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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8419388" data-attributes="member: 86653">There's two problems with that. First, in the thread -- and in RPG discussions -- it's been repeatedly shown and agreed to that the DM can arbitrarily change the rules on a whim. Second, the DM can, and is expected to, adjust the difficulty of actions while staying within the framework of the rules. D&D and DCs, for example. The DM sets the DCs. The DM declares whether an action is an automatic success, what the DC is, or if it's an automatic failure. What recourse does the player have to the DM deciding the difficulty of the action? None. It's literally the expected behavior of the DM. It's part of their job. So if a PC has a bit of text that declares they can light something on fire, the DM still has the ability to decide how difficult that is. And other mechanics and bits of text that declare other character can stop, start, slow, hinder, or enhance that fire. Right. So what in the rules prevents the DM from being a jerk about it? Literally nothing. It's not in the rules. It's in the social contract. You have to trust the DM not to be a jerk. You have to trust that they will set DCs fairly. You have to trust that they won't simply declare "rocks fall, everyone dies" the moment something they don't like happens. There's literally zero rules about that in the books. Yet, the overwhelmingly vast majority of DMs don't do that. Why? Because it's a jerk move and most DMs aren't jerks. And the players trust them not to be jerks.The player's agency is in selecting their character options, deciding their gear and gold expenditures, and in declaring their intent of actions. That's where it stops, in traditional RPGs like D&D. The player controls their character, not the rest of the world. The player has zero control over the outcome. As above, the DM is free to set the DCs in D&D and most interesting actions have dice involved.The example given isn't a lack of agency. It's a player not wanting to check with the DM before simply declaring something is true in the world. That's not a lack of agency, that's a lack of narrative control. Those are not the same thing.</blockquote>

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