Presenting "Fluff""

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

What are your favorite aspects of "fluff" in an RPG book?
What are the best ways to present "fluff" in an RPG book?

What are aspects of "fluff" in an RPG book you dislike?
What are the worst ways to present "fluff" in an RPG book?

 

[Daniel Grota]

My favorite aspects of fluff is setting material. What makes this world tick? Give me detail on the major points that is integral to the setting (such as technology for Sci Fi or gadgets for Steampunk games etc.) and how they define and shape everyday life. What are some of the more interesting places and characters in the world? And my favorite way that stuff is presented is in-character. Eclipse Phase, The Laundry, and Low Life do this well. All the fluff is presented by characters within the setting who know what they're talking about, and more often than not, memorable.

My least favorite is short stories. They're just a wast of space to be honest. I'm also not a big fan of massive info overload that stifles my creativity such as an overly detailed world (FR I'm looking at you). I'm going to throw adventures and pregens in here as well. I can do that all on my own thank you very much. Hell, if the setting material is interesting and provides me a very good picture on the world and what adventures to run, that stuff should come naturally anyhow. As for presentation, hmm... I haven't found any that gets on my nerves. I guess something that is too dry, or the in-character voice is not that appealing.

 

[Oryan77]

I miss seeing a brief description about what an NPCs personality is like. Even in some 2e settings, an NPC would include just a 1 sentence description of their personality within the stat block. In Planescape, the books contain a quote from an NPC. Some of these brief quotes have given me an idea for how to roleplay that NPC that I would not have thought of before.

 

[pming]

Hiya.

Kinda like Oryan77 said... To me, the best "fluff" is fluff that doesn't exactly tell me something, but lets me imagine it.

Having a half-page to a page describing a particular forest isn't nearly as good as having hat forest 'described' in a single paragraph, with lots of words that evoke the readers imagination as opposed to rote memory.

For a BAD example: "The oak trees are between 20 and 50 years old. The stream is clear water, cool and contains many rainbow trout."

For a GOOD example: "The trees are young in age. Waterways are typically clear and cool, with an abundance of aquatic life."

The BAD example *tells* me what it is like...and the GOOD example lets me decide exactly what it is like.

Anyway, yeah, I like 'fluff' to evoke my imagination more than fluff that basically describes every little detail.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Fetfreak]

I love fluff, it helps me a lot. Like others said "fluff that doesn't exactly tell me something, but lets me imagine it" is very useful but I don't mind even more detailed ones. This works both on NPCs and setting. For me the most important thing is to underline what is really important about the character and environment. Sometimes these character features can get lost in the fluff text and yet prove to be important later in the adventure.