metastory

plural metastories

1. An overarching story having other stories embedded within it.

   Once analytic units have been identified, the researcher will often combine the narratives of individual participants into a metastory.

   2006, Frederick T. L. Leong, James T. Austin, The Psychology Research Handbook

   2 more examples

   A game like chess, for example, may not really have a well-scripted narrative but its structure is certainly informed by a metastory of two armies (black and white, with varying significances) engaged in strategic battle.

   2015, Souvik Mukherjee, Video Games and Storytelling: Reading Games and Playing Books

   The Assassin's Creed franchise is framed within a present day metastory involving a major corporation that may or may not be run by Templars.

   2017, David Owen, Matthew Wilhelm Kapell, Player and Avatar: The Affective Potential of Videogames, page 148

2. A story about stories themselves.