It actually has adventures in it, mostly suggested by the cards (like, here’s an adventure to claim the castle one of the cards says you can have; here’s the fiend that becomes your enemy and what they’ll do, etc.)
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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
D&D 5E Why is no one talking about THE BOOK OF MANY THINGS?
- Thread starter THEMNGMNT
- Start date
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
There's a chapter on a fantasy zodiac, the Sky of Many Things, with information about the constellations, what they might mean for characters born under that sign and what other influences they have on the world, including magical effects, suggestions on how they could be part of magical items, plus some stuff about observatories, magical and otherwise.
All of the chapters in this book are basically meaty Dragon articles riffing off of the cards in the Deck of Many Things.
It is a book that is strangely limited by its subject matter.
As I was reading it, I was going "this is great!" a lot, but the more I read, the more I thought "I just wish they weren't shoehorning everything to fit with the Deck of Many Things".
By the end, I felt it had missed the mark substantially.
This is a book that I initially thought should sit next to Xanathar's Guide to Everything on my shelf. It's that sort of book - a grab bag of interesting elements to add to your D&D campaign. But the organisation is horrible. And the tying of game elements to the Deck diminishes them. Stuff that should be generally useful is made weirdly specific.
As I was reading it, I was going "this is great!" a lot, but the more I read, the more I thought "I just wish they weren't shoehorning everything to fit with the Deck of Many Things".
By the end, I felt it had missed the mark substantially.
This is a book that I initially thought should sit next to Xanathar's Guide to Everything on my shelf. It's that sort of book - a grab bag of interesting elements to add to your D&D campaign. But the organisation is horrible. And the tying of game elements to the Deck diminishes them. Stuff that should be generally useful is made weirdly specific.
Hexmage-EN
Legend
I just didn't get it was because it was outside my price range for a D&D product.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Yeah, I got a good deal on it at the same time as I got an unexpected windfall.
Chaltab
Legend
Vecna was last year
So, it is a product focused on the Deck of Many Things, and by having everything relate to the Deck, it missed the mark?
I am not sure I am on board with that as a critique, which ought to be about whether the thing meets its own design goals well. It sounds like saying that you don't like a seafood restaurant because it doesn't have enough pizza on the menu.
Uni-the-Unicorn!
Hero
Interesting, I think Planescape is a great product. First time I became interested in the setting!
But to the OP (@THEMNGMNT), I passed on the Book, what is there that would make me want to get it?
While it's cool that the content is thematically tied to the deck, organizing the actual chapters in the book according to the themes of the cards arguably ends up being a cute gimmick that makes the book harder to use than it might otherwise have been. However, the intro section does provide a reasonable guide to locating the sort of content you want, albeit spread throughout chapters.
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