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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8132855" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>This is key. ALL forms of interaction at the table between players and the GM, all decisions they make, everything they direct their characters to do and say, and every use they make of the mechanics of the game, are saying something. At least in games (like D&D, which seems to be assumed in this thread) which lack any formal mechanism for managing and controlling the plot, and have no explicit principles and process aimed at narrative/plot development, this is the ONLY form of communication the players have! They can outright say to the DM "we want our players to engage in a desperate endeavor which they believe is ultimately futile." but few players really think in such conceptual narrative terms very often. Yet that might be, at some level, what the players are asking for! This sort of plot could arise pretty naturally out of the goals, imperatives, and process of play in, say, Dungeon World, where the DM's imperative is to "turn up the heat, and then play to see what happens." In D&D things are a lot more nebulous. So PLAYER AGENCY is only REALLY achieved when you pay pretty close attention to the players and what they're communicating, and then test your assumptions, read their responses, and go with what they seem to be asking for. Its an imperfect process, and D&D generally is thus a somewhat imperfect narrative experience.</p></blockquote><p></p>