Variant Deck of Many things-- made to be more appealing

[Asmor]

Ahem... [h1]MY PLAYERS STAY OUT[/h1]

I love the deck of many things, but unfortunately I seem to be unique in that regard... Most of the people I play with (who are now my players) were scared to death of the thing because they cared too much about their precious characters. Pansies.

Anyways, I'm making my own DoMT. It has more of an emphasis on fate... Most of the cards actually cause an event to happen sometime in the near future, and all take at least a day to take effect (except ones requiring extra draws). I've divided the cards into 3 categories... 9 "Good", 9 "Bad" and 4 "Neutral." The good ones are supposed to be, well, good effects for people, and the bad ones are of course bad... The particularly bad ones, like speaking gibberish or being turned to stone, are treated like powerful curses which must be lifted. So this way you can keep some teeth in the deck without actually killing a character or making it otherwise unplayable.

So here's what I have so far... Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated!

Good
Comet:

Flames: Love. A relationship is in store...

Gem: Wealth. A bounty shall be bestowed on this character.

Key:

Knight: Loyalty. Character gains leadership, or a bonus feat if it already has it. In addition, the character gets an unnamed +5 bonus to his leadership score for the purpose of attracting a cohort.

Star:

Sun: Power. The next time the character wakes up, he rerolls his hit dice, and can't roll lower than half the die +1. For example, a d10 that rolls lower than 6 is treated as a 6. The character takes the better of this new HP total or its original.

Throne: Leadership. Character gains leadership, or a bonus feat if it already has it. In addition, the character gets an unnamed +5 bonus to his leadership score for the purpose of attracting followers.

Vizier:

Bad
Donjon: Imprisonment/Entrapment. May be as simple as being imprisoned, or could even represent walking into an ambush or being entrapped by the law.

Euryale: Stone. The character wakes up the next morning with a hand turned to stone. Every day following, more and more of the character turns to stone until they become a stature. May be counteracted by a flesh to stone spell.

Fool: Forgetfullness. Character can't remember anything. Must be de-cursed.

Idiot: Idiocy. Everything character says comes out as stupid gibberish.

Moon: "Curse." The character gains lycanthropy under the full moon.

Rogue: Loss. The character loses something/someone of value.

Ruin: Weakness. Character rerolls hit points and takes the lower of this new total or its original.

Skull: Death. Not sure what I want to do with this one... Maybe a disease that makes the character look like a zombie.

The Void:

Neutral
Balance: Character draws two more cards, guaranteed one good and one bad. (Keep drawing until one of each is found IRL, in game the next two cards are a good and a bad).

The Fates:

Jester:

Talons: Change. Character loses something but gains something of equivelent value.

 

[Eloi]

Those look pretty interesting - and apparently your PCs aren't taking Leadership very much.

I would like to say that Ruin looks exceptionally unappetizing to me. Is this reversible? A good HP roll is wonderful - a bad one, pretty much permanently weakening. (Note: I am pretty firmly on the "More Fun Is Better" side, and permanently downgraded HP feels like "Less Fun".)

I have a suggestion for Comet, in the same vein. (And it might help reverse Ruin, if it could only be drawn..)

*Comet: Destinies Collide. Pick one other PC. That PC achieves maximum possible permanent Hit Points 48 hours from now (as if all possible Hit Point results had been maximized). From now on, you have a +1 unnamed bonus to save versus any shared effect which both you and that other PC must save against, as they unconsciously will you to succeed.

*Jester: "What was I doing just now?" Sometime in the next week, you can "negate" a curse or calamity, causing it to go away. But you *don't remember anything about it*.. and everyone else who was exposed to it *does*.

I like Talons, especially when the party has been saddled with an item that has outlived its usefulness, and is worth too much to get anything close to good value for it in town.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

If I were to do this, I would try to keep the cards somewhat equivilent.. perhaps have them apply a 1/2 LA template..

Heres what I mean:

Flames: Love, you gain +2 to social skills with those of the opposite sex and tend to be treated one category higher on the NPC reaction table.

Gem: Wealth, You gain treasure and are treated as if one level higher with regards to the Wealth Guidelines. This keeps the value decent throughout levels instead of havig a static value that could be improperly balanced.

Knight: Loyalty, you gain +5 to your leadership skill and can gain a cohort even if you do not have the leadership feat

Throne: Leadership, you gain +5 to your leadership skill and can attract followers even if you do not have the leadership feat

Moon, Curse.. using Sean Reynolds Curse of the Moon, you gain the simple lycanthrope feat/template

Rogue: Loss, you lose treasure and are treated as if one level lower with regards to the Wealth Guidelines.

Skull: Death. You acquire Zombie Rot, a magical disease that deals 1 point of CON damage per day, which the character can save to recover. Cure Disease cast by a X level cleric is required to remove the disease. Once your CON drops to 0, you become undead.

Euryale: Stone. You acquire Stone Creep, a magical disease that overcomes your body. Each day requires a Fort save DC 25, failure indicates 10% of your body changes to stone, granting a +1 DR and a Dex penalty of +1 point. A stone to Flesh spell recovers 10%. Cure Disease cast by a X level cleric is required to remove this disease. Once you reach 100% of your body changed to stone, you become an object.

Etc..

 

[Nyeshet]

Gem: Wealth, You gain treasure and are treated as if one level higher with regards to the Wealth Guidelines. This keeps the value decent throughout levels instead of havig a static value that could be improperly balanced.

Rogue: Loss, you lose treasure and are treated as if one level lower with regards to the Wealth Guidelines.

I really like these ideas.

Skull: Death. You acquire Zombie Rot, a magical disease that deals 1 point of CON damage per day, which the character can save to recover. Cure Disease cast by a X level cleric is required to remove the disease. Once your CON drops to 0, you become undead.

I may be mistaken, but I was under the impression that you healed 1 pt of ability damage each period of (restful) sleep. Thus, you would go through each day with either -1 Con or -0 Con, but never -2 or worse Con, as you describe it.

Now, if it were -1 Con DRAIN then it would be a slow killer. An even slower and more insidious killer would be -1d2 Con damage, with some SR added to the disease so that even if magic is used to attempt to heal it it would have a chance of failing. Add to this the idea that any curative magic will not work until the curse is broken (with Remove Curse or higher magic) - which itself is also working against the SR of the disease, and the fact that even if the curse is broken, the next time damage is taken (ie: the next day), the curse is restored (ie: the Remove Curse, etc must be successfully cast again before any curative magic can be attempted), and you have a disease that is fiendishly difficult to cure while also killing the character very very slowly (over weeks, perhaps) - a true Wasting Disease.

Euryale: Stone. You acquire Stone Creep, a magical disease that overcomes your body. Each day requires a Fort save DC 25, failure indicates 10% of your body changes to stone, granting a +1 DR and a Dex penalty of +1 point. A stone to Flesh spell recovers 10%. Cure Disease cast by a X level cleric is required to remove this disease. Once you reach 100% of your body changed to stone, you become an object.

Interesting idea, but I do not myself like using %s when using a d20 system. I would state that the dex penalty is representative of the petrification, and that attempts to cure it remove a bit of the stone, restoring equivalent X Dex in the process.


All in all, some very interesting ideas . . .

 

[Asmor]

Primitive Screwhead: I like the concept of a "level adjustment" for the purpose of wealth guidelines... Actually, I really, really like it. It seems like an extremely elegant solution.

Unfortunately, it's also not very easy to implement... Aside from giving them a one-time windfall there's really not an easy, or believable, way to give a character bonus wealth which the other characters couldn't lay claim to.

Like your take on Euryale and the Skull, though. That's perfect! I also like the 1d2 damage idea, as it makes it more interesting, allowing the damage to accrue randomly.

The simple lycanthrope thing sounds interesting, not familiar with it. I was just going to do the ol "You wake up the next day in a field, naked and covered with blood" thing.

Eloi: As far as the jester goes, I'd consider that a thoroughly good thing, and I'm trying to keep the neutral ones sort of balanced, neither inherently good nor bad.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I always get drain and damage mixed up

Yes, the Wealth guidelines would be hard to handle, but the benefit of a wealth gift would not be one that can get stolen. Perhaps a temporary Midas touch effect.. for 1D6 days coins breathed on turn to gold {permanently}.. the Rogue would go the other way with coins turning into Copper when held in the characters hand...? I don't know. These are difficult cards to work with.

Simple Lycanhrope.. Sean Reynolds redoes the Lycanthrope to get rid of the imbalance caused by the current mess of templates. He offers a simple and complex version. The simple provides access to a series of feats. Each feat provides an advantage typical of lycanthopes such as improved natural attacks, etc. The advantage of using this instead of a 'normal' template is the drawing character suddenly gains around 4 to 8 levels... The player can then choose to accept the curse and spend resources in embracing it, or pursue getting rid of it.


Diseases.. I like the idea of the disease having a SR that can be lowered by a successful remove curse. This would make the card something other than a 'oh darn, I got a Death...guess its time to drink that Potion of Cure Disease...'

 

[Pyrex]

Unfortunately, it's also not very easy to implement... Aside from giving them a one-time windfall there's really not an easy, or believable, way to give a character bonus wealth which the other characters couldn't lay claim to.

There are ways for both. For the Gem card have them be extraordinarily lucky, easily winning when gambling, finding lost coin purses by the side of the road, excessive gifts from wealthy nobles for seemingly meaningless acts, and so on.

For the Rogue, exactly the opposite. The character will frequently be the target of thieves, fined by the city guard for minor infractions that usually go unpunished, cheated by merchants and so on.

 

[Pyrex]

Diseases.. I like the idea of the disease having a SR that can be lowered by a successful remove curse. This would make the card something other than a 'oh darn, I got a Death...guess its time to drink that Potion of Cure Disease...'

One HR I've been pondering for my next game is that any disease that is magically inflicted or magical in nature has SR equal to it's DC. i.e., if a necromancer inflicts you with Blinding Fever via a Contagion spell it gains SR 16. Those you infect can be cured normally as they caught the disease in a mundane fashion; but a cleric needs to beat the SR 16 to cure the initial target.

 

[robberbaron]

I love the DoMT and used it a few weeks ago. Worked out OK, I think. One character gained 4 levels another was voided. Good balance.

I like your alternatives, though they don't feel "artifacty" to me. I like my artifacts to be Epic. Many if the original cards are draw and get a big boost or draw and lose everything and I'd be reluctant to water that down.
I want the characters with the balls to risk everything on a card draw not to go "Is that it?" when they've drawn.
Then again, you know your players and if they are such a bunch of lily-livered numpties don't use a Deck at all.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Epic artifacts are all good and well, except when they break the game...

Having had a party where bad things outnumbered good things.. end result was 3 of the 6 characters were no longer playable..the adventure stopped right there.

A watered down version make the deck less of a potential game ender