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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6324235" data-attributes="member: 42582">I find comparisons between playing a character in an RPG and playing or directing a character in a movie can be awkward, because a movie is typically already scripted, or at least plotted, whereas I prefer that an RPG not be.No actor in a movie has the type of agency - ie full powers of authorship - that I want players in an RPG to enjoy.As a GM, my agency operates in respect of background, scene-framing and adjudication of action resolution. And my control of NPCs is in pursuit of each of those things. Although in some ways the output is the same - there is a character who says and does stuff - the rationale behind that output, and the means whereby it is generated, is very different, at least for me.To make this a bit more concrete: a player generally knows what his/her PC wants, and in play is pursuing that goal. As GM I may or may not know what an NPC wants - that can vary quite a bit - but in play I am not trying to bring it about that the NPC gets what s/he wants. That information about the NPC is a piece of backstory that can play a role in scene-framing or action resolution. But it is not a reason for me to adjudicate action resolution one way rather than another; and I might frame a scene with the idea that it will show up the futility of the NPC's desire just as much as framing a scene in which the NPC might achieve his/her desire. Whereas it would be very unusual for a player to declare an action with the aim of having his/her PC thwarted in his/her goals.</blockquote>

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