Favorite Bit of Flavor Text?

#1

I was randomly reminded today of the really nice descriptive write ups before each playbook in Apocalypse World, my favorite being the Battlebabe’s:

"Even in a place as dangerous as Apocalypse World, battlebabes are, well. They’re the ones you should walk away from, eyes down, but you can’t. They’re the ones like the seductive blue crackling light, y’know? You mistake looking at them for falling in love, and you get too close and it’s a zillion bolts and your wings burn off like paper.

Dangerous."

Which is just so evocative and makes me excited to play in a way that a more straight forward explanation of the playbook might not. Even more though, I really like Fallen Empire’s way of reinterpreting these descriptions to fit the different genre:

“There are, in this world of fallen empires, those more dangerous than the rest. The children of battle, the ones who carry themselves apart, the ones who glitter like bare blades in the dust. Lower your eyes when you pass them; they are the flame into which moths and fools fling themselves.”

So good!

I don’t usually think of ttrpgs having this kind of “flavor text,” since you mostly want to dedicate space to clearly explaining rules and whatnot to the reader, but it can be really fun when it is done. What are some of you all’s favorite bits of writing like this from tabletop games?

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#2

I will say the flavor text for the Veil playbooks are awesome. Don’t have the books nor pdfs at hand.

Adjacent to this conversation: I’m always amazed at how much the playbooks flavor, the moves language, the principles text and the agenda writing - those 4 things - set the frame of PbtA games sooo well. Reading those 4 things I can tell if I will a) grok the game and b) love the game.

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#3

The Hardholder, especially this bit of pure decanted perspective:

“…when their armies numbered in the hundreds of thousands and they had fucking boats to hold their fucking airplanes on…”

It’s not deathless prose but I’m quite enjoying D&D5e, actually. https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/paladin

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#4

There is so much of this in Unknown Armies 2nd Edition. For example, here’s the introduction to the “Combat” chapter. I think it says a lot that this still resonates even in a rather traditional game from 2001:

"Somewhere out there is someone who had loving parents, watched clouds on a summer’s day, fell in love, lost a friend, is kind to small animals, and knows how to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ and yet somehow the two of you are going to end up in a dirty little room with one knife between you and you are going to have to kill that human being.
“It’s a terrible thing. Not just because he’s come to the same realization and wants to survive just as much as you do[…] No, it’s a terrible thing because somewhere along the way you could have made a different choice. You could have avoided that knife, that room, and maybe even found some kind of common ground between the two of you. Or at least, you might have divvied up some turf and left each other alone. That would have been a lot smarter, wouldn’t it? Even dogs are smart enough to do that. Now you’re staring into the eyes of a fellow human and in a couple of minutes one of you is going to be vomiting blood to the rhythm of a fading heartbeat. The survivor is going to remember this night for the rest of his or her life.”

The rest of the page is a section entitled “Six Ways to Stop a Fight,” which is a really interesting way to start off your chapter on combat rules. Again, the flavor just screams off every page in UA, and while it’s a big book that’s quite rules-dense, it’s a genuinely enjoyable read.

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