How Deck of Many Things DESTROYS Campaigns in Dungeons and Dragons
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
- If you want to see the Deck of Many things in action, check out this video: • Cards Being Pulled at ...
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#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #deckofmanythings
I want to invent a trinket version of this item called the Deck of Minor Things. The cards have the same names but the effects are parodies of the originals. For example, the Void is essentially a vacuum cleaner.
Well, Homebrew is your friend ;3
i second this
I had an idea for a joke version sold by a guy with a heavy jamaican accent. When they pull a card they hear a high pitched bell sound and realise that it's the deck of many "tings".
If you want to make it you better do it quickly before someone steals your idea, cause it’s a good one
@@HairyHorux Someone in our Campaign who was friends with the DM made them introduce their 'Magic' Item.
Issue was... it wasn't magical at all, instead our Paladin purchased it, used it and his draw was... well an Ogre leg, you see a specific part of the leg.
Paladin drew another one and it was the same part of the leg but of a Human.
It didn't take long for us to realize it was the "Deck of many Thighs"
I once used the Deck of many things. We were aware that good and bad magical effects could come from it, but still decided to push our luck. My cousin pulled 2 cards, one was the Sun and the other was the Knight card. Our friend got the moon card gaining wishes. Excited by what they got from the deck, I gladly pulled one card, only to get the Donjon card. I got trapped in an extradimensional space that was ruled by a powerful Demon. Since time moved faster in that space, the few minutes that the party spent arguing with our friend with wishes to use one to bring me back, I had already been tortured for 1,000 years. This of course irreversibly altered my character to be fearful, unconfident, speak gibberish to themselves, scream/laugh randomly, and have night terrors. Good Times!
... Jesus...
That basically happened to me too! My party members got Sun and Star and Comet. I drew ONE card, and what did I get? VOID
So your Character turned into me irl
@@lanfae9353 Whimmy the Whimsical, the wood elf monk, was no longer joyous and whimsical after that day. It really taught me a good lesson on the finality of your actions and to always prepare for the worst. If I ever see that deck again I will have apprehensions as a player, but will try to stick true to my new character and act according to their desires if they would find themselves presented with it.
@@amarthon6597 I'm sorry to hear that if that's true, I hope you find good things in your life and continue to grow as a person
“If someone has this item they should use it responsibly and prepare for the consequences.”
That one friend: “Nah.”
That ONE friend, come on, we all know, 3/4 players in a 4 player group won't use it responsibly, and the 4th will only learn to use it responsibly after the other 3 screw things up
We kinda lucked out when the Deck of Many Things got thrown at us in our campaign. The only really bad thing to happen is that our rogue made enemies with a powerful devil. The DM decided that said devil and his servants are convinced he stole from them.
Normally, this would be a case of "...I don't know? Maybe? I've stolen from a lot of people, it's hard to keep track", but he's very certain this one he's actually innocent of, which has him somewhat perturbed. If he's gonna be blamed for something like this, he'd rather it be something he might have actually done!
One friend? I've had an entire group that became obsessed with the deck, everyone drawing from it, even I fell to pier pressure and drew a card which turned out ok honestly. I think the deck/universe was rewarding my restraint to not keep going for the Sun.
I actively hate the item, so if we get it, I will look the DM in the eyes and announce, "Twenty cards."
Gillian moment
Players: “Let’s use the Deck of Many Things!”
DM *diabolically laughs*: “Fool, you’ve just activated my ability to make Yu-gi-oh references for the rest of the campaign”
Players: “noooooooo”
yugooh :V
Fool you have activated my trap card any character who drew a card shall be sent straight to the graveyard
Yu-gi-oh
Yu-go-oh
Bro so true
One of the meaner things I've ever done was with a group of new players that were just getting into D and D thanks to crit roll. They were aware of the deck of many things, and all the issues it could cause, they were not however familiar with the Deck of Illusions, which are utterly harmless and only good for causing scenes and distractions.
I did the same thing last week. The horrifyng looks of my player were priceless!
I once got the deck of illusions in my game and my other party members teased me for never using the cards but always hanging in to the deck.
Through the game we got to a point where the world was ending and the literal manifestation of oblivion, an entity known as 'Entropy' was about to manifest that we had to destroy to save and restart the world.
Before it showed up I threw out every single card and made an 'army' appear around us. Not every illusion fooled the entity but it did make a scattered field of creatures of various sizes the party could use as distractions or means to break visual range with the creature and on the opening turned it spared almost everyone from a ray of disintegration when it manifested itself.
Interestingly, they did use the deck of illusions near the beginning of the first campaign!
It wasn't as rememberable as the deck of many things, but they still used it.
th-cam.com/video/elarLmuDtzU/w-d-xo.html
@@Blitzwaffen thats a power move right there... Noice!
Rob in Epic NPC Man dnd actually pulled that.
