What We Can Learn From Metaplots
Recently - not for the first time or the last - I ran into an article praising the new World of Darkness for being metaplot-free and enabling roleplayers to create their own universes without being burdened by any larger vision of what the WoD is or must be. And once again I was flooded with thoughts that I didn't have time to properly address, so I jotted down some notes and started writing about them in my few spare moments. I've found myself constantly dissatisfied with the process, however, and I think I've finally come to understand why. I don't just want to rehash the same old back-and-forth diatribes or to convince people to feel one way or another. Just the thought of doing that makes me tired. Instead, I want to examine what we can learn from metaplots, regardless of how we feel about them, and how we can incorporate those lessons into our gaming in the future.
Because the use of and desire for metaplots isn't necessarily going to go away. Not only are some people running classic World of Darkness games because they're being re-released in 20th anniversary editions, but other games have had or may yet have metaplots of their own. For everyone who hates the very idea, there are others who love it, and the good news is that great games can be had either way. The trick is to figure out how to approach a metaplot constructively when you find one and how to hearken to its best aspects even when you don't use it or when you run a system that doesn't have one.
What Do You Mean by "Metaplot," Exactly?
Before I get started, I really should define what I'm talking about so we're all clear about the concept. Some folks might not have played a system with a metaplot before or might not have known the word for it, even when they have have encountered one.
The metaplot I'm concerned with here involved larger storylines going on within the old World of Darkness, such as major supernatural events like the Week of Nightmares. The metaplot also covered key non-player characters who were movers and shakers in the setting. Some of the plots were subtle or small enough that they wouldn't necessarily interfere with the setup of ongoing games; Storytellers could use them or not, with little fuss from anyone. NPCs were even more optional since player characters might not have any way to interact with them and Storytellers could pass them up with few if any consequences (though their names would pop up in future books). Other story arcs, like the Time of Judgment, invited sweeping changes and were harder to ignore. Even if you didn't run the Time of Judgment, you had to be prepared to react to it when discussing the game with other players and Storytellers.
The metaplot was woven through the supplements that were published, from the start of the line until its end, and was usually given in bits and pieces. Some books were nothing but metaplot since the writers were fleshing out cities with alternate histories and important figures that were expected to see some use. In many places, it was presented with a big grain of salt, in one way or another. Unreliable narrators cast doubt on clan histories and NPCs were routinely insane or had few reasons to be trusted. And the ever-present and often forgotten Golden Rule could supercede anything at any time. But the books didn't go out of their way to explain that the material was optional (beyond sidebars for the Golden Rule) and the writers built on it without apology or retraction.
So What Can We Learn?
It Isn't Just There to Piss You Off: One of the things that's easy to overlook when it comes to discussing any metaplot is that there are different reasons for deciding to have one when you're designing a setting. I'll end up touching on a number of those reasons here and although we don't have to embrace them for our own creations, we do have to acknowledge that other people have different desires and goals. A metaplot can help as much as it can harm, but much of its ultimate effect has to do with the way players react to it. Although it can feel restrictive or interfere with your own ideas about a game, a metaplot is not just there to tell gamers what to do or how to play. It isn't a personal attack on your chronicle, your vision, or your style of play. Taking it that way is only going to get in the way of what you can get out of it, and it's going to make talking about it unpleasant instead of fun. And even if you hate the whole concept of a metaplot or just particular parts of it, talking about it with other gamers should be entertaining, if nothing else.
It's A Signal to Move Forward: A metaplot can give fans a feeling of progress in the books that get released for a roleplaying game. In addition to offering fresh ideas and rules, supplements can also advance storylines, characters, and the setting itself. This gives gamers a set of developments beyond what's going on in their own chronicles and a pack of surprises they can use or choose to ignore. At the very least, it invites Storytellers to periodically stop and think about how to improve their game mechanically or how to shake things up story-wise. This can come off as intrusive and forceful to some since they've already got a lot going on, or it can seem unnecessary to those who feel like they're already critiquing their play. But it's easy to get stuck in a rut by running the same kinds of stories with similar strategies and NPCs, and it's even easier to keep 'fixing' things with more of the same. Sometimes you need to try a another point of view or take a chance on a storyline that's quite different from the types you tend to run, and whether or not you use a metaplot as it's printed, you can take pieces from it, twist aspects of it, or use it as an impetus to start looking for a new approach.
