Deck of Many Things Replacement

[Dice4Hire]

The Deck is what caused the Abbey's destruction. It can easily be that the paladin's quest would be to destroy the deck. It doesn't have be quested for to actually use.

It seems they will have th whole deck together at the end, so what happens is totally in DM land, which is fine. I saw the old Dragon 4E deck and was not too impressed. I have heard this one is weaker. I like the old one and might revamp it a bit, butt then again. I want to run the Abbey at hid paragon, so will need to up a lot of things.

Side rant: WOTC, stop being so incredibly cautious with things like the deck!!!!!! : End rant

 

[DEFCON 1]

As far as a (possibly) cursed artifact from which the problems of Gardmore Abbey could have occurred instead of the Deck of Many Things... there's always Blackrazor.

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Blackrazor Revealed)

How the Abbey's background would have to be changed to accommodate it (since you're going from the Deck to a soul-sucking fullblade/greatsword) is up to you... but it does make for an interesting idea. An abbey full of paladins where one of them gets seduced by this evil two-hander and slowly begins sucking the lifeforces out of all the good people within.

 

[technoextreme]

You must be speaking of the old 3e Deck, because the 4e version is something I find rather lame and cannot fear its awesomeness.

The 4E version of the Deck of Many things is pretty much the same thing as the AD&D Deck of Many things.

 

[Skyscraper]

The Deck is not a campaign killer, but some cards can lead to quests that, if the DM isn't prepared to follow through, will sound pretty hollow. I think it's a great magic item. Read it with an open mind, see the possibilities that come with it, it was a high point of an old campaign I DMed for a long time. The enmity with a demon lasted for years, the keep that the deck gives a PC became their base of operations, the NPC that turns against them became a long-winded recurring vilain, it was great!

 

[Dice4Hire]

The Deck is not a campaign killer,

I think you might be in the minority in that opinion.

I have heard a lot of stories.... and participated in some.

 

[Skyscraper]

I think you might be in the minority in that opinion.

I have heard a lot of stories.... and participated in some.

How was the deck used? If you include it as a treasure without thinking more of it and expect nothing different than when you drop a +3 sword, sure, the DM's in for a surprise.

 

[Will Doyle]

I once ran a purposefully unbalanced, one-off 2E game where everybody rolled for a random item at the start.

One of them got the deck of many things, and thanks to that, my one-off game turned into an epic, four-year campaign.

So it can make campaigns and well as break them!

 

[MrBeens]

I think you might be in the minority in that opinion.

I have heard a lot of stories.... and participated in some.

Would help for the purposes of this thread if people clarified if they are talking about the 4E Deck as written in Gardmore Abbey, the 4E deck as written in Dragon Magazine, or a deck from an older edition.

It looks to me as the original poster has seen the tales about the deck of many things from previous editions, where as the deck as included with Gardmore Abbey is intended as a balanced item.

If you have tales of woe (or awsomeness) about the deck, please elaborate with details.

 

[DNH]

I remember playing 1e AD&D many years ago with my brother, and without a DM. He played a high-level cleric called Father Lint and I played a monk called Brother Barni. We toured the game world, encountering all kinds of monsters in order to defeat them and take their artifacts from them. The good ones we kept; the bad ones (such as the Deck of Many Things) we tossed into the maw of the dragon turtle that lived in the moat of our keep, a well-known method for destroying evil artifacts! Yeenoghu's flail went that way too. Ah, happy days.

 

[d2OKC]

We started Gardmore Abbey last night in my group, and so far, I'm loving the Deck of Many Things. Now, we only have one card so far, and that is the Gem card, but the way it has worked in combat so far is great. I love the random aspect of it, and it gives the PCs (which I am one of) a reason to move around on the battlefield and a difficult choice (move to it and use a minor to get an extra standard or not?). It's been great so far, and I only anticipate it getting better as we collect more cards.

I've also played games with the older decks, and while I can see how they'd be a campaing killer, it has never happened to us. It has always ended up being a fun, tense evening when we bring it out. I would at least read through Gardmore with an open mind before you decide to use it or not.