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Flavor Text

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Calandale
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« Reply #15 on: July 25, 2014, 10:27:30 pm »

. Mansions of Madness is atmospheric because you have one player that knows the inside details and everyone else is in the dark.


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
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usrlocal
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« Reply #16 on: July 25, 2014, 10:35:20 pm »

. Mansions of Madness is atmospheric because you have one player that knows the inside details and everyone else is in the dark.


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'.
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« Reply #17 on: July 25, 2014, 10:38:51 pm »

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!

Come to think of it, yes, the flavor text works really well in 'Nemo's War'. I really need to pull that out again!  Smiley
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Calandale
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« Reply #18 on: July 25, 2014, 10:42:34 pm »

. Mansions of Madness is atmospheric because you have one player that knows the inside details and everyone else is in the dark.


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'.

Not really. The flavor text IS the game.  Well, unless you act it out.
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usrlocal
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« Reply #19 on: July 25, 2014, 10:44:55 pm »

. Mansions of Madness is atmospheric because you have one player that knows the inside details and everyone else is in the dark.


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'.

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.   Cheesy
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Calandale
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« Reply #20 on: July 25, 2014, 10:49:03 pm »

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.
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anarchy
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« Reply #21 on: July 25, 2014, 11:47:28 pm »

. Mansions of Madness is atmospheric because you have one player that knows the inside details and everyone else is in the dark.


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'.

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

It's probably impossible to act out everything in Tales. Would be fun to watch them try, tho.
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Meh.
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« Reply #22 on: July 26, 2014, 09:53:04 am »

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.
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Calandale
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« Reply #23 on: July 26, 2014, 10:45:56 am »

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. Cheesy
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« Reply #24 on: July 26, 2014, 10:50:51 am »

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. Cheesy

Yeah, the A2A flavor text is ok since it's quite sparse.
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« Reply #25 on: July 26, 2014, 11:35:35 am »

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.   
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Calandale
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« Reply #26 on: July 26, 2014, 11:52:06 am »

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. Cheesy

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

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. Tongue
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« Reply #27 on: July 26, 2014, 11:57:30 am »

Ooh! That reminds me. Be sure to check this out: A2A official FAQ/errata
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Calandale
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« Reply #28 on: July 26, 2014, 12:07:29 pm »

Aw jeeze. The errata's the same, but the QA has gotten much larger.
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Calandale
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« Reply #29 on: July 27, 2014, 06:04:48 am »

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