this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 73 points 2 months 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 76 points 2 months 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.

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 5 points 2 months ago

Given what Mountain Dew has done to me, that tracks.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 4 points 2 months ago

Green w/ sparkly bubbles = Happy Drunk

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone 7 points 2 months 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 months 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 7 points 2 months ago

Orange is machinery/technology

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 65 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Bright red barrel of aircraft grade fuel.

Shoot it.

Spawns a leak.

//FPS players mind's implode//

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Toss a lighted match into the growing puddle.

Match goes out.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 14 points 2 months ago

Shoot it directly with a flamethrower.

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

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 36 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] orenj@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's a potion that cures hunger.

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[–] Goldmage263@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 months ago

Still heals HP. Definitely a health soup.

[–] papertowels@mander.xyz 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 months ago (10 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 14 points 2 months 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 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 months 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@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Electric element. Team Yellow vs Team Blue, FIGHT!

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 21 points 2 months ago

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

[–] orenj@lemmy.sdf.org 17 points 2 months ago

what do you mean? electricity is purple

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

Electricity is yellow.
Blue would be water.

What game would actually use blue?

[–] ArrowMax@feddit.org 16 points 2 months 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:

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 months 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 months 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 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 months 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 months ago

DM: Roll a Vibe Check

Player: I rolled Dark Green

DM: Ooohhh...

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

My vibe is slightly hurt with a hint of mental damage

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

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

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

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

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[–] Rednax@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months 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.

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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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[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months 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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[–] remon@ani.social 6 points 2 months 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 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months 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 months ago (6 children)
[–] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 months ago

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

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[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago (8 children)

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

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[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 5 points 2 months 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 months 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 months 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.

[–] rocky1138@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

Daggerfall!

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