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Pathfinder Chronicles: Harrow Deck
Paizo Publishing, LLC
Divine your future! Lose your shirt! All in one box!
In the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, the Harrow™ deck has long been a sacred tool of Varisian fortunetellers. In skilled hands, the Harrow deck can predict crop results, divine the gender of your unborn child, or give hints about your immediate future. In unskilled hands, the Harrow deck is a sacrilegious gambling game—a cutthroat diversion for ruffians in every port to lose their hard-earned fortunes.
Harrow will be featured throughout the second Pathfinder Adventure Path, Curse of the Crimson Throne. At least once in each installment, players may divine their futures with the Harrow deck, and Pathfinder #7 contains an in-depth article about the history of Harrow and its in-game use.
Harrow is also a standalone card game designed by Jason Bulmahn, Mike Selinker, and Teeuwynn Woodruff for use inside or outside the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting. Harrow is lavishly illustrated by Kyle Hunter, the artist behind Downer: Wandering Monster and Downer: Fool's Errand, the Paizo Comics compilations of Kyle's original Downer comics from Dungeon magazine.
Harrow contains:
- One 54-card deck illustrated by Kyle Hunter
- Five chronicle cards to aid in divination
- One rulebook with divination rules and card game rules
Free Downloads:
32-Page Rulebook: 380KB zip PDF
Blank Harrowing Chronicle cards: 780KB zip PDF
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-124-4
Usually ships from our warehouse in 3 to 6 business days
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at
webmaster@paizo.com.
Product Reviews
Average product rating:
   
(4.6)
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review.
I am currently using this in my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign. It's very fun to use them as hints and clues for when the PCs are stuck.
First of all, I love the card backs!!! Secondly, Wow! Are these fun to use in play! I don't do some involved reading, but give them out to players to use for a one time bonus as the situation warrants...or as a clue!
These are nicely illustrated cards that help one aspect of the Pathfinder world to come alive! They are fairly inexpensive for the amount of fun that they can add to your campaign! I cannot recommend them highly enough!
I think the art on the cards themselves is great, but the backs are lacking as far as suspension of disbelief. Putting them in card sleeves solves this problem well.
The organization and ideas behind the Harrow Deck (using the alignments as "colors" of the deck) are great, the production value very high.
I wasn't a fan of this artist before owning this deck. I was a little anxious while waiting for it in the mail. Now that I got it, I can honestly say that he did an amazing job on this product.
Well done!
The art on the cards proper is great. The method of reading is fresh and innovative.
However, the card backs ruin this product. The box art shows a gypsy holding a card with a generic striped backing, making the purchaser believe that's what is inside the box. When I opened the box and saw the card packs with the same backing as the box, I figured those must be the instruction cards. However, the card backs are exactly the same as the box! This makes them laughable to look at. Whomever in the production department thought this was a good idea was sorely mistaken.
I can't use this product in any seriousness because the card backs are so far from any kind of actual fortune telling deck. (Even the Tarokka deck, with the stupid copyright on the card backs, isn't as annoying as this product). I honestly feel that I wasted my money.
Is this critical for the game? No.
Does this add fun to the game? Yes.
A group could use the alternative mechanics suggested in the AP using dice, generic playing cards, or perhaps try a Tarot deck, the I Ching, or runes, but the Harrow Deck complements the game much better because it was crafted for the campaign setting. The symbols and artwork actually tie in with one of the native races.
This feels new, fresh, inventive, and a delightful twist to spice up the game for me.
Ever wanted to add that feeling of impending doom, or at least trouble in a game? I gave my players a harrow reading between Burnt Offerings and Skinsaw Murders and it was wonderful. They are actually checking off the predictions as they come true. It took some time to learn the cards and their meaning but after that I felt like a regular carny soothsayer. Can't wait to deliver the next reading. They look nice but more important they become a real ROLE PLAYING prop.
It's like the author of the Book of Kells redesigned the Tarot after spending a few days in the company of Timothy Leary and Gary Gygax.
I've owned a lot of gimmicky gaming related card decks over the years. This is the only one that was actually cool.
Put me in the converted camp, I was rather dubious about the art but it's lovely and *very* evocative, with many cards that are moving, disturbing (Mute Hag anyone?) or just plain hilarious. Sure there's a modern edge (and perhaps The Keep is pushing it, but it gets away with it on amusement value), but if anything it simply enhances the colourful, mystical stained-glass sort of look and all the little details provide a wealth of reading interpretation fodder.
The booklet is well-written and the card interpretations are vague enough to make excellent starting points to build your reading on. I haven't tried Towers yet, but it looks like one of those simple card games that gets infuriatingly addictive and competitive, I'll try it out with my CotCT group some time.
My only complaint is that I would have preferred plain card-backs to the fortune-teller graphic. Particularly as a roleplaying tool it would look much more effective, but that's a minor problem with an overall great product.
I cannot say much more than what has been said previously. I was skeptical, not being the biggest Downer fan, but the art on these cards is very sexy and well done.
My only complaint is that the backs of the cards, instead of being elegantly simple, have the HARROW logo and box art picture of the fortune teller on them. It's a little jarring when trying to create an immersive atmosphere for a reading.
Product Discussion
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See all discussion for this product.
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I remember very much enjoying the use of Ravenloft's Tarokka deck as a player, so I'm looking forward to this.
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You should see some of the art. My god this thing is beautiful.
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*Add this new thing to the already very long list of "can't wait to have" things.*
A new product :) Yesterday night, it was PF4 download, this time, you add this! It's Christmas every day!
And this time, it's comming soon, only a couple months to wait :D
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Erik Mona wrote:
You should see some of the art. My god this thing is beautiful.
Ok, show some. :)
Really, perhaps show one of the card's art in a blog post or something. This would be great to see.
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Is this anything like the Three Dragon Ante Character Creation Article featured in one of the Dragons?
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