Puzzle card symbols
General
Some of the Puzzle Cards have faint playing card symbols, risk soldiers, dice, number strings, and obscure shapes on them.
Playing Cards and Large Letters
Each card with a playing symbol also has part of a letter faintly printed over the card in a slab-serif font, and it's anticipated that arranging all the playing symbol cards in order will eventually depict the whole message. All symbols appear on cards with prime numbers. 54 Prime numbers under 256 are as follows:
2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 73 79 83 89 97 101 103 107 109 113 127 131 137 139 149 151 157 163 167 173 179 181 191 193 197 199 211 223 227 229 233 239 241 251
- See: List of Playing Cards for a plain list.
Chart of cards with letters
Note the groupings of playing card symbols goes Club-Diamond-Heart-Spade, from Ace to 2 (ace high), forming 13 sets of 3 letters.
| Clubs | Diamonds | Hearts | Spades | ||||
| Ace | 211 | 083 | 151 | 017 | |||
| I | S | T | |||||
| K | 113 | 053 | 173 | 023 | |||
| O | L | E | |||||
| Q | 011 | 137 | 149 | 059 | |||
| T | H | E | |||||
| J | 019 | 107 | 251 | 043 | |||
| C | U | B | |||||
| 10 | 079 | 181 | 179 | 241 | |||
| E | H | E | |||||
| 9 | 047 | 041 | 109 | 139 | |||
| L | P | M | |||||
| 8 | 089 | 013 | 073 | 002 | |||
| E | C | O | |||||
| 7 | 003 | 029 | 005 | 031 | |||
| M | B | E | |||||
| 6 | 007 | 037 | 067 | 071 | |||
| D | T | H | |||||
| 5 | 061 | 097 | 127 | 101 | |||
| U | N | D | |||||
| 4 | 103 | 131 | 163 | 167 | |||
| E | R | C | |||||
| 3 | 193 | 157 | 197 | 191 | |||
| L | A | P | |||||
| 2 | 199 | 227 | 229 | 233 | |||
| - | - | - | |||||
| Jkr | 223 | 239 |
This appears to be correct, tho pieces are missing, and it doesnt make an awful lot of sense at the moment.
- /IST/OLE/THE/CUB/EHE/LPM/ECO/MBE/DTH/UND/ERC/LAP/.../
The apparent message reads:
- I stole the Cube. Help me. Combed Thunderclap.
Wave 4 Meta Information
Note: This list is still in the process of being collated - may not be exhaustive Please see Perplexorum or alternatively http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16138 for current discussion
| Card | Upright Number | Reversed Number | Shape | Risk Char | Red Dice | Blue Dice | Notes |
| Season 1 Card #029 - Beware the Puzzle Monsters | 1-14443432.5-3 | 3-232.52.51.5-1 | 
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Card also contains playing card symbol. | |||
| Season 1 Card #040 - Baby On Board | 2-11444414412-3 | 1-1144144414432.5-4 | 
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2 Infantry | Red: 5, 4, 3 | Blue: 4, 3 | Attacker wins. Shape is contained within the side of the elephant. |
| Season 1 Card #058 - Breaking And Entering | 2-21122214-4 | 4-23232.534334-1 | None | 1 Cavalry | Red: 6, 3, 1 | Blue: 6, 4 | This card and card 60 overlay each other to create one set of red/blue dice and 1 cavalry figure. Defender wins. |
| Season 1 Card #060 - Celebration | 1-414141414144144441-1 | 4-44444444111111111114-3 | None | 1 Cavalry | Red: 6, 3, 1 | Blue: 6, 4 | This card and card 58 overlay each other to create one set of red/blue dice and 1 cavalry figure. Defender wins. |
| Season 1 Card #063 - The Next Generation | 3-34-1 | 2-414441141-1 | 
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| Season 1 Card #090 - Also Known As | 4-4444444443.5-1 | 3-433333334-2 | None | 3 Infantry | Red: 4, 4, 3 | Blue: 6, 3 | Attacker and defender lose an army each. |
| Season 1 Card #094 - Prime Rhyme Crime | 2-4111111441-2 | 1-1114112321-1 | 
|
Numbers are vertical. | |||
| Season 1 Card #096 - Castle in The Sky | 1-222233332-4 | 3-44411414441444112.5-4 | 
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| Season 1 Card #136 - Bling Bunny | 3-2333234-1 | 4-143334-3 | 
