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A Question Of Agency?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8150795" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>What I've been posting has been relevant to the OP's post, except for the small number of posts about empiricist philosophy of knowledge.</p><p></p><p>I'm frankly surprised that you, [USER=6795602]@FrogReaver[/USER] and [USER=29398]@Lanefan[/USER] assert that a campaign can be a total railroad and yet players have all the agency that is appropriate - ie the ability to characterise their PCs, say stuff in character, and declare actions.</p><p></p><p>That doesn't seem like a very useful way of approaching the idea of <em>agency</em>. And it seems to affirm and even encourage an approach to RPGing where the function of the GM and his/her "plot" is to provide a stage or setting for the players to perform their PCs in ways that are largely detached from that "plot".</p><p></p><p>In one other active thread (the "last session" thread) we see a GM complaining about the player in Curse of Strahd who won't just go up to the castle and fight Strahd even though everything points in that direction. In another active thread we have the OP of this thread asking about whether or not the GM should allow an Elf into his/her GoT-inspired campaign. To me, these all seem to be manifestations of the approach you are affirming.</p><p></p><p>It's a long way from the game Gygax created, from the Foreword of Moldvay Basic (which promises something quite different from what his system actually delivers, but that's a separate point for the moment), from Classic Traveller. One of the differences: it's very unclear what the role of mechanics even is in this sort of game!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8150795, member: 42582"] What I've been posting has been relevant to the OP's post, except for the small number of posts about empiricist philosophy of knowledge. I'm frankly surprised that you, [USER=6795602]@FrogReaver[/USER] and [USER=29398]@Lanefan[/USER] assert that a campaign can be a total railroad and yet players have all the agency that is appropriate - ie the ability to characterise their PCs, say stuff in character, and declare actions. That doesn't seem like a very useful way of approaching the idea of [I]agency[/I]. And it seems to affirm and even encourage an approach to RPGing where the function of the GM and his/her "plot" is to provide a stage or setting for the players to perform their PCs in ways that are largely detached from that "plot". In one other active thread (the "last session" thread) we see a GM complaining about the player in Curse of Strahd who won't just go up to the castle and fight Strahd even though everything points in that direction. In another active thread we have the OP of this thread asking about whether or not the GM should allow an Elf into his/her GoT-inspired campaign. To me, these all seem to be manifestations of the approach you are affirming. It's a long way from the game Gygax created, from the Foreword of Moldvay Basic (which promises something quite different from what his system actually delivers, but that's a separate point for the moment), from Classic Traveller. One of the differences: it's very unclear what the role of mechanics even is in this sort of game! [/QUOTE]
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