On RPG.NET, I come across some posts which show hatred for the meta-plot; I also come across sentiments which goes “Ahh, this is just like every-other-game-out-there, I’m not buying it unless the setting is absolutely awe-inspiring or something”. Settings, background materials and even something like a sequence of events is the Meta Plot. It’s a bit like brainwashing, really; if you subscribe to a game’s meta-plot, I realise, sometimes you just follow along with it with your behaviours influenced by it.
Getting a Paladin to Lie
Quick question: how do you get a paladin to lie? To scheme and to plot destruction? Simple, play a game of Saboteur – a card game which has the meta-plot of you are dwarves mining for gold, and there are good dwarves and bad dwarves. Good dwarves want to get to the gold, bad dwarves don’t want the good guys to find the gold. Meanwhile, some players will get cards that allow them to check one of the three possible locations to see if the gold is there. Then that’s where the fun start.
I have friends whom I could entrust a million dollars with (and still would) yet they have lied their way smoothly through the game. Yet we all just burst out into laughter, lambaste each other with mock threats, and think that no harm is done, because the meta-plot encourages it. Heck, why you have a card that labels you “You are the bad guy, the BAD GUY!”, no one blame you for going along being a sneaky, underhanded, lying bastard…in a game.
Relying on the Kindness of Strangers
I think one of the commonly held consensus is that you find all types of people on a MMO – with varying levels of maturity, level-headedness, consideration and so on (psst…it just my politically correct shorthand for saying that there are jerks on most MMORPGs). While there are those who make the news on being rabid min-maxer, griever and whiners, I find this is not so much of the case for Lord of the Rings Online. On chat channels, you find people giving away free stuff. I run past a Captain and usually one out of five will give me a free buff. When I was playing the Loremaster I will too randomly debuff mobs and heal – not so much now because this reduces the XP gained by the other player, but there’s a spirit of helpfulness in the air.
Why so? I think it is because the game is Lord of the Rings, and the meta-plot is that “You are the free people of Middle Earth. The enemy is Sauron” and unlike World of Warcraft or Warhammer Online, the bad guys are not fully playable (oops my bad, I should have say “the other side”). Everyone other player-character you come across online is automatically your ally in the war against Sauron. (For those who find this terribly dull and boring, there’s also monster-play mode, where you can play as a monster PC and kill hero PCs that come challenging you on your turf). Sometimes, I think the lack of real PvP in LOTRO contributes to the atmosphere. After all, in Tolkien’s novels, the stuff that heroes are made of are the like of Aragorn and Faramir (who wouldn’t even claim the One Ring for his own if he finds it by the roadside, according to the novel, not the movies). The meta-plot enforces that, and I feel, somehow subconsciously cause people to act this way. Yeah, sure there still people who make life difficult for other people, and not to say you don’t find friendly behaviours on other MMOs or MMOs with PvP, but just that the meta-plot of the game contributes to behaviour.
Take a look at Age of Conan and its meta-plot – it is deliciously cartered for PvP gameplay, and Warhammer Online for its Realm vs. Realm mode. Why isn’t there a duelling arena in Lord of the Rings? Because it doesn’t fit the Meta-Plot, but an arena is not out of place in Age of Conan. Likewise, you can’t cramp Lord of the Rings’ “Spirit of Default Cooperation” into Warhammer Online because there exists natural enmity between the races, which again is encouraged by the Meta Plot.
(One thing what if one day Lord of the Rings incorporate a full-featured “other side of the fence” play, such as you can play as orcs or wargs? Even still, according to the Meta Plot, that conflict would only take place at high levels area, such as Mordor, because the novels didn’t let them in further than Gondor, to consider the northern border).
“Forget about saving the world! Let’s retire and start an inn!”
There’s one type of game in the Pen and Paper Roleplaying World and it is called the Railroad. The GM led the party by the nose through every bends and tunnels, with the players’ actions having little impact on the plot. I’m thinking of re-using this metaphor for the Meta Plot. It is not a railroad, but a railway, a system of railroads put together. It limits and directs.
For example, in Nobilis, despite characters being god-avatars, there are many storyline limits placed on them. They have to be loyal to their Imperator, for without him their powers would fade. They have to protect the innocent, or else bad-ass Lord Entropy and his human cronies would make your life miserable. You do not simply crush enemies with brute force or brainwash everyone directly. The author called this “inelegant” – an indignant player may say, “GM fiat!” or simply “Shrug, just because Miss R says so”.
There are games, which exist on the other side of the spectrum, does not have any meta-plot – or it is so “high level” that players are not affected by it unless they earn 10+ levels. In a normal game of Dungeons and Dragons, you could forsake a quest and start an inn, depending on your alignment (and if you are willing to take a shift, who cares?) In Dragon Warriors, you do not simply start an inn – you have to gain permission from the lord, etc. etc. etc. It’s not like Baldur Gates (the PC game) where two adventurers just decide to settle down in the middle of nowhere and start an inn. Who collect taxes from a fighter and a druid anyway? Who dares to, in Dragon Warriors, if the landlord of an inn is reputed to be a slayer of monster and his wife is someone who could cause trees to move?
I find when running tightly plotted game that the Meta Plot is useful because it weeds out “meaningless” options. As mentioned, I did run into the scenario where the PCs got rich enough in between missions that they are considering just fleeing to somewhere and retire – though they did say it in jest, I don’t doubt that there are players out there who did just that. The Meta Plot is useful in this regard – it gives direction even for the players.
However, for sandbox style of play, the Meta Plot can be like a Constricting Ring. Take Nobilis – with the war going on, other NPCs who are waiting to suck your estate dry so that they can stay in the war and Lord Entropy’s cronies snooping around to make sure you don’t break any of his laws, it’s hard not to step on anyone foot, much else say “Screw my Imperator! I going to explore the Ash Tree!”
A Meta Plot does not have to be elaborate – Nobilis has a finely weaved one, so much so that some people can’t keep up with it and some people loathed it (it’s like having a Ferrai but being told that you can’t drive more than 40km per hour in it) . Spirit of the Century has a simple one – the Century Club, and it is free-form enough for many styles of play, but provides a certain direction for the GM and the PCs. Of course, anyone who feel that just being told “You just have to be the good guys” is bad would too dislike the Meta Plot for Spirit of the Century (hey, it’s the same for me when I read “You just have to be suffer for being a good guy” in Vampires!)
Transcending the Meta Plot
The GM is alive, the rules are dead. The Meta Plot is already published on paper, but you can still write on. It is possible to transcend the Meta Plot, but it requires the cooperation of the GM and the player. It is much easier for a new game or setting than one with an established canon, like Star Wars or Star Trek (which is why I always avoid GMing games based on licenses; I felt constrained by the fan-base!)
Take for example, Nobilis – there are places where Lord Entropy won’t snoop and many other unexplainable things in the fluff itself (such as the Lady of the Third Age). If the players are itching for some massive destruction I could always bring them to an alien world, or a empire erased out of time or even to just good old Mythic Earth. Alternate dimensions are good for canon-heavy games (Star Trek just rebooted itself with a “When-Canon-Sucks-Hit-This button), and for historical fantasy, they just have to take a ship and find a culture that suited them (there are evidence that ancient China might be a matriarchal society instead of a patriarchal one).
Sometimes, however, the game is the Meta Plot – like Dogs in the Vineyard or Don’t Rest your Head. However, I do think it is possible for an enterprising GM to modify the Meta Plot to meet his needs.
I will talk more about this next time, where I hope to give an example of how I use a custom Meta Plot in a sandbox-style fantasy world to provide more direction, how it influences the details of design for games and some commonly useful Meta Plots.
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