I have personally seen portal stones used in times of need and utterly ignored. This was during a Daimon invasion on BT when the Daimons had overrun a capital and the only hope of removing them was with portal stones. And it was the result of a week's long cooperative venture by many adventurers and nobles. Even days later, when nothing happened, the players were told that the portal stones were not wishing wells and that one should not expect the devs to simply do something because they were used.
And here I have seen portal stones used as a wishing well to request that defenses be denuded to help one player faction over another. And the wish was granted a mere hours later.
I honestly have no real issue with portal stones and the like on islands where the Daimons come and invade from time to time. They make things interesting, and add a cool mystical element to the game to complement those massive otherworldly invasions that periodically smash all player realms. The portal stones and scrolls give the players an ability to fight back against the otherwise overwhelming odds of the dev-controlled monsters, undead, and Daimons.
But when there is no Daimon invasions to use them against, like on EC, I don't think they fit the motif. And even as I love to rail against the "foul magics of the Elvan Masters of Sirion" and the like, I know I'm mostly making it up on the spot. Granted, I do remember the "rain on magics hitting the walls of Oligarch" that I speak of, but most of those were rusting weapons or putting fear into the hearts of soldiers and the like. Mostly minor. Though the targeted spells that could take a duke or ruler out for several days so he couldn't call the citizen militia were I thought a bit abusive. Denying another player the option to play his character I think starts to seriously stretch the limits of what we want to do in the game.
Basically, I'm against the idea of one player faction using magic to make it impossible for another player faction to fight back. Or for other players to play their characters at all.
Now I don't mind the little stuff. Rusting weapons. magical steeds. Magical armor. Putting fear into the heart of soldiers. Little stuff like that can add to the roleplaying and be interesting to deal with. But I've seen enough major changes of how the game plays based on magic to realize that I'm not a big fan of that, especially on continents that don't deal with the Daimons and their invasions.
Poll