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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9081066" data-attributes="member: 42582">In every RPG ever, the player declares what their PC does. But everyone knows that some RPGs are railroads. Therefore action declaration on its own can't be a touchstone of agency.The touchstone is action resolution. And [USER=6785785]@hawkeyefan[/USER] has deliberately provided examples where the canonical means of resolution (in D&amp;D at least) is that the player saying it makes it so:For an example of a RPG in which &quot;I speak to the innkeeper&quot; requires the player to succeed at a check before we know whether or not it is true, in the fiction, that the PC is speaking to the innkeeper, I suggest Wuthering Heights.For an example of a RPG in which the player can not only declare &quot;I speak to the innkeeper&quot; and have it be true, but can also declare &quot;And the innkeeper falls madly in love withe me&quot;, I suggest Prince Valiant - though only if the player has a Storyteller Certificate and spends it to create that effect.I think trying to understand player agency as if a certain typical approach to D&amp;D is more-or-less exhaustive of the possibilities is not very helpful.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9081066, member: 42582"] In every RPG ever, the player declares what their PC does. But everyone knows that some RPGs are railroads. Therefore action declaration on its own can't be a touchstone of agency. The touchstone is action resolution. And [USER=6785785]@hawkeyefan[/USER] has deliberately provided examples where the canonical means of resolution (in D&D at least) is that the player saying it makes it so: For an example of a RPG in which "I speak to the innkeeper" requires the player to succeed at a check before we know whether or not it is true, in the fiction, that the PC is speaking to the innkeeper, I suggest Wuthering Heights. For an example of a RPG in which the player can not only declare "I speak to the innkeeper" and have it be true, but can also declare "And the innkeeper falls madly in love withe me", I suggest Prince Valiant - though only if the player has a Storyteller Certificate and spends it to create that effect. I think trying to understand player agency as if a certain typical approach to D&D is more-or-less exhaustive of the possibilities is not very helpful. [/QUOTE]

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