The world of Shadowrun, Some thoughts Options

[Chrysalis]

Recently I have been thinking about Shadowrun and some of the conversations on dumpshock. Most of the conversations seem to involve and often also devolve into rules and their application and often enough which is more right the rules or the person who is interpreting them. Another aspect often brought up sometimes as the forefront but often driven into the periphery in these conversations is the game world.

According to the GNS theory developed by Ron Edwards. Games can be divided up into three categories: gamist, narrativist, and and simulationist. While GNS theory is concerned with the social interactions of players, it has also been extrapolated to direct RPG design. Accordingly, a game can be classified according to how strongly it encourages or facilitates players reinforcing behaviours matching each category. Game designers also find the theory useful in explaining why players play certain games. Ron Edwards also argues that successful games can be delineated according to one of the three categories.

In many ways Shadowrun has evolved during its 20 year life cycle into a very different game of today. While there is much talk among the game designers of Shadowrun of the metaplot, in many ways the foibles of the Shadowrun gaming world when compared to common sense understandings of how the world operates clearly indicate that the purpose of the world is to create a stage in which the PCs who are Shadowrunners can operate.

For the stage to be large enough for PCs as shadowrunners the game designers have to take, if viewed from the GNS theory, a gamist stance on world construction. The depth of the world and common sense often have to be sacrificed to create multiphasic encounter areas in which the PCs can be inserted without too much friction. This also means that many of the environments have to reach for certain markers that allow for the stage to be set correctly.

The backdrop of Shadowrun is that of authoritarian police states, where the legal rights of individuals have been curbed and where legal entities, such as corporations and city states, have a more dominant role in the structure of society. Similar backdrops can be found in 1920s-1940s dystopian science fiction films. The stage itself is set in areas of anarchy, where the pervasiveness of the police state is not allowed to approach. Similar markers for the stage can be found in movies such as Casablanca.

This leads to one of the problems I perceive to be in Shadowrun and that the backdrop has become far too small for the sizes of the stages being set. One cannot talk about free cities anymore or of pockets of anarchy, but regions. This means that because there is an insistence of creating many stages to play Shadowrun the backdrop of the world suffers because of it. Looking through the newest edition of Shadowrun the backdrop is quite scarce, instead of background books talking about backdrop they instead are focused on setting the stage. It also means that those reading the books have very little idea of the backdrop of the world in which the planned events or adventures will be set. It also indicates a flaw in the game designers who wish to carry on metaplots which have larger impacts, because as the backdrops gain less focus the metaplots equally gain very little purchase for them to gain a more permanent hold on the stage.

Finally, I wished to say as it is 8AM and I still feel exceptionally tired that Shadowrun is a good game from a gamist perspective, but as the stage has grown so large the backdrop of the world has become increasingly thin and flimsy. There is also an increased possibility that interest will wane by roleplayers over the next two years as the Shadowrun backdrop world continues devolve.

[RedeemerofOgar]

I'm afraid I must agree (though I must say that your point devolved a bit towards the end of your post, a natural result of posting at 8am). One of the largest flaws i've seen in SR4 is that it seems to have been written as an expansion of SR3 rather than as a full and complete world-building system. More and more I find myself encountering unexplained and unexplored areas of both rules and descriptions which were fully or at least partially addressed in the previous edition of the rules. The only way I've been able to explain it is that SR4 was written, edited and proofed solely by people familiar with the SR3 world, thereby removing the perspective necessary for them to realize that they often did not explain the backdrop at all, but rather merely highlighted the updates. This is thankfully not a comprehensive syndrome, but it certainly happens more often than it should have, and I think it is directly responsible for much of the prominence of the stage-setting and paleness of the backdrop that you address.

...So, is there anything to be done about it at this point?

[HentaiZonga]

I'm afraid I must agree (though I must say that your point devolved a bit towards the end of your post, a natural result of posting at 8am). One of the largest flaws i've seen in SR4 is that it seems to have been written as an expansion of SR3 rather than as a full and complete world-building system. More and more I find myself encountering unexplained and unexplored areas of both rules and descriptions which were fully or at least partially addressed in the previous edition of the rules. The only way I've been able to explain it is that SR4 was written, edited and proofed solely by people familiar with the SR3 world, thereby removing the perspective necessary for them to realize that they often did not explain the backdrop at all, but rather merely highlighted the updates. This is thankfully not a comprehensive syndrome, but it certainly happens more often than it should have, and I think it is directly responsible for much of the prominence of the stage-setting and paleness of the backdrop that you address.