It Sets Up a Larger Scale (Which Ain't Automatically a Bad Thing): We should keep in mind that the old World of Darkness had a more global and far-reaching system overall, and it also had deliberately deep roots in its own history and myth. These were purposeful choices, not mistakes, and the metaplot helped establish order and keep track of connections. Each major line felt like its own living, consistent universe, with compelling tales tying them together and stretching back to prehistory, if you were inclined to trace them back that far. Although the many pieces didn't fit together perfectly and weren't meant to, they did make up a cohesive whole. And although it shouldn't need explaining, the desire for the larger scale is not wrong or bad. Gamers who have never tried such a style (or who have only seen it performed badly) could learn a lot from some skillful exposure to it, even if they ultimately decide it's not for them. Players who prefer the large scale need to be honest about it with themselves and their groups so they can find experiences that work for them, as well. It can help teach us how to organize longer-term chronicles, character roles, and character ties, as well as how to scale chronicles up or down, depending on what we want out of them.
It Gives You A Way to Play the Game "Right Out of the Box": The base World of Darkness was presented as its own place upon which you could develop your own WoD using as much or as little of the pre-established material as you wanted. If you had the time and desire to work on your own setting you could definitely do so, and the books provided support for that, but you didn't have to do all the legwork yourself because there was already a setting put together for you. And if your player characters decided to go traveling in places you hadn't anticipated, you could easily insert them into the struggles that were already set up. This can be a boon to fans with busy lives and little time to dedicate to their hobby, and it is neither lazy nor uncreative to extrapolate from what's in front of you. This kind of support can be a way to keep gamers in the hobby far beyond their early years. It can also be a boon to Storytellers who work better from prepared material and/or who have a harder time "winging it" in an extended fashion. If you've been feeling crowded out of the hobby by your own schedule, you might want to consider time-saving measures like metaplotted games.
It Gives You Examples: Being new to roleplaying games can be daunting and intimidating given how much information is out there. Even though you can try to track down blogs and message boards for people's chronicles, they might not be set up very well or show a high level of completeness. A metaplot can serve as a model for how story arcs, characters, and chronicles can be arranged. It can show how everything can fit together with some forethought. For new players and Storytellers, this can be a great help and could inspire similar depth in their creations. Even if you didn't care for the By Night books as they developed a particular cities from the supernatural point of view, you could use them as templates for the kinds of things you might need to flesh out for a city of your own choosing, or you could pluck out character concepts you liked. Even if you didn't want to run the Giovanni Chronicles, they could help give you a feel for where to start a chronicle that is meant to span centuries - or give you a taste for things you would rather not have in your chronicle. Even a negative example can be a valuable one, so at the end of the day, new players or Storytellers should feel encouraged to seek out models in the books and to judge them as they see fit.
It Establishes Roles, Tasks, and Motivations: Some gamers are able to pick up just about any game, read it over, and generate ideas that will help them play with any character type in the setting. Other times, you have to dig into the books to get at engaging reasons and nuanced ideas for what all your character can reach for. Sometimes you might find yourself genuinely mystified as to what characters in a setting actually do with themselves day-to-day and why they should feel compelled to do anything at all. A system with a metaplot will explain the motivations of groups and people through the history and interactions that are set up in the larger narrative. Even if a character doesn't want to do what they were born to do or doesn't want to be involved in what their group is enmeshed in, they at least have something to react against. While some gamers don't need this kind of structure, others do, whether if they're new to the hobby or to a system or looking to have it broken down for them in an easily accessible way. Storytellers should have an easier time of explaining things to new gamers if they keep this in mind and if they're willing to approach each player based on their needs. Books that provide some extra embroidering for ties, motivations, and adventures will ideally reach more readers and see more use.
It Gives You Something to Talk About: For better and for worse, the metaplot in the old World of Darkness put gamers on the same page. Regardless of your current group or chronicle, you probably read about the ongoing issues as you went through the latest releases. And whether you liked the changes or hated them, you were likely to form some kind of response to them that you'd then be eager to discuss with someone else. Roleplaying is something that we can talk about for hours in any case, but it can be difficult to connect with other players whose ongoing games are very different from ours. This gave everyone a testing ground to see if their views about the WoD matched up well enough to play together harmoniously. You could get clues about someone's playing style by how they reacted to certain changes, which could act like a canary in a mine shaft and save you from some truly bad experiences. You could also get ideas about what your players loved or hated by how they talked about events in the books, and while every clue from your group helps, they can be surprisingly difficult to coax out of some players. Point-blank questions about the chronicle you're currently running can make players worried about offending you and thus make them stifle their true desires, but questions about the metaplot invite full scrutiny with less risk of pissing anyone off. Learning to talk and ask about particular elements from the books and to listen for players' reactions can definitely help some Storytellers.
