Fluff. The blah-blah. Deep lore. Conventional wisdom says that die hard fans always want more lore, so lore might as well be included in a game to show fans that there is a larger world that your game is set in.
The reality is that you are so enamored of your lore that you are forcing it into spaces it doesn't belong. Like inside the game box.
World-building is a good way to set your game in a rich thematic framework. I am a proponent of world-building; I am anti-fluff. When does world-building become fluff? When it is implemented poorly.
The most common forms of fluff are found in lore booklets. At first the player thinks, "More rules I need to learn," only to discover a short story about a game world that the players have not experienced yet. Usually these booklets are in low to medium narrative games, because high narrative games include the narrative in gameplay. The inclusion of this booklet assumes that enough players will care about the backstory of the game to justify the cost of printing it. I'm not convinced that is true, especially if the game is a new property. Most people open a game box to play a game (or learn the rules) not to read a work of short fiction.
Unnecessary fluff becomes more egregious when the events it describes are unconnected to the events of gameplay. If the game is about farming, players don't need a ten page story setting up the socio-political landscape of the world. If the characters are given rich personalities, players may be disappointed if the gameplay is largely abstracted. Lore should feel relevant to the events that occur in the game. Lore should not read like fan fiction of your game.
Fluff enters into ridiculous territories when it assumes a game will do well enough to have sequels or spin-offs (and that those will also do well). Love Letter and the other games in that thematic series (Tempest) suffered from this assumption. Fortunately for Love Letter, it exists well as a standalone game without much fluff. Players should be given time to develop affection for a new property in ways that leave them wanting more. Assuming every world can support a series of games is hubris.
Nomads is notable offender. It comes with a lore booklet. Each character has a bio that has no connection to gameplay. The story feels out of sync with the gameplay. And the game begs multiple times for you to check out a now defunct website for more games and stories in the same world. I like the game, but it is a masterclass on what not to do with fluff.
What are good ways to deploy lore? Lore found in the box should be mechanically relevant. That means any backstory to set the scene probably shouldn't exceed two paragraphs. Further thematic tie-ins should be interspersed in the rules, conventionally in italics, to explain the 'why' of the actions in the game. Flavor text can also appear on cards or the game board. Pillars of the Earth does a good job describing just enough theme to contextualize game play.
Lore should also emerge thru art and mechanics. 'Show don't tell' is a great rule of thumb for board games. Written lore may only serve to increase the cognitive load if done wrong. Don't tell me your character uses a bow staff expertly, show me in the art and mechanics. The more lore you can deploy in the game components (including the art on the components) the shorter your world setting description can be. That's a good thing, because the truth about lore is that most people will skip it.
Lore presented in bits and pieces as you learn and play the game creates an emergent narrative. This can also be true across games in the same universe. None of Ryan Laukat's World of Azrium characters had names until it became mechanically beneficial in Roam. Now, pictures of Sleeping Gods seem to show that trend in lore development continuing. The benefit here is that you are only developing the lore you need for each game as it happens. If you are lucky fans engage with your world then you can develop more. Don't put your cart before the horse. If you really just want to write a novel, consider publishing it online instead of in the game box.
A game is justly criticized for having unnecessary mechanics or components. A good, unified design should contain only elements that support the whole. We must extend that to our lore. Games with just enough lore to function will not restrict the creative development of future games. The lore you build now may not suit your needs for future games. You will be less restricted by it if you don't give players access to all of your world-building.
Good lore should add to the immersion of play. If it doesn't, it doesn't belong in your game.
The reality is that you are so enamored of your lore that you are forcing it into spaces it doesn't belong. Like inside the game box.
World-building is a good way to set your game in a rich thematic framework. I am a proponent of world-building; I am anti-fluff. When does world-building become fluff? When it is implemented poorly.
The most common forms of fluff are found in lore booklets. At first the player thinks, "More rules I need to learn," only to discover a short story about a game world that the players have not experienced yet. Usually these booklets are in low to medium narrative games, because high narrative games include the narrative in gameplay. The inclusion of this booklet assumes that enough players will care about the backstory of the game to justify the cost of printing it. I'm not convinced that is true, especially if the game is a new property. Most people open a game box to play a game (or learn the rules) not to read a work of short fiction.
Unnecessary fluff becomes more egregious when the events it describes are unconnected to the events of gameplay. If the game is about farming, players don't need a ten page story setting up the socio-political landscape of the world. If the characters are given rich personalities, players may be disappointed if the gameplay is largely abstracted. Lore should feel relevant to the events that occur in the game. Lore should not read like fan fiction of your game.
Fluff enters into ridiculous territories when it assumes a game will do well enough to have sequels or spin-offs (and that those will also do well). Love Letter and the other games in that thematic series (Tempest) suffered from this assumption. Fortunately for Love Letter, it exists well as a standalone game without much fluff. Players should be given time to develop affection for a new property in ways that leave them wanting more. Assuming every world can support a series of games is hubris.
Nomads is notable offender. It comes with a lore booklet. Each character has a bio that has no connection to gameplay. The story feels out of sync with the gameplay. And the game begs multiple times for you to check out a now defunct website for more games and stories in the same world. I like the game, but it is a masterclass on what not to do with fluff.
What are good ways to deploy lore? Lore found in the box should be mechanically relevant. That means any backstory to set the scene probably shouldn't exceed two paragraphs. Further thematic tie-ins should be interspersed in the rules, conventionally in italics, to explain the 'why' of the actions in the game. Flavor text can also appear on cards or the game board. Pillars of the Earth does a good job describing just enough theme to contextualize game play.
Lore should also emerge thru art and mechanics. 'Show don't tell' is a great rule of thumb for board games. Written lore may only serve to increase the cognitive load if done wrong. Don't tell me your character uses a bow staff expertly, show me in the art and mechanics. The more lore you can deploy in the game components (including the art on the components) the shorter your world setting description can be. That's a good thing, because the truth about lore is that most people will skip it.
Lore presented in bits and pieces as you learn and play the game creates an emergent narrative. This can also be true across games in the same universe. None of Ryan Laukat's World of Azrium characters had names until it became mechanically beneficial in Roam. Now, pictures of Sleeping Gods seem to show that trend in lore development continuing. The benefit here is that you are only developing the lore you need for each game as it happens. If you are lucky fans engage with your world then you can develop more. Don't put your cart before the horse. If you really just want to write a novel, consider publishing it online instead of in the game box.
A game is justly criticized for having unnecessary mechanics or components. A good, unified design should contain only elements that support the whole. We must extend that to our lore. Games with just enough lore to function will not restrict the creative development of future games. The lore you build now may not suit your needs for future games. You will be less restricted by it if you don't give players access to all of your world-building.
Good lore should add to the immersion of play. If it doesn't, it doesn't belong in your game.
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