D&D General Using the Deck of Many Things Tomorrow, Will I Blow Up My Game?

Love me some random campaign infusions!

I agree that using The Void as an example with negative consequences could scare some players.

I really like the cards that require/allow additional draws.

While potentially powerful, I don’t see Campfire as a huge issue considering the timing restrictions - once/day and expires after the next Full Moon which could be as soon as tomorrow or 4 weeks out (or whatever moon cycle your world has). ETA: 2 weeks it is!

Looking forward to the recap of what happens at your session!

I’m kinda between 3 and 4. A deck of many things always causes a lot of chaos when introduced to a campaign, and certainly has the potential to upend whatever else had been going on. But, I wouldn’t necessarily call that “blowing up” the campaign, and whether it’s a good or bad thing really depends on how attached you all are to whatever else was going on.

I'll run a Deck every few years just for kicks, and the players (usually) love seeing one come out.

Had one just a few weeks ago, using the original 1e DMG version*. An initial round of draws went poorly - someone got Imprisoned, a few other Bad Things went by - and then someone drew Moon and got a wish. Via some very clever wording, this wish was used to undo all the previous draws...which meant everyone was free to draw again! And so, undaunted by their previous bad luck, off we went on a second round, which came out mostly much better except for one character who in losing all his magic set the all-time record across all our games for the most expensive mishap to befall a single character.

And of course someone drew Throne. Those little castles have been sprouting like weeds in this campaign, to the point where I had to work out a floorplan for them (they're all basically the same) and any variances thereto and make a list of who has what.

Side note: the way I do the castle piece is that the next morning (or at the next reasonable opportunity thereafter) a gang of people carrying very heavy sacks walk up to the Throne-drawer, one of them says "We have your castle. Where would you like it?". The character chooses a location, and the gang trundle off and fade to nothing; the castle appears in the desired location shortly afterwards.

If the character hums and haws over the location the sack-carriers soon get grumpy - those things are heavy! If the character is vague about the location then random chance has its say: one character put his "5 miles west of [specific city]" without ever having been there or viewed the site, by the time he got there to see it his castle was already sinking into the bog in which he'd put it. Oops!

* - in comparison, the version listed in the OP seems considerably watered down.

Well of course it will blow up your campaign. But campaigns need blowing up every now and then, right?

Embrace the chaos.

el-remmen said:

Will using the Deck of Many Things in my 5E game blow up my campaign?

Click to expand...

That's what it's for. It's a joke item and honestly whoever thought it up should be pelted with stale Cheetos.

The last adventure of my years long 4E campaign was Madness at Gardmore Abbey. It used the Deck in such a novel way I became such a fan of it from that time on.

The inevitable card draws after the adventure's conclusion included some character banishment/imprisonment.

These characters were sent to a new world with different rules...and that's how our 5E campaign began.

Well, it didn't blow up the campaign, but it certainly disrupted it some.

The drawing of the cards (see OP for their results) went as follows:

Fin, the halfling gloomstalker ranger (who I knew would not be able to resist) went first, drawing two cards:

1. Well - learns a cantrip! (in this case either bard or sorcerer)
2. Temple - future divine intervention

Next went Lux the tabaxi circle of the stars druid, she chose to only pick one card

1. Temple

Third character to pick was Ryn, the human swashbuckler rogue/fighter. He chose to draw one card

1. Flames He knows he has drawn the enmity of a devil, and soon it will visit him in a dream.

Lastly, in the first round was Sol, the human vengeance paladin. He decided to draw 3 cards

1. Tower - this made him draw two more cards and choose between them, drawing Temple and Euryale, it was easy to choose Temple.
2. Donjon - He disappeared and lost his final pull, reappearing in the dungeons of evil cultists in the Moathouse (though he hasn't figured that out yet)

Next round:

Fin decides to draw one more:

1. Puzzle. He loses 4 points of Intelligence (now a whopping 6!) and may draw another card, which he does, drawing. .
1.5 Campfire

Lux decides to draw 1 more
1. Tower, so drawing two more she gets Star and Elemental, choosing Elemental

Ryn decides to draw 2 cards in the 2nd round.

1. Star (choosing to raise his Intelligence)
2. Well (learning a wizard cantrip)

In the final round, Finn begged off, but Lux chose to draw one more card:

1. Comet

Ryn also chose to not participate further.

So nothing was that disruptive except the split party - plan to run a solo session or two with the lone player - the rest of the group was able to get some clue as to where their companion went via the Head Sage using his crystal ball to scry on the paladin, but they are at least a week's travel away, not including time for prepping for such a trip and any other delays or obstacles that might come up.

We plan to have the paladin's player make up a temporary replacement character, while doing interludes involving what the paladin is doing in the meantime.

I'm going to introduce it at some point, with some minor modifications (along the lines of some of the changes from the 2014 to 2024 version).

I will just expect the worst to happen. I set this campaign up from the beginning to handle all sorts of misfortune. I even have a post TPK adventure prepared we'll hopefully get to use.

One of the campaign premises is that anything can be reversed and any foe can be fought. D&D has had spells to bring back the dead, wishes, and divine intervention from the beginning, and for this campaign it assumed that will all get used.

So I'm just assuming someone will draw the cards that can only be fixed by wishes and divine intervention and they'll have to go on adventures to do so.

YES!! And if it doesnt, you've done it wrong