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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8137077" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I don't see player agency as an objectively good trait, honestly. I like it and prefer it, but that's my taste. There are plenty of people who enjoy games with low agency. One of my buddies occasionally runs short 3- 4 session Call of Cthulhu games for us. These by their very nature allow for less agency than what I'd typically look for in a game.....and yet I really enjoy them. It's because he weaves history and mythos lore in interesting ways, and puts forth an interesting goal for the PCs. There is a plot for us to engage with, although how we do so is fairly open. But we can't just disregard it and go hunting for mythos creatures in the forests of New England....we need to engage the core scenario that he's come up with.I think I'm being very clear and I don't think I'm putting down anyone's play style. There's nothing worse about a game that has less player agency than another game has. It just means they are seeking different goals, or trying to evoke different play experiences. What makes a game better or worse is when it does or doesn't do what the participants want.In regard to what player agency is.....it has nothing to do with character agency, because that isn't something that gets exercised at the table, but is instead wholly a fictional element of the game, the same way the character's appearance is. Player agency is about how much say the player has, right? About what? About the game. The game is what? A conversation that establishes a fictional world. So the more say the player has about the fictional world, the more agency they have. The more ways that they can steer the conversation, the more agency they have. That's just the way it is.Certain games allow for more agency on the part of the player. That's how they are designed. There are also ways to change existing games to increase or decrease the amount of agency they allow the players to have. But agency in and of itself is a subjective thing.</blockquote>

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