Subject: On the subject of player agency 236 views

[Shiv]

Player agency is a tricky thing for a DM. The question is always how far one is allowed to "railroad" a group of players for the sake of the game. It also depends from group to group, game to game and sometimes even session to session. Personally I've found that playing with experienced roleplayers is both a blessing and a curse as a DM this is because of a few factors.

Experienced roleplayers are more apt to "dive in" and start asking the improtant questions, focus on the objective and generally keep the game flowing in its inteded direction. They also know the normal tropes used in the game and as such need less explenation and guidance. This speeds up the game and is most often nice for the DM as the players understand "their place" in the chronicle at large.

The problem with experienced players is that they tent to conform with what they believe the DM wants them to do, whereas "new" playrs will often have wilder ideas. Experienced roleplayers tend to (even with the best DM intentions) railroad themselves, becuase they perceive what they think the DM has prepared and go out of theur way to keep the party following that path. This causes them to sometimes miss other opportunities or paths, and the players may not even realize they missed something, making them feel railroeded by the DM. I've actually had players acuse me of railroading because of this, not pretty

So why talk about this now? Well it's just a small discussion on how I see things for this adventure (plus I love discussing things like this), with the group, setting, and adventure being what they are, you can expect some pretty heavy handed DM pointing for large parts of the game. In another groop, for instance vampire the maquerade PnP, a more open gamestyle would be more appropriate since PnP allows for questions and ideas that may take a little extra time. In a PbP setting though asking a few dozen questions about the status of the village (because you hope to incite a pesant revolt instead of the original -DM hinted- plan to sneak in and assassinate the evil baron) would take a tremendous ammount of time away from the actual game.

I'm not saying not to be creative, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't ask as many questions and do as many things as you want. But I'm saying that in this particular adventure, I'll be doing the more classic "kick in door"-style of gaming and your main objective will be to traverese and overcome dungeons. To exemplify, you currently have a decission to make about buying -or not- a map. I feel the need to point out that no matter what you do or which road you take (map or not) I've planned for both. I'm consciously DM-railroading you between two paths (basically) and then leaving it to player agency to choose between them, and I can easily say that this is the kind of decision making that I'll probably be endorsing/using thorughout the game. Heavy DM-direction but with ultimate player control over the variables presented. I think this is the best solution for the current type of game.

And yes, you can still faff around in the village as much as you want. The good thing about PbP-play is I have lots of time to improvise should you do something I haven't planned for. So the game is actually both more free and more constrained due to the medium we use

[Racer Xonclar]

Understood lol. Being completely open-ended (as my game was pretty much) can really bog down the game, even though the DM has plenty of time to prep for it. It's a tricky road to find for DM and player both, but no complaints so far, Shiv

Trust me, you've thrown curveballs as well Ride the wild tentacle monster! ;D

[Black_Hawk]

Just take the path of the fighter.

Door closed: Kick it down!

Door closed and locked: Kick it down!

Door cracked open: Close it gently and kick it down!

Door Wide open: Kick the first thing on the other side as a readied action!

[Shiv]

Now taht we just arrived the the first proper skill-usage time I think this merits a small post.

I don't mind a slow game as long as the posts keep rolling. If the players want to spend three weeks discussin the weather and the political situation of the termite infested tree and the anthill I think it's more than okay. I encourage it.

This means two things for the game:

1: I'm not going to tell you much beyond fluff and mood-setting things.

2: You have to tell me which skills you are using, and HOW. For instance. When you arrive at a new place, it is fully possible I will leave out a lot of information. For instace, should the druids decide to spend half an hour to perfom an small ritual they might get to know that the spirits are upset in the area, or that there is a ressonance of death and blood about a certain piece of cutlery.

Or maybe Bnor deiced to use his intelligence (or his schooling in history) to try and figure out what kind of dwarven crest hangs above the fireplace.



All in all. You have skills. Use them. You will most certainly be rewarded for it. As long as the posting speed is good (it's been a bit low the last two weeks). We can take as long as we like to go about our business. I'd rather have flow than speed.

[Shiv]

Now seems like a good time to discuss some more about playstyles and player agency.

As you may have noticed I tend to make quite overly long introductions, and after that fairly short descriptions of actions (at least this sometimes happens). I also tend to use a lot of spoiler boxes for each player (especially now that you are exploring the temple). This is because I try to set some kind of scene, and then let the players themselves explore the possibilities of the area, not just rattling off the most important measurments of the room and the exact position of every single terrain feature.

This of course this slows the game somewhat. Technincaly I could just post each persons findings since it can be assumed that you report them to each other, but I have one reason for choosing not to. Player on player interaction, and by extension agency.

In a PbP it is very easy to fall into the pace where every player posts once followed by the DM. I don't care much for this kind of game as it often eads to players posting a single question + action, and then wait for the DM to tell them what happens and what they need to know. I therefore purposefully force you to talk to each other, report what you find, and make you own theories about what is going on at a particular moment. Otherwise there tends to pop up a pervasive feel that the DM isn't saying enough/pushing the story forward, which isn't even the job of the DM at all!

So all in all, you are now exploring the temple, talk to each other and set a course. In the name of player agency I can (and will) allow you to search and poke around as much as you like, and talk amongst yourself as much as you like, before you decide to head onwards/stay put.