...So, is there anything to be done about it at this point?

Other than creating a Fifth Edition? I'm not sure.

The thing is, a Fifth Edition would be an awesome thing, because the 3rd->4th was a good move (there, I said it) - it was just executed imperfectly. A fifth edition could either "refine" the 4th into something the original SRers could get behind, or help break completely from them and be fully self-sustaining.

I'm not sure if either of those are likely, primarily because there's a bit of subconscious bad-blood between the developers of 4th Ed and people who are critical of 4th Ed - and I think that animosity is going to keep anyone on either side from objectively looking at what 4th got "right" and what it got "wrong" in order to refine it into a superior 5th edition.

[KCKitsune]

The game mechanics are some of the best I've seen and the cyberware/bioware is my favorite interpretation ever.

I also love the chatting between the shadowtalkers.

I will agree with you that the mega corps are something that we in the real world will never see. Let's face it... armies are EXPENSIVE! Corps are not going to shell out the cash for one unless that is their business (Blackwater for instance).

Also Shadowrun's reliance on sterotypes (Mexico and the Aztec religion... 'nuff said) is getting so dated that it's not funny. Also with the way the world today is going the idea of the nuyen... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif) More like the nuyuan more than anything. The reason I say that is because Japan is a walking corpse that just will not lie down. Check their demographics... you will see Japan's place in the world diminish unless they start having a LOT of babies.

[BlueMax]

I will agree with you that the mega corps are something that we in the real world will never see. Let's face it... armies are EXPENSIVE! Corps are not going to shell out the cash for one unless that is their business (Blackwater for instance).

Also Shadowrun's reliance on sterotypes (Mexico and the Aztec religion... 'nuff said) is getting so dated that it's not funny. Also with the way the world today is going the idea of the nuyen... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif) More like the nuyuan more than anything. The reason I say that is because Japan is a walking corpse that just will not lie down. Check their demographics... you will see Japan's place in the world diminish unless they start having a LOT of babies.

I don't know where it happened. Suddenly, everyone started to think Shadowrun had to make some sort of real world sense. And that it had to be updated to keep up with the worlds changes.

I don't think Shadowrun was supposed to make logical sense to you and I, at least not as applied to our world. Shadowrun was a D&D of the future. Corporations were the new close bordered countries. Countries founded on the ideas of rights, equality, and to some extent, law and order, had failed. There were also elements of parody in the story. Ridiculous parody too. The Shiawase decision is a flipside parody to Atlas Shrugged, instead of a world that failed due to too much government the world of Shadowrun suffered from almost no government. As to Shadowrun being "thin and flimsy", sure. But lets not say thin and flimsy, let us say that the premise was a framework and malleable. It was not until sometime after 1989 that the metaplot was a driving factor in the game. Or at least this is how I remember it being everywhere I played in 1989 to somewhere about 1995-6. Then things changed from the approach above. Suddenly, instead of KE's drek hot hit squad, people would talk about the FBI's units.

Marketing. I suspect that the change was brought on by marketing who knew, wisely, that the next generation of kidlets could not possible be expected to grasp the unique point of view those of us who were aware during the Reagan years had. Honestly, there are no shows like "Sledge Hammer" anymore, which leads me to ask

"Why so serious?"

[Synner667]

Other than creating a Fifth Edition? I'm not sure.

The thing is, a Fifth Edition would be an awesome thing, because the 3rd->4th was a good move (there, I said it) - it was just executed imperfectly. A fifth edition could either "refine" the 4th into something the original SRers could get behind, or help break completely from them and be fully self-sustaining.

I'm not sure if either of those are likely, primarily because there's a bit of subconscious bad-blood between the developers of 4th Ed and people who are critical of 4th Ed - and I think that animosity is going to keep anyone on either side from objectively looking at what 4th got "right" and what it got "wrong" in order to refine it into a superior 5th edition.

I somewhat agree...
...But that 4->5 thing is what happened with 3->4 - the developers did the common "move it on a bit, and treat it like a new game".

I think SR 4 would have been better as a more "stand alone" game, with less reference to to SR 1-3...
...But now it's floundering as a cyberpunk game that's trying to get in with the Transhuman genre [see GURPS Transhuman for how closely SR is following that genre].

