Last time on my blog while touching on the subject of Meta Plot, I described how the Meta Plot and game mechanics should mesh. Yet it does not end here. After all, human beings are the one who play the game – the Meta Plot also has a hand in influencing player’s behaviour, and some like it, some hate it.
When the Meta Plot Limits
Some role-playing games (the paper form with a human CPU – aka. the GM) allow sandbox style play – Dungeons and Dragons, for instance. Then there are games with heavy meta-plot elements that impose limits on your freedom – even if you are kickass vampire or an avatar-god.
Nobilis is one of those – yes, you can change creation with a snap of the finger, cut a mountain into half and perform other miraculous deeds. That will, however, bring the wrath of the law-keepers (the most powerful avatars ever lived) and earn the ire of other supernatural avatars as well as causing hell lot of trouble when mortal folks see those things (basically, you send them crazy, and you have pissed of 1/3 of all god-like beings in Creation). The most famous Meta Plot limit of Nobilis must be “you cannot love”.
Some have complained “Yes, you give me god-like powers, but the settings has 101 rules preventing me from doing what I want. What’s the deal?” The Meta Plot limits.
Or to put it in a nicer way, the Meta Plot also make sure that the player’s actions are in line with it. Given the Eru-Melkor conflict for Lord of the Rings – it’s impossible to bargain with a Balrog as if he is a traditional demon (that’s impossible according to the Meta Plot ), or as another example, in Star Wars, the many restrictions that a Light side user of the Force must obey is also a Meta Plot.
There are some who see limits as inherently bad. Me? Limits are bad in sandbox style of play, but are important for games which has a strong theme, such as Nobilis, Lord of the Rings and games with historical basis. Weapons of the God has an intricate set of Meta Plot which enforces the wuxia feel of the game. Different genres of game would have different Meta Plot – take Call of Cthulhu, for example. Its Meta Plot that eventually mankind will be wiped out, the Great Old Ones would rise and all we are doing is to postpone the inevitable prevents the players from going off track like “Hey, let sell those Mythos curious for a big sum of money and retire elsewhere!”
As an example of a sandbox style play where things could derail, I ran a homebrew game where Earth was partially destroyed and the PCs are send on a mission to infiltrate an enemy’s stronghold. Along the way, they receive credit payment for their first mission (and a sum of credits to let them outfit their ship and to make preparations for the infiltration campaign) and they manage to hijack a trading vessel packed with goods. At this point, one of the player said, “Hey, we are rather rich! Let’s screw this mission and go for a holiday”. Fortunately, this is made in jest, but a good Meta Plot would strike that thinking off the list (as noted in the Call of Cthulhu example up there).
It is understandable why some people hate Meta Plots, but I see it more of a “style of play” than “bad or good” (as usual, right?). Without a Meta Plot, a game may end up being “pointless” (Yes, we kill monsters…grab their loot….so that…?) while a bad Meta Plot is like a stranglehold. By “bad”, it could be something incoherent or put down funny restrictions tha tmay offend other people’s taste (google F.A.T.A.L the RPG if you dare).
Theme, Meta Plot and Board Games
Do board games needs a Meta Plot? After all, board games are closed system where a sandbox style play is not available. Chess is Chess, and I have yet to see a role-playing chess (that’s an idea. “The Knight bows before the Queen” – and I try to seduce her, and I can’t fail because I would be eaten by her!!) Looking at lot of board games though, the good games are those which mechanics fit their themes (aka the Meta Plot)
Do Abstract Games, like Blockus, need meta plot? No. As mentioned, a Meta Plot can drive the design, the design can produce the Meta Plot, but it would be better if they both mesh. Dominion, for example, is a card game in which you try to get the best combos possible, but some reviewers point out that the theme of the game (medieval city building) doesn’t seem to gel well with the theme. Saint Petersburg has one theme-breaking moment which is usually used as a joke – upgrading an author to a…chambermaid.
The War of the Ring boardgame shows how the Meta Plot influences game mechanic, presentation and finally, its’ “feel”. Without the Lord of the Rings element, the boardgame would become just another RISK with orcs and elves. Due to the necessity of the Meta Plot, the Fellowship’s journey to Mount Doom has to be represented (in the form of “moving the fellowship”). There is a need to consider in the novels, the good guys’ coffers and manpower are drying up and the bad guys seem to have unlimited supply of cannon folders. What is done in the game is that good guys’ losses are never replenished while the bad guys will always get reinforcement.
In Senji, a Japanese-inspired wargame (which take hours to play, yes), you roll dice on which face is a symbol of all the players. If you are allied with a player, and you managed to roll his symbols while in a battle, it is counted as well. And you can send hostages to other players for alliance, including your grandfather (!?)
The question is – without the theme, without the Meta Plot, who could have think of sending your grandfather or daughter as a hostage? (They do that during the Japanese’s Warring States period). Without the Lord of the Rings Meta-Plot, would there be the idea of “hey, the bad guys can always replace their loses, while the good guys can’t”?
To me, the Meta Plot is important for board games – board games usually rely on theme and different mechanics to sell themselves, unlike computer games which can always get away with better 3D graphics, shaders, bloom and what-not. Unless your mechanics is something out of this world, I always feel that a theme which meshes well with the mechanics is a better game (see Pillars of the Earth, Kingsburg, Small World, Ilaid, just for examples).
Next: Meta Plot and Decision Making
We see how board games and role-playing games can be inspired and limited by the Meta Plot; the next thing I feel like blogging about is how the Meta Plot can influence decisions a player can make. One question I will ponder over is – what is the difference between Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft? Dragon Warriors and Dungeons and Dragons? Chess and A Game of Throne? Then maybe further down I will try to give some ideas on co-existing with the Meta Plot.
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