Changing fluff

[Emperor Demonking]

1. How much do you think it compares with changing crunch.
2. Do you allow it as a DM.
3. Most importantly what is your favorite change you've made.

[Telonius]

1. Changing fluff is much easier than changing crunch. It changes the story, not the numbers.
2. Yes. The only question I ask is, "Does it make sense within the story?" That's a question I can answer easily, quickly, and without having to consult thirty different rules to see how it interacts in x situation.
3. Creating fluff wholesale by setting the game in a campaign world of my own devising.

[Saph]

1. How much do you think it compares with changing crunch.

Both are important, but in different ways. Small fluff changes don't make much difference, but big ones change the feel of the game much more than crunch changes do.


2. Do you allow it as a DM.

Sure, as long as there's a good reason. A good reason is: "I'd enjoy playing this class more if the fluff on it was changed to X in my specific case." It has to not mess with the campaign setting, it has to be balanced, and it has to not mean too much extra work for me, but beyond that anything goes. I'll generally allow crunch changes under exactly the same principle.


3. Most importantly what is your favorite change you've made.

For characters, I do it on a case-by-case basis. I don't really have favourites; as long as the player's happy with the character, that's enough for me.

- Saph

[Oeryn]

I absolutely allow it. In fact, I run homebrew games exclusively, and it's almost a requirement, so that the stuff fits in with the world.

Honestly, I kinda wish that Wizards would JUST give crunch, so that players and DMs could shape the fluff around it, in the way that works for their particular game. But that's probably mostly bias, stemming from the fact that I don't like any of their settings, which is where the fluff comes from.

I guess my favorite "fluff-conversion" has been for a gnome character of mine, who was basically a sorceror. His spellcasting was based on ancestor worship, so it looked, sounded and felt completely different from normal (so much so that there was extensive debate for a while about just what class he was). But it was just fluff. For example, when he cast magic missile, a revered archer from his tribe would appear in ghostly form, and fire glowing arrows.

Like so:



Valor, Son of Courage

Valor froze as the graceful beast took wing before him. This was certainly not what he had expected, but what it meant, he could not say. Had the old woman known about this? No matter, he had accepted her charge.

He looked over his shoulder to see Lita dash off into the woods. Her kuia will find another protector. As the young woman disappeared into the forest, he returned his gaze to the dragon. If this is where Valor, Son of Courage meets his end, so be it. I can spare her the fire, at least. He grasped his staff, and the shadowy figure of a tall lanky archer materialized beside him, just for a moment. In that split second, the archer loosed two shafts, directly at the beast.

Even as the glowing missiles streaked toward the dragon, Valor raised his staff high, and bellowed a challenge at the top of his lungs. “Come, wyrm! Learn what it is to face a Rauhai of the Stone Forest!” The forked staff burst into light, an otherworldly blue flame arcing between its points. He dug his heels into Moon Foot’s flanks, spurring him down the path towards the deserted town, and the dragon rising above it.

It worked EXACTLY like Magic Missile, in every respect but presentation.

Likewise, instead of an "Alarm" spell, he "summoned" ghostly warriors from his tribe's past, who patrolled the area, and reported back to him if anything suspicious happened. It worked exactly like the spell, but it was just different enough to make the character a hell of a lot more interesting. I had "alternate" fluff for every spell he could cast, and it was a blast.

Of course, most of the party either hated him, or were completely creeped out by him and his "ghosts". :smallbiggrin:

[Mando Knight]

Honestly, I kinda wish that Wizards would JUST give crunch, so that players and DMs could shape the fluff around it, in the way that works for their particular game. But that's probably mostly bias, stemming from the fact that I don't like any of their settings, which is where the fluff comes from.

So... like the SRD expanded to every class, feat, and spell ever created? I could go for that myself...

[Idea Man]

My one friend had a big hang-up about playing an assassin. He wanted to, he really, really wanted to, but the campaign was good-aligned only and the introduction of an evil character would have caused a disintegration of party unity. So he searched the net and found the "reworked" non-evil assassin. He actually printed it out before realizing it was exactly the same as the prestige class printed in the DMG except for the alignment restriction and fluff (a book we both have, by the way). He never really lived that down. :smallbiggrin:

[Human Paragon 3]

A friend in my current campaign is playing a character based on Dr. Who. His sonic screwdriver, which is a catch-all divice capable of doing almost anything, has been damaged, so he only has a few tricks. Right now, all he can do is stun enemies with it and shoot sonic damage out of it. The stronger he gets, the more power is restored to his screwdriver.

He's using the battle sorcerer variant from the SRD which gives him better BAB, weapons, and HD in exchange for spell power. Even though he is essentially a watered down level 1 sorcerer, the feeling of the character is totally differant, he seems like a down-on-his luck time cop, an expert at nuetralizing enemies.

So far it is working out pretty well. He just leveled up to 2, so we'll see how this goes!

[Stephen_E]

I have no problems with changing fluff, so long as the new fluff fits.

Crunch is trickier to change because it's harder to tell whether it's mechanically balanced, and how it'll interact with later crunch abilities thye may gain.

