YKTTW definition finalizing.

Currently, I have a ykttw ready to launch here but before I go ahead with it, I felt it would be a good idea to settle a point that was brought up yesterday. Specifically that my definition might be too narrow. As currently defined, it's about a person or group that will die if they leave a certain area. The death is caused by some mystical, not just like if you chucked a polar bear into a desert.

However, someone noted three examples that don't fall under the trope but seem to fit it in spirit. The one that made me wonder if the definition is too narrow is the following.

• In the Lone Wolf gamebooks, and associated novels, the Darklords of Helgedad cannot survive outside the polluted atmosphere of the Darklands without special apparati, which can be magical, but can also include special breathing tanks. Of course, they are attempting to expand the Darklands through conquest.

This example, which does not fit under the current definition, serves the same basic purpose in that a group can't survive outside a certain place and could create the exact same kind of plot. Other examples might replaced the poison lands with time travel or something. But I'm not sure that this really fits with the spirit of the trope because it isn't magical in nature. Thus, I would like some other opinions.

I felt I should bring it up here now rather than have it brought in later when there would be more work to do. If there are no real arguments against doing so I think I'll just launch it about this time tomorrow.

Seems to me like it fits the spirit of the trope just fine. Phlebotinum doesn't have to be magical to be Phlebotinum.

I'm a big fan of making broad tropes to start with, and then possibly splitting them once you have some examples to help you judge where a natural split might be, rather than trying to make lots of rigid, narrow tropes so that lots of examples are forced to fall through the cracks and end up nowhere.

I suppose this almost makes me a lumper, except for the part where I'm in favor of splitting existing tropes after enough data is collected. :)

^^ Okay, fair enough, but how do we keep the polar bear in the desert type examples out? Someone proposed a Real Life example about just exactly that kind of thing in where some animals don't do well in captivity. Where do we draw the line on it?

The obvious line to draw here is that the character or creature has to be literally unable to survive outside its environment without some kind of support. A polar bear dropped into the desert can survive, just not for very long.

Hm. Well, I've tried to touch it up appropriately. I guess I'll give it another day before launching. Thank you for the help.