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Implementing Lore through Cards

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Mon, 04/15/2013 - 21:34
ThisIsMyBoomstick
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Joined: 03/30/2013

As I've said a couple of times now, I'm in the process of developing a Fantasy Boardgame which will contain basically everything (minis, tokens, cards, and dice)

I thought though, when you consider the amount of games that use cards with subtexts along side the actual statistics/abilities of the cards, most of the subtexts are generally just flavorful quotes. I haven't ever personally played a game with cards that have game history scrawled on them.

And then I thought to Dark Souls: Most ALL of the important historical information is attached to the items. Call it a rip off, but I think it would be clever to do the same with Card items and spells and treasures and such.

Thoughts?

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Mon, 04/15/2013 - 22:01
#1
KrisW
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Implementing Lore

I liked the color text in MtG because, even in the first edition, there seemed to be a coherent story in it. I felt as if only I read all the cards, in the right order, I'd find out something cool. It was just plain good writing.

I've seen other games which had color text that seemed random. There was nothing cool about it, it got in the way, and annoyed me enough to not buy any more packs of those games.

Seems as though the story needs to be both coherent, even though players only get it in tiny bits, and it needs to be epic in nature, the sort of thing that reverberates through even brief references. That's a lot of work and a significant amount of artistry.

So - IMHO - If you have an epic story and good writing skills then add the color text. If you don't, then don't.

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Tue, 04/16/2013 - 04:51
#2
Procylon
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When you say lore, I am

When you say lore, I am picturing in my mind some boring tidbit of historical information that people aren't generally going to care about.

As long as you don't go too far in that direction, it should be good. The text should be short, flavorful, and relevant in some way to the card and art that it is inscribed upon. You want your flavor text to evoke some kind of emotional response when players read it. Make the player smile, grimace, nod their head in understanding as they become one with your world, etc.

MtG is great about that.

I created a Civilization mod once that had a relevant and interesting quote for people to read as they gained each new technology(which I added almost 200 of). I got a lot of feedback that the players loved it, primarily because it helped to immerse them in the game.

In most cases the piece of flavor text isn't as much about relaying information as it is about relaying feeling.

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