D&D General why brass and bronze dragons?

[Ancalagon]

TROGDOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you all laugh, yet I have the outline of a trogdor campaign in my head.

 

[Faolyn]

Wouldn't that have been red, yellow, blue, white, and black, then?

Depends on if they're additive or subtractive dragons.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Bronze probably came from medals. Gold, silver, bronze
Copper is a good fourth choice for coins

Brass? That one always seemed lazy to me. Same color as gold. Platinum makes more sense to keep with coins
It was probably a joke from some early game. Like the adventurers met a golden dragon that wasn't as smart or noble as a real gold dragon. Because it was actually a brass dragon

Perhaps it's a reference to the City of Brass? I'm tired so I'm not sure where to go with that..

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Also, chromatics also have "alloys." Yellow and blue make green. White is all colors mixed. Black isn't actually a color.

Yellow isn't one of the main types of Chromatic Dragons. Also, there is an argument, like @Charlaquin said, that they're the 3 Primary Colors of Light instead of Pigments. So, no, in the base Chromatic Dragons, there aren't any "Alloy Colors".

 

[Maxperson]

Yellow isn't one of the main types of Chromatic Dragons.

Not really relevant to what I said. I didn't say that they were a combination of two dragon types. I said they are a combination of two different colors blended together, which makes them a color "alloy." This is a fact.

Also, there is an argument, like @Charlaquin said, that they're the 3 Primary Colors of Light instead of Pigments. So, no, in the base Chromatic Dragons, there aren't any "Alloy Colors".

There are only 3 primary colors. Red, Blue and Yellow. Literally every other color is a blending of some combination of those three, making all other colors "alloys."

 

[Krachek]

Funny you should say that...

In one adventure, I had my players discover ten tons of these: Oxhide ingot - Wikipedia

100 000+ sling bullet, enough to start a war!

 

[Blue Orange]

The original Dragon article actually tried to work backwards so the green dragon was a hybrid of yellow and blue (so the yellow dragon breathed salt, electricity + salt =chlorine), the orange was a hybrid of yellow and red, and the purple was a hybrid of blue and red. Theoretically you could have tin and zinc dragons the bronze and brass dragons derived from as well. It's kinda fun, IMHO.

The 2e Draconomicon had rules for hybrid dragons, and yes they were the mixed color, so white and red made pink and blue and red made purple. The 2e Monstrous Manual had a yellow dragon that breathed sand.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Do you know why we never heard of orange dragons? Because the poets and skalds couldn't find anything to rhyme with it...

I'll see myself out

 

[Faolyn]

There are only 3 primary colors. Red, Blue and Yellow. Literally every other color is a blending of some combination of those three, making all other colors "alloys."

That depends on if you're going for additive (light) colors or subtractive (pigment) colors. With subtractive colors, it's blue (cyan), red (magenta), and yellow. With additive, it's red, green, and blue.

 

[Charlaquin]

There are only 3 primary colors. Red, Blue and Yellow. Literally every other color is a blending of some combination of those three, making all other colors "alloys."

That’s not accurate. In additive color theory (i.e. with light), the primary colors are red, green, and blue. Think RGB values on a computer monitor. In subtractive color theory (i.e. with pigments), the primary colors are cyan, magenta, and yellow. Think CMYK printer ink. The idea that red, blue, and yellow are the primary colors is a common misconception because for many of us, our first exposure to color theory was in elementary school art class, where we were working with paint, so we were taught subtractive color theory, and our vocabularies were more limited, so our teachers used the words red and blue instead of magenta and cyan.