Editing Metaplot

{{short description|Form of story-line}}
{{About|a story connecting multiple works, usually in a setting inspired by a role-playing game|a story within a story|metastory}}
The '''metaplot''' (also, '''metastory'''<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iaY9cMnOCUoC&dq=storyworld+metaplot&pg=PA143 |title=First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game |last2= |first2= |last3= |first3= |last4= |first4= |date=2004 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-23232-6 |pages=143 |language=en |quote=a metastory, primarily in the form of a predesigned story world and various plots within it}}</ref>) is the overarching storyline that binds together events in the official continuity of a published [[role-playing game]] [[campaign setting]], also defined as an "evolving history of a given fictional universe". Major official story events that change the world, or simply move important [[non-player character]]s from one place to another, are part of the metaplot for a game.<ref name=Pajączkowski>{{Cite book |last=Pajączkowski |first=Olaf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iDcfEAAAQBAJ&q=metaplot&pg=PA5 |title=Gry fabularne. Kultura – praktyki – konteksty |publisher=Stowarzyszenie Badaczy Popkultury i Edukacji Popkulturowej Trickster |isbn=978-83-64863-07-3 |editor-last=Dudziński |editor-first=Robert |pages=31–48 |language=pl |chapter=Artyzm czy robota na zlecenie? Wolność twórcza autorów książek osadzonych w światach RPG (na przykładzie powieści z cyklu Dragonlance i Forgotten Realms) |trans-chapter=Art or craft? Creative freedom of RPG writers (based on examples of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms series of novels) |editor-last2=Wróblewska |editor-first2=Anna}}</ref><ref name=White>{{cite book |last1=White |first1=William J. |last2=Arjonata |first2=Jonne |last3=Hitchens |first3=Michael |last4=Peterson |first4=John |last5=Torner |first5=Evan |last6=Walton |first6=Jonathan |editor1-last=Zagal |editor-first1=José P. |editor2-last=Deterding |editor-first2=Sebastian |date=2018 |title=Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations |chapter=Tabletop role-playing games |publisher=[[Routledge]] |pages=63–86 |isbn=9781138638907}}</ref><ref name=Callaghan>{{cite book |editor1-last=Callaghan |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Manhire |editor2-first=Bill |date=2006 |title=Are Angels OK?: The Parallel Universes of New Zealand writers and scientists |publisher=[[Victoria University Press]] |page=270 |isbn=978-0-86473-514-0}}</ref><ref name=Unterhuber>{{cite journal |last=Unterhuber |first=Tobias |date=2022 |title="Ein Spiel für alle". Interview mit Jasmin Neitzel |trans-title="A game for everyone". Interview with Jasmin Neitzel |language=de |url=https://zff.openlibhums.org/article/id/9113/ |journal=Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung |volume=10 |issue=1 |doi=10.16995/zff.9113 |s2cid=251450885 |access-date=September 4, 2022|doi-access=free }}</ref> 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 Publishing|White Wolf]]'s [[World of Darkness]]<ref name=White/><ref name=Hillenbrand>{{cite book |last1=Hillenbrand |first1=Tom |last2=Lischka |first2=Konrad |date=2016 |title=Drachenväter - Die Geschichte des Rollenspiels und die Geburt der virtuellen Welt |trans-title=Dragon fathers - the history of the role-playing game and the birth of the virtual world |language=de |publisher=epubli |isbn=9783741855580}}</ref> and the [[Time of Troubles (Forgotten Realms)|Time of Troubles]] and [[the Sundering]] for [[TSR, Inc.|TSR]]'s/[[Wizards of the Coast]]'s ''[[Forgotten Realms]]''.<ref name=Hillenbrand/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bergman |first1=Gregory |last2=Lambert |first2=Josh |date=2011 |title=Geektionary |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |page= |isbn=978-1-4405-1114-1}}</ref><ref name=Pajączkowski/> Because of events like this, many gaming groups choose to ignore the metaplot for a game entirely.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Metaplot is often developed not just by the writers, but by teams - multiple writers, editors, publishers, graphic designers and even players. The concept is related to more than just role-playing sourcebooks, as much of the metaplot can come from other media, such as novels (for example, ''[[The Legend of Drizzt]]'' or the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' novels, representative of numerous [[List of Dungeons & Dragons fiction|''Dungeons & Dragons'' fiction]]).<ref name=Pajączkowski/><ref name=Callaghan/><ref name=Laurent/> 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.<ref name=Laurent>{{cite book |last=Di Filippo |first=Laurent |editor1-first=Anne-Sophie |editor1-last=Collard |editor2-first=Stéphane |editor2-last=Collignon |date=2017 |title=Le transmédia, ses contours et ses enjeux |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02978307/document |publisher=Presses universitaires de Namur |pages=54–55 |isbn=978-2-39029-102-2 |chapter=Les mondes d’Advanced Dungeons and Dragons au spectre du transmédia: l’exemple de Dark Sun |language=fr |access-date=August 27, 2022}}</ref><ref name=Snow>{{cite journal |last=Snow |first=Cason |date=2008 |title=Dragons in the stacks: an introduction to role-playing games and their value to libraries |journal=Collection Building |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=63–70 |doi=10.1108/01604950810870218}}</ref> For campaign settings based on movies, TV shows or other pieces of fiction, the plot of those works usually functions as the metaplot,<ref>{{cite book |last=Faricelli |first=Ryan |date=2015 |title=On A Roll - Level Up Your RPG |publisher=Reel Fun Studios |page=131 |isbn=978-1-312-90744-7}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2022}} while for historical settings [[history]] itself may fill this role.<ref name=Ward>{{cite book |last=Ward |first=Rachel Mizsei |editor1-last=Miller |editor1-first=Cynthia J. |editor2-last=Van Riper |editor2-first=Bowdoin |date=2013 |title=Undead in the West II: They Just Keep Coming |publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]] |page=281 |chapter=Genre Mashing in the Role-Playing Game ''Deadlands: The Weird West'', the Horror Steampunk Western |isbn=978-0-8108-9264-4}}</ref>

