Color coding for conditions?

[silentounce]

Just make sure that you're players aren't color blind. Or if they are, have them look at the tools ahead of time and tell you which colors they have a hard time with. Anything with a lot of shades of brown, red, and green would give me problems, and my CB isn't that bad.

 

[SSquirrel]

We're using little colored stones on the minis to signify if someone is marked and if someone has a bleed effect, we have -5B (or 5 and a drop shape) listed by their name on a dry erase board. Other stuff is just a quick notation on the board too.

 

[Kzach]

I read elsewhere that the magnetic markers can't be positioned near each other (they're magnetic) without causing problems.

 

[GnomeWorks]

That's why I use things like quest cards, treasure cards, and plot cards.

What, exactly, do you put on these? I'm intrigued by the idea, and it seems like it would make it a lot easier for players to remember things, especially in longer-running games.

Treasure cards sound fairly straight-forward, but I'm more interested in the other two.

 

[KarinsDad]

We use the little plastic rings at the top of plastic soda bottles. Red for bloodied, White for Cloud of Daggers, Yellow for Marked, etc.

First off, they are cheap.

Secondly, they can be draped over the mini where they are VERY visible. The mini does not need to be moved with these like it does in order to put a marker or poker chip under it.

Sometimes they fall to the base of the mini, but that does not often happen. But, it doesn't really matter.


The leftover different colored rings we use for conditions. We tend to re-use them for different conditions because a) there are so many conditions, it's problematic to remember a different color for a different condition, and b) conditions happen infrequently (at least at low level), so we can remember the one or two conditions as long as any plastic ring is there to remind us.

If we run out of colored plastic rings, we use colored stones next to the mini for Conditions. But conditions do not happen as much as bloodied, marked, hunter's quarry, cursed, and cloud of daggers in our game, hence, we have hardly ever pulled out the stones.


The main advantages of using these plastic rings are a) it's easy, b) nobody has to write anything down, and c) these elements of the game can be discerned by anyone at the table with a single glance. Since they typically drape over the minis, one does not need to move mini #1 in order to see what color poker chips are under mini #2.

And, if one wanted to make special easily identifiable rings, one could take the colored ones and put black marks on them with a permanent magic marker.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I don't like the idea of different colored markers, slipping and removing them from under the minis sounds much too complicated for me. What's more, the colored marker is only an abstract symbol forcing you to look up its meaning.

Instead, I've prepared laminated paper chits for different effects, like "2 Fire damage (save ends)" or "Immobilized (save ends) You can’t move from your space, although you can teleport and can be forced to move by a pull, a push, or a slide". Each player gets the corresponding chit(s), as well as each monster (printed as monster cards for my bookkeeping) under such an effect.

Whenever a combatant starts his turn the player or me has all necessary information right before the eyes. One big advantaeg, for me at least, is that each player can handle the situation on his own without resorting to a rulebook or asking a question.

The only exception is the "marked" condition which is represented by a tiny rubber band. Easy to move from one creature to another and easy to see and recognize for everyone.

---
Huldvoll

Jan van Leyden

 

[James McMurray]

I believe the markers are more intended for use by other people than the player of the monster in question. A fight might have upwards of 15+ people and monsters, some of which might be slowed, stunned, weakened, dazed, marked, and/or taking ongoing fire 5, ongoing acid 5, and ongoing 10 at any given moment. I track everything for my character, but it's also useful for the GM and other players to be able to rapidly look at the table and gauge the the battle's status.

 

[Ganadai]

Prone, unconscious and dying do not need a marker because they can easily be shown by lying a miniature on its side.

Surprised almost always only lasts one round and is fairly easy to distinguish.

Many conditions do little more than grant combat advantage and can probably all be denoted by the same color (i.e. Blinded, Dazed, Helpless, Restrained, Stunned)
Blind and dazed could use their own colors though.

Cursed and Marked are really nice for the DM to be able to see marked.

Hunter's Quarry is almost always the closest enemy to the ranger, and the PC can usually keep up with it on his own.

Dominated does not happen very often, and a DM probably wouldn't forget about it.

Petrified, Slowed and Weakened all have fairly unique effects that should each have their own color.

 

[jmucchiello]

I'm more interested in index cards with conditions on them that I can toss to the players as the conditions hit them. The card would also have the rule text for the condition so they can easily see what being marked means.

 

[Staffan]

I will be using printed-out counters (along the lines of Counter Collection) glued to Warhammer-style square bases, and then using pins to note conditions. I have eight different colors of pins, and I was planning on using them as such:

Red: Blooded (obviously)
Orange: Ongoing damage ("burning")
Yellow: Dazed/Stunned
Green: Slowed
Blue: Prone (because blue means down)
Purple: Marked
White: Immobilized/Restrained
Black: Blinded/Deafened (blacked out)

Some of these have explanations, whereas others just took the colors that were left.