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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7355219" data-attributes="member: 6778044">That certainly may be part of it. I’ve posted before that I think that D&D in particular has shifted to more of a player entitlement model, and some take that to the extreme that the DM should not influence the action at all. A “pure” sandbox if you will, where everything is placed ahead of time and the DM only tells the players what they find, and the dice are the only arbitrators to determine results. No DM fiat. It’s still not a choose your own adventure since the results aren’t predetermined.Ironically, in discussions with players who feel very strongly about this approach, their very strong opinion is that the DM deciding anything on the fly, after the monsters, etc. have been placed, is infringing on their player agency. That is, anything that the DM introduces that is NOT secret backstory is taking away their player agency.But discouragement does not remove your free will, although it might influence your actions or decisions. And judging by the drivers I see, it’s not much of one. That’s why I have a problem with the term. In a game where the players explicitly have a shared responsibility in the authorship, taking that away from them is removing their player agency.On the other hand, D&D and many other games do not explicitly give the players control of the fiction. The specifics vary through editions, but in general the game is based on the premise that the characters have control over their characters, which also provides some influence on the fiction through the character’s actions and decisions. They also have control over their backstory, but it’s not absolute. It’s subject to DM approval, and the DM can add to it if they wish, secretly if they so desire.The definition of player agency is dependent upon the rules of the game being played. In OD&D through AD&D, the setting, events, creatures, and dungeons of the world were entirely within the purview of the DM. That doesn’t mean that they can’t share some of that with the players, whether during the game or in between sessions. But not doing that doesn’t remove or impact their player agency because it wasn’t part of their player agency in the first place within those rule sets.</blockquote>

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