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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 6133872" data-attributes="member: 8863">I wouldn't even consider it to be all that heavy a metaplot; it was mainly something that was always going on there in the background.  The most metaplot from it was in the Hellbound boxed set, which was pretty good IMO.I don't have Faction War, but it sounds like it does some of the bit with the PCs being bystanders to big setting events.  But then, it wasn't meant to be the line's last project either, so I guess it's kind of like a TV show that gets cancelled suddenly without resolving long-running plotlines.  Still, a DM could use it as an opportunity: as I understand, at the end of the Faction War events, all the factols are either dead or mazed, so the DM could ignore the bit about the Lady kicking the factions out of Sigil, and give the PCs the chance to become factols themselves.  The setting was slowly building up to it anyway, especially with the fluff in the Factol's Manifesto and Uncaged.Most of the rest of the metaplot in PS was basically buildup to the Faction War anyway, there were various hints and stuff about which faction were hostile to each other and which ones were making trouble in the background.  But it was also pretty open-ended to, letting the DM decide which plot hooks to explore.  And much of this metaplot invoved the politics of Sigil, which wouldn't be relevant to a Planescape campaign that doesn't get involved in it deeply.  As for Hellbound, sure there was a major setting-changing event in the adventures: [spoiler]a plot by the yugoloths ends up stripping the devils and demons of their ability to teleport at will so the yugoloths can pull their strings by offering to restore the ability[/spoiler].  However, the adventure was set up so the PCs could directly influence the outcome, which IMO is the right way of doing this.  I also agree that 2e was a big offender on the "sit back and watch NPCs do cool things" adventures.  Time of Troubles should have involved the PCs completely instead of losers like Cyric.  Hell, it could be argued that it shouldn't have happened at all, but it was probably "bump off Bhaal 'cause assassins are gone, and let's knock off Myrkul and Bane (only the best evil god in the setting) while we're at it and replace them with a bumbling clown".  OTOH, we got Baldur's Gate out of it eventually, and that can only be a plus.  Spellplague was just as bad if not worse, the accumulated canon was holding the setting back a bit granted, but was it necessary to rip out huge chunks of the setting too?  And to top it off, it involved that moron Cyric again.  I'm glad I'm not a huge FR fan, and if I were to run the setting, I'd ignore the Spellplague.Prism Pentad was another stumble.  Really, it should have had a companion module or something that gave the PCs the chance to free Tyr.  And as for Dragonlance, that was pretty bad too, since they weren't just bumping off beloved NPCs left and right, but they blew up Ansalon again so it could be used with that new SAGA system instead of keeping it D&D.I'll say if anything, the original Dragonlance modules did it right.  Even though they were massive railroads, they were written for the player to use characters of their own if the chose if I'm not mistaken instead of the official pre-gens.  I think in trying to ape DL's success, TSR kind of left this important bit out.  Or they were competing with other comtemporary RPGs that were also railroading heavy with the metaplots.</blockquote>

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