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Get your fluff out of my fight! (and other issues...)


Hysteria
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Not sure if this topic has been made before (it probably has) but I've been apart of the roleplay community long enough to dabble in all sorts of genre's, and something I've noticed about most forums has begun to bug me. Why do the "fighting-based" forums never have any actual fighting in them? I'm a supporter of fluff threads and dramatic plots and other cool thriller-esque environments, but even then the forums not based on slice of life sure do have a lot of slice of life in them. In fact, I'd say %90 of forums based on something combat/mystery/supernatural related has far more fluff than it should.

 

Granted, that isn't to say fluff shouldn't be allowed...i just feel that a genre should depict a board. You join a setting to get something. If I join a forum based on a romantic Slice of Life/Fluff style I don't want to see every thread containing a late 90's anime fight scene after every three posts. It's just...for lack of better terms, immersion breaking. So why do I see the opposite of this whenever I join a mystery-based forum, or the more blatant Apocalyptic forum that's supposed to be riddled with danger and raiders and other epic fight-worthy things? Why in a Hunger Games forum am I seeing happy district members munching on bread instead of doing whatever they can to get a meal, or to survive? Perhaps this is a problem that only I've seen, or bothered to speak up about. Perhaps everyone likes writing fluff and only has the more dangerous element to a forum for convenience sake to seem more "edgy" than their counterparts (*sarcasm*).

 

Whatever the case may be, I'd like to see a forum that is as it's described for once.

What do you guys think? Am I being over dramatic here?

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When I'm looking to join a board I'm worried about the stories I want to tell, with the characters I write. I honestly don't read enough of anyone else's threads to know if the board is mostly fluff, or if its adhering to my ideals of what the genre should showcase.

In the big scheme of things, genre is basically just a larger term for setting. If I only want to dedicate the few hours I get to spend on my hobby writing the fluffy shit, then I will. It doesn't mean those character's don't have terrible moments, or get into fights, or face whatever antagonistic elements the setting contains. It just means the person writing that character is writing what makes them happy.  If you want to see more of the fighting, then write more of it. Let people tell the story they want to tell and write the one you want to tell. Just because the world is going to hell around a character doesn't mean they need to suffer. Those elements that make a setting dangerous are there so that people can play them if they want to, but they also make all the fluffy moments sweeter.  

 

Also, I came here because I thought this would be about trying to squish characters into a ship when all they want to do is hate one another. :x 

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I write tons of fluff. 8D

 

...Because it makes the risky, dangerous, heartbreaking stuff so much better.

 

I like build up. I love, love, love slow burns. I also love pulling the rug out from under my characters right when life has gotten comfortable.

 

Danger doesn't feel dangerous to me unless I care about the characters and their relationships first. There needs to be a bond, there needs to be an idea of what's important to the characters and why losing it would be devastating. As a result, a TON of my threads seem really fluffy. 8D But that's because I like to take my time instead of rushing straight for the action, because when stuff gets painful, I want it to hurt.

 

So, idk! I don't judge what other people are doing. Maybe they like fluff? I love fluff. And maybe they also use fluff as a foundation upon which they're building a much larger story. Those sweet, fluffy scenes of Hunger Games citizens eating sweets and having fun together despite the bleak setting might make it more of a kick to the gut when/if one of those characters gets drafted into the Games. Y'know? I guess what I'm saying is I don't assume that a game labeling itself as X type of game is ALL X TYPE OF GAME 24/7. There has to be more to it than that to break it up, otherwise it'd get boring and also lead to some pretty anticlimactic stories.

 

 

Edited by Viscount Rhi-Rhi
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Alot people probably roleplay for the fluff, with anything dramatic in place to further heighten the fluff. Romance is fun. I won't deny that it isn't. Fluff is fun too. Neither should be looked down upon.

 

However, the world your character exists in ought to inform the balance of light/dark. Any writer worth their salt is fully aware that you need shades of light and dark to make both matter. A story that is entirely 'dark' is (in my books) just as dull as one that is entirely 'light.' But depending on the forum and speaking in broad strokes, one should be more dominant than the other, because that's the world and circumstances that your character exists in.

 

Ignoring the world? Say, writing a plot that is primarily written in shades of light with the dark being sparodic, on a forum where the theme is say, existential horror, is immersion breaking and makes me wonder if the RPer actually paid attention to what the admin was trying to achieve. I truly do wish RPers would consider what the overall theme/mood of the forum is before jumping in. Because that aspect might prove as important to you as ensuring that the rules are something that upholds your RP values. If what you want thematically is in conflict with what the admin wants thematically, chances are, you're both not going to enjoy yourselves.

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I most agree with @Kit the Human and @Dragon

 

I want to add though, that a decent portion of the time, the fluff threads are what RPers use to get to know another writer that they aren't familiar with. Very few people are willing to trust the lives(in some cases) of their PC to another player if they aren't comfortable or know that other RPer well first. So the fluff threads are like a First Date, and then the 50 Shades of Bondage freakshow comes in after both RPers have gotten comfortable with one another. 

