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I think the distinction between culture and design is important, and relevant. I feel that discussion about playstyles and the issues/opportunities inherent to various games can very easily become impossible if the people involved don't agree on what aspects are being discussed. I would perhaps...

I've seen all three - misunderstandings/miscommunications, subversion and compromise. But from my anecdotal perspective, compromise is by far the most common. I honestly think I cannot recall a table where at least one person wasn't compromising (about something, not necessarily agency) - and...

Which is why Legends of Runeterra is one of the best casual adaptations of the formula: they have sorceries, instants, interrupts, counterspells and the stack!

But you still have the players and (in most systems, in particular) the GM using the system, which does change the "baseline" of the system. For example, a GM can deprive players of agency in any kind of system by making a certain type of scenario. This can be done even purely using prepared...

One still has to discern between objectives, I think. If the goal of the players is primarily to overcome a series of challenges, then secrecy and inconsistency are extremely bad as they undermine the integrity of the challenges and obfuscate what can be attributed to skill and what is GM...

For me there are a number of benefits from randomizing some element of gameplay (using one or more tables, or some other random method): 1) Uncertainty and excitement. Regardless of whether it is rational or not, most humans react to random elements differently than elements at the discretion...

Now that we're returning to discussing definitions, I still prefer a slightly different definition than the one used by most posters. I don't agree that there is one single definition within sociology. I've seen multiple different definitions within management theory - which is a discipline of...

I was referring to any mechanic which isn't a "my character does X" but is something like "event Y occurs", "Z is part of my characters background", etc. Don't get me wrong - I don't think there is anything wrong with such mechanics. I just think they're conceptually different than stating an...

It is possible to have something in-between these two extremes. I mean you let them create their characters with some freedom as to race/class/etc I assume? And they also get to choose what their characters do (even if you do reign them in, if they go outside certain boundaries of behavior)...

Trying to explain to new players what the schools are about is also an exercise in frustration. "Evocation? Abjuration? Eh, ok - where is the fire magic? No.. ? Ok, is there something for mental / mind magic then? Enchantment, you say? Ok, I guess..." The schools are not even fully verb-based...

Where does summoning magic fit in with these 4? But I really don't see why the schools are even needed - as even when reduced in number, they're still mostly going to be a keyword for various effects to target. Wouldn't it be cooler to have dedicated spell lists for variant casters and...

I think the upcoming PF2E remaster doing away with the 8 schools of magic is a great foundation for having more design space for subclasses / variant spellcaster classes. The very existence of these schools get in the way of having more flavorful variants of wizard. I never really liked the...

This is one of the true strengths of 5e (or maybe just D&D in general) I feel. Everyone knows it's a bit of a wonky system with a lot of legacy cruft, but a relatively rules-light foundation, with a strong tradition to pile things on top according to taste. Some of the prior editions did stray a...

I don't think it is clearly zero-sum (ie constant) nor the opposite. I think it can be zero-sum game for some styles and tables - but it can also be either more complex or just more harmonious (everyone has tons of agency!). Maybe I'm privileged (or you're unfortunate, or somewhere in-between)...

Please stop selling this Story Now stuff so well. You're making me want to play it.

I find it so much better than D&D 5th edition in terms of character flexibility, crunch, meaningful progression, system design and overall versatility, that it saddens me that D&D is still so much bigger. For me, it shows what D&D has failed to do since the end of 4th edition (which was a good...

No. Disregarding the somewhat caricatured way of describing styles that don't have everything out in the open - ie that have some amount of GM discretion or even (gasp) grant the GM authority to change what they prepared beforehand - that's not the case (for me). I've almost exclusively played...

On average, an AI language model (with relevant training) produces crunch (ie expansion rules elements) every bit as good as most major publishers*. Especially if provided with a quality (homebrew) creative/fictional foundation to base it on. * this is not a jab at the designers working at...

I don't think I've ever experienced (on either side of the table) any kind of GM directed manipulation which wasn't based on out-of-game social interaction. It's not just because I haven't really played any of the dedicated narrativist systems - I simply don't get it, even based on the examples...

Part of the problem is that I've adjusted my verbiage to match what most people in this thread use. I actually do think agency as a concept has both subjective and objective elements. But that's not how this thread is using it, so it's useless for me to cling to this. Hence I use terms agency...