It's funny how One Shot and Puffin Forest both made video on this item and came to basically the same conclusion through different ways. Shows how powerful the deck if in a bad way.
considering it can give you a free castle (that includes all wealth in the castle), THREE FREE WISHES (a spell that is banned in a lot of campaigns) , rare items, free level ups, or wipe the entire party from existence...yeah
@@nathanielbass771 The keep is a mini-dungeon you need to clear, so that isn't as good as you think. And there are more bad cards than you seem to think (the deck even weighs heavier in the bad than good according to Puffin).
@@nathanielbass771 It can at max wipe 2 people from existance 3 if they're like level 1-5 and draw the Skull (The Avatar of Death is insanely weak) aaaand, they're not actually wiped from existance, they're just trapped in a bubble somewhere or stuck in an object. It makes for a really cool sub plot where the party has to rescue the lost party members, by maybe making a deal with a powerful arch fey or something similar, actually a really fun item with a decent DM.
Worth noting you should probably not give them a full deck, or the party is downright gonna be too powerful from drawing everything in it, especially the fates and the moon card.
@@levelynn3853 the skull is more a problem if your a wizard or somthing else squishy since it has to be fought solo
@@levelynn3853 The Issue with the Avatar of Death, is it has an AC of 20 which can make it harder to hit (Depending on your gear), and uh every single time it attacks. It hits you, no save, no attack roll it just hits you. Where your chances of hitting can vary. So say you're a wizard (depending on what level you are) you'll die rather quickly
My group had a parody item called the Deck of Not So Many Things, and it was just several copies of a single card that would result in the person who drew from it receiving a drink at its grossest temperature. Drinking hot tea? Now its almost cold. Drinking a cool draft at a tavern? Now its uncomfortably warm, etc, etc. It was from a campaign where everything we received was a joke item, because we were all coming from overly serious games and just wanted something silly.
A hot tea cold is one thing but ALMOST cold...
@@BobOrKlaus At that exact lukewarm temperature where if it's got cream in it they start to separate
A better version would be one that also affect the food. Also, affect not only the temperature, but also the texture and taste. Crusty or crunchy food become soggy, bread become stale, hot and warm become cool or lukewarm, sweet become salty, cold food become steamy, and that soup or roast become sickeningly sweet.
I gave my players a knife of cold meal and a spoon of saltiness making any food it touch to become briny. They managed to find a way to use them to their advantage !
Most drinks are worst tasting at room temp or slightly warmer. Nothing like a cup of tepid milk or a room temp beer, both of which you were expecting cold, to ruin your day.
I can't stop imagining a lone survivor against a bbeg situation and the last guy stares at the dm and simply says, "seventy-five" calmly with a smug look of spite
"If I'm going down I'M TAKING YOU ALL WITH ME!"
There’s 75 cards in the Deck?
@@Blu_Moon_Owl No The default deck has about 23 cards in it. Saying something ridiculous like that is dumb. However if they say, "I Draw out the whole deck!" They'd be lucky if they got the void, or the Donjon (or both) early.
@@andorfedra I figured
The original, first and second editions, deck had 22 cards. Then, in 1993 or 1994, there was an extended one of 54 cards introduced in the Dragon magazine, along with three variations, and finally, the Tarot of Many Things with it's 76 cards.
The deck is best used for times of desperation. Pull a card when you're on the ropes. If it turns out good, it can turn a dire situation in your favor. If it turns out bad, you were probably dead anyway.
Ye can’t go deeper than rock bottom
Tell me players that lol I said that once
Every session they decide to pull
My DM wanted to end the campaign. He threw a Tarrasque at us at level 11.
It attacks. My NEW Divination wizard pulls a card. Void...
I feel like pulling a card mid combat you are about to die in would cost an action (that could be used to save you) their are allot of “good” cards that won’t save you in a shitting spot so why even take that option
@@Delphineasjust fly.
I gave the deck to my party and some pretty wild sh*t happened. For one, the Knight card was drawn about 11 times total, but instead of making 11 fighters, we all agreed that the original fighter just gained an extra life for each time it was drawn. Also one time a player caused the apocalypse, and in a panic started drawing cards, and managed to draw The Fates. He didn’t know the card existed either, he was just drawing cards as a last ditch effort.
I would have had the fighter gain 4 levels each time
4e had a great adventure in which the DoMT had been used decades in the past and created crazy wild stuff and the cards scattered. One of the party's goals is assembling the deck while others out there are trying to do the same thing. The individual cards are low powered as the full majesty of the deck isn't there. Madness at Gardmore Abby.
That sounds fun....
I love the idea! But! We. Don't. Speak. Of. 4e.
This is the only positive thing I've ever heard about 4e, it sounds rad
We don't talk about 4e
I am stealing the idea of the party having to gather the DoMT cards, to stop the world getting more f#cked up.
