Bedrockgames
I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
Yeah, and I can see having more flavor than PHB1 powers generally did. They were usually obvious enough what the concept was, but its OK if there's some pizzazz to it. As for how people treat flavor text (is it defining narrative limitations of the spell/power or not) I think that's really up to the players.
As for other material's flavor. Yeah, there's such a vast number of ways to write and present that stuff, and such a big range of tastes and needs it is tough to say what is best. I think 4e varied a good bit. You had things like say Martial Power, which has no 'story' to it at all. It isn't void of flavor, each option is introduced and matched to some basic story ideas. The vast majority of the book is clearly crunch though. Then you have say Heroes of the Feywild which is built around the story of the place it presents character options for. It is considerably less crunch intensive, but it does still have a pretty good amount of good crunchy bits (coming as late in 4e as it does they aren't usually the most common options). The fluff is cool though, and the stuff pops, witches, skalds, satyrs, weird quests, fairy tales, etc. I mean I dunno. I liked most of the 4e books even though they had a wide range. Probably my least favorite is the DSG, the last 4e book I assume that we'll ever see. It has some OK options, even good ones, but I felt like it was stretched thin. They didn't really have enough to say that was new, there's already BEEN an underdark book for the DM, and there just weren't a vast number of cool player options left that needed doing. Still, it was well written.
Overall I just have a hard time really faulting 4e much for its fluffy bits. I think maybe it is a bit too polished, maybe it doesn't do as much storytelling as it could overall, even though it talks ABOUT stories. I dunno. It certainly isn't perfect, but I don't think it is inferior to the other editions overall. Anyway, DDN is welcome to create its own style in that sense, and if it draws heavily from 2e that won't hurt my feelings any. I can't even say a lot about 3.x in that regard as I've read little of it, but 2e I think was maybe the best written overall.
for me it isnt even a core book issue so much. The core books kind of have to be crunch heavy. I expect flavor in the supplementary releases. I want the support, and want it to focus more on the GM than the players (there are more players than GMs, but I honestly believe the most important player to inspire through the text is the GM---because he is the one who does the heavy lifting between sessions and if he isnt inspired it affects player perception of the game). I think the best thing the designers could do if they are trying to navigate the flavor issue and how to incorporate it, is to run a 2E game using then have the person running each session read one van richten guide book a week and chart how it affects his adventures (even if they played them back in the 90s, which they probably did, going back to this gives great contrast). I am not saying they should do something exactly in that style. Those are just examples of how a good balance of flavor to mechanics can improve play (for me they did at least).
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