D&D 4E 4e Deck of Many Things

[bfreakb999]

I've searched and read some examples of 4E version of the The Deck Of Many Things, but i wanted to attempt to make a version that was more balanced for the rules set for 4e. I don't really like the idea of having the PC's be at different levels or dealing with the trouble of a wish mechanic.

A fellow DM and I decided we would make our own version of the deck, but we would absolutely love some critiquing and suggestions for what we already have. Were using the 22 major arcana tarot cards and we tried to match their effect to the card or its interpretation. It's not meant to fit perfectly, but i think the majority of these are reasonable. We tried to give bonuses that would beneficial and detrimental effects that would really sting. Here is the version of the deck.

*We made the conditions a daily effect. Encounter effects don't seem to be as fun.

The Fool
You gain vulnerable to all damage equal to half your level. You may also draw another card and grant the cards effect to another player. This card breaks the normal drawing limitations of the Deck of Many Things.

The Magician
Choose one of the following effects: You gain a +2 tarot bonus to ranged attack rolls or you gain training in the Arcana skill. This effect ends after your next extended rest.

The High Priestess
Until the end of you next extended rest you gain the following benefits.
+5 tarot bonus to all knowledge checks. When rolling a perception or insight check you may roll twice and keep the higher result.

The Empress
Until the end of your next extended rest, you gain a +2 tarot bonus to your Will and a +2 tarot bonus to saving throws against conditions with the charm keyword. You suffer a -2 penalty to your Fortitude defense and a -2 penalty to saving against conditions with the Fear keyword. This effect ends after your next extended rest.

The Emperor
Until the end of your next extended rest, you gain a +2 tarot bonus to your Fortitude and a +2 tarot bonus to saving throws against conditions with the fear keyword. You suffer a -2 penalty to your Will defense and a -2 penalty to saving against conditions with the charm keyword. This effect ends after your next extended rest.

Both Empress and Emperor
If you have both The Empress and The Emperor Card, until the end of your next extended rest you gain a +2 tarot bonus your Will and Fortitude and Your speed is reduced by 1.

The Hierophant
Once during the day, before the end of your next extended rest you can choose to gain a +10 tarot bonus to one attack roll as a free action. Rolling a natural one in this way is not treated as an automatic miss.

The Lovers
Until the end of your next extended rest, whenever you end your turn adjacent to an enemy whose gender is opposite of your own, you are infatuated (save ends). While you are infatuated you are weakened and you suffer a -2 tarot penalty to attack rolls and grant combat advantage to that enemy.

The Chariot
Until the end of your next extended rest you gain a +1 tarot bonus to your speed and once per round you may shift as a minor action.

Strength
Choose one of the following effects: You gain a +2 tarot bonus melee attack rolls or you can choose to treat all Athletic checks to jump as if you had a running start. This effect ends after your next extended rest.

The Hermit
Until the end of your next extended rest, you gain a +4 tarot bonus to Insight and Perception and a -5 penalty to all Charisma-based skill checks.

The Wheel of Fortune
(1) Gain a +2 tarot bonus to your Fort until the end of your next extended rest.
(2) Gain a +2 tarot bonus to your Reflex until the end of your next extended rest
(3) Gain a +2 tarot bonus to your Will until the end of your next extended rest
(4)You gain a +2 tarot bonus to attack rolls until the end of your next extended rest.
(5) You suffer a -2 penalty to Fort until the end of you next extended rest.
(6) You suffer a -2 penalty to Reflex until the end of your next extended rest.
(7) You suffer a -2 penalty to Will until the end of your next extended rest.
(8) You suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next extended rest.
(9) You gain a magic item (DM’s choice or random) equal to your level +1d4.
(10) Roll 1d8 for the first 8 effects. That effect now lasts for twice its normal duration.

Justice
All damage dice you roll are treated as half the maximum damage of that die. This effect ends after your next extended rest. (1d10 is treated as a 5)

The Hanged Man
Until your next extended rest, the first time you fall unconscious you cannot return to consciousness by any means until the end of the encounter. You do not make death saving throws while unconscious this way.

Death
When this card comes in to play, shuffle any other cards you have drawn back into the deck.
Those cards have no effect on you.
You suffer a -2 penalty to all defenses and saving throws and all enemy weapons gain Brutal 1 when dealing damage to you until the end of your next extended rest.
When you suffer a critical hit you are weakened (save ends).


Temperance
Whenever you regain hit points by any means other than regeneration, you regain additional hit points equal to half your level.