CP2020 did the same thing because they realised that you can't move the game on and keep it the same as well - moving the world on a few years and changing the tech/society/etc changes the game...
...So they did the Corporate War that devastated the world and changed the game in radical ways - and many people didn't like it [in fact, there's talk of a fan maintained "classic CP2020" movement].

The game mechanics are some of the best I've seen and the cyberware/bioware is my favorite interpretation ever.

But they're just World of Darkness game mechanics, with a bit of extra stuff and have been around since Aeon Trinity [late 80's/early 90's, I think]
[not surprising since the WoD developers are the same people who put together the original SR game mechanics, and I don't think the current developers credit the WoD developers].

[Fuchs]

The problem with a game focusing on metaplots is that it often leads to railroading, and can stifle creativity. I haven't used the canon backdrop for anything other than some cherry-picking of stuff I wanted to use in about 10 years because it just did not make sense to me, or was not something I wanted to play in, once I got comfortable as a GM in Shadowrun. Most of the "world changing" metaplots just felt stupid to me.

I did use and still use the Shadowrun rules (SR2, SR3 and now SR4) for just about every Science Fiction/Modern game I run. For me, the appeal is mostly the rules, and what parts of the setting I like - which is mostly the original setting of SR1, updated with wireless and some choice bits.

[hyzmarca]

I will agree with you that the mega corps are something that we in the real world will never see. Let's face it... armies are EXPENSIVE! Corps are not going to shell out the cash for one unless that is their business (Blackwater for instance).

Dude, we've already seen Megacorps. The British East India company, for example.
And there are corporations out there now with their own private armies, not particularly large ones, but effective enough. We just don't see them very often because they are generally used in third world countries where political instability is high and police presence is low.

To get a better understanding of how powerful a single corporation can become with a partial horizontal monopoly, just take a look at Gazprom, which very recently cut off the heat in a good chunk of Europe. This can happen when you have one company supplying most of the natural gas used by an entire continent through one set of pipes.

[sk8bcn]

IMO, SR's background is now so deep (and IMO it's a good thing) that if there was a 5th edition, a GM book + Player book would be the best model (look for exemple EarthDawn Classic books). IMO, there's plenty of material to make a GM book dense, perhaps not easily approched by newbees (but they could as well restrain themselves to Seattle for a start) + a rulebook with refined rules and material.

[sk8bcn]

Oh by the way, I didn't understand the first post.

Don't know if I am the only one

[Fuchs]

I think the game fares better if it's not overloaded with canon background - or at least the backdrop is presented in a way that makes it easy to ignore and change what you do not like. Too much backdrop can turn off new players, especially new GMs who might feel overwhelmed.

[raggedhalo]

You make some good points, but you're missing a crucial one -- according to the guys behind GNS theory, Shadowrun is simulationist.

I get that the way a lot of posts on the forums here turn out, you could be forgiven for thinking that it's gamist, but I don't think it is. The reason I love Shadowrun so much is the setting and world background, not the rules (although SR4's rules are the best SR rules I've seen). I figure I'm advantaged in that I've been playing/GMing Shadowrun since the early 90s and have thus amassed a fair collection of books, but nevertheless the game itself is more simulationist than gamist.

[Fuchs]

From what I can gather, the GNS Theory as writen is garbage anyway.

[Browncoatone]

Shadowrun is interesting because it allows you to play the immoral and violent thug that steals, kidnaps and murders for a living while at the same time gives you the opportunity to literally save the world from forces so dark that they make torture at the hands of the yakuza look like a fine Saturday at the beach.

My problems with Shadowrun stem from unrealistic elements in the setting, for example:

Stating that the middle class has all but been eliminated under the corporatocracy and then stating that the majority of housing and neighborhoods in the Seattle Metroplex are middle class.

The entire idea of 'soykaf' where soybeans would be grown to replace not meat but coffee.

That any government would prevent a large group of people who want government identification documents from having them.

That toxic spills, nuclear meltdowns, and other ecological disasters are accepted without any effort to counter them or repair the damage.

Its things like this that force me to adjust the setting so that it makes more sense.

[raggedhalo]

Nowadays I figure that soykaf is regular coffee with soymilk rather than moo-juice...

[Iota]

As background information: I played second edition for a while, two or three times third edition (though not spending a lot of time reading any of the books) and just started over again with fourth which I am now absolutley into.

The first thing I want to mention is what others already recognized, too, 4th edition is not a stand alone game! You have to read a lot of third edition books, if you really want to get into the world. I personally enjoyed this, was a kind of history research and I am still gathering old books to supply my recent game, but it possibly scares off a lot of people, because no one wants to buy an additional roleplaying game to understand the one he wants to play.

