Deck of Many Things: Your experiences and advice?
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Steel_Wind
Legend
The Deck can destroy a campaign. No doubt of it.
It is, all the same, undeniably fun. And that is the nature of the Deck of Many Things: it is chaos and entertainment in physical form.
Use as you wish; just don't pretend it cannot have serious campaign wrecking consequences. It certainly can (indeed, it probably will).
FWIW, I have not used one in 24 years. I bought Green Ron's Deck and probably will place it in my campaign in about 9 months time or so - if for no other reason than to see the look on my players' faces.
And then we shall see what we shall see.
It is, all the same, undeniably fun. And that is the nature of the Deck of Many Things: it is chaos and entertainment in physical form.
Use as you wish; just don't pretend it cannot have serious campaign wrecking consequences. It certainly can (indeed, it probably will).
FWIW, I have not used one in 24 years. I bought Green Ron's Deck and probably will place it in my campaign in about 9 months time or so - if for no other reason than to see the look on my players' faces.
And then we shall see what we shall see.
Last edited:
Graf
Explorer
That was I thought.Crothian said:
But I've seen a few people "freeze" when they're in a tough spot. We had one guy who was on guard duty and had turned himself into a tree (druid shapechanger type). He didn't have a great spot but he noticed a pack of spooky looking clawed humanoids. I gave him a minutes to sort out what he wanted to do but he just wanted to say a tree (and kept trying to ask questions about the creatures).
Eventually they charged in. He didn't change back until the party getting coupe d'd.
Recently in AoW we had a similiar situation. The group had to make a choice between doing the right thing (and taking a risk of losing something they wanted) and just going after what they wanted. And several guys just couldn't take it.
There was this big, like 1 hour, OOC debate. They wanted to win their prize, they were afraid of the risk (even though it was a published module and the choice was obviously not going to derail the game) and they just -wouldn't- do it.
In general a lot of economic and game theory suggests that most people seriously overstate the possibility of a catastrophic risk. I think that applies to gamers equally.
Love them both as a player and as a DM. Many campaignes I have played and DMd have had them appear. Normaly they endup helping the party overall. The worst that has ever happened is one of the other players (I was playing that game) drew the Void. So we all grinned and he made a new character for later that evening. Best has been me drawing The Sun three times in a row. Which of course prompted most of the other players to draw a few cards as well.
I am always a sucker for the deck.
I am always a sucker for the deck.
EyeontheMountain
First Post
I agree with everything above, it can ruin a game, but is fun. I like to drop soemthing like that into a gmae once every so often because
A: it is out there
B: It really opens up a new level of roleplaying, just like Vecna's hand or eye would. Characters really agonize over the choice.
A: it is out there
B: It really opens up a new level of roleplaying, just like Vecna's hand or eye would. Characters really agonize over the choice.
Ah, good ol' "Adventure in a Box!" 
My 2nd Edition game practically ran on those things several times- though admittedly part of its usefulness was that the players weren't afraid to try it out. The fact that one of the players was (and continues to be today) spectacularly lucky helped matters, of course. He had a tendency to pull only good cards, and pulled the Moon a distressing number of times (I think 4 of the 5 times the party encountered a Deck).
My 3E players have been terrified to try it though- with one exception (which, admittedly, ended the campaign it happened in), they have invariably run away whenever they've found one or more Decks. And yes, I said "or more-" the party in my Epic game not too long ago raided a treasure vault of Demogorgon (yes, that Demogorgon) and got away with several artifact-level items- including three full Decks of Many Things. Strangely, and to my disappointment, none of them had any desire to pick from them, even after I pointed out how easily most of the bad cards could be circumvented by them. Even the lucky guy, who is the only one of my 2E players to be in my 3E games, keeps his characters as far away from Decks of Many Things as he can.
I got 'em back though- they were going through some scrolls they'd found in the same vaults, and of course as everybody knows, a cursed scroll activates the instant you try to read it at all. So in this case, the curse the character encountered was to pull from a Deck... containing nothing but bad cards.![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
She got Voided. It took the party about a minute in game time to get her back to normal, but it was still a joy to me.
My 2nd Edition game practically ran on those things several times- though admittedly part of its usefulness was that the players weren't afraid to try it out. The fact that one of the players was (and continues to be today) spectacularly lucky helped matters, of course. He had a tendency to pull only good cards, and pulled the Moon a distressing number of times (I think 4 of the 5 times the party encountered a Deck).My 3E players have been terrified to try it though- with one exception (which, admittedly, ended the campaign it happened in), they have invariably run away whenever they've found one or more Decks. And yes, I said "or more-" the party in my Epic game not too long ago raided a treasure vault of Demogorgon (yes, that Demogorgon) and got away with several artifact-level items- including three full Decks of Many Things. Strangely, and to my disappointment, none of them had any desire to pick from them, even after I pointed out how easily most of the bad cards could be circumvented by them. Even the lucky guy, who is the only one of my 2E players to be in my 3E games, keeps his characters as far away from Decks of Many Things as he can.
I got 'em back though- they were going through some scrolls they'd found in the same vaults, and of course as everybody knows, a cursed scroll activates the instant you try to read it at all. So in this case, the curse the character encountered was to pull from a Deck... containing nothing but bad cards.
She got Voided. It took the party about a minute in game time to get her back to normal, but it was still a joy to me.
Aeric
Explorer
I have been in at least five campaigns featuring the Deck (two of which I ran) and it did nothing but make the game more interesting. Some people got the Void, some people got a couple levels higher than everyone else, but nothing that was game-breaking. Everyone had fun with it, even when our characters got slammed. It is high-risk/high-reward at it's finest.
That being said, however, if your players are really attached to their characters or if yours is a high-drama, serious sort of roleplaying campaign, then maybe the Deck is not for you. Then again, as long as it is understood that there is a possibilty for characters to lose levels/items/souls, then go for it. No one's forcing them to draw, after all.
That being said, however, if your players are really attached to their characters or if yours is a high-drama, serious sort of roleplaying campaign, then maybe the Deck is not for you. Then again, as long as it is understood that there is a possibilty for characters to lose levels/items/souls, then go for it. No one's forcing them to draw, after all.
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