What 4e Fluff do you Like?

[AllisterH]

In a lot of ways it is like how it was with 1e. "Fluff" was scattered all about and you had to go looking for it...Part of the fun I think....

My favourite part is actually the development for Giants, their place in the world and FORMORIANS (definitely like the crazy Celtic vibe I get form them).

They seem to actually FIT the world

 

[S'mon]

I like the evocative 'scenery' art, especially the stuff in the Worlds & Monsters preview.

 

[JeffB]

Overall, I love 4e's fluff-

This. And I'm not a believer in quantity=quality. I'd rather have 2 sentences of inspiration than 2 paragraphs of stuff I'll likely never use or have to re-write/imagine

I think 4E offers just enuff "fluff" to get my creative side going full throttle. While I certainly love and appeciate most of the previous "A/D&D unified fluff", after 30 years of it (and frankly much of it crap , post UA 1E) , I'm really glad to see WOTC NOT regurgitating it yet again for a new edition. 4E is fluff still familiar, yet fresh. Perfect.

 

[SkidAce]

I like the cosmology very much....except for my inability to place the Far Realm somewhere in it. Is it a plane? Is it a different dimension? Does it surround the universe like a shroud (i.e. you can find yourself there if you stray too far from the light)? Does it have its own analogues of the natural world/feywild/shadowfell/astral sea/elemental chaos? Argh.

Well if you use the Gates of Firestorm Peak (module where it first appeared) theory...it's not "in" it at all.

It's outside of everything, you can't get there from here, and if you find an opening to it, it's a flaw in our universe that SHOULD NOT BE.

/manaiacal laughter

 

[awesomeocalypse]

It's outside of everything, you can't get there from here, and if you find an opening to it, it's a flaw in our universe that SHOULD NOT BE.

Basically, the far realm is the Dungeon Dimension from Terry Pratchett's books

 

[Holy Bovine]

The Elemental Chaos. It is what the elemental planes should have always been.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I like a lot...

Favorites probably are:
- Fey Wild
- The history of Bael Turaeth, Arkhosia and the Nerathi Empire.
- Fey Wild
- The Dawn War and the Primordials as the gods' antagonists
- Oh, and I kinda like the Fey Wild. To me it seems to be something that was missing from D&D all along. A place for the fey and a lot of traditional "folklore" about Faeries.
- Primal Spirits. At first it seemed kinda redundant, mixing fey and divine stuff in some way, but it turned out to be interesting. Primal Power has probably some of the best fluff in that regard, with all the Primal Spirit descriptions and powers linking back to them. That's cool stuff.

The Underdark books good, and it makes it a more interesting place to me than it ever was before. I also like the Undead "Physiology" concept described in Open Grave (The "trinity" of Soul, Animus and Bod. In my Arcana Evolved campaign, I did use a four-part setup - Spirit, Soul, Mind and Body. I still kinda like mine more, but the Open Grave part also made sense to me.)

I think in general, the fluff parts are weakest when it is the "repeatable" stuff - like for powers particularly. But the Points of Light setting and its elements are usually evocative and can serve as a good inspiration for a campaign.

 

[Stoat]

I like the cosmology very much....except for my inability to place the Far Realm somewhere in it. Is it a plane? Is it a different dimension? Does it surround the universe like a shroud (i.e. you can find yourself there if you stray too far from the light)? Does it have its own analogues of the natural world/feywild/shadowfell/astral sea/elemental chaos? Argh.

I'm pretty sure SkidAce has the "canon" answer. The Far Realm is deliberately not part of the Cosmology. It exists apart from the regular multiverse in the same way that the Astral Plane is apart from the Elemental Chaos.

If you want something more concrete, put it at the bottom of the Abyss. It has been established that the Abyss constantly swirls and narrows like water spiraling down a drain. It makes a certain sense to me that the Far Realm is the void into which the Abyss (and ultimately all of reality) is "draining."

 

[Nebulous]

The entire Underdark book, especially the Torog stuff, is incredibly flavorful (and by flavorful, I mean metal).

Yeah, that Underdark book is badass! I didn't think it would differ so much from what i knew from past editions, but they really crammed it full of good writing. It's too late in my campaign to use Torog as they have described him, but if i were to do it over i would totally use their ideas. I think Underdark is by far the best 4e fluff book to come out yet.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'm pretty sure SkidAce has the "canon" answer. The Far Realm is deliberately not part of the Cosmology. It exists apart from the regular multiverse in the same way that the Astral Plane is apart from the Elemental Chaos.

If you want something more concrete, put it at the bottom of the Abyss. It has been established that the Abyss constantly swirls and narrows like water spiraling down a drain. It makes a certain sense to me that the Far Realm is the void into which the Abyss (and ultimately all of reality) is "draining."

Twist/Plot Idea: The Far Realm is annoyed by this "reality" draining into its unreality, and wishes to close the Abyss. (Which probably seems great, since it means fighting Demons,but turns out bad, because it means reality is draining into itself, causing it to implode.)