I'll note that I consider alignment restrictions fluff.
Class abilities + BAB, Saves, hps, HD, skill pts are all crunch.
The Paladins Code is Fluff, A Paladins code is Crunch. (i.e. Paladins having a code is crunch, but what that code is exactly is fluff).

Stephen

[Tormsskull]

I think fluff that is created for the purpose of limiting things or having things make sense should not be changed without seriously thinking about the consequences.

I think changing fluff can potentially be much more game breaking that changing crunch, but that's because I typically play in heavy RP campaigns.

As an example, if I gave a special ability to the descendants of a particular hero, and then a PC who was not descended from that hero wanted to take that special ability, I'd consider that changing the fluff, and it would likely have a huge impact on the campaign.

However, if a player wanted to customize his character by trading abilities around, I think I'd be able to judge it and determine if it were balanced.

[Rutee]

I'd post, but Saph already said everything I would.

[Stephen_E]

Re: Tormskulls comments, and reflecting on what Saph said, I think we also need to differeniate between DM "Fluff" and WotC Fluff.

DM "Fluff" often isn't really what I call fluff. It's actual campaign setting.
As the DM you know how important it is, even if the players don't. Changing that is way beyond Crunch or Fluff in terms of potential seriousness. The DM can still probably workout the effects easily, but that's probably even more a reason for ussually saying no (i.e. the DM works out it would change the campaign thread/plot lines).

WotC fluff is something the designers put in to flesh out the mechanics they're laying down. Often it's written with a particular setting in mind and thus is at most a suggestion outside that setting. Many of the splat books have a section on changing the fluff of prestige classes to suit, which in my mind shows just how important they see keeping that fluff as RAW, i.e. not much at all.

Stephen

[Prometheus]

The biggest fluff change in my campaigns, or at least, semi-fluff, is the alignment and environment of creatures. There is a variety of lizardfolk who live in the mountains and goblins while stupid, aren't intrinsically evil.

[Chronos]

The biggest fluff change in my campaigns, or at least, semi-fluff, is the alignment and environment of creatures. There is a variety of lizardfolk who live in the mountains and goblins while stupid, aren't intrinsically evil.Goblins are just as smart as humans. Perhaps you're thinking of orcs?

Personally, I would not only allow changing fluff, but actively encourage it. The game is about telling a story, and you tell a story by creating fluff.

[Fhaolan]

Fluff is difficult. Most fluff really does need to be changable, because campaign settings are mostly fluff. If the fluff isn't changable, it's hard to run campaigns outside of 'default' settings like Greyhawk and Forgoten Realms. But you can't just change it for the sake of changing it. There has to be a real reason. Something that defines the campaign setting.

Since I run a homebrewed campaign, my fluff is *completely* different from standard. For example: In a normal campaign, if the players see a creature that is just silly it's either 'a Wizard did it' (or if you allow certain splatbooks, 'a Binder did it'). In my campaign it would be 'the Elves did it'. Because in my campaign Elves are one of the younger races. Their ancestors many generations removed were human, but used arcane means to modify themselves to be longer lived, and what they believed was 'better' than common humans. They created all the beastmen races like Gnolls, Minotaurs, and other more horrible beasties as experiments in their quest to find ways to improve themselves. Their arrogance and hubris led to their downfall and now they wander the world as nomadic gypsy-types due to their creations rising up and destroying their entire civilization. Throwbacks to older forms of elf occur, which use the same crunch as half-elves. Completely different fluff from regular D&D, but it has no mechanical effect. Elves and half-elves still have the exact same abilities and attributes, but a different explaination for them.

[Tequila Sunrise]

1. How much do you think it compares with changing crunch.
Changing fluff is easy. Changing crunch is easy to screw up.

2. Do you allow it as a DM.
I think a DM who didn't allow fluff changes would be pretty tyrannical, so yes. I have several house rules specifically so that players can easily change fluff. (no alignment restrictions for any class, spell lists are guidelines rather than rules, etc...)

3. Most importantly what is your favorite change you've made.
Well I tend to change anything I work with. My favorite setting is Planescape, and it's no exception to the rules so I'd say this is my favorite change. New/different factions, less planes to name a couple changes.

TS

[The_Werebear]

Changing fluff is great, and I encourage/do it all the time.

Examples: A person was doing a swordsage, yet didn't want to be magically shooting fire out of their weapons. The solution- I said that they created alchemical powders which are responsible for the various magical things. The powders themselves are magic, so Anti-Magic field still suppresses it, but he was no longer making magic by waving weapons.

For my crusader- He has several spirits living in his mind due to a traumatic experience. During combat, they shout advice (Granted maneuvers) and even work minor magic. Later on, he is going to go into Eternal Blade, the fluff reworked to allow nonelves. It works great with the character, as it represents him taking the ghostly advice to the next level.

For a Sorceress: A friend was playing a young halfling sorceress, who was obsessed with butterflies (She had grown up on a boat, and one had landed on her while she was a child). When her powers manifested, they manifested in that way. Color Spray was a cloud of brilliant butterflies that flew into the enemies face and exploded. Glitterdust was a golden one flying in rapid circles, dropping the dust as it went. Scorching Ray sent a handful of flaming butterflies at people.