Flavor text is

text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...

for

action figure An action figure is a poseable character (arts), character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are ...

character backgrounds,

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...

s, or within the pages of a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

rulebook Sports The Laws of the Game may refer to the codified rules of a number of different sports: *Laws of the Game (association football) *Laws of Australian rules football * Bandy Playing Rules * Rules of chess *Laws of cricket *Laws of rugby leagu ...

. While appropriate to the product's or game's story concept, it usually has no effect on the

mechanics Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to objects r ...

of the game, but instead serves to add realism or characterization to the item in question. Flavor text is often the last text on a card or on the rear of a toy card or package, and is usually printed in

italics In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed tex ...

or written between quotes to distinguish it from game-affecting text.

Background

Flavor text was popularized by the dossiers of 1980s toys, primarily

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), Ac ...

filecards and

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...

tech-specs, but is now more commonly associated with games such as ''

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...

''. The term itself was coined by the production manager at Wizards of the Coast in early 1993 during the production of it.

Format

In most cases, the flavor text attempts to add depth or background to the item, providing a form of context. This helps to establish the universe to which the item belongs. Flavor text can also be a

quotation A quotation is the repetition of a sentence, phrase, or passage from speech or text that someone has said or written. In oral speech, it is the representation of an utterance (i.e. of something that a speaker actually said) that is introduced by ...

, such as from related media (e.g., ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' movie quotes on a ''Star Wars'' card) or from literature. Some ''Magic: The Gathering'' cards' flavor text comes from

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

sources such as

Shakespeare's plays Shakespeare's plays are a canon of approximately 39 dramatic works written by English poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare. The exact number of plays—as well as their classifications as Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy, Shakespearean ...

and poetry. A unique spin on flavor text in a card game can be seen in the long-lived ''

Star Wars Customizable Card Game ''Star Wars: Customizable Card Game'' (''SW:CCG'') is an out-of-print customizable card game based on the '' Star Wars'' fictional universe. It was created by Decipher, Inc., which also produced the ''Star Trek Customizable Card Game'' and ''T ...

''. Many cards with flavor text also include special

keyword Keyword may refer to: Computing * Keyword (Internet search), a word or phrase typically used by bloggers or online content creator to rank a web page on a particular topic * Index term, a term used as a keyword to documents in an information syste ...

s (such as Spy, Hologram, or Bounty Hunter) that can be ''spotted'' by other cards for bonuses or penalties. The flavor text on character cards is also one of the few ways of distinguishing that character's

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

(which is an important factor in most decks). The video game series ''

Borderlands A borderland or borderlands are the geographical space or zone around a territorial border. Borderland or borderlands may refer to: Places * Borderland, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in Mingo County, West Virginia * Borderland (ele ...

'' contains weapons and other items with flavor text which hint to the item's hidden ability, such as restoring health equal to damage output.

In puzzles

The term "flavor text" may also refer to a blurb describing or offering clues to a

puzzle A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...

. This is most frequently seen in puzzles which are non-traditional, lacking literal instructions on how to solve them. Part of the challenge for such puzzles is determining the solving method, which is often non-obvious and can involve cutting and folding paper, deciphering shapes or patterns using

braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

, substituting rhyming words, etc. The flavor text for such puzzles, unlike the flavor text for card games, often provides crucial hints at the approach to take. The hints may be thickly veiled, but can not easily be ignored. A common and well-known occurrence of flavor text in the context of puzzles is the title of

crossword A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answ ...

s. Most crosswords have a theme, and the title often hints at what the theme is. The puzzle can be solved without figuring out the theme, but knowing the theme often expedites the solving process.

References

{{reflist Collectible card games Puzzles

Background

Format

In puzzles

See also

References