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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9109989" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't think this is true. There are a lot of RPGs that provide systems that will allow a GM to do this.A friend of mine has only ever GMed Burning Wheel. The first session of BW that he GMed was higher in player agency than most D&D sessions that I have played in (and the only I say "most" rather than "all" is because I can't remember every D&D session I've ever played).You identify two problems.One goes to whether the group is compatible. I leave that to one side, as I see it as basically a social problem - like on card night most people want to play bridge but one person wants to play poker. These are problems that sit outside the system of any particular game.But the second problem is about How does the GM meet the expectations of a player who is not satisfied with the sort of play you describe. And there are solutions to that problem. [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] has suggested Dungeon World. I would suggest Burning Wheel (or Torchbearer as a BW variant). Or even sticking to the current system of choice (what you describe makes me think of D&D, RQ, RM or HARP, perhaps even HERO or GURPS) but adopting some techniques from those games.The most basic technique, which [USER=16586]@Campbell[/USER] set out not far upthread, is to frame scenes that are relevant to the characters' and game's premise. The GM you describe is not doing that. Changing what they are doing is not actually that hard.Burning Wheel, towards the end of the rulebook, has a page setting out the GM's role and responsibilities, and then a page setting out "the sacred and most holy role of the players". This latter page (Revised p 269; Gold p 552) includes the following statement, directed at players: If the story doesn't interest you, it's your job to create interesting situations and involve yourself.And the game gives the players the tools to do that: Circles checks, Wises checks, the various extended resolution frameworks etc. The same page also tells players:Use the mechanics! Players are expected to call for a Duel of Wits or a Circles test or to demand the Range and Cover rules in a shooting match with a Dark Elf assassin Don't wait for the GM to invoke a rule - invoke the damn thing yourself and get the story moving!And of course underlying this is the fact that mechanical outcomes are binding.I've given examples in this thread of my own BW play. I have called for Circles tests to meet NPCs - members of my order, and my family. I have called for Duels of Wits to move play away from what the GM thought was interesting onto what I thought was interesting. I have used Great Masters-wise to focus play on recovering spellbooks from Evard's tower, rather than whatever the GM would otherwise have put forward.In my most recent Torchbearer session the players used a Convince conflict to persuade a key NPC to assist them in a particular task they wanted to carry out, which focused play onto that issue - and precluded me, as GM, using that NPC as a backstory element to bring the focus of play onto something else.So I think there are system-based solutions here.</blockquote>

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