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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bloodtide" data-source="post: 9115868" data-attributes="member: 6684958">Right, and that is what I'm talking about.  You give lots of examples of actual play.  They read like typical sessions.  But then you say there is "player agency" in there somewhere.  Maybe you can break it down a bit more as I'm missing it.I get you endless talk about the rules.  But I still wonder "how" do rules give players agency?  You never say it, so my guess is your saying "the rules"......somehow" are "forcing" the GM to do something?GM: "The vault door is locked"Player: "Whatever GM, my character does their Door Action Ability...and got a total of 17, and as per page 11 of The Rules, My character opens the door!  All Hail the Rules!"GM (looks down utterly defeated and powerless) "Yes, your character opens the door...All Hail the Rules!"And I get that many games are made of all Rule Zealots, all the players and the GM.  Where everyone is waiting for "the rules" to tell them what happenedNow you don't say this.....but it SOUNDS like your saying "The Rules" can be used by the players to over power and over rule the GM.  Like the GM says "the door is locked and your character can't open it".  Then the player whips out a rule like a 'reverse Uno card'  and says "Ha I got a 17 for my Action Check and my character opens the door!  All hail the rules!"  So over rifing or over ruling the GM is "player agency".And, IF the GM is a hard core Rule Zealot they will look at the rule and nod "your character opens the door, All hail the rules"......willingly.But, ok, so what if it's not a Rule Zealot type GM?  The player makes a roll and takes an action.....but the GM can ALWAYS say "nope, did not work."  Even in a normal simple game there can be dozens of reasons a "roll rule" does not work 100%.  So, a GM always gets final say...no matter the roll or rules.This sounds vague enough to be a normal RPG.  But you say it's not.  After all a normal RPG has a lot of detail and pre game prep......and you'd say this is not done.  Though when I say "it's not done"....you will like say "it IS done".  So...you will just be going around in circles......Thank you for the detailed response.   I do have some concerns/questions.I get the impression DM was made 1)As an anti-adventure like D&D type game, 2)A game for Casual and Relaxed GMs, and most of all 3) for simple game play.  I know you will push back on the "simple game" part at least.  But a game randomly made 'on the fly' can never ever come close to the complexity of a game with a bulk ton of detail made up pre game.  The best example is a murder mystery.  You can have a Simple murder mystery....this is exactly what cartoons like Scooby Do do.  But you need a plain and simple fictional world too.  Lets take a murder mystery where a wizard at magic school is killed.So the characters start to look for clues in the DW game....and the GM has made NOTHING up at all about the murder.  So as the players just randomly aimlessly search, the GM just tells them random things.  The GM has not written down the murder background...THAT would be part of writing an adventure.  So, for every action a player takes....the GM just comes up with a random on the spot response.  But this can ONLY work in a Simple game.....with a plot like an episode of Schooby Do.  If the wizard school only has eight wizards(one for each school) and each wears ONE color always and ONLY one of the wizards did the killing.  Then when the blue robed wizard is killed, and the characters find a bit of torn red thread in the hand.....then they KNOW the red wizard did it.  But in any game more complex then that....like the suspects are not color coded and you have at minimum 25 wizard teachers, 200 students, another 35 faculty, 5 guests, the spouses, children, partners, or friends of the  previous 265....plus potentially anyone else in the city/world/multiverse.  Well, for this type of murder mystery the GM MUST know who did it, how and why, and lots and lots and lots of other details.  You HAVE to write this adventure out a head of time.Also, it does seem like a "trigger" can be anything?  So it's a bit of a useless rule?And...well, the GM is the one that decides "what" a "trigger" is, right?  So kind doubles down on the useless rule.But....most of all....I don't see how DW game play would be "so different":The player "suddenly" wants to head south.  The GM says "the bridge over the river of doom was washed away in the last storm and has not been rebuilt.".So in a game like D&D, a player might get all on edge because they think the GM is "just stopping" their character from going south because the DM does not want that to happen.But in the DW game, the player just sits back happily because they KNOW everything the GM does is to make an engaging, beautiful game for everyone to enjoy.  After all, not only do the rules say that, but the GM will often echo the rules.</blockquote>

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