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<blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 7407446" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Well if the DM puts a ditch somewhere and then puts something on the other side of it and then puts an invisible force field blocking anyone from jumping the ditch...I have to say I agree that such a situation is a bit whacky. What else is causing the inevitable outcome other than DM desire? I mean, why put the forcefield there in the first place other than to thwart a PC attempting the jump? What other reason could it possobly be there?And why not simply remove it at the time of play? If I was DMing a published module and I came across this situation, I’d probably change it. It’s a “gotcha” moment and I don’t see the point of it. I don’t know if I entirely agree with that. Agency is the ability to succeed or fail on one’s own. A character who has agency in a story is able to determine their own fate, for good or ill. Characters who don’t have agency have their fates decided by others.So a character attempting to jump the ditch is destined to fail through no fault of his or her own. They are destined to fail because of the DM. Perhaps if there was some choice involved on the part of the character...or if there was some reasonable chance to somehow notice the forcefield....but without additional factors like that, it seems like a removal of agency.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="hawkeyefan, post: 7407446, member: 6785785"] Well if the DM puts a ditch somewhere and then puts something on the other side of it and then puts an invisible force field blocking anyone from jumping the ditch...I have to say I agree that such a situation is a bit whacky. What else is causing the inevitable outcome other than DM desire? I mean, why put the forcefield there in the first place other than to thwart a PC attempting the jump? What other reason could it possobly be there? And why not simply remove it at the time of play? If I was DMing a published module and I came across this situation, I’d probably change it. It’s a “gotcha” moment and I don’t see the point of it. I don’t know if I entirely agree with that. Agency is the ability to succeed or fail on one’s own. A character who has agency in a story is able to determine their own fate, for good or ill. Characters who don’t have agency have their fates decided by others. So a character attempting to jump the ditch is destined to fail through no fault of his or her own. They are destined to fail because of the DM. Perhaps if there was some choice involved on the part of the character...or if there was some reasonable chance to somehow notice the forcefield....but without additional factors like that, it seems like a removal of agency. [/QUOTE]

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