Hey all, I'm about to start running this module, but I've one major snag - I really, really don't want to use the whole Harrow theme. My current group has been together for about 2-3 years and has played in two campaigns together. Most of them were new players when they started, so those two campaigns have been their entire D&D experience. And in both of those campaigns, the Deck of Many Things was a major campaign plot point.
(The 2nd campaign was by a first-time GM, so I don't give her a hard time for re-using the artifact.)
So that's my problem - I can't use the Deck AGAIN. That would be getting pretty ridiculous. Any ideas for alternatives? Not just for the endgame artifact, but for the initial hooks with Zellara? I could just have her be the ghostly partner and not form the Deck in the end, but I'm worried that even having some sort of magical card deck will be too similar and feel stale to my players.
(Also, I'm running this in 4E and have been doing a ton of conversion to personalize the campaign, so I'm definitely going to share those here. :D)
Use other fortune-telling methods instead. Casting stones, reading bones, palm-readings, images in fire, crystal balls, heck even make her a medium who speaks with spirits - there's an ironic result, if that's what she did in life too.
You could just cut the whole thing out and just have Zellara be a ghostly ally who appears occasionally to give the party advice. She doesn't have to be connected to an item. She could just be connected to the adventurers directly. I would play her as a psychic though, so she can portend the future of what is to come and impart 1d10 "destiny" points. (Although, you could cut out the points too, my players hardly ever use them.)
The Harrow readings are only in the adventure for flavor. There is no harm in leaving them out. You could also put them in, but not have them turn into a deck of many things at the end, because that is even less necessary for the story. It's just a gimmick, which I won't be using either, because decks of many things are notorious game breakers.
Thanks for the feedback! I really like the idea of having her being a spirit-talker in life, that really keeps the flavor alive without requiring the cards themselves.
And I totally agree MrVergee, the deck being repetitive aside, I always dread having it appear in my games because it can totally destroy a campaign players have invested a lot of time into. All the better to avoid it here, I think!
If I were to use the harrow deck of many things when it eventually does come up in my campaign, would it suffice to remove certain cards from the deck; and if so, which ones would it be best to remove?
If I were to use the harrow deck of many things when it eventually does come up in my campaign, would it suffice to remove certain cards from the deck; and if so, which ones would it be best to remove?
In my opinion the trouble cards are the ones that derail the adventure by drastically altering the party (A party member vanishes / is taken to another plane) or anything like that, that forces the party to stop and suddenly deal with their new situation.
Most of the situations I'm thinking of are negative, though in some cases the positive ones might be a huge distraction too (gaining a keep, for example -- though this could also be a great RP opportunity).
Regardless, removing those ones and having only the fun, useful, but not world-altering ones would probably make the Deck safer to use!
Following up, I decided to have Zellara be a spirit-talker but have her also tell fortunes with dice. Her special dice will be a suitable item the party can hang onto and utilize in their career, gradually increasing in effectiveness as the PCs level up. A bonus roll here or there, a double roll/choose-the-highest occasionally, that kind of thing. :)