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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8234215" data-attributes="member: 16814">No, I understand what protagonist means.&nbsp; It means you're the focus of the story.&nbsp; Pick a story with a protagonist, and it will revolve around that character's dramatic needs.&nbsp; The issue here is the translation into an RPG, where agency is being confused with protagonism.&nbsp; I can be free to choose what my character does, but that doesn't mean the story is centered on my character.&nbsp; These are separate concepts.&nbsp; There's a case for a high protagonism, low agency form of play, where the game is totally centered on the PC's dramatic needs, but the player has few meaningful choices.&nbsp; Similarly, there's the case for low protagonism, high agency play, which looks like a Moldvay Dungeon Crawl -- the game isn't about the character's dramatic needs, but about exploring the dungeon created by the GM, but the players have quite a lot of agency in how they do this.Protagonism isn't about the PCs being able to make choices, it's about what does the game focus on.&nbsp; If you're writing up things that happen offscreen that the PCs can discover if they do the right things/go the right places, then this is not protagonism.&nbsp; It can have a lot of agency, though.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8234215, member: 16814"] No, I understand what protagonist means. It means you're the focus of the story. Pick a story with a protagonist, and it will revolve around that character's dramatic needs. The issue here is the translation into an RPG, where agency is being confused with protagonism. I can be free to choose what my character does, but that doesn't mean the story is centered on my character. These are separate concepts. There's a case for a high protagonism, low agency form of play, where the game is totally centered on the PC's dramatic needs, but the player has few meaningful choices. Similarly, there's the case for low protagonism, high agency play, which looks like a Moldvay Dungeon Crawl -- the game isn't about the character's dramatic needs, but about exploring the dungeon created by the GM, but the players have quite a lot of agency in how they do this. Protagonism isn't about the PCs being able to make choices, it's about what does the game focus on. If you're writing up things that happen offscreen that the PCs can discover if they do the right things/go the right places, then this is not protagonism. It can have a lot of agency, though. [/QUOTE]

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