NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 9081332" data-attributes="member: 6785785">As I said, there is often no distinction between what a character does and what happens.Any moment of play where a player gets to say "this is what happens" is an example of player agency. The longer those moments are... the further they shape what's happening in the game, the greater the agency.Per the way the feature is described, it says nothing about attempting or a roll being needed or anything else.This would likely (I hope) be known to me before the request, and so I would seek an audience with another local noble with whom there was no feud.But there are many people who would say that the DM must maintain the ability to ignore any rule they'd like to. Agency cannot be contingent upon approval. It's paradoxical.Again, think of chess. If I move my knight and take your bishop, if you had the ability to say "hmm no, I think instead of being taken, my bisho reappears in his starting spot" you've eliminated my agency. A player has agency because they know how the game works and can rely on that when making their decisions. If the way the game works is obscured or subject to change, that impacts agency.What's been altered? If the character has a trait or background or something similar that strongly implies they're familiar with the castle, then how is it altering reality that they may know such secret routes? It seems more like building upon what's already there. You yourself describe it as "adding", which it is.What this has to do with agency is it gives the player more areas in which they can steer the direction of play.Unless it's been established prior that they absolutely do not know such routes, nothing is being altered.</blockquote>

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