Metaplot appears in settings of various genres like ''[[The Dark Eye (role-playing game)|The Dark Eye]]'',<ref>{{cite journal |last=Unterhuber |first=Tobias |date=2020 |title="Donecker, Stefan et al., Hg. ''Forschungsdrang & Rollenspiel. Motivgeschichtliche Betrachtungen zum Fantasy-Rollenspiel Das Schwarze Auge''. Ulisses, 2019." |url=https://zff.openlibhums.org/article/id/1942/ |department=Review |journal=Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung |volume=7 |issue=2 |doi=10.16995/zff.1942 |s2cid=213302959 |access-date=September 1, 2022 |language=de|doi-access=free }}</ref> ''[[Deadlands]]'',<ref name=Ward/> ''[[Dragonlance]]'',<ref name=Callaghan/> ''[[Fading Suns]]'',<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Schallegger |first=René |date=2012 |title=Joyful Games of Meaning-Making: Role-playing Games and Postmodern Notions of Literature |type=PhD |pages=224–225 |publisher=[[Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt]]}}</ref> ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'',<ref name=Snow/> and ''[[Shadowrun]]''.<ref name=White/><ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=William J. |date=2020 |title=Tabletop RPG Design in Theory and Practice at the Forge, 2001–2012 - Designs and Discussions |url= |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |page=231 |isbn=978-3-030-52818-8 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-52819-5|s2cid=226616406 }}</ref>

==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".<ref name=White/>

Role-playing game designer Jasmin Neitzel commented that metaplot could facilitate constructive interaction of players with a game setting within and beyond individual gaming groups, but could be a hindrance in getting beyond harmful stereotypes used in past products.<ref name=Unterhuber/>

Olaf Pajączkowski notes that the metaplot constraints reduce the freedom of writers, who have to respect the history and present events in the universe (as many books are set in the present), and they cannot "break the world". Pajączkowski gives an example of [[Elaine Cunningham]]'s novel ''Reclamation''  which was cancelled because the metaplot evolved changing the world (a 100-year jump) making her book 'obsolete', and the publisher decided it's not worth finishing as it was no longer set in the "present" of the evolving ''Forgotten Realms'' universe.<ref name=Pajączkowski/>

==References==
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[[Category:Role-playing game terminology]]