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Metaplots: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
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<blockquote data-quote="Azuresun" data-source="post: 8033642" data-attributes="member: 7022312"><p>Doing a good metaplot? I'd make it a "what if"--optional and non-binding to future writers<em>. </em>Such as<em> Exalted's </em>two big metaplot "events", <em>Return of the Scarlet Empress</em> and <em>Locust Crusade</em>. They were big events that fundamentally changed the world if they happened--but critically, future books were not written with the assumptions that those things had happened! Of course......the actual execution of both was a big steaming pot of awful, but the intention was good, with the assumption that you could just plug them in when you were ready for an epic finale to a campaign, or ignore them if your campaign wasn't going that way.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Agreed. Writing a compelling fictional universe is one set of skills, but it's harder to write one where you don't know anything about who the heroes will be! And what a lot of metaplot writers do is go "I'm creating the world, so I'm creating the protagonists as well", and create a cast of NPC's that are <em>so</em> distinctive, dynamic and pro-active that they don't need the PC's to be there--and that's the very worst thing you can do in an RPG! Villains are meant to be ultimately defeated by the PC's, heroes are meant to perhaps help the PC's but ultimately get out of the way and let them be cool. </p><p></p><p>Forget that and you get people like Elminister (at his worst), Divis Mal, Sam Haight, Harlequin, Alexia Ciannor, Darius Hellestromme or Stone, and adventures where the PC's are essentially just there to be cheerleaders to untouchable NPC's, or watch villains undone by their own hubris.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Azuresun, post: 8033642, member: 7022312"] Doing a good metaplot? I'd make it a "what if"--optional and non-binding to future writers[I]. [/I]Such as[I] Exalted's [/I]two big metaplot "events", [I]Return of the Scarlet Empress[/I] and [I]Locust Crusade[/I]. They were big events that fundamentally changed the world if they happened--but critically, future books were not written with the assumptions that those things had happened! Of course......the actual execution of both was a big steaming pot of awful, but the intention was good, with the assumption that you could just plug them in when you were ready for an epic finale to a campaign, or ignore them if your campaign wasn't going that way. Agreed. Writing a compelling fictional universe is one set of skills, but it's harder to write one where you don't know anything about who the heroes will be! And what a lot of metaplot writers do is go "I'm creating the world, so I'm creating the protagonists as well", and create a cast of NPC's that are [I]so[/I] distinctive, dynamic and pro-active that they don't need the PC's to be there--and that's the very worst thing you can do in an RPG! Villains are meant to be ultimately defeated by the PC's, heroes are meant to perhaps help the PC's but ultimately get out of the way and let them be cool. Forget that and you get people like Elminister (at his worst), Divis Mal, Sam Haight, Harlequin, Alexia Ciannor, Darius Hellestromme or Stone, and adventures where the PC's are essentially just there to be cheerleaders to untouchable NPC's, or watch villains undone by their own hubris. [/QUOTE]
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