HJRP1004 Your hosts: Stu, Stork, Jib, Kimi Take the RPG Podcast Listener Survey. Get ready for Gateway 2013 - August 30 to September 2. Shownotes! Main topic: Balancing Player Agency and Game Mechanics. We discuss several common scenarios where player agency (the player's control of their character) and the game mechanics collide.  Don writes in to proselytize Dungeon World. Matthew thanks us for advice we gave him in his last email. Martin writes in about house ruling GURPS -- and Stu clarifies that his many statements about how deadly GURPS is are NOT complaints. JimTo writes in to catch up with some comments about smaller conventions, failing memories and how Happy Jacks Listeners are awesome, great players and generally fun to be around -- though loud.  He also asks if there are instances when it's always okay to metagame. Jeff from Wisconsin makes the case for why Savage Worlds is a good system to teach someone who is new to role-playing games. He also talks about the Star Wars Saga Edition damage track system. And Josh in Orlando sends us, not a gaming nightmare -- rather a tale of gaming woe.