History Main / FlavorText

* ''James Earnest's Totally Renamed Spy Game'' ([[ScrewedByTheLawyers formerly known as]] ''Before I Kill You [[Film/JamesBond Mr. Bond]]'') features color text on every card, but the Taunt cards are particularly notable. For game purposes, only the lettered type of each card matters, but each Taunt card features a different example of BondVillainStupidity, such as: "Before I kill you, [[BlandNameProduct Mister Spy]]... I shall force you to draft a confession of your own incompetence using that ordinary-looking pen."

* ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'' introduces an interesting spin to this trope. Originally, flavor text in ''Elder Tales'' items were strictly decorative with no effects on normal gameplay, but when [[TheGameComeToLife the game became reality]]:

* Most ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' games show a short blurb describing Kirby's current [[PowerCopying Copy Ability]] when the game is paused. More recent entries also give a description of each boss if you pause while fighting them, often providing some interesting plot details.

* ''TabletopGame/GURPS'' featured the odd bit of flavor text from the first, but Fourth Edition supplements have made a habit of it, with half-page snippets of relevant fiction at the top of most chapters.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Chaotic}}'': Some cards have this, and the text can range from a simple joke to revealing lore not even found in the show. Some of the notable ones are hinting at a secret connection between [[ArchEnemy Intress and Takinom]] and Rarran being a creation of Mommark.

* ''TabletopGame/GraveRobbersFromOuterSpace'': Many cards have flavor text, often a LampshadeHanging of the trope the card is based on ("Why does the king even trust this guy" on an EvilVizier) or at least a {{Pun}} about it ("What's a crossbow? Like a regular bow, but angrier.").
* ''James Earnest's Totally Renamed Spy Game'' ([[ScrewedByTheLawyers formerly known as]] ''Before I Kill You [[Film/JamesBond Mr. Bond]]'') features color text on every card, but the Taunt cards are particularly notable. For game purposes, only the lettered type of each card matters, but each Taunt card features a different example of BondVillainStupidity, such as: "Before I kill you, [[BlandNameProduct Mister Spy]]... I shall force you to draft a confession of your own incompetence using that ordinary-looking pen."

* The fixed deck superhero card game ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' has flavor text at the bottom of almost every card in the form of quotes from the various in-universe comics that the various characters come from. Each quote is relevant to the card it's on, the art of which usually represents a comic panel or cover.

*** Fish and Frog: Together [[TheyFightCrime they barely fight crime]] at all.

** [[https://scryfall.com/card/tor/36/deep-analysis Deep Analysis]] shows two researchers observing a recumbent monster and commenting on how it appears to be broken (i.e., damaged and lifeless). The monster is a [[https://scryfall.com/card/uds/134/masticore Masticore]], a creature card known for having been noticeably broken (i.e., overpowered to a degree that affect game balance).

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': Flavor text appears only on Normal Monster cards. PlayedForLaughs with one version of Alligator's Sword, one of [[BrooklynRage Joey Wheeler's]] monsters; the text is written with his FunetikAksent.

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has a lot of these, both in regards to items and monsters, including a description of practically every monster by what it smells like. The most prominent and {{memetic|Mutation}} flavor text though, is the one against the final boss of the [[KillEmAll Genocide Route]]:

[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory Cool story bro, but what's its firing pattern?]]-] ]]

Flavor Text is regularly found in [[MonsterCompendium Monster Compendia]], {{Pamphlet Shel|f}}ves and [[VideoGameItemsAndInventory inventory items]]; they sometimes take the form of an EncyclopediaExposita. See also ExpandedUniverse, where the flavor text forms entire works, and DayOldLegend, where the flavor text contradicts the fact that the item was recently made.

[[folder:Collectible Card Games]]
* Every card in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' CCG had flavour text, containing either an in-universe quote from the series, information from [[AllThereInTheManual official guides and associated info texts]], or (in some rare AlternateUniverse cards) postulations on [[ForWantOfANail how things could have gone different]].
* Appears at times in ''TabletopGame/DuelMasters''. Partway through the game's English release, Wizards of the Coast began to change some of the cards' text to match the GagDub nature of the show.
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has a lot, usually tied to each set's story. Flavor texts are also used to link together a series of cards, like the cycle of Temples in the Theros set, or as part of some meta-joke (e.g. Deep Analysis vs. Masticore, Lotus Petal vs. Black Lotus). Some examples are:
** Dark Confidant:
---> "Greatness, at any cost"
** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74262 Double Header]]: Self-referential:

* The ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'' CCG has flavor text below the illustration for each card, oftentimes a quote from the show. Hilariously, one of Kurenai's cards has text that is talking about Sasuke being the only surviving member of the Uchiha clan, potentially misleading some to think that ''she'''s part of the clan.

* In the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' TCG, flavor text appears only on Normal Monster cards. PlayedForLaughs with one version of Alligator's Sword, one of [[BrooklynRage Joey Wheeler's]] monsters; the text is written with his FunetikAksent.

* In ''TabletopGame/CosmicEncounter'', each alien card has both crunch (what the alien's power actually does in game terms) and fluff (usually a statement about the history or philosophy of each race that attempts to explain either ''why'' or ''how'' it breaks the rules in that particular way).
* The rulebook of each ''TabletopGame/{{Dominion}}'' set begins with a [[DeadpanSnarker drily humorous]] description of the situation that is thematically represented in the new cards. For example, the ''Dominion: Dark Ages'' flavor text begins:

* In ''TabletopGame/GraveRobbersFromOuterSpace'', many cards have flavor text, often a LampshadeHanging of the trope the card is based on ("Why does the king even trust this guy" on an EvilVizier) or at least a {{Pun}} about it ("What's a crossbow? Like a regular bow, but angrier.").

