There’s a reason why the Deck of Many Things was previously known as “The Deck of Hazards.”
Because this deck will mess your shit up. Sometimes permanently.
As a legendary item, the Deck of Many Things (or DoMT, as I’ve decided to call it from here on out, because it’s a literal handful to write and I’m thinking the SEO gods have been sufficiently appeased by having it writ twice already in the first two sentences of this article) is not going to be the most commonly run-into type of item in a D&D game, and nor should it be.
- Check these out:
While it may be tempting for DMs to pull it out in the early levels to add a bit of spice to an otherwise mediocre session, I’d advice against it until those levels get into the double digits.
But before I get into why that is, let’s go over the what first and foremost.
The deck of uh ohs and hells yaaaas
The Deck of Many Things is an item in D&D 5e that is the closest you can really get to in-game gambling, because oh boy are the stakes ever real — and high at that.
Often containing 13 cards but sometimes 22, the deck can be pulled from, at random, a number of times that must be declared prior to pulling the cards. There’s a one hour cool down, so if you’re thinking of declaring one card, seeing what it is, then declaring another one-card draw (ad infinitum) you’re going to have to be patient.
Oh, a fun little caveat: “If you fail to draw the chosen number, the remaining number of cards fly from the deck on their own and take Effect all at once.”
And that can realllllllllyyyyyyy mess a campaign up.
I’ll copy and paste the card names and effects to the bottom of this article, if that’s all you were really looking for here, but you can also find them here.
The deck has a lot of cards that can be permanent boons (an extra level here, a stat increase there, or even a 4th-level fighter that is just yours to command, which is pretty wild), or some serious busts (all your magic items disintegrate, your wealth vanishes, your alignment shifts, or your soul just get yeeted into some object who in the Hells knows where).
So yeah. DMs need to do some serious soul-searching before introducing this deck into the campaign.
Why you should be wary
Imagine that you introduce a Deck of Many Things as the cliffhanger ending of a session. That means that the next one starts with the drawing of the cards and, well, wouldn’t you know, one of the players happened to draw the (arguably) worst outcome, The Void.
*ahem* “The Void: This black card Spells Disaster. Your soul is drawn from your body and contained in an object in a place of the DM’s choice. One or more powerful beings guard the place. While your soul is trapped in this way, your body is Incapacitated. A wish spell can’t restore your soul, but the spell reveals the Location of the object that holds it. You draw no more cards.”
So that PC is just gone. No more. Made like a tree and got outta here. And a player is sitting there, clutching their character sheet, heartbroken.
And also kind of unable to play D&D for the next 3 to 5 hours that you had all painstakingly managed to set aside to finaaaally get in a session. Sure, they might have a back up character prepared, but still. It’s a very anticlimactic way to “lose” a character.
And that’s not the only card in there that can mess your shit up, as a player or as a DM. A few cards manifest enemies that need be addressed immediately, which can basically highjack a few hours of play time.
But even the Void card isn’t technically as game-breaking as some others…
The deck can destroy the balance of a party
Here at the D&D Dispatch we put an emphasis on the minutia of D&D that ensures that the game remains fun, for everyone involved. That’s why we play it, that’s why we do it, and that’s why we always want to make sure that no one is ever crushed under the sheer weight of rules or expectations or petty grievances at the table.
And a surefire way to have deep-rooted grevances between players at a table? Have the balance of their characters be out of whack.
It’s one thing to have a min-maxer at the table dealing the most damage and getting the majority of the killing blows. It’s another thing entirely to have one PC an entire level higher than the rest of the party.
I haven’t written an article about it (yet), but I think it’s an unspoken rule among adventuring parties that they operate as a loose democracy — that any action taken by all should be agreed on by all, and if not all, than at least the majority.
There might be a party face, or a player who’s a little more comfortable with roleplay, but I don’t personally think that there should ever be an outright leader to a D&D party, because that risks a feeling of railroading not just by the DM but by whoever it is at the front who keeps calling all the shots.
And what better way to give someone that privileged sense of power than by a lucky pull of a card that suddenly makes them more powerful than everyone else.
Okay… so when is an ideal time to introduce the DoMT?
Don’t get me wrong, I am an agent of chaos and love to see a D&D campaign get turned on its head as much as the next guy. The DoMT presents an incredibly interesting opportunity for a campaign to go waaay off the rails in a lot of fun ways, and I think that can be, and should be, embraced.
My only real word of caution here is that DMs know what they’re potentially getting into. If they have a whole city prepped just over the hill that they’ve poured countless hours into already, or if the party is on a time-sensitive quest to save a kidnapped princess, then maybe don’t throw the DoMT at the party.
But if you’ve all just finished up an interesting arc, and the party isn’t entirely sure what to do next, (and maybe the DM isn’t either), then screw it.
Draw a card, any card.
And see where they might take you next.
(Info via https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Deck%20of%20Many%20Things#content)
Playing Card — Card:
Ace of diamonds — Vizier*
King of diamonds — Sun
Queen of diamonds — Moon
Jack of diamonds — Star
Two of diamonds — Comet*
Ace of hearts — The Fates*
King of hearts — Throne
Queen of hearts — Key
Jack of hearts — Knight
Two of hearts — Gem*
Ace of clubs — Talons*
King of clubs — The Void
Queen of clubs — Flames
Jack of clubs — Skull
Two of clubs — Idiot*
Ace of spades — Donjon*
King of spades — Ruin
Queen of spades — Euryale
Jack of spades — Rogue
Two of spades — Balance*
Joker (with TM) — Fool*
Joker (without TM) — Jester
* Found only in a deck with twenty-two cards
Balance: Your mind suffers a wrenching alteration, causing your Alignment to change. Lawful becomes chaotic, good becomes evil, and vice versa. If you are true neutral or unaligned, this card has no Effect on you.
Comet: If you single-handedly defeat the next Hostile monster or group of Monsters you encounter, you gain Experience Points enough to gain one level. Otherwise, this card has no Effