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Please describe your experience (players) or management (GMs) of a perfectly executed metaplot...
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<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 7600308" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>I've been running the same campaign for many years now, so I think I have quite some experience with setting up plots and plot twists that have to withstand many months before they are actually revealed. In fact, some twists have laid in wait for years now to this very day.</p><p></p><p>It is not always possible to keep your players from second guessing your story. The longer they play, the more likely they catch on. I try to take lessons from writer George RR Martin in this respect, by not changing the story just because people guessed it correctly. That would make the plot nonsensical, since all the clues pointed one way, and all of a sudden you make it into something else entirely. I also feel that it can sometimes be quite satisfying for the players to discover they were right all along.</p><p></p><p>But the easiest way to set up metaplot reveals, is to simply not flesh them out in their entirety, until the players get closed to it. This leaves you some freedom to refine the plot later, and make it all click. With a bit of trickery, the players will not even catch on that you didn't have this all figured out from session 1. </p><p></p><p>I run a sandbox game, so for a large part the plot is dictated by where the players go next. I have a lot of smaller plots tied to the current location of the players, which makes it easy for them to remember what is going on. They only ever need to worry about where they are now. But I then tie that into the main plot in some way, so that it feels like a cohesive whole. This helps the players understand the larger overarching plot, because there are callbacks to it from time to time. I also make sure to link the plot of side quests together, so one quest leads into the next, or into finding a clue regarding the metaplot.</p><p></p><p>For example, if one side quest has the players dealing with an obnoxious nobleman, I of course try my best to weave that nobleman into the metaplot and several other side quests as well. This means I have to introduce less new characters, plus it makes the players hate that character even more.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 7600308, member: 6801286"] I've been running the same campaign for many years now, so I think I have quite some experience with setting up plots and plot twists that have to withstand many months before they are actually revealed. In fact, some twists have laid in wait for years now to this very day. It is not always possible to keep your players from second guessing your story. The longer they play, the more likely they catch on. I try to take lessons from writer George RR Martin in this respect, by not changing the story just because people guessed it correctly. That would make the plot nonsensical, since all the clues pointed one way, and all of a sudden you make it into something else entirely. I also feel that it can sometimes be quite satisfying for the players to discover they were right all along. But the easiest way to set up metaplot reveals, is to simply not flesh them out in their entirety, until the players get closed to it. This leaves you some freedom to refine the plot later, and make it all click. With a bit of trickery, the players will not even catch on that you didn't have this all figured out from session 1. I run a sandbox game, so for a large part the plot is dictated by where the players go next. I have a lot of smaller plots tied to the current location of the players, which makes it easy for them to remember what is going on. They only ever need to worry about where they are now. But I then tie that into the main plot in some way, so that it feels like a cohesive whole. This helps the players understand the larger overarching plot, because there are callbacks to it from time to time. I also make sure to link the plot of side quests together, so one quest leads into the next, or into finding a clue regarding the metaplot. For example, if one side quest has the players dealing with an obnoxious nobleman, I of course try my best to weave that nobleman into the metaplot and several other side quests as well. This means I have to introduce less new characters, plus it makes the players hate that character even more. [/QUOTE]
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Please describe your experience (players) or management (GMs) of a perfectly executed metaplot...
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