It Can Be Overwhelming and Isolating: The bigger the changes are in any metaplot and the more they aim to take established elements out of play, the more likely they are to make players feel threatened and limited. This is partly because as a Storyteller, it is far easier to give something to a character than to take it away without making the player feel cheated. Many players work hard to create characters they enjoy and obtain their characters' goals; unless they make bad decisions, they can feel short-changed if something is taken from their character. It can also be difficult to shoehorn major shifts into the delicate fabric of your own game without causing a sense of inconsistency and unfairness. When the metaplot did away with the Tremere Antitribu, an offshoot that many people liked, some gamers felt like they were being forced to relinquish beloved characters based on some outside whim, whether or not it made sense for their chronicles. And if they didn't go along with it, they felt pushed out of step with where the published materials were going and felt like less material in the metaplot would apply to them forever after. In some cases, they were right. I have learned this repeatedly, and it is definitely reinforced here: As a game designer or Storyteller, you must be very careful with what you take out of play and why you are doing it.
It Can Be Divisive If You're a Dick About It: Any tool can be misused and metaplots are no exception. When published materials are accepted as inflexible canon, some gamers will defend each word as it was set down even if that means bulldozing over the desires of others in their group. What's worse is that because metaplots model one way that a game can be played, some fans take it as the only "right" way and deem anything else to be wrong, stupid, or deeply flawed. This will inevitably occur because of personality types, a lack of respect for and understanding of the role of the Storyteller, and a lack of social grace, but the larger vision of a metaplot seems invite this kind of thinking. Designers can combat this by making it very clear that the material is optional and that Storytellers have the final call on how elements are used in their games. They can also work to show different ways that their settings can be tweaked so people can see that there are indeed many roads that diverge from the main path. But what will really help is insisting on a higher degree of honesty for yourself and your group. If you truly enjoy a metaplot as it is published and don't want it changed, then find a group that feels the same way instead of attacking others for not conforming to your wishes. Likewise, if you know a player isn't meshing with your group's choices and accommodating them doesn't seem to be working out, don't let the situation fester. Bring it out into the open. But on either side of the table - any table - don't be a dick or stand for someone else being one, and don't blame a metaplot for the way people abuse it.
It Might Need to be Restricted: Huge world-changing events can be thrilling to experience in a setting that's become familiar, as anyone who played through Final Fantasy 3 (U.S.) remembers. For well-entrenched tabletop RPGs, however, deep shifts in setting and tone can feel like a bait-and-switch that current players do not want and will not accept. It can also cause gamers to leave the greater fold, stop purchasing new releases, and/or stop playing altogether. A company looking to build and maintain a fan base should not want that to happen and it doesn't have to if metaplot mega-changes are handled conscientiously. Perhaps the simplest way is to develop events during past eras, which may or may not end up affecting chronicles set in the base time-frame. Another way is to localize effects to a particular city or region, perhaps outside the default or best-known locales. Yet another method involves complete compartmentalization. We have seen this in comic books (to varying rates of success, to be sure) - the what-if universe is spun off from the main line and developed as its own possibility, using the same parts but with very different ends. If fans love it, they support it as well as the main line(s). If fans can't get behind it, at least it doesn't disrupt the base setting. Regardless, a metaplot must be developed with new and old players as well as designers in mind and should account for that.
It Can Never Be One-Size-Fits-All: Though I'd rather not belabor the point, it does bear repeating: each gaming group is its own organic entity made up of people with distinct talents and tastes, so no one vision of a setting will be the best for all. With this in mind, game designers should make room for as many play preferences and learning styles as possible. This requires acknowledging desires for freedom as well as desires for structure and not looking down on either pole while laying out mechanics, types, and explanations. It requires clear sharing of authority between published materials and those who use them, starting with what is said in the books, moving into what is espoused on any official web sites, and ending with the group at the table feeling comfortable enough to change what they need or to stick with what they enjoy. This awareness, care, flexibility, and negotiation is part of what takes roleplaying beyond the capabilities of many other common types of entertainment. It can make things more complicated, sure, but in the end, the struggle is worth it, whether a metaplot is directly involved or not.
