Homebrew Metaplots?

[The Shaman]

I think this is one of those pressures; it's the pressure of change and time which, like the threat of PC death and damage, gives a certain frisson to the proceedings.

Ennie Nominee for Most Impressive Use of the Word "Frisson" in a General RPG Dicussion Forum Post.

(And I agree with the thought, too.)

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Your puny poll cannot contain MY answer!

I like metaplots when they describe what is going on as the backdrop to the adventurers' actions - I don't like metaplots when they become "the story."

For example, for my Traveller campaign, the metaplot is an invasion of K'kree space by something from beyond the trailing borders of the Two Thousand Worlds - the K'kree respond by fleeing toward Imperial space. (I'm calling this "The Stampede" in my campaign notes.)

While this sudden incursion of K'kree into the Imperium is a potential source of dozens of adventure hooks, there is no "adventure path" by which the player characters encounter the K'kree, journey to the Two Thousand Worlds, encounter the alien invaders, and turn the tide, saving Charted Space. The adventurers may follow hooks that lead them into the Two Thousand Worlds, or the Hiver Federation, or one of the client states along the trailing margin of the Third Imperium - they may encounter the aliens, and could possibly learn important secrets about the enigmatic invaders. On the other hand, they may choose to ignore the whole thing and pursue completely different goals, bumping up against this massive migration in the course of their travels only to the extent that the effects of the Stampede are felt across the Imperial frontier region.

This is my approach to metaplots: a sequence of events that affect the setting directly but the characters indirectly, events in which the characters may or may not choose to involve themselves and which may or may not be afffected significantly by the adventurers' involvement or lack thereof.

Hmmm, yes, that is good. Many (though not all) of my metaplots fall into this category. But sometimes Dracos wants to kill everyone on Earth so he can reseed it with perfect examples of homo sapiens... If the PCs don't interact with the plot then the Moonrakers have liftoff...

The Auld Grump (bad, bad, Bond movie that.)

The Auld Grump

 

[glass]

Can you explain what you exactly mean by meta-plot?

I was wondering that, because by my definition, homebrews don't have metaplots. They just have plots!


glass.

 

[glass]

My post count would be a lot higher if Crothian didn't keep keep getting in first and saying what I wanted to say, thereby making it pointless for me to post anything.

I think that is true of a lot of us.


glass.

 

[Gold Roger]

I was wondering that, because by my definition, homebrews don't have metaplots. They just have plots!


glass.

Right on, for me, most of what is mentioned here isn't a metaplot to me, it's a simple plot. Just because the PC's aren't necessarily immediatly involved doesn't make it any different.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Right on, for me, most of what is mentioned here isn't a metaplot to me, it's a simple plot. Just because the PC's aren't necessarily immediatly involved doesn't make it any different.

The difference is merely one of scale - typical plots span an adventure, metapolts span a campaign, or even (dun dun DUN!) THE WORLD! (Ooooo!)

So if the big demon in Temple of Elemental Evil was actually doing something rather than waiting to be killed by adventurers...

The Auld Grump

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the term "metaplot" doesn't make sense for a home campaign -- it's just a "plot."

That said, every power group in my campaign is up to something. Whether or not the players catch onto what they're doing in time (each plot has a climactic moment, some soon, some later) depends on what the players do.

The first of the nasty plots, the player characters in my campaign already have the tools to start figuring out, but since they don't trust each other, they're not sharing the information. What they know individually doesn't seem important, but had they shared, they'd realize there's something big in the offing with the nearby kobold tribe. We'll see if they figure it out before a certain aspect is unleashed upon the barony and neighboring gnomish community ...

 

[SWBaxter]

It seems that some people do not like metaplots in published settings, but others seem to think that metaplots are what drive their own settings.

The campaign metaplot(s) is one of the first things that I do in world design, what do thers do with them?

I like metaplots under my group's control. I'm not a fan of metaplots that change major elements of a setting without our input. Homebrew metaplots are the former, commercial metaplots are the latter.

 

[Draethen Vontrair]

I like meta-plots, I use them in most of my campaigns. wars of gods, odd occurences, random stuff in each campaign.

 

[Maldin]

I love metaplots, and published Greyhawk (my campaign world of choice) has had many of them over the years. In fact, I even take different metaplots (both those aforementioned Greyhawk metaplots, plus original metaplots, plus metaplots from Spelljammer, Planescape, and others) and then tie them all together in my own ubermetaplot that has been going for over 20 years (real time) across a half dozen different groups of players and a score of different PC adventure parties. No single player has yet gathered enough information to see through the metaplot layers into the ubermetaplot.
Bwahahahahahaaa!!!! [evil laughter] ;-)

In other words, its pure DM fun!

Denis, aka "Maldin"
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Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Loads of edition-independent Greyhawk goodness.... maps, mysteries, mechanics, magic, and more!