Fluff rules!!!

Fluff rules.

Fluff is what stretches us. Fluff is what WE bring to the game, even when we bought it at the store.

Without fluff we are playing chess. And noone laughs till milk comes out their nose in chess. Noone loses a chess piece they have nurtured for 8 years.

Fluff is not just being the cowboy, but being Lone Star Bart from Badbonesville, the one with a limp. Fluff is the story, and without that we may as well just play craps.

Fluff is why elves and dwarves dislike one another. It is why we learn to hate or love whoever the DM brings into our virtual room. Krunk being able to jump 30 feet means nothing unless there is a bad guy on a platform 30 feet away taunting him.

Fluff is what brought us to gaming in the first place. Noone starts gaming because they are fascinated with a string of numbers, they game because it is the best break in the world to beat down the bad guys or to walk away form death when they beat you down.

Fluff is the difference between ‘rolling a crit’ and ‘TAKING HIS HEAD CLEAN OFF!’

Fluff is what binds us, our ability to color the bland world of numbers that threatens to swallow our games.

We can roll dice all day, but unless we care what happens we might as well play craps without cash.

Fluff rules. Who could deny it?

I hate to break it to you, but there's some idiot posting on these boards and just going on about crunch and ignoring fluff. You can find the thread here: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=104567

I think you should go post a rebuttal there. Really!

shilsen said:

I hate to break it to you, but there's some idiot posting on these boards and just going on about crunch .....

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What a spaz. Don't you hate those one sided idiots?

there is nothing in the world like wielding your grandfather's Greatsword. the one he used in the Great War against the Orc hordes. the one that your father used to kill the Bear that tried to eat the family cow.

or donning your grandfather's cuirass. even with the patchwork repairs he had done to it after the Great War. each of the rends or repairs has a story. you marvelled at each telling.

now it is your turn to take up the family arms and armor and to defend the land. now it is your turn to join with your Grandfather's friends families. the whole lot of you replacing the old crew. the old crew would go, but for what ravages age has done to them that war could not.

Blast. Someone had to go and mess up the symmetry of these threads.

diaglo said:

<buncha fluff>

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SEE!!!

All fluff, all good.

I agree.

Crunch and fluff are like Frosted Mini-Wheats. If you only have the frosting it is sickly sweet and has nothing to it and you'll be hungry again in ten minutes. If you only have the wheat it is tasteless and boring and you'll be sick of it after ten bites. But together you get a cereal that tastes good, and is part of a balanced breakfast!

Since gaming for me is about the moment when someone chooses a weapon "because it's cool", rather than because it does the most damage effectively, or tells the truth when it would better to lie "because we have to let the guy know what we've done", or gives a treasure to a random peasant "because they probably need it more than I do", I love fluff.

Fluff is about getting beyond the mere rules, beyond small-scale tactical wonking and forcing every variant advantage. Fluff is about creating a fuller experience, a deeper sense of the reality you are playing in, and about making a world come alive.

Back when I played miniature wargames, the rules seemingly ruled all. Yes, the units might have different uniforms, but they were merely pieces to move around a large board. But in our games, there was much more to it. Whenever a unit performed well, pulled off something "miraculous" (rolled wildly well), we would all cheer. When the six-pound "popgun" in the American Civil War battle actually hit a unit twice in a row, we saluted it. And when one unit on the Union side, over the course of 6 different battles, did far better than ever should have been expected, by mutual consent of all participants on both sides, the unit recieved a battlefield promotion. Even in miniatures battles, we went beyond the rules and found a sense of heart.

With rpgs, I want fluff. Rules are fine, but many times rules are interchangeable. I have had discussions many times with players about whether a given setting would work best under GURPS, D&D, Ars Magica, or some other set of rules -- the setting was more important than the rules, thus we wanted to make sure the rules served the setting, rather than the other way around.

So ultimately gaming for me is far less about rules than about "fluff". Tell me what people eat and wear! Tell me how the world was created! Let me hear the music! Let us toast great individuals of history!

That is gaming!

Fluff, it's what's for dinner!