Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
My Butt is Terrified by the Existential Dread that the Future King is not the Heir to the Enslaved Queen’s Estranged Son who is Also an Earl, but is a Mate who is a Pounding-Curious T-Rex.
D&D General A Mate put A Deck of Many Things in A Dragons Horde figuring his Pcs wouldn't risk it, 1 did and now his 5 players are all playing future kings
- Thread starter JMISBEST
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Lanefan
Victoria Rules
I've had numerous Decks show up and, while they can and do cause all kinds of changes, I've yet to see one derail a game.
That said, for some reason the most common pull has been "The Keep" - little castles have been sprouting like mushrooms around my setting.
I have a personal policy of putting the Deck in any long running, open ended D&D (or adjacent) campaign I run. It has certainly rocked the game but it has never ended a campaign. The biggest issue I have ever seen is players pulling wishes and saving them for just the right moment to pull out a spell far above their pay grade.I've had numerous Decks show up and, while they can and do cause all kinds of changes, I've yet to see one derail a game.
That said, for some reason the most common pull has been "The Keep" - little castles have been sprouting like mushrooms around my setting.
I don't use the Deck in linear campaigns that intended to have a story arc, though. They can certain derail are predesigned plot. But I don't run too many of those -- more now that I used to because I find it easier to run canned adventures on Fantasy Grounds.
---MAN, now I have to figure out where to slip the Deck into my Iron Gods 5E conversion.
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Yeah, we call Decks of Many Things "campaign enders". Either they kill off chunks of the party, mess up the plotlines horribly (with things like Wishes or other ways), Make some of the characters too powerful to adventure with the others, or in other ways just bring the whole campaign to a screeching halt.
My experience is that while the Deck has always been trouble, it wasn't as much trouble in the AD&D days for various reasons: wishes were subject to the GM monkey paw, instant death was potentially always right around the corner, the power curve was much more shallow, wealth didn't automatically mean magic items, and so on.
Hats off.
'My mate is sniffing at another mate, and now his 5 players are questioning everything. Since he is a Marquis, well no one knows what to do.'
I think that's the joke and it's ALWAYS intentional.
Clint_L
Hero
The wish spell is not supposed to be anything like that powerful, but if the DM wanted to blow up their campaign, that's their business. Then again, blowing up the campaign is the primary function of the Deck of Many Things, so mission accomplished.
I've only included one ever, and I even purchased a cool, artisan deck as a real prop. The last story arc of the campaign was the party finding it and then gaining access to it. Then they unsealed it (it came wrapped in parchment with a wax seal) and each took a pull. Only two survived.
Then we stated planning the new campaign.
I've only included one ever, and I even purchased a cool, artisan deck as a real prop. The last story arc of the campaign was the party finding it and then gaining access to it. Then they unsealed it (it came wrapped in parchment with a wax seal) and each took a pull. Only two survived.
Then we stated planning the new campaign.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
I long ago ruled that if you pull any wishes from a Deck, the card's effect forces you to use it/them then and there.
In a game I still play in, we hit a Deck once. Regrettably, I was playing the sort of Lawful character who wouldn't touch the thing (annoyed me, 'cause as a player I love pulling cards, but it's what the character would do so I had to honour that); but some others pulled cards. One character got 4 wishes, another got 2 - that's six wishes, all at once!
In sum total those six wishes accomplished next to nothing. The only thing of use was one of the wishes was used to solve the dungeon's puzzle (we were trapped inside it and couldn't figure out what we had to do to escape), and that was it. What a waste!
Even predesigned plots need a little chaos now and then.
If it helps, keep in mind it doesn't have to be an actual deck of cards. I've used dice (2d6 with each of the 36 possible outcomes giving a different effect), a book (flip the page and read your fate), and so on as well.
Yeah, the last time I used it, it was in a weird magitech "computer" in the abandoned lab of a long ago disappeared Q like race exploring the multiverse. That campaign was high weirdness.
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
So you think the threads are a bit, aka some kind of running joke, and not genuine?
See, that's the crazy part. I honestly believe it's both.
TaranTheWanderer
Legend
I actually think this a great story. Multiple Lineages have been rearranged to make this possible. Powerful people would now be illegitimate and would be desperate to hold on to their power. The PCs still have to go announce it and prove it if they want to claim it for themselves which will lead to all sorts of interesting political intrigue, assassinations and quests. And each country is going to have its own problems and hurdles to deal with. Sounds awesome.
And when they finally succeed? Sure, retire! You might be 20th level by then anyways. Or you might have to defend your kingdoms from invading armies of extra-planar attackers, or prevent a Tarrasque from destroying your Capital. Or quell rebellion created by a secret cult(or by all the enemies you created). And if they don't want to be Kings, they just don't pursue the millions of plot hooks your player just created for you and they just go on riding the DMs adventure railroad.
I don't see it as dumb at all. Way less boring than wishing for a magic sword.
GreyLord
Legend
Much easier just to then introduce escalating CR's of Monsters until one finally suceeds in a TPK of the entire party.
I believe the OP has mentioned they developed their own, shall we say... unique version the English language they use, which is why random stuff will be capitalized, or commas will be in unexpected places in numbers, etc. Originally I'd assumed it was some wort of AI experiment. I'm still not convinced otherwise, but the threads are usually a nice break from the normal grousing about rules.
pukunui
Legend
Indeed. If the OP is genuine, he and his fellow gamers appear to rely on random dice rolls and tables for pretty much everything.
I'm lazy and use random tables for everything, but have never come near generating stuff of this, ah, depth.
Cordwainer Fish
Imp. Int. Scout Svc. (Dishon. Ret.)
Tolkien and Jordan had depth. This is just quantity.
pukunui
Legend
I would argue that Tolkien had depth but Jordan was also just quantity.
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
It speaks... volume... that someone would use an "alt language" in a community where no one else uses said alt language.
