Introducing the Deck of Many Things

[sasnak]

It ruined a campaign I was in. Three 5th level players take draws:

The Paladin: Soul imprisoned in hell.
The Sorceror: Alignment change to Neutral Evil
The Rogue(Me: +2 Cha, 50,000 XP, a major circlet of blasting, and a +5 rapier)

I shoot up to 10th level. Balancing encounters becomes impossible, I never gain another level, and the campaign dies in limbo.

The mistake made here was letting such a powerful item be obtained at 5th level. I have used the deck many times, usually at or near the end of campaigns where 10k experience doesn't usually help more than 1 level at most - try not letting iot get found until the average party is level is at least 10th - it's not so unbalancing then.

 

[Barak]

I used a very modified one once. My PCs had to go to a "curiosity shop" in the City of Brass. The owner, an unctuous, very pleasing, self-abasing merchant had a deck, and was offering "draws" at 1000 gp a pop.

Unbeknownst to my players, it had mostly bad effects in it, with a few good ones so it wasn't too obvious. The twist was, it was a custom-made, less powerful deck. And the "nice" merchant could pretty much "undo" all the bad effects.. For a price. For example, the "imprison" card sent the PC to the Sultan's prison, and the merchants, having contacts, could get the PC free.. If the proper bribes were offered...

All in all, I had unwittingly given my PCs too much wealth. Instead of doing a deus ex machina to remove it, however, I allowed their own greed to do it for me. And for the cost of a couple of +2 to a few stats, they lost (overall) about 600,000 GPs. And they were -happy- to have gotten off so lightly.

 

[frankthedm]

Personally, my GM philosophy is "Give the PCs enough rope to hang themselves", but I'm not quite sure if the Deck isn't a bit overkill in that regard...

I prefer to call it the Deck of Dead Campaigns.

I've seen the Deck used three times in three different games; each time it looked like fun---and each time it kicked the campaign squarely in the huevos.

Characters become grossly unbalancing or utterly neutered, and feelings are inevitably hurt. Oh, and being clever by pointing out to a player whose character just turned into a turd, "Well, you had to draw that last card, didn't you?" is never helpful.

It will all end in tears.

Have fun!

It is ok for a game where the plot is over and done with. Any semblance of a balanced game is dead one they start drawing though. Some of the worse effect i would not blame someone metagaming to avoid. {Death Card most notably]

 

[Endur]

I prefer to call it the Deck of Dead Campaigns.

I've seen the Deck used three times in three different games; each time it looked like fun---and each time it kicked the campaign squarely in the huevos.

Characters become grossly unbalancing or utterly neutered, and feelings are inevitably hurt. Oh, and being clever by pointing out to a player whose character just turned into a turd, "Well, you had to draw that last card, didn't you?" is never helpful.

It will all end in tears.

Have fun!

If your PCs draw from the deck of many things as written, I agree with the above.

If you approach the deck from another perspective, it can be very effective. Another player in this thread describes not using the deck and instead it becomes a plot device.

Another possibility is that the local NPCs in a town used the deck, and that spawns changes to the town and quests for the PCs.

Another possibiliity is that the players draw from the deck in a dream sequence, but none of the effects take place right then. The bad effects become a warning/nightmare of things to come. The good cards become a dream of hope for the future.

 

[Corathon]

Because of the deck of many things one of my players' characters fought death for the lives of his dead followers.

The PC was a cavalier who lost 2 of his followers in battle against an evil cult. Among the cult's treasures was a deck of many things. The group later met a wild mage (2E) who offered to use his ability to control the deck to allow the cavalier to draw the card that grants wishes in return for a quest.

The wild mage used his ability - and blew his roll, unbeknownst to the PCs. The cavalier drew two completely random cards from the deck and got the wish-granting card, and also drew the card requiring you to defeat a minor death or die! The cavalier triumphed and used the wishes to bring back his dead followers.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

Somehow the kids in my D&D afterschool class heard about the Deck of Many Things. I don't know whether to be glad that its legend still percolates down to nine-year-olds, or sad that the important part of the legend - RUN AWAY DO NOT TOUCH BE THOU NOT TEMPTED - had been lost. Well, they know now!

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

The DOMT is an artifact, or at least has been since 3e. Throwing ANY artifact into an ongoing game on a whim you'll get only what you deserve. What I have always enjoyed about it is the gambling aspect but I've never used it except when the campaign AND players were in a position to handle it.


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[JediSoth]

The last time I used it (and it's odd seeing that I last posted in this thread in 2005), I actually intended to end the campaign with it.

It was 2.5 years into World's Largest Dungeon. I was tired of the grind. The editing errors were wearing on me. I just wanted the campaign to END. Unfortunately, the PCs weren't near the end, they were only about 2/3rds of the way through the Dungeon. I didn't want to soldier on, though, so I threw in the one thing I knew was a campaign wrecker: The Deck of Many Things.

No one got killed by it, but someone did pull the Wish card. When they wished to be whisked to the end of the Dungeon, I didn't screw with them too much. There was an enchantment on the Dungeon that said you could teleport/wish yourself out, but I either didn't recall anything that said you couldn't teleport within, or just didn't care (maybe the Deck was powerful enough to override that). So, I sent the whole party to the exit room. The 20th-level Frost Giant Clerics guarding the exited managed to kill one character, but the rest barreled past them and exited the Dungeon alive.

I intended to take a break from both DMing and D&D at that point. Then, I got Ptolus...

 

[Thunderfoot]

"Bob, this is the Deck of Many Things. Deck of Many Things, this is my friend Bob."

I remember when I was much younger I dropped a pack of these into random treasure, it was in a locked box, wrapped in cloth and tied up in string at the bottom of the "monster's" (NPC adventurer) pack. It was a hint to leave it alone. After several hours of unwrapping and lock picking, they open the box to find a small squarish leather pouch with some cards inside...

They decided to play high card low card to see who would get the deck (which they hadn't figured out what it was yet.)... The new characters were much more careful with things they found in locked boxes.

BTW - Who did the threadnomancy on this?