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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 5321921" data-attributes="member: 8863">From what I can tell reading this (since I've only played D&D, and even then never really got deep into the settings), DL seems to be what kicked the metaplot off to begin with.  At first, it was just a series of modules, with novels written about the pre-generated characters from the modules.  The most important thing though, is that while the novels presented a sort of canon ending to all the events, the modules at least let players actually participate in events.  Downside is that the modules have a reputation for being a huge railroad (didn't stop me from jumping in <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/talking-talk/286639-dragonlance-2e-ad-d-recuriting-raistlin-player-ooc.html" target="_blank">here</a> though). With DL's success, TSR wanted to do it again, so they started churning out settings.  Whether or not they were responding to stuff like SR or WoD or just hoping for another DL or FR I can't say.  That was from Hellbound: The Blood War, and that was a metaplot event that could be influenced by the players:[sblock]There was this entity the yugoloths created from a fallen celestial that enabled fiendish teleporting by knowing the true name of every fiend in existance.  The yugoloths planned to drop it in the River Styx to erase its memories and thus deprive the devils and demons of their ability to teleport and use it as a bargaining chip (go along with the yugoloth's plans, and they'll restore the teleporting).  Over the course of the adventure, the PCs learn about the entity, while the demons and devils try to gain control of it for an advantage in the Blood War.  In the end, the PCs can teach the entity its own true name, at which point it teleports itself directly to the Styx to rid itself of all the terrible memories it has of being tormented by the 'loths.  This is presented as something players should want to do just to screw all the fiends. And naturally, it would make enemies.  LOTS of enemies. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" />[/sblock]So the PCs could actually cause this event to happen, instead of it being something that happened in a book or worse the backstory for a new sourcebook, which is probably how a metaplot should unfold.  Like in Dark Sun, any victory against the Sorcerer-Kings should have been something the players were part of, not part of the novels.  Given what I've read about the setting, the players should probably want to do something like that in the first place.I agree, let the metaplot be something the players can participate in.  The hardest part though is that you can't predict what will happen in any group, so to keep things simple, railroading comes into play.</blockquote>

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