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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DrunkonDuty" data-source="post: 4477827" data-attributes="member: 54364">I think a campaign setting IS its meta-plot. When we see a copy of Eberron or Greyhawk for the first time we read it and think 'Cool!' because the setting builds up a potential for heroic conflict and leaves us poised on the brink of it. Greyhawk in 576 is a continent on the brink of major war. Trouble is brewing everywhere. It's says so in the original folio edition. Eberron is just out of the War to End All Wars and the beginning of the next one is already brewing away. We want this. The essence of drama is conflict and all that. As with any drama that gets our interest we want to know how it turns out. We want to see what happens next. This is where OUR games begin. We hash it out ourselves, in our own various ways, to our own various satisfactions. We fulfill the expectation ourselves, rather than waiting for an author to do it for us.  Once we've hashed out this one we want the next exciting episode. Unlike a TV show though, the plot of the original has been decided by the viewers (players.) This makes consistency difficult to say the least. I don't see how a publisher can write additional meta-plot that will work for every single game out there. They can either keep it static and hope it's not too static (running the risk of boring people) or make broad, far reaching changes that run the risk of making many (most?) folks unhappy. It's devil of a problem. RPG publishers are businesses after all. They want to sell new products. And the products have to be different because if we're buying a new product we want it to be new. At the same time, because we want the security of knowing what we're getting for our money, it really helps sales to have a known brand attached, one that fulfill expectations of similarity to previous products. But that's their problem. And somewhat beyond the scope of this thread too. In short: if a meta-plot doesn't work we wouldn't buy the campaign setting in the first place. Does it continue to work? Almost never. Either because the publisher is trying to tie in different aspects of their business rather than making a solid product (L5R, that's you) or because the direction the meta-plot was taken in was just plain naff. And then the whole illusion comes crashing down. I get around it by picking the bits I want and ignoring/re-writing the rest. Which is my advice on most all game elements. This makes me wonder: when did the Forgotten Realms jump the shark?</blockquote>

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