Quote from: tenbones;925574And yet oddly... I rather find that not true.

Quote from: CRKrueger;925659Just like Menelaus wanted you to...

Quote from: yosemitemike;925690Even more oddly, I find it to be entirely true.

Quote from: TristramEvans;925724What WAS the metaplot?

Quote from: Michael Gray;925537In the scene in the airpport (part 1) where she is landing to Tokyo to confront O-Ren Ishii, you can see that multiple passengers have katanas they are carrying openly around the airport. It's 'Martial Arts Assassin World'; they are very open about it.

Quote from: TristramEvans;925724What WAS the metaplot?

Quote from: Michael Gray;925733Here's a humorous summary someone did of the metaplot on RPGnet some years ago:

Spoiler

So, let me see here... I'm not even sure where to begin... I'm not even sure I got the order straight.... Please correct any inaccuracies.

     It all starts with the Gangrel leaving the Camarilla, because Xavier found out the truth about the antediluvians. So he's like, "Hey, you bastards, you're vampires, you're not suppose to lie. Now I know the truth, and I'm
gonna tell Mulder." Since he's so noble and gullible enough to actually believe what all the other elders have been saying all these centuries, Xavier walks away sobbing, cuz his fellow vampires have betrayed him. Most of the other Gangrel leave, too, cuz, you know, Xavier said so.

But you can still play a Gangrel. You're just on your own, and your life pretty much sucks.

Then a big red star shows up in the sky, that only the supernaturals can see, and everyone goes, "uh-oh", but no one can figure out which game line it affects.

"Is that the eye of the Wyrm?"

"I dunno."

"How 'bout the first sign of the Final Nights?"

"I dunno."

Only a lone pooka discovers the truth: "Watch out, it's a cross-over metaplot coming!" But he's killed before he can reveal anything to the unsuspecting world.

Then a bunch of randy vampires start showing up, some even able to survive the day, and the vampire community is sent into a tizzy.

"You mean, this is the first time we've ever had 14th or 15th generation vampires? No one's ever done this thing before? The Tremere didn't even experiment?"

"Nope. See. The red star. It's all in the red star. Nothing can happen before the red star."

"Well, that sucks. What should we do?"

"Well, we do what we always do. Whenever something shows up we don't understand, we interpret it as the first sign of Gehenna and kill it."

"I thought the return of Aerosmith was the first sign?"

"Well then, the second sign."

While down in Mexico, a bunch of Sabbat Tremere antitribu are invited to this big piñata party being hosted by Tremere/Goratrix/Saulot, or whoever ~ it's a party, who cares! From all over the world, the Tremere antitribu show up, most likely summoned with mondo Presence, and also because they've never been known to miss a party, especially with the promise of free Cuervo.

Only one Tremere antitribu is suspicious enough to wonder, "Why are we all here?"

Another Tremere antitribu says, "Probably so we can all get killed."

And they both have a good laugh, cuz they know how contrary that is to vampire beliefs. Elders killing off their offspring? Get outta here! Besides, being Sabbat, they're ready for any antediluvian nonsense anyway. So, everyone's having a rocking good time, dancing to some Prince tunes, maybe a slow song or two for the lovers out there, and then the host suddenly decides to up and kill everyone. Talk about a party pooper. Just because someone forgot the salsa! And as he's disintegrating into ash, the
lone suspicious Tremere antitribu says, "Dammit! I knew that red star meant something!"

But you can still play a Tremere antitribu. You're just on your own, and your life pretty much sucks.

Then out of nowhere, the Kuei-jin start showing up, having this sophisticated society no one noticed until now. And boy are they pissed. Look at what these Westerners have done to Hong Kong and Tokyo ~ help to raise their economies, raise everyone's standard of living, and now even the lowliest peasant can eat by buying a happy meal at McDonalds.

"Those bastards!" they all cry, "We must have vengeance."

So some of the cool Chow Yun Fat-looking Kuei-jin ~ never once taking off their sunglasses ~ head out to California, and in a short period of time, manage to dismantle the entire Anarch Free States. No one can figure out how, though ~ not even the elders of the Blood Court or the Camarilla. The anarchs are even more confused, because each fight they got into, always the same thing seemed to happen. The Kuei-jin would start to do some dance, and say she was using Superdooper Shintai 4: Thrashing the Tongue of the Immortal Serpent.

And then the Kuei-jin would stop and say, "Wait, does that cost Yin Chi or Yang Chi? What do I roll again? Do I need to make a P'o roll? And what does it exactly do again?"

The fight between the anarchs and the Kuei-jin comes to a grinding halt, as all the Kuei-jin pull out their rule books, and start looking up their powers. The anarchs don't stomp on them during that moment, cuz they all are known for fighting fair.

