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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7330752" data-attributes="member: 29398">Back in the day I'd see the occasional White Dwarf magazine on a shelf, alongside lots of Dragon magazines that (relatively speaking) sold like hotcakes.I've met a reasonable number of gamers over the years.  I can't think of any who ever played Traveller for anything more than a one-session try-out, and only one who played any serious RQ.*  I know several who played GURPS for some years - but other than that it's been all [some version of D&D or Pathfinder] all the time.* - though he singlehandedly tips the balance considerably: his love of RQ got him to the point that he now co-owns Moon Design and Chaosium. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />A lot (though fortunately not quite all) of published 4e modules were like that - very linear with few or no choice points, closed loops, or any other reason to care much about the exploration side as you go from one set-piece to the next - but from what I've seen of the 5e adventures they're (with exceptions, of course) generally quite a bit better-designed providing choice points, closed loops, multiple means of access, and some engaging/interesting exploration between the set-pieces.And when one particular 4e module (which I've run, modified for my game) did manage to present a couple of good chances for some interesting exploration, in each case the author blew it off with a skill challenge.  How boring!Depends how you define agency.Agency over the game world itself?  They have very little, and less perhaps as the sandbox gets bigger.  No problem here; as building and narrating the game world are DM jobs.Agency over the story, and what the PCs do, where they go, what adventures they tackle (or run screaming from - it's a sandbox, after all)?  They have boatloads of it.  The DM is in full react mode most of the time.These do make it easier to run contained dungeon modules or adventures, no denying that...but by the same token it's by no means impossible or even all that difficult to run a less-contained or even uncontained module or adventure.  Most adventures have elements of both - the travel to and from the adventure site is not all that "contained", and while it's sort of expected the PCs will go from A to B there's nothing at all sayng they won't go via C D and E and find all sorts of trouble along the way; while the adventure site itself might very well be a contained dungeon.Hmmm...not so sure about that.From the perspective of the here-and-now player at the table and PC in the gameworld, she's "pulled a string" and achieved some sort of result or reaction.  All is good, and the game goes on.  Her amount of agency here was, let's call it X.From the perspective of the DM she's pulled a string that's not only achieved the immediate result observed by the PC and thus narrated, she's set dominoes falling all over the place behind the scenes that she may well never know about...but note this does not in any way change the value of X.  She doesn't have any less agency, nor any more; she just did what she did and the game goes on.  And while it's possible that ramifications of the falling dominoes may affect the PCs at some point now or later, it's also possible they won't.Let me try an example.There's skullduggery going on all over the city.  The place is rife with rumours and plots and spies and gossip, and into all this prance the innocent naive low-level PCs looking to spend the spoils of their first real adventure.  They take a room at an inn, and go out for a night on the town.  At some point things go a bit sideways - there's some yelling and pushing and screaming and the party mage ends up having to discreetly charm a local harlot in order to calm the situation down; the charm works, well, like a charm.  The mage now has a new friend, adventurers-plus-new-friend go about their merry evening, and a good time is had by all.  The adventurers, including the mage, pass out around sunrise whereupon the harlot wanders off.Player side: mage charms harlot who at his invitation joins mage and friends for a night of partying before slipping away a bit after sunrise.  String pulled, result obtained.DM side: harlot is actually an agent (who, depending on developments, the party may or may not have met later in this capacity) working for the local Duke.  She realized the yelling and pushing was a distraction intended to mask something else, and joined the fray in order to get herself into the scene so she could try to determine what was being masked by the distraction.  She managed to notice two men sneaking into an alley that she knew led to a hidden access to the Duke's manor house, just before being charmed by the mage and taken along for a night of revels.  She didn't report this - in fact, she failed to report at all - and thus the two sneaks get where they're going and none the wiser.  Meanwhile other agents who really can't be spared are sent out to search for the missing one, who none too sober comes in on her own not long after sunrise.  String pulled, dominoes fall.Ramifications: next morning word gets out of an attempt on the Duke's life during the night by two unknown men.The PCs might never know of their unintentional involvement in this crime.  Conversely, their mage might suddenly find himself arrested for treason and thrown in jail.Lan-"I think this scenario could be pulled off in any system where charm spells last a while"-efan</blockquote>

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