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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8160928" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Let me deconstruct my thinking here:PROTAGONIST AGENCY - To be a/the protagonist, you (a) must have a dramatic need and (b) the game feature the resolution of this as its ballast and pivot point.  This actual type of agency is almost surely the primary point of contention in this thread (and threads we've had in the past).  A game can be entirely devoid of Protagonist Agency or it can be entirely focused on it or somewhere in between.I brought up Pawn Stance Moldvay Basic earlier.  There is no dramatic need there upon which the game rests and turns upon.  The game is devoid of Protagonist Agency.What about AP or metaplot play or setting tourism or Strahd-games?  There may be Protagonist Agency there, but its not experienced by the players.  It is expressed by the GM through Situation and Setting, for the players to experience and facilitate, but its not the Player-Character-centered.  It could be the resolution of Strahd's dramatic need that the game rests and turns upon or something similar.  It could be the unraveling of the thematically-neutral (the reference point being the PCs) mystery.So those two types of games do not feature Protagonist Agency for the players.Contrast with My Life With Master where Tactical and Strategic Agency are limited, but Protagonist Agency is extreme. Contrast again with Dogs in the Vineyard where the hierarchy is huge Protagonist Agency, significant Tactical Agency, somewhat muted (but still present Strategic Agency).  Contrast still with Blades in the Dark (and Torchbearer to a lesser degree because Strategic Agency is somewhat more potent than Tactical in that game) where all 3 of those Agencies are massive with the game not just being each of Tactical and Strategic-rich, but the two are brilliantly integrated with layers of decision-points and feedback loops that impact each other (you need THIS Action Roll but the cost to the Score could be x with the risk/reward to your long term capacity to do z also being in play).  Most games aren't like Blades though.  On that note...TACTICAL AGENCY - The feedback loop and downstream implications of this decision-point (and any attendant resource deployment) are muted.  The apex priority (if there is any competition with other priorities) is to succeed in this scene/conflict.  The fallout of this scene is overwhelmingly about the evolution of the fiction and less about (if at all) the implications of long term resource attrition or the (mechanical) imposition on character and/or downstream decision-points.  Games that feature this type of agency have (a) robust PC capability at the scene level, (b) recharge rates that coincide with scene/conflict as the primary locus of play, and (c) often mechanical architecture that push back against multi-scene attrition of PC resources.  D&D 4e, Mouse Guard, and Dogs in the Vineyard are good examples of this.  These games are certainly not devoid of Strategic Agency, but the structure of play, resource recharge rates, and the robust PCs place Tactical Agency as paramount and rarely at tension with the strategic play (if its even a consideration).STRATEGIC AGENCY - From Tactical Agency, I'm confident you (and others) can derive Strategic Agency.  From that, you can also surmise games/playbooks/PCs that feature Strategic Agency is an/the apex priority of play.[HR][/HR]And again, its not that you can't have all 3 of these be play priorities in a single game.  Its just that (a) outside of the most brilliantly conceived and actualized games (like Blades) there is not going to be an equilibrium of any 2 or 3 of these types of agency.  Furthermore (and VERY relevant to the topic), (b) if there is not equilibrium AND Protagonist Agency is alleged to be a play priority...then there is tension.  And (c) if there is tension then a hierarchy will naturally emerge.   And (d) if a hierarchy naturally emerges, then you can (and often will) have entirely incoherent play or play that is lacking integrity if the game is alleged to be premised upon Protagonist Agency.THIS is where Force emerges.The GM says you have Tactical Agency, you have Strategic Agency, and the game rests upon and is propelled by your Protagonist Agency...but oops!  Your "meaningful decision (and its attendant fallout/downstream effects" of one of these agency types has/will subvert past or subsequent decision-points related to these other agency types.  OR the GM is only feigning giving you one of these.  Perhaps you don't actually have Protagonist Agency...its just a GM deploying sleight of hand and later you'll find out the game rested upon/was propelled by something else!  The metaplot/secret backstory/GM NPC has the Protagonist Agency and your Tactical Agency that you just expressed will wrest control of that from the GM...so they subvert your Tactical Agency!  Or perhaps your an overpowered Wizard and your ability to control the game is making it "no fun (TM)" for one or more of the other players or the GM themselves so they subordinate your overwhelming Strategic Agency by initiating a block or a series of blocks!</blockquote>

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