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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9749680" data-attributes="member: 42582">I've never read or played MouseGuard, though I have heard of its phases/turns before. (I know TB2e fairly well, but it uses a different phase structure.)I'm curious about your (1) - as in, to what extent is the GM free to set the stakes in the GM turn? Is there some expectation that these will pertain in some way to "guard" stuff? I ask because you describe them as "impersonal challenges".The reason I'm curious is because this seems to affect the degree of railroad-y-ness: if the players know, in general terms, what will be at issue in the GM's turn, then the GM is not unilaterally setting the stakes even if they are controlling the details of the framed scenes.The comparison I'm drawing in my mind is to Torchbearer 2e, where the whole structure of the game creates a default stake that the GM can introduce really at any time in the Adventure Phase, which is can some loot be obtained? So although it is the GM who sets up all the details around this, it is the game and not the GM that makes this a default possibility.I think this thought/question also addresses your (2). I'm not sure about (3), because I'm not sure which choices you have in mind. If the GM is framing scenes having regard to player choices about (say) where to go and who to value and what risks to take, then it's no longer fully unilateral, is it?</blockquote>