This is one of the biggest coincidences for this video to appear for me, as recently I ended a campaign by drawing the fates card and making it so none of the bad stuff happened that we were trying to solve. We were 16 sessions in and everyone agreed to the outcome of the card, it was amazing.
How is this Ironic? The video is a skit about how the DOMT works and your story is just talking about how recently you used the deck of many things and it did what it does. Its a coincidence you found this video not irony. Irony is a fire station burning down, A pilot being afraid of heights, a dyslexic English major, a lumberjack getting crushed by a tree. Not trying to be a jerk but it's one of the things that people get wrong way too much eventhough it gets explained all the time when its used wrong. Have a nice day/evening/night.
Sorry for misusing words! I never intended too, just wanted to say about the moment I recently had in d&d. Ill try my best to correct it in the future! Have a wonderful day ^W^.
@@tayamanan You sound like my english teacher xD (This is a joke)
@@wiskalufurr5851 It's okay and once again sorry if I came off as rude. I never want to upset or offend anyone. And most of all I never want to discourage anyone from sharing their experiences, especially when it comes to DnD. ^v^
@@tayamanan Alanis Morisete agrees that it was Ironic...
Don't forget: if Tim fights the Grim Reaper, a separate from reaper appears for them to fight.
poor Tim
@@hedwigon6951 He meant team. Anyone helping in fighting the Reaper get their own.
The Reaper ALWAYS act first and ALWAYS hit with every attack. It also have the better of AC 24, OR 4 better than the character. It always make all of it's saves.
@@Kualinar i know im just saying i feel bad for tim
@@Kualinar He did not mean Team. He meant Tim, the level 4 Knight that the player in the skit got from the deck of many things, and said they would help fight the grim reaver.
@@AliceIsSleepy RIP Tim. You'll be dearly missed.
After seeing Critical Roll and how Grog used the Deck of Many Things, I was waiting for the void card
For reasons, I stealthy gave my party a deck of many things hidden in another item
And the one who figured it out was the the most irresponsible member so he got to claim ownership of it. Pulling it out in the middle of a tournament where he pulled the reaper. And tried to convince other party members to draw after big milestones
Honestly turned out more positive results then negative
Love this, in one of the Dungeons and Daddies Episodes they have a Deck of Many Things incident and it is just as chaotic as this video 😂
Eyyy, a wild dungeons and daddies fan! Good to see ya
Just a reminder, Grog pulled Void and the rest of Vox Machina had to travel to the plane of Pandemonium to get him back.
And Percy lost an arm!
To a random group of bugbear’s
@@milesohalloran8355 it's like they came out of nowhere
"Guys, I think, that the deck of cards might be cursed"
Suddenly really looking foward to this episode XD
In my recent experience the most dangerous magic item in D&D is the Portable Hole - it literally ended a recent campaign. The players exploited the heck out of it but remembered to not go into it with their Bag of Holding. Until they forgot. Cue planar rupture and the group being stranded on the Astral Plane.
Back in 3.5 I gave my then group a Deck of Many Things - the Paladin lost a level, another character became the prisoner of a Demon Lord and another character gained a Wish spell. Not campaign ending but very entertaining - especially as they were facing down a Dracolich and a Drow garrison.
In the campaign I'm currently running I've both given my players a deck of many things and pit them against a follower of a goddess of undeath who ultimately tried suicide bombing the party with a bag of holding and portable hole. When I described the enemy as "stuffing what you recognize as a bag of holding with documents and holding what appears to be a pitch black handkerchief in their mouth" one of my players immediately recognized the description of the portable hole and I just kept telling them "don't spoil it" because none of them got the check to identify it. It was great. Nobodies died from either situation yet.
In one of my campaigns, the wizard has been slowly pouring glyphs of warding with fireballs and delayed blast fireballs into his portable hole. Eventually, when we face the BBEG, he will give it to him, saying that inside the hole is what he’s looking for. The trigger to the glyphs is someone other than him opening the hole.
If you're willing to lose the items, a good emergency strategy is always to suspend one above the other with string and then lure whatever you want to make someone else's problem over.
One of my characters, reduced to one hp with the BBEG bearing down on him, blew up a Portable Hole with himself inside it. Never seen again.
Only if you give both items to a group under level 7. You only need the Banishment spell to get back.
And that's why I came out with the Lesser-Greater-True system for magic items like The Deck of Many Things. That way, I can still let players pull from TDoMT without having to worry about the effects being so overwhelming (either good or bad) that it derails the campaign.
Tell me more.
@@victorvirgili4447
Not much to say really. Just go through The Deck of Many Things, and turn the various effects up or down (9n thos case, down) as you see fit. The standard DoMT is the True version, a mildly weaker version is the Greater version, and the heavily weakened version is the Lesser version.
As an example, the True/standard deck of many things has you fight a CR15 Aspect of Death, which is an Undead, so the Greater Deck would have a CR10 Undead of your choice, and the Lesser Deck would have a CR5. Another example would be downsizing the Keep to an abandoned Smithy or Inn for the Greater version, or really big cave for the lesser version.
