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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9275822" data-attributes="member: 4937">I still don't understand what you mean by that, but how I define player agency it is the capacity to shape the story towards their own vision. Strong player agency is indicated by:a) High likelihood of player success at any given fortune test.b) Strong ability to set their own stakes.&nbsp; That is to say winning a fortune test grants them a high degree of narrative authority.&nbsp; c) Low overall meta-narrative so that players can choose what the game is about in both the short and long terms.&nbsp; This typically means a setting where you aren't tied to a particular group or role in the setting, where you can decide at character creation what obligations you have, and where you aren't in a setting where you have to save the world.&nbsp; d) High tolerance in the examples of play and character creation for the player being able to ignore the plot and set their own goals.&nbsp; Mouseguard has none of those things.&nbsp; Losing is the expected state.&nbsp; The examples of play in the book are straight up intended to recreate story beats in the comics with very little in the way of handling branching paths.&nbsp; The GM is able to exert strong narrative force from within the game because of your required ties and obligations to the Mouseguard military and the strong assertion by the game that the game is about you participating in the Mouseguard.&nbsp; And there is little to no ability for the player to assert any narrative control outside that implied by normal mechanical success or the normal act of self-narration of your actions.&nbsp; D&amp;D, Blades in the Dark, Dogs in the Vineyard and almost everything else I could think of have more built-in player agency.&nbsp; CoC has somewhat similarly limited player agency, but at least it's examples of play (adventures) typically involve highly detailed sandboxes to wander in and not A-&gt;B-&gt;C simple linear challenges.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 9275822, member: 4937"] I still don't understand what you mean by that, but how I define player agency it is the capacity to shape the story towards their own vision. Strong player agency is indicated by: a) High likelihood of player success at any given fortune test. b) Strong ability to set their own stakes. That is to say winning a fortune test grants them a high degree of narrative authority. c) Low overall meta-narrative so that players can choose what the game is about in both the short and long terms. This typically means a setting where you aren't tied to a particular group or role in the setting, where you can decide at character creation what obligations you have, and where you aren't in a setting where you have to save the world. d) High tolerance in the examples of play and character creation for the player being able to ignore the plot and set their own goals. Mouseguard has none of those things. Losing is the expected state. The examples of play in the book are straight up intended to recreate story beats in the comics with very little in the way of handling branching paths. The GM is able to exert strong narrative force from within the game because of your required ties and obligations to the Mouseguard military and the strong assertion by the game that the game is about you participating in the Mouseguard. And there is little to no ability for the player to assert any narrative control outside that implied by normal mechanical success or the normal act of self-narration of your actions. D&D, Blades in the Dark, Dogs in the Vineyard and almost everything else I could think of have more built-in player agency. CoC has somewhat similarly limited player agency, but at least it's examples of play (adventures) typically involve highly detailed sandboxes to wander in and not A->B->C simple linear challenges. [/QUOTE]

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