Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 213 - Back to Basics - Player Agency

Episode Date: February 25, 2024

Player Agency describes the power of players to make choices for their characters.  There is an unspoken social contract around every RPG table that the DM won’t take these choices away and players won’t use these choices to ruin the fun of the DM.  In this episode, I talk about how critical it is that both sides of the screen respect the agency of others.   #dmtips #gmtips #dnd #5e #pf2e #playeragency Resources: https://techraptor.net/originals/playing-roles-psychology-of-player-agency https://medium.com/@camauger/the-power-of-choice-player-agency-in-tabletop-role-playing-games-446e0be16428

This week on the Taking 20 Podcast. In any situation where you force an action on a character that the player didn't want and had no choice over and no chance to avoid, that is robbing them of their agency. Thank you for listening to the Taking 20 Podcast, episode 213, a Back to Basics episode about player agency. I want to thank this week's sponsor, water. Did you know that water keeps our beaches clean? After all, it is usually pretty tidy there. Please like, rate, and subscribe wherever you happen to find this podcast.

It helps the podcast gain visibility and grow, and I would greatly appreciate your help if you could just take a moment to like, rate, and subscribe wherever you found it. This is a Back to Basics episode, so like a bad college paper, let's start with a definition. Player agency is about giving players enough control over their characters to affect and change the game world. Through agency, players have the power to influence the game, in both positive and negative ways, by the way. It provides them a sense of control of what will happen next. Players have the right to make choices for their characters that drive the story and affect the narrative. The players make their choices, for good or ill, and those choices affect the way the adventure unfolds.

Choices, by the way, can be grand in scale, like what adventure to take on, what big bad lieutenant to go after first, and which faction to assist in the campaign. Or, you know, they can be smaller choices in scope, but they have no less of an impact, like which ally to heal this round, whether to take a round to flank or go toe-to-toe with a baddie, or even when to reveal part of their backstory. Giving your players the freedom to make these choices is critical to success of your game and fun for your players. These choices begin before the game even starts. Class, ancestry, role, whatever they want to play, weapons they want to wield, and details about their character origins.

Giving players the freedom to make that choice will make the characters feel like they're part of the world, and more importantly, give your players around the table the feeling that they have a chance to make a difference, to improve the lives of these NPCs that you've crafted from behind the screen. And from that seat, generally you should allow players the freedom to make those choices. Now, that being said, there are times when your players will make a catastrophically bad decision, or one that doesn't fit the game world. For example,

maybe you're running an adventure in the world of Kryn, where clerics simply don't exist in the world. If the player wants to play a cleric, that's problematic because clerics were gone until Goldmoon brought worship of the good gods back into the world. There may be ways to bring a cleric in, but it might require you to rewrite part or maybe all of your campaign.

If that goes against the type of campaign you want to run and it doesn't mesh with the setting, you may have to have a conversation with the player to ask if they're willing to play something else. Sometimes, players make decisions in the campaign that go against what would be an obvious choice. They decide to run into the Portal of the Abyss at level 1, with no magic weapons and no resistance to fire. I mean, you have to admire the bravery, I mean, the pure hubris of that choice, but is that really what your characters would do?

If so, sure, hey, let's go to the abyss. By the way, do you guys have any backup characters ready by any chance? Choice is at the heart of the unspoken contract around the table. Players have agency and control over their characters and can choose to act or not in various situations. One of the worst things you can do from behind the screen is to take away players' abilities to choose for and thereby control their characters. Throughout the years of my being involved in this wonderful hobby, I've heard some absolutely nightmarish stories

from players about what some DMs have done to their characters. The one that stands out out of all the stories that I've heard is from a few years ago. A friend of mine who happens to be a female player was playing a female character who the DM said got captured while she was scouting ahead of the party. No roleplay, no combat, no skill checks, no chance to avoid it, no chance for the rest of the party to come to the rescue. The character was captured because the DM wanted it for their story. Okay, first off, that DM has already stripped the power of choice for the player. He's going to capture that character no matter what that player chose for the character. After she said she'd scout ahead,

