diff --git a/evennia/utils/ansi.py b/evennia/utils/ansi.py
index ae85c5d488..44d570515b 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/ansi.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/ansi.py
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ class ANSIParser(object):
 
             # ansi fallback logic expects r,g,b values in [0..5] range
             gray = (ord(letter)-97)/5.0
-            r, g, b = gray, gray, gray
+            red, green, blue = gray, gray, gray
 
         if use_xterm256: