The title is vague to avoid spoilers, I'm of course talking about the Harrow Deck of many Things.
I was reading the Anniversary Edition rules for the use of this deck, and it's not clear to me when the PCs should be allowed to spend the Harrow Point to redraw a card.
Should they know what exactly is going to happen, and then be allowed to instanty counter the card? That seems a bit Meta to me. An alternative would just me as GM telling them how bad the card is ("annoying/really problematic/you might lose the charakter/you will lose the charakter), but that can be subjective, and I don't want them to feel cheated.
Any advice?
Thanks in advance. ^^
SO, the thing about the Harrow Deck of Many Things is that it is a double-edged sword. With the end goal of having fun being the most important thing in any game, and with the party so close to the end that campaign fatigue could definitely be a real thing, plus, if a character gets ripped out of the campaign by a bad draw, the player will likely not be excited or into their brand new high level character who is shoehorned into the party for only the last leg, and you have to waste time you should be spending on racing to the conclusion to instead justify a random high level character who just happened to show up and not like Ileosa...
I would let them know everything that is going to happen. No reason to take your campaign off the rails when you are so close to the end. Ultimately, it is about having fun. If you want to mess with your players, give Beirawash Mobility and Spring Attack like he had in the original books, read up on how hilarious low visibility (dirty, stirred up water once characters and giant fish start moving around) underwater combat is, and lay waste to a high level group if they aren't the type to be prepared for every scenario--including underwater stuff that hasn't happened AT ALL during the entire campaign. Hilarious.
But that way, they get wrecked by a sneaky fish, and not an unlucky card draw. In my experience, most players would rather die fighting.
Just my two cents