Pathfinder Chronicles: Harrow Deck

4.40/5 (based on 25 ratings)

Our Price: $15.99

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This product is permanently out of print; please check out the Deluxe Harrow Deck instead!

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

Note: The declaration of Open Game Content was left out. Please use the following:

Product Identity: The following items are hereby identified as Product Identity, as defined in the Open Game License version 1.0a, Section 1(e), and are not Open Content: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, etc.), dialogue, plots, storylines, locations, characters, artwork, and trade dress. (Elements that are in the public domain or have previously been designated as Open Game Content are not included in this declaration.)

Open Content: Except for material designated as Product Identity (see above), the game mechanics of this Paizo Publishing game product are Open Game Content, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a Section 1(d). No portion of this work other than the material designated as Open Game Content may be reproduced in any form without written permission.

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscription.

Product Availability

Out of print

This product is out of print.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

PZO9200


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Hopefully FLGS's everywhere will have open copies to show to folks as I think one run through of this deck might change some minds. I just flipped through it for the first time and all of my personal concerns about the project melted. Kyle's really outdone himself -- every card is filled with fantasy imagery and secrets that, like a Tarot deck, can be used to tell amazing stories when divining someone's future. I like it. I know not everyone will, but hopefully you'll thumb through the cards and give the product a chance. :-)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Mike Selinker wrote:

We got the first honest-to-goodness Harrow deck into the shop today. Vic told my fortune. Not surprisingly, he predicted doom.

Mike

Actually, Harrowings involve your past, present, *and* future. In the past, Mike met a person of tremendous import and great intelligence. This person requires that, for the present, he needs to keep working hard and smart, or events in the future may not work out well for all involved.

Makes sense to me...

Lone Shark Games

Vic Wertz wrote:
Actually, Harrowings involve your past, present, *and* future. In the past, Mike met a person of tremendous import and great intelligence. This person requires that, for the present, he needs to keep working hard and smart, or events in the future may not work out well for all involved. Makes sense to me...

Oh, that's right, Jeff Alvarez was in that meeting! I'd forgotten. Thanks, Vic!

Mike


Will this be part of the Pathfinder Chronicles Subscription?

-- david
Papa-DRB
Grognard
My better half and me


Papa-DRB wrote:
Will this be part of the Pathfinder Chronicles Subscription?

I'm sure I've read that it will be. Anyway, it makes sense, since the Item Cards are part of it, too.

Lone Shark Games

Joshua J. Frost wrote:
Kyle's really outdone himself -- every card is filled with fantasy imagery and secrets that, like a Tarot deck, can be used to tell amazing stories when divining someone's future.

One of my favorite aspects of running this project was handing off Kyle's art to divination designer Teeuwynn Woodruff, and saying "Kyle put a pear on the unicorn's horn. What does that mean?" and she'd say words to the effect of, "That means the card is being generous. The unicorn could punch a three-inch hole into you, but instead it's intentionally blunting its danger." See, it's so obvious when Tey says it, but I'd never have thought of it. The two of them made a very creative combo.

Mike

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

KaeYoss wrote:
Papa-DRB wrote:
Will this be part of the Pathfinder Chronicles Subscription?
I'm sure I've read that it will be. Anyway, it makes sense, since the Item Cards are part of it, too.

Yes, it is.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:


The cards aren't supposed to be photo-realistic images�to me, they look like images of stained glass windows or of the cool illuminations you might see in the glosses of books transcribed by artistic monks; both very much in-game and in-theme artwork types to the genre. And at the same time, the cards DO feel modern, which makes them fun and memorable.

Although I usually don't like his art, Kyle was a good choice for this because he does manage to get exactly that look. In particular, he does a great job of conveying D&D monsters with only a few colors in each. There's no way WAR's art would work, for instance. The cards are too small for the detail he does, and no one would believe something that detailed could appear on an in-game set of cards.

Dark Archive

The latest blog sneak-peek is astounding. Both images are made of pure, concentraded win.
To be honest, I always loved Kyle's art (and BTW also Peter Bergting's one too *hint hint*) and I can't wait both to see the complete Harrow deck, and some more stuff featuring his works.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I see the new Mr. Fire and Mrs. Water Elemental. Why is their baby an Ulok in a diving suit?

