Increasing Agency and Decreasing Linearity in Choice Narratives

[svlin]

@averyhiebert

The issue is that I kinda feel like 95% of the point of using a parser in the first place is immersion + the feeling that you can do whatever you want (within reason)?

My current plan is to just do something like:

Instead of sitting in the chair, say "You sit down.  The chair is uncomfortable, and after a while you get back up again."

but I’m worried that this feels like denying player agency.

This is perfectly fine. Not every parser game needs to allow every single action the player might try. I personally tend to bounce off of games like that because it can feel overwhelming. When every action is on the table, it’s harder to intuit how the game wants me to act. A well-placed rejection message can help the player stay focused on what’s important, and it can help characterize the PC or add flavor to the world. My parser game did a lot of this, and everyone who commented on it seemed to enjoy it.