Riddle: Stone Disc Riddle

This is a handout for a riddle I made for my gaming group two years ago. The characters found a construct of four stone disc stacked upon each other. A symbol was engraved on each disc and the discs could be turned independently not unlike the lock of an old safe. The numbers 1 to 7 were engraved around the discs with an equation of symbols beneath.

Each symbol represents a number and in order to solve the riddle the players had to determine which symbol stands for a certain number. This had to be done by solving the equation and by turning the discs in such a way that the symbol on each disc points to the number it represents.

Example: If the star would stand for the number 3 the red disc must be turned so that the star points to 'III'.

The riddle was solved within 15 minutes, if I remember correctly. The solution and a .jpg for download can be found here (Miscellaneous).

Download: Faction Tracking Cards

And here is my the third and last type of tracking cards I have made so far (NPC tracking cards were the first and the location cards the second). A PDF version with 9 cards per page can be downloaded here. As with my other tracking cards they are only meant to hold just enough information to distinguish the faction from others. Detailed information would have to be recorded with another method. A special thanks to Jovana Gaspar for sharing the font A Lolita Scorned and Derek R. Audette for the texture I used for the background of the cards.

In the upper right part of the cards are two places for symbols or shortcuts. I intended the first space to specify an identification for the faction which other cards can refer to. So if a NPC belongs to a certain faction the identification specified on the faction cards could be found on the NPC's card. The sample NPC card I have posted previously, has 'BC' as a faction identification to indicate that it belongs to the Bloodgore Clan.

The second space I intended to use to specify the location the faction is most active at.

The column Faces is meant to hold the known members or the main faces of a faction.

Random Findings: Drama Cards

If I had not already bought and introduced the Plot Twist Cards from Paizo to our game I would have used the Drama Cards from 1d4 chan (free for download!). And I am still ponder upon replacing the Plot Twist cards. Why?

Do not get me wrong, I like the cards from Paizo and they would be my first choice if we would play D&D 3.5E. But we play 4E and my players have not really bought into the concept on taking over the narrative with the use of the cards and hesitate using them. I was hoping that the non-narrative effects proposed on the cards would encourage their usage. But the proposals are for the 3.5E rules even if easily adapted to 4E.

The Drama Cards are 4E specific and basically fall into two types. One type is giving advantages or effects in combat quit like the Fortune Cards from Wizards of the Coast. And the other type opens narrative opportunities. Even if those cards always state that the effect falls into the DM's discretion I would always ask for a proposal of the person playing the card. My favorite card that falls into the second category is 'Parley' which changes a combat into a social encounter. Another thing I like is that the Drama Cards are divided by 'strength' into four groups. The non-narrative effects of the Plot Twist Cards do not defer to much by power level.

If you do not like giving your players any narrative control you still could use those that have in combat effects. Which basically would turn them into a free set of Fortune Card.

I did not yet had any Fortune Card in my hand but from what I have seen in the internet I am not so fond of the concept and I find the cards rather expansive (3.99$ for 8 cards). And they do not give any real narrative control to the players.

The opportunity to either use cards to hand over narrative control to the players or if they do not like to do so to give them a advantage in combat was the reason I introduced the Plot Twist cards to our game in the first place.