Because the use of and desire for metaplots isn't necessarily going to go away. Not only are some people running classic World of Darkness games because they're being re-released in 20th anniversary editions, but other games have had or may yet have metaplots of their own. For everyone who hates the very idea, there are others who love it, and the good news is that great games can be had either way. The trick is to figure out how to approach a metaplot constructively when you find one and how to hearken to its best aspects even when you don't use it or when you run a system that doesn't have one.
What Do You Mean by "Metaplot," Exactly?
Before I get started, I really should define what I'm talking about so we're all clear about the concept. Some folks might not have played a system with a metaplot before or might not have known the word for it, even when they have have encountered one.
The metaplot I'm concerned with here involved larger storylines going on within the old World of Darkness, such as major supernatural events like the Week of Nightmares. The metaplot also covered key non-player characters who were movers and shakers in the setting. Some of the plots were subtle or small enough that they wouldn't necessarily interfere with the setup of ongoing games; Storytellers could use them or not, with little fuss from anyone. NPCs were even more optional since player characters might not have any way to interact with them and Storytellers could pass them up with few if any consequences (though their names would pop up in future books). Other story arcs, like the Time of Judgment, invited sweeping changes and were harder to ignore. Even if you didn't run the Time of Judgment, you had to be prepared to react to it when discussing the game with other players and Storytellers.
The metaplot was woven through the supplements that were published, from the start of the line until its end, and was usually given in bits and pieces. Some books were nothing but metaplot since the writers were fleshing out cities with alternate histories and important figures that were expected to see some use. In many places, it was presented with a big grain of salt, in one way or another. Unreliable narrators cast doubt on clan histories and NPCs were routinely insane or had few reasons to be trusted. And the ever-present and often forgotten Golden Rule could supercede anything at any time. But the books didn't go out of their way to explain that the material was optional (beyond sidebars for the Golden Rule) and the writers built on it without apology or retraction.
So What Can We Learn?
It Isn't Just There to Piss You Off: One of the things that's easy to overlook when it comes to discussing any metaplot is that there are different reasons for deciding to have one when you're designing a setting. I'll end up touching on a number of those reasons here and although we don't have to embrace them for our own creations, we do have to acknowledge that other people have different desires and goals. A metaplot can help as much as it can harm, but much of its ultimate effect has to do with the way players react to it. Although it can feel restrictive or interfere with your own ideas about a game, a metaplot is not just there to tell gamers what to do or how to play. It isn't a personal attack on your chronicle, your vision, or your style of play. Taking it that way is only going to get in the way of what you can get out of it, and it's going to make talking about it unpleasant instead of fun. And even if you hate the whole concept of a metaplot or just particular parts of it, talking about it with other gamers should be entertaining, if nothing else.
It's A Signal to Move Forward: A metaplot can give fans a feeling of progress in the books that get released for a roleplaying game. In addition to offering fresh ideas and rules, supplements can also advance storylines, characters, and the setting itself. This gives gamers a set of developments beyond what's going on in their own chronicles and a pack of surprises they can use or choose to ignore. At the very least, it invites Storytellers to periodically stop and think about how to improve their game mechanically or how to shake things up story-wise. This can come off as intrusive and forceful to some since they've already got a lot going on, or it can seem unnecessary to those who feel like they're already critiquing their play. But it's easy to get stuck in a rut by running the same kinds of stories with similar strategies and NPCs, and it's even easier to keep 'fixing' things with more of the same. Sometimes you need to try a another point of view or take a chance on a storyline that's quite different from the types you tend to run, and whether or not you use a metaplot as it's printed, you can take pieces from it, twist aspects of it, or use it as an impetus to start looking for a new approach.