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Numbers are vertical. | |||
| Season 1 Card #156 - Going Dotty | 2-111221111112-4 | 2-2232-4 | None | Numbers are vertical. This card has writing revealed under a black light. | |||
| Season 1 Card #188 - Hybridization | 4-11122221412234-2 | 2-21121111221-4 | 
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| Season 1 Card #191 - My Dear Watson | 2-11444444444411111111444-2 | 1-344411444443-1 | 
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| Season 1 Card #192 - Pronunciation | 3-3333322333332-4 | 1-444444114411112-1 | 
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| Season 1 Card #203 - Ecliptic | 4-33223333234-4 | 3-11144144144443-3 | None | Numbers are vertical. | |||
| Season 1 Card #218 - The World | 2-4444433333323-2 | 1-44334-3 | 
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| Season 1 Card #222 - Instigator | 4-1414411122-2 | 3-34433333432-4 | 
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Numbers are vertical. | |||
| Season 1 Card #235 - Circuitous | 1-4444444434444444444443-4 | 4-222233332222.5-1 | 
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| Season 1 Card #236 - Swarms | 4-4333223323-3 | 3-2112223-2 | None | ||||
| Season 1 Card #237 - Roaming Identity | 3-3333334433334-1 | 2-1222323-2 | 
|
Numbers are vertical. This card has micro-printing on it: "otpaaworldtdnia 1.56.29". | |||
| Season 1 Card #250 - Manoeuvers | 4-3322333333333332-1 | 1-343-2 | 
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| Season 1 Card #253 - Sightseeing | 1-1111211112-4 | 2-111114441114114-1 | 
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Season 1 Card #084 - Insights Unrelated to the others, it says "27.55.25.34.4.43.500.15.18.55.13.1.10.30.56.55.39.21.7.16.27.55.25.69.29.35.62.55"
Season 1 Card #223 - Secret Location Unrelated to the others, in a hard-to-see yellow text it says "100, 139, 6, 148, 62, 127, 118, 119, 131, 151, 146, 88, 135, 107, 112, 152, 124, 150, 130, 100, 147, 93, 121, 149, 134, 144, 126, 98, 133, 103, 143, 116, 63, 111, 91, 101, 70, 61, 105, 62, 76, 117, 123, 84, 102, 89, 115, 96, 137, 92, 85, 122, 87, 53, 104, 90, 145".
This message was successfully decoded on the 30th of October, 2006.
Observations
- Numbers range from 1-4, including 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5.
- There are a total of 42 numbers.
- There are 42 territories in Risk.
- There are 11 numbers that start with "1-" and "2-" each, and 10 numbers that start with "3-" and "4-".
- In a 4-player game of Risk, two players start with 11 territories and two start with 10 territories.
Speculations
- The Start Numbers, or those before the first dash character, identify a player.
- The Middle Numbers, or those between the dashes, could represent a path, where 1=South, 2=West, 3=North, 4=East.
- The Middle Numbers could represent conquests on a Risk map.
- The End Numbers, or those after the second dash, could identify a player who ends up in control of a territory in Risk. There are 9 numbers that end in "2"; there are 9 regions in North America on a Risk board. There are 7 that end in "3"; there are 7 regions in Risk's Europe. There are 12 numbers that end in "4"; there are 12 regions in Risk's Asia. There are 14 that end in "1"; there are 14 regions in Risk's South America, Africa, and Australia continents combined.
Further Work
PerplexHero put the following shape together by joining the various map pieces together in card order. See the original post for a zip file containing a hi-res version.
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Please see Brian Enigma's impressive Card Catalog for a sorted, comprehensive listing of cards. |
