this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 75 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

See also: video game AOE FX.

Big glowy green area? Could be a healing aura, could be poison. Good luck!

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 77 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Nah this one is easy.

If it's green and sparkly, it's a good thing. If it's green and bubbly, it's a bad thing.

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[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 24 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone 6 points 2 weeks ago

I like the fallout approach

Green glow: radiation
Brown water: radiation
Bottled Water: Good!
Not really, believe it or not, radiation. (You must be thinking of purified water)

[–] Khrux@ttrpg.network 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Purple: Magic??

Green: Life/death??

Red: Life/fire??

Blue: Magic/cold??

Honestly the only colour I don't feel uncertain about is orange, that's always bad.

Also on the topic of health potions, a great piece of advice I once heard was that if your players are in a foreign land, remove health potions. Give them health biscuits and watch them reconcile with God.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 6 points 2 weeks ago

Orange is machinery/technology

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 64 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Bright red barrel of aircraft grade fuel.

Shoot it.

Spawns a leak.

//FPS players mind's implode//

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Toss a lighted match into the growing puddle.

Match goes out.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 13 points 2 weeks ago

Shoot it directly with a flamethrower.

Puddle burns slightly like a gas stove before going out again.

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 35 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How about Oblivion where every potion, including drugs, are red?

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] orenj 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

except the ones made from potatoes and cheese, those are just soup

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

If you don't think soup is addicting, you haven't had soup.

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[–] Goldmage263@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 weeks ago

Still heals HP. Definitely a health soup.

[–] papertowels@mander.xyz 30 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I color code all my info. (..) Green means go, so I know to go ahead and shut up about it. Orange, means orange you glad you didn’t bring it up. Most colors mean don’t say it.

- Michael Scott

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

"There are no 'rules' for fantasy"

Wrong. To write good Fantasy (of SciFi), you have to go through a process called "World Building" where you lay down the rules of your world. Properly done, the amount of World Building exceeds the actual works by far. It is absolutely necessary to create a core of inner logic to the story. You are not bound by the rules of our world, yes, but you are bound by the rule of consistency. If you violate those, you automatically write crap Fantasy (or SciFi).

Funny, though, that e.g. many literature teachers / professors don't even know about the idea of World Building.

[–] Derpykat5@ttrpg.network 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

A clearer way to phrase it might be "there are no rules for the genre of fantasy". An individual world needs self-contained rules, yes, but just because Tolkien's Dwarves have beards regardless of gender doesn't mean that your Dwarves need to be the same.

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

To write good Fantasy (of SciFi), you have to go through a process called “World Building”

I think this is more implying that you don't have to work from the same framework for every fantasy world. Not everything has to be set in Arthurian Medieval Times with Crusader-Era social sensibilities. The menagerie of mythical creatures isn't a prerequisite or delimiter (dragons / unicorns / etc are not a requirement nor are robots / cthulhoid horrors / woolly mammoths disallowed). You need internal consistency (to a degree) but you aren't forced to adhere / omit any genre trope.

I would say, at an absolute bare minimum, you need some kind of fantastical or supernatural element to make it "Fantasy" as opposed to "Historical Fiction" or "Science Fiction" or some other category of fictional prose. Although, the genre of "Magical Realism" does make even that distinction a bit fuzzy.

many literature teachers / professors don’t even know about the idea of World Building

You don't necessary need to go through the whole work of World Building if you're just banging out a short story or novella. Even serial writers don't necessarily bother going deep on the background material until they feel the need to expand the scope of the setting. I mean, look at the Star Wars setting. George Lucas didn't have Jabba the Hutt defined as a big slug monster until the third movie. In the original film, there was a cut scene in which Han confronts Jabba, who was just a be-feathered chubby gangster.

If you're just spitballing or cranking out bits of fiction in brief, World Building can be superfluous. A story that takes place entirely in a single house over the course of a long weekend doesn't need the kind of scaffolding that a Long Walk to Mordor requires.