It Sets Up a Larger Scale (Which Ain't Automatically a Bad Thing): We should keep in mind that the old World of Darkness had a more global and far-reaching system overall, and it also had deliberately deep roots in its own history and myth. These were purposeful choices, not mistakes, and the metaplot helped establish order and keep track of connections. Each major line felt like its own living, consistent universe, with compelling tales tying them together and stretching back to prehistory, if you were inclined to trace them back that far. Although the many pieces didn't fit together perfectly and weren't meant to, they did make up a cohesive whole. And although it shouldn't need explaining, the desire for the larger scale is not wrong or bad. Gamers who have never tried such a style (or who have only seen it performed badly) could learn a lot from some skillful exposure to it, even if they ultimately decide it's not for them. Players who prefer the large scale need to be honest about it with themselves and their groups so they can find experiences that work for them, as well. It can help teach us how to organize longer-term chronicles, character roles, and character ties, as well as how to scale chronicles up or down, depending on what we want out of them.
It Gives You A Way to Play the Game "Right Out of the Box": The base World of Darkness was presented as its own place upon which you could develop your own WoD using as much or as little of the pre-established material as you wanted. If you had the time and desire to work on your own setting you could definitely do so, and the books provided support for that, but you didn't have to do all the legwork yourself because there was already a setting put together for you. And if your player characters decided to go traveling in places you hadn't anticipated, you could easily insert them into the struggles that were already set up. This can be a boon to fans with busy lives and little time to dedicate to their hobby, and it is neither lazy nor uncreative to extrapolate from what's in front of you. This kind of support can be a way to keep gamers in the hobby far beyond their early years. It can also be a boon to Storytellers who work better from prepared material and/or who have a harder time "winging it" in an extended fashion. If you've been feeling crowded out of the hobby by your own schedule, you might want to consider time-saving measures like metaplotted games.
It Gives You Examples: Being new to roleplaying games can be daunting and intimidating given how much information is out there. Even though you can try to track down blogs and message boards for people's chronicles, they might not be set up very well or show a high level of completeness. A metaplot can serve as a model for how story arcs, characters, and chronicles can be arranged. It can show how everything can fit together with some forethought. For new players and Storytellers, this can be a great help and could inspire similar depth in their creations. Even if you didn't care for the By Night books as they developed a particular cities from the supernatural point of view, you could use them as templates for the kinds of things you might need to flesh out for a city of your own choosing, or you could pluck out character concepts you liked. Even if you didn't want to run the Giovanni Chronicles, they could help give you a feel for where to start a chronicle that is meant to span centuries - or give you a taste for things you would rather not have in your chronicle. Even a negative example can be a valuable one, so at the end of the day, new players or Storytellers should feel encouraged to seek out models in the books and to judge them as they see fit.
It Establishes Roles, Tasks, and Motivations: Some gamers are able to pick up just about any game, read it over, and generate ideas that will help them play with any character type in the setting. Other times, you have to dig into the books to get at engaging reasons and nuanced ideas for what all your character can reach for. Sometimes you might find yourself genuinely mystified as to what characters in a setting actually do with themselves day-to-day and why they should feel compelled to do anything at all. A system with a metaplot will explain the motivations of groups and people through the history and interactions that are set up in the larger narrative. Even if a character doesn't want to do what they were born to do or doesn't want to be involved in what their group is enmeshed in, they at least have something to react against. While some gamers don't need this kind of structure, others do, whether if they're new to the hobby or to a system or looking to have it broken down for them in an easily accessible way. Storytellers should have an easier time of explaining things to new gamers if they keep this in mind and if they're willing to approach each player based on their needs. Books that provide some extra embroidering for ties, motivations, and adventures will ideally reach more readers and see more use.
It Gives You Something to Talk About: For better and for worse, the metaplot in the old World of Darkness put gamers on the same page. Regardless of your current group or chronicle, you probably read about the ongoing issues as you went through the latest releases. And whether you liked the changes or hated them, you were likely to form some kind of response to them that you'd then be eager to discuss with someone else. Roleplaying is something that we can talk about for hours in any case, but it can be difficult to connect with other players whose ongoing games are very different from ours. This gave everyone a testing ground to see if their views about the WoD matched up well enough to play together harmoniously. You could get clues about someone's playing style by how they reacted to certain changes, which could act like a canary in a mine shaft and save you from some truly bad experiences. You could also get ideas about what your players loved or hated by how they talked about events in the books, and while every clue from your group helps, they can be surprisingly difficult to coax out of some players. Point-blank questions about the chronicle you're currently running can make players worried about offending you and thus make them stifle their true desires, but questions about the metaplot invite full scrutiny with less risk of pissing anyone off. Learning to talk and ask about particular elements from the books and to listen for players' reactions can definitely help some Storytellers.
