D&D General Rules vs. lore preferences in D&D sourcebooks?

[Charlaquin]

I voted more rules, less lore. I like both, but I would prefer base rules that are lore-agnostic with suggested lore over rules that are lore-specific that I have to specifically alter from the baseline to fit to my home games, ya know?

 

[clearstream]

Just curious after recent discussions what the general view here is on ENWorld as far as lore/rules balance. (Might also take a tour of rpg.net and Reddit and see what they think as well, but starting here.)

Feel free to elaborate, but please be respectful towards people who have a different preference.

Rules can embody or give rise to Lore. The opposite of ludonarrative dissonance: ludonarrative consonance.

 

[loverdrive]

I'd say, if it's even possible to separate rules from lore, something is wrong.

All in all, my preference is "just enough rules, just enough lore". I don't need rules for every goddamn thing, and I don't need to know irrelevant history.

 

[S'mon]

Just curious after recent discussions what the general view here is on ENWorld as far as lore/rules balance. (Might also take a tour of rpg.net and Reddit and see what they think as well, but starting here.)

Feel free to elaborate, but please be respectful towards people who have a different preference.

Player-side, I prefer rules with minimal fluff, since the fluff will need to be adapted to my setting anyway and I get annoyed when my teenage son treats it as canon.

GM-side, I like monster books with flavour but fairly generic fluff/lore easy to adapt to my settings. I like setting books if I'm going to run a setting. Too much Midgard in Kobold Press books gets in the way of me using them. WoTC 5e fluff is fairly useless to me, I find it bland and flavourless.

So, hm, I guess I basically want rules/crunch not lore/fluff. Unless it's a specific setting book or campaign adventure.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I like the approach taken by Level Up, where the emphasis isn't so much on lore as how to evoke a mood and support it with mechanics to create memorable encounters.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I don't want more rules as such, but I want more playable content: basically, more monster statblocks.

Telling me about different folkways of creatures doesn't help me prep new and exciting battles - that requires numbers. I could do the math myself, but I'm happy to pay for someone else to do the work.

besides, a few basic rules and I can fill out the culture pretty easily. This isn't work for me - it's the fun part - so I see no reason to pay for it.

 

[cbwjm]

I like a good mix of rules and lore, the lore helps inform the rules I feel. I may not use the lore in my games, but I like reading it as it provides me with ideas for my own games.

 

[CleverNickName]

In a D&D sourcebook, I want about a 90/10 mix of Rules and Lore. Odds are, if I'm shopping around for "official" 5E content, it's because I'm looking for new Rules: new monster stat blocks, new spells, etc. So I voted "more rules, less lore."

But in a non-5E D&D sourcebook, or a third-party 5E D&D book, I want about a 10/90 mix of Rules to Lore. Odds are, if I'm shopping for third-party material or non-5E material, it's because I'm looking for Lore: new factions, pantheons, kingdoms, myths, legends, adventure hooks, that sort of thing. I'm looking for shiny new stuff to hang off of the established 5E rules framework.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Lore heavy for sure. Of course it depends on what the book's focus is: player option books need crunch, monster resources and adventures need stat blocks. But for anything dealing with setting, rules only give books an expiration date (or give the DM a headache if you want to convert to a new game or edition). One of the greatest examples of product lines that would be fantastic if not for the rules is Rifts. Practically every worldbook is fantastic to read through, and it's one of my favorite kitchen sink settings ever, but man, those rules weigh it down.

So yeah, give me world building, monster ecologies, etc. Save the rules for something I'm likely to need during play.

 

[Reynard]

I'd say, if it's even possible to separate rules from lore, something is wrong.

Care to elaborate? Because this seems to throw shade at any toolkit system,from Savage Worlds to FATE to GURPS, and even D&D when it is in generic fantasy mode.