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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faraer" data-source="post: 2110376" data-attributes="member: 6318"><p>Do we agree that we don't *need* these terms? 'Rules' and 'background' (or lore, or setting or world information, or content) work fine. But some people call world information fluff because they like the sound of it, or find these terms have useful shades of meaning, or hear others using them. So the question is, does this jargon aid understanding and communication more than it distorts and confuses? Does it tend towards or away from truth? (Those who don't think words are an important subject of discussion are mistaken, and should discuss things they do want to discuss, rather than insult the rest of us.) In general, I don't see how the objections fusangite and I have raised can be dismissed, but I'm not sure what would persuade those who they haven't convinced.Everybody? 'Fluff' is jargon restricted to a few internet RPG communities, within which -- as we've seen on this thread and others -- they're interpreted with a wide range of meanings. Neither is everything clearly one or the other: spells and magic items are both world objects and rules objects.That isn't the intent of most people who use the term. 'Fluff' has an established meaning in terms of the written word: it refers to vague, disposable prose as opposed to valuable content. It means 'padding' -- there's no getting away from the fact that it's derogatory, and often meant to be so. And rules are equally insubstantial and imaginary, so it's not a descriptive distinction in that sense.I'm not talking linguistic roots, but the usual uses of the word -- from 'fluffy' to describe prose styles to 'ball of fluff'.Hong, people are vastly suggestible, including you and me. Suggesting otherwise is like the people who claim advertising (or propaganda) doesn't affect them.</p></blockquote><p></p>

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