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dropthedie.bsky.social
DropTheDie
@dropthedie.bsky.social
1K followers 270 following 890 posts
Heyyyy everybody. I'm JB, better known as DropTheDie. ➤He/Him ➤Dungeon Master ➤Bestselling TTRPG Author ➤Business e-mail: [email protected] ➤Links to it all: http://linktr.ee/dropthedie ☰ Put me to WORK!
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dropthedie.bsky.social
Not dunking on anyone or arguing with OP.
American settlers spent 4 hours a day cleaning clothes, didn't live in mud huts.
Vikings loved color and gold, silk, and perfume.
1800s germany was GORGEOUS: clay shingles, brick homes, white wash - but INTENSE rain for over 40 years did keep it gloomy.
A painting of early America: mostly oranges and blues, it depicts a scene of communal living and natural splendor, but notably shows many settlers/traders wearing green, orange, and blue fabric in addition to the tan, brown, white, and maroon we often see. A recreation of an Icelandic skirmisher band charging up a beach. They wear and wield accessories and clothing of striking colors - particularly red, green, and blue, along with pure chalk-white. Obviously, these men keep their clothes clean, their hair out of their faces, and their shields raised unlike most depictions in modern media. An image of 1800s germany. Though the image is preposterously orange in hue (orange and brown paints are easy to make), the imagine shows clean well-ordered streets and magnificent 5-story buildings topped with gray slate and red clay shingles or tiles. Many people on the street wear colors ranging from red and white to pink and cornflower blue - though the vast majority wear brown, black, and cream colored attire.
November 23, 2025 at 12:44 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
And Nosferatu more pointedly toys with contrast and shadow much more than the rest, reserving blue filters and filth for scenes that macabrely undermine character's will or sanity. Over the course of the film, non-gold saturation is sucked away, reserving warmth for flame and sunlight - radiance.
Behind the Scenes Image. A camera and its crew busy themselves on an overcast, rainy beach near a graveyard (marked with gothic crosses). Two actors in period-appropriate attire fill the right of the frame. One wears a thick blue coat and brown (possibly beaver?) hat while the woman next to him wears a pink overshirt and seafoam green skirt - like all colors on the scene, muted by the gloom of the weather. Almost no color survives in this image of an actor standing alone at a crossroads in a snowy forest of black trees and fog. A woman stands center-frame holding a collection of pale purple flowers. She is dressed in a pale green dress with dark green polkadots, in a room of pastel green sporting a few green plants, green curtains, green cushions and pillows, and a rich maroon couch. Nothing outside seems green or "alive" like is pictured in this image. Golden streaks of sunlight pour through a window, illuminating a macabre scene of a pale woman with black hair lying atop pure white sheets and pillows that are now stained in rich streaks of blood. A withered corpse (recently animated) lies atop the woman, its gray, mottled, rotting flesh completely colorless. Strewn about the bed are the same type of purple flowers the woman held earlier in the movie, nearly colorless in the blinding gold light.
November 23, 2025 at 12:44 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
The Northman is picked on for muddy clothes, but... there's a lot of mud when filming in mud. The Northman sheds his berserkir skull pelt and blood-streaked skin for simple, clean clothes when posing as a worker, to shed them once again for intense violence. Absence of color highlights present color
