Flavor text

Flavor text is text for action figure character backgrounds, playing cards, or within the pages of a role-playing game's . While appropriate to the product's or game's story concept, it usually has no effect on the mechanics 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 or written between quotes to distinguish it from game-affecting text.

Flavor text was popularized by the dossiers of 1980s toys, primarily G.I. Joe filecards and Transformers tech-specs, but is now more commonly associated with games such as Magic: The Gathering. Some games featuring flavor text include:

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 (often fictional) universe to which the item belongs.

Flavor text can also be a quotation, such as from related media (e.g., Star Wars movie quotes on a Star Wars card) or from literature. Some Magic: The Gathering cards' flavor text comes from public domain sources such as Shakespeare's plays and poetry.

A unique spin on flavor text in a card game can be seen in the long-lived Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Many cards with flavor text also include special keywords (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 (which is an important factor in most decks). The video game series Borderlands contains weapons and other items with flavor text which hint to the item's hidden ability (i.e. restoring health equal to damage output, or firing bullets that split and become more numerous the further that they travel).

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