The Deck of Many Things, Explained | D&D Lore

Comments · 70

• SA

  @sandrinenoel7329 · 2 years ago

  I think the Deck can be a really interesting item to use in campaigns, it just depends what kind of party and DM you have (and which cards you pull.) I only saw the deck in action once, in the first ever campaign I joined. The evil warlock (unknown to me, the newbie), got the deck in the underdark and when we got out, decided to pull from the deck. He pulled three cards and got the following boons: a castle, shit-ton of money and a wish. He was EXTREMELY LUCKY. He used his castle, his money and his wish to bring about the apocalypse without us knowing, thus becoming the final BBEG of the campaign, along with his patron Grazzt. 10/10 would do it again. I think in our case, since I joined post-module and our DM was weaving the story as it unfolded, the Deck of Many Things was an integral tool to refining and giving the finishing touches to the final arc that would lead us to level 20.

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• FA

  @facundotorres175 · 2 years ago

  I think the best way to use it is to use a card as a centerpiece for a quest<br><br>&quot;Help me I&apos;m being chased by an avatar of death&quot;<br><br>&quot;The new king was not party of the family, help me dethrone him&quot;<br><br>&quot;My husband is buried under a pile of gold!&quot;<br><br>So on and so forth, you could let the characters keep the drawn card and when they get to 13-22 they can draw again

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• AL

  @alexeagleston5618 · 2 years ago

  What we did at my table and what I’m doing going forward is making the effects of the cards not instant. Making more a deck of Omens. <br><br>Our party used it and two people got cards that gave them magic items. The other two members of the party picked the items and even wrote short back stories for them and DM’d the npcs that got the items to the other players. Our bard got a dancing sword delivered to him by a courier mistaking him for someone else and our cleric got a banner to help boost their healing from their local temple as a lost family artifact. <br><br>Lose your soul? Nope, not until it’s separated from your body next. No death saves! You’re safely in a coma until your soul is saved.

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• DA

  @dandrive3249 · 2 years ago

  So currently in my campaign, one of the parties greatest foes actually weaponized the deck. They haven’t met him yet, but when they caught his attention he slipped one of the cards into a NPC pocket and a bad effect went off and he got the Eyrines card.<br>They haven’t fought him yet, but the know if they get a net 1 they will accidentally draw one of his cards which can go good or bad.

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• DU

  @DurdleDers · 2 years ago

  I implemented it in my campaign as a fortune teller that shows up occasionally and lets a player get their fortune told. They get to pick from 3 random face down cards, so they get a little more variation in their fate.

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• JO

  @johnborheck3022 · 8 months ago

  Deck coming for my birthday 🎉❤🎉❤

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• PR

  @PrimalMike · 2 years ago

  I was playing an evil wizard in a high-level campaign. It had become stagnant, and I talked to the GM. &nbsp;We conspired to reset the game using the deck. My character pulled lucky. Everyone else got greedy and died. We turned my wizard into a quest giver for a new campaign. Since I got all the items from my fallen comrades, he let everyone choose one item as payment to start a new campaign. He made it very rewarding and very difficult. My now NPC wizard tempted the entire group to do hard, evil things for the items our previous characters had. &nbsp;We ended up with a group of powerful, corrupted heroes. High magic is fun.

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• BA

  @balijosu · 2 years ago

  Definitely make the deck your own. &nbsp;Tune it to your campaign. &nbsp;All published materials are suggestions.

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• DW

  @dwil0311 · 2 years ago

  The rules in the new book have made the deck infinitely more interesting on so many levels while maintaining the same mystique. The same feast or famine in the results can remain the same, but it can now more easily be adjusted to what you role you want it to play in your game.

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• DA

  @darthmemewalker2807 · 2 years ago

  i call it the deck of world destroyers

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• MA

  @matthewconstantine · 2 years ago

  I have definite plans to put in some version of the Deck into my Dungeon Crawl Classics game if I can ever get it off the ground. &nbsp;I&apos;ve had no end of fun tossing in &quot;game breaking&quot; items into previous DCC games I&apos;ve run.

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• CH

  @ChadHensley · 2 years ago

  I&apos;m super excited to use it. Had originally planned to introduce it to my players next week and then the whole print run issue has now derailed my plans so I&apos;ll hold out introducing it until January. I&apos;m planning on using the Deck of Many More Things (additional cards) from the new product along with the original cards to create my own deck. It will be balanced between good and bad still but will likely build it based on what I know my players can handle. It&apos;s a unique group and I think they will love the physical cards once they finally arrive. Super excited to see what it does to our campaign, which is a homebrew mixed with the Keys from the Golden Vault book.

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