I didn’t change the colors for a long time since I’m perfectly happy with all orange. However, since the option is there, I figured I’d have some fun with it.
Here are the name and color changes I went with:
@ Dramatis Personae
I wanted to choose a red hue to indicate my cast of characters since it’s a bold color and it would remind me that they’re the most important thing in the game. I went with
Blood Red (880808) since they’re (mostly) living creatures driven by passions.
^ Organizations
I almost used this color for Plots and Themes, but
Byzantium (702963) seemed a good fit for hierarchies, bureaucracies, churches and secret societies.
# Gazeteer
I go back and forth over whether I should name this one Worldbuilding since it doesn’t only cover nations, settlements and cultures, but all of this stuff is worldbuilding, so Gazeteer it is.
Forest Green (228B22) was a natural choice for describing the land.
$ Treasures
This was an easy choice, but the difficult part was finding a gold hue that wouldn’t be too pale or hard to read.
Golden Yellow (FFC000) seems a fair choice for now.
! Quartermaster
Another easy choice:
Saddle Brown (8B4513).
% Calendar and Chronicles
I added “Chronicles” to remind myself I could include historical events in this category as well as dates and holidays.
Sunset Orange (FA5F55) fit the theme of time and recording the past in my head.
* Plots and Themes
On a few of the play-by-post fora I used to use, orange was the color of out-of-game statements. So I decided to keep all of my OOG notes in that spectrum.
Bronze (CD7F32) was a solid choice for Plotting, since you have to beat it into shape.
(Also, Charcoal (“it’s a rough sketch”) and Midnight Blue (“burning the midnight oil”) were too dull to stand out from the rest of the text as a visible link.)
~ Rules and References
In keeping with the Orange = OOG philosophy,
Safety Orange (FF5F15) was the most natural fit thematically for the Referee’s information.
§ Sections
Another OOG notation,
Neon Orange (FF5F1F) seemed appropriate, like a modern sign post saying “notice me!”
+ Magical Artefacts
I might rename this one Arcana or something similar to include more magical stuff, but I usually reserve spells and schools of magic for Rules. Anyway, for magic items, I thought of the Discworld book
The Colour of Magic which establishes magic’s color is “octarine,” a color that doesn’t exist in our known spectrum. But I always thought of it as kind of a
Violet (7F00FF) color because my brain has its limitations.
- Argot
I use this category for slang, languages, lingos, and terminology the denizens of my game world use themselves. Going with the notion of “purple prose,” I chose
Purple (800080).
& Ephemera
As a catch-all category, I thought of “pulled it from the blue sky” or daydreaming, but Sky Blue was too pale, so I went with
Bright Blue (0096FF). I usually end up dropping laws and landmark legal decisions that affect the PCs’ lives into this category, as well as esoteric subjects that don’t fit as neatly under Gazeteer (like the cosmic concepts of Law and Chaos).