Deck of Many Things Experiences

[Voadam]

We found one in an old Warhammer game (1st edition). The one player to draw from it got the experience one, something like 10,000 xp. The GM did not convert to the different scale of WFRP xp. In WFRP each 100 xp advances something and you earn about that much a night. So this petty thief became a master thief master alchemist, master priest of the thief god instantly basically going from a 4th to 5th level NPC equivalent character to an epic spellcasting one. While everyone else remained as they were.

 

[sjmiller]

Back in the days of AD&D 1st Ed, I seem to remember that the Deck had a trait that it no longer seems to possess. Back then, each card could be drawn only once. When the card was drawn it would vanish and the effects would then take place. This means that the effects would not be drawn over and over, thereby causing a great game imbalance. I also seem to recall that the cards came in a case or box, and the only way to view the cards was to draw them from the case. Drawing them from the case, of course, actived them. This would prevent the abuses of the deck I saw mentioned previously.

Now, this could all be poor memory combined with house rules, but my memory tends to be pretty good when it comes to stuff like that. I will have to dig out my old DMG and see.

 

[kenobi65]

Back in the 1E days, we were playing the original "Ravenloft", and getting our collective butts kicked by Strahd & Co. One of the PCs had the Deck, and decided to risk a draw, in hopes of getting the Wish, or something else useful. Instead, she drew the Void, and we had another body to drag along. The rest of the part was all dead within another hour.

 

[Ethernaut]

Campaign killer... definitely. It killed the best D&D campaign that I was ever involved with.

Well, that's not entirely accurate. I think the game was winding down anyway when we discovered the Deck. My character totally didn't want to have anything to do with it. But all the other players thought it would be super-fun to take a draw. So I caved in. Bad move, as a result my character was imprisoned.

The imprisonment doesn't bother me nearly as much as I ended the campaign doing something so completely out-of-character. If we had continued, presumably my character could have been rescued. But it was just such a bummer to go out on that kind of note. Especially since the game had been spectacular up to that point.

Oh well.

Regardless, there is no way I'd ever introduce one of these artifacts into my game without some *serious* thought. About the only way I can think that would be accceptable would be as a sort of McGuffin that was quested for (by PCs or NPCs). I can imagine some interesting adventure hooks from NPCs who drew (successfully or unsuccessfully) from the Deck. But I shudder at having the player character draw unless I had contingency plans for the most disruptive cards.

 

[Nebulous]

Yeah, i printed that old deck off years ago and still have it hanging on the doorknob in a purple Crown Royal bag. We had some fun times with it. I remember that the party's priest somehow compelled some kid to start pulling cards so they could see what happened. I think the kid did pretty well and ended up being whisked away to utopia (or something). On the downside, i penalized the priest with a mission-quest for using his god's power for questionable purposes.

My players have usually hit the middle of the road with nothing catastrophic happening. I love the Deck.

Which makes me ask.........does the Wand of Wonders exist in 3E?

 

[Xeoble]

My group played 5-card draw poker.

 

[kenobi65]

Which makes me ask.........does the Wand of Wonders exist in 3E?

Pretty much, though it's now the Rod of Wonder (since wands in 3E specifically hold 50 charges of one specific spell). It's a standard magic rod, in the DMG. One distinction between this and the old Wand of Wonder is that the Wand had charges; Rods in 3E are generally non-charged items, and the Rod of Wonder is one that doesn't have charges.

 

[shaylon]

Pretty much, though it's now the Rod of Wonder (since wands in 3E specifically hold 50 charges of one specific spell). It's a standard magic rod, in the DMG. One distinction between this and the old Wand of Wonder is that the Wand had charges; Rods in 3E are generally non-charged items, and the Rod of Wonder is one that doesn't have charges.

Yep, that about sums it up. By the way my character in the same campaign as the OP's and I have a Rod of Wonder. Used it once to animate a tree that attacked the dwarf in the party but so far I haven't used it like I should.

My experience with the deck is the same as the OP's. My character now has an NPC after him. Should be interesting to see who it is.

-Shay

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Devil 1: I ... suddenly hate Vailante the Valorous!
Devil 2: I ... suddenly hate Cyndelle the Druid!
Devil 3: I ... suddenly hate Edelaith the Elf!
Devil 4: (sarcastically) I see someone is playing with a Deck of Many Things again.
Devil 1: But I still hate Vailante.
Devil 2: Wait! I no longer hate Cyndelle. In fact, just who is Cyndelle?
Devil 3: I don't hate Edelaith ... what was I saying? I hate Valiante!
Devil 4: (whispered in confidence) This happens 5 times a day, you know, with all those Decks out there.

You'd think Asmodeus, Demogorgon, and all the rest would finally say ENOUGH.

 

[eris404]

Our party found one about a year ago in real time and the DM used the cards printed in Dragon some time ago. We all did fabulously, so the DM decides an NPC with our party wants to get in on the fun. The DM drew The Void. We all laughed about it, but the joke's really on us, since now the vacant body of the NPC has a new inhabitant.