Deck of Many Things results

[Twowolves]

I just used one of these in my Scarred Lands game this past weekend ("Enkili's Deck of Fate"), sort of a "graduation" event for the PCs making it to double-digit levels. I was prepared for many, many contingencies, but not what happened (naturally!).

Out of 6 players, we had THREE "Knights" and three "Idiots"! Now the party of 10th lvl pcs has 3 4th level fighters tagging along. Of the other draws, we had two "Stars" and two "Donjons", one "Fates", one "Key", one "Sun", one "Fool", one "Vizier", and one "Talons" (same poor bastard that drew one of the two "Donjons"). I never would have imagined of around 20 pulls they'd see two cards 3 times each.

No one had to change alignment, no one got a keep, or a boost to diplomacy, or any wishes, or had to fight any combats, or any of the other interesting things.

Just thought I'd share.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

The last time I seriously used one of these things, it caused pretty much an entire party reboot...essentially a TPK because it made some of the characters unplayable and the rest were dead or as good as.

If I ever use one again in anything other than cursory mention, I'm going to revise most of the results of the cards.

 

[Legildur]

If I ever use one again in anything other than cursory mention, I'm going to revise most of the results of the cards.

As a player, I HATE the Deck and what it usually brings.

There is a revised Deck somewhere on the WotC website that isn't as drastic as the stock Deck.

 

[Slife]

As a player, I HATE the Deck and what it usually brings.

There is a revised Deck somewhere on the WotC website that isn't as drastic as the stock Deck.

Here's one (still has a bit of game breaking potential, but not nearly as much)

http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/magicitems/deckofpastandfuture.html

 

[Twowolves]

Well, the Int drain from the Idiot cards is curable with Greater Restoration, I limited the xp gain or loss to 1 level max (so one player was drained from barely over 10th level to 9th level +1xp, another gained enough to be 1 xp over 11th), and both of the characters in Donjons are now located. Instead of "wrecking" the campaign, it just gave instant direction: rescue the two trapped PCs.

As to the rewards, someone got a sweet magic weapon, one guy got +1 level and a Headband of Intelect +4, two guys (cleric and monk) each got +2 Wisdom, the monk also got a "get out of jail free" with The Fates (and since he was prone to deliberately "searching" for traps by opening doors/touching runes etc, it is the perfect green light for him to keep it up.... for now), and one player discovered the way to cure the curse that is keeping an entire race infertile, possibily saving a branch of elves from extinction.

I also had intended to allow DoMT wishes to be more powerful, able to undo any of the bad cards, and had customized encounters ready to go for any who might have drawn The Comet (defeat your next enemy, gain a level). The only card I was really worried about was Death, because there was no way they could fight one at that level.

 

[Sejs]

The Deck is a gamewrecker.

It's a plot device, but it should never, ever see the light of day for PCs to actually use.

It's the sort of thing Olidammara or Loki would carry around for kicks.

 

[Twowolves]

It's the sort of thing Olidammara or Loki would carry around for kicks.

Which is essentially who Enkili is.

Everyone knows what it is capable of doing, no one forces anyone to draw from it. And not only did it NOT wreck my game, everyone absolutely had a blast.

But thanks for advising me not to use one in a thread I started talking about what happened when I already did.

 

[papastebu]

The only modification I would use would be things that totally ruin a player's character concept--intelligence drain for wizards, etc--and things that make the player have to be at sessions where he or she does nothing, because their character is trapped in some prison that is inescapable. This happened to one of my characters, once, and it ruined several sessions, for me. The DM at the time, though, was into punishing the players for not doing what he wanted them to do with their characters. Any other results, I'm fine with, personally, even negative ones, as long as the character can still be used in a way that is enjoyable to the player.
One thing that my DM could have done was let me run the fighter/henchman we summoned with one of the cards. Kind of like in Ars Magica, where everyone has their main magus character, and everybody either takes turns with "supporting cast" characters, or creates a couple-three, and runs those in the interrim.

 

[Kobold Marine]

The one time I've seen a Deck in play (back in 2e), one person drew Death, another drew a card that gave him a couple of Wishes.

The guy who drew the wishes card used one to make the other person's Death go away, and since he aided in the fight against the other pc's Death, he got a Death of his own to deal with. He wished that one away as well.

The DM ruled that both pc's were now immortal, Death would never come for them. As much curse as blessing, since they would age as normal, but never die.

 

[Halivar]

The DM ruled that both pc's were now immortal, Death would never come for them. As much curse as blessing, since they would age as normal, but never die.

Heh. Start taking levels of monk or druid, STAT.