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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6519423" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm really not sure what sorts of mechanics you have in mind. Can you give examples?When I think of player authorship, here are some examples that come to mind based on some of the RPGs I'm familiar with:* A player gets to declare that nearby enemies are closing on his/her PC (4e's Come and Get It power); * A player gets to make a die roll (as part of some mechanical subsystem) which, if successful, allows him/her to declare that s/he has a friend in this town ready to help (Burning Wheel's Circle mechanics is an example); * A player gets to make a die roll (as part of some mechanical subsystem) which, if successful, allows him/her to declare some bit of campaign backstory to be such-and-such (Burning Wheel knowledge skills ("Wises") are like this, and in my 4e game we have used that system's knowledge skills like this from time to time); * A player wants to throw a rock and is entitled to declare that - in the absence of any established fiction to the contrary - that a rock can be found on the ground underfoot; or (say if playing The Hulk in a superhero game) is entitled to declare the existence of a streetlight so s/he can describe the character picking it up and using it to bash an enemy (Marvel Heroic RP calls the latter out as a standard part of the game).Each of these gives an advantage, although the advantage in the last case is fairly minimal - for instance, in MHRP if the streetlight is to give you a bonus to hit then you have to spend an action and make a check; and in D&D being able to find a rock to throw is not exactly powering up the typical PC.In the case of the others, the advantage is no different from the advantage gained by using some non-player-authorship mechanic. For instance, Come and Get It is (in my view) no stronger than the 7th level wizard encounter power Twist of Space, which is an AoE hostile teleport. The latter ability has no "player authorship" dimension, because the player's decision as to where to teleport the affected enemies to corresponds to decisions made by the PC in casting the spell. But that doesn't have any bearing on the power level of the ability.I can't think of any player authorship ability in the RPGs I'm familiar with that is more powerful, or more likely to be used to circumvent adventure, then the classic D&D Wish spell.</blockquote>

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