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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Dealing with agency and retcon (in semi sandbox)
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 9070730" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>There are many possible types of RPG play, nobody is insisting that anyone must play any certain way, or that any given system must cater to, for example, my tastes. Maybe I will tend not to play/run games that don't conform to my tastes, but I think that's pretty typical...</p><p></p><p>Agency doesn't necessarily mean "can alter game reality" in a direct way. For example most PbtA games don't give players direct explicit control of any of the fiction, yet they feature profoundly greater player agency over the fiction than is normally assumed to be the case in D&D.</p><p></p><p>Not necessarily, no. There's such a thing as what is genre appropriate and 'follows from the fiction'. There's thus a 'logic' attached to stories which requires that players cannot simply attain their ultimate desires in a single leap. Also, remember, in most of these games there are either resource costs, or sliding scales of stakes. Imagine you are able to 'open a portal' and are empowered to describe its destination without any restriction, what happens (in say a PbtA) if you roll a 5? Guess how terrible the consequences are going to be! As great as the rewards potentially are, the consequences (IE what is at stake) will be equally tremendous! So you are going to go ahead and open a portal that lets Yog Sothoth into the world? Sure, go ahead! If those are the types of bets you are going to make every session, you will lead a short life and have a horrible fate! lol.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 9070730, member: 82106"] There are many possible types of RPG play, nobody is insisting that anyone must play any certain way, or that any given system must cater to, for example, my tastes. Maybe I will tend not to play/run games that don't conform to my tastes, but I think that's pretty typical... Agency doesn't necessarily mean "can alter game reality" in a direct way. For example most PbtA games don't give players direct explicit control of any of the fiction, yet they feature profoundly greater player agency over the fiction than is normally assumed to be the case in D&D. Not necessarily, no. There's such a thing as what is genre appropriate and 'follows from the fiction'. There's thus a 'logic' attached to stories which requires that players cannot simply attain their ultimate desires in a single leap. Also, remember, in most of these games there are either resource costs, or sliding scales of stakes. Imagine you are able to 'open a portal' and are empowered to describe its destination without any restriction, what happens (in say a PbtA) if you roll a 5? Guess how terrible the consequences are going to be! As great as the rewards potentially are, the consequences (IE what is at stake) will be equally tremendous! So you are going to go ahead and open a portal that lets Yog Sothoth into the world? Sure, go ahead! If those are the types of bets you are going to make every session, you will lead a short life and have a horrible fate! lol. [/QUOTE]
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