I've been receiving questions on the VTPs podcast from long time compatriot from across the pond, Mark Grehen, on how we been running games here on the Press. Specifically, we have been talking about what we have seen in the many different playbacks available at the VTP YouTube Channel.
I've got more questions to go through from Mark, but here is our latest exchange on Anchor, the simplest way to do a podcast! :)
This question, one of many from Mark, regular gamer and commentator
on all things Vanishing Tower (VTP), is definitely an issue I put in the undecided
box. And is a spell, much like Read Magic, which I struggle with cap-stoning
with a definite and unequivocal opinion. The tendency for myself and players is
towards specificity. The nebulous definition of “Evil” in a variety of
fantasy relevant context is rendered more apprehensible with hard walls. Hard and
fast definitions. “Elves are good, Orcs are evil.” Black is back and white is
just alright with me, just alriiiight, oh yeaaah. 
But my game world, my fantasy campaigns tend to begin with
the question, or nature, of evil relatively unanswered. Outside of societal norms
defining moral and its opposite, evil, the nature of a roleplaying game is to
have these big questions answered in play. And so is why everyone wants to know
the answer to these type of questions before play, or when they come up.
So my answer is the bullshit one, it depends. What is
the right call at the moment? Everything in a roleplaying game is case and or
context dependent. Some one has to decide what is or isn’t evil in the game
world and that job ultimately ends in the DM’s lap. My best efforts have come
to a couple of “best practices” I’ve adopted for myself. Have the player define
what their god considers good and evil. Accept it and incorporate their ideas
into the pantheon developing. And when I say accept it I don’t mean make it all
true. Just be super-mindful of it and you can be prepared for when you have
something they believe their spell would protect them, and it doesn’t! If they
really start to push on it sucking ask them if they have considered their god
may not be correct in all things? Maybe their god is fucking with them? Maybe
their god lied about this subject? It makes sense to attack, or frame, the PfE
spell with less specificity on the front end because it preserves the
fascinating feature of emergent play.