D&D 5E My players just drew from the Deck of Many Things - and Holy Crap!

[Stalker0]

So I had a 3 player party tonight, and for the first time in 15 years of Dming, I decide to bust out the Deck of Many Things. All of my 3 players drew 4 cards, and completely broke the laws of probability.

Player 1
1) Fights Death (and wins)
2) Fights Death again! (and wins)
3) Gains a level and a belt of fire giant strength.
4) Loses 2 Int and draws again
5) Is thrown into an Extraplanar Prison (aka Imprionment)!

Player 2
1) Gets a devil as an enemy
2) Is thrown into an Extraplanar Prison (aka Imprionment)!
3) Gets another devil as an enemy
4) A friendly NPC becomes a secret enemy

Player 3
1) Gets a permanent curse (-2 to all saves)
2) All magic items are disintegrated
3) Is thrown into an Extraplanar Prison (aka Imprionment)!
4) Gains Expertise in Persuasion and a personal keep.

That's right, every single player got throw into the Imprisonment, and look at how many nasty terrible effects! My party just got demolished.

So because they all got the imprisonment thing, next session I will have them in the same prison, and we will actually have it played as the adventure.

My gods, what are the odds!

 

[Guest 6801328]

My gods, what are the odds!

(1 - (21/22)^4)^3

Or about 0.4% chance.

 

[Iry]

That's X-Com, baby!

 

[Lanefan]

They all got imprisoned?! Yikes!

A thought, however: one thing I've never done is, when someone's drawing more than one card, let the same card be drawn twice by the same character. It seems this happened twice in your group - one got two devil-enemies and another had to fight Death twice - and while the odds of that ain't high either I've always had it that the cards drawn by a character don't "return" to the deck until that one character has done all its draws.

You're lucky in that of three characters you only got one keep to have to worry about. Whenever I pull out the Deck (which I do every few years, both I and my players love the thing!) it's inevitable a few more of those bloody little castles are going to spring up - usually drawn by one particular player* who, regardless of character played or version of Deck used or even game/DM/campaign being played in, seems to pull the keep every damn time.

* - not me; the cards know I'd absolutely love to pull a keep and thus have never given me one...

 

[Stormonu]

Whenever, I've reached for the Deck of Many Things as a DM, it's meant the campaign was over with.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Odds of Deck of Many things wrecking campaign is something like 99.9%.

 

[Zio_the_dark]

Odds of Deck of Many things wrecking campaign is something like 99.9%.

It's a decent thing to use if you and your players are willing to start anew while having a chaotic ending... or it can offer new opportunities for adventure seeds.

But players should never own this item by themselves only get offered to draw from it perhaps from a powerful entity promising them fabulous things.

Personnaly never used it but was thinking about...as @Lanefan said I won't allow to draw the same card twice until a player finished drawing from the deck

 

[jasper]

Only the fool and jester don't returned to the deck. I think 1E the most cards did not return.

 

[jgsugden]

Whenever, I've reached for the Deck of Many Things as a DM, it's meant the campaign was over with.

I usually give it to the PCs at the end of a chapter/adventure before a break in time. It gives a chance for the PCs to adjust tio their new realities.

However, I have my own deck, and the deck also works slightly differently. You select how many cards you want to draw, and then they start to draw themselves. They do not stop until your pulls are finished - and then you can never draw from it again. Also, it wants to find a way into the hands of unwitting people, so it tends to be lost, stolen, or otherwise misplaced quite often.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Only the fool and jester don't returned to the deck. I think 1E the most cards did not return.

It is the opposite in 5e: "Once a card is drawn, it fades from existence. Unless the card is the Fool or the Jester, the card reappears in the deck, making it possible to draw the same card twice."