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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8590265" data-attributes="member: 42582">From Ron Edwards's <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/narr_essay.html" target="_blank">essay</a> that was linked in the OP:neither Setting-based Premise nor a complex Setting history necessarily entails metaplot, as I'm using the term anyway. The best example is afforded by Glorantha: an extremely rich setting with history in place not only for the past, but for the future of play. The magical world of Glorantha will be destroyed and reborn into a relatively mundane new existence, because of the Hero Wars. Many key events during the process are fixed, such as the Dragonrise of 1625. Why isn't this metaplot? Because none of the above represent decisions made by player-characters; they only provide context for them. The players know all about the upcoming events prior to play. The key issue is this: in playing in (say) a Werewolf game following the published metaplot, the players are intended to be ignorant of the changes in the setting, and to encounter them only through play. The more they participate in these changes (e.g. ferrying a crucial message from one NPC to another), the less they provide theme-based resolution to Premise, not more. Whereas in playing HeroQuest, there's no secret: the Hero Wars are here, and the more everyone enjoys and knows the canonical future events, the more they can provide theme through their characters' decisions during those events.For similar reasons, I don't think that [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER]'s example of the doomed space station in any way contradicts "story now" play. As Edwards says, it doesn't represent decisions made during play, but provides context for them.We can see the same idea in a 4e D&D game. A heroic tier game might work like HeroWars/Quest or AbdulAlhazred's: the Dusk War is coming, and the question for the players is how their PCs will deal with it. Whereas an epic tier game will probably make the question of the Dusk War's inevitability itself a focus of play. The key is to make it clear to the participants what is context and what is up for grabs. (And that can be done in various ways, explicitly and implicitly.)EDIT: I see that [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] has basically reiterated Edwards's point, in relation to his space station scenario, upthread. Needless to say I agree with that post.</blockquote>

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