it was decided that scout was going to get captured. Already, DM's out of bounds. The DM then went on to describe the sexual assaults against the character, and this player had experienced something similar when she was younger, and she said she left the table immediately, which I am glad she did. Unfortunately, I think she gave up on tabletop RPGs, thinking they were just avenues for people to live out their assault fantasies. Because of that one DM, we lost a potential player for life. I'll grant you that is a horrific example, but it shows what can happen when you take choice away from the player. DMs and GMs, anyone who ever sits behind the screen,

please listen to these next words very carefully. In any situation where you force an action on a character that the player didn't want and had no choice over and no chance to avoid, that is robbing them of their agency. Another example, let's say one PC has a crush on Princess What's-Her-Pants and has said that they would like to try to forge a relationship with her. Great, wonderful role-playing opportunities. I'm all about it. The princess asks the PCs to go on an adventure for her. If you flat say that the PC with the crush agrees immediately,

you've taken choice away from that player. I mean, maybe the character does like the NPC, but realizes there's more important adventure to follow right now, more important baddie to stop, person to help, than just trying to get loved up by the princess. From behind the screen, even if you assumed the character would agree and innocently didn't think the character would choose anything else, by forcing them, you've robbed them of choice and stolen their player agency. Whether they know it or not, players pour a little part of themselves into the characters that they make. Some players use their characters to work out parts of themselves or their own history that they've struggled with. Not all of them, not everybody does this, not every player is using a character to deal with some past trauma, but some of us do.

Not every player is using a character to deal with some past trauma, but some of us do. My character Tolgan didn't have much of me in him, but he was fun to roleplay. But a character I played recently, Moira, did. Not to turn this episode into a confession time, but Moira was my own acknowledgement that I'm in the second half of my life and maybe even the final third. Moira was my fantasy of being free to make whatever choices I want and embrace even the worst of consequences no matter what, and that's something I can't do in real life, so it was fun to roleplay a character that could do that. Anyway, back to the main topic. When you deny a PC choice, you may be robbing the player of part of themselves. But Jeremy, I want this forced action to happen because this

amazing plot twist I have in my head, it will be amazing and the players are gonna love it. I don't care how good the destination is if you have to drag people there against their will. Disney World may be great, but not if you have to get dragged behind the car to get there. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you want absolute control over the choices that the player characters are going to make, you don't need to be a DM, you need to be an author. Write the story or script that you want. Don't force human beings to make choices you want for their characters just because of your preconceived notion of what would make a good story.

So how can DMs and GMs respect player agency? Well, I do have some tips. Number one, during the adventure, give the players choices for their characters, not railroads. Let the players know the possible consequences of their action given the information the characters would have at time. They may not realize that between them and the bandit is a 20 foot wide space covered in caltrops. If they would realize that between them and the bandit is a 20-foot wide space covered in caltrops. If they would realize that, then there's nothing wrong with saying, okay, yeah, you can charge the bad guy if you want to, but you also notice the sharp spikes on the floor, and you'll probably take damage as you run across it. That's a much better answer than,

you can't get there because of the caltrops. Maybe the player would choose to have the character take that damage because it makes sense for the character and that's their personality and that's how they want to role play. Another example of stripping player agency would be the DM saying that the character makes a choice and the character experiences negative effects because of it. You were angry and murdered the entire family kind of thing. Okay, time out. I'm a paladin. No matter how angry I get, I don't think my character is going to jump right to cold-blooded murder. Well, you did, and now you don't have any paladin abilities anymore. You've just gutted a character, and possibly a player, for a narrative reason that only you understand.

A better way would be to put the paladin in the situation and ask the player how they would want their character to handle it. Instead of getting all stabby-stabby, the player could would want their character to handle it. Instead of getting all stabby stabby, the player could say that their character stormed off. They put themselves between the family and their rage. They chose to sacrifice or injure themselves for having these angry feelings against innocence. Any of these choices is better than forcing the character down a path that you want but the player doesn't. Give the player the permission, the power to make a choice for their character. A player choice for their character that you didn't expect and goes against your narrative is better for your game than robbing them of a choice

