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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 9113170" data-attributes="member: 16586">Here's the way I look at agency overall:I think it can basically be broken down into 3 components.1. Autonomy: The ability to determine the goals your character pursues and the actions they take in pursuit of those goals.2. Impact: The ability to bring about irrevocable change to the setting as a result of the actions your character takes (without it being essentially given to you). Success must be earned / taken.3. Content/Thematic Influence: Your ability as a player to influence the content and/or stakes of the setting and scenarios that will be played out at the table.I hope we can all agree that there are various levels and tolerances of all three that will play out from game to game and will be influenced by both game design and GMing technique. Whether or not you think an aggregate like score of overall agency here is helpful I do think you can talk about it in those terms, although it's likely more useful to address individual dimensions.When it comes to the definitions of agency we tend to rely on I think we have a tendency in our hobby to basically use how many of these dimensions to include as a way to stipulate what it is reasonable to expect. Anyone expecting more than the included dimension (Impact when Autonomy is the expectation) tends to get labeled as an entitled malcontent. Sometimes we also decide which dimensions to include to undermine the value of dimensions we do not care for ourselves as a way to say that play that is concerned with a high level of player influence over the content of scenario design basically brings nothing new to table.On the other side of it some us (myself included at one point) can forget that not everyone personally values these dimensions in the same way.I don't think any level of desire or tolerance for these dimensions of agency is wrong and all should be respected. I do think acting is if one of these dimensions of agency we do not care for or want is not actual agency it can come across as denying the value of that dimension globally if not done with ameliorating language (which it almost never is).</blockquote>

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