I generally don't gamble quite that much, but as GM I've inserted the Deck of Many things into more than one campaign. Usually, it goes pretty well. I have yet to have anyone draw the donjon or void.
If your Gm inflicked this minor artifact on your party, would you draw some cards?
If you had the deck before how did it go?
It's shown up in two games. One went to crap and the other didn't.
Been there, done that. I usually end up getting hosed. As a player, I always say I'll never do it in a game again, but then I keep playing characters that would take the chance in a heartbeat.
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I wonder if a simulacra could draw cards for you? They're completely loyal and you can just take their stuff. If they get sent to hell or something it's not a problem.
loophole? Maybe.
I personally think it's a big gamble, but like Shadowborn, I feel that a lot of my PCs would go for it. Some more than others.
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I don't plan on using a Deck of Many things in my games, ever, but I'm strongly considering a Harrow Deck of Many Things.
But the PCs wouldn't get it.
Instead, first the deck will appear from nowhere. Then a group of people in the midst of the process of destroying it will. Someone will hit it, it'll disappear, and then one of the others will cast a divination spell and a teleport spell, and they all vanish. Knowledge (arcana) check to figure out what just happened.
Bobson, I am stealing that idea so hard!
In one game I'm in we had the Deck show up...In that game I am playing a Paladin so I refrained from the Deck because I felt it went against the " moral code" of my character to draw...whatever...If it were any other game I'm in I would draw..."Do you want to live forever?"
There is a terrifying (for anyone who has ever been hosed by a DoMT) monster in The Complete Tome of Horrors. I think it is called a "Red Jester", though I do not have my copy in front of me. It throws randomly drawn cards from a DoMT at players that take effect if they hit. The cards then reappear back in the creature's deck. Shiver. It could result in a TPK or an overpowered party (or anything in between).
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I think I've been in three different parties that self-destructed after finding a deck. They've been pretty much perma-banned by our group since we apparently have no self-control or survival instinct when faced with one.
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I have used the deck on a number of occassions. Especially after I bought an actual 3.5 copy of the deck itself. Usually the deck has a way of influencing the party. Once that first person draws, then EVERYONE has to draw. I have only ever once seen this backfire on a party, but, it was only to a DMPC.
Although, I am still waiting for one absent player and one gutsy "I pull EIGHT cards" player to pull tomorrow.
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Our GM gave us this recently. Myself I drew 2 cards, jester(Gain 10,000 XPor two more draws from the deck)and key(Gain a major magic weapon)so not to bad. The barb drew 3 and go the sun(Gain beneficial medium wondrous item and 50,000 XP)twice and eurayle(–1 penalty on all saving throws henceforth)so over all not offal. The rogue drew 4 and got fates(Avoid any situation you choose, once), flame(Enmity between you and an outsider), fates, and void(Body functions, but soul is trapped elsewhere)so she cancelled the 2 bad cards with the fates. The summoner drew 3 and got the star(Immediately gain a +2 inherent bonus to one ability score), sun and balance(Change alignment instantly)neutral good to nuetral evil. The NPC cleric drew 4 and got sun,star, gems(Gain your choice of 25 pieces of jewelry or 50 gems), and void. 2 others party memebers still have to draw as we ran out of time for that day. The sorcerer said he was going to draw 8 next time (fun) and the oracle hasnt said yet.
Should be entertaining to see what happens.
If your Gm inflicked this minor artifact on your party, would you draw some cards?
If you had the deck before how did it go?
Oh man. The deck of many things is when the GM decides that the campaign is getting boring and decides to throw all caution to the wind.
Last time I drew from the deck, I believe that a I gained a level, acquired a sun blade, and lost my soul. good times...
My brother's halfling thief ended up drawing the death card as was going to be killed post haste but then he challenged the avatar of death to a bake off and won.
What ever you might think about the Deck, it is always a source of hilarity.
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I introduced a deck once, to a relatively inexperienced group, under 2nd ed. I modified the deck rules to allow each of them to draw up to 5 cards. And they did.
After writing the special adventure to allow the rest of the group to rescue the Paladin from the Donjon (after fighting off Death, and both gaining and losing a level), I vowed never to use one again.
I'm really glad local games happen at my house, so if one of these shows up in a game I can just go to my room and play video games instead.
Tymora and I have a tawdry love affair, so I typically draw no less than 6 cards whenever given the chance. Which has been three or four times now.
Last time I walked out a level higher and with a +5 inherent dexterity bonus. ;)
Not if you paid me ... or unless we used the augury cheat.
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I've always found it incredible that anyone would choose to toss a coin with the two possible results being:-
1) something pretty good happens
2) you die
...and you can do it up to four times!
I understand why players would do this! Get a really powerful PC, or a useless PC who'll soon die and you can quickly roll another and have that PC draw!
A player might do this...but an actual person would have to be insane or desperate to make such a bad gamble.
Since I've grown up(!), the Deck has reared it's ugly head twice: once was when we needed to save the world and the DM had performed an in-game ritual which allowed us to draw 2 and discard 1 for each draw. The world was saved.