Dark Archive Contributor

Ross Byers wrote:
I see the new Mr. Fire and Mrs. Water Elemental. Why is their baby an Ulok in a diving suit?

Because Kyle is crazy? ;D

Contributor

Ross Byers wrote:
I see the new Mr. Fire and Mrs. Water Elemental. Why is their baby an Ulok in a diving suit?

The union of fire and water creates something that is neither fire nor water. It wears the asbestos diving suit to protect itself from caustic purity of its parent elements. The whole is different from the sum of its parts.


A firewater elemental is an interestic concept.


I'm on the fence on this one. On one hand, I love Mr. Hunter's art, and I love the idea of card sets from Fantasy worlds.

On the other, I would probably never actually use these in play. I'm just not into card readings as a part of D and D.

Decisions, decisions...

Dark Archive Contributor

David Witanowski wrote:

I'm on the fence on this one. On one hand, I love Mr. Hunter's art, and I love the idea of card sets from Fantasy worlds.

On the other, I would probably never actually use these in play. I'm just not into card readings as a part of D and D.

Decisions, decisions...

It comes with a mini game... ;)

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Mike McArtor wrote:
Ross Byers wrote:
I see the new Mr. Fire and Mrs. Water Elemental. Why is their baby an Ulok in a diving suit?
Because Kyle is crazy? ;D

He's just creative. Crazy would be like having air elementals reproduce by asexual budding. You'd have whirlwinds stacked on top of whirlwinds. Madness I say!


Cats and dogs living together -- mass hysteria!

Liberty's Edge

Damn, I was hoping this would be out in time to use in RotRL. My group is about to take the river barge to Turtleback Ferry from Magnimar and I was going to have a Maverick-esque card tourney =p


Coridan wrote:
Damn, I was hoping this would be out in time to use in RotRL. My group is about to take the river barge to Turtleback Ferry from Magnimar and I was going to have a Maverick-esque card tourney =p

Could use Three Dragon Ante for a tourney - its a blast.

This looks great - love the coherence of it! I bought the Tarokka deck a while back, and while the imagery is impressive I couldn't get into it as something to use.


Is there anyway to add this to my pathfinder subscription to save on shipping?


Russell Akred wrote:
Is there anyway to add this to my pathfinder subscription to save on shipping?

I hear they're working on it. (I guess you don't want to subscribe to Chronicles, you just want to get this deck).

Liberty's Edge

Russell Akred wrote:
Is there anyway to add this to my pathfinder subscription to save on shipping?

That would be really nice, and also if schipping could wait for the Guide to Korvosa if it is still on for an early March release?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Russell Akred wrote:
Is there anyway to add this to my pathfinder subscription to save on shipping?

Right now, you can only ship subscription items together. So if you subscribe to the Chronicles line, you'd be able to save on shipping. We're working on allowing you to add non-subscription items to your subscription shipments, but it's not quite ready.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Stegger wrote:
Russell Akred wrote:
Is there anyway to add this to my pathfinder subscription to save on shipping?
That would be really nice, and also if schipping could wait for the Guide to Korvosa if it is still on for an early March release?

Harrow and the Guide to Korvosa are both arriving in our warehouse next week, along with Pathfinder 7 and the Crimson Throne Player's Guide. And Northwest of Earth (Planet Stories) arrived yesterday. So all of those will go out together where applicable.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

I have added a Pathfinder Chronicles subscription to my account.

My question is will this be something that falls under that subscription, or do I need place a separate order for this? It looks really cool and I don't want to miss it.

Looks like this question has already been added - missed this thread's length from the product page - apologies for repeating! :o

Dark Archive

Quick question -- I just added Pathfinder Chronicles subscription to my account, a day after I received a notice that PF #7 is going out ... how will that affect when/if I get the Harrow deck?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Archade wrote:

Quick question -- I just added Pathfinder Chronicles subscription to my account, a day after I received a notice that PF #7 is going out ... how will that affect when/if I get the Harrow deck?

If you chose to start with the Guide to Korvosa, you'll also get the Harrow deck. (Even though we released both at the same time, we have to consider one of them "first," and in this case, it's the Guide to Korvosa.)


Would love to see some art.


