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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7396831" data-attributes="member: 42582">Generally I agree, and think I've said as much in this thread (eg in the context of my use of GH). The difference between generic, trope-laden swords & sorcery city and Hardby]/i] is that the latter gives us a proper name to refer to the former. Large-scale maps, history etc play basically the same role.System is also a relevant consideration here. If overland travel is handled in a classic D&D hexcrawl style, then "the orcs exist somewhere in the west" has the potential to be a bigger burden on play than a system in which travel is handled more abstractly or flexibly, and so the action can shift to the west (and the orcs) with a bit of deft narration and a handful of dice rolls.I take your point, but I think this is also realted to system.In 4e, disrputing the ritual is probably a skill challenge. A virtue of this is that the GM doesn't have to decide, in advance, how the ritual might be disrupted. Of course if there are some obvious possibilities (eg break the magic circle) then it would make sense to sketch out how those might work; but there is no reason not to follow the players' leads if thiey come up with alternative approaches the GM didn't anticipate. One strength of the skill challenge structure is to easily accomodate this.In my Cortex+ game yesterday, the PCs ended up saving Yggdrasil from dying (its root suffering in the frozen soil of the fell winter). This was done by the troll earth-shaper, who first opened up a cleft in the ground to allow warm spring water to percolate up; and then extended the cleft to allow hot gases from an undergroudn geothermal pocket to rise up, both thawing the ground and kindling the fire the Norns had been trying to light in the lee of the tree.This is a version of "stop the ritual". I was able to write up the encounter without even knowing which of the PCs would be present (this is only the second time in a year or more that the troll player has played in this particular campaign), and without knowing what they would do to save Yggdrasil, or even whether they would do it (the Loki devotee hemmed and hawed a bit before coming in on the Norns' side; the berserker was trying to kill the Norns up until the end, ostensibly because he thought they were witches killing the tree and had been worked into a rage; also because the player was wanting to earn XP for exercising wanton violence and being rebuked by his fellows for doing so - which he did!).Cortex+ Heroic takes for granted that the players will declare actions that engage the fiction in a pretty free-flowing manner, and will establish relevant backstory elements (like underground springs and geothermal pockets) as they become salient to those action declarations.I don't really know how [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION] would handle this sort of thing, but in so far as he interposes a step between declaration and resolution, where the GM decides if the idea is feasible, or if the outcome is in doubt, and - presumably - decides whether or not there are underground phenomena present, well that's where I think considerations of railroading become relevenat.</blockquote>

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