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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8137041"><p>I don't think this is the definition of playing an RPG. Many, many groups and many modules don't allow you to freely operate in the setting. This is one of the reasons agency took on as a term (it was picked up by players frustrated with railroading and overly linear adventures). So I don't think agency here is being  being defined as the baseline act of playing. I do think what you are talking about is a thing (empowering the players to shape the narrative). But I think it only muddies the waters when that is folded into the agency debate. Maybe it is narrative agency. But when I talk about agency, and when I see it used in most discussions, it is about giving the players freedom to explore, set goals, interact with who they want, pursue what interests them and not railroad them. It isn't about giving them powers that in a normal game are assumed to belong to the GM. If you want players to have those powers, fine, that is fair. But I don't find these discussions at all fruitful when a term like agency is used to float in that concept (i.e. "So you say you like agency? Well surely you must also like giving players the power to shape the plot because that is also clearly a form of agency"). I think it is obvious in most of these discussions, when we get to that area of debate, this isn't what people are meaning by agency.</p></blockquote><p></p>