Author Topic: Too much fluff? An issue of multiple methods to the same problem.  (Read 3173 times)

Offline SolEiji

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Too much fluff? An issue of multiple methods to the same problem.
« on: September 21, 2013, 05:31:54 AM »
So you may or may not have been aware I'm working on my own RPG system and stuff.  tl;dr version is Outlaw Star/Star Wars fantasy in space stuff.  Now I have my "The Force", Aether and its reality-altering shinanigans.  The fluff here is that the common man can't use aether to any reasonable degree, but they've learned how to build machines/magic items which act as collective aether-manipulating devices.  It's effectively an artificer's society, where magic items rule the day when it comes to augmenting yourself to superhuman abilities.  Except a few select few (PCs) who are the Jedi of the world and use aether as well as the magic items others rely on naturally.

Anyway, aether was my excuse for FTL shinanigans as aether doesn't let you break physics so much as change them to make things happen when are sensible given the new physics (why yes, the strong atomic force is much weaker here than normal, ATOMIC FIREBALL!) and one of the things it can change is the "density of space", which translates into gravity effectively.  For sublight things, it lets them swim through "thickened space" letting them use props and fans to fly around, and zoom about with wings like a plane.  For FTL things it does an accubere-drive thing, where its throwing out expanding space behind it.  That works well enough.

Then I started dealing with extraplanar things, since the world has that, and I realized someone would have plane shifted to and fro from the prime material to some other plane and back and used that as one of the more 40k style jump drives that teleport you instead of move you "slowly" through space.  So I had that, and much like 40k its kind of a crapshoot that isn't terribly reliable.

The issue here is now I'm worried I have too many bits of fluff.  I got magic and needing to explain why magic can't just teleport you from here to there.  I got FTL accubere drives which technically run off magic items doing their thing.  And then I got 40k style jump drives.  Do you think this will be too much for players to bother with?  Should I be minimizing, or embrace it (I did have an idea of McGuffian anchor points being super valuable, since they make the usually untrustworthy jump drives more reliable and thus a plot point people can fight over).

Just looking for opinions, general feels, and the like.  Also, happy to answer any questions this might spawn.
Mudada.

Offline Amechra

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Re: Too much fluff? An issue of multiple methods to the same problem.
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2013, 12:17:51 PM »
Nope. I've seen (and used) plenty more complicated.
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Offline SolEiji

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Re: Too much fluff? An issue of multiple methods to the same problem.
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2013, 11:37:08 PM »
Nope. I've seen (and used) plenty more complicated.

This is a good sign.  I really have no clue on how much I need to simplify for general consumption.

More.  Need more opinions...
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Offline FlaminCows

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Re: Too much fluff? An issue of multiple methods to the same problem.
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2013, 03:07:43 AM »
The problem isn't having a fluff explanation for every bit of the in-universe physics. It can be useful, because some players are into that sort of thing. The danger comes in how much fluff you present to people just before the game starts. It can be intimidating, because they can feel like they need to know all this to play your game. Most players can accept flying through space with a fan and the way teleport works and atomic fireballs without knowing why it works that way.

My advice is to have the fluff, but resist the temptation to recite it to your players until they ask for it, and when they do just tell them the part they're asking about. All the major financially successful fantasy settings have a maximum amount of fluff available to know, and a minimum of fluff that you actually have to. So have the document ready, and make it clear to your players that they can read it if they're interested or just ignore it and get into the game.

Offline SolEiji

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Re: Too much fluff? An issue of multiple methods to the same problem.
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2013, 04:40:22 AM »
My advice is to have the fluff, but resist the temptation to recite it to your players until they ask for it, and when they do just tell them the part they're asking about. All the major financially successful fantasy settings have a maximum amount of fluff available to know, and a minimum of fluff that you actually have to. So have the document ready, and make it clear to your players that they can read it if they're interested or just ignore it and get into the game.

This is good, cause neither of these systems are vital to the game (it's perfectly plausable to play without even stepping food into a starship).

I'm not even to the point of having players yet, book is still in production.  I will keep it in mind when I run the beta... well, alpha tests.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2013, 09:25:21 PM by SolEiji »
Mudada.

Offline CaptRory

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Re: Too much fluff? An issue of multiple methods to the same problem.
« Reply #5 on: September 24, 2013, 11:51:16 PM »
Why not create a companion technical manual that goes into all the minutia? It should have detailed explanations as well as bullet points that the GM can sprinkle into the game as desired.

Offline veekie

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Re: Too much fluff? An issue of multiple methods to the same problem.
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2013, 04:14:00 AM »
I think, in the core game, you can just focus on the functional aspects of the Lore, on the mechanical differences between the various sorts of FTL drives as used by PCs. The extended fluff is more useful for when working with improvisation and nonstandard usages, so it would probably do better in it's own subsection.

The idea is that in the regular course of play, you can access the rules you need rapidly, without having to wade through the detailed descriptions of how they work. By having them in a separate section, they're accessible when they're useful.
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