And yes, the 4th edition has some flaws, like the option to play drakes, totally outdated cyberware and so forth, BUT: compared to other roleplaying games these are only the typical mistakes resulting from "higher, faster, more".

Nevertheless SR4th is one of the greatest games I ever played/GMed. On the one hand it is an fantasy game (regarding magic, races and that kinda stuff) on the other the whole Mega-corp/Shadowrunner theme is sooo real!
Watched the news about those Somalian pirates hijacking oil tankers and other ships? Oh my god, my first thought was: this is so Shadowrun! And if they keep going like this the oil companys will quite quickly get their own armed troops to secure their business. Of course, I would not say that we are just one step ahead from a rise of mega-corps, but it is at least possible.

[Synner]

As lead developer on Shadowrun let me just make something clear and possibly give a little perspective, because I believe the OP has mistaken our intent.

It was a design (and commercial) decision made early on not to burden the first couple of years of SR4 with metaplot (either old or new) or an expansive revisiting of the world. The huge role of Shadowrun's metaplot and the overall depth of its 20-year history and world setting was/is a huge hurdle for new players. Too many people picked up a book in SR3 and were led to believe that to "get" the game you had to buy 10+ books just for backstory and then just to play catchup. Not fun.

Consequently Rob, and now I, opted to push metaplot into the background and tone down the history heavy elements of the setting until such time as the core rulebooks were all out. Even Emergence was intended to complement and expand new concepts in the game rather than push ahead the metaplot. (Though it ended up adding considerably to it, and in roundabout ways addressed many hanging threads from SR3, hopefully in such a manner that it isn't either obvious or grating to new players who don't know these are hanging threads). Our approach was to create an entry point for new players who can then, if they want, delve into a greater universe. That means leaving the luggage at the door, at least for a little while.

That said, we have no intention of reducing metaplot or world depth, but we consciously decided to put it on the backburner while we drew up the fundamentals to get people playing the game - unfortunately with the shift to Catalyst and other issues that have arisen we've only (almost) completed the core set last year. However, as soon as we could, we dived back into metaplot and world development... see Ghost Cartels and the upcoming Dawn of the Artifacts adventures. Even the core location books are designed with metaplot in mind now (as should be obvious with both the aforementioned story arcs or will be once Dawn starts coming out).

All that said the issue here is one of perspective. Using the previous editions for a moment, I believe the OP is missing the obvious. Things take time and there's only so much youy can cram into a book. Stop for a second and consider SR3 (though any edition). Consider the first three years of releases and look at them in isolation (don't figure in SR2 releases or the other 8 years of SR3 releases). Now compare. I think it does wonders if you actually isolate and compare the first three years and compare that with SR4's releases to date in terms of setting development and metaplot - even taking into account that we've consciously opted to veer away from metaplot and history heavy books to make for a more newbie-friendly schedule.

What SR3 and previous editions did was simply to front-load setting books that gave a lot more depth to certain key elements of the universe (ie. Corporate Guide, Underworld sb, etc), but otherwise book by book SR4 releases contain more setting information than their SR3 counterparts. SR3 had ten years of metaplot and world development, which built directly on SR2. Add in the fact that we were consciously keeping the metaplot to a minimum to avoid dissuading new players... and I'm pretty pleased with what we've managed to sneak in.

Please feel free to compare. SR3 core did indeed have a very light treatment of the Pacific Northwest and Seattle. In SR4, we replaced that with Life on the Edge that provides insight on life in 2070 in pretty much any first world country. Take a look at Man and Machine and feel free to tell us how prevalent personal augmentation is in Seattle or any first world country or which corporations are doing what. Compare with Augmentation. Can you tell me how common or regionally widespread all the metavariants are based on the Shadowrun Companion? You can with Runner's Companion. Read through the material referencing everyday Matrix use and its relevance to everyday life in the Matrix sb. Compare with what's in Unwired. In SR3 you had to wait for Shadows of Asia for your first passing look at what it means to be a citizen in an Awakened country, in SR4 its offered up (albeit briefly) in Street Magic and Runner's Companion. Is all this metaplot development? Clearly, no. Is it relevant setting material that ties into the Sixth World's own unique history? Yes, and more importantly it creates a reference framework that is useful for anyone running in most Sixth World settings - which makes sense since we've been publishing core books.

