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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golroc" data-source="post: 9102538" data-attributes="member: 7042497">I don't think you can fully separate 'player agency' and 'character agency'. Perfect character agency implies the GM should be able to accommodate any possible action and act as a simulation engine of sorts. This cannot be done without accepting the possibility that character agency can impact the overall story arcs and narratives. Which impact player agency for everyone else - if there is a shared understanding about certain aspects of the story and/or the control the GM has over it. It can also lead to a "rubberband timeline" effect where the GM bends (game) reality to return the story from an errant trajectory. In this way character agency can paradoxically lead to less player agency. In other words, sometimes your player agency is not the thing being restricted to reflect the subset of agency available to the character - but the player agency reduces the character agency so as to avoid taking actions that would not be in line with what the accepted style of game allows for. An example: You character might have the agency to not get on the boat with everyone else when it sails for the Island of Adventure, but it would ruin the experience for everyone else if the GM had to either split the session or find some way to railroad you back to the Island of Adventure. So even if getting on that boat might be a stretch for your character, you work with the GM or on your own, to find a way to make events unfold so they make sense from an overall perspective. In this way you are exercising player agency to make sure the character agency doesn't negatively impact the game.If you try to always simulate your character, that's a pretty hardcore stance to take in regard to player agency. At the end of the day RPGs are about a shared experience among a group of people. There should be a shared understanding of the responsibilities, possible consequences and freedoms available when it comes to various aspects of narrative and character action.I would contend that true player agency is not possible if there isn't a shared understanding about "narrative power" in a group. Someone will feel robbed of agency if expectations clash. Some players simply don't consider character agency relevant at all, some would consider it the only relevant consideration. If any such differences haven't been reconciled ahead of time, it won't end well regardless of semantics and the (correct) definitions of various types of agency.</blockquote>

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