Advice for using a Harrow Deck


Accessories


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Hi all,
I'm a new-ish GM, and am running my group of new players through the Falcon's Hollow modules. We're soon to reach the infamous Carnival of Tears, and I want to make it as lavish an affair as possible.

As part of the carnival, I want to perform a Harrow reading for the PCs, but am having a lot of difficulty in preparing to doing so. I've read the instructions, and understand how to do the reading, but I just can't figure out interpreting the cards. When practicing, I lay the cards out in the spread, flip them over a column at a time... and my mind goes blank.

Is my only option to memorise the meanings of all 54 cards? That seems rather a lot of work. Does anyone have any tips/cheats on how to easily get up to speed in performing Harrow readings? Or how to more easily memorise and interpret the cards?

Thanks in advance for your help!


I performed some Harrow readings for the PCs in my Savage Tide campaign as well. This is how I did it.

Short answer: split up card laying & interpretation in two sessions --> at the end of one session, as an intermezzo, the cards can be laid out out & you have time to interpret the cards in light of the events to come before the next session.

Some more details (& going from memory here):
- although it is not required to memorise all cards & it is quite easy to spot the partial, true & mismatches, it takes some time to look up the cards & make a coherent story from that.

- phrasing the question: although the question asked determines what "suit" of cards the person draws from, this is perhaps not so crucial in the CoT context: the reading at the CoT may magically give insight in "will we survive?" (--> CON, STR cards)

- lay out the cards, perhaps as intermezzo or at the end of a session: "in one of the next sessions you might come across a fortuneteller - just to prepare, this is what I like you to do now ..."

- take the time you need for interpretation (between sessions)

- at the right moment, you do a small replay of the card laying, followed by your interpretation.

Hagor


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Excellent, that's good advice! I'm hoping to run the module in a single (epic) session, but I can time the reading to coincide with a break, so that I can figure out the reading while my players gorge themselves on the Swinomancer's questionable meat pies (or whatever they end up having for lunch).


Pick up a copy of Tarot Psychology and you can use it to interpret the symbolism in the Harrow cards on the fly.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I decided to produce my own cheat-sheet to help me with reading harrow spreads, and thought I'd share it in case it's useful for anyone else.

Linky

Hopefully this will help me be fairly quick in giving my Harrow readings when the carnival arrives in Falcon's Hollow in a couple of weeks!

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