Looking at the supplied picture of the blue lantern, er, indigo lantern, got me thinking. Indigo and blue are both pretty much the same color. When the PCs look the faded fresco in room 6, would they even notice such a subtle difference? How to describe it?
DM: "Clockwise, the colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet"
Player: "What's indigo?"
DM: "Somewhere between purple and blue."
Player: "But that's violet."
DM: "Uh, this violet is more purplish, it's a purplish-bluish-purple. The indigo lantern is more bluish, it's bluish-purplish-blue."
Player: "So what type of blue is the blue lantern?"
DM: "Bluish-bluish-blue."
DM: "Clockwise, the colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet"
Player: "What's indigo?"
DM: "Somewhere between purple and blue."
Player: "But that's violet."
DM: "Uh, this violet is more purplish, it's a purplish-bluish-purple. The indigo lantern is more bluish, it's bluish-purplish-blue."
Player: "So what type of blue is the blue lantern?"
DM: "Bluish-bluish-blue."
LOL, that discussion would NEVER have come up with girl players.
Me: "What about that blue color?"
My wife: "That's not blue, that's indigo!"
Me: "Yeah, yeah... whatever you call it, do you like it?"
Right on the head! Having had many ROYGBIV riddles, clues, traps, etc in the decades of my group's play, this discussion has actually taken place many times. When I showed my players the artwork of the lantern, one of them actually said, "Let me guess, it's not blue, it's indigo." To which another responded (rolling his eyes), "Right, not blue blue, indigo blue."
Looking at the supplied picture of the blue lantern, er, indigo lantern, got me thinking. Indigo and blue are both pretty much the same color. When the PCs look the faded fresco in room 6, would they even notice such a subtle difference? How to describe it?
DM: "Clockwise, the colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet"
Well, I definitely wouldn't use the words "indigo" and "violet". In fact, I probably wouldn't say anything specific about the colours unless asked (Erik's boxed text nothwithstanding). My description would end something like: "...each chain bears a gleaming, different coloured lantern." If asked for the specific colours, I'd describe the last two as light purple and deep purple. This would have the added advantage of letting my players try to work in as many cheesy heavy rock references as possible (e.g. "Does it look like a demon's eye?")!
It occurred to me that it really doesn't matter what color the lanterns are. Since the mural in the previous room displays all the lanterns, they could really be any colors in the world and the PCs will be able to figure out what order they go in and bypass the trap. personally, i think the ROYGBIV traps are overdone and a little cheesy, so i plan to just change the colors to whatever i pull out of my crayon box.
o
The colors I'll probably end up using...just to clear up any confusion my players might have.
fire truck red, goblin tooth orange, bananna yellow, four horsemen of the appocolyps green, ocian blue, smurf liver indigo, and neon violet
The colors I'll probably end up using...just to clear up any confusion my players might have.
fire truck red, goblin tooth orange, bananna yellow, four horsemen of the appocolyps green, ocian blue, smurf liver indigo, and neon violet
Smurf liver indigo. Right on. That's a keeper.