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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1700575" data-attributes="member: 151">I'm not sure that it's a false dichotomy, quite honestly.  Perhaps an oversimplification, but not false, per se.  "Crunch", which to me is game and rules-related material, is necessary.  Without it, we're not playing a codified ruleset, but just pretend.  The system reinforces a particular kind of play that the designers hopefully intended, and provides a common ground for all players and referees to work from.  "How do I know how hard he is to hit?"  "After an attack or two, we'll have a ballpark for his AC."  "Ah, I see."  Creating new rules is a simple enough task, but creating new, consistent and balanced rules material is not.  A lot of crunch is developed in a vacuum, without thought to how it might interact with other material, even within the core.    Fluff, however, is harder to peg down...at least for me.  Some people seem to define crunch as anything that isn't a mechanic, such as city demographics, political structures, financial systems and so forth.  To me, fluff is flavor material and setting information that may or may not be disassociated with mechanics.  I see something like city demographics as crunch, not fluff.  A discussion of the effects of those demographics, however, is fluff.      For example:  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> the city of Glump has 10,000 inhabitants (Crunch)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">75% of the populus are human, 20% half-elven, 4% halfling and 1% other. (Crunch)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The People of Glump dislike Dwarves. (Fluff)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Glump remembers the border war of 10 years past, and Dwarves are unwelcome there. (Fluff)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">When in Glump, Dwarves suffer a -2 circumstance penalty to any Charisma or Charisma-based skill checks. (Crunch)   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dwarven equipment and handicrafts are extremely difficult to locate in Glump (fluff).   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dwarven war-axes and equipment tailored for dwarves (such as armor, clothes and so forth) are only available at 150% book value in the city of Glump (Crunch).   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In the market bazaar, merchants will rarely sell anything other than food to a Dwarf. (Fluff) </li> </ul>Now, note how some of these are borderline.  If anything points to the dichotomy being false, it would probably be this.  Some fluff clearly tips it's hand towards mechanics, but doesn't provide them directly.  The idea that Dwarves are not popular in Glump is actionable, mechanically, but the specific indication of a rule (the circumstance penalty) is a specific instance.  The two don't have to be mutually exclusive, and in fact should feed each other.  That is, the fluff should suggest and explain the crunch when possible, and the reverse may be true, that crunch should suggest fluff.  In our example, a border war (presumably with a dwarven nation) adversely affect Glump, and the populace still remembers.  This suggests the mechanics listed above.  By the same token, the mechanic of expensive dwarven merchandise suggests all sorts of story ideas and consequences of that specific mechanic, such as a black market in dwarven goods or loss of reputation among other merchants for carrying such stock.  The best supplements combine these two elements, with each drawing inspiration from the other.  Just because I can create either by myself doesn't mean that I don't want to see other folks work, too.  Yes, I can create a campaign, but most supplements provide much more detail and data than I would ever bother to do on my own...and that's why I buy them.</blockquote>

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