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On 9/24/2018 at 7:35 PM, Jones said:

Also, I came here because I thought this would be about trying to squish characters into a ship when all they want to do is hate one another. :x 

 

That's actually something else I'd seen, but I haven't seen it enough to feel like talking about it. Most of the time if someone wants a ship with a character that hates their's, I figure out a way around it to make their dynamic more amusing than anything else. Frenemies are the best types of dynamics in some cases, especially when a writer knows how to be catty. 

 

 

@CovertSphinx @Kit the Human @Viscount Rhi-Rhi @Dragon

As for what was said above I feel like clarifying something: Fluff is fun, it's perfectly "acceptable" in situations and all that, and I'm not entirely against it. I think my problem is that I involve myself too much in threads generally speaking, reading them or writing in them. The point of roleplay is to create and enjoy each others stories (at least to me). I understand that fluff is much "easier" to write and for some people might even be more "fun" but I also think that fluff and fluff alone is just boring. A dramatic thread with fluffy moments is far more entertaining to read than a thread only about drinking coffee.

 

For example I had a thread with an rp partner a couple years ago where her character was dealing with some serious family issues; someone died, other family members kicked her out, her boyfriend cheated on her, pretty rough stuff. She was on the verge of some very poor decisions, and while she was in the middle of making a drastic life choice (not gonna say what since I don't want to "trigger" anyone) my character stepped in and offered her some coffee and advice. It was super sweet, charmingly fluffy, and at times full of tension.

 

It was, in my opinion, what a "fluff" thread should be. I guess what I'm getting to is fluff should not equate to "lifeless". There should be some semblance of the genre or story in it. Know what I mean?

Edited by Hysteria
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I think I getcha, Hysteria.

 

"Fluff" to me is not happy, feel good, gooshy, romantic writing...as it seems some people in this thread are referring to with the term. I feel secure saying that most rpers enjoy a level of that kind of "feel good, happy, floofy" writing, at least from time to time. I largely prefer to write more serious and dark themes, and generally stay away from Slice of Life or really foofy threads. But, even my most villainous, dreary, creepy characters have had their own lil' happy, feel good threads. 

 

To me, "fluff" refers to writing or threads in which nothing happens. Not always literally nothing, but sometimes...literally nothing. Characters just sitting...and staring...doing nothing... When I say "fluff," I mean those kinds of threads where characters are essentially talking over food or drinks, and the conversation amounts to no more than small talk or...broken, awkward questions and basic, short answers... That stilted rp conversation of two characters trying to get to know one another, but the players don't seem into it or the character cannot be bothered to care. Something is askew and both parties are just writing the same blank post over and over with, maybe, a tiny bit of pointless dialogue. That empty, time-wasting nothingness is "fluff" to me.

 

I would say your thread of your character giving the other character advice over coffee was not a "fluff" thread. You say the thread had tension, so I assume serious and important topics were discussed between the characters, perhaps giving the other person some ideas or direction of what to do with their character during that hardship, and I imagine the characters grew a lil' closer by the end of the thread. Stuff happened.  Meaningful, if perhaps not ground shatteringly dramatic or serious or dark or genre-defining, stuff happened. So...not fluff.

 

I personally find fluff to be exhausting and frustrating in just how boring and...soul-sucking it is to read or write. I do my damnedest to not write fluff and avoid rpers an' rps that primarily are fluffy nowadays. I have flaked on so many forums that are fluffy when there should have been "fight" in terms of the game's genre. Like, semi-specific example, a supernatural site staged around a turf war between vampires and werewolves. I could get down on that, but when I discover that all the vampires are interested in is looking pretty while talking about themselves over drinks...and the werewolves are all doing the same, but over food instead of in shadowy bars... I bail out because...I joined for a turf war and the drama therein, not this pointless fluff. The game shouldn't be all war n' bloodshed n' chaos, but...it should have something other than basic slice of life stuff you can get anywhere...

 

I have only every found one rp in which there was almost no fluff, and was exactly what it promised to be. There were mechanisms in place that simultaneously discouraged time-wasting fluff, encouraged meaningful threads and action, and also reinforced the genre and themes of the game. There were still happy-go-lucky floofy threads, just as much as there were dark, brooding, or bloody threads. But there were barely any nothing threads, an' I had a blast.

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1 hour ago, Kajes said:

When I say "fluff," I mean those kinds of threads where characters are essentially talking over food or drinks, and the conversation amounts to no more than small talk or...broken, awkward questions and basic, short answers...

 

Ah to me, and I think most rpers 'Fluff' is feel good writing. What you are describing is generally called 'Filler' or sometimes 'Fodder'. It's there to take up space. It doesn't amount to anything plot wise, if it servers any purpose at all it is just to highlight the dynamic between characters, or to showcase a particular aspect of personality. There's nothing wrong with those threads, but I don't tend to make those. If it's heading in that direction I write something more exciting happening. 

 

I'm still of my original opinion thought, that you write the story you want to write. The best way to see more of the 'fight' is to write it. Lead by example, take the first plunge, *insert a bunch of other appropriate proverbs here*.

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