Sometime during this whole mess, almost all of the Stargazers leave the Garou Nation, mainly to help out their brothers in the Beast Courts back home (who are just having the hardest time of it, the tea ceremonies and all), and mainly because they are sick of being asked, "What country are you from?" and "Do you speak English?" by all the other Garou. The other Garou are happy to see them go.

"They were a stupid tribe to begin with!"

The only people that seem to miss them are the munchkins who played Stargazers with Kalindo 5.

But you can still play a Stargazer. You're just on your own, and your life pretty much sucks.

Then, out there in India, Bangladesh, or Pakistan ~ somewhere that Americans don't have to deal with the consequences ~ the Ravnos antediluvian pops up, and the first thing he wants to do is get into a massive kung-fu fight. Three bad-ass Kuei-jin show up to avenge the death of their masters, I think, or just to show off their Dragon-Tiger-Crane Style kung-fu. The Ravnos ante previously sent a summons out to all the Ravnos in the world to join him in this WWF no-holds-barred title match, cuz, dammit, he's an antediluvian and he wants that belt! Ravnos start showing up, and no one suddenly notices all the pale bloodsuckers on the airplanes, or the fact that their wallets are missing.

Only one Ravnos is suspicious enough to wonder, "Why are we all here?"

Another Ravnos says, "Probably so we can all get killed."

And they both have a good laugh, cuz they know how contrary that is to vampire beliefs.

Then, the Technocracy ~ those masters of logic, deductive reasoning, technology, and Dr. Strangelove type thinking ~ decides to nuke the site of the battle from orbit. Just in case. Killing or radiating millions of innocent, non-American, non-European people, effectively destroying a vampire clan, and the three kung-fu bad-asses.

And the whole world goes, eh, so what.

A nuke went off in an area known for being a hotbed of war tension, but no one really says or does anything. Afterall, it was just a nuke ~ jeez, it's not like it was the first time a nuke has been set off in the world. After the fall-out, Kuei-jin wonder if they should have sent Jackie Chan instead, and the Ravnos have been stomped into a bloodline like those silly opera singers.

But you can still play a Ravnos. You're just on your own, and your life pretty much sucks.

Somehow, during this whole mess, the Rom from the World of Darkness: Gypsies book don't get involved, even though the book is being reprinted. Maybe it was because the book got such harsh criticism that it forced White Wolf to shelve World of Darkness: Whitey and World of Darkness: Negro and World of Darkness: Heathen Chinee ~ but all the Gypsies were pretty much kept out of the fray.

But the Ravnos antediluvian is not the only one to have appeared. The Tzimisce ~ you know, the guys who always pronounce their names with a lisp ~ ante is now underneath New York City, mainly because he's always wanted to see Cats live and on stage. He's still waiting for a show that isn't sold out. And in Russia, Baba Yaga dies at the hand of bigger bad-ass vampire, and all the Garou in Russia go, "Damn that was easy. Why did we even bother to fight? All we had to do was wait."

And the Assamites are having a time of it, because they are no longer cursed, but their risen Methuselah super-badass wants them to go out and kill even MORE people. What is an Assamite suppose to do? At least, Ur-Shulgi didn't invite them to a party.

The Technocracy aren't the only nuke happy bunch. In the Underworld, wraiths are basically having ectoplasmic orgasms with all the bombs they found. They decide to use it on the vampire city of Enoch, for no real reason, except they just hate those bloodsuckers, and because lots of people didn't like the Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand book. Someone points out to the Smiling Lord (I think) that the last great Maelstrom was caused by a nuke, and it nearly destroyed the underworld.

The Smiling Lord (I think) says, "So? And what's your point?"

Charon doesn't get involved because he's mortal now. Apparently they could never get cable down in Stygia, and he's been missing all his Buffy episodes. Besides, he finally gets to eat pizza that doesn't scream at him as he bites into it. Oh, yeah, nearly
forgot, the Jade Empire decides to attack Stygia, because heck, the Kuei-jin are doing it, why not them? Nukes go off and boom goes the most of the Underworld. Stygia and several necropoli are destroyed, and there's no longer a civilization for most Wraiths.

But you can still play a Wraith. You're just on your own, and your life pretty much sucks.

While in the Mage world, everything also blows up. Basically almost every supplement written before Mage Rev has essentially been destroyed and made irrelevant to the current metaplot. Chantries, Horizon, the Digital Web, Book of Barriers ~ all wave bye-bye. Now Mage can have more of that gritty Matrix feel. However, there is significant net criticism from the Holy Blood Cult of Brucato that they don't like this new Matrix feel, and they wish they had taken the other pill instead. In the new book, the
Technocracy discovers that humans are mostly apathetic. Duh, a nuke went off in India, and no one even batted an eyelid. The Eastern Technocracy is known as the Zaibatsu (?), and they have different goals from the regular Technocracy ~ and they figure if this Technocracy gig doesn't work out, Zaibatsu would make a great name for a new car company. Even though the Ascension War is over (a war that no one to this day still fully understands), everyone's still shooting each other. The Technocracy has won, but that's mostly because the Traditions were still trying to figure out what was vulgar and what was vulgar w/o witnesses and what was coincidental. The last Mage who brought up the whiskey flask example was drawn and quartered several years back.

