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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 5:10AM
#1
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XunValDorl_of_HouseKilsek
Date Joined:
May 31, 2003
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I really don't want Next to follow the 4th editions stance where they just left most of the fluff up the DM or players. Fluff needs to be there for inspiration, especially when it comes to new players. Not everyone has all the fluff sitting there in their minds waiting to be used. If you don't like the present fluff then just change it or don't use it at all. I felt that this was just being very lazy and took away what D&D was as a game. I want the designers to give us more than just the numbers, I want them to give us the fluff as well as the crunch.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 5:21AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jan 10, 2008
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How much fluff do you want? Every power, every class, and every race had fluff attached to it. It seemed sufficient to me and I did find it inspiring.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 5:56AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2007
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They have a lot of fluff in 4e, it's just that they have more of it in the campaign source books and module and Dungeon than they do in the core rules. Which is fine with me, I'd rather have most of the background material seperated out into their own books and articles so the people that are interested in that sort of thing can buy them seperately and the people who aren't can simply buy the core books and that's all they need to play the game.
Really aside from short one or two sentence descriptions of each spell/power/magic item you don't need much other background material in the Players Handbook. The Monster Manual needs a paragraph or two describing the monsters since stat blocks often give you little idea what the heck the monster or its attacks actually look like. And the DMG is needs some sample background material sprinkled in to show new DMs the sorts of things they might be interested in adding to their own adventures.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 6:15AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jan 29, 2005
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I like how 4e gave a short summary that planted ideas in my head. I don't need to know what time elves eat ice cream on Sunday. That is what campaign settings are for.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 6:19AM
#5
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XunValDorl_of_HouseKilsek
Date Joined:
May 31, 2003
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I like how 4e gave a short summary that planted ideas in my head. I don't need to know what time elves eat ice cream on Sunday. That is what campaign settings are for.
Well it's a shame that some of the camapign settings couldn't even do that.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 7:33AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Dec 13, 2005
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I was extremely happy with the amount of fluff in 4E, because it did give an idea to build on. Still had little to do with my games, because I always do a homebrew world, but still. Sometimes the ideas inspired me to have better ones.
Resident jark.
Resident Minister of Education and Misinformation.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 7:41AM
#7
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XunValDorl_of_HouseKilsek
Date Joined:
May 31, 2003
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Some DM's are either not ready to come up with their own stuff or they don't really have the time.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 7:43AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Dec 13, 2005
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Some DM's are either not ready to come up with their own stuff or they don't really have the time.
Agreed. So such DMs can use what's in the books, which is largely sufficient unless it suddenly becomes critically important what time elves eat ice cream on Sunday, in which case the answer is 'whatever time the plot demands.'
Resident jark.
Resident Minister of Education and Misinformation.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 7:45AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Aug 20, 2007
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I agree with XunValDorl, a new player benefits a lot from the fluff aspects of the game. (And it makes the reading of the core books a more inspiring and funny experience)
The redbox provided a fluffy way for creating characters that worked awesome for first time players, but failed to provide some crunch (stats blocks for classes) that helped the first time DM to create their own fluffy path to introduce-create characters (or that quickly allowed to create a new character.)
So IMO its a matter of balance between the fluff and crunch. I think the best example of the lack of fluff in 4th edition is the first monster manual, the Monster Vault somehow fills this gap (but I think It can be improved). (content removed)
ORC_Jubjub: Edited-Trolling is against the Code of Conduct
Moderated by
Orc_Jubjub
on Feb 26, 2012 - 05:29PM
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 8:33AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Mar 15, 2010
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Our group, who came to D&D4e cold (none of us had played D&D for years) found the default Points of Light setting a little sparse; they wanted to create backstories for their characters, but not knowing what the norm was in this world, it was hard for some of them to pin down where their characters had come from, other than 'outside the Nentir Vale', or how they fitted in. We fared a lot better when creating characters in the Eberron setting.
I can appreciate the benefits of having a lightweight, open world where very little is known, but I found myself wanting a little more information for the default setting. Again, there's bits and pieces you can pick up from the community wikis and D&D Insider, but that takes a fair amount of reading and work, and if you're new to the edition and wanting to jump straight in, a bit more scaffolding would be useful.
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