Story & Mechanics Intergration

Submitted by Chainsaw Aardvark on Sun, 2006-11-26 06:25. Design

I'm worried about layout here mostly. Should the fluff come first, and then the crunch second, or vice versa? Perhaps the two should be interspaced - say notes about the characters and technology first, then character creation, followed by notes about society, then the combat rules etc.

One of my projects features a continuous story of a character talking to the reader, with rules and so forth as either parenthetical remarks, side bars, or pulled out sections (ie gray background italics between two paragraphs) However, this has been quite on and off since I'm not sure if it would word.

As a second concern - how closely should the story and mechanics intertwine. Is story there to illustrate the mythology of the world, or is it grounded in what characters are really capable of?

Wether one should have the fluff writen, then adapt rules to it, or adapt story to system is more of a left/right brain thing I think. Then again, I seem to have started with mechanics ideas first a number of times, despite being a very right brained individual.

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All is good

Submitted by Gentleman John on Sun, 2006-11-26 13:56.

There are advantages and disadvantages to all these approaches. Personally, my favourite is to put a lot of the fluff upfront and then tag the rules on afterwards. Castle Fakenstein worked nicely this way, and so did a lot of the WoD products. It gives the players/ref an idea of what they're getting into and sets the scene.

If the rules are going to be a bit "heavy", then do put fluff in amongst them. I have found the old G3e layout to be a bit confusing at times (particularly when the fluff is good, but the subject matter is essential), but it was a life saver in Far Trader. I almost gave up on the rules for trade mechanics, except for the fluff that gave good examples of what was going on.

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Aberrant

Submitted by SheikhJahbooty on Sun, 2006-11-26 17:32.

I'm going to have to disagree with my estemed collegue.

I think the Storyteller system is too complicated, so I was a bit taken aback when White Wolf decided to put all the fluff up front. I especially remember how difficult Aberrant was to get through.

And now there's d20 Aberrant, with all the feats and prestige classes. Argh! I would desperately need fluff to space it out so I could have even the slightest hope of remembering all this stuff.

I thought the system for SLA Industries was simple enough, and I very much liked the fluff all up front for this game.

I think the only game I've seen where the rules are presented from a character's point of view was Tales from the Floating Vagabond. I suppose its easy to break the fourth wall in a comedic context. I would be interested to see someone try to do it in a serious way.

As far as what comes first, rules or story, its usually story for me. What do I want the players to be able to do? Does the system support that? Will I need a bunch of house rules (or a different system)?

But I admit that I also have come up with a cool bit of rule crunchiness and thought, "Wow, I could use this to tell these types of stories."

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Adventure

Submitted by Gentleman John on Mon, 2006-11-27 15:26.

I never read Aberrant, so I can't comment on the quality of the writing (which I think may be the problem, rather than having the writing up front)m however I did think Adventure and Changeling were two very good examples from the WW lines of putting fluff first.

Alright, I am a great fan of the pulps (or as much as I could get hold of here in the UK), so maybe I'm biased. However, the pieces of fiction in Adventure hit the spot, as did the opening fiction in Changeling. The best example of it, though, is still Castle Falkenstein.

As for SLA - well, my opinion on that particular piece of gaming history is "all furcoat and no knickers": in other words, nice looking fluff, but I don't get the hype.

So, put the fluff first: yes! But make sure it is damn good fluff. As the Sheikh says, usually story comes first. Generic-setting rules are only good if you have an idea you want to wrap around them.

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