Recording in Surround, _not_ in "5.1"

• Do you have to use a spaced-pair technique (AB or runtime-stereophony) when your speakers are placed apart?
  
• Are you forbidden to toe in your speakers when the microphones that were used to make the recording were placed in parallel?
  
• Do you have to stand one loudspeaker atop the other to play back a coincidence-stereophonic take (XY)?
  

The answer to every one of these questions is: No.

The configuration of the listening environment does have an influence on the requirements of the recordist.

• The number of channels recorded or mixed up to / down to is--though not linearly--dependent on the number of speakers in use.
  
• The balance of front and rear has an influence on the nature of information the recordist will want to capture.
  
• If raised speakers are to be used in playback that has to be taken into account when tracking the session; currently a rather unusual requirement.
  

Still, when planning for a recording (primarily) intended e.g. for reproduction on a 5.x system your main microphone configuration does not have to mirror the constellation that will be employed for playback.

What you'll want to capture is a frontal soundstage, with adequate detail, combined with as much "room resonance" as required. For 5.x the latter will amount to a minimum of two microphones recording clean, uncorrelated ambience that can be positioned at the back left and right for spatial envelopment. For the (more common) horizontally level interpretation of 7.x you might decide to use four "ambient spots"--unless you intend to extend the soundstage to full left and right.

True one-point stereophonic systems, with the exception of the Blumlein-setup, employed preferably in great sounding spaces, in my opinion rarely can create a pleasant stereophonic image on their own. I feel the sound design often benefits by some "sweetening" through runtime / phase differences. One-point surround microphones exhibit the same problems--in my listening experience. But that is a separate topic.