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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7383888" data-attributes="member: 42582">Have you ever played Cortex+ Heroic? Or read its rules?The GM's decision as to geographic distance affects the following:* How many encounters (because these are proportionate to ingame time, which is in turn proportionate to ingame distance assuing a constant PC movement rate); * How much gp spent (because gp is proportionate to unit of food, which is proportionate to ingame time, which is in turn proportionate to ingame distance assuing a constant PC movement rate).GP spent is a direct depletion of player-side resources. Encounter checks have a mediated (by dice rolls and resolution processes) affect on player-side resources (hit points, if damage suffered is greater than available healing spells; magic item charges, scrolls, etc; flaming oil; etc).What do you mean by "a mechanic"?This is what makes me ask whether you've played or read  Cortex+ Heroic.The "insertion" of a transition scene has nothing to do with the cities being far apart. In <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?339757-GMed-first-MHRP-session-on-Sunday" target="_blank">the first session of MHRP that I ran</a>, War Machine and Titanium Man fought an aerial duel which began above Washington, DC and ended over Florida, in the course of a single Action Scene.The reason that the travel involves a transition scene has nothing to do with the distance, but is the result of what is taking place in the fiction: traveling from NY to Boston would generally be part of a transition scene (to requote from my post that you quoted). Generally (not universally) travel is transition between action scenes, rather than an element of action in itself. (What would be examples of departures from this generality? I gave one already; another might be if the action is taking place on a train or a plane travelling from NY to Boston.)In Cortex+ Heroic, there is no big enough to call for a transition scene. From the MHRP rulebook (pp OM33 OM40):Transition Scenes connect Action Scenes together and are usually used to recover, gather information, or plan the next Scene. . . . Action and adventure is what most of us think of when we imagine a super hero story set in the Marvel Universe, but these stories are more than just big brawls and conflict. Between these Scenes, linking them together are Scenes of reflection, recovery, and regrouping. We call these Transition Scenes, and they allow the characters involved to do something with what they’ve learned  before the next conflict is met head-on. As well as being used for recovery actions, a Transition Scene’s purpose is to determine what the next Action Scene is. If this is already settled, then the Transition Scene helps to put that into context.So within the context of Cortex+ Heroic, there are three ways to establish a new geographic location:(1) The location changes in the course of an action scene (as per the above examples); (2) The location changes in the course of a transition scene; (3) The framing of a new act establishes a change in location.(3) can be understood as a special case of (2), as the end of the previous act will have involved a transiation scene (in which the PCs can recover, the players can spend XP, etc).(The Fantasy Hack version of Cortex+ Heroic in the Hacker's Guide allows for a variant form of transition scene called an "Exploration Scene". It doesn't make any difference of substance to what I've said above.)I dont understand what you mean by this.I don't know what you mean by this either. The only "events" that occur during a Cortex+ Heroic transition scene are events of PCs acquiring resources, which is the result of the pkayer spending a Plot Point.What system are you envisaging here? I assume AD&D or some similar version of D&D.In Cortex+ Heroic, "making some potions" is simply spending a plot point to create a resource.I don't know what you mean by an "intermedieate encounter". Can you explain what this means in a game of Cortex+ Heroic?Are you suggesting, for instance, that the GM and players (i) establish that, in the course of a transition scene, the PCs travel from NY to Boston, and then (ii) the GM frames an action scene that takes place somewhere between NY and Boston? Because that makes no sense!This seems to be assuming AD&D or a similar game. What you say barely makes sense in 4e (because the measure of "supplies" is treasure parcels, and the GM could just have had the dwarves gift these, as the Raven Queen did in my game; and stepping down the level of a creature or an encounter is trivial). It makes no sense in Cortex+ Heroic or Burning Wheel.There are so many assumptions here - about system and other things - that again it is hard for me to make sense of what you mean.You seem to be assuming that the GM has a map drawn, and will (at a certain stage in the narration) tell the players something about where their PCs are which is read off the map; and then the players will describe where their PCs are going by reference to what they have learned of the GM's map.In Cortex+ Heroic there is no clost to versus approaches. Likewise if the travel is being resolved as a skill challenge in 4e. As to what will or won't "infurate a lot of players" - if the players know that the GM is not going to use a lot of GM-authored padding, then they will equally know that if (eg) they want to approach the giants stealthily than all they have to do is declare something to that effect. Eg in Cortex+ Heroic, the player can spend a point in the preceding transition scene to establish an appropriate resource (like Secret Entrance to Giants' Cavern) which can then contribute to their pool in the following action scene. In 4e, if a skill challenge is being used then a Stealth check might be made as part of that; or the players can just say "When we feel the tunnels warming up, we advance stealthily."Again, there seem to be so many assumptions about system and technique built into this that it's hard to know where to start.Here's just one example of what I mean: AD&D has no way for the GM to establish what you describe except by GM fiat.In 4e, though, it would be the sort of consequence to be narrated as the result of a failed Stealth check, or a failure in a skill challenge. Burning Wheel would be similar - it is the sort of thing that will follow from a failed check. In Cortex+ Heroic it would probably be a scene complication (Tracked by Fire Giant Spies) which the GM has to spend a die from the doom pool to establish. Etc.</blockquote>

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