every single time. GMs, second tip, you should serve as the guardrails for choice. I want to quote an article from medium.com about this topic. I'll put a link down in the resources. You can check it out if you want to. As a GM, your job isn't so much being the script writer as you are the boundary. You're the inflatable bumpers on a bowling lane. You keep the players on the path towards the plot twist if you have one, towards the grand plot reveal if you have one,

but make no mistake about it, you're there for their safety and enjoyment first and foremost. If a player is about to make a choice for their character that might not be the best for them and the campaign, don't force them to make a different choice. Give them the information they may have forgotten or lost that might lead to a different choice for them to make. As long as the choice doesn't violate rules of your table, no matter what they choose to do, allow them to make it, even if it's going to lead to something bad for their character, the party, or maybe even the entire campaign. Suppose a player says they want their character to steal from or attack another player character. If you have rules set for the party that they work together, then you have the right to say, nah, that's not allowed at this table, and ask the player to make

a different choice for their character. Similarly, if the player says they don't want to try to stop the temple from burning down and instead make sure their prince Smoochie Woogums is safe, I'd ask them, is the prince more important than healing services for the town? Is that what your character believes? You're not taking away their choice, you're asking them to analyze it. And here's the neat thing. Even if the character decides that the prince is more important than the clerics, negative circumstances that the party has to overcome can make for a great adventure. Now those negative levels, those cures that they need,

those curses they need to removed, diseases that they have, will have a much stronger impact on the PC's ability to complete the adventure successfully. Players may want their characters to punch the guards, start a bar fight, take a dump in the Goblet of Fire. Ouch. I probably should have thought of a different example. Harry Potter, did you pinch a loaf in the Goblet of Fire? What is wrong with you? The point is, the player should have the chance to make the choice, and in so doing, they're accepting the consequences of those choices, for good or bad.

Either one makes for great gaming experiences, because you didn't stand in the way between the player and the character choices. Third tip. Give players a choice choice even during narration. Suppose it's the start of session one and you're starting the adventure in a tavern because, god, that's the most overused trope in RPG gaming history. By the way, see episode 100 for alternate starting ideas. Give your players a choice about their characters. Where are they sitting? What are they eating and drinking?

You might not know that the cleric has decided to be a vegetarian or the scout is a recovering alcoholic. Same would be true in the evenings at camp, while traveling through the wilderness, for example. Ask the players what their characters are doing at camp. Their answers, their choices may surprise you. And I guarantee you, most players will enjoy having the opportunity to make these decisions for their characters, rather than you deciding what they're going to do,

even for the choice of vignettes. As an aside, and this could be an episode all its own, by the way, have your players write or at least contribute much of the material to any backstory vignettes or scenes that they want to reveal. They can choose what to tell about their past, and you're not forcing them to do anything their character may not have done. Fourth tip, be a little flexible when it comes to mind control and forced actions. In most of our games that we play, there's magic and technology that forces choices. Spells like dominate, mind control, charm person, countless others. There are times when characters can be compelled to drop their weapons, flee in fear, and maybe even like an NPC that they previously didn't.

Ask your player how that manifests, what they do. And if it's remotely within the auspices and boundaries of the spell, let them do it that way. They drop their weapons as they're running instead of immediately, or they run away at an angle that will put other characters between them and the baddies. They like the NPC, but instead of switching sides, they're now very confused. Why is one set of my friends attacking another friend I have? That's not gaming the system. That's not making changes to make the game easier.

That is respecting player choices. Now, if the player says, oh, my character refuses to like the NPC despite the charm spell, that's a problem. Game mechanics give specific things that happen when characters are affected by that ability or spell or what have you. You may have to, in this case, speak to the player one-on-one to talk about the situation. Player agency is key, and I don't want to take that away, but the game does have rules. Which brings me to some of my tips for players. Players, number one, embrace the negative outcomes. I have played with a few players that want to play tabletop RPGs like a computer game. Make every perfect choice, every time, never have any negative outcomes ever, ever, ever.

My friends out there, anytime dice get involved, there's always a chance for catastrophe. Natural ones happen. Failed saving throws happen. NPCs sometimes aren't saved in time. The king's teenage child perishes. A plague descends upon Whitestone. The PCs don't stop the ritual in time, and the forest becomes entangled with negative energy. These things happen. Bad rolls, horrible outcomes, and times when hope seems lost. They happen in RPGs because dice and choice are involved. But you know what?

