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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8135109" data-attributes="member: 42582">It's quite easy to have mysteries in RPGing that have a high-degree of player agency.I've already posted an example from my BW play: who is Rufus's master? and perhaps why does he want wine?Another example from the same campaign: while exploring Evard's tower, Thurgon found old correspondence that implied that Xanthippe, his mother, is Evard's daughter. That was a shocking revelation!But you are correct that the mysteries and reveals will not be unilaterally driven by the GM; with the play in respect of them just consisting of the players trying to work out what the GM has thought up. That is a consequence of the players having agency! And hence of the focus of play being something other than learning what is in the GM's notes.This is exactly what I posted upthread: you object to the limits on the GM that flow from player agency.In a player-driven game events are not narrated just because the GM thinks they would be interesting to him/her.There can be pirate ships and volcanoes - but these will be used in accordance with the sorts of principles I, [USER=6696971]@Manbearcat[/USER] and others have described upthread. Luke Crane discusses this in the BW rulebook: if a character chooses the Weather Prediction ability it's because s/he wants to be able to do something involving a certain sort of weather, and its often easiest just to let him/her have that weather.If the weather is not at stake, then the GM can narrate it just as s/he might narrate the colour of the flowers on a windowsill. A skilled player might then play on that fiction, but given that we know it's not what is at stake that would be means, not ends. Just as if the GM had narrated red flowers, and then a PC needs to dress as a clown, the player might know how his/her PC can colour his/her cheeks red.</blockquote>

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