Should Campaign Settings include a metaplot?

[kroh]

Voted Other:

There is alot you can do with Meta-Plots and there are some good campaigns out there that use them. The thing to remember is what Mr. Baker said... It's a game and it is your world... Integrate or Disintegrate as you see fit.

One example of an overriding setting device that pretty much defined the setting was Star Wars. They had this whole Galactic Civil war thing going on and there were many things that came out (Novels, Comics, RPG Adventures, Video Games) that took place during the over riding plot. When done very well the plot makes the setting rather than breaks it. Lots of stuff can happen when the scope is so broad. When the scope of the plot is too narrow then you might run into some problems. One of the great books to come out about the Galactic Civil War was Shadows of the Empire. Cool premise and it involved stuff that people wanted to know (what happned in between Strikes back and Jedi?). The comics expanded these as well and let us know that (according to them) Yoda was wrong when he said that He and Skywalker were the last of the Jedi. There were others and they were in hiding. How many comics and books came out about Darth Maul AFTER we all knew he was dead.? The Video game (Galaxies) is like this as well as you can play a jedi Character during the Civil war (I think). And if you don't like something (Civil War) retreat or advance and create your own version of things (Knights of the Old Republic).

Look at Comics, They constantly redefine themselves even though certain things are considered Gospel. And when they have a huge meta plot going on....

CROSS OVER! You create different story arcs that might or might not intersect that deal with the same period of time.

A meta plot when done well drives a campaign rather than stagnate it. A good GM who likes a certain setting can take the plot and either work with it or around it. A mediocre one will just find something else. It's all in what you make of it.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I like Dragonlance...

 

[Psion]

For the record, Faction War was supposed to be the first in a series after which Sigil would supposedly be put back more or less the way it was. The cancellation of Planescape, however, made this impossible and many peiople attribute Faction war to its demise or ascribe it as TSR "killing" the setting off.

Of this I am well aware.

But, you see, that doesn't excuse heavy handed metaplotting. Indeed, it's illustrative of the sort of mess-up that can come about because of it. Whether or not it was supposed to be continued, it is in the state that it is in and 3e material is still being written to it as canon.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Other.

Settings should not have a metaplot. They should have several metaplots.

Exactly what I want. Good call!

 

[Azgulor]

I've seen metaplots do such nasty things to settings I liked. I don't know what happened in late-2ed Planescape, but it's seems so bizzare to have the 3rd "Planescape" stuff with the factions arbitrarily screwed with. Dragonlance is worse; it's gone through several changes that completely blew up the world. Traveller was so bad that GURPS Traveller and T20 both go to basically the original setting without any of the later metaplot (GT by alternate history, T20 by going back a little before the changes).

I think the biggest complaint is that authors seem to always want to take the setting and blow it up; empires that have lasted for a thousand years have to disintegrate into civil war, gods that have been around since the dawn of time disappear, a faction system that has been stable for several hundred years has to be destroyed. If it were just the standard rise and fall of kings and petty wars, it'd be a lot easier to deal with.

Amen. Why does every published metaplot have to be BIGGER!, WORLD-SHAKING!, CATACLYSMIC! ? They usually just piss me off. If I need a Reboot button on a setting, I just pick a new one.

Azgulor

 

[Azgulor]

No. There should be metaplot ideas, like the ones presented in Power of Faerûn, but I don't like being force-fed changes to my setting.

We have a winner! This is where the metaplot effort should go. I , as the GM, should get to choose which one I want to use and more importantly, the scope of the impact it will have on the setting.

Azgulor

 

[Piratecat]

I agree with Umbran and Odhanan. My campaign is certainly more fun for me with a metaplot, but in a published setting I'd rather have a number of potential campaign seeds that I can develop or not as I choose.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

I voted 'other'.

I agree with what many have said that many smaller plots are fine. The two coutries in this area of the map are at war? Fine. It helps the world seem alive if the campaign isn't in the area and isolated enough that it can be easily cut out if the campaign is in the area and the DM doesn't want it to happen.

I like what WotC did with the Drow. A meta-plot for FR where the Drow got even more agressive and were supposedly storming the surface in force (or something). There was a large adventure connected to it but no major overarching changes that were forced on players and DMs that didn't care.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong about that - I was one of the players that didn't care in a group that didn't care so I don't know all of the details. But that is the way it should be done. If your group cares there was plenty of information and adventure that you could grab a hold of and run with. If your group didn't care the worst that happened was that you were sick of the Drow by the time the year was over.

My bad experience was with Rokugan. Every month the meta-plot advanced and seemes to intrude on our campaign because the meta-plot changed the relationship between clans every time you rolled a d20. Major characters died, missing characters came back and major relics were found.

In theory you would be able to ignore all of this information except when the only information you have on a particular region that the group is in is after it has become war-torn because of the returning character that has a powerful relic that proves that the dead character... yada, yada, yada. What was the area like before it was war-torn? We don't know because the only detailed portion is post war-torn. That is very bad meta-ploting.

 

[Votan]

Question says it all.

Probably not with a few (limited exceptions).

Meta-political events are fine. This includes the "fall of the empire" type scenarios if you are playing in the "last embers of the glory that was Rome". If you are, instead, playing in a fixed setting that assumes in all sourcebooks a strong and growing empire then a sudden sharp turn is annoying.

The best trick is to balance interesting events with enough statis that campaign books do not become outdated. Because a large setting is expensive and it is annoying to be buying the same book for the same setting over and over again.

 

[The Cardinal]

look at V:tR's VII and Mythologies for the right way to do this: several cool answers to the great questions of the setting - all mutually exclusive, all "official", none of them "The One"!