When they do happen, damn, it's a good story. When you have to come back and avenge the child, cure the plague, rebuild the walls between the planes, fighting horrible psychopomps to make that happen, oh, it's great gaming. But players, to do that, you have to understand that negative outcomes aren't the end. And I want you to start embracing those negative outcomes in big things and small ones. Have you ever had one of those nights where you're the fighter and you miss and it feels like, fuck, 20 attacks in a row? Yeah, me too. Now is not the time to start fudging the numbers that you roll and lying about what you roll to the DM and your fellow players.

Embrace those garbage roll nights. Try to find other ways to help. Flank, intimidate, debuff, grapple. Try other tactics to help offset the crap dice knight. Sometimes you learn a different way you can play your character. Second tip, be engaged in the story. I've said this before, but I want to reiterate it. If you have nothing to contribute to the narrative, it's more likely the DM's going to make something up for you. Be ready to contribute. It helps player agency when you're engaged in the story and making choices for your character because you're paying attention to what's going on.

Even if it's a talky-talky scene and you're a stabby-stabby rogue, you can still contribute, but you gotta be paying attention to do so. This will allow you to quickly respond when the DM says, oh, and what's stabby-stabby Rogue doing during this negotiation? You can quickly say, oh, she's filing her clause with the rough side of the dagger and thinking about nearby locations. She could hide a body if she had to. Even if she's just thinking about ultra-violent solutions to the current problem, that's better than, huh? What? Oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What's going on? problem. That's better than, huh? What? Oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What's going on? Third tip, be bold and role-play your character and the choices they would make.

Do not be afraid to speak up when your character wants to contribute to the conversation or situation. That's what makes for good role-playing having these different characters with different personalities. Fourth tip, respect the game master and the world they've built for you. Contribute to the game in a way that respects the DM's work. Don't be the agent of chaos that attempts to stab every guard, sexually assault every tavern worker, and insult every leader. Part of the unspoken contract about player agency is that you use it to make the game better. There's some lonely players out there who can't find a game because they act like little assholes at the table with the defense of, well, it's what my character would do.

Well, okay, you know what? That's about choice. And your character is choosing to be an asshole and needs a different attitude. Make better choices. Also, if your DM says, hey, that's not allowed at this table, then don't fucking do that. The DM, if they're worth their salt, has had conversation with the players and one-on-one a lot of times, and one of them may be triggered or bothered by what you just wanted to do. If the DM says it's not allowed at the table, use your agency to make a different choice. Respect the rules, decisions, and boundaries

set by your GM. And my fifth tip. Respect the feelings of your fellow players for their characters. If a player says the character is uncomfortable with a choice, you may want to use your agency to make a different choice for your character or for your game. My wife is seriously weirded out by bugs, so in no cases would I ever summon an insect plague when I'm playing a game with her. It makes her nervous and uncomfortable, so my character will summon something else. Rats, bats, whatever. Player agency revolves around respecting the choices made by the players and giving them control of their characters.

Player agency should be absolutely sacrosanct at your table as long as they are not making choices that go against the rules of your table. Give them choices to make instead of forcing them down a narrative path. Put guardrails of information up to encourage the player to make a choice for their character. Allow the player to make those choices during narration and players. Stay in the game, make choices that respect the DM and your fellow players, and I'd be willing to bet that you and everyone else around the table would have fun doing it. Do you have any topic ideas for me? Send them to me.

Direct message on Facebook or Instagram is a good way to do it. Or email feedback at taking20podcast.com. Next week, I'm sorry to say this, I need to take a one-week hiatus as my wife is having some surgery done and I anticipate I'm going to be taking care of her for most of the week. I'm really not going to have time to write a good episode. I am so sorry about that, but I'll be back in two weeks to talk about house rules and tweaks from behind a screen that can make your game easier or harder. Before I go, though, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Water. When people are coming over and I offer them water, I never know whether to fill their glasses from a

pitcher or from another glass. I guess I just have to make a poor decision. This has been episode 213, a Back to Basics episode about player agency. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production. Copyright 2024.

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