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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9065117" data-attributes="member: 42582">I didn't say anything about declaring the consequences of your actions. I used the phrase capacity to establish what is at stake.I also pointed to some RPGs that exemplify what I have in mind (Burning Wheel, Dungeon World). Of course they're not the only ones.Conversely, if everything that is at stake, and everything that flows from both successful and unsuccessful actions, is established by the GM, then the players are not exercising much agency.The obvious counter-example to your post is a coin-toss to determine whether the imaginary universe endures or comes to an end: the GM could set up that situation, and then call for the players to toss the coin.A more low-scale version: the GM tells the player they stumble on an assault (A vs B) and thereby prompts them to intervene. Perhaps A is the heir to the throne, who if they survive the assault will go on to murder their parent and take over the realm, establishing a dictatorship. Perhaps B is a revolutionary, trying to kill A so as to establish justice in the realm. But if the players don't know any of this backstory, and simply have to decide whether to help A, whether to help B, or whether to pass on without intervening, the players have not exercised any agency, beyond the most minimal of declaring some actions for their PCs and then waiting to find out what the GM has decided will flow from those.[USER=7041885]@ZebraDruid[/USER]'s scenario, as described in the OP, seems more like this than like high-agency play.Picking locks and searching for traps in a context where the GM is establishing everything that matters about the chest, whether or not it is trapped, etc, is classic low-agency play.</blockquote>

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