Climbing the Third Stair

I think this probably depends on the fandom--specifically, on the audience that fandom attracts. I don't mind reading fanfic that is basically pr0n, but I frequently want to read things where people blow each other up. A fandom where there are strong possible character pairings is going to attract the shippers, which is why I don't look in Buffy for fic that is overwhelmingly about tactics rather than who's doing whom. (That, and Buffy sucks at tactics, although you'd think this would inspire some fix-its.) On the other hand, I've had some small success finding Warhammer 40k fics about people blowing stuff up, and also Battletech fic seems overwhelmingly to be about mechwarriors blowing stuff up, and if relationships come into it it's more of the "having a family as a soldier is hard" variety or "we're soldiers that respect each other but on opposite sides" variety than the "let's have lots of angsty sex" variety. (In fact, I should get to reading more Battletech fic so I can have some recs for you.)