Rediculous stuff from the PC aspect of the game

[zypherillius]

This afternoon in a teenagers DMed game(3.5), ive got a 2 fighter/5 wizard illumian that interacted with a deck of many things he had tossed in. After everybody else drew, one of them hitting the king of diamonds then losing his soul, another one getting a major wonderous weapon and being emprisoned, the other kid gets 10000 experience and a keep, i decided to draw.

Two draws later, im 100000 experience higher and having two medium beneficial wonderous items, i drew the king of diamonds twice.

Does anybody have any other stories of seeing rediculous stuff happen from the PC standpoint? I know theres the post about pcs doing stupid stuff, but I thought this would offer a different twist on it.

He told me to level all of it up, and it only took two hours, and ive not picked spells yet.

Hope everybody enjoys!

 

[Kunimatyu]

Anyone who uses a Deck of Many Things before about level ten needs a swift kick to the face. It's going to throw off the party a lot, good or bad.

When my 5th level rogue got the deck, he got a bonus to Charisma, a +5 rapier, and went up to level 11 or so. The sorceress turned evil, and the paladin had his soul imprisioned in hell.

The game pretty much was in various stages of disintegration after that.

 

[Shadowslayer]

I don't know about "from the PC standpoint" but check this out:

Our ex-DM pulled the Deck of Random Stupidity on us, and one guy drew a card that changed his PCs gender. Turned out that the player that had the PC sex change was actually gay in real life. (he was out, but not to us yet as it was a new group...we found out much later) Anyway, he thought the whole thing was nothing but a set up for the DM to make fun of him, which it hadn't been. He demanded that the DM recant the result of his draw, and the DM wouldn't. The player was seriously upset and quit the group in a huff.

Then he asked to come back. We said yes, then he tried to backstab all of our PCs. The whole thing ended up a passive/aggresive feud between this guy and the DM that lasted a few games, till the bulk of the group had finally had enough. (We also found out that the DM was ALSO in the closet)

Sounds like a Jerry Springer show eh?

In the end a bunch of us (the non-dysfunctional guys) ended up quitting the game and forming our own group. It's been all normal since then.

We switch off on the DMs chair once in a while, and to this date, none of us has used "the Deck"

 

[pogre]

I think most groups reach a point where they no longer want decks in the game. They have ruined at least everybody's campaign once in JH or HS.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

I think most groups reach a point where they no longer want decks in the game. They have ruined at least everybody's campaign once in JH or HS.

True. I have only put the deck in one game since I finished University 17 years ago. It was in the module so I bit the bullet and left it in.

It basically turned into a how-much-do-I-like-my-current-character-poll

0 cards drawn--I love him
1 card drawn--He's cool, but I can think of others I would like as much.
2 cards drawn--He is geting a bit boring
3 cards drawn--One foot in the grave and loving it.
4 cards drawn--Die you miserable hack!!!!

 

[Huw]

I think most groups reach a point where they no longer want decks in the game. They have ruined at least everybody's campaign once in JH or HS.

I agree about 80%. When the DM introduces a deck of many things, they're essentially fishing for ideas. I used one in one long running campaign, and it went quite well. The players were travelling between worlds in a rather lethal fashion (I had one of those paths where if you step of it, you die), and the chance to draw from the deck was one of the "obstacles". IIRC, there were three interesting outcomes.

1) One character got flames, which fit perfectly with the plane hopping nature of the campaign.
2) One character got donjon. Another got a wish, and wished to know the first character's location. This set up an elaborate rescue attempt.
3) Another got a +4 sword. However, I ruled that the sword would have been acquired from someone - and someone powerful enough to legitimately own a +4 sword also has access to divination magic to find who's now got it.

In short, the deck managed to set up several upcoming subplots.

 

[Legildur]

We hates the deck! Most particularly when the other players get greedy and draw 3-4 cards. You KNOW it's going to end badly. Always, and I do mean ALWAYS, harms a party and often results in the end of a campaign. Or you end up in the position where one character draws as many cards as they can in an attempt to undo all the bad results.... stupi, stupid, stupid item to throw in a party (and I say that regardless of the fact that my characters that have drawn from the Deck have fared quite well from it).

In our last game where a Deck was provided, it was through an extradimensional space (we didn't know it was there). The first character in was the Paladin. He came back (having not drawn) and said it was a very dangerous place with nothing worth risking themselves for in an attempt to avoid the whole situation. Someone didn't believe him and went in and drew cards... and it was all downhill from there (except for my character, who seemed blessed after drawing 5 cards in all and getting only one bad one - emnity).

 

[Luthien Greyspear]

Not quite the same thing, but...

I've never used a Deck of Many Accidents in my home-brew campaigns because of the potential problems (although I did use the one found in the original Ravenloft, because I figured the party wasn't going to survive anyway). I have, however, used the Tarot Deck of Many Things from an ancient issue of Dragon Magazine (back in issue 73 or 74, I think).

I put it in the hands of a minor godling of fate, and had the party trapped in a sort of fugue state where they were confronted by phantom representations of their 'opposites'. The royal princess was confronted by a beggar, the woodsman was confronted by a perfumed dandy, the priest of Olidamarra was confronted by a cop, etc. After each party member had spoken with their 'opposite', they were offered the choice of either one card drawn at random, or two cards and they got to pick which one they wanted.

While obviously the normal person would choose two and pick the best one, no one in the group had ever read the article describing the cards' effects, and had to go by their own memories of actual Tarot results. I reduced every descriptor down to a single word whenever possible when I gave them their choices. (The princess drew two very appropriate cards for her background, the two of Cups and the Emperor, and I told her the choice was between 'love' or 'duty'.)

It really worked out well for the campaign, and the party still mentions it from time to time.

 

[Turanil]

Two draws later, I'm 100,000 experience higher <...>

Do you mean this adventure ended with your PC going from 7th to 16th level in one session just because of the deck? Is the campaign not ruined?

 

[Thanee]

You can only gain one level at a time, you end up 1 XP short of the next level, the remaining XP are wasted.

Bye
Thanee