hawkeyefan
Legend
So I think the appeal for actual examples we can talk about is a good idea, because all of the hypothetical discussion is just going in circles.
I'm curious what folks who prefer for players to not have any kind of narrative influence think of something like the claim maps from Blades in the Dark. Below I've copied one such map from page 101 of the book, the claims for a crew of Assassins.
To put it in context, Blades is very much a sandbox. The below claim map is in no way a limitation on what players can have their characters do. It is meant as options that are always available if the players would like to pursue them. Generally speaking, claims are meant to be seized from other factions in the city by following the paths on the map below. So you start at the lair then you could take Turf to the right, then move on to Informants or Cover Operation from there. However, the players can ignore the paths and jump right to a claim of their choosing, but if they do so, the GM is encouraged to make the seizing of that claim that much more difficult or involved.
What I like about this is it gives players a foundation of what they can always try to do if nothing else presents itself. Since the GM and the players can all possibly be coming up with ideas for Scores, this is a good fall back if either no one has any ideas, or nothing is pressing, or if the players decide they'd like the benefit that a claim offers. Each claim comes with some perk that bolsters the strength of the crew. Each type of crew has its own claim map, but you also have the option to seize claims on other crew maps, but again, the GM is encouraged to make such a job difficult and/or involved.
The claims tend to be pretty thematic, but there's a good amount of overlap from crew to crew. The specific details of the claim are left up to the GM to decide, but again, he is encouraged to shape these claims around the elements of the game that the players are already interested in or involved with, if it makes sense to do so. So, if the Assassins have been making more noise than they'd like, and have attracted unwanted attention, then the players can decide to try and seize the Hagfish Farm claim, which would alleviate a lot of that Heat and attention, and allow them to dispose of bodies. So the GM looks at the factions that have been involved in play, and chooses one that would make sense to own the Hagfish Farm, and possibly offer some interesting fallout based on what's already been established in play. Then the players could proceed with a Score or perhaps a series of Scores to seize the Hagfish Farm claim from that faction.
The benefit of this approach seem to me to be that you have the freedom of a sandbox and the characters being able to go anywhere and do anything, but you have the flexibility of details to make these comings and goings have more meaning. You can kind of hook the personal goals and connections of the characters into these claims. The setting is sketched rather than drawn in detail, so you can add and alter and adapt as you go.
The claim map also seems to me to be a game element that gives the players agency in that they have this structure that is in place that they can choose to engage with or not, and which binds the GM. They can say "we want to seize turf" and the GM then should frame some potential Scores about grabbing some turf. They also can serve as short term goals. And of course, as with just about anything in Blades, they can offer new avenues for the fiction to go, new points of input to bring other factions into play, or to challenge the crew in new ways. There's always a response to anything the crew does.
I'm curious what others have to say about this aspect of the game, and how it impacts (or doesn't impact) player agency.
Here's the example:
I'm curious what folks who prefer for players to not have any kind of narrative influence think of something like the claim maps from Blades in the Dark. Below I've copied one such map from page 101 of the book, the claims for a crew of Assassins.
To put it in context, Blades is very much a sandbox. The below claim map is in no way a limitation on what players can have their characters do. It is meant as options that are always available if the players would like to pursue them. Generally speaking, claims are meant to be seized from other factions in the city by following the paths on the map below. So you start at the lair then you could take Turf to the right, then move on to Informants or Cover Operation from there. However, the players can ignore the paths and jump right to a claim of their choosing, but if they do so, the GM is encouraged to make the seizing of that claim that much more difficult or involved.
What I like about this is it gives players a foundation of what they can always try to do if nothing else presents itself. Since the GM and the players can all possibly be coming up with ideas for Scores, this is a good fall back if either no one has any ideas, or nothing is pressing, or if the players decide they'd like the benefit that a claim offers. Each claim comes with some perk that bolsters the strength of the crew. Each type of crew has its own claim map, but you also have the option to seize claims on other crew maps, but again, the GM is encouraged to make such a job difficult and/or involved.
The claims tend to be pretty thematic, but there's a good amount of overlap from crew to crew. The specific details of the claim are left up to the GM to decide, but again, he is encouraged to shape these claims around the elements of the game that the players are already interested in or involved with, if it makes sense to do so. So, if the Assassins have been making more noise than they'd like, and have attracted unwanted attention, then the players can decide to try and seize the Hagfish Farm claim, which would alleviate a lot of that Heat and attention, and allow them to dispose of bodies. So the GM looks at the factions that have been involved in play, and chooses one that would make sense to own the Hagfish Farm, and possibly offer some interesting fallout based on what's already been established in play. Then the players could proceed with a Score or perhaps a series of Scores to seize the Hagfish Farm claim from that faction.
The benefit of this approach seem to me to be that you have the freedom of a sandbox and the characters being able to go anywhere and do anything, but you have the flexibility of details to make these comings and goings have more meaning. You can kind of hook the personal goals and connections of the characters into these claims. The setting is sketched rather than drawn in detail, so you can add and alter and adapt as you go.
The claim map also seems to me to be a game element that gives the players agency in that they have this structure that is in place that they can choose to engage with or not, and which binds the GM. They can say "we want to seize turf" and the GM then should frame some potential Scores about grabbing some turf. They also can serve as short term goals. And of course, as with just about anything in Blades, they can offer new avenues for the fiction to go, new points of input to bring other factions into play, or to challenge the crew in new ways. There's always a response to anything the crew does.
I'm curious what others have to say about this aspect of the game, and how it impacts (or doesn't impact) player agency.
Here's the example:
