Meta plot ideas?

[Watson]

I really like the scenario creation chapter in Your Story. However, it does not give any ideas in regards to creating a meta plot for the whole campaign. It does a good job of helping the GM to create single scenarios, but not a story arc that goes beyond that, which could take multiple scenarios to find and put a stop to.
 
An example of such a meta plot is an organization that would like to create chaos and put a stop to the White Council. Another could be an ancient organization that would be working towards awaiking an ancient evil being that would threaten the world as we know it.

Do you have any ideas for a good meta plot that you want to share, or have ideas about how to create one?

[EdgeOfDreams]

We've got a meta-plot in my current game where a Rakshasa crime lord is trying to gain more influence in San Francisco and eventually get signed onto the Unseelie Accords in imitation of

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Marcone.

In our first scenario, we found out about his plans to intimidate many of the weaker members of the magical community in the city all on the same day with a show of force.  We managed to blunt his offensive, but were interrupted by a bigger threat - a necromantic ritual that was abusing the biggest ley line in the city.  At the end of the night, we'd stopped the necromancer, but the Rakshasa had grabbed control over more of the city. Not as much as he would have if we hadn't stood up to him, but it leaves us wondering how much longer we can deal with his machinations before someday having to confront him directly.

[Khalis231]

Mmmmmm ... meta plot. My favorite part of GMing. I've always struggled with the small details of adventure creation, but meta plot is where my heart is at.

A good meta plot has a mixture of structure and malleability. Structure and planning are needed give the sense of events moving outside of the players' control, for consistency, and so that details can be foreshadowed and revealed slowly. Malleability is needed because the plot still needs to be able to bend and sway with the players' actions and goals, and build towards an epic, meaningful conclusion without railroading the players into a certain course of action. "An ancient organization is working towards awakening an ancient evil being that would threaten the world as we know it" is a good starting point for a meta plot because it describes what's happening in the world, without dictating the players' actions with regard to the plot.

A good meta plot is overarching but not all-encompassing. It should help tie the scenarios in your campaign together, but shouldn't be so omnipresent that every adventure revolves around the meta plot (at least not in ways that are immediately obvious). Ideally, references to the meta plot should start slowly and then build and intensify as the campaign continues. TV shows do this all the time, and actually, the Dresden Files books are a great example of this type of storytelling technique. The first few novels are small-scale, more noir-ish and self-contained, while later novels get steadily larger in scope, and begin to introduce elements that tie the books together, while still being able to stand alone as novels in themselves.

I could go on forever, but those are the two most important guidelines I try to remember when creating meta plots. If you're looking for some specific ideas I'd be more than happy to help with those as well.

[Sanctaphrax]

In my current PbP game:

The players are on a diplomatic mission to secure military aid from Summer.

This is part of an ongoing struggle against an army of demons.

Which is in turn part of the entire world collapsing.

[UmbraLux]

Do you have any ideas for a good meta plot that you want to share, or have ideas about how to create one?

I generally consider the themes and threats to be metaplots.  If you want something 'bigger' than those, you might consider introducing a few world spanning organizations with agendas.  Or use the ones from the fiction. 

[Arcteryx]

I'd have to agree with Umbralux... isn't that themes and threats are? I thought of them as the drivers behind the campaign premise - at least that's the way I read them (and am using them). I also try to weave it into the undercurrent of the characters' Aspects to tie it all together even tighter.

[devonapple]

To be fair, having a Theme/Threat - and actually plotting out the path they will take - are separate things.

[Arcteryx]

No, that's true enough... great starting point though. And true too that sometimes you get into play and those themes and threats aren't nearly as compelling (no pun intended) in play as they seemed to be when the group thought them up...

[Khalis231]

I'm not sure if I'd put themes and threats in the category of meta-plots. They don't feel quite "big" enough to encompass a World-Shaking Prophecy of Doom^TM. I think they're smaller-scale on purpose, because DFRPG seems to encourage more organic, character- and NPC-driven stories. To take some examples from the books, I think Marcone and the Raiths would be examples of threats in Harry's setting of Chicago. They show up fairly often, and feature quite prominently in a few casefiles, but they aren't truly meta-plotty in the way that the

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Black Council

is (I'm new to the forums, do I need to spoiler-tag that?)

[UmbraLux]

To be fair, having a Theme/Threat - and actually plotting out the path they will take - are separate things.

True...but pre-plotting out a path in a narrative based game with significant amounts of player agency seem prone to fail...

I tend to pick a long term goal and then simply ask myself "What are they doing to reach that goal now?"  Succeed or fail, I'll ask the same question next time that threat comes up.