It Can Be Overwhelming and Isolating: The bigger the changes are in any metaplot and the more they aim to take established elements out of play, the more likely they are to make players feel threatened and limited. This is partly because as a Storyteller, it is far easier to give something to a character than to take it away without making the player feel cheated. Many players work hard to create characters they enjoy and obtain their characters' goals; unless they make bad decisions, they can feel short-changed if something is taken from their character. It can also be difficult to shoehorn major shifts into the delicate fabric of your own game without causing a sense of inconsistency and unfairness. When the metaplot did away with the Tremere Antitribu, an offshoot that many people liked, some gamers felt like they were being forced to relinquish beloved characters based on some outside whim, whether or not it made sense for their chronicles. And if they didn't go along with it, they felt pushed out of step with where the published materials were going and felt like less material in the metaplot would apply to them forever after. In some cases, they were right. I have learned this repeatedly, and it is definitely reinforced here: As a game designer or Storyteller, you must be very careful with what you take out of play and why you are doing it.
It Can Be Divisive If You're a Dick About It: Any tool can be misused and metaplots are no exception. When published materials are accepted as inflexible canon, some gamers will defend each word as it was set down even if that means bulldozing over the desires of others in their group. What's worse is that because metaplots model one way that a game can be played, some fans take it as the only "right" way and deem anything else to be wrong, stupid, or deeply flawed. This will inevitably occur because of personality types, a lack of respect for and understanding of the role of the Storyteller, and a lack of social grace, but the larger vision of a metaplot seems invite this kind of thinking. Designers can combat this by making it very clear that the material is optional and that Storytellers have the final call on how elements are used in their games. They can also work to show different ways that their settings can be tweaked so people can see that there are indeed many roads that diverge from the main path. But what will really help is insisting on a higher degree of honesty for yourself and your group. If you truly enjoy a metaplot as it is published and don't want it changed, then find a group that feels the same way instead of attacking others for not conforming to your wishes. Likewise, if you know a player isn't meshing with your group's choices and accommodating them doesn't seem to be working out, don't let the situation fester. Bring it out into the open. But on either side of the table - any table - don't be a dick or stand for someone else being one, and don't blame a metaplot for the way people abuse it.
It Might Need to be Restricted: Huge world-changing events can be thrilling to experience in a setting that's become familiar, as anyone who played through Final Fantasy 3 (U.S.) remembers. For well-entrenched tabletop RPGs, however, deep shifts in setting and tone can feel like a bait-and-switch that current players do not want and will not accept. It can also cause gamers to leave the greater fold, stop purchasing new releases, and/or stop playing altogether. A company looking to build and maintain a fan base should not want that to happen and it doesn't have to if metaplot mega-changes are handled conscientiously. Perhaps the simplest way is to develop events during past eras, which may or may not end up affecting chronicles set in the base time-frame. Another way is to localize effects to a particular city or region, perhaps outside the default or best-known locales. Yet another method involves complete compartmentalization. We have seen this in comic books (to varying rates of success, to be sure) - the what-if universe is spun off from the main line and developed as its own possibility, using the same parts but with very different ends. If fans love it, they support it as well as the main line(s). If fans can't get behind it, at least it doesn't disrupt the base setting. Regardless, a metaplot must be developed with new and old players as well as designers in mind and should account for that.
It Can Never Be One-Size-Fits-All: Though I'd rather not belabor the point, it does bear repeating: each gaming group is its own organic entity made up of people with distinct talents and tastes, so no one vision of a setting will be the best for all. With this in mind, game designers should make room for as many play preferences and learning styles as possible. This requires acknowledging desires for freedom as well as desires for structure and not looking down on either pole while laying out mechanics, types, and explanations. It requires clear sharing of authority between published materials and those who use them, starting with what is said in the books, moving into what is espoused on any official web sites, and ending with the group at the table feeling comfortable enough to change what they need or to stick with what they enjoy. This awareness, care, flexibility, and negotiation is part of what takes roleplaying beyond the capabilities of many other common types of entertainment. It can make things more complicated, sure, but in the end, the struggle is worth it, whether a metaplot is directly involved or not.