The Devil
Until your next extended rest you gain a +4 bonus to Initiative. You start each encounter dominated by the devil (save ends). While dominated, you are treated as being normally dominated by The Devil card, attacking the closest ally to you. You also gain +3 tarot bonus to all attack and damage rolls while dominated until your next extended rest.

The Tower
Until the end of your next extended rest, re-roll any natural roll of 20. Use the second result. If that second result is also a 20, the attack hits as normal and you are dazed. (save ends)

The Star
Once today before the end of your next extended rest, you may apply a +5 tarot bonus to any single d20 roll that you choose.

The Moon
This card may only be used after all other fates of cards have been decided. Choose one existing card with a negative effect that you are under. You share that effect to one ally of your choice.

The Sun
Once during the day, until the end of your next extended rest, you may choose to remove 1 card of your choice that you are affected by.

Judgment
Once today before the end of your next extended rest, you may choose to:
1. End one effect or disease that a save can end. If you are in an encounter when you use this, you are weakened until the end of your next turn.
2. When you fall unconscious you may choose to automatically stabilize. You may not make any death saving throws.

The World
You may choose one of the following:
(1) You gain a +2 tarot bonus to all attack and damage rolls until the end of your next extended rest.
(2) You also gain a +4 tarot bonus to all skill checks until the end of your next extended rest.
(3) You gain a +2 tarot bonus to all defenses until the end of your next extended rest.
(4) After the reading you can choose to have everyone shuffles their hands into the deck (except for this card) and redraws at least 2 cards. Ignore all previous effects and the reading begins again. You may choose 1 player other than yourself to be exempt from the reading.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Glad to see someone throw something like this together, it's something I've wanted to do for a while but have been putting off longer and longer

For what you were aiming for, it seems to work well enough, but there are too many variables for me to really judge it without using it in play. It does seem like it'd be easy to pick up a card that doesn't do squat for you, though, which can stink.

(Personal opinion) As an overall comment, the cards are a bit... unimpressive. The concepts are fine, but there's not a lot of risk (and thus not a huge reward). My favorite part of the deck was the incredible amount of risk to it - you could get something amazing, but you could also get something horrible, and once you decided how many cards to pull, you couldn't go back! There was a lot of suspense with it With yours, I see it being there as a "cool thing" but without the same memorable tenseness that comes before pulling out a card.

 

[bfreakb999]

Thanks for the reply. :-D

I do agree with you with the feeling of how the original deck added tension and a "high-risk, high-reward" concept. To an extent i think i am worried that strong changes made to player stats could ruin the game for them, but after testing it a bit i'm noticing the positive/negative effects are a bit on the unimpressive side as well. Here some things i'm actually considering after reading your post and doing a little testing

1. One of the first ideas i had was to give the Wheel of Fortune card 6 different outcomes. I'll work with it and have it updated later.

2. Replace many of the +1 bonuses with +2 instead, but allow the negative effects to hurt just as badly. (10% seemed to be a sweet spot for a lot of bonuses/negatives. 5% just wasn't enough according to player feedback)

3. There is currently no card the players can get to receive an item. Perhaps one of the cards could allow them to gain a magic item equal to their level +1d4/1d6. (possibly in the Wheel of Fortune)

4. The death card is the way it is mainly because of they way it worked in 3.5. In 4E however this is far less effective because solo combats are much more dangerous and puts certain classes at a much larger disadvantage. I'm thinking perhaps as an alternative allowing a "miss" to hit yourself instead? I'll think on it.

5. Very positive feedback with the "Devil" card. Most people actually mentioned there should be an initiative bonus thrown in as well so that an attack would be made before a save was forced, and i'm considering it.

I'll update a few features, and post the changes later on. I hope i get some more feedback. :-D

**EDIT UPDATE** 12/25
Added more effects to Wheel of Fortune
Added weakened condition to The Lovers
Increased to bonus to many cards to a 10% change. This might be subject to change after more playtesting.
Increased bonus to The Hermit card to balance penalty.
Gave +4 initiative bonus for the Devil card.

Changes may be coming to the Death and The Hanged Man card.
Changes may be coming to Strength and The Magician to bring them in line with other positive effect of cards.
Changes may be coming to The Moon card that require it to be shared with the entire party.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

The main thing is that all of the effects only last, effectively, one in-game day. Thus, I'm not as concerned with high risk. However, the inherent problem is that if they can pull from it repeatedly, then unbalancing the party in different ways too much every day can lose the novelty... if they can't, then it'll only be a handful of encounters at most it affects you. Hmm...

 

[bfreakb999]

Re

In 3.5, all the effects were pemanant, right?

