Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 9621035">Again, I think we just disagree, which is fine. Or perhaps we agree, but you are expanding that point of agreement into territory that feels to me not covered. I don't want to belabor the point. But I think railroad complaints is about players not being able to say things like "Okay we tell the duke to screw and go west instead". It is about feeling like there are rails on the adventures and no real other options, and the player feeling like no matter what their character does, it doesn't matter. But I don't think the complaint is usually made because the player wants something from the system in terms of power, like narrative control.So in the sense that it is about the players wanting to be able to decide what their characters do in the setting, I would agree. But if we are talking about things going beyond that, I think you are stretching how most people think of agency in an RPGI don't think railroad complaints about agency are a system complaint. They are a GMIng style complaint I don't think we are going to resolve this disagreement. But I think I am using a much more standard definition of the term here. And I think it is very reasonable to push back on a definition that seems to come loaded with stylistic preferences. I am not saying those preferences are invalid, but binding them to agency, muddies the water because it confuses a discussion about how the system approaches things like the power of players over fictional elements in the setting, with one that is really supposed to be about being able make meaningful choices in the setting.</blockquote>

Verification