But let's get back to the concern expressed by the OP and look at the schedule that we've announced for this year (and which has been mapped out two years in advance and doesn't cover a few Anniversary surprises):
Vice - Underworld/Crime sourcebook
Corporate Guide - Corporations sourcebook.
Sixth World Almanac - History and Sixth World overview book.
Seattle 2072 - Revisiting Seattle in depth 20 years on.
Dawn of the Artifacts - Metaplot campaign set of 4 adventures.
Running Wild - the paracritter sb.

As anyone who has read to the end of Ghost Cartels will tell you, it lays the seeds (pun intended) for a long term metaplot with huge ramifications. I'll let you make up your own minds about whether wider-setting development devolving is actually a trend, or whether we've been setting the table so that when we do it we do it right.

[DV8]

Also Shadowrun's reliance on sterotypes (Mexico and the Aztec religion... 'nuff said) is getting so dated that it's not funny. Also with the way the world today is going the idea of the nuyen... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif) More like the nuyuan more than anything. The reason I say that is because Japan is a walking corpse that just will not lie down. Check their demographics... you will see Japan's place in the world diminish unless they start having a LOT of babies.

As an aside; why do a lot of people feel the need to rewrite Shadowrun history to more accurately mirror our own since Shadowrun took off? Isn't it an alternate timeline?

[Fuchs]

As an aside; why do a lot of people feel the need to rewrite Shadowrun history to more accurately mirror our own since Shadowrun took off? Isn't it an alternate timeline?

I don't rewrite the Shadowrun history to reflect our own time, I rewrite it so it makes more sense to me - and mostly I rewrite the metaplot-influenced timeline, from 2050 on onward.

[pbangarth]

Thank you, various posters for introducing me to the existence of gaming theories such as GNS, and competing ones to which a search of GNS has led me. I haven't read deeply enough to know whether the various 'theories' are testable in any way, which seems to an academic like me a basic requirement for the use of the word.

Also, a big thank you to Synner for giving us some insight into the planning framework for Shadowrun. It's a bit like Columbus and the egg. Now that Synner made the big picture more explicit, it seems obvious.

I started playing/GMing Shadowrun in 1st edition. What drew me to the game from others like AD&D was the level to which I could relate my own life experience and world view to the game. There were issues and problems in the game that matched what I saw going on in the world around me. I could immerse myself into the play in a way that allowed me to think I was combatting some of the big evils of the real world. It also allowed me to explore alternate versions of myself. "There, but for the grace of God and the love of a good woman, go I."

High fantasy role playing still allowed me to explore issue such as "Would I die for a friend?". What it didn't allow, and Shadowrun did, was exploring things like, "How would I fare if I had chosen a different path?" For all the make-believe of any RPG, Shadowrun was easier to believe, even with the magic. And more fun for me because It was so easy to imagine it happening right here, right now. So, how important is it to me that Shadowrun is not keeping pace with the events of the real world?

As it turns out, not very. First of all, I recognize that no game system, no set of developers, have any hope of keeping up with the changes of modern society. One of the most prevalent tropes in the literature of well-being and social adaptation is that we as a species cannot cope with the rate of change in society. So how are a bunch of RPG writers supposed to do so? Twenty-five years ago Japan and glam rock were on our minds. Today it's China/India and rap. What will it be in another twenty years? Should the game try to reflect that rapid change?

Only in so far as it can do so without overburdening the game and the players with detail and rewrites of history. Shadowrun cannot be anything but an alternate history. Keeping pace with the changes of the real world is impossible.

Second, the alternate world of Shadowrun serves my needs very well. I can still very easily create a version of me that did choose to do to that bully in high school what I fantasized about. And follow through the effects of that life choice in a way that still relates to my life now.

The broad sweep of corporate greed/environmental degradation/social disintegration that pervades the game parallels the headlines and the exposés in today's newspaper just fine. A couple of hundred kilometers north of where I live, someone is bombing natural gas wells, and the local community that doesn't want its environment destroyed isn't talking. Somali pirates are making runs on oil tankers, and (coincidentally?) striking back at a first world that royally fucked over their little corner of Africa. Private mercenary companies are getting rich while ignoring the rules regular soldiers have to follow.

And yet for all the real-world connections, I can still immerse myself in as much fantasy as I want. I can create a magician who flies under his own power to the edge of the Gaiasphere, dressed in a spacesuit, and watch meteor showers from the edge of space. I can be a rebellious punk who lets the mana flow through him into the drums. I can be the Ghost in the Machine. I can empower myself enough to tilt, not just at windmills but at the whole damn electric company. I can even fight to save the world, yet one more time.

