flavor text

plural flavor texts · alternative flavour text · alternative flavortext · alternative flavourtext

1. countableuncountablecard gamesText printed on a card or within the rulebook of a tabletop game or a menu in a video game which does not affect the game's mechanics, but gives background information on characters, places, etc. to enhance the game's atmosphere.

   In the old days of Magic the Gathering, the flavor text was almost all serious, sometimes even with quotes from Shakespeare or Edgar Allen Poe thrown in.

   2008, Game Developer, Volume 15, Issues 7-11, unknown page

   2 more examples

   One reason why cards are now much more popular, and dice less, in tabletop games is that cards can include colorful, varied, interesting illustrations and brief “flavor text.”

   2012, Lewis Pulsipher, Game Design: How to Create Video and Tabletop Games, Start to Finish, McFarland & Company, published 2012, →ISBN, page 129

   The metaphysical taxonomy of reality in magic systems occurs to varying degrees of depth, ranging from flavor text in small or large amounts (the backs of Magic: The Gathering cards exemplify short flavor text, while the codexes/codices in Dragon Age contain more elaborate philosophical ruminations) to deep integration with gameplay.

   2014, Jeff Howard, Game Magic: A Designer's Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice, CRC Press, published 2014, →ISBN, page 104