Ramshead Publishing, makers of Universalis.

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Player Driven Metaplot

There are several benefits to a strong, well-detailed metaplot.  They provide a number of ready made plot hooks for the GM to build upon and give the players a real sense that the world actually exists.  In other words that there are things going on in the background that the characters may or may not be a part of.  There are some strong disadvantages to metaplot too.  If the source material is too tightly woven to it, then large parts of the game setting may become unusable based on a play groups actions.  Even worse is when players become disinterested in major elements of a meta plot.  No matter how good the game is, if the players don’t buy into the story and become committed to moving it forward play can quickly become lack luster.

Universalis is a great way of providing metaplot to your games while avoiding many of the disadvantages.  In between sessions of regular play, players can get together for a quick session of Universalis (often this can be fit in before a session while waiting for late comers, or afterwards when some players have to leave early.  It’s also very easy to do on-line).   In the Universalis game, players will be concerned with crafting the actions of the mover and shakers of the world, playing out what the various factions and power brokers are up to.  For instance, in a Vampire campaign where player characters are relatively weak soldiers, Universalis can be used to play out the interactions and plotting of the influential powers.  The new happenings and story lines so developed can then be easily brought into the Vampire game as current events going on in the city.

There are two huge advantages to this.  First, the players will never outrun or render obsolete a prewritten metaplot.  Likewise, GMs won’t have to railroad players in order to keep them within the canon material.  Instead the metaplot that is created over time using Universalis will already be customized to the needs of the actual campaign being played.  Second, players will be much more into the story because its one which they helped to develop.  Whatever aspect of the setting that the players find most compelling is the one most likely to be developed in the Universalis game.  Thus, the GM can be assured that when he dangles plot hooks based on that game, his players will eagerly leap at them.