* The VendorTrash in ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoonSaga'' has surprisingly detailed descriptions which have no real effect on game play. Except the [[GuideDangIt Telepathy Scope]].

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has no relation with]] [[ThisBillboardNeedsSomeSalt edible text]].

Compare AltText, a mouse-over caption that supplements an internet image, and ArtificialAtmosphericActions for the NPC behavior equivalent. TenuouslyConnectedFlavorText is a sub-trope for when the name of an item and its flavor text are not clearly related.

* An ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]]'' strip in ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' featured a character who claimed that ''ignoring'' flavor text was the key to true peace. He didn't do ''anything'' that wasn't required by the rules; so since dirt didn't have any mechanical effect he didn't bathe, since there were no rules specifying that characters got sleepy, he only slept when hit by a [[StandardStatusEffects magical effect]] (if he'd been a magic user, he'd also have done so when he wanted to recharge his spells), and he ate a revolting gruel once every two weeks, because the rules said that if he didn't he'd starve but didn't specify any other effects of not eating.

* ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'': The in-game Battle Memory has flavor text descriptions of each enemy you've met.

%% * ''VideoGame/MinecraftDungeons'': Items have those. They either provide a little bit of lore behind the item, or explain how the item is used.

* ''Franchise/{{Drakengard}}'': Each entry has some for its weapons:
** ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' has a short story for each of its 65 weapons:
*** Apostate's Misery: Poleaxe:
---->Level 1: There was once a wind spirit who fell in love with a mortal man. Though it was against all the laws of her race, each day she allowed her love and passion to grow.\\
Level 2: The spirit was condemned to death for the betrayal of her race. The Lord of Spirits sent vassals to carry out the sentence, armed with a bardiche enchanted to slay spirits.\\
Level 3: Sensing that her life was in danger, the spirit made one last visit to the man she loved, then fled through the forests and seas and mountains, pursued all the while by her would-be executioners.\\
Level 4: Some years later, a healthy young boy was seen playing around the village. This remarkable boy could control the very winds. His father never told him who his mother was...
*** Butcher's Joy: Cleaver (Sword):
---->Level 1: Juices oozing from tender, succulent flesh, the sweet aroma of fine herbs... The master cook made dishes of meat that none in the city could resist.\\
Level 2: Every day, customers lined up outside his inn, waiting for their chance to partake. Even the king himself would sneak down from his castle to sample the master's art.\\
Level 3: But once he entered his kitchen, the smiling cook's face would grow stern. The meat he used was no ordinary meat...\\
Level 4: The years passed, and the cook and his inn disappeared from the town. But his cleaver remains as gleaming and sharp as ever, waiting for its next master.
** ''Drakengard 2'':
*** Apostate's Misery: Poleaxe:
---->Level 1: The young man was popular with everyone in the village. He had the ability to control the wind, and was often seen flying over rivers and valleys. He was a cheerful boy, though he always seemed be troubled by something.\\
Level 2: Several years later, his father passed away. Before he died, he told his son about the young man's mother, whom his son had learned never to mention in his presence.\\
Level 3: "Go to the place marked on the map." said his father. As if guided by a spirit, the young man took up his scythe and left, carried by the wind.\\\
How long had he been travelling? Over the forests, oceans and mountain Ranges he flew. Exhausted and frail, He came at last to a village.\\
Level 4: The chief of the village welcomed the young man and told him that the scythe he was carrying had once belonged to the village. Just then, a beautiful woman entered the room. The young man knew at once that she was his mother. From that day forth, he helped keep peace between humans and wind spirits. The scythe was never used again.
** ''VideoGame/Drakengard3'':
*** Zero's Blade:
---->Effective against Intoners. It levels up as your dragon grows.
*** Sinful Scream:
---->An executioner's sword that passes merciless judgement on the sinful.

Compare AltText, a mouse-over caption that supplements an internet image, and ArtificialAtmosphericActions for the NPC behavior equivalent.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series, ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'', ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' and ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'', have multiple items with red flavor text, which are usually an indicator that the item is some of the game's better loot. All items with flavor text also have at least one unique effect or property, as well. For example, the Fremington's Edge sniper rifle has the text "I can see my house from here!", indicating its enhanced zoom. How long-ranged? Most sniper rifles have a zoom of between 4x and 6x zoom. The Fremington's Edge has a zoom of ''[[UpToEleven 11x]]''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' has the Collectopaedia, in which you can register items scattered throughout the gameworld. With how [[WordSalad weird]] some of the collectible names are, this is the only hint as to what a lot of them even are in the first place. This feature returns in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' along with the new [[MonsterCompendium Enemy Index]], which contains a short bio for each type of enemy, giving some insight into the life-cycle of many of Mira's indigenous species and the culture of some of the alien races.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'' have multiple items with red flavor text, which are usually an indicator that the item is some of the game's better loot. All items with flavor text also have at least one unique effect or property, as well. For example, the Fremington's Edge sniper rifle has the text "I can see my house from here!", indicating its enhanced zoom. How long-ranged? Most sniper rifles have a zoom of between 4x and 6x zoom. The Fremington's Edge has a zoom of ''[[UpToEleven 11x]]''.