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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8144507" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Right, I agree with that. I think if we use Character Agency to mean what [USER=7026617]@Thomas Shey[/USER] describes below, then sure, I'll accept that as one level of agency. But then it becomes a question of whether or not a game that allows or supports Player Agency of the kind I've been discussing somehow doesn't also allow or support Character Agency. Do you think that's the case? If so, how?My issue is not one of trust with the GM. Nor do I expect a perfect simulation of reality. I prefer to assume a functional form of play. I've played in plenty of games where the GM was the arbiter of all that was not PC and had them go perfectly fine....I know that this form of play can function and be perfectly entertaining.My point is that many games grant so much authority to the GM that it compromises player agency. If everything is up to the GM.....portraying the world, portraying the NPCs, deciding how difficult or likely something is, and so on....if all of that is up to the GM, it limits the input of the players. When faced with a challenge of some kind (crafted by the GM, described by the GM, with a solution decided by the GM) there's little player agency in resolution of that challenge. I prefer to take some of that load off of the GM, either by sharing that authority around a bit, or by using processes or mechanics to help. I don't think this means I don't trust the GM to provide what they consider legitimate judgment. It's more that I want the player to have some point of connection in all this. I don't think leaving all this to the GM really portrays a world that's external and real.....it's at best producing a world that is real to the GM. As you mentioned earlier, the players may come up with viable solutions or actions that are perfectly plausible and which the GM did not even consider. If I'm going to look back at a point of play, I think I'd prefer to say "Wow I didn't even think to try X" rather than "Wow the GM didn't even think to try X". It's about me as a player being able to act on the things I want my character to do in a way that does not get filtered entirely through the GM.</blockquote>

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