 

[Turtlejay]

The Fool has no duration. . .

Rather than having things last uniformly, I'd have the bad things last until a Remove Curse ritual was performed, and give it some kind of nasty penalty. That way it is not *permanent*, but is is still risky. That way you can feel free to make the goodies a little more good. I'm not sure if I'd increase their duration, or just their value.

As it is, I'm not sure I'd use it. I see the potential, though, so if you refine it some more I would not hesitate to steal it for myself.

Jay

 

[Nytmare]

To me, what the deck of many things always felt like it was trying to be was a gamed up and in your face version of a Tarot deck prediction. If I were to introduce a Deck of Many Things (TM) now, instead of it being an updated version of the old deck vs chart scenario, I'd probably end up doing something closer to what they did in Everway and improvise an encounter built around a tarot reading.

The players pose either a question or a problem they are trying to solve. The DM lays out a 6 card spread of the major arcana, in a 3 tiered pyramid. From left to right, the bottom 3 cards represent the player's past, present, and future. The middle 2 represent the forces working for, and against the player. And the top card represents the player's fate.

The position of the cards (that is, whether the face of the card is right side up or upside down, not if the card's front or back is showing) is important and changes whether or not the card's meaning is positive or negative. The Magician, for example, could be interpreted as "using your abilities and resources well" if he's face up, and could mean "there is someone manipulating you" if he's upside down.

So, as a random example, let's pretend that our heroes find themselves horribly lost and hopelessly trapped deep underground in a partially collapsed dungeon. The priestess of Sehanine eventually convinces her friend's that their only hope is to turn to the deck.

"How will we escape this dungeon?" she asks of the deck, hoping to force the hand of fate with a question that assumes success.

The 6 cards I randomly generate for your viewing pleasure, and the meanings I attribute to them (thanks to our friend the Wikipedia) are:

Past - 12/1 - The Hanged Man - In the past, you found truth thanks to a new vantage point
Present - 20/2 - Judgment (reversed) - You are now dealing with the repercussions of past decisions
Future - 17/2 - The Star (reversed) - There may be unhappiness

Virtue - 0/2 - The Fool (reversed) - What appear to be risks, may not be as dangerous as they appear
Fault - 5/2 - The Heirophant (reversed) - Powerful deceptions are at work against you

Fate - 18 - The Moon - Your fate is that you will be deceived

So as I looked for a meaning behind this particular spread, the story that unfolded in my mind's eye was that the party isn't really trapped, and that the very, very dangerous Illithid Illusionist they thought they had killed earlier isn't really dead and is waiting for his chance to strike.

In the end, what you end up with is closer to a watered down and controllable wish. It's a heck of a lot different than what the Deck of Many Things used to be, but I think it's a more interesting tool for both the players and the DM.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Looking back at this, I think part of my problem is that the effects just aren't exciting to me. Sure, I know that, mathematically, a +/- 2 to a roll is actually quite a strong difference. But, a slight bump in numbers just doesn't make me go "ZOMG!" when I see it, particularly as a temporary effect.

Justice, effectively, does about nothing. I'd look at it and go, "cool, I'm just as effective as before". D'oh. On the other hand, though, it does keep you from experiencing the excitement of "I just rolled all 10s on my 4d10" Although, it saves you from situations like rolling all 1s.

((If this came off as harsh, I didn't mean it to be. But, while it works mechanically, I think it just lacks excitement.))

If I were to introduce a Deck of Many Things (TM) now, instead of it being an updated version of the old deck vs chart scenario, I'd probably end up doing something closer to what they did in Everway and improvise an encounter built around a tarot reading.

On one hand: cool!
On the other hand: too much for me to keep track of. That is, for someone who knows @#$% all about tarot cards, having to remember my system for it in-game would be a bit more demanding than just pulling a card and listing the effect I might be inclined to use it for a session or two, but I wouldn't want to have to keep track of it if the deck was used in the future.

 

[Nytmare]

Wow, I kinda wandered on that one. I should post less on so little sleep.

On one hand: cool!
On the other hand: too much for me to keep track of.

It's really not a lot, a list of tarot card meanings can be reduced to an 8 and a half by 11 sheet of paper easily. No bigger than a list of effects. It's just finding the common theme, and using it as fodder for your BS-maker.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Yeah, now that I've gone back over it, it doesn't seem that bad. I suppose the amount of text made it harder to take in the mechanical bits (of which you can pretty much wing it).

Though, admittedly, yours seems more like divination than altering fortune. Similar, yet different Both useful. I'll probably rip off your idea at some point, thanks!