The other time was when our ship on the ocean came across another ship that seemed to have major fighting on board. Lots of sailors were fighting lots of identical creatures that were a bit 'death-y'. I got the hint, ordered everyone to avoid attacking them no matter what the provocation, and high-tailed it out of there!
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Phaetalla Eversharp must be my GM.
Ya think! *wink*
I can't wait to see what happens to the Sorceror that threw all caution to the wind when he said, I'll draw EIGHT cards. He'll either die immediately or become a god. In the case of the later, I think I will just rule a muligan and pull a party FATES card.
You can also do things like remove the major arcana.
I also like the ritual draw, where the party enters into a pact and all draw the same cards...
Turned up in my long running campaign a few years ago. Three party members drew cards, which came up Void, Sun, Void, with the two longest running characters (year+) both drawing Voids. Came pretty close to killing the game actually. I wouldn't touch one of those things against if my PC's life depended on it - even if the odds weren't worse than 50/50 on good vs. bad (and worthwhile vs. very bad).
I wouldn't have drawn to begin with if I hadn't been trying to get some kind of rescue card for the Voided player. It was more of an IC choice than an OOC one - with the PC in question having some serious survivor's guilt over party experiences and strong feelings for the Voided guy.
Though things eventually worked out in a sense - we both brought in temporary NPCs and our PCs were eventually rescued - I'd not repeat the experience again since it took more than a year to resolve the simple rescue and complications still exist in the game as a result nearly three years later. Horrible item.
Throw it into the nearest volcano (I think that's what the party druid did in the aftermath of the disaster).
Inflicted it on my party. (Including Pete)
Came nowhere near killing the game, although both of the Voided players were close to leaving. Drastically altered the campaign though. Allowed me to highlight some places that I never thought I'd have to develop, introduce some elements of the campaign world to the players and much more. Excellent item.
Later on, the Dire Gamblers made an appearance, putting a spotlight on the PCs who survived the Void, which is unheard of in their circle.
Not for every campaign, nor for the faint of heart, but can be serious fun. I prefer the versions with less drastic effects though, just because it is difficult to get players to draw when they know the stakes are so high. (See above reaction for exhibit A)
Dear God, no.
It's shown up a few times in my gaming history, when we were young and crazy. I remember once the player nobody liked got Voided, which, contrary to what you might think, was just super-awkward.
We've come to recognize that the "God or Dead" dichotomy is just unnecessary.
The very first D&D game I played, the DM threw it in on a mere whim. He starts counting off loot, then pauses, nods, and says that there's also a leather pouch with a deck of cards in it. Me, playing a Fighter and having ignored the magic item compendium because I don't believe in using things once or twice a day (I've changed my mind since then), did not know what I was dealing with. To my right, our Cleric of Wee Jas, Crusader, Ruby Knight Vindicator, that shape shifts into a troglodyte first level, groans. "I take the pouch and open it," I say.
DM takes other said player and runs out for half an hour to grab a deck of cards. When he comes back, he says to choose a number of cards to draw. One player selects 3, one selects 4, I roll a d20 and proudly announce I'll take 12, again, I'd ignored the MIC before this. Luckily, the other players drew their cards before I drew mine.
They got a Luck Blade (3 wishes), a +3 Holy Axiomatic Dancing Morning Star, and the character with the Morning Star became Imprisoned. I started my draw with a Dread Wraith, picked up the Morning Star (I was level 6), and my 3 weapons finished the Wraith in 4 rounds. I finished my 12 with a vengeful outsider, 3 +6s to Diplomacy and keeps, a -1 to saves, my Imprisoned friend back, and a good kick ass Greatsword.
Due to the Deck of Many Things, we finished off a CR 26 ancient red wyrm between 4 level 12 characters and about 30 level 6 dwarves and finished off the campaign on a high note.
I have no notion of trying to add the Deck to my games any time soon. It's too powerful to inflict on low-levels.
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Showed up twice.
First time was a custom Deck that the GM rebalanced (notably toning down the instadeath cards). Worked well, especially at the end of a deck-themed dungeon.
Second time the GM he handed us one at 5th level. My absolutely-not-combat-capable bard drew the Skull, and he looked at it and said "let's pretend that didn't happen" - it would have meant burning my character sheet. The other PC drew Throne and Flames, so the GM decided that we had to fight the outsider to claim the castle. That was a fun adventure.
I would not introduce it as a GM without changing a few cards. At minimum, I would tone down the instadeath cards and probably also change the XP-changing cards (I don't like PCs' XP to vary).
Well, let's see:
Knight (Page of swords, Jack of hearts) Gain the service of a 4th-level fighter.
Sounds good to me! Better than losing your character and having the DM just fiat that it didn't happened. Which is what happened the only time I have actually seen it played in a game and was lame.
I really did enjoy my use of the Deck of Many Things.
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I wonder if a simulacra could draw cards for you? They're completely loyal and you can just take their stuff. If they get sent to hell or something it's not a problem.
loophole? Maybe.
