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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aenghus" data-source="post: 7103293" data-attributes="member: 2656">I think different players and play groups care about different sorts of player agency and prioritise different things. A conventional dungeon crawling game might prioritise fair challenge and exploration of highly detailed dungeons. PC survival is a very relevant concern and a constant challenge in the face of the deadly dangers of the dungeon. I find games like this either discourage excessive risk taking, or have high PC casualty rates, or involve DM fudging to moderate casualty rates despite apparent high risk moves.A player driven dramatic game might prioritise the players being about to make meaningful personal decisions relevant to their dramatic goals. This might entail some degree of script immunity, so players can feel able to make appropriate decisions for their PCs without having to worry about undramatic wounding or death. So long as scenes allow players to feel they are addressing their dramatic goals meaningfully, they mightn't care as much about strong scene framing that would be objectionable in some other styles of play. However, even temporary obstacles to pursuing personal goals might be objectionable in this style, when there might be no guarantee of any addressing of personal goals in another style.For me, I try to evaluate play styles with respect to their particular goals of play,  not by goals they aren't designed to value or achieve.Appropriate challenge levels also depend on the tastes of the participants, some games prefer high challenge, others prefer low challenge. Some involve high PC physical risk, others have some level of script immunity. Some have some level of dictated personality change, others assign the player total control of the PCs personality. In most academic subjects, explaining the means by which results are arrived at is important for marking schemes, evidence of learning the curriculum, and as evidence against cheating. Some players care deeply about the means by which decisions are made in their game, others don't.</blockquote>

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