No more "fluff"!!! [A rant and a request]

[BryonD]

To me fluff is what happens while cruch is how it happens.

However, I think writing good mechanics is just as hard as writing good fluff. But thinking about it a bit more, writing good mechanics may perhaps be harder because a certain amount of fluff is necessary for a really good mechanic.
joe b.

Also well said.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Oh, by the by, if Mouseferatu's still reading this thread, way to rock on "Gehenna: The Final Night" novel. Not how I'm use to running Vampire (these days), but something a way of playing I'd definately like to try out. And it tied a big history up with a sense of expert fun, had a more kicking tempo then "The Last Battle" (in the context of how I understood the novels) and I dug the characters. WW would be the loser if you're not writing any more fiction in the new WoD.

I am, indeed, still reading. And thank you.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

To me, it's all about the flavor (by which, I mean "fictional creativity", which would be anything non-mechanical). The flavor is what sparks the interest, the imagination, the mystery, and the excitement. The mechanics are there to support the flavor, nothing more. When I purchase a book, I'm always drawn to the flavor material within it; If the flavor sucks, I tend to stop reading the book, flavor and mechanics both, resulting in a book used less often than others (if it's used at all).

When a company or author starts to gain a reputation with me for poor flavoring, I begin to skip their other material on the shelves and at the online stores; why pay for material that continuously fails to keep my interest and will thus be unlikely to use?

 

[mroberon1972]

I agree that "flavor" should be the term used when you think the text was well worth reading.

I agree that "fluff" should be used when you think the text was made up just to increase the word count.

Whoa there!

ALL text in a book is made up to increase page count. If it did not, then the pages would not exist either.

If the flavor text is flavor text, then why should anyone care if it was added to increase page count, as long as it's of the same quality writing?

It's like saying Stephen King added more pages to a novel just to fill out pages. It's not only insulting, it's cruel to someone who spent the time writing it.

Now if the quality of the text is bad, then just call it what you would call bad rules: Crud.

Mr. Oberon
(Who perhaps took this a little too seriously...)