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The False Dichotomy of "Fluff" and "Crunch"
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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 1699673" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p>Good fluff is also not a universal experience. Over the past few years, I've realised how irrelevant Monte Cook's work has become to my campaign. <em>Arcana Unearthed</em>, for all the people who like it, has no bearing on my classic D&D game, and the mini-planar settings of <em>BoEM III - The Nexus</em> are similarly useless. (That's not useless to everybody, but they're not likely to be used in my game).</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, I showed my players the <em>Planar Handbook</em> on Sunday, and they were enthralled. They loved the rules mechanics, and they loved the descriptions (fluff) of areas like the planar touchstones and the organisations/prestige classes.</p><p></p><p>So, would I like <em>Beyond Countless Doorways</em>? I don't know... but given how underwhelmed I've been by Monte Cook's material of late... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Is there a moral to be drawn from this? Yes: There are many paths a gaming supplement may use, and each one attracts a different type of gamer. There is some overlap, but there is not One True Path.</p><p></p><p>Personally, I feel that the "fluff" content of the Wizards books has been increasing - but because it is always tied to solid game mechanics, people look down on it. (If you want a completely fluffy book, get a Wizards novel - they do a lot of those! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />)</p><p></p><p>Cheers!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 1699673, member: 3586"] Good fluff is also not a universal experience. Over the past few years, I've realised how irrelevant Monte Cook's work has become to my campaign. [i]Arcana Unearthed[/i], for all the people who like it, has no bearing on my classic D&D game, and the mini-planar settings of [i]BoEM III - The Nexus[/i] are similarly useless. (That's not useless to everybody, but they're not likely to be used in my game). Meanwhile, I showed my players the [i]Planar Handbook[/i] on Sunday, and they were enthralled. They loved the rules mechanics, and they loved the descriptions (fluff) of areas like the planar touchstones and the organisations/prestige classes. So, would I like [i]Beyond Countless Doorways[/i]? I don't know... but given how underwhelmed I've been by Monte Cook's material of late... :) Is there a moral to be drawn from this? Yes: There are many paths a gaming supplement may use, and each one attracts a different type of gamer. There is some overlap, but there is not One True Path. Personally, I feel that the "fluff" content of the Wizards books has been increasing - but because it is always tied to solid game mechanics, people look down on it. (If you want a completely fluffy book, get a Wizards novel - they do a lot of those! :)) Cheers! [/QUOTE]
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