Finally, I can write stories that have all that fantasy and reality thrown in together, in a system that mostly makes gaming and physical sense, and with a background that is rich and varied enough that any story line I might wish to follow can be accomodated. I am able to write stories that reward my girls' desires and fantasies, rather than stifling them with games that pander to the self-important 'professional' gamers who think they know the One True Way to approach a run. I can in fact create a world which no longer follows the canon world of Shadowrun, and get along just fine, thanks. I appreciate the efforts of the writers, and profit from their efforts to reduce the amount of work I have to do (keep up the good work, gang), so I tend to follow the 'official history'. But I can turn left if I want to.

I don't think another game out there comes even close to providing the opportunities that Shadowrun does. Yes, I've played and enjoyed Paranoia, Changeling, Traveller, Mechwarrior, Call of Cthulhu, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Biker Nuns with Guns, others I can't recall right now, and many, many incarnations of D&D.

I keep coming back to Shadowrun.

Peter

[Pendaric]

I will concur. Though detail is certainly required, so is scope. The combine flexibility of the core concepts combined with scope and detail of the game world allows a wide and evokative spectrum of stories and personas. It has created an iconic and lasting creation. Though I still play SR3 the work by the Dev's on SR4 is inspiring and leads me to continue to buy and intergrate these new concepts on the every evolving but quintisential Sixth World.

The best RPG's are an alloy, a compromise, between the elements identified GNS. The strength of the orginality of SR is evidenced by the strong work that continues to be produced by the Dev's and the fan base, all the way to where it counts. Each time you play.

[JFixer]

I will agree with you that the mega corps are something that we in the real world will never see. Let's face it... armies are EXPENSIVE! Corps are not going to shell out the cash for one unless that is their business (Blackwater for instance).

I read in an article somewhere a few years back that Microsoft was getting like two thirds of it's new personnel straight out of the military sector as they finished their tours, which meant that every designer, programmer, graphic artist, and basement monkey had full on combat training, and sometimes combat experience out the gate. They have APC vehicles (humvees) and armed security on site, and there are already 'special laws' that apply to corporate properties. We're not far away from the legally autonomous, army-toting MegaCorp /now/.

[tete]

we've consciously opted to veer away from metaplot...

Why? I think the scaring away new players is a slight misnomer. My wife getting into VtM about 2 years before the release of nWOD is at leased one example of someone enjoying lots of metaplot. I understand keeping it out of the core to some extent but really ghost cartels could have been released right after the core book. The book that got me into shadowrun was the orginal seattle source book (well actually the shadowtalk in the street samurai catalog but i owned that for a couple years before buying anything else). Without the fluff I wouldn't have picked up the core book. Honestly if the fluff was good enough I would be using 4e rather than still using 2e. So far although I want to support shadowrun I'm only buying occasional books and not even opening some of them. Fluff always beats rules IMHO YMMV

[BlueMax]

Without the fluff I wouldn't have picked up the core book. Honestly if the fluff was good enough I would be using 4e rather than still using 2e. So far although I want to support shadowrun I'm only buying occasional books and not even opening some of them. Fluff always beats rules IMHO YMMV

Fluff and Metaplot are two different things, so I am confused by this post and would like to hear more. Fluff to me is the color, and darn tooting right some of us enjoy the color from second. Metaplot is a timeline that happens no matter what your characters do. A world outside their control. Which in my opinion changes it from a game to a move, or perhaps a novel. A third category here could be fiction, some of it plot and some of it fluff.


I find it interesting that Ghost Cartels is listed as a counter example to a meta plot. Though I have only read through GC once, it seems to be just like a metaplot. Your characters cannot alter the timeline, there are no trees and you watch as the events unfold. Sometimes, you get to do the dirtywork. There are lots of adventure ideas related to the tertiary needs of the plot included, making GC a metaplot campaign book of extraordinary scale.

Don't get me wrong, the player characters at my table cannot effect global change. They do however take particular interest in what happens in their hood. Sometimes, when a ganger in the barrens shows his sign, it can change the weather on the other side of the world.

[Stormdrake]

Synner,
Are the metaplots coming up going to tie into some of the older ones that where not wrapped up in Emergence? I know I am in the minority on this but I would love a return in some form of the "Horrors" from 1st/2nd edition.