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Traps, Agency, and Telegraphing Dangers
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<blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 9094049" data-attributes="member: 86653"><p>Variations of this have come up a few times so I wanted to have a thread on the topic. </p><p></p><p>The argument seems to go like this: traps that are not telegraphed are gotchas, and that's bad because without being able to make an informed decision, my choices as a player are meaningless. The whole point of player agency is to have meaningful choices. Non-telegraphed dangers violate my agency as a player, therefore should not be included in the game.</p><p></p><p>The counter argument seems to go like this: no one would ever build a trap that's obvious or telegraphed, therefore traps that are telegraphed make no sense. This is the immersion and worldbuilding counter. Also, no player is ever going to willingly trigger a telegraphed trap (unless they're a chaos goblin), therefore traps are a waste of time. This is the pragmatic counter.</p><p></p><p>While I'm an absolutist when it comes to player agency, I cannot bring myself to agree with the first argument, because the inevitable result of that would mean that nothing bad can happen to the player's PC without the player's consent. </p><p></p><p>Where do other people stand on this? What are better arguments for or against telegraphed dangers?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="overgeeked, post: 9094049, member: 86653"] Variations of this have come up a few times so I wanted to have a thread on the topic. The argument seems to go like this: traps that are not telegraphed are gotchas, and that's bad because without being able to make an informed decision, my choices as a player are meaningless. The whole point of player agency is to have meaningful choices. Non-telegraphed dangers violate my agency as a player, therefore should not be included in the game. The counter argument seems to go like this: no one would ever build a trap that's obvious or telegraphed, therefore traps that are telegraphed make no sense. This is the immersion and worldbuilding counter. Also, no player is ever going to willingly trigger a telegraphed trap (unless they're a chaos goblin), therefore traps are a waste of time. This is the pragmatic counter. While I'm an absolutist when it comes to player agency, I cannot bring myself to agree with the first argument, because the inevitable result of that would mean that nothing bad can happen to the player's PC without the player's consent. Where do other people stand on this? What are better arguments for or against telegraphed dangers? [/QUOTE]
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