Behind the Scenes image. An actor stands in inch-deep mud as cast and crew work around him. Heavy fog chokes the background of the scene and the dully brown wood of the ancient-looking houses is further muted by pale straw (thatch) covering their rooves. Some patches of DESPERATELY green moss have been left visible around the edges of the houses, but everyone, including the crew in green vests, has muck and mud up to their knees from the heavily-disturbed ground. Our actor's long blond hair looks dark brown uncurling from beneath a wolf-head pelt he wears atop his head. An enormous fire in front of him casts the entire scene in orange and gold as he screams to work himself into a berserker fury. An outdoor scene, there are no rich, vibrant tapestries or clothing for the dozen actors walking and riding horses in the gloomy afternoon snow. However, the rich brown furs, white horse, and gold accents on the lead actor, pictured in the front left of the frame, draw as much attention as the pale-blue-gray ocean behind him. In a far departure from the "darker times" of our lead character's life, this scene shows a blond man with short-chopped hair and a pale woman with platinum-white hair staring longingly at one another in a shockingly green field. The man is draped in an earthen-teal blanket and green-teal clothing underneath, while the woman is draped in white, wearing a lighter shade of green clothing. Grass and moss consume the entire frame, making their earth-tones feel like part of the scenery.
November 23, 2025 at 12:44 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
The Lighthouse is black and white, but the behind the scenes shows relatively clean, average-looking clothing for the characters. It's the use of LIGHT in the Lighthouse (yeah) that matters - every speck of dirt becomes black on white canvas, marking the characters' descent to madness.
Behind the Scenes image. Our two actors sit side by side knitting with the assistance of a crewmember. The lights in the scene are clean, white, and directional as though from a fireplace, but no one (including the crew) is wearing much color. Only a roller desk in the back of the image seems colorful, a rich wooden piece of furniture. A blindingly bright lamp illuminates the back of a scene in which two men sit, facing each other, in their cramped bedroom. Their feature are almost entirely black, save for the highlights of the blinding lamp. Everything, including the actors, cast long, dark, sinister shadows in every direction. Our two actors are outdoors in this scene, the soft, pale light of the foggy afternoon makes the sea behind them bleed into chalk-white nothingness as the dark shadows made by contrast highlight amazing textures in the actors' clothes, hair, and skin - all shades of gray in the desaturated film. Fingers of shadow claw across the face of our older actor as he screams, eyes wide in anger and indignation. The shadow within his mouth is utterly black behind his teeth, his eyes are stark white compared to the muted, dull room around him, and his dark shadow looms on the ceiling behind him.
November 23, 2025 at 12:44 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
The Witch - Behind the scenes shows the same muted colors, but post-edit we see great variety in color, contrast, and light to match the isolation, desperation, melancholy, fear, and derangement felt by the characters.
Behind the Scenes image. Many people in grays, greens, tans, maroons, and black dressed in clothing of a style worn in early America. A gloomy, overcast day leaves the entire crew and location looking somber despite happy faces and clean clothes. All of the color is drained from an image of a vacant, inhospitable countryside of towering pine trees and scrubby, unhealthy grass and dead shrubs. Two characters, miniature in the foreground, are dwarfed by the blank, overcast scene around them. Green moss, dark stone, and pale tree bark frame a woman in the center of the imagine. Her pale skin stands in stark contrast of her dark clothing and black hair, save for a shockingly red, tattered hood that drapes from her shoulders and head. The image feels unnerving and alluring in equal measure. A shockingly red bolt of cloth sits in the lap of a laughing woman in her clean white sleeping clothes. She sits blocking a fire casting an orange glow in the otherwise dour, depressing looking house. A black raven perched atop the woman's arm plucks the flesh off of her breast, leaking blood onto the red cloth in her lap - red is the only color visible not overtaken by the orange glow of the fire.
November 23, 2025 at 12:44 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Usually, Eggars uses muted colors on-set so its easier to use color/contrast to establish the setting and mirror the state and severity of characters' lives.

