By "meta-RPG", I mean an extra-layer of RPG you apply on top of another RPG (which I'll call the Host). Without a Host, you'd find it very hard to play the meta-RPG, as it provides few rules and precious little structure on it's own. I didn't make up this term, I suspect it was coined by John Tynes.
Examples of existing meta-RPGs include:
- Tynes' PowerKill, which is played for 5-10 minutes before and after it's Host RPG.
- The world-creation system from Universalis is sort of a meta-RPG. Universalis comes with it's own Host built in, but it's very simple to strip the basics of the meta-system out and apply it to a new Host as a way to build unique worlds and settings.
- By the same token, the d20 System and GURPS can both almost qualify as a meta, or perhaps more accurately as a Host for campaign settings. The same goes for True 20, though intentionally even more so, such that I'd be tempted to remove the "almost". But I wouldn't actually give in to those temptations.
- Moebius Campaigns (a concept Jeff Tidball first presented in Games Quarterly Magazine, if I recall correctly) are definitely a meta-RPG structure.
- Wikiland is a meta-RPG I created earlier today, 12/21/07.
1 comment:
Thank you for this. So much food for thought. I can get a lot of mileage out of this!
Have you ever considered using ERA: Epic Storytelling Game for a Mobius Campaign?
It would work for both a regular Mobius Campaign and the sidekick variation given the rules for Companion PCs.
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