But you can still play a Mage. You're just on your own, and your life pretty much sucks.

In Changeling, High King David suddenly ups and disappears, which is the first time this plot point has ever occurred in a White Wolf book (except maybe with Charon, or Dante, or Caine, or Saulot). Everyone's now at war with one another, and all the pookas can do is wonder why every one is so damn serious all of a sudden. Once upon a time, the worst enemy was the schoolteacher. Maybe the Fae have been itchin' to get into a major confrontation for a long time now, ever since they didn't have to use those damn cards anymore. So a war is going on, with people waving fake swords around and saying "forsooth" a lot, and no one really pays attention.

As a result of the destruction of the Underworld, wraiths and spectres are forced out into the mortal world, where they haunt people more, or where they become zombies, or where they just leave the toilet seat up ~ just being nuisances all around. A chosen few known as the Imbued ~ not because of alcohol intake, but because they couldn't figure out another cooler sounding name, since all the other game lines had taken the best ones ~ they start to notice all the supernaturals around them. Upon doing so, they get neato powers, too, so they can kill these monsters. But they must also choose one overwhelming philosophy, called a Creed, that dictates what they think of supernatural creatures. The Do-I-Try-To-Heal-Them Creed, the
Kill-Em-All Creed, or the Protect-Humanity Creed. For some reason, there's no Oh-Shit-I-Run-Like-Hell Creed. There's no mixing and matching, you pretty much view all the supernaturals the same. The old hunters in Hunters Hunted are just normal humans, even more normal than these hunters with powers, so they must suck.

But you can still play an old Hunters Hunted character. You're just on your own, and your life pretty much sucks.

And as a result, culmination, whatever, of all these preceding events, Osiris finally gets his lazy ass out of bed, just in time for the Ghost Storm to hit the Egyptian underworld. He protects some mummies, while the rest get shredded to bits. The few mummies that survive in the mortal world end up getting weaker. Osiris goes, "Well, that sucks", and distributes a new spell of life to all those cults that have been waiting for his return all these thousands of years. They make brand new, fresh off the lot
mummies, and the assembly lines can't move fast enough to meet the demand. Since the cultists don't have an emergency pull chord like those guys who work for Saturn, some of these mummies are a little, uh, off. All new mummies have to take these occasional doctoral exams in front of the Big Bad Mummy Committee to see if they can get more buff. Osiris is the harshest judge, saying things like, "Is that your final answer?" No new mummies can use a life-line or call a friend.

But you can still play one of the original Mummy characters. You're just on your own, and your life pretty much sucks.

So now, when you're walking down the streets of the World of Darkness, and you meet some guy in a black trenchcoat, with long hair in a ponytail, in dark sunglasses, and holding a katana, you can ask: "What are you? A vampire?"

"Nope."

"A mage?"

"Nope."

"A hunter?"

"Nope. Keep trying, you'll get there."

"Are you from the Net Highlander supplement?"

"Nope."

"A gamer with an inferiority complex, social problems, and some deep-seated aggressive feelings?"

"Nope."

"Then what are you?"

"I'm a Mummy."

"Uh. Yeah. You're kidding, right?"

"Mummies never kid! Die, agent of that big evil snake thingee that I can't quite pronounce!"

And btw, Xavier never got hold of Mulder. Some guy named Doggett was there.

• What the fuck was up with the people with one Red Eye spying on everything?  A Technocracy Terminator or something?  The "Spirits of the Red Star".
• What the fuck was the Red Star?

Quote from: TristramEvans;925724What WAS the metaplot?

Quote from: Willie the Duck;925903It's not wrong, but I don't get the appeal. He seems more like a story comedic character than any kind of big-bad. I always saw Chick as somewhere between the dirty hobo on street corners yelling about their understanding of god and salvation, and those well dressed preachers who show up on campus quads trying to steer the 19 year olds from their undoubted wickedness--useless, ineffectual, and mildly amusing. He never accomplished much, and I think D&D fans and their constant attention to him were the primary reason why anyone knows who he was. We needed an enemy in a convenient package, and actually ceded power to him just to give us that.

Quote from: Doc Sammy;925925I grew up in a really Puritanical part of America (my parents not only banned Halloween, but even Christmas and Easter as well for having pagan roots)