D&D General What is player agency to you?

[Mort]

If they have access to the sending spell or similar then the criminal background feature is not relevant one way or another.

Sure it is.

While the main benefit is communication, the criminal background feature ALSO provides criminal connections that the criminal can contact so, even at low level, the DM has a basis for providing someone to contact and help them out of they are, for example, stuck on a deserted island. It avoids the "you don't know anybody..." answer.

 

[pemerton]

What game combines heavy out-of-game setting prep with narrative agenda? To the point where non-introduced setting details could invalidate a player declaration? I'm honestly curious.

To answer the first question: HeroWars. Also, I would say, 4e D&D played with the default setting as presented in the PHB and MM. Also, the LotR/MERPish RPGing I've done using Cortex+ Heroic.

This doesn't entail the second question, because in "narrativist" RPGing based around heavy setting prep, the players are in on the setting prep. So they won't declare actions that contradict the setting.

 

[Oofta]

I am saying that this is what the 4e D&D rulebooks say (as per the rules text that I quoted upthread). I am also saying that I enjoy 4e D&D.

The rules of 4e D&D are quite clear that it is the GM's job to establish the situation, by presenting encounters. So if a player establishes a quest, then the GM's role is to present encounters that enable the quest to be achieved. The 4e DMG gives reasonably detailed advice on how to do this.

The same thing happens in every other edition. If a player says they want to pursue some side quest and the DM (and group) agree then the DM sets up some encounters. Formalizing it doesn't change what happens.

 

[TwoSix]

If they have access to the sending spell or similar then the criminal background feature is not relevant one way or another.

It certainly could be.

1) The criminal asserts the existence of a contact (using the feature) relatively nearby; say, the nearest port city if they're stranded on an island. If the criminal has no idea what part of the world they're in, or they're stranded on another plane, than I concede it would be fair for this narration to fail a credibility test.

2) Knowing the existence of this contact, and assumingly being familiar with them, the criminal wizard/bard/person with a scroll casts sending to the contact. Maybe they can help somehow!

 

[Mort]

It is genuinely refreshing to find another person who thinks death is one of the least interesting stakes. (Though I do appreciate the irony of your username in that context!)

It's from Planescape Torment, one of the main character's companions.

A game where character death (at least the main character's death) is no stake at ALL (with very limited exception, he simply can't die permanently).

 

[pemerton]

that the game does not offer many tools to support the GM in coming up with what happens along the way is true. I am curious which game you think is offering good mechanical support for that

4e D&D. Burning Wheel. Torchbearer. Just to name a few.

 

[pemerton]

The same thing happens in every other edition. If a player says they want to pursue some side quest and the DM (and group) agree then the DM sets up some encounters. Formalizing it doesn't change what happens.

Once again we see that (i) everything you do is the same as what I do, yet (ii) every proposition about GMing techniques that I put forward, you disagree with.

It continues to be a puzzling puzzle!

 

[EzekielRaiden]

If you can keep failing your way to success, you were not really failing to begin with. Yes, I know this is hyperbole, but so was your entire post.

Seriously? No. My whole post was not hyperbole. As I said, I could (but will not) name specific people on this forum who made the claims I referenced here. This isn't some random "people on the internet." This is real, actual human beings on this forum. If you think real, actual people telling me point-blank that everyone cheats--literally, actually everyone, as they clarified when I questioned it--counts as hyperbole, then I'm not sure how to respond to that. Reality itself is now apparently hyperbole.

As for the first claim there: That is only true if absolute, game-ending failure is the only possible form of failure. And if absolute, game-ending failure is the only form of failure, then games are rarely going to get much of anywhere. (Even if every roll had a 95% chance of success, you'd only need about 90 rolls (~89.78) to get a 99% chance of absolute, game-ending failure.)

"Fail forward" means the adventure advances. It doesn't mean you get what you want on a delay. It means you actually do screw up, but that screwup doesn't lead to a boring, dead-end gameplay state.

 

[Oofta]

Sure it is.

While the main benefit is communication, the criminal background feature ALSO provides criminal connections that the criminal can contact so, even at low level, the DM has a basis for providing someone to contact and help them out of they are, for example, stuck on a deserted island. It avoids the "you don't know anybody..." answer.

They have a criminal contact. Singular. They don't have criminal contacts wherever they go. I would also say that the NPC criminal contact, even if you can get a message to them, may not be able to help you out if you're in a different locale.

I have no idea why you're so adamant about this feature always being useful. Just like my scholar in Ravenloft that has no access to libraries, sometimes background features simply don't apply. Feel free to run it differently.

 

[Oofta]

It certainly could be.

1) The criminal asserts the existence of a contact (using the feature) relatively nearby; say, the nearest port city if they're stranded on an island. If the criminal has no idea what part of the world they're in, or they're stranded on another plane, than I concede it would be fair for this narration to fail a credibility test.

The scenario was that the PCs were in the middle of the ocean. I also don't assume that an NPC knows every criminal organization in the multiverse.

2) Knowing the existence of this contact, and assumingly being familiar with them, the criminal wizard/bard/person with a scroll casts sending to the contact. Maybe they can help somehow!