TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
Don't use up all your blacks at once...From his blog
The Colors of 4e
Posted By: WotC_Dave, 3/25/2008 10:47:00 AM
One of the things you'll see when you get a real copy of the Player's Handbook is that color conveys meaning in the graphic design. Specifically, at-will powers get green headers, encounter powers get red, and dailies get black.
When we started talking about power attrition and frequency issues in 4e, we didn't have the "real" terminology yet. We talked about powers as "green buttons" (which you could press whenever you want), "red buttons" (which you could push once per encounter), and "black buttons" (which you could push once a day).
Some of you will see parallels to computer games there, especially MMOs like Warcraft that have buttons on cooldowns. Others will see a parallel to Magic: The Gathering's color wheel. But the colors have just been a useful shorthand for us here at the office. We'll often say things like "I just finished up the druid blacks," or "That's a good effect, but it's too good in red." That sort of thing.
So what was the rationale behind the colors we chose? There wasn't one. Those just happened to be the colors of the whiteboard pens that Rich Baker or Mike Mearls (can't remember which) picked up at an early meeting to sketch out the whole big idea.
Well, the color names stuck. For the longest time, we kept saying, "You know, we're eventually going to have to come up with real terms for these things." And we still use green/red/black as jargon among ourselves.
For a while, red buttons were "renewable powers." That stuck around until we realized that they're all renewable powers--just at different paces. And we eventually settled on the simplest terms we could come up with: at-will powers, encounter powers, and daily powers. James Wyatt once suggested "refractory period" as the general term for button pacing as a concept. But I think he was kidding, and we were never really sure whether he meant refractory period or refractory period. Either works, I suppose.
Out of Context: "Dave Noonan does not have notes behind his DM screen. He has Stormbringer."
Music: Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Possess Your Heart"
The Colors of 4e
Posted By: WotC_Dave, 3/25/2008 10:47:00 AM
One of the things you'll see when you get a real copy of the Player's Handbook is that color conveys meaning in the graphic design. Specifically, at-will powers get green headers, encounter powers get red, and dailies get black.
When we started talking about power attrition and frequency issues in 4e, we didn't have the "real" terminology yet. We talked about powers as "green buttons" (which you could press whenever you want), "red buttons" (which you could push once per encounter), and "black buttons" (which you could push once a day).
Some of you will see parallels to computer games there, especially MMOs like Warcraft that have buttons on cooldowns. Others will see a parallel to Magic: The Gathering's color wheel. But the colors have just been a useful shorthand for us here at the office. We'll often say things like "I just finished up the druid blacks," or "That's a good effect, but it's too good in red." That sort of thing.
So what was the rationale behind the colors we chose? There wasn't one. Those just happened to be the colors of the whiteboard pens that Rich Baker or Mike Mearls (can't remember which) picked up at an early meeting to sketch out the whole big idea.
Well, the color names stuck. For the longest time, we kept saying, "You know, we're eventually going to have to come up with real terms for these things." And we still use green/red/black as jargon among ourselves.
For a while, red buttons were "renewable powers." That stuck around until we realized that they're all renewable powers--just at different paces. And we eventually settled on the simplest terms we could come up with: at-will powers, encounter powers, and daily powers. James Wyatt once suggested "refractory period" as the general term for button pacing as a concept. But I think he was kidding, and we were never really sure whether he meant refractory period or refractory period. Either works, I suppose.
Out of Context: "Dave Noonan does not have notes behind his DM screen. He has Stormbringer."
Music: Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Possess Your Heart"