We made our version of this deck of many things and made the effects ourselves. At the end of the campaign, we entered an alternative universe where the big bad pulled a card and got turned into Escargoon from the Kirby anime
“Well if it isn’t mah faithful servant Escaahhgoon!”
My Party had an incident with the Deck of many Things Last session where we got a Lot of XP, a Wish and a Castle
Wow
*adds a card to the deck for fun*
Quip: Your party must sit through "how each class" videos from one-shot quips, along with how each class prepares for combat. so they can learn
2:32 was the best part.
Tim turns good again
Whoooo!
I just ordered a physical copy of the Deck of Many things to use in my campaign. I'm choosing to curate the deck from full size to 13 cards, it's RAW. It's also going to make a return later on in the campaign as my homebrew "Lady Luck's Fate Altering Deck Of Many Things" which is effectively a Deck of Many things +1 with a few effects (such as void) changed entirely
I had a player once wish for 10 decks of many things. They then proceeded to use dominate monster to get the bbeg to draw all cards from one deck.
Now, I had foolishly greenlit this but had balanced it so all bad cards were doubled to punish their hubris. The first card was fucking void
"Don't worry gang, I got this! Deck of Many Things, do your thi-"
*The card TPKs the party*
The scariest item in all of D&D
And the most fun, 50/50 really 😜
It's me
STORY TIME - READ FOR WHOLESOME LAUGHS
Years ago I joined a campaign for Pathfinder. My character was a Goblin Rogue named Potatoes. When asked why his name was Potatoes, his response was "Potatoes make happy!"
As the campaign progressed, Potatoes was eventually offered a potato for dinner. He grew flustered, "THIS NO POTATO!!" and the campaign was gently put on pause as the players could not figure out what he meant. If a potato was not a potato, then what the hell was a potato to him??
We continue, and as we progress we eventually come to a lair for one of the arch generals for the BBEG. We defeated him and, preplanned, Potatoes rummages through the treasure chest.
With wide eyes, he holds The Deck of Many Things up with an almost religious zeal. _"POOOTATOOO"_
It turns out that he had encountered this magical item before, stowed away in - you guessed it - a sack of potatoes. He drew a single card. Wish.
He wished for friends.
And in the chaotic magic of the item, it formulated the rise of the BBEG, his reign of terror and his widespread genocide just so the party could meet, unite and defeat him. All so Potatoes could make friends along the way.
That's a good one
What a good game! Both the player and GM were inventive, invensted and wholesome.
In my campaign the deck of many things is kinda a collection question item. They have a list of prophecies they have to prevent, and each of the prophecies has a card tied to it. So after they get beat a prophecy, they get a card. The cards are useless without all of them, but it’s kinda a fun way to make collection items in DND. When they do it, the effects will be slightly different, so that they aren’t game breaking, more, good and bad things happen, kinda neutralizing the effects. But it’s still fun
My group I recently joined basically has the Deck always be an item in their campaigns, and in the one I'm in, it showed up and I finally gave in to "peer pressure" (was nothing toxic, I just wanted to try it). After a few sessions and multiple pulls, my level 8 Paladin now has a -2 reduction to his intelligence as well as the Holy Avenger, thanks to the Key card.
I drew from a modified deck of many things, and thankfully the nat 1 void card was charged from the permanent instant ultrakill to a random race swap. It was surprisingly thematic, with my insecure runty Goliath Artificer hellbent on mastering shape-shifting getting transformed into a tabaxi
The first time I encountered the Deck, the player drew the card that allowed a Wish... They Wished away all the negative cards, leaving us with a Deck Of Only Good Things. That campaign went wildly off the rails.
I would have ruled that that wish was above the capacity of a wish NOT cast by a God or by a favoured, supernatural, servant of a God.
Friendly reminder wish is not all powerful. Wish has limits that the DM imposes.
Personally I would have ruled the entire deck disappeared. The wish was granted, all the negative cards are gone if the entire deck is gone.
As a DM people need to understand that saying no is sometimes ok. If saying yes ruins the campaign then just say no. Especially to wish shenanigans.
Yhea thats one of the Kinds of Wish that i would have messed with
Wheter They get destroyed freeing the magic in the Process or its the entire deck disappearing Etc
something allong those lines
@@hamsterfromabove8905 If the table is having fun, is it really ruining the campaign?