If you look back through the Blog, you'll find several art samples.


todays blog RAFLMAO!!!! he needs to get out more!!!

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Adventure Subscriber
GentleGiant wrote:
Erik Mona wrote:
You should see some of the art. My god this thing is beautiful.
I'd wager that depends on whether one likes Kyle Hunter's art... which I have to say I generally don't. A shame really, sounded like a cool thing to get.

For what it's worth- I'm interested in the mechanics, and the rules, but am not a fan of Kyle Hunter's art, either. I'm getting the deck despite the artwork, however. I don't know that I'll actually use the cards themselves in play because of the artwork.

Lone Shark Games

Gary London wrote:
todays blog RAFLMAO!!!! he needs to get out more!!!

Huh. The kindly fellow with the cell-door keys says I need to get out less.

Mike


SageSTL wrote:
For what it's worth- I'm interested in the mechanics, and the rules, but am not a fan of Kyle Hunter's art, either. I'm getting the deck despite the artwork, however. I don't know that I'll actually use the cards themselves in play because of the artwork.

If the artwork bothers you, there are some pretty strong analogues to a standard Tarot deck, and there's an article in PF #7 that subs playing cards for the Harrow Deck.

A square deck would have been cool, in retrospect, given the arrangement of the Harrow grid.

Lone Shark Games

Lilith wrote:
SageSTL wrote:
For what it's worth- I'm interested in the mechanics, and the rules, but am not a fan of Kyle Hunter's art, either. I'm getting the deck despite the artwork, however. I don't know that I'll actually use the cards themselves in play because of the artwork.

If the artwork bothers you, there are some pretty strong analogues to a standard Tarot deck, and there's an article in PF #7 that subs playing cards for the Harrow Deck.

A square deck would have been cool, in retrospect, given the arrangement of the Harrow grid.

We thought about that, but square cards just felt...odd. Not good odd, just weird odd. So we went with the more traditional shape.

Mike


Mike Selinker wrote:
We thought about that, but square cards just felt...odd. Not good odd, just weird odd. So we went with the more traditional shape.

That's cool, kinda like round cards. I like 'em, they just feel weird in my hands.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Adventure Subscriber
Lilith wrote:
SageSTL wrote:
For what it's worth- I'm interested in the mechanics, and the rules, but am not a fan of Kyle Hunter's art, either. I'm getting the deck despite the artwork, however. I don't know that I'll actually use the cards themselves in play because of the artwork.
If the artwork bothers you, there are some pretty strong analogues to a standard Tarot deck, and there's an article in PF #7 that subs playing cards for the Harrow Deck.

I wouldn't say that it bothers me, per se, or that I have any unreasonable reaction to the artwork. It's just a personal preference- and I know that there are others that really like his work.

I'm interested in the rules included with the deck at the very least- and want to support this kind of product from Paizo regardless (since I love this type of thing).

The Exchange

Got mine today. The art is great and the rules seems easy. I skimmed the various card meanings and they are well put together. Good work! Hopefully I will get to use these soon with my buds.


Will this be avilable on PDF for for on-line usage? The cards could be zipped up into a file of watermarked PNGs, so they could be used in Fantasy Grounds or similar?

I think people would enjoy using them on-line.


Ben Parkinson wrote:

Will this be avilable on PDF for for on-line usage? The cards could be zipped up into a file of watermarked PNGs, so they could be used in Fantasy Grounds or similar?

I think people would enjoy using them on-line.

Last time we asked, the answer was no.

It's really too bad. I'd love to have PDFs of those.

Someone should write a solitaire mod with those cards. Would rock.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Nope; no PDF of Harrow. We don't do PDFs of any of our card products.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I thought I'd ask about the design decision to put the fortune teller on the back of the cards instead of a more traditional card back.


Mike Selinker,

I have no wish for brownie points, but i thought you might like to know sir...

I like the art.

I've seen enough of the samples so far now to be sure.

Yeah, I think it looks just fine. great even.

Good job.

Liberty's Edge

And I have confirmed that they contain enough vagaries to give the impression of matching a person; on a whim I Harrowed a somewhat-friend and was able to pick out Past, Present, and Future that fit her with stunning precision.

