The metaplot (also, metastory[1]) is the overarching storyline that binds together events in the official continuity of a published role-playing game campaign setting, also defined as an "evolving history of a given fictional universe".
Major official story events that change the world, or simply move important non-player characters from one place to another, are part of the metaplot for a game.
[11] Metaplot appears in settings of various genres like The Dark Eye,[12] Deadlands,[11] Dragonlance,[4] Fading Suns,[13] Legend of the Five Rings,[9] and Shadowrun.
[3][14] The metaplot is meant to "give the players a sense of immersion in a large and complex world as well as an aesthetic appreciation of the story they were witnessing" whenever their characters come into contact with it.
The narrative tool of metaplot has been criticised for shifting the focus away from the player characters and making them "marginal rather than central figures".