Flavor text is all over gaming.
Whether it’s entries in the Pokédex, or descriptions for creatures in a Dungeons and Dragons manual, or the italicized text at the bottom of the trading card, flavor text is essential for bringing characters, items, and events to life.
But how can we use flavor text in our own writing? Let’s find out!
During the last stream, the subscribers voted that we talk about “flavor text.”
Watch the full video here or scroll down for highlights.
What is flavor text?
- Used in a variety of games: card games, board games, role-playing games, video games, etc.
- Helps explain what an item/character/event is without having any actual impact on the game.
- Makes the connection easier for the player to what the thing is/does.
For example, let’s take a look at Feldon of the Third Path from the card game Magic: The Gathering.
The card name, image, and text don’t really paint a coherent picture of what’s going on. Is he some sort of Santa Claus? An artist? A trash collector? But when you read the italicized flavor text at the bottom, suddenly the whole story behind the character snaps into place.
Flavor text can help in writing short stories/novels as well, since you need to have the occasional cool sentence to establish a scene/character. Getting some practice in subtle storytelling in just a sentence or two will really help improve your longer storytelling skills!
Different Types of Flavor Text
- Serious: Just gives straight context but in a cool way.
Even if you don’t know who Greven il-Vec or Gerrard is, you know everything about them from this serious flavor text.
- Funny: Adds a lighthearted moment to serious stuff.
Since too much seriousness can be overwhelming, some funny flavor text like this can make for good comic relief.
- Clever: Typically short and impactful with structure to them.
Similar to serious, but with parallel structure, rhyme, plays on words, etc.
Here’s the images that chat voted for that we created flavor text for, along with just a few highlights for each:
#1. Woman and dragon
(Source on Pinterest)
“A disaster of that scale, fitting in my hand. Is this what mages feel?”
—yosh1tailz“Master, I have the sacrifice.”
—spickett“I gave birth to this. Now you will know my pain.”
—joe_g89“Behold my pocket protector.”
—ZionXCX“Mother said I couldn’t have a dragon as a pet. My pet said I couldn’t have a human as a mother.”
—(everyone in chat)
#2. Eye covered in yellow
(Source on pixabay)
“And yet, I still couldn’t see him.”
—ZionXCX“When the bees died, she was born.”
—joe_g89“But they still had more stories to reveal.”
—JebusDota“Achoo!”
—ducktoot
#3. Whale attacking boat
“Without the whales’ fury in life, they would not burn so bright in death.”
—bobicus“The sea extracts a toll for her riches.”
—bobicus“Row row, row your boat
Swiftly ’round the beast.
If we aren’t fast enough,
She will get to fea~”
—JebusDota“When the armada left Cadiz, it was deemed unsinkable. When it returned, it was sold as scraps.”
—yosh1tailz
Be sure to check out the video for more examples of flavor text, and some awesome contributions from chat!
After that we wrote a story based around a randomized village that chat created. One of the tidbits of random info that we got was our village had an inn run by squirrels that specialized in trivia, so we took it and ran with it.
Here’s what we came up with:
I came to The Broken Spear inn itching for battle. Its reputation throughout the realm as a place where scores between the strongest warriors were settled rang far and wide. Finally, I would have the opportunity to prove myself as the warrior that I always knew I was.
Perched on my shoulder was Shesebty, a bird-sized firedrake, my eternal companion. She sniffed out strong fighters with her smoky nostrils, and I slayed them with my axe. Right now it hung behind me in my sheath of chain, but I was ready to swing out the beast at a moment’s notice. Its blade was sharpened by a hundred battles won, soon to be one more.
I threw open the doors to the inn, expecting to see it filled with burly warriors and snarling thieves. Instead, there was only the innkeeper standing across from the bar counter. All of the tables and chairs were emptier than a vagrant’s mug, drier than his lips as he goes for another chug of air.
“What can I do you for, fellow?” asked the innkeeper, wiping clean a glass mug. He was wearing gloves and long sleeves that covered every inch of his body. The only human part of him that was visible was his face, though mostly concealed in the shadows of his hood.
At first I was insulted by his nonchalant demeanor and lack of respect, but I quickly caught myself. Quite often, the strongest warriors put on an air of weakness, in order to surprise their enemy. I would not fall for his jape. I steeled myself and held my chin high as I announced my intent.
