Color coding for conditions?

[The Little Raven]

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.

My quest cards are organized thus, which is the format in which I ask my players to write quests that they want to bring to the table...

Quest Name: The name of the quest. Some are simply straightforward ("Win the Race!") and some are plays on words ("A Drinking Problem" - A quest about poisoning a water supply.).
Category: How I organize the quest. This usually has a faction name ("Elves of Brightwood").
Start NPC: The NPC who gave you the quest.
End NPC: The NPC who officially ends the quest. Usually the reward giver, too.
Objective: The objective of the quest, in plain terms.
Reward: The reward for the quest, in plain terms. Also includes the experience reward, as well.
Special: Additional notes about the quest, such as bonus tasks that can be completed for greater reward. So, if the quest is "Rescue the Distressing Damsel," a bonus task could be to bring the kidnapper (or just his head) in for extra coin.
Plot Card: Some quests are tied together with plot cards, to give the players more in-game information.

My plot cards are organized thus...

Scene: I name all of my scenes, all of my game sessions, and all of my campaigns. I'm very much a compulsive labeler, but it works out to my advantage. This is the scene in which the plot event/dialogue took place.
Location: The location in which the plot even took place.
NPC(s): The NPCs involved in the plot event.
Description: The actual event. This might be a descriptive paragraph, summarizing the event, or it might be a full write-up of the dialogue. This contains the plot points which are truly pertinent to the event in question.

Treasure cards are pretty straightforward, simply being a full description of all loot gained from an encounter or particular area.

I hate slowing down in mid-game to let people jot down notes, so I just write my adventures up using the cards, so I can do my event, then hand out the card and continue without any interruptions.

 

[GnomeWorks]

My quest cards are organized thus, which is the format in which I ask my players to write quests that they want to bring to the table...

Pretty straight-forward. How do you handle more complex quests, like - for example - finding the seven parts of the rod of seven parts? Would you give out additional quest cards for each one, or something - sort of like subquests, I guess?

My plot cards are organized thus...

What purpose do they serve? What makes it on a "plot card"?

 

[The Little Raven]

Pretty straight-forward. How do you handle more complex quests, like - for example - finding the seven parts of the rod of seven parts? Would you give out additional quest cards for each one, or something - sort of like subquests, I guess?

That depends. On some occasions, I'd probably make "Find the Seven Parts of the Rod" a single quest, if they were in one basic location (like within a single set of catacombs). However, if it were a quest that spanned a large geographical area (like a kingdom or continent), then I'd make separate quests for each piece of the rod. It all depends on what makes the most sense when I'm writing it up at the time.

What purpose do they serve? What makes it on a "plot card"?

They serve to remind the players of important events that might not be tied to any quest. For example, when I drop bits of prophecy in my games that will come into play later, those go on a plot card. If they need to remember the password to the thieves' guild, that goes on a plot card. If they find out that Lord Schmuckingham is betraying the king by selling arms behind his back, that goes on a plot card.

 

[Firebeetle]

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.

I'm interested in those too. In fact, I want to color coordinate them. So, if a player is dazed I put the marker underneath AND throw a condition card at the player.

 

[Firebeetle]

My quest cards are organized thus, which is the format in which I ask my players to write quests that they want to bring to the table...

Quest Name: The name of the quest. Some are simply straightforward ("Win the Race!") and some are plays on words ("A Drinking Problem" - A quest about poisoning a water supply.).
Category: How I organize the quest. This usually has a faction name ("Elves of Brightwood").
Start NPC: The NPC who gave you the quest.
End NPC: The NPC who officially ends the quest. Usually the reward giver, too.
Objective: The objective of the quest, in plain terms.
Reward: The reward for the quest, in plain terms. Also includes the experience reward, as well.
Special: Additional notes about the quest, such as bonus tasks that can be completed for greater reward. So, if the quest is "Rescue the Distressing Damsel," a bonus task could be to bring the kidnapper (or just his head) in for extra coin.
Plot Card: Some quests are tied together with plot cards, to give the players more in-game information.

My plot cards are organized thus...

Scene: I name all of my scenes, all of my game sessions, and all of my campaigns. I'm very much a compulsive labeler, but it works out to my advantage. This is the scene in which the plot event/dialogue took place.
Location: The location in which the plot even took place.
NPC(s): The NPCs involved in the plot event.
Description: The actual event. This might be a descriptive paragraph, summarizing the event, or it might be a full write-up of the dialogue. This contains the plot points which are truly pertinent to the event in question.

Treasure cards are pretty straightforward, simply being a full description of all loot gained from an encounter or particular area.

I hate slowing down in mid-game to let people jot down notes, so I just write my adventures up using the cards, so I can do my event, then hand out the card and continue without any interruptions.

Incredible idea I'm stealing immediately. Completely off topic but I'm very glad you posted it. This deserves to be in it's own thread.

 

[Firebeetle]

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.

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Huldvoll

Jan van Leyden

Care to give more details? Do you have a PDF of these?