Residuum: What color is it really?

[jschuhr]

The color of residuum is somewhere between silver and who-cares

 

[baberg]

The color of Liquid Schwartz! TM

Spaceballs the T-shirt!
Spaceballs the coloring book!
Spaceballs the lunch box!
Spaceballs the breakfast cereal!
Spaceballs the FLAMETHROWER! (the kids love this one)

*ahem* Back on topic, I'd say it's like the special ink on $100 bills - look at it one way and it's black, look at it another way it's gold. So I'd say Residuum is gold under certain light but silver under different circumstances.

But honestly, if your campaign hinges on the exact color of Residuum? You've got a lot bigger problems than I can help you with

 

[Dausuul]

Don't you read your Terry Pratchett? It's the Colour of Magic.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Octarine!

This. Obviously.

 

[Aria Silverhands]

Neither. I'm houseruling it to something similar to the WoW disenchanting stuff with shards and dust and essences.

 

[Steve Jung]

No, it's electrum.

 

[David Sid]

On the sidebar on page 225 PHB bottom left it lists Residuum as having a "silvery color". However under the "Disenchant Magic Item" Ritual listing on page 304 of the PHB it's listed as "...golden [colored] dust..." So which is it?!

The sidebar on p. 225 says in normal text it's "silvery," while the flavor text on p. 304 for Disenchant Magic Item says it's "gold." So obviously it's gold for the duration of Disenchant Magic Item (instantaneous), then silver after that. When you disenchant a magic item, the item "crumbles to golden dust in your hands," as per the flavor text. Then—as the dust scatters on the floor and you realize you should have put it in a pan or something before doing the ritual—you notice that now that it's faded to its more permanent "silvery color." On the wooden floorboards, this is slightly easier to sweep up than gold.

In one place it says it's too rare to be used for trade, in the other, it says it's a commodity, basically a super duper platinum piece.

On the sidebar on p. 225 is where it says "in some exotic locales, residuum is traded as currency." I'm thinking this is only for rare and usually planar locales, where everyone, their mother, and their seventeen siblings can cast Disenchant and Enchant Magic Item—in other words, the kind of locale you almost never find in a "Points of Light" setting.

On p. 300 is where they say "you can't usually buy it on the open market." That's a more general statement; you can't trade residuum in most terrestrial towns and cities because of the rarity of people who have or want it.

 

[komi]

Residuum is people!

 

[fba827]

What color do you (or, more importantly, your game's DM) want it to be?

 

[The Grackle]

fuligin black