It's easier to play with warm or cool and luminosity to that degree when starting from a more neutral color palette.

A quick thread:
A young woman holds a lantern in front of her. Her white undershirt, cream button-up shirt, brown skirt, and tan-white coat match her pale skin and blond hair to reflect the warm glow of the lamp, while the scene behind her is pale, ghostly, and dark despite being well-lit. Two men stand feet apart with a stone lighthouse rising between them. Both are wearing clean warm-looking clothes in multiple layers, but their weather-beaten faces seem hallow, weary, and slightly dirty - accentuated by the black and white photography. A well-muscled blond man is stalking forward with a wolf pelt draped over one shoulder, blood spattering his skin. The sky is slightly cloudy, but the entire frame is slightly green/gray in hue, making the blood look almost black and the gathered people's frightened expressions easy to see.
November 23, 2025 at 12:44 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Given how people, historically, have acted toward me...

9 / 10 intimidation. It is not something I enjoy or am proud of.
A post taken from Saerodynamic_ on twitter that reads "quote rt this with hose intimidating YOU think you are on a scale of 1 through 10 and let other people reply to it with how intimidating THEY think you are."
October 24, 2025 at 6:00 AM
dropthedie.bsky.social
i've made the salted rosemary paloma before, and it was pretty good. Not a huge fan of grapefruit, but it all worked very well together.
Salted Rosemary Paloma NAREN YOUNG - DANTE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK For a fairly simple drink, this tequila-less Paloma has real depth of flavor. Pungent rosemary pairs well with grapefruit, and I like that the salt gets mixed into the syrup instead of stuck on the glass's rim, so it disperses throughout the drink. This is the kind of bitter. punchy, refreshing cocktail I want in my hand while the sun goes down. COMMITMENT LEVEL OBOO SERVES 1 ounce Salted Rosemary Syrup (recipe follows) 2-3 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit julce 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice ounces soda water grapefruit slice, tor garnish Fill a collins glass with ice. Add the syrup and juice, then top with soda water and gently stir. Garnish with a grapefruit slice. 3 1 1 3 1 Salted Rosemary Syrup MAKES ABOUT 1/s CUP. ENOUGH FOR 8 DRINKS tablespoons sugar teaspoon Maldon sea salt sprig of rosemary, cut crosswise into 3 pieces In a small saucepan. combine the sugar salt, rosemary, and 3 ounces water and warm over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature, then fine- strain and discard the solids. Store the syrup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
October 23, 2025 at 11:46 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
took me a moment to realize, it reminds me of the poster/cover for the movie Aniara (2018), which I deeply vibe with. Love the splash of dangerous red on a white/black background. It's classy and timeless.
White lines trace out from a red planet. At the bottom of the poster, Aniara is written beneath a boxy-looking ship that causes the lines to warp around it as it flies toward the moon.
October 21, 2025 at 6:15 AM
dropthedie.bsky.social
That supermoon, tho.
A square picture of the moon: a pale ball of pock-marked light in the dark sky. Smears of ancient shadows that have never seen the light of the sun in epochs of time cross the globe like oceans of ink with islands of chalk-white vistas that reach the sunlight.
October 7, 2025 at 7:10 AM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Some star gazing for y'all. #Andromeda #Moon
A disc of orange swirling in the center (Andromeda) is surrounded by a sea of pinpoint stars. The moon, peeking out from the shadow of the earth.
October 2, 2025 at 7:02 AM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Note, Pathfinder (and most parallel systems) may handle this differently. For example, in Pathfinder I believe darkvision is not shades of gray but black and white only, but you'd treat the entire area like bright light/normal light.

That'd look pretty weird.
A dilapidated hallway with only a handful of gray, white, and black colors instead of a full spectrum of grayscale. The picture heavily artifacts due to the adjustment, but the loss of detail makes the entire hallway look really weird and spooky.
October 1, 2025 at 6:57 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Your modern #TTRPG #DND reminder (Tales of the Valiant, 5e, 5.5e, etc). Darkvision doesn't give you night vision goggles like seal team six, it's extremely powerful in Dim light (where normal vision has disadvantage on attacks and Perception), and lessens the horror when its pitch black.
A dilapidated hallway in a ruined building, repeated six times in three columns and two rows. The top row shows the hallway brightly lit, showing all of the details from the entrance to the door 40 feet away. In Dim Light, the opposite door is completely dark and the hallway is poorly lit by two crappy candles, bathing it in dim orange light. Finally, Darkness is completely black, nothing but the floor at your feet is visible. The second row shows Darkvision versions of the three levels of brightness: Bright is exactly the same. In the Dim Light version of the hallway, the darkest spots of the hallway lose some of their color and the door at the end of the hallway is visible. Finally, in Darkness, the darkvision can see the same amount of detail that was present in normal dim light - doorways are visible, shapes on the walls and floor are visible, but there is no color at all. The door at the end of the hallways is no longer visible, showing the limits of the darkvision.
October 1, 2025 at 6:57 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
As I wait for the temperatures to drop just a little bit more before finishing the deep clean of the car in our garage, I've got two things on my agenda today:

1. Read Shadowdark for an upcoming project.
2. Design modular spaceship systems for my game Salvage.

What are y'all designer peers up to?
Simple, blocky text that reads "SALVAGE"
September 30, 2025 at 5:11 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Clouds in Las Vegas?

Spooky season is near.
A series of houses. Behind them, mountains loom, capped with white, fluffy clouds.
September 29, 2025 at 10:14 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
I do a four-step program (dropthedie.com/backstory), but if I could include an additional step/question, it would probably be:

Why keep going?

You can get some pretty interesting details from people with that simple question: it could be all the character knows, new sense of purpose, the thrill
A "Four Step" list for character creation. The four steps are: Explain the family situation, What moment pushed them into adventuring, How and why are they involved in the story of the campaign, and what does the character want right now/immediately.
September 24, 2025 at 12:23 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Dear #TTRPG peers. There's a huge charity bundle collection of DMs Guild favorites currently up for grabs on Humble Bundle, including my release Taverns, Inns, and Taprooms.

