The Game Box

Mixed views on this. It gives me something to do, if I'm sitting there waiting for an
opponent to take their turn, or if I'm just looking over the game, but during play,
I generally don't want to be bothered with it. Maybe now and then, if I'm really curious
about something.

I just mentioned this over in the "played recently" thread.

I love flavor text.  When playing multi-player games, I always make people read it out loud.  With Arkham Horror, we also always made everyone read their character profiles before the game.  My view is, it can only enhance the game's narrative.  Only skip it if it's repetitive (duplicate cards and things, for example, that have the same text) - but otherwise, I see it as there for a reason.  We're playing an Arkham Horror game because we like H.P. Lovecraft - so let's enjoy the Lovecraftiness of the game!

Most recent example was playing Relic - WH40K flavor is such lovely, over-the-top crap!

You mean like the stuff that's on CDG cards? Totally inherited from CCGs. Flavor text works for CCGs. I just ignore flavor text on CDG cards, though. Funny, that.

Arkham Horror, of course, is a different story.   ;D

Depends.

When we're playing games where theme is more or less painted on the flavor text does very little for me as it add almost nothing to the experience.

However, we just got done playing a game of Arkham Horror and reading all of the flavor text aloud is just part of the experience. I mean it's just not the same reading an encounter card and going "Luck Check -2, passed, I get two Clue Tokens. Next!".


EDIT: Damn you guys post quick!

I still read it in CDG's, though.  My opponents never do.  I like the little history tidbits.

I had the displeasure once of playing Arkham Horror with a 'maximal efficiency' Euro group - no reading of flavor text, just mechanically motoring through and going for 'optimal play'. It was depressing.

Yeah. That's what convinced me to post. I would HATE hearing every card read out.

I feel the same about both. Like with MtG, I sometimes read my flavor text. Sometimes,
it even bugs me that it's there.

It works for an RPG-like game such as Arkham Horror....that is until you've played the base game so many times that you know all the cards. I guess that's why the expansions are also useful - new and different cards.

Exactly.  As far as I'm concerned, you might as well be playing something about container shipping if you're not going to bother to set the mood for a game like Arkham Horror.

Reading those cards doesn't effect my mood in any good way.

Might explain why AH didn't impress me all that much.

IMHO, you gotta be into the atmosphere of it. Without the atmospherics, it can indeed be a tedious game. The group you're playing with really makes or breaks it.

I got a lot more out of Mansions of Madness, in terms of atmosphere.

Reading all the text in Eldritch Horror really helps with the atmosphere. Mansions of Madness is atmospheric because you have one player that knows the inside details and everyone else is in the dark.

Putting flavor text on the Nemo's War cards was mandatory since I could not guarantee the player had read the book recently (or at all) and I needed to give context for the card effect.

Thumbs up for flavor text!

I think that's right. For me, if the design doesn't evoke the circumstances correctly,
it doesn't matter how much flavor text there is going to be, I'm not going to get there.

Even in RPGs, I cut to the chase of the system - ignoring all the poetry and crap

You must have hated 'Tales of the Arabian Nights'.

Come to think of it, yes, the flavor text works really well in 'Nemo's War'. I really need to pull that out again!  :)

Not really. The flavor text IS the game.  Well, unless you act it out.

Given certain situations that could arise, that would be pretty funny.   :D

Another fun game with that 'act it out' mechanism is Rocky & Bullwinkle.

I can't believe I didn't bring my copy of that up here.

It's probably impossible to act out everything in Tales. Would be fun to watch them try, tho.

The first few times I play a CDG I note the flavour text and how it helps the narrative of the session.

I have found, though, that the more familiar I get with a game, the less I pay attention to it. In particular the PoG-style games which I tend to lean more towards "game" anyway. So that fancy text is subsumed by the fact that the card is a 3 OP or whatever.

I still get a kick out of the flavour text in the COIN series cards though. Go figure.

I find the Amateurs to Arms style of flavor text (in a lookup) to be fine. No need to waste
real-estate on the card. Obviously though, that wouldn't work if it's mood-setting. :D

Yeah, the A2A flavor text is ok since it's quite sparse.

Anything that helps immerse me in the subject of the game and aids in my suspension of disbelief that I'm only playing a game is a good thing in my book. I LOVE flavor text. I also like more conversational style of rulebooks, even if sometimes those styles of rulebooks have more ambiguity present. I play wargames for role-playing purposes much more so than for simply competition. If I'm looking for nothing but optimizing mathematical play, I'm probably playing a Euro or an abstract.   

It's largely in the playbook. There's more detail than can go on a card (and thus more
useful if you want to know) but it doesn't clutter the card. The downside is that I think
some rules notes for the cards are hidden there too. :P

Ooh! That reminds me. Be sure to check this out: A2A official FAQ/errata (http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/92731/ata-official-errata-and-q)

Aw jeeze. The errata's the same, but the QA has gotten much larger.

Original Thread: http://thegamebox.gamesontables.com/index.php?topic=41.0