I'm not sure if I'd put themes and threats in the category of meta-plots. They don't feel quite "big" enough to encompass a World-Shaking Prophecy of Doom^TM. I think they're smaller-scale on purpose, because DFRPG seems to encourage more organic, character- and NPC-driven stories. To take some examples from the books, I think Marcone and the Raiths would be examples of threats in Harry's setting of Chicago. They show up fairly often, and feature quite prominently in a few casefiles, but they aren't truly meta-plotty in the way that the

(click to show/hide)

Black Council

is (I'm new to the forums, do I need to spoiler-tag that?)

The world changes...and so should your threat aspects.  While Marcone's organization is almost certainly a "Threat" early in the series, the organization you spoilered is more of a threat later on.

I tend to weave several themes/threats in and out of the story regardless of system.  Some local, some regional, a perhaps one or two world-spanning.  Or perhaps you simply find evidence later that the world-spanning threat was behind that local group you stamped out...I may tie things together later that I hadn't thought of initially.  Often simply by listening to players asking "Do you think..." and then running with it.  Use your players' discussion for inspiration! 

[devonapple]

True...but pre-plotting out a path in a narrative based game with significant amounts of player agency seem prone to fail...

The world changes...and so should your threat aspects.  While Marcone's organization is almost certainly a "Threat" early in the series, the organization you spoilered is more of a threat later on.

Of course. And GMing styles are going to vary widely as far as how much prep work will suit a given game. But starting out knowing "what does X want?" and "how will X go about getting it?" is a step which can help determine *how* the antagonists respond to the player's interference. There ideally should be *some* plan for the players to interfere in.

But again, all of this varies with GM style, so someone who is adept at improvising and also at tying loose threads together into a narrative may not need to do this.

[Bruce Coulson]

My meta-plots evolve from my basic scenarios, the Themes and Threats, and player actions.

Currently, in one campaign the meta-plot involves an ancient and powerful spirit of disease and corruption, awoken thanks to a battle between a Denarian and Knight, who is trying to build their power by recruiting, well, a lot of people.  The spirit can erode/corrupt bonds of fealty, to the point of ending bonds between the Fae and their respective Courts.  (And replacing them with his own, natch.)

The PCs are trying to battle this rising tide, while weathering the Vampire War, and avoiding being drawn into the battle between Winter and Summer.  Things have been further complicated by the current head of the White Court now being a pawn of the spirit...

[SunlessNick]

The world changes... the organization you spoilered is more of a threat later on.  -  UmbraLux

Though I wouldn't call it a threat specific to Chicago, or one that serves to define what Chicago's about in dramatic terms.  But that could mean either that world-spanning matters shouldn't be themes or threats or that they should be separate from the ones given for the home city - maybe a game where such a plot is intended needs a "world creation" as well as a city creation, where the meta-plot themes and threats go, and other cities or regions take the place of locations (where the faces can represent contacts or rivals from out of town).

On the other hand, you want your home city to be reflective of the greater struggle - the way Chicago-as-crossroads reflects the way the factions' interrelations are shifting in the novels.  So while it's worth still taking the PC's Aspects into account for the greater metaplot, it's also worth treating the city as a character and going on its own Aspects too.

For an idea for one, what if the Denarians are trying to engineer another paid betrayal as atrocious as Judas' to bring more of their kind into the world - the Order of the Blackened Krugerrands, perhaps - or given that payment would be likely to be electronic transfer these days, creating a more nebulous avenue of influence that's impossible to lock away on holy ground.  But what could such a betrayal possibly be?

[Lanir]

Thinking about my running style, I tend to take an NPC or organization or idea or whatever that the players like a lot or like to hate and as soon as I identify that, form a metaplot based on that. I guess my reasoning there is that a metaplot has to be interesting enough that the players are willing to hook into it when it pops up and be invested enough in it to keep track of it when it's not on screen. I sometimes do create these sorts of things from scratch but if I can scavenge the idea from something the players are already invested in that's generally preferable. Basing on things the players already like gives them some indirect say in the matter without really tying your hands about how things are constructed and that increases the buy-in. A metaplot without buy-in is just a somewhat lame GM sorting tool.

Edit: This kind of feels like another side to some of the ideas already expressed about meta-plots but I'm not feeling clever enough at the moment to put it all together. Sorry!

[UmbraLux]

You can also use the theme running through all the novels and the game - power has a price.  Whether Harry is protecting friends in Storm Front or the world in Changes he's always paying for his power.  Sometimes in personal pain / sacrifice and other times by limited choices.  Either way, he pays a personal price for his power. 

Using themes consistently can also help create a dynamic meta plot.  Take a city with a corruption based theme as an example.  That corruption should show up in many encounters and difficulties.  Everything from petty corruption such as cops taking bribes to ignore parking tickets on up to large scale corruption of a Queen of Sidhe working for the other side.  When you reveal a cause for all the corruption, you've tied disparate pieces together in a meta plot.  Do it right and people will kick themselves for not seeing it all along.