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The False Dichotomy of "Fluff" and "Crunch"
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<blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 1699648" data-attributes="member: 1757"><p>What Mike M said. Also:</p><p>Or is it just that you like <em>good</em> fluff and <em>good</em> crunch, Psion? </p><p></p><p>IMHO, fluff vs. crunch is a perfectly fine dichotomy, for the self-evident reason that substantive rules content and flavor are two different things. "An arcane trickster can perform one of the following class skills at a range of 30 feet: Disable Device, Open Lock, or Sleight of Hand" won't win any Booker Prizes, any more than "vrael olo funeral rites vary from tribe to tribe" is likely to constitute useful rules content. A good d20 supplement probably needs to contain both of these to be worth buying, unless it's a core book alternative. Even then, crunch is always nicer, if only for the sake of readability, when mixed with some fluff (one reason why <em>Arcana Unearthed</em> scores pretty high) and likewise why fluff tends to be more useful when there's some meaningful "crunchy" dimension to it (e.g. <em>Midnight</em>, which could have been written with no rules at all and still been pretty good, but is made all the better by providing some integral, if wonky, new rules options). </p><p></p><p>The fact that fluff and crunch are best when blended simply serves to highlight the importance of the dichotomy: Namely, that these are two elements that both deserve attention in any game supplement, and that ideally will complement each other well in a supplement.</p><p></p><p>IOW, what Mike said, I guess!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ruleslawyer, post: 1699648, member: 1757"] What Mike M said. Also: Or is it just that you like [i]good[/i] fluff and [i]good[/i] crunch, Psion? IMHO, fluff vs. crunch is a perfectly fine dichotomy, for the self-evident reason that substantive rules content and flavor are two different things. "An arcane trickster can perform one of the following class skills at a range of 30 feet: Disable Device, Open Lock, or Sleight of Hand" won't win any Booker Prizes, any more than "vrael olo funeral rites vary from tribe to tribe" is likely to constitute useful rules content. A good d20 supplement probably needs to contain both of these to be worth buying, unless it's a core book alternative. Even then, crunch is always nicer, if only for the sake of readability, when mixed with some fluff (one reason why [i]Arcana Unearthed[/i] scores pretty high) and likewise why fluff tends to be more useful when there's some meaningful "crunchy" dimension to it (e.g. [i]Midnight[/i], which could have been written with no rules at all and still been pretty good, but is made all the better by providing some integral, if wonky, new rules options). The fact that fluff and crunch are best when blended simply serves to highlight the importance of the dichotomy: Namely, that these are two elements that both deserve attention in any game supplement, and that ideally will complement each other well in a supplement. IOW, what Mike said, I guess! [/QUOTE]
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