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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7351691" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think that in, at least [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]'s case, agency isn't quite defined like that. He's not letting players simply decree fiction, like you can't just say &quot;my character pulls the Wand of Orcus out of his backpack and slays the high priest with it!&quot; (unless it was already fictionally established that he had said wand). Its more about the player's agenda being the thing which the fiction addresses.So, when the player wanted to conquer the world, that was his agenda, his character met Vecna and was offered a chance to take a step in the direction of achieving his goal. In other words the player said &quot;I want to conquer the world&quot; and in the fiction of the game &quot;conquest of the world&quot; became an activity which was being pursued by the player's character. It may also be that agency is expressed in generating fiction by means of a check, like &quot;I roll streetwise to see if I can contact Vinny the Weasel, my fence.&quot; Maybe if the check succeeds then Vinny will be established to be in the area, otherwise the GM could presumably say &quot;you don't know any Vinny&quot; but would instead probably resort to &quot;he's in prison now...&quot; or something like that. This is a more contingent kind of player authorship which is treated as an extension of a character ability (a player resource). Skills like Streetwise in 4e would essentially be worthless without this, and we can suppose from their existence at least a nominal idea that 4e intended this kind of thing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7351691, member: 82106"] I think that in, at least [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]'s case, agency isn't quite defined like that. He's not letting players simply decree fiction, like you can't just say "my character pulls the Wand of Orcus out of his backpack and slays the high priest with it!" (unless it was already fictionally established that he had said wand). Its more about the player's agenda being the thing which the fiction addresses. So, when the player wanted to conquer the world, that was his agenda, his character met Vecna and was offered a chance to take a step in the direction of achieving his goal. In other words the player said "I want to conquer the world" and in the fiction of the game "conquest of the world" became an activity which was being pursued by the player's character. It may also be that agency is expressed in generating fiction by means of a check, like "I roll streetwise to see if I can contact Vinny the Weasel, my fence." Maybe if the check succeeds then Vinny will be established to be in the area, otherwise the GM could presumably say "you don't know any Vinny" but would instead probably resort to "he's in prison now..." or something like that. This is a more contingent kind of player authorship which is treated as an extension of a character ability (a player resource). Skills like Streetwise in 4e would essentially be worthless without this, and we can suppose from their existence at least a nominal idea that 4e intended this kind of thing. [/QUOTE]

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