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<blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 6326052" data-attributes="member: 23935"><p>I don't think abstraction reduces player agency. Uncertainty certainly does.</p><p></p><p>A player has at least as much agency if the whole affair is hand-waved as he would have with in-depth resolution. "I want to establish a keep here" is as effective if the answer is "OK. Six months later, the keep is complete, but unfurnished." or "OK. Step 1 is pick your hex... OK not that the keep is fully established, step 971 is to purchase furnishings".</p><p></p><p>What destroys player agency is uncertainty / shifting ground. Shifting ground can be used as a tactic for illusionism, after all.</p><p></p><p>The gorge can be problematic to a variety of play styles. (For those just tuning in, "the gorge" is shorthand for a check failure in a skill challenge resulting in the PC looking out over a gorge that previously did not exist in the area)</p><p></p><p>Player agency is harmed because the player cannot predict/mitigate the dangers of running into such a device. At that point the terrain surrounding the PCs becomes set dressing and effectively nothing the character can rely on. Uncertainty rises.</p><p></p><p>The same problem results from grid-less combat. The player's positional uncertainty or another person shifting the ground undercuts agency if the game engine insists on that level of detail. But if the game engine is focused at a more abstract positioning (say <em>Strands of Fate</em> where action areas are carved into zones but actual positioning doesn't matter) agency isn't undercut.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nagol, post: 6326052, member: 23935"] I don't think abstraction reduces player agency. Uncertainty certainly does. A player has at least as much agency if the whole affair is hand-waved as he would have with in-depth resolution. "I want to establish a keep here" is as effective if the answer is "OK. Six months later, the keep is complete, but unfurnished." or "OK. Step 1 is pick your hex... OK not that the keep is fully established, step 971 is to purchase furnishings". What destroys player agency is uncertainty / shifting ground. Shifting ground can be used as a tactic for illusionism, after all. The gorge can be problematic to a variety of play styles. (For those just tuning in, "the gorge" is shorthand for a check failure in a skill challenge resulting in the PC looking out over a gorge that previously did not exist in the area) Player agency is harmed because the player cannot predict/mitigate the dangers of running into such a device. At that point the terrain surrounding the PCs becomes set dressing and effectively nothing the character can rely on. Uncertainty rises. The same problem results from grid-less combat. The player's positional uncertainty or another person shifting the ground undercuts agency if the game engine insists on that level of detail. But if the game engine is focused at a more abstract positioning (say [I]Strands of Fate[/I] where action areas are carved into zones but actual positioning doesn't matter) agency isn't undercut. [/QUOTE]
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