Tutorial Fluff and you

[Rikard]

Hopefully this does belong here as it is all about the fluff without containing a story.


So rather than poll this topic as it seems there's a possibility of far more answers than I could squeeze in here. What I thought I'd ask is two fold, what does fluff mean to you? (how important/essential is it?).

And

What specifically about fluff, draws you in (the darkness, brooding qualities, inspiration/imagination invoked, or is it something else altogether).


For myself, I find the criteria changes depending on the subject, so for Lizards I've always liked the hidden quality, sometimes being left with more questions and fewer answers at the end of a story does more credit, as it's always the things we don't know that fire the imagination that much more (especially as the guidance and knowledge they possessed is no more, but they are not dying/dwindling into extinction, or obscurity).

It's the element of mystery, of loss, of enduring hardship and a determination to fight on regardless of the outcome.



So with that all said, how about you?

 

[pendrake]

See the twenty words in my signature...

What specifically about fluff, draws you in (the darkness, brooding qualities, inspiration/imagination invoked, or is it something else altogether).

Darkness? Brooding anything?? Grimness? Darkgrimness?? Grimdarkness??? 'Orrible puns? Bizarrity? Imagination..? Inspiration...

My first units for this game were Bretonnians and Lizardmen (obvious boxed set) nothing to do with the background story drew me in. The models looked interesting.

But, later I grew to like the Bretonnian background with all the Arthurian / Robin Hood aspects of it. But then they finally replaced the 5th edition book with the 6th edition book, savagely retconning much of what I liked, and I became aware of the general practice of retconning that was being or had been inflicted on the other armies of this game. And it changed my attitude:


NEVER AGAIN


If the company writing this game will not care enough about their story lines to keep it consistent from one edition to the next and build on what came before by gradually enriching it, I can't be bothered to care about those details at all. Hence the sig:

 

[pendrake]

I have an army of Lizards; its home base is a lost city in a steamy, swampy jungle...
[18 words]

My army of ratlings can appear anywhere; out of tunnels that lead back to a secret underground warren...
[18 words]

Bretonnians: an army of resplendent, noble knights, based out of castles; fighting alongside, hippogriffs, princesses, and fiery dragons...
[18 words]
________________________

​

What inspires my imagination is illustrations, groundplans of terrain, gorgeous and awe inspiring scenery, maps of typical cities, primers of lost alphabets... that sort of thing. Page after page after page of faux history with here battles / there battles there ... not so much. As seen above, 'fluff' need not exceed 18 words. 20 is probably fine. 30 is getting wordy.

 

[Rikard]

Are you ever inspired or encouraged to write your own fluff/stories then?

 

[pendrake]

Are you ever inspired or encouraged to write your own fluff/stories then?

Sure.

I have only written one Lizardman themed story ever but it was published on this forum, if you are curious to read it. And hey, Feel free to have a go at sculpting Tzlatoc, there is nothing quite like him...

 

[spawning of Bob]

No modesty, Pendrake. It was a prize winning story (prize in the mail)

I have some views wrt categories of fluff.

1) Army Fluff. Your tabletop army, their history and motivation. Army fluff is often comedic because the game is random anyway, and because the author is just having some fun with their toy soldiers. The other extreme is deadly serious - dude get help. More likely on other forums, for some reason. This often does, but doesn't need to, borrow locations, events and characters from WHFB canon. Army fluff ranges from dull to epic.

2) Official background fluff (BRB, Army Book). As per Pendrake, I prefer it to be less detailed from a story sense and more detailed from a universe building sense. Varies from dumb to interesting.

3) Official fiction. Either starts and ends in stalemate ('cos that is what the game needs) or tramples all over my dreams. I can tolerate a small amount. (I own the End times books. I just gave up. If I have questions, I ask Son of Bob.)

4) Homage Fanfic. Might immerse you deeper into a culture which GW had only given sketchy details about. May follow someone's favourite character and not really advance their character arc. That said, a new perspective on a familiar character, culture or setting can be refreshing.

5) Freestyle Fanfic. Starts with elements of the WHFB universe and goes out in new directions. Asks the question "but what if?" and comes up with surprising answers. (What if the old ones return?, what if they don't?, what if the moon is going to crash?) Results vary from uninterpretable to absorbing.

I generally enjoy types 4 and 5 and attempt to write / cartoon type 5 and disguise it as 4.

(how important/essential is it?).

If your question is about "is it essential to the game playing experience" then the answer is definitely no. Not one of us forked out that million dollars for an rule book hoping for a good read. The fluff either sneaks up on you after you are committed to the hobby or it doesn't. Having said that, a themed army list or paint scheme is often a function of fluff and adds to gaming pleasure.

What specifically about fluff, draws you in

My favourite thing in the world is ideas, and to share ideas you need a common language. I could go to any fantasy fiction writers web forum and probably get trolled to oblivion, but instead I started reading and writing and discussing with nice people who share the common language of WHFB Lizardmen. Glad I did.

 

[pendrake]

No modesty, Pendrake. It was a prize winning story (prize in the mail)

As I understand it the prize was bragging rights...

...this was me bragging:

I have only written one Lizardman themed story ever but it was published on this forum...

 

[Scalenex]

I agree with most of what Bob said. I disagree with his take on army fluff. You don't need to "get help" unless gaming is detrimentally impacting your real life. It is not a sin to fluff out an army creatively in a non-comedic way. I think RPGs and writing are a better medium for this, but to each his/her own.

1) Army Fluff. Your tabletop army, their history and motivation. Army fluff is often comedic because the game is random anyway, and because the author is just having some fun with their toy soldiers. The other extreme is deadly serious - dude get help. More likely on other forums, for some reason. This often does, but doesn't need to, borrow locations, events and characters from WHFB canon. Army fluff ranges from dull to epic.

 

[spawning of Bob]

The dude get help is when you take your army fluff very seriously, and expect everyone else to as well. It not so much the seriousness of the content.

I agree about the issue about balancing hobby with real life. Hmm, is devoting too much time to internet friends as bad as devoting it to little plastic friends?