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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 8164557" data-attributes="member: 16586">Here's how I think about and talk about agency. Not only when it comes to games, but also in regards to real life.It's almost always in regards to a particular objectivity. The agency required to achieve political change or agency over my personal earnings. I think agency requires autonomy, power, and information. You need all three in some amount to have any, but can have more or less overall agency depending on the amount of each you have. You need the autonomy to move freely and choose both your ends and your means. You also need the power to bring about change in your environment. Finally you need information so you can make informed choices about how to leverage your power.In an old school sandbox like Moldvay you start with almost unlimited autonomy. You can pretty much go anywhere and do anything. What you have very little of is power and information. The entire point of the game is to utilize your autonomy in order to gain more power and information so you can have meaningful agency to achieve your goals. In the real world power often comes with less autonomy, but games are not life so as you progress in level you mostly become more powerful and gather more information while retaining your autonomy. It takes skilled play to gain agency.I will admit that in most of the character focused games I run players generally have less autonomy, but far more power than starting D&D character (and generally a lot more social influence than most D&D characters of any level) and a lot more access to information to make informed decisions. Like a common fictional conceit is that players might play generals, merchants, etc. People that are connected, but have less freedom of movement. Also characters tend to lives with responsibilities they must juggle against their aims. Agency is not something you are expected to earn in the same way. You can gain more through good play, but not much. While these contrasts all generally apply to the shape of the fiction I'm talking mostly about players here. So like in an old school sandbox information is centered around the player pretty often like knowledge of monsters, traps, etc. In Apocalypse World we use a lot of telegraphing before we punch the player in the metaphorical face.</blockquote>

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