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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8136014" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I don’t know if narrative control is what’s needed so much as narrative influence. Or at least, the potential for narrative influence through the established mechanics of the game.And this narrative influence need not be absolute....it actually can’t be....but the more of it that is present, the more agency a player will have. So I run a 5E D&D game. I run it in a way that is very player driven compared to the default assumptions. The players have helped shape the setting through introduction of elements of their characters’ backstories and though ideas suggested during play. The “adventures” they go on are largely of their choosing. Yes, there are some metaplot elements that I’ve scattered throughout, and which will largely serve as the “endgame” but those have all been crafted with these specific PCs and players in mind. So there are still plenty of GM driven elements. Overall a decent amount of agency for the players, but still plenty for the GM. Compared with my Blades in the Dark game with the same players, it has less player agency. It’s largely just due to the way each game is designed. D&D requires that I as GM limit player agency in how challenges are crafted and how play proceeds. Even in our approach where I try to do so less than what’s expected in the game as designed. Blades is designed to actively promote the style I’ve adopted for my 5E game. It’s inherent in the design of BitD. I don’t have to radically tweak the game and its mechanics and techniques to get to that point.All this is to say that it sounds like you enjoy games where player agency is more limited, and where the GM is driving the action, with the players responding, and then the GM building on that response. This is a perfectly fine way to play.</blockquote>

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