What kind of setting "fluff" do YOU want to see in an RPG?

[NewJeffCT]

For me, I call it “flavor” and not “fluff” as I think it can really add to a setting, and I hate settings with a lot of so-called “crunch” to them.

Divide the setting up how you want – be it by kingdoms/nations, geographical locations, racial divisions, or something else. I will use kingdoms/nations in my examples.

1) A brief history of the kingdom – maybe one paragraph for small ones, two for major ones. Then, a similar amount for current events (Kingdom A is at war with the Amazon Nation due to a diplomatic slight on A’s part.)
2) Key features/notes on the kingdom today, including cultural features – feudal human kingdom; elven lands ruled by a council of elders; dominated by Halfling farmland; dwarven kingdom constantly at war with the hordes of goblins that pour out of the nearby Bloodlands.)
3) Major geographical features – landlocked, desert, island, mountain region, arctic or tropical, lots of rivers/lakes. (“Kingdom B is located in a temperate region that gets heavy snows due to the nearby lakes and mountains”)
4) One sentence or two on the economy – “Kingdom C is known for its wool and sheep related products, but fine wine and fruits are in short supply”
5) One paragraph on the government – (“Kingdom D has been ruled by good King Cole for 25 years, and his son Nat, already 21, is his heir. The Cole family has ruled D for 300 years now.”)
6) Major/dominant religions
7) Other major features (i.e., home to the world’s biggest city; home to a famous school of wizardry; has a dwarven kingdom in the mountainous regions of the lands, intelligent dinosaurs live in the jungles on their southern borders, etc)
8) Major NPCs outside of the rulers.
9) Anything not listed in items 1-8

All in all, the setting should provide a consistent framework/outline of the world and leave it up to the DM and the players to fill in the blanks and provide the details.

 

[NN]

D&D is about adventurers having adventures.

Not tourism.

So, setting material - no matter how nice - isnt worth a **** unless it leads to adventure, or adds a new component to the usual adventure plot tropes.

Id go further and say that most setting products are made the wrong way round. Better to detail a small area, - but inspire the GM to riff and extrapolate - than churn out reams of top-down waffle.

 

[Derren]

D&D is about adventurers having adventures.

Not tourism.

So, setting material - no matter how nice - isnt worth a **** unless it leads to adventure, or adds a new component to the usual adventure plot tropes.

Id go further and say that most setting products are made the wrong way round. Better to detail a small area, - but inspire the GM to riff and extrapolate - than churn out reams of top-down waffle.

When you hack through dungeons the whole time you don't really need a setting at all. And for all other types of adventures you simply need information about the society, etc.

 

[NewJeffCT]

D&D is about adventurers having adventures.

Not tourism.

So, setting material - no matter how nice - isnt worth a **** unless it leads to adventure, or adds a new component to the usual adventure plot tropes.

Id go further and say that most setting products are made the wrong way round. Better to detail a small area, - but inspire the GM to riff and extrapolate - than churn out reams of top-down waffle.

I feel almost the opposite way, as I posted above. Rather than one highly detailed area, I would prefer a small amount of consistent detail about every area and leave it up to the players and the DM to fill in the blanks for each area and make the setting come alive in their own way.