I like frameworks, but sometimes debugging them is more entertaining. I don't know why I didn't think of this method before, but mischa on github has a great little repo showing how you can do it.
The README
Usage:
Add:
require 'ruby-debug' require 'cucumber_rails_debug/steps'
To features/support/env.rb
Then use:
Then debug # opens the debugger
or
Then what # prints out params, url and html
Check it out here