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<blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 8013341" data-attributes="member: 16586">I think part of what is going here is that you are viewing agency through the prism of having more agency over the fiction as being intrinsically good. A certain amount of agency over the fiction is good. Too much or too little in the hands of one participant is not good at all.There are all sorts of limits to our agency over the fiction. First and foremost is our fictional positioning which the ability my character has in the fiction to impact change to the setting or other characters.&nbsp; Often elements that limit our agency are placed into the fiction for us to overcome. Attempting to change this is the core skill of playing role playing games. Then there are rules limitations (action economies, listed options, mechanics like daily rages that do not correspond to the fiction). There are also social limitations (spotlight issues, GM addressing a different player). All of these things affect our ability to make a material impact on the shared fiction.Here's an example. In most games&nbsp; a player is only allowed to declare what their character is doing here and now. Any preparation needs to be done prior to setting out. In Blades in the Dark a player has a limited ability to declare actions that were done to prepare for the current situation. So if the players' characters get arrested right after they steal something important a player might declare a a flashback scene where they attempt to setup the arrest and work out a deal with cops prior to the events of the score.Blades in the Dark removes a common limitation on player agency in a limited fashion (you have to pay for it and you still need the right fictional positioning).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Campbell, post: 8013341, member: 16586"] I think part of what is going here is that you are viewing agency through the prism of having more agency over the fiction as being [I]intrinsically good[/I]. A certain amount of agency over the fiction is good. Too much or too little in the hands of one participant is not good at all. There are all sorts of limits to our agency over the fiction. First and foremost is our fictional positioning which the ability my character has in the fiction to impact change to the setting or other characters. Often elements that limit our agency are placed into the fiction for us to overcome. Attempting to change this is the core skill of playing role playing games. Then there are rules limitations (action economies, listed options, mechanics like daily rages that do not correspond to the fiction). There are also social limitations (spotlight issues, GM addressing a different player). All of these things affect our ability to make a material impact on the [B]shared[/B] fiction. Here's an example. In most games a player is only allowed to declare what their character is doing here and now. Any preparation needs to be done prior to setting out. In Blades in the Dark a player has a limited ability to declare actions that were done to prepare for the current situation. So if the players' characters get arrested right after they steal something important a player might declare a a flashback scene where they attempt to setup the arrest and work out a deal with cops prior to the events of the score. Blades in the Dark removes a common limitation on player agency in a limited fashion (you have to pay for it and you still need the right fictional positioning). [/QUOTE]

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