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[–] Akrenion@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Crap fantasy is still fantasy. Had a great time coming up with bad fantasy stories in my childhood when I knew nothing about good writing. Art is what you make it.

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[–] hungprocess 25 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Electric element. Team Yellow vs Team Blue, FIGHT!

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 23 points 2 weeks ago

There is (was?) an electric power provider in Germany by the name of Yellow. Their whole marketing was "electricity is yellow!"

[–] orenj 19 points 2 weeks ago

what do you mean? electricity is purple

[–] Localhorst86@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Electricity is yellow.
Blue would be water.

What game would actually use blue?

[–] ArrowMax@feddit.org 16 points 2 weeks ago

Blue-white lightning icons/symbols are quite common, I would think.

Slay the Spire comes to mind:

Then again, there are some yellow ones, too:

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 weeks ago

Crackly blue is water? I'd even think ice before water.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Nethack (and derivatives) is pretty much the only game I know of where the health potions may or may not be red.

And I guess Dark Souls... It's more of an orange than a red. But maybe that's just the color of the flask. Idk what the substance inside looks like. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[–] skye@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

the flask is green! i would know since i emptied it one too many times snd the texture is dark green

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 2 weeks ago

Then the insides have to be red for it to appear orange through green glass. The health potion is red!

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Overlord the anime has a whole arc about the protagonist using his immense power and influence to have people start research on how to turn blue potions red.

[–] joyjoy@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Why should your fantasy game be limited by something like "health". Whether you die should be based on vibes.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 14 points 2 weeks ago

DM: Roll a Vibe Check

Player: I rolled Dark Green

DM: Ooohhh...

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 6 points 2 weeks ago

My vibe is slightly hurt with a hint of mental damage

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[–] Rednax@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

Similarly to how paprika chips come in blue bags and salted chips come in red bags. Anything else is heresy. Unless you live right across the border, where it's exactly the opposite.

[–] Goldmage263@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My health potions are red, also, pulp free is not an option. >:)

[–] Mesophar@pawb.social 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The pulp is from fruit, right? The pulp is from fruit, right!?

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[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

It's true.

Rules are meant to be broken - apart from when they aren't.

You can change any aspect of the world any way you like, but only if doing that is critical to your universe and story.

Messing up without reason conventions that are well established is a dick move, unless the whole point of your work is to screw with people.

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[–] remon@ani.social 6 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Reminds me of that overwatch character with the yellow healing aura and the green speed aura. Just why?

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Because his default coloring is green and yellow I'd guess

[–] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah but the healing aura should be green and the speed one should be yellow

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 weeks ago

Yellow means “Yello? I don’t got all day!”

[–] petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

And yellow means, uh, holy light, or something.
I ain't played no Overwatch, but I all but guarantee that's what it is.

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[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I hate dragons. Controversial take but like just come up with some other mystical creatures! have some fun with it! if rather interact with a pink unicorn plushie than fight another dragon

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[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

I used yellow for health to avoid red/green colourblind issues

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[–] rocky1138@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago

Daggerfall!

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The old TSR/SSI game Unlimited Adventures had randomized potion colors. It's also how I learned that khaki is not pronounced 'kahiki' when trying to explain what was going on to someone (I knew khakis as a type of trouser not a color).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms%3A_Unlimited_Adventures

Edit: or maybe I'm thinking of another gold-box game if that one didn't have some random generation. Hrm.

[–] SippyCup@feddit.nl 11 points 2 weeks ago

Pixel dungeon does the same thing, you don't know when you start a run what any color potion does. So they're randomized.

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[–] paultimate14@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Not sure if this is more or less of a problem for people wtih red-green colorblindness.

On the one hand, it's harder to differentiate at all. On the other hand, it kind of removes that established expectation and keeps you in the habit of adapting.

[–] LucidNightmare@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Looking at you, "Dragon Age" Veilguard.

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