Last week, we talked about picking the right era for your Crime Drama campaign, but now it’s time to make things feel real, or maybe just feel. So, more than just deciding what happens in your world, you need to determine how it looks. That’s where your Color Palette comes in.
Color is a crucial element of cinematography, and in Crime Drama, cinematography plays a big role. Camera angles, lighting, and color all shape how players interact with a scene and the world.
Different colors evoke different meanings and help establish the mood of your game. Your palette affects everything-- how your city feels, how characters are perceived, and even how crime itself takes shape. As you’ve seen in movies, TV shows, and even video games, a bright, neon-lit world feels very different from one drenched in deep shadows and muted grays. Vibrant hues might indicate excess and optimism, while faded colors suggest decay and isolation. Reds can signal passion, violence, or urgency. Yellows hint at sunshine, madness, or deceit. The palette you choose doesn’t just shape the aesthetics; it subtly influences everything about the world's texture.
If you’ve ever noticed how The Sopranos gives New York scenes a slight blue filter or how Ozark tints scenes in Mexico with yellow-green, you’ve seen how color also establishes geography. We use the same idea in Crime Drama. We don’t expect players to have studied color theory, and color theory doesn't translate perfectly to tabletop RPGs anyway. That’s why we’ve provided example palettes in the rules. Here’s an excerpt of one:
Pastels, Faded Technicolor, and Creamy Whites
Your Schellburg is filled with tropical heat and luxury. The summers are brutal and humid, with periodic downpours and tropical storms. Winters are much milder, drawing in northern visitors escaping the snow and ice of their homes. The city is surrounded by wetlands and swamps, teeming with verdant greenery and ravenous alligators. Even the occasional boa constrictor has been known to take down large animals. As you move into the rural parts of Washington County, you’ll find orange groves, cattle farms, and maybe even an alligator ranch. The landscape is segmented by long, lonely roads raised slightly above the canals on one or both sides. Forests are made up of oak, cypress, and pine.
The city itself has beachside homes that sell for millions of dollars, standing next to low tenement buildings painted in bright primary colors, albeit with peeling paint and cracked stucco. Downtown is filled with glass-clad towers and art deco landmarks. Reggaeton plays from Lamborghinis and Ferraris as they drive past sun-faded mansions. Neon glows silhouette beautiful people in expensive, vibrant clothes.
When picking a palette, the group should about what kind of crime story they want to tell. A world filled with Grimy Browns, Soot Black, and Industrial Reds will immediately signal a different kind of tale than one built on Deep Greens, Faded Grays, and Cold Blues.
Next time, we’ll dive deeper into world-building by discussing Law Levels; what it means to have a near-failed narco-state versus a highly funded and vigilant police state.