Introducing the Deck of Many Things

[Jürgen Hubert]

Who of you have once used the Deck of Many Things in your campaign. Who managed to do so in a way that was more than just "random things happen to any PC who draws from it"? What kind of backstory did you give the artifact in your campaign? How did it get into the hands of your PCs? And what happened when they drew from it - were they happy with the result or not?

And in retrospect, was it a good idea to introduce it to your campaign or not?

War stories, please.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I've used the Deck of Many Thing quite a bit. Most recently, the party was offered draws from the Deck of Many Things by Tyche, goddess of luck, in celebration of her rebirth from her two daughter goddesses, which involved the PCs. By using my own updated version of the Tarot Deck of Many Things from 2nd edition (that one in Encyclopaedia Magica), I avoid a large number of the crazy-good and crazy-bad effects in favour of interesting things like, "An old love interest desires to rekindle your relationship." The only truly terrible card ever drawn as a result of my numerous inclusions of the deck was the death card, but the PC was reincarnated as a wild elf by the card, so he rolled with the punches.

 

[Heathen72]

Funny that you should bring this up now. I am about to use it for the very first time tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Funny that you should bring this up now. I am about to use it for the very first time tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.

Personally, my GM philosophy is "Give the PCs enough rope to hang themselves", but I'm not quite sure if the Deck isn't a bit overkill in that regard...

 

[Wormwood]

I prefer to call it the Deck of Dead Campaigns.

I've seen the Deck used three times in three different games; each time it looked like fun---and each time it kicked the campaign squarely in the huevos.

Characters become grossly unbalancing or utterly neutered, and feelings are inevitably hurt. Oh, and being clever by pointing out to a player whose character just turned into a turd, "Well, you had to draw that last card, didn't you?" is never helpful.

It will all end in tears.

Have fun!

 

[jasper]

I have never seen wreck campaigns but did have two crybabies quit because they drew badly. The deck has no back story imc just legends of it appearing and either cursing the greedy or rewarding the smart.
Most were satisfied with the results since they knew either great riches or great woe could result from a draw and they were willing to lose a pc if they were unlucky.
most of the I just had in some random treasure and watch greed appear on the players faces. Once I scattered the cards through out the dungeon and the last two were in the BBEG pouch.
If your players hate to lose pcs or even get ticked when they have a bad run on the dice don't put in your game.

 

[Kunimatyu]

It ruined a campaign I was in. Three 5th level players take draws:

The Paladin: Soul imprisoned in hell.
The Sorceror: Alignment change to Neutral Evil
The Rogue(Me: +2 Cha, 50,000 XP, a major circlet of blasting, and a +5 rapier)

I shoot up to 10th level. Balancing encounters becomes impossible, I never gain another level, and the campaign dies in limbo.

 

[Psion]

I use it when I want to weed out the greedy characters.

I've used it and not ended campaigns (in fact, I don't remember ever ending a campaign with it), but there have always been casualties.

I've never used it in 3e, though, and I think they failed to update some cards taking the new XP system into account.

One isse of Dragon (and Encyclopedia Magica) had a tarot of many things, and I think Sean K Reynolds' website has a less disruptive version, more written towards 3e rules:

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

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

In the last game that I played in, we first encountered the deck when it came to us in a dream. In game, it wasn't so much a talking deck as a very appealing entity. It had some bad effects, but was mostly balanced out by the good effects. All in all - the first appearance of the deck was a good thing.

So good that - one evening when things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse - we happened to utilize a Wish to wish it back. It took the DM a while to decide if the deck could be summoned with a Wish. He decided that it could.

It was bad. Really bad.

If it weren't for the smart thinking of another player, the campaign would have been totally different - the deck brought about more Wishes. More Wishes brought about an army of Angels... the army of Angels brought with them an army of Demons (they were, afterall, engaged in an eternal battle, can't have one without the other). What was a "turn for the worse," and potential the of the world as we knew it quickly became "the end of the world - period" (or at least something very similar to it).

Ahhhh yes - the deck is a wonderful thing.

 

[Darmanicus]

Our DM used one in the form of a Chaos Portal owned by a Slaadi crimelord who used it for laughs. In our instance, if we wanted a time extension to a job he'd requested us to do we had to walk thru the portal.........all of us!

Mage walks thru - Lose 10k xp.
Ranger walks thru - Gain 10k xp.
Sorcerer walks thru - Lose all wealth.
Cleric walks thru - Lose all wealth.
Samurai walks thru - Gain +2 to a stat of your choice.
Paladin, (me), walks thru - Nothing happens..........until I slay a devil single handedly - Gain a level.

As you can see, it was a mixed bag. The mage, sorcerer and cleric took it surprisingly well. Even though the sorcerer and cleric lost some very heavy equipment, (they were both 15/16th), I think they felt it less than say the rest of us would have considering they still had considerable resources at their disposal in the form of their spells! Still it was a blow to lose all that equipment for sure and we are still in the process or re-equipping them!!!

Funny thing was is that I both me and the mage asked for another go however he would only let the mage go again but he eventually turned the second shot down. Even then he wouldn't let me take the second shot!!! This probably has something to do with the fact that I love random stuff and it usually pays off well for me........

In a campaign long ago he got me to create a character and said you start of at X level but can roll a D100 to determine the % of XP you have towards attaining next level........one 100 roll later and I'm auto the next level!

My first character in our present campaign, the wild mage, virtually every time my spell surged it would either be maximized, empowered or allowed no save. He soon killed that one off!!!