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.

Random Findings: Condition Cards

Somehow I have missed this. The best D&D 4e Condition available on the internet have been updated a while ago: Weems updated condition cards.

I have printed a set for each of my players and encourage them to put the cards on a little plastic bases in front of them whenever their character is effected by a condition. We use bottle necks for conditions as well, but I do prefer using the bottle necks for the bloodied condition and monsters only. Thus reducing the colors of bottle necks needed and keeping things less confusing.

Download: Location Tracking Cards

In addition to tracking NPC with the help of cards I wanted to have reminders for locations my group visited. The cards I made are generic enough to be used for all the different kinds of locations such as cities, shops, taverns, temples and so on. A pdf version with 9 cards per page can be downloaded here. Again special thanks to Jovana Gaspar for sharing the font A Lolita Scorned and Max F. Williams for the texture Minas Tirith.

Here is a sample, how I use the cards:

The concept is similar to the NPC tracking cards. The cards are only meant as a reminder. In the upper right part of the cards are two places for symbols or shortcuts. I intended the first space for an identifier specifying where the described location can be found at and the second to define the shortcut used on other cards to reference this location. The first shortcut of the sample is 'SF' which stands for the Shadowfell, the plane Whaleburg is located in. And the second shortcut 'WB' stands for Whaleburg. If I would make a card for a shop in Whaleburg I would use 'WB' as the primary identification.

The sample NPC card I have posted previously, has 'WB' as a location identifier to indicate that the NPC can be found in Whaleburg.

Download: NPC Tracking Cards

Because I was not able to find any NPC tracking cards that satisfied my needs I made some on my own. A pdf version with 9 cards per page can be downloaded here. Special thanks to Jovana Gaspar for sharing the font A Lolita Scorned and Max F. Williams for the texture Nargothrond.

Here is a sample, how I use the cards.


The tracking cards are not meant to contain very much details about a NPC but are rather intended as a reminder of what made the person stick out of the crowed. I also wanted a quick way to get an overview which person belongs to a certain location or a faction. I therefore added two spaces at the upper right portion of the card to hold a symbol or one or two characters as a identifier. In the given sample I used 'WB' for the city of Whaleburg which my players did explore a while ago and 'BC' for the Bloodgore clan.
The identification is also on the Location and Faction cards I have made and which I might upload another time.