That would be treason against the deck itself. ;) I'd imagine the effects would be forced upon the person directing the proxy.
"You can't beat us GM!"
"You see a crystalline dais before you in a darkened room, pulsating with ugly red energy. On top of the dais is a deck of cards. What do you do."
"Don't worry guys, I'll walk up and take two."
Donjon. Skull.
"You look around as the room fades from view and you are left in utter darkness. A vague light gloomily shines a few feet away. A large shadowy figure passes through the light, darkening it for a moment. It looks like a wraith, only much bigger, and much, much angrier."
Player turns to the others..."Guys...it was nice knowin' ya."
Everyone else something along the lines of, "We're sorry, oh mighty GM, we will never boast idly again!"
So, yeah, once in a great while will the Deck show up.
I am generally inclined to never add any items to my games that can add random game-changing elements with the potential to derail the campaign.
I dropped a deck of many things into a game exactly once, very early in my career as a GM. It was in a 1st-ed AD&D game that I was running back in the mid-'80s when I was 15. It went poorly. One PC ended up super-powerful, and three ended up dead (one Donjon, one The Void, one Skull). It effectively ended that campaign... which wasn't that great a loss, actually. It had become a very silly Monty Haul game.
The first time I encountered one as a player was just a few years ago in the last 3.5 game I played in. The PCs were working to free the imprisoned Angel of Luck to fulfill a prophecy. We recovered a deck of many things in an ancient temple to her. I was playing a lawful good character who never liked to take chances, so he was the only one who chose not to draw from the deck. Again, several PCs drew very bad cards from the deck. This included one PC drawing The Void, and the PC who had a "quest item" we needed to Save The World drawing the Talons card-- permanently losing all magic items (including the McGuffin of Awesomeness). We had to go on a three-session side-quest to rescue the imprisoned PC (where the player ran the cohort of another PC), and then another three-session side quest to regain the quest item. We also had to deal with the enmity of an archdevil (who regularly started messign u pour plans), and the CG cleric lost her powers for a while because she drew the Balance card, which changed her to a random alignment: LE.
The GM told me later that he had really regretted letting us use the item, as it broke the momentum we'd been building in the storyline. We never really got back the excitement we'd been having for the game before we found the deck.
I've sadly(or thankfully?) never seen it. My GMs aren't big on artifacts that might blow up the game I guess. I've always wanted one though, I love curses and gambling too much to be trusted with it probably.
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Been there, done that. I usually end up getting hosed. As a player, I always say I'll never do it in a game again, but then I keep playing characters that would take the chance in a heartbeat.
My problem is that I see the other PCs getting good stuff and I think "One draw can't hurt..."
Yes. Yes, it can.
It is a game breaker at low levels.
I guess whether you draw or not depends on how competitive you are. You can definitely get ahead by using it but you can also lose your character (unless you are high enough level to counter many of the bad cards).
Back in the early days a PC of mine drew from the deck and got "Defeat the next monster that you meet solo to gain a level." I was 5th or 6th I think, and the next monster was an ogre, so that was an easy level.
Nowadays whether or not I'd draw depends on the personality/alignment/knowledge/goals of the PC that I'm playing at the time.
As a DM I've placed them several times. Currently, a group of characters is seeking for one of their number who drew the Donjon card. Yes, I had to create an adventure for this, but I like creating adventures. It doesn't derail anything because my game isn't on rails.
I had a DM who was obsessed the Decks of Many Things back in 2nd Ed. He dropped one on us basically every campaign; which may partially explain why we played so many short campaigns in those days.
When used in the proper context, they can be a lot of fun. But when dropped at low levels or in a tightly plotted campaign they can be very destructive.
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I will state from experience.
DMs get disappointed when you successfully convince your party to ignore these things.
In one very short lived game, I managed to get us to keep on walking past. Even with the promises of glory, my character used the arguement of 'we wouldn't have earned any of it and the risks are huge.'
The DM rewarded my good sense with bears. Many bears. Many angry bears.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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Got the Harrow deck of many things in one particular AP where you get one. As part of that, we had the ability to influence the deck to redraw a single card after seeing it. We had to take the redraw no matter what it was. For some reason, we could only take up to five cards.
Odds were in our favor. After the first person drew three, I drew five, and after that everybody else drew five too. We ended up burning a few of the wishes to get rid of bad effects, and I think we all used our redraws, but it went over pretty well overall.
I love the Deck of Many Things. Its funny how many times it showed up in games I played as a kid (and usually ended poorly, I do remember my low level wizard going up against Death single-handedly).
I used it as a DM in an AP campaign and we had a lot of fun, used the Harrow Deck of Many Things and on the whole it helped the PCs though my favourite was the last player to make a draw (and it should be noted this player often had bad luck) after everyone else got something shiny pulled the card that created 1d6 evil versions of himself that sought to thwart his plans. He rolled a six. Needless to say next session the party met a lot of elves with goatees and sneak attacks. Good times.