As DM I think it important to restrain yourself from trying to say no to keep players from ”breaking the game“. You should only say no if it’s makes the game less fun. I don’t regret a single time when I said yes to the shenanigans of my players but I regret a lot of times when I said no
Honestly the Deck creates amazing stories, they can all easily be strung into a wonderful subplot by a decent DM. My favourite cards are the Donjon, Rogue, Void and Flames, the only negative card I really dislike is Balance
That being said do make sure your players are strong enough before giving them it as some of the positive cards are insanely powerful, and be aware that you might need to forego your current plans to set them on a side quest if they should pull the wrong card. Like having to go find a powerful being to strike a bargain with to gain access to a wish spell so that you can locate the position of your lost ally who pulled the Donjon. (Also gives the person who pulled the card an opportunity to play another character temporarily)
I'm getting yugioh vibes from the cards being announced with such energy.
Also, to beat the deck of many things all you need is a way to create loyal servants, like find familiar, animate dead, or tiny servant. Just have the servant draw an unreasonable number of cards for you, then use or confiscate anything useful they obtain between draws. When they eventually get something lethal, make another one and continue. The only consequence that isn't dodged entirely by using a proxy is the rogue creating rivals at random.
First time I used the Deck, I got the Void... and when my party used it again, it got destroyed. Fun times were had by all.
Outside the comic of this vid, it's a pretty nice explanation of the item & in less than 4 min, good job ^^
I actually got a deck in a campaign, but I actually forgot about it and nobody ever drew from it.
DM: How many cards do you draw?
Me: Yes!
In our campaing, our characters went to fortune teller and pulled some cards (had no idea what the cards would do). My character pulled few and she lost all of her items except magical sword and magical goggles and got dangerous enemy after her (who will chase you until you're dead or kill him). Wonderful! I have to tell that campaing didn't last very long after that.
That's a really beautiful deck, can you namedrop who made it?
We use the 54 card version and oh boy has it lead to interesting events. Some examples are two holy avengers, 3 Uber wishes (one to erase bad draws to get better ones, second to dawn a new age of heroes, and the last still available), 3 characters starting the campaign with 60 speed (one of them flies btw), 3 new allies (might be game changers), 3 future marriage proposals, 3 sex changes (now can swap between them), the owlin ranger going from 4 to 6ft in height over night, and her dragon now able to shift into a dragonborn (reverse lycan type and he likes to become a magical girl when he changes elements). Crazy, deadly fun
First ever interaction I had with the deck was from finding a random deck of cards in someone's pocket on a battlefield. I of course flipped the top card to figure out what it was and immediately got the void. This was our session 0.
A DM once used the Deck of Many Things in a campaign I was playing in. It was 2nd edition AD&D. And, I was playing a Wild Mage. Other players agonized over how many cards they should pull, trying to calculate the odds of their fortune or at least minimizing their misfortune. I, however, chose to draw the maximum 4 cards.
A class ability of the 2nd edition Wild Mage is minor control over random magic items. You get 2 random effects, and choose which one to take effect. This meant I would draw 2 cards and pick the one whose effect I preferred, four times. And, since 10 of the 22 cards are objectively good, the odds were in my favour. Never drew 2 bads cards at once, so I always got a good effect. The other players were instantly jealous.
I've always pondered playing a campaign that is entirely centered around the deck of many things. Maybe make it a McGuffin and all of the main NPC's the players encounter want it all while the players try to get it to the one place that can destroy it forever. Along the way they meet many powerful figures who trap, deceive, and steal from them all to get the deck. Each will have their own plots to force others to draw from the deck for them and then take what the poor pawns receive for themselves.
.....I started this as a joke and then half-way through I started wanting this to actually be a thing. I just don't think I am skilled enough to pull off writing such an epic as this. o_o
I have a sorcerer that is still floating into the void.
The sorcerer sees a light in the distance as he/she floats in the darkness, “Oy….. Who goes there?”
“I’m Sir Robert of Shackleford…. Knight of Purple rose….. wait….. Where are we?”
Sorcerer dog paddling in the mist, “Not a clue…. This trickster ‘friend’ of mine thought a game of three dragon ante would be fun with this new deck that he found……”
Sir Robert, “This rogue wouldn’t have been named Trinky? Would it?”
Sorcerer, “Oh….. you know him?”
Robert, “Small world” 🤨
Yo I need opinions on this one, I very new to DND and I have what I think is a great backstory for a Paladin.
He is the a Paladin who's oath is "The Oath of Freedom", He was from an island on the east, his country was invaded by knights intending to give more land to their king, with the knights was a Paladin, with The Oath of True Kindness, he doesn't kill people even when the king orders him, he only kills those who a have sinned(those who have killed others), that's why he is constantly being sent to mission to get rid of him. When the Knights conquest was complete they took slaves to sell for their funds, because of the Paladin that they are with the king didn't give much. While they were traveling across the land they were ambushed by bandits, the knights were in great danger so you took up a sword for the first time and with your help the caravan was successfully defended, the Paladin noticed your potential so he trains you in his ways but not forcing his Oath on to you instead after 15 years of training, he asks you "Son, after all these years you have grown to be a righteous man, now you can go on your own adventure, but before that I will ask, What is your Oath?". You reply with "The Oath of Freedom, it is to be what you are to me, I shall be the Paladin who shall free them for slavery, from the abuse they have suffered, I will give them their freedom, to be what they have dreamed to be." after a few years of tracking down a known slaver who kidnapped children your ended up working with an adventurer party doing the same quest, after that mission, you stayed with them to this day, because they had similar stories from you, can you can connect with them. Making your party a formidable force.
