Talk:Fluff

Name for players that are all about the fluff

Powergamers are to crunch as ______ are to fluff

I used 'fluffer' in the article, just by adjectiving a noun, and also because I think it's funny when I think about the movie production job called a "fluffer": someone who sucks dick to keep the male actors's erections up between shooting film scenes. --NotBrandX 16:03, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Uh

"ROLEPLAYERS take their fluff seriously, even though it has no effect on gameplay what-so-ever."

Er. No. No no no.

Fluff is THE gameplay. (Well, GOOD fluff. Overbloated setting details are just as annoying as needlessly complex mechanics.)

Without fluff, we'd be sitting around yelling "Ha! My die shows a higher number than yours, plus your number "A"! I win!" You wouldn't be saying things like "I hit the mole rat with my sword for 2 damage." "Damage", "sword", "mole rat", those are all abstractions that come from the fluff.

It is possible to have an RPG without crunch (see some storygames or forum pbp games), but it's not possible to have an RPG without fluff. If yes, then it is not an RPG anymore. A game of dice, maybe. Even very simple tabletop games have a small sprinkling of fluff - we call chess pieces kings, knights and rooks, although we don't know their names or what war for what kingdom they are fighting for. But imagining the Knight as a horse instead of just a piece with a weird move brings the game closer to us. Although games like D&D often play more like wargames where the fluff is the extra, in other RPGs the crunch is completely subservient to telling a story, and there, fluff is EVERYTHING. Can't play an RPG without it.