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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 7115553" data-attributes="member: 53980">The Deck of Many Things has shown up in most of the campaigns I've played in. Believe it or not, I can't think of any time it broke the campaign (at least not in any way that wasn't insanely fun for everyone at the table). It usually gets introduced around level 6, which is the ideal for us (not so low level that the good cards will break the game, and not so high level that the bad cards like talons will never be recovered from).The most recent time I was playing in an evil underdark campaign. We had allied ourselves with a militarily poor but well positioned trade city, and our goals were based around improving the influence of the city and attaining positions of power for ourselves.In fairness, I don't recall all of the draws, but here's what I remember. My character also made a deal with a hag for a second round of draws later in the campaign, so I may be mixing up which cards I drew the first time). I drew the Knight (my character's stalwart companion Isabella, who was with him through the end of the campaign), the Vizir (which answered a very important question later in the campaign that helped my character attain his driving goal of reviving his master), the Throne (I have drawn this card I don't know how many times and I still have never gotten to claim my keep), and Gems (which were very handy for financing the war effort later in the campaign). I definitely drew Euryale the first time around, so one of the above cards came from the second time.Two of the characters drew Balance, which changed them from evil to good. Their goals remained very similar (help the town) but their methods and motivations changed significantly, which was a lot of fun. I think both Ruin and Talons were drawn (I may have drawn one of them). We managed.The Throne and the Knight were also drawn again. That keep we did reclaim, and the knight was another great NPC with a deep backstory that tied in with the rest of the campaign. I think Gems was also drawn again. Star was definitely drawn at some point. Key was drawn as well (the player was quite happy with that one). Someone drew Skull but managed to defeat death. I think The Fates was drawn but we had to use it when someone drew The Void. One of the characters also drew Flames, which came back big time later in the campaign. A hunting party came looking for him. We tried to fight them off, but the dice were not with us. They ended up killing that character and forced the party into retreat (and took his body). The reason my character tried drawing from the Deck again was because he was trying to bring back his friend (who was basically impossible to resurrect because there was no body). Alas, while my draws the second time around were fantastic, I drew neither the Fates nor the Moon that could have brought him back.But yeah, the Deck usually results in both craziness and fun. Personally, I've never cared for some of the cards like The Void or Donjon (lose you character - how is that an interesting result?). Which is why I created my own alternate version that I'll be using from now on. It tones down some of the best cards (50,000 xp from the Sun isn't a deal breaker in my book, but it is a lot), as well as some of the bad cards. Basically, I tried to make the cards more interesting. For example, Talons takes your magic items and gives them to one of your enemies. On one hand that sucks, because you don't have your items and your enemy does. On the other hand, since they haven't been disintegrated you have an opportunity to get them back, which has a lot of potential IMO.</blockquote>

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