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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7344834" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't understand (i) what exactly you mean by "PC agency" and (ii) why it matters to anything.As I've posted already upthread, in one of my active campaigns a PC is in thrall (by way of a Force of Will spell) to a dark naga. That PC, consequently, has very little agency. Howevr, the player has plenty of agency: having written a Belief for his character that reflects his ensorcellment, he plays the game in just the same way, and with just the same agency, as any other player.If a GM frames a situation in which (a) a PC is 100' from an opponent with a great chasm in the way, and (b) it is established that the PC is equipped with, or capable with, melee weapons only, then that is a framing which reduces the agency of that player in certain respects. The extent of that reduction depends heavily on many other facets of play, though (eg in a D&D the player may have access to resources - in the fiction, they would be flight magic or teleportation magic or distance distortion or whatever - that allow him/her to change the fictional positioning).One difference between this and the map example is that the player has the capacity to appraise the game state and express his/her agency through decisions about the use of resources to change the fictional positioning. (In the map example I'm assuming that the map is not within range of a Locate Object spell which the PCs are able to cast.)Upthread I made some extensive posts about my own view as to when secret elements of the fictional position become burdens on player agency of the sort I personally do not prefer: I prefer the secret be (i) knowable with the current context of play (the "scene" or "encounter"), and (ii) salient, and (iii) not overly severe in its consequences if not identified. Under these conditions, it's likewise reasonable to expect players to expend their resources to fully establish, or to change, the fictional positioning. An invisible foe, and even an illusory orc, may often satisfy these desiderata.As part of those posts I also explained why I don't think the map example (assuming that it is not within range of a Locate Object spell that the PCs are able to case) satisfies those desiderata.I don't know how much work you are intending the words "beat" and "overcome" to do in your example.My view is that an encounter in which the players don't have a range of meaningful options as to how they engage it and might resolve it is a poorly framed encounter. Whether or not your dragon encounter fits that description depends on many points of detail or context - eg maybe the players can run from the dragon, or befriend it, or pledge fealty to it, or hide from it.In a recent session of my Traveller game the PCs found themselves under laser bombardment from an orbiting starship. The PCs were not in a position to attack the vessel - it was in orbit, and it's forward observer was in a small craft flying quite high above the ground. But they had a range of options, some of which they exercised: they fled in their ATVs to cover (we resolved these by application of the quickie combat rules for small craft); and they called in the local air force to deal with the attackers (from memory this was a simple case of "saying 'yes'" - one of the PCs was a recently retired senior military commander on the world in question). They NPCs tried to open negotiation with the PCs (over radio) but the players (as their PCs) refused to engage (so as best I recall this didn't actually get to the reaction roll/social mechanics stage).</blockquote>

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