Fluff, Flavor, and Lore

Everyone has elements of conversation or certain opinions expressed which test their ability to suppress a telltale grimace: points of contention that - most times - are not actually contentious, but more simply a difference of understanding on a community-defined concept. Because everyone loves a good old declarative and opinionated "What Is X" article - here's one of mine: what the difference is between Fluff, Flavor, and Lore in your game and game setting.

Fluff

What is Fluff? Fluff is the cruft that inspires gamists to decry narrativists and world-builders as false gamers, referees intent not to ref a true game, but instead failed novelists attempting to force the players to live through the epic that publishers and readers alike simply weren't on the level to understand.

4,419 years before the current era, Aenarion - protecting Caledor while completing a ritual to disperse the chaos magic sustaining demonic incursions into Uthuan - flew to the Shrine of Khaine upon his dragon mount, Indraugnir, to return the Godslayer to the Black Altar, sacrificing himself and saving the kingdom of the Elves, but simultaneously setting the stage for the Age of Betrayal and civil strife regarding the succession of the Phoenix Kings. [1]

This is an example of Fluff.

Why is that? Is it bad writing? No - quite the opposite: this is a great story which draws on classic themes and archetypes - the hero and the fall; honor and hubris; sacrifice and betrayal. What makes it Fluff is that it will never come up in game. Does the fall of Aenarion change how many retainers the party is bringing along for their trek into the wilds? No. Sure, the presence of evil Elves in an area would - you would, in the presence of a hostile enemy, most assuredly hire more mercenaries to protect you, bring supplies to deal with the wiles of the enemy (in the case of evil Elves, perhaps magical defenses and countermeasures to concealment and surprise) - but that's not Lore; that's not Flavor: that's weighting on a wilderness encounter table entry. It doesn't matter what happened 4,419 years ago to cause those elves to be evil - only that they are evil presently, in the aforementioned circumstance.

Story like that - expository history - has a place in world-building: but unless your players are actively reading your Encyclopedia Yourworldica, doing a text-dump on them will take them out of the moment, detract from the game experience, and possibly derail the tone or atmosphere while the players take notes (or drift off), pretending to be back in school again at the lecture hall.

To put it more politely, this kind of writing does have a place in the industry - but that place is in a novel, in a short story, in a setting wiki where its purpose is better served: not at the table.

Flavor

What is Flavor? Flavor is - in the context of an RPG - a short, often pithy or evocative text or image the purpose of which is to color or inform otherwise textbook material in keeping with the theme or tone of the material in question. Flavor is best used - hence its name - as a spice: to keep the reader's palate interested while discussing mechanics or concepts: which keeps the reader engrossed by providing structural and syntactic variation, helps the material to stick by creating a mnemonic mechanism, and maintains the atmosphere being created through its imagery.

What is the difference between Flavor and Fluff? Fluff adds no value other than color to the world. Flavor has meaning. Flavor serves no purpose other than to showcase how deeply the author has considered their setting. Flavor informs the game. (The same might be said of actual creative writing: that is, wherein Flavor would inform the narrative or help shape the reader's perspective in order to understand the narrative - but such is immaterial to the current discussion and gaming context.)

When looking for an example of Flavor, one needs look no further than Monster descriptions. Consider the following from the 1981 Expert set regarding Blink Dogs:

Blink dogs look like Australian wild dogs. They are highly intelligent, travel in packs, and use a limited teleportation ability: they can "blink out" of one spot and immediately appear ("blink in") at another. When attacking, they "blink" close to an enemy, attack, and then reappear 10 to 40 feet away. On any round in which they have the initiative, they can attack without risking a counterattack by the defender, by "blinking" away. Their instincts prevent blink dogs from "blinking" into solid objects. If seriously threatened, an entire pack will "blink" out and not reappear. Blink dogs always attack displacer beasts, their natural enemies. [2]

What makes this Flavor and not Fluff - or just rules? Admittedly, in the text, there are rules - the description section being used to clarify how, mechanically, the creature works. However, looking closer reveals several key Flavor qualities:

1. It is short. The text is short enough that the reader - presumably the referee - can parse it quickly, even potentially parsing it at the table, encountering the creature in an unprepared wandering monster encounter. This separates it from Lore, which would normally be longer form or longer in explanation, as detailed below.
2. It colors the subject. A real-world analogy is created to describe the creature - providing a basis for the appearance and behavior of the monster. This enables the players to picture the creature - or allows the referee to draw on that mental picture for descriptions of the creature to the players - and helps to create the visualization.
   
3. It informs the game. The paragraph discusses the way that the creature engages with the players and engages with the world. The paragraph provides no information that will not come up at the table: including tactics, appearance, and even a relationship with another creature in the book.
4. It creates (or reinforces) a mnemonic. The "blink" monster uses its "blink" ability! While there are spells that imitate the same effect the Blink Dog makes use of as its primary combat and escape mechanism, the text does not reference a spell: instead, it describes the ability and provides a quick mechanism that will help the reader (and the players) to remember how the creature works when working with one in play.
   

This under consideration, the description of a Blink Dog - or most monsters, truthfully, though Blink Dog is under scrutiny here - represents a good example of Flavor and how it can be applied to enhance the game, both in reading and in playing.

Lore

What is Lore? Lore is - in the context of an RPG - longer text, but not necessarily long form, the purpose of which is to elucidate larger world-building, to expose the players to the deeper elements of the milieu, to the end of informing player decision making. Lore is best injected into the campaign as needed - that is, composed in part or wholesale beforehand, but presented to the game in paragraph sized chunks or - even better - in consistent, iterative but not oppressive game events - such that the players understand it, consider it, and retain it, building their ability to understand and interact with the wider world.

In a recent conversation with an internet friend, said friend describing to me his return to in-person gaming, mentioned to me that his acting party was a mixed group: not in terms of characters or character races, but in terms of players - some of the players were veterans of his campaigns past; others were not. Delving into the dungeon, several rooms in, the party came across a skeleton bearing a bejeweled dagger - as is wont of players, the neophyte reached to retrieve it, but in that moment, the sourdough grasped his hand - be wary of items held in the possession of the dead - they often come with curses!

Did the tyro take it, and was it after all cursed? 

Oh absolutely - to both. 

But this is an absolutely brilliant example of lore and to the best way to introduce and ingrain that lore into a campaign world. Part of his milieu is that the dead carry curses with them - and robbing the dead is akin to signing on the dotted line to grasp that monkey's paw: he did not tell the players this, they simply experienced it, and in subsequent games, when the theme was reinforced, character by character and instance by instance, they developed a tribal knowledge among the players that to steal from the dead is an affront to those departed ancestors: something that must be done only with care and in a state of absolute necessity. The lore existed in the background before they experienced it - it remained in the background while they experienced it - and it would remain whether they wrote it down and passed it to future generations of players, regardless. 

That's how you do lore. In small, consistent chunks; hinting at the bigger picture - empowering the players to either take it to heart or not: and benefit (or suffer) accordingly.

Should This Affect My Writing?

The terminology? Probably not. The concepts? I think so - yes.

Consider when presenting information - either in a game, in a game product, in fiction, or in conversation - that the purpose of language is to communicate ideas. If the words being used to communicate the idea don't further understanding of the idea, if the text being written fail to form and frame the idea in the mind's eye of the reader, then the words are likely the wrong words to be using.

At the same time, while it is true that it's not always about the destination - but about the journey by which we reach it - in the context of a game session or game campaign, the journey is the destination: the journey is not what happens along the way, the journey is the collective experience of cataloging what happens: the emergence of the emergent story. The same can be said of most fiction - when you watch a movie, you don't fast forward to the end to see how it wraps up: you experience the full length as it unravels - but that's another rambling.

And Them's My Two Coppers.

Delve on, readers!

 

Citations and Fair Use Disclaimer

Public domain artwork retrieved from OldBookIllustrations.com and cropped for use. Attributions in alt text.

Screen captures of term definitions retrieved from the Merriam Webster online dictionary, copyright 2021 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated; a subsidiary of Encyclopædia Britannica, Incorporated; with adaptation to some captures, themselves, to highlight the relevant definition. Definitions included for reference and elucidatory purpose.

[1] Aenarion, Caledor, Khaine, and et cetera are intellectual property of Games Workshop and the respective authors of Black Library titles and codices from which the lore is derived and is included in this article for illustrative, educational purposes. Aforementioned lore retrieved and referenced from Warhammer Fantasy Fandom, provided under Creative Commons: Share Alike. Section cited is paraphrased - it is not a direct, block quote - for the interest of margin.

[2] Bink Dog descriptive text quoted from Dungeons & Dragons Expert Rulebook:

Cook, D., & Marsh, S. (1980). Dungeons & Dragons: Fantasy Adventure Game - Expert Rulebook (1st Edition). TSR Hobbies.

Blink Dog, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, and et cetera are intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast L.L.C., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Incorporated, and are governed by the Wizards of the Coast Open Game License, Version 1.0a.