Which game has the best metaplot, and what is it?

Which game has the best metaplot, and what is it?

Metaplots were a mistake, just look at L5R.

Can you summarize the L5R metaplot for me?

I'm blown away when I hear my friend talk about mechwarrior or legend of the 5 rings and i try to look up some factoid on a fan wiki and find thousands or articles about the fictional history of made-up galaxies worth of planets with cultures and governments that span centuries.

The metaplot L5R was a brave and ambitious mistake, although it did have its moments.

Basically? They tied the ongoing story of the RPG setting to the real life results of card game tournaments, with how various decks did and how deck archetypes evolved influencing how events unfolded in the world.

I recall someone mentioning something like a clan becoming in universe corrupted because a popular tournament deck used their cards along with demons, for example.

It's an interesting idea which does, from what I understand, have a few amazing stories associated with it, but it also had a lot of confusing and inconsistent spells where the changing card game meta did not make sense for a consistent unfolding story, leading to some incredibly stupid plot elements in an attempt to keep things going and make sense of it all.

The game wiki for our old Traveller game had something like 500 pages of entries.

That's not what metaplot means.

I'm assuming those entries detailed an intricate metaplot, otherwise you're right.

Thanks. THat does sound like a fun idea at first glance. I guess the devil is in the details.

Make a great setting then turn it to shit

This is what I meant yeah

Honestly, it did have some interesting bits and they gave people reason to be into the game and do stuff to try and impact the story. As you say though, the details are the trick. If during one arc one of the clans is too strong CCG wise they dominate and the others feel left out, etc.

Ultimatley it ended with a lot of poorly thought out decisions that made the setting make less sense and less appealing to many fans a little more each arc.

Eventually they seemed to realize this and made the 4th edition of the RPG a bit "time agnostic" as a lot of the RPG folks preferred to play in the "past" of the setting rather than the "present" storyline.

I'm not even joking, but what kind of gun is she using? I'm dumb enough I only recognize it as being a son of the AK family. Maybe the AMD-65?

>I'm dumb enough I only recognize it as being a son of the AK family

I mean, that's about the extent of the common knowledge one would be expected to have.
You might even be forgiven for not knowing even this much, as plenty of communities would be content to dismiss it as a "military type assault rifle" and leave it at that

As much as it falls apart the more you examine it I like the overarching Deadlands metaplot of the forces of hell seeking to bring about the apocalypse by basically terraforming the Earth by spreading fear.

The problem with metaplots though is any attempts of PCs to have a lasting impact on the world is so difficult to integrate that many companies simply do not attempt to which leads to players being merely along for the ride which I feel is a travesty in the glorious hobby that is tabletop role playing.

AMD-65. You can tell by the dumbass wire stock and foregrip.

Fading Suns

>They tied the ongoing story of the RPG setting to the real life results of card game tournaments

So the plot of the third Gamers movie?

Sounds like a terrible idea.

Plus, the big example given right here is also one of the big problems with doing this...
>a clan becoming in universe corrupted because a popular tournament deck used their cards along with demons, for example
The Phoenix, in lore, were known for their Wisdom over all. Yes, they had magical prowess, but they were careful and cautious in its use.
Then players started playing Phoenixes, and their playstyle dictated how the Phoenix clan acted.
Overnight, they morphed into Black Mage from 8-bit Theatre.

Wait, wasn't that the Chuda family? Snake Clan?

I honestly can't tell if that girl is a plastic action figure or a plastic model.