Very true! That little note of fictional context makes the choices much more impactful feeling. Like when videogame devs change only the sound a gun makes, and players start saying it's overpowered even though it's not doing any extra damage.
I'm still debating whether Duet of Steel is going to have a more solid setting, or be the premise of a conflict made of several confrontations over a period of time in different contexts created by the players. I love the idea of duelling mechs, or pistols/swords at dawn, or two rival immortals pitting their wits over centuries and milennia, or two crabby old philosophers with a public feud in the style of Diogenes & Plato.
One option is multiple playsets with custom fictional context that helps establish these settings. It all depends on how much writing I want to do.