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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7350801" data-attributes="member: 29398">No, I don't think talking to Robert Downey Jr. is the same as talking to Iron Man.I also don't know how immersed he gets in his roles, but it's reasonable to say that if asked why Iron Man (or Tony Stark) did something he might begin his response with "Well, put yourself in Tony Stark's shoes for a moment in that situation..." - the answer is based out of the character perspective.Now he could just as easily flippantly say something like "Because that's what the writers wanted him to do." and leave it at that; but even from there if he goes on to say something like "even though it's out of character for him" he's gone back into the character-based perspective.Except in the case of Robert Downey Jr./Tony Stark we're not talking about an author (at least I don't think RDJ writes any of the scripts), we're talking about a middle step - a player, as it were; tasked with taking someone else's authorship, infusing it with personality, and bringing it to life on the screen.  He has to deal with the processes of movie-making while he's at it, just like a D&D player has to deal with game mechanics while she's playing her character; but if he likes he can as far as possible leave all that in the hands of the director (DM) and just focus on his character.Yes it is, but not for the reason you might think. <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=":)" />Who says?  What she's authoring now may be a direct result of something that happened in the fiction half an hour ago.  The orcs are going to the underground well now because the PCs cut off their surface water supply this morning.So?  That's not where player agency lies, so why worry about it?Player agency, or the exercise thereof, is what got the PCs here into this orc-infested castle in the first place.  They didn't have to come here*.  They could have gone to any number of other places and-or done any number of other things; yet they decided to come here.  And they decided to stay here, even though they've lost both their henches down a chasm and a fair bit of their adventuring gear went with them - they could have turned around and gone home after this setback, but decided not to.Every such decision is where players get their agency.  They don't get to write the game-world, just like an actor (most of the time) doesn't get to write the movie script.  But they - unlike an actor - do get to decide what they're going to do within that game-world; and how they're going to approach it; and - along with the DM - what story will end up being told.* - unless the DM isn't any good and has railroaded them here despite their intentions otherwiseLanefan</blockquote>

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