Familiar and beloved names to be included with! Nab tons of cool titles and support Extra Life.
share.google/xfjZl6Snjji6...
Humble Book Bundle supporting Extra Life charity. Dungeon Master's Guild Top Content from the D&D Community. Along the top of the advertisement, four book covers are displayed: Call of the Deep features a creature with a purple squid-like head gazing at a flame. Uncaged features an ivory-pale woman wiping her arm across her mouth, with hair of ivory snakes. Adventurers domestic handbook shows a dragon-person and a dark skinned elf embracing on a field of white and pastel green. Finally, Taverns, Inns, and Taprooms depicts a forest clearing with a windmill and farmhouse, and a massive pirate ship that has fallen from the sky and crushed part of the homestead - opened for business as a one of a kind tavern.
September 2, 2025 at 6:34 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
This scene in True Detective comes to mind.
We don't need to see the video. We don't need to hear it. We just need to see Rust choosing to stare at the wall while Marty suffers through it.

By focusing the attention on their reactions, we infer everything we would ever need to know.
A balding white man in a loose tie and dress shirt stares at a screen below the camera. His eyes are pinched in discomfort at what he sees. In the back of the spartan concrete room, a second man stands inches from a brick wall, staring intently at the paint, avoiding whatever is playing on the screen.
August 26, 2025 at 12:22 AM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Give it a shot - I did the /exact/ same thing with my Sony A7II last year. You gotta fiddle with the lens to shift the polarizing effect.

Image to support my theory.
A hand rotates a polarizing lens, shifting the reflection and color of a set of glasses in the background, from bright to extreme darkness.
August 6, 2025 at 9:40 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
I wrote detailed journal entries and posted them for friends on Discord, with images to set the scene.

So many of them ended with me ripping shit apart with gorilla arms xD
July 2, 2025 at 9:31 AM
dropthedie.bsky.social
And before anyone comes in here saying I made it up.

Pictured - a UV index from NOAA saying it was 11.1 Extreme index as of 1pm today. The measurement should repeat for the next two days.
June 20, 2025 at 9:56 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Sage and I are just obsessed with the idea of getting Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Hannibal, Pusher) and Laura Birn (Foundation, The Crow) in a show together.

I'd watch them literally do anything, so long as they got to talk to each other and size one another up at least once an episode.
A willowy, blond scandanavian woman draped in pale fabric sits on a tan couch. A lithe older Scandanavian man lies back on a brown couch inside a library. His gray jacket, orange shirt, and white pants contrast well. His arm is propped up on a cane.
June 4, 2025 at 5:07 AM
dropthedie.bsky.social
BONUS
There's a reason we spent 1700 years perfecting armor, shields, and defensive battle formations. Firearms were the great leveler, but prior to them - a suit of the most magnificent steel and gilt armor paled in comparison to the value of a noble lord's safety in combat. No expense was spared
A magnificent suit of armor displayed at the Wallace Collection - gleaming steel and glinting gold cover the human form so completely that the empty suit of armor can sit astride the mannequin of an armored horse and still look life-like.
June 2, 2025 at 9:23 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
Even a 1-foot long, 2-inch wooden dowl would add five hundred pounds of shear force to the gate and would cost you NOTHING, let alone a similar length of iron (40,000 additional PSI to shear it).

Thank you for stopping by. You're welcome and I'm sorry in equal measure.
My business logo. A wooden wall is digitally colored in a gradient ranging from orange at the top to deep purple at the bottom. A d20 dice logo, wireframe in design and missing numbers, rests in the center of the image with a reverse color scheme (orange on bottom to purple on top). The words "will work for rent money" are scrawled beneath the logo, along with my name, J.B.
May 25, 2025 at 11:33 PM
dropthedie.bsky.social
The counterweight would be about equal to the weight of the portcullis, so plates of iron or blocks of stone would hang within the gatehouse - helping to raise and lower it smoothly.

UNSECURED, it'd be as heavy as a pickup truck with a couple dozen feet of heavy ropes or chains in the bed.
A diagram sketch showing a simple, yet elegant system of pulleys and chains that hang in a triangular pattern to raise and lower drawbridges. Both stretch 30 or so feet in heigh within their gatehouse and are hoisted by cranks and counterweights inside the secure gatehouse.
May 25, 2025 at 11:33 PM