We have look at setting the scope of the Meta Plot, and explore how we can fill it in. The question remains though – how do we fill in the Meta Plot? I try to offer some suggestions, along with examples. Before beginning on that, there’s one thing to keep in mind. What is the goal of this particular meta-plot you are writing?
Generally put, the goal of most meta-plot is to provide a direction to the narrative of the world and stories. For instance, the overarching meta-plot of many Greek myths are the inter-fighting among the gods and the interaction between them and the mortals. Some Meta Plot are justifications – why on earth is a powerful starship exploring vast, unexplored corners of the world. Others are used to suspend the disbelief – if magic is introduced into a world, it is easier for people to accept that there are staves that can shoot fireballs and spells that can turn someone into a statue. Meta-plots, basically, are expositions, and rules for good expositions follow too.
Right, let’s get on to fleshing out the meta-plot then.
1. Overall Theme
One way to generate ideas for the Meta Plot is to decide its theme. Remember, a Meta Plot does not have to be for the whole game world. It can be for an epoch of history, a series of adventures, or even just for one city or dungeon. So something like “greed” would do well for a dungeon (the typical dragon hoard) while “despair” is a good theme for an entire campaign world (Call of Cthulhu, for example). The theme could explore hard questions, such as “Who really has right to call anywhere his country since everyone’s country is obtained through war?”
Theme and genre can be decoupled, and different combination of them generates different feel of games. Unknown Armies and Call of Cthulhu are both horror games; yet Unknown Armies has a somewhat upbeat optimistic theme to it “We are utimately in charge of our destiny”) whereas Call of Cthulhu is “we are ultimately doomed”. Eberron and Midnight both used the OGL D20 system, but in Eberron, magic plays the role of technology and there is a sense of adventure and excitement. In Midnight, the world has been conquered by evil and everyone struggled to survive. Both are fantasy, but with a switch of theme, you get a different feel.
2. History
If using theme to generate ideas for a meta plot is too far high up on the ladder of abstraction, a more concrete way would be to come up with a history for the world, city, scenario or dungeon. History, however, is more than “this then that and then some more of those”. Reading through history, the thing to look for is why did the event happen and what were the people’s reaction. Take the simple Meta Plot for a haunted house scenario. What is the history of the house? Of course, the realtor who sold the house may not be important (or is it?). What may be important is who once stayed there, what horrifying events happened before, what did the previous owners do (and what happened to them) and is there anything n history that explains why wolves are encircling the house preventing escape?
The important thing in crafting history is to leave in “openings” for further trouble in present (in Chinese, this is known as “the hidden pen”). A story with total closure is basically finished. Modern history has many examples of those “openings” – unfortunately mainly rooted in coups and wars. The “good guys kill a bad guy and the bad guy’s descendant returned for revenge” is a standard “opening” in a Meta Plot. A Song of Ice and Fire used the history of the seven kingdoms to open up the way for a clash of kings. It is precisely because that the olden way of life in Westros is not completely forgotten which is why there are events as it is. If the story goes “And everyone was conquered and their culture lost forever”, the plot has written itself into a corner.
When writing history, think beyond the borders of your scope. Writing a history of the world would require gods, beings from other existence, interference (be it unknown horrors or meteors) and maybe even other worlds. Likewise, writing the history for a scenario would require input from the bigger world as a whole. Take a keep at the edge of a civillised kingdom. Who built it (and if the architect designs a secret passageway, would his descendants know of it)? What is the purpose of the keep, and is it still the same now? And most importantly of all, what does all this got to do with the present situation?
One big work that uses history as its meta-plot is Lord of the Rings. The MMO game (Lord of the Rings Online) borrowed heavily from the little history that was told in the appendix to create an expansive world. Melkor taking on Eru, and the forging of the rings, as well as the two kingdoms Arnor and Gondor, set the stage for many exciting events and stories within the novel.
3. Norms and Culture
Culture plays a big part in making a Meta Plot feels real. Norms would determine what sort of actions the PCs can do. Let’s take a game with intrigue, for example. It is apparent that a rival merchant house is responsible for the arson of a few of the PCs’ warehouse. Does norm allow the PCs to return the favour with torches and magefire? Or does the norms demand that the PCs get back via other methods?
Norms are ultimately set by people and people differs from places to places, cities to cities, world to world, so it is possible to come up with different type of approach in the same world just by modifying the culture and geographical location. Perhaps in one city duels on the street are the norm, while the other it is equally okay to get the assassin’s guild to “teach your target a good lesson”.
One of the biggest applications of norm to restrict character’s actions is once again…Nobilis. You are avatars, a god-human, yet because of these laws and custom, and not to offend your fellow god-like peers, you can’t do this and can’t do that. In Dragon Warriors, the culture is that if you don’t have a suzerain, you are just a landless vagabond.
Some games do get away without explictly defining norms and culture. This is usually because norms and culture, while adding details, do impose on the game to be played in a certain way.
4. Laws of the World
How does the world work? Let put physics and chemistry aside, as those can be hard to defined in-game (or much less change). But how does magic, the gods, supernatural powers, demons summoning and such work? Other “laws” to think about also the right to bear arms, how does one become a citizen of a country, what sort of common law of courtesy exists between gods and supernatural beings and so on.
In the Tales of Earthsea, magic works via true names and the principle of balance. You will need to know the true name of a living being in order to work magic on him/her/it. This is itself is a big story element in the novel. The other being that if you use magic to bring rain down on one region, you are causing another to suffer a drought. This has ramifications on the PCs’ actions and is also excellent for plot hooks.
Hopefully what I am typing make sense. To fill up a meta-plot, basically, try to strike for a theme. You can have more than one – unorganised chaos is a theme good for the usual hack and slash or sword and sorcery genre. History would help to come up with interesting characters, events that have repercussions that would affect your PCs now. Norms and culture could restrict what your PCs can do but at the same time helps to suspend disbelief. Finally, adding a touch of “how things work in this game world or dungeon” grounds the player to the world.
On reading a RPG.Net thread about campagins which go downhill rapidly, one type that often surfaces is the “time-travel-with-characters-from-different-worlds”. The problem? Inconsistency and lack of a meta-plot. What is a Star Fleet officer doing in Victorian London with a werewolf? How are they supposed to behave in a world that is so chaotic? What are the norms? Can they just kill someone they don’t like because there is no police? If there is a police, how could they stand against phasers and werewolves? And if the police are actually clockwork robots
Hopefully, from this one can see the value of the Meta Plot and how things can quickly go south if it is not properly managed.
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