Lone Shark Games

Watcher wrote:

Mike Selinker,

I have no wish for brownie points, but i thought you might like to know sir...
I like the art.
I've seen enough of the samples so far now to be sure.
Yeah, I think it looks just fine. great even.
Good job.

And here I just baked these fine brownie points for you because you were so nice. I guess you don't want them, then? OK, I'll leave them in the Paizo kitchen. I'm sure Jason will eat them.

Mike

Lone Shark Games

Ross Byers wrote:
I thought I'd ask about the design decision to put the fortune teller on the back of the cards instead of a more traditional card back.

To quote "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," people just liked it better that way. We considered a plain card back to be more like the ones that (presumably) the Golarian fortune tellers would use, but it just wasn't exciting anyone.

Mike

Lone Shark Games

James Jacobs wrote:
Nope; no PDF of Harrow. We don't do PDFs of any of our card products.

Though we do have a pdf of the chronicle card should need more or larger-type chronicles for your readings. That's on the Harrow product page.

Mike

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Mike Selinker wrote:
Ross Byers wrote:
I thought I'd ask about the design decision to put the fortune teller on the back of the cards instead of a more traditional card back.

To quote "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," people just liked it better that way. We considered a plain card back to be more like the ones that (presumably) the Golarian fortune tellers would use, but it just wasn't exciting anyone.

Mike

Fair enough. And look what you've done! I have to go listen to Flood now.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Mike Selinker wrote:

And here I just baked these fine brownie points for you because you were so nice. I guess you don't want them, then? OK, I'll leave them in the Paizo kitchen. I'm sure Jason will eat them.

Mike

Oooh! Brownies!

*munch munch*

OW! Pointy!


Vic Wertz wrote:


Oooh! Brownies!

*munch munch*

OW! Pointy!

Gosh. Vic took the hit for me.

::sniffs::

I'm touched.

Just got my Harrow Deck today! My comment still stands now that I have it in my hands!


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

My Harrow Deck (and all the other goodies) came last night. I wasn't expecting to be too impressed with it, honestly - the idea just hadn't grabbed me up til now, and I've never comprehended Downer, so I was afraid the artwork wouldn't be my thing.

So now let me say - I LOVE THIS DECK!

I pulled it out and played with it last night. I did a quick reading for three PCs in the Rise of the Runelords game we STILL haven't started, and they came out beautifully, with hints of things to come and some ideas to better understand the motivations of those PCs. One of my concerns was that the product might be designed too much with the Crimson Throne path in mind, and readings might not work as well for other things. That worry is laid to rest. The results are quite flexible; I'm even going to try them out this weekend with some super-hero characters (weekly HERO game).

The artwork really works for this product. The cards look like something that was made by hand by the Varisians. The images are clear and representational of what they're supposed to be, and I've found some pretty cool nuances in certain images. I love the placement of the Suit graphic on the card to indicate its alignment - brilliant!

It would have been nice to get a PDF of the Divination Book. I'm typing in all the descriptions myself, to get more familiar with them and to let me do some other things. I'm in the beginnings of an idea for using these cards in character generation, NOT to create stats but to generate ideas for character backgrounds through three stages of life (early childhood, late childhood, and recent events, rather than past/present/future). You know - "In your childhood, ahh, the Unicorn is diametrically misaligned. I see that you were betrayed by a trusted childhood friend..."

There is only one thing I find less-than-ideal; when doing a reading, I'm supposed to separate out the single suit of cards that best applies to the question, have each person take one of those cards, I interpret them, then I shuffle them back into the full deck and do the reading. I realize that if these cards are treasured family heirlooms, it makes sense that there would be 1 deck, but I still think it's going to be easier if I change that so the tradition is a double deck with different backings (I'll put one in sleeves with some appropriate image on the backs, the other in clear sleeves). That way, one set can always stay sorted by suit, and people can have their individual cards in front of them throughout the reading, while the other deck can stay shuffled together to be used for the spread itself.

In other words, the one "down-side" has made me decide I need to buy an extra deck. Probably not a problem, from a designer's standpoint!

So here I've gone from being fairly uninterested to being, well, a bit obsessed with these cards. I'll play with them this weekend at the FLGS during our supers game, and see how many of the guys end up ordering their own decks, too. (grin)

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