“I’ve come to challenge your strongest warrior,” I said. “The reputation of The Broken Spear precedes it, and I demand a challenge.”
The innkeeper put down the glass, placed his gloved hands on the counter, and leaned closer to me.
“Well then, you’ve come to the right place. I will be your challenger.”
I couldn’t help but snort a laugh as I looked over the feeble man. “You? Please. What weapon do you even wield, old man?”
The shadows of his eyes twinkled, and he reached behind him. I instinctually matched his movement and clasped onto my axe, causing Shesebty to caw in defiance.
The innkeeper pulled out his weapon, and my heart dropped.
It was a 10th grade geometry textbook.
“Unfair advantage!” I cried. “There’s no way I can possibly defeat you if—”
“Are you a warrior or a crybaby?” the innkeeper asked, cracking open the book and flipping through it so fast his fingers turned to blurs. I gritted my teeth, slowly pulled out my axe, and held it in front of me, ready for anything.
“Give me your worst,” I said.
“Very well.” He stopped flipping, stabbed his finger onto a page, and then read off it. “What is the volume of a cylinder, ten inches tall by twenty-four inches wide, with a smaller cylinder cut out inside, half its height and width?”
A single strand of sweat dripped down my forehead. Thankfully, my blade was ready for this kind of battle. I scanned across its metallic siding, looking over my etched notes for the correct formula.
I found it almost immediately. Cylinder volume equals pi times radius squared times height. Easy.
“One-thousand two hundred sixty inches cubed,” I said confidently. My words flew across the bar counter, smacking right into the innkeeper’s shoulder. He grunted in pain as the cloth of his cloak ripped off. For a moment, I thought I saw fur beneath his clothes, but he quickly slammed his other gloved hand over it.
Now it was my turn to attack.
“When a parabola represented by the equation y minus two x squared equals eight x plus five is translated three units to the left and two units up, the new parabola has its vertex at which coordinates?”
I went right for one of my most powerful attacks. There was a good chance I could take this guy down with one shot, and then be done with it. But oddly enough, even with my incredibly difficult question, he didn’t seem to be scared. In fact, now that I was really looking at him, his facial expression hadn’t changed a bit since I’d first walked in.
“Negative five, negative five,” he said, sounding neither confident nor afraid. A smirk crept up the side of my lips.
“Wrong,” I told him. “Negative five negative one. Obviously.”
The final syllables out of my mouth shot forth like razor wind, scraping across his other shoulder, exposing more fur beneath it. This time, before he could drop his weapon-textbook and cover it up, Shesebty growled and leapt off my shoulder, soaring straight at him. She bit into his furry shoulder with her sharp, fiery fangs, and then pulled something out of it, flying back to me with it in her mouth.
It was a squirrel.
I grabbed the furry creature from her teeth and held it before me. Its eyes darted around the room as it squeaked and flailed in terror.
“What is going on here?” I demanded to it.
I got my answer. The innkeeper in front of me slowly collapsed to the ground, his face, gloves and cloak sliding off like snakeskin. Underneath him was what looked like a hundred squirrels, all holding onto each other, while one of them at the top operated a stick attached to a wooden dummy head.
“Give that back!” the head barked as the squirrel furiously moved its little fingers over an array of buttons. “I need her to control my arms!”But before I could even think about returning the stolen squirrel, the entire colony fell apart. Without the cloak and clothes to hold them all together, they were just a writhing mass of fur and teeth, and all it took was one small slip for the whole thing to go crumbling down.
The dummy head knocked against the counter as the hundreds of squirrels skittered away like a river of rats between my legs and out the door. Without even realizing it, I let go of the one I’d been holding onto, and she fell to the floor and scuttled away with the rest, but not before stopping, turning to me, and shaking her fist in anger.
Shesebty let out a caw, and I patted her on her scaly back, as much to reassure her as myself. But despite the unorthodox outcome of the battle, there was still one thing left to do.
I stepped up to the counter, grabbed the dummy head by the stick, and slung it behind me in my chain sheath along with my axe. It would be perfect for carving for forumlas onto.
For that is the way of the math warrior.
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Featured image: Pakutaso (edited by me)