how things tie together, but where the group goes? heck if I know. They might take to the seas and begin raiding the elvish trading lanes or head into the jungles of Q'Barra seeking fabled treasure...
... or, knowing Dennis, they could very well take over the Thieves Guild and start running protection rackets


But I digress... open campaigns need motivated players who are willing to create a plot instead of waiting to run through whatever module the DM recently bought, and needs a semi-detailed backdrop for them to work with.

 

[Roadkill101]

I don't think I've ever run any kind of campaign with any over-reaching plots. IME, my players will constantly deviate from any sort of plot and head off in new directions.

What I do is map out a fairly large geographical region. Come up with a few smaller sub-regional names and the names of a few cities. Map out and half design a starting area (for expansion, change and in case the players leave the area I won't have a useless overly developed place) and come up with several small local plot hooks and see where the players take it from there.

I always have several maps of various small locations and several encounters pre-planned to be dropped in on the fly as necessary.

 

[Oni]

We are running a TSOY game with no metaplot.

It is a retroactive game sort of.

The game started with the characters meeting at a tavern. The characters are at the end of their adventuring career and are telling stories about the "old days."

A player then picks a story they want the next 'adventure' to be about. A couple of sessions or so and the story is completed and the next player at the table comes up with the idea for the next story. In this way it is more like an old Conan book, a bunch of stories that are not strongly related to each other. Each player is allowed to pick an element (old NPCs, villians, monsters, ideas etc.) that need to be present in the new story, so all players have some role in crafting the new story.

The players come up with the new story at the end of a session (so I can prepare) and are supposed to start it off as "Remember the time...."

We haven't figured out what to do if a player character dies in the stories (how can they then be at the tavern since they are dead) but will deal with that when it happens.

This way of playing has no metaplot but individual story elements will carry over from story to story if a player finds something interesting. It also allows characters to travel from one part of the world to another and completely handwaiving all travel. Matter of fact the story can start with any elements already in place (characters are in a dungeon, one of the characters being the mayor of a city, we once started at the end of a battle where their side has basically lost). The players can also switch out characters if they want though they have never done this. The characters all have the conanesque morality which makes it a little easier.

This is a completely inspired idea, might steal this.

 

[pemerton]

Apoptosis, a very interesting idea that I might have to steal!

Thanks, Peryton.

 

[apoptosis]

Apoptosis, a very interesting idea that I might have to steal!

Thanks, Peryton.

Thanks for the good words ( and from mallus and Oni). It is was one of the few ideas i have that is actually decent (most of my ideas are pretty ridiculous and mostly are utter and abject failures)

It kind of came up from reading a lot of Conan short stories and rereading the original Thieves World books which I wanted to emulate along with two other factors.

1. my group and I are older and we dont have as much time to set up adventures so we kind of have to zoom to the exciting parts (which is why I am a huge fan of the new advice in 4E) and there are many different stories that my players want to tell which are not really related very well.

2. My players are SO much better than I am at coming up with cool stories so I just made them do all the work, they are really talented and come up with great ideas and my ideas are all just a rehash of bad fantasy novels.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

We are running a TSOY game with no metaplot.

It is a retroactive game sort of.

The game started with the characters meeting at a tavern. The characters are at the end of their adventuring career and are telling stories about the "old days."

A player then picks a story they want the next 'adventure' to be about. A couple of sessions or so and the story is completed and the next player at the table comes up with the idea for the next story. In this way it is more like an old Conan book, a bunch of stories that are not strongly related to each other. Each player is allowed to pick an element (old NPCs, villians, monsters, ideas etc.) that need to be present in the new story, so all players have some role in crafting the new story.

The players come up with the new story at the end of a session (so I can prepare) and are supposed to start it off as "Remember the time...."

We haven't figured out what to do if a player character dies in the stories (how can they then be at the tavern since they are dead) but will deal with that when it happens.

This way of playing has no metaplot but individual story elements will carry over from story to story if a player finds something interesting. It also allows characters to travel from one part of the world to another and completely handwaiving all travel. Matter of fact the story can start with any elements already in place (characters are in a dungeon, one of the characters being the mayor of a city, we once started at the end of a battle where their side has basically lost). The players can also switch out characters if they want though they have never done this. The characters all have the conanesque morality which makes it a little easier.

Brilliant.

 

[Doc Eldritch]

While the Adventure Paths are GREAT, and I hope something good like them comes from a 3PP (I know WotC can not write good adventures), my own personal homebrew campaigns tend to be much more sandbox in style.

I tend to come up with some general plot ideas, things that take place regardless of PC actions, and then let the PCs go wild, tying their backgrounds into the game. For instance, I might have a "plot" idea of a Vampire Lord seeking a way to put out the sun. I'll work up some info on his plans and a general timeline (including him succeeding and how to fix it), and then let the PCs do whatever. Some of his plans will likely intersect with theirs and give them a chance to stop him, but they can do whatever they want, including go sell fish in the marketplace if they really want (though at that point I am more likely to pull out Settlers of Catan ). However, if his plans are not stopped, at some point they wake up and realize there is no sun. And then things get interesting. Or not.

Half of the best games come from ideas your players will give you with their backgrounds, and long campaigns can come from seemingly small things the players focus on. My advice, go with what they seem to enjoy and don't be too proud to utterly scrap your grand plan because they want to deal with the soap opera intrigue of your capital city's noble houses.

One day, now that I am thinking about it, I will actually run "Tales of the Freeport Watch", in which our heroes are taken captive by pirates, sold at slave auction in Freeport (or another such city), and bought by someone with the clout to make them guardsmen....in the worst slum the city has (think Hawk and Fisher if anyone has read those books), all before the opening credits roll. And let things go from there.

 

[Umbran]

I've run games without an uberplot before (I consider "metaplot" to be a slightly different beast). The thing is, as humans are apt to see patterns that are not there, the players will tend to interpret events into a metaplot. Even though, in my design, A and B are in now way linked, they find the two to be related, and start reacting accordingly.

Once, when I told them there was no such plot, they didn't believe me - thinking I was trying to be sneaky or something.