‘Metaplot’ used to be a regular buzzword in the world of tabletop RPGs, but we don’t see it much these days. Divisive even in its heyday, the practice of changing the overarching narrative of your RPG setting is now something of a relic. One company, however, still commits to metaplots in a big way: Paizo, publisher of Pathfinder.
“Metaplots involve getting a bunch of different teams together, which is always exciting”, Adam Daigle, Paizo’s director of narrative, tells me. This year’s metaplot, the Hellfire Crisis, means all-out war between two of the setting’s most prominent countries, Cheliax and Andoran. This is the culmination of a hundred-year rivalry between the two nations, and the fallout affects the entire Inner Sea region of Golarion.
“We knew it was going to need some adventure support”, Daigle says, “because you can’t make big changes in the setting without putting it on screen and letting the players have a hand in it”. “But we also needed lore books so we can talk about how the world changes, and we needed rules line stuff to give people the tools for their character to play through it all.”
Paizo spread its metaplot across a year’s worth of releases. One rulebook, two adventure paths, a novel, and an organized play adventure later, and Pathfinder’s setting is changed forever.
And that’s after Godsrain, another metaplot that literally killed off a prominent god in 2024. Metaplot isn’t a one-off marketing stunt for Paizo – it’s a well-used tool that keeps worldbuilding fresh.
I love to read tabletop RPGs as much as I love playing them. That’s partly because I’m a greedy magpie gamer, with so many tomes in my library that playing them all on the regular simply isn’t feasible. But even when I do get a system to my table, I care deeply about the setting it comes with. This is the foundation on which I build my own stories. And I want to be excited when I read about a setting, particularly if I’m on a return visit.
Metaplots are an excuse for the writers behind the game to get creative. That in turn creates all sorts of plot threads for an inventive reader to follow. Or it might give them a fully-prepared campaign to work into their world, like the Hellfire Crisis adventure path, Hellbreakers.
Without these changes, settings get stale. The biggest, easiest comparison to make is D&D. We haven’t seen a world-altering metaplot for Dungeons and Dragons since 2014, when the then-new fifth edition was welcomed to the world through The Second Sundering. This was a narrative shift for the Forgotten Realms setting, but a fringe one that mainly played out in novelizations and one-off adventures.
Since then, D&D has been mostly static. New books are still regularly released detailing key nations, factions, and figures, but the information is largely recycled. This was my biggest problem with the recently released Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. Ravenloft is a fascinating setting, but nothing about it has changed for years. What is there to look forward to when I come back that I haven’t had to invent myself? A few new DnD classes, but nothing that ties them to the world.
Daigle tells me he thinks metaplots “make the world feel more alive and dynamic”. “You can create a setting book, but if you don’t change anything, people start wondering 10 years down the line what happened to all those little stories you teased but never played out.”
This enthusiasm isn’t shared by everyone, however. Critics of metaplot call it restrictive, saying they don’t want their campaigns beholden to events decided by someone else.
Another common gripe is the work it takes to keep up with a setting’s story changes. Vampire: the Masquerade was one of the best games for rich metaplots back in the ’90s and 2000s, but it had a nasty habit of dropping major plot twists in minor sourcebooks. Keeping up became confusing and expensive.
Even today, Paizo has to deal with metaplot dissenters. Godsrain killed off Golarion’s god of war, which put a lot of Clerics in a tough position. Your powers no longer canonically function the same way, which means adapting your character in a way you might not have expected (or, indeed, want to). In a small way, it posed a limitation on how the game was actually played.
“We knew no matter what we chose, it was going to upset someone”, Daigle says. “There was a lot of internal discussion about which god to kill and why.” “You have to thread the needle of creating something fun and cool without turning people off.”
Paizo handles the inherent issue of metaplots by offering diversity. The events of a metaplot take place across a variety of products, giving players different ways to engage with it. If you’re only here for new class options, you can pick up that sourcebook and keep homebrewing your own stories.
Plus, Pathfinder got plenty of new books that weren’t Hellfire-focused at the same time. Hellfire Dispatches and Hellbreakers both released this year, but so did Impossible Magic, Bastion of Blasphemies, and Lost Omens: High Seas. Golarion is a huge setting, with remote places unaffected by major political movements – or simply other stories to tell at the same time. You can pick and choose.
“People have referred to [Golarion] as a kitchen sink setting”, Daigle tells me, “which was absolutely intentional”. “We wanted to have a place for any story to be told, from an ancient Egypt analog to frozen winterlands.” “We wanted to have enough places to tell all the stories that you can.” “I think we could tell stories in Golarion forever”, he adds.
The world of Pathfinder is going to keep growing and changing, whether it be at player tables or in official plotlines. Personally, I find that very exciting.
Got a metaplot from another system you’ve loved? I’m keen to hear your stories in the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
