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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7373559" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm not assuming. I'm doing my best to make sense of what [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] is posting.His example of the baron is one where the baron only becomes salient because the GM informs the players (in the course of some episode of play - eg a distressed peasant tells the PCs) that the baron is corrupt.Freeing the slaves only becomes salient because the GM informs the players (in the course of some episode of play - eg the PCs see a slave being beaten) that slavery is a social problem in this part of the world.Etc, etc.The fact that the GM tells the players under the guise of a NPC telling a PC, or using the narrator's voice to tell the players what their PCs see, doesn't change the fact that it is the GM telling the players.The fact that the menu is implicit - ie is generated by these moments of narration by the GM - doesn't change the fact that it's a menu.In Lanefan's game, as in yours, the PCs can oppose the baron, or free the slaves, or whatever. The point is that the whole field of action is established by the GM, and the players simply make moves within it. They gather information (ie get the GM to tell them stuff) and choose what parts of the gameworld to engage (ie choose from the list provided, implicitly, by the GM).My point is that this is rather modest agency over the content of the shared fiction.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7373559, member: 42582"] I'm not [I]assuming[/I]. I'm doing my best to make sense of what [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] is posting. His example of the baron is one where the baron only becomes salient because the GM informs the players (in the course of some episode of play - eg a distressed peasant tells the PCs) that the baron is corrupt. Freeing the slaves only becomes salient because the GM informs the players (in the course of some episode of play - eg the PCs see a slave being beaten) that slavery is a social problem in this part of the world. Etc, etc. The fact that the GM tells the players under the guise of a NPC telling a PC, or using the narrator's voice to tell the players what their PCs see, doesn't change the fact that it is the GM telling the players. The fact that the menu is implicit - ie is generated by these moments of narration by the GM - doesn't change the fact that it's a menu. In Lanefan's game, as in yours, the PCs can oppose the baron, or free the slaves, or whatever. The point is that [i]the whole field of action[/i] is established by the GM, and the players simply make moves within it. They gather information (ie get the GM to tell them stuff) and choose what parts of the gameworld to engage (ie choose from the list provided, implicitly, by the GM). My point is that this is rather modest agency over the content of the shared fiction. [/QUOTE]

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