I designed an entire campaign around the Deck of Many Things. Basically my BBEG was taking the cards and distilling them into the "Pouch of Many Potions". It also involved a travelling school where they figured out the BBEG was one of their teachers/classmates but they weren't sure who. Turns out one of my players ended up dating the BBEG in-character 😂 For my first time DMing, I'm pretty proud of the story I was able to put together, even if it could've been executed better.
DM Tip: if it's your first time DMing, especially if it's a plot you're creating, make the overarching theme "chaos" or "chaos magic." That way, as you and your players make dumb mistakes, you can basically rule-of-cool your way through the plot and have it still be "on theme."
2:03 If the Knight tries to help you, his own Reaper appears to join the fight.
My dm won't allow me to ever use the Deck of Many Things. I've never pulled a bad card. I've pulled over 15 cards in several different campaigns.
Just Roll With It actually used this recently with a ton of a chaos ensuing in their Riptide Pirates campaign. You can watch if TH-cam and it is very good, I'd highly recommend it.
"It can reduce your Intelligence to one."
"Oh sweet, so my Intelligence goes up then." 😂🤣
I love the deck of many things... if homebrewed right.
For example.. insted of the effects being instant when drawn.. the effect will come to you when fate says so.
This allows you to prepare or.. better yet.. have a way to counter it.
Some can be instant.. but others not...
Now the deck is either telling your future or changing your fate....
By putting a time limit of the effect on it...any card you draw... is a consiquence that will happen due to something the DM goes.
For example the void? There now HAPPENS to be a cult nearby... and what do they do? OPEN THE VOID ON ACCIDENT!
Bam...fun pay off.
Get free money? They have to do something to trigger it , like an impossible bet.
But.. what if the players avoid the card's effect within your set time frame?
"Well you cannot deny fate forever"... "Fate will get it's dues"
Pretty much the possible effects increase... that being sucked into the void and you avoid it constantly? Guess what? Suddenly a whole town gets sucked into the void to get you.
Is there a way to avoid fate? Yes... either narrowly or tricking fate. Wich means you need powerfull abillities to fool the card's effect... and there for fate itself.
Or a powerfull magic item.
Now the deck is.... a fun tool on the side.
There's things in D&D that I really would like to know what the logic was when they were designing it and how much actual testing went into it **cough cough polymorph**
what's so bad about polymorph?
The bag of beans has a similar but more controllable effect for those wanting to give players something random and fun. It's one of my favorite magic items and I love to sneak it into all my campaigns somewhere. Just remember that you can invent your own effects for the beans rather than using or repeating the ones listed in the item description. You also get to decide how many beans are in the bag.
This one time in a campaign I’m in one of the characters got Xanathar to draw from the deck and he drew the one that swaps your alignment and now we’re dealing with chaotic good Xanathar.
Also if you need to play with magic decks, just grab two decks of illusions and play *A CHILDREN"S CARD GAME*
Or Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-4th-Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip-Poker
One of our group pulled out deck of many things while we were surrounded by army of killer clowns from space and army of mummies from ancient pyramid.
Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, the player pulled out a card (I can’t remember which one it was) but it summon Orcus, mother f@/king Orcus.
After that session I asked myself “how the f&@k are we still alive?”
Edited: it was flames
Gotta space for an extra player? 😳
We're good
A buddy of mine made the Deck of Manly Things. We never got to see the full list of effects but we got a monster infested basement with comfy couches and beer worked as healing potions and we didn't risk drawing anymore after that.
"Oh so my intelligence goes up" Yeah that cracked me
Deck of many things TPKed my entire group twice. This item gave me PTSD lol.
Literal facts
And first comment
3:17
I'm going to use my wish to make that card spell dungeon correctly
The best use I've had is to give it an owner that it keeps returning to and he places it where random villagers will draw from it. He doesn't care what they draw, he doesn't take away anything positive they get. He's just spreading chaos knowing that even most of the positives will upend a small farming village.
So the players are chasing him from town to town to stop him. Though he has no problem letting them draw a card.
Hey! The deck of many things!
Yes it is
Had a DM that absolutely LOVED the DoMT and spent the entire first campaign trying to convince us to get one. Now, I was a Half-Orc Barbarian who believed in honor through self-improvement and was striving to rescue his enslaved tribe by activating the power within his ancestral greataxe.
Early in the campaign, we had to navigate a Thieves' Guild's magic maze to gain their respect. The DM bragged that he had run that maze with other groups and it was impossible to get to the final room. ... So, we made it to the final room without anyone dying only to fail the maze because the DM gave a wonky description of the final obstacle.
Afterward, he revealed the prize was everyone would get to draw a card from DoMT. I tell him that my character wouldn't have drawn anyone because he believed in SELF-improvement and would view any boons from the deck to be shortcuts. When the rest of the party agreed with that assessment, the look on the DM's face told us that he had really been looking forward to someone drawing and suffering the misfortune. This was later confirmed by what happened in the campaign as that damn Deck kept popping up and us refusing to draw from it.
Later in the campaign, we had to retrieve a MacGuffin from a dragon's lair. The dragon's CR was WAAAAAY outside our power level and our only option was to negotiate. The dragon agreed to turn over the item ONLY if everyone in the party drew three cards from the deck. The rest of the party drew first and only minor things happened, good or bad. Then it was my turn: I draw Balance when turned my Chaotic Good Barbarian Lawful Evil (Since this was 3e, this meant he lost most of his Barbarian abilities), then I drew Ruin (which the DM ruled got rid of my ancestral greataxe as well), and finally Skull (which I now had to fight unarmed and without any of my abilities). To no one's surprise, my character died.
When that happened, I was done. Even if he had survived, my Barbarian wouldn't be anything that I recognized. I had made it clear to the DM several times that my character did not want to draw from the Deck only for him to put an obstacle in front of us that required us to draw multiple cards. The DM immediately backtracked and said that all the bad stuff that had happened to my Barbarian somehow didn't. I relented and the campaign continued for a few more sessions.
I left that campaign with nothing but negative memories and a deep hatred for that item. As a DM now, I would never subject my players to it.
Okay so the DoMT can ruin campaigns, but at that point it's not the deck's fault.
Bad DMs are perfectly capable of also ruining campaigns.
Missed an opportunity with the vizier saying “you already asked if you could use me later”
I doubt i'm the first but I had idea idea for two decks based on the deck of many things, one is a deck of ebony cards with only negatives effects and the other is a deck of ivory cards with only positive effects.
To discern the true nature of the decks you have to do an arcana or a lore check as both appear to be a deck of many things, and failing the check causes you to think as such.
The black deck compels whoever gazes upon it to draw from it, and they will draw 1 card more then they intended to, once everyone has drawn from it it vanishes.
The white deck can only be draw from a single time per it's manifestation by each individual who wants to draw from it, once everyone has drawn from it or someone attempts to draw again it disappears.
This is very "you've activated my trap card!" Energy 🤣👌
In a campaign I played in my DM contrived a situation where two players including myself and several monsters played a game of go fish with a deck of many things. The decks magic would be suppressed until the game finished, at which point all cards still held by players would immediately take effect. As a high-INT alchemist I knew exactly what each card could do but the druid was blissfully unaware. Our goal to get him to win while I tried to get my hands on some of the beneficial cards worked out pretty well with our two other party members having fun table playing as the monsters. I think I only ended with one bad card at the end that we managed to mostly mitigate but I was sweating buckets the whole time.
Have the bardwarlock pull out te fool on my campaing, rolled a 4, so now has 5 intelligence, they get him a headband of intellect, so now has 19... is like a rollercoaster of mindblows
Here's an idea, let's say your party is running from a horde of enemies. You try to draw the death card to summon the reaper. You then run into the horde where the reaper will follow. The enemies with think it's also an enemy. Whenever something besides the summoner attacks the reaper, it summons another one. Now let the chaos ensue
He had a deck of many things once and we were going into a really dark room that even with torches we couldn’t see far, we decided to pull a card and we accidentally cast a darkness spell in the room so we couldn’t see around us even more, we were basically blind fighting a vampire
"The Deck of Many Bings". Consists of various Chandler Bing themed cards, and one Bing Crosby card that gives major advantage to any bards playing.
For the D&D party whose second passion is the hit show "Friends".
I remember one of my friends created a character with 2 Dex who sit on a wheelchair, then he got the ruin card which let him lose all of his property at the beginning of the campaign. So he crowded over the floor, naked, for a whole campaign.
Deck of many fates, the most unique alternative version of the deck of many things. I drew the weaver card that allowed me to mess around with reality. I also accidentally beat the entire premise of the campaign that day, and basically caused a whole section of the shadowfell to be dragged into ferun isn’t dnd so much fun with a little bit of
Chaos
Well this was unexpected. Its bloody 6 am. Do you even sleep ol'chap?
I’m running a campaign, and in it my players went into a dungeon where they had to choose as a group to enter one of several doors layed out before them. The only information the group was given was a symbol above the door. After they went through a room, beat the trial inside (whether it be a puzzle or combat) they would exit on the other side and be faced with new, different doors. One of the doors they entered had a card symbol, and when they entered they were presented with a small deck of cards on a single table. Needless to say, this was the deck of many thing, and how this trial worked, was they were forced to draw at least 1 card from the deck of many things before they were allowed to leave the room, however, the cards they drew did not activate upon being drawn. Instead the card activates upon the name of the card being spoken while the card is in hand. They haven’t dared use any of the cards yet, but their initial reaction to realizing what it was, was just absolutely amazing.
My personal head canon for this skit is that he took so many cards that the gods got annoyed and gave him the void card just cause
I got a comet from a Deck pull once and my Kobold rogue had to fight two very angy elephants.
That was quite a session.
So much mileage out of the card 'slap ' sound. Lol
One friend of mine was in a campaign some years ago wherein they got a Deck of Many Things. One of his party pulled the Wish card, and jokingly wished that the Deck of Many Things didn't exist.
It turns out that negating a major artifact via a paradox has pretty horrendous consequences. There's now a pretty big crater the size of Ecuador where the party used to stand.
Thanks to Counter Monkey I can never forget the tale of Vegan Steve and their supernatural luck in pulling nearly every good card from the deck in a surprise backstab against their party
Our party got one card each at lvl 3, and now half of us have some big issues, and the other half got turned ito gods
I appreciate the Yu-Gi-Oh "describe the card as it's played" voice
You do not know the purest dread, when you are given business cards…but are made with illusions to cover the fact that they are cards from the Deck of Many Things. Two Cards for each player out of a 4 PC party. 8. Cards. Total. It was a miracle we managed to survive that
Knowledgable man: "They must use this responsibly"
My Party: *Draws every card so no one else ever can*
Had this in a Feywild campaign of mine a couple of years back. PC declares he will draw 1 card. Draws the fool, loses one level and must draw another card. Draws the void.
At least he took it well
I made my own version of the deck, called it the Deck of Terrifyingly Wonderful Coincidences. It had 18 Cards. 8 Cards were rather good while 8 cards were rather bad. Though I do think the deck overall leaned towards the good. There was also two joker cards which either changed your race or made the deck disappear and reappear elsewhere. I’ve had this deck show up in most of my campaigns where I tweak it enough to fit well and be quite fun.
Oooh, I like the shot of the last card falling on the table...
Good job, team!
"The flames! A powerful devil that seeks to ruin your life and kill you!"
"Thats hot."
I hate how real that is
Had a party play poker with this.
Their NPC Cleric mascot got Void.
Oneshot 2 was saving the mascot.
In our campaign we came across this deck and all of us drew one card.
Our fighter lost all of their items, then I got the expensive gems, then our Rogue got trapped in the extradimensional prison. Finally someone drew the reverse time card and it felt like a movie, the rogue was trapped no more...
In the end we made a profit because I just bought the fighter all of their items back.
3:48 It’s fine, as long as you succeed your Death Saves, and as long as you brought your dice to Death, you’ll be okay!
One time in a historical fiction campaign I ran my players got a chance to ask for magic items. Our bard asked for a deck of many things. I instead gave him 4 cards in a sleeve. The Devil's playing cards they were called. But the warning was that once you pulled a card you couldn't stop or one of the Devil's minions would come for your soul. Well the last card was Death no matter what, but my players had cast hallow on their ship. So the reaper just stood there flying over the ocean while the party picked it off.
I finally got my very first session! We were level one and the first thing the DM gave me was a homebrew Deck of Many Things.
My DM has a shield in his world that's sort of like a Deck of Many Things. Any time the shield is hit, a random effect is generated on a set of percentile dice. It one time made everyone's armor disappear. One time, the wielder had to fight an evil version of herself. She hit the evil one's shield which activated an effect that destroyed the weapon that hit the shield. She was basically a Hexblade. She ended up taking the evil one's Hexblade sword, but it was sealed to another entity and hoo boy, random-effect magical items can be chaotic.
I have a powerful wizard in my campaign who acts as the party's magic shop for stupid and enchanting items. His character started as basically tom holland (all my NPC's are named after celebrities) and his name was Mr. Moholland (first name "To") basically at one point he added the deck of many things to his shop for a high price, but one of the players convinced him that they needed to see it in action before they would buy it. He looked skeptical and slowly declared that he would draw one card. He drew Jester and gained 10,000 XP. So from everyone else's perspective I just stated that he slowly just started bulking up and getting progressively hotter, and now his personality is a buff chad who has the voice of Kronk but is still a powerful wizard. He is now my characters favorite NPC besides The TNT shop owner "Micha L'bay" and the captain of the royal gaurd "Owe Enwilson"
Seems legit
Back in 3.5 I had a charter that found a deck of many things and used it like a weapon until I was cures and became a artifact that was stone until a person put on the ring i had in my hands then I creat chaos all around them.
That deck was the only reason one of my characters survived Straud
I am designing a one shot where a town has used this deck a lot and the party need to retrieve and seal it.
Issue is that because of the myriad blessings the surviving townsfolk have received, they may need to draw upon the decks power to achieve this goal...