Metaplot
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The metaplot is the overarching storyline that binds together events in the official continuity of a published role-playing game campaign setting. Major official story events that change the world, or simply move important non-player characters from one place to another, are part of the metaplot for a game.[1] Metaplot information is usually included within gaming products such as rule books and modules as they are released. Major events in the metaplot are often used to explain changes in the rules in between versions of the games, as was the case with the Time of Judgment in White Wolf's World of Darkness[2] and the Time of Troubles for TSR's/Wizards of the Coast's Forgotten Realms.[2][3] Because of events like this, many gaming groups choose to ignore the metaplot for a game entirely.
The metaplot may also be driven forward through novels acompanying the setting. For the Forgotten Realms this was the case only after its inception, while it was part of the design from the start for the Dark Sun setting.[4][5][6] For campaign settings based on movies, TV shows or other pieces of fiction, the plot of those works usually functions as the metaplot,[7][better source needed] while for historical settings history itself may fill this role.[8]
Metaplot appears in settings of various genres like Dragonlance,[4] Legend of the Five Rings,[6] and Shadowrun.[1][9] Other settings and role-playing games that contain well known metaplots:
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- BattleTech – Expanded in various novels and sourcebooks, mostly by Michael A. Stackpole
- Earthdawn
- Ravenloft - The Grand Conjunction and The Grim Harvest
- Rifts – War on Tolkeen, a 6 book metaplot
- The Dark Eye
- Torg's "infiniverse"
- Traveller – Assassination of the emperor and the division of the empire
- Warhammer Age of Sigmar - The End Times
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - The Storm of Chaos
Reception
The metaplot is meant to "give the players a sense of immersion in a large and complex world as well as an aesthetic appreciation of the story they were witnessing" whenever their characters come into contact with it. The narrative tool of metaplot has been criticised for shifting the focus away from the player characters and making them "marginal rather than central figures".[1]
References
- ^ a b c White, William J.; Arjonata, Jonne; Hitchens, Michael; Peterson, John; Torner, Evan; Walton, Jonathan (2018). "Tabletop role-playing games". In Zagal, José P.; Deterding, Sebastian (eds.). Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations. Routledge. pp. 63–86. ISBN 9781138638907.
- ^ a b Hillenbrand, Tom; Lischka, Konrad (2016). Drachenväter - Die Geschichte des Rollenspiels und die Geburt der virtuellen Welt [Dragon fathers - the history of the role-playing game and the birth of the virtual world] (in German). epubli. ISBN 9783741855580.
- ^ Bergman, Gregory; Lambert, Josh (2011). Geektionary. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1-4405-1114-4.
- ^ a b Callaghan, Paul; Manhire, Bill, eds. (2006). Are Angels OK?: The Parallel Universes of New Zealand writers and scientists. Victoria University Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-86473-514-0.
- ^ Di Filippo, Laurent (2017). "Les mondes d'Advanced Dungeons and Dragons au spectre du transmédia: l'exemple de Dark Sun". In Collard, Anne-Sophie; Collignon, Stéphane (eds.). Le transmédia, ses contours et ses enjeux. Presses universitaires de Namur. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-2-39029-102-2. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
- ^ a b Snow, Cason (2008). "Dragons in the stacks: an introduction to role‐playing games and their value to libraries". Collection Building. 27 (2): 63–70. doi:10.1108/01604950810870218.
- ^ Faricelli, Ryan (2015). On A Roll - Level Up Your RPG. Reel Fun Studios. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-312-90744-7.
- ^ Ward, Rachel Mizsei (2013). "Genre Mashing in the Role-Playing Game Deadlands: The Weird West, the Horror Steampunk Western". In Miller, Cynthia J.; Van Riper, Bowdoin (eds.). Undead in the West II: They Just Keep Coming. Scarecrow Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-0-8108-9264-4.
- ^ White, William J. (2020). Tabletop RPG Design in Theory and Practice at the Forge, 2001–2012 - Designs and Discussions. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 231. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-52819-5. ISBN 978-3-030-52818-8.
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