Search results

Sure it can. You want to find the cookie, and open jar three, but the GM has previously determined it is in jar five. No cookie, action blocked. But I do not see this as denial of agency, or if it is, then the dice saying "no" is that as well. We've been over this. Secret fictional positioning...

Your example here is more like a choice made on spot, specifically designed to nullify the choices of the other person. That's not same that previously established facts. And the example is flawed anyway, the situation is not analogous. Washing dishes presumably is something neither wants to do...

Well, I don't actually know, do I? You could just share the rules so I don't need to keep guessing and potentially get it wrong. You do this a lot. You start a conversation referencing a game that not a lot of people are familiar with and then refuse to actually share salient details about...

Failure doesn't remove agency, but the fact that the result is random instead of based on fictional positioning removes the agency of engaging that fictional positioning! Like in D&D it matters whether you block other entrances and put the Alarm on the only remaining one or just put it middle of...

Right, but I if I want a cola drink specifically, then how it is expressed? I'd like a cola coke? Or coke coke? Because you cannot just say "coke," as they wouldn't know what kind! It seems like terribly ineffective word choice to me!

It's just the fancy word for the fiction, fluff, of the world, be it large scale or small. "Bolg the brave, former orc adventurer, is the inkeeper at the Dancing Owlbear" or "The People of the city of Nür worship the dark deity Xuul" or "There is a secret passage from the abandoned mill to the...

So people actually say "I'd like a coke coke?" if they want a cola drink?

Rolemaster certainly can traumatise people to alter their gaming preferences. It is was actually Rolemaster which made me finally appreciate some of the more gamist design elements such as the D&D-style hit points.

Right. And if it is determined randomly after making the choice, then it is not even in theory possible to learn anything about what's behind the doors before making the choice. If it is determined before, then some foreshadowing is at least in principle possible and the players could take some...

Yes. EDIT: But Pedantic makes good point below, and is correct.

If one would for some reason want to intentionally obfuscate how we arrive at the outcome, I guess one could torture it thusly. If I there are three boxes, and unbeknownst to you I put a cookie in one of them, and then you decide to open one of the boxes, did I decide whether you find a cookie?

No I didn't, but I certainly was surprised how in the social mechanics thread a while ago the people who usually cry about player agency the loudest were very strongly advocating for the GM ability to override the player's agency over their character via the social mechanics.

Alarm spell is fine. It is quite clear about how it functions, and its reasonable use is to block the only entrance to a space. When used sensibly, it cannot easily be overcome, and the sensible way is apparent to the players. But yes, how the spell is used matters. If you use it on an empty...

Yes, definitely. Those are the most compelling sort of questions there can be in RPGs. And I very, very strongly want it to be the job of the players to answer such questions, not the dice.

To me it seems you have a fundamental issue with GM making decisions. If that is not what you wish to communicate, then it might be helpful if you tried to better describe the specific kinds of GM decisions you have an issue with. Because of course some might be problematic, no one is denying...

I am arguing that the GM pre-establishing these facts do not infringe on player agency, at least not any more than your "roll for it" method would and probably less. But no one has suggested such. What has been suggested that the interaction of the player choices and established myth is...

I don't think there is a point of there being PCs other than medium size as the game refuses to have the size to mean anything. 🤷

Calling all fizzy drinks "coke" is bonkers though. "I'd like a coke." "What kind?" "A coke." o_O

So I have actually played Blades quite a bit, and fiction obviously matters in that game too. But I have to say that myth being malleable and cause and effect somewhat optional means that sometimes it rather feels that whether you're doing things "smartly" doesn't really matter. Like when the...

How secretive the sect is would be determined by the GM. Whether the PCs already know about it would be determined by the intersection of the established setting background and the PCs personal background, perhaps taking account some mechanical thing such as skill choice. Even a roll might be...