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Were We Really Looking for "Crunch"?
(9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com)
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this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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"Fluff" always implies "unnecessary" to me - and so I could argue the application of the terms should be reversed. I don't need another rules engine, it's unnecessary padding in the pages of a new game, and instead I need a new game to show me lore, setting and concepts that I've not got to explore (or crunch into) before.
I'm not saying that lore is unnecessary or undesirable. I'm saying that historically, it was never included as part of what counted as "crunch", and at the time was even taken to be its opposite.
I don't think fluff should be considered unnecessary. A teddy-bear without fluff is just an empty bag. In a game, the fluff fills out the world, giving it form. It's needed by both rules heavy and rules lite games. My term for rules lite games is usually "cinematic". In these game, the story and the narrative take precedence over number crunching or rules lawyering, just as movies often ignore what is "real" in favor of what is "cool".
My favorites are when the mechanics are about the story. See combat in Dungeon World for example.
You are still rolling dice, crunching numbers, and rules lawyering (the dice take precedence over all) but you are arguing about what happens, not how much damage someone does/takes.
In those games, the fluff is the crunch and the crunch is the fluff, and most of the time they are one and the same.