Player Agency

[ElenionAncalima]

Pretty much echoing what has already been said...but the way I see it, tabletop gaming is collaborative story telling. When one or more players is being denied their right to collaborate, player agency has been lost.

Obviously players don't have total free reign. They are limited by the rules of the game, their build and reality in general. If they get knocked unconcious, they can't walk over and punch the boss. If they are a player without any means of flying they can't declare that their character levitates to the roof. In this grouping, I would include things like domination and fear. If they have been dominated, its not unreasonable for a DM to say they can't act in certain ways.

Of course a DM has to be careful with mind control. There are certainly red flags that player agency is being impacted:
-Denying players a save.
-Repeatedly using mind control to advance the plot.
-Using it to control a player's actions for an extended amount of gaming time (without allowing them input).
-Using it to take away abilities from an alignment restricted class.

However, it doesn't sound as if you are trying to abuse mind control...you are just using it naturally as an in game challenge. If I had to make a suggestion, try giving controlled players loose commands then let them roleplay the rest. It will be more fun for them if they are told they must kill person X, but are allowed to figure it out, than if you just play their character for the remainder of the affliction. Although, just a warning, this only works if the players in question aren't heavy metagamers.

There is one final thing to keep an eye out for regarding player agency. It is less common, but sometimes a player can take away another player's agency. Keep a monitor on the players that like to describe how other characters react to them or like to declare that the entire group is doing things. Sometimes this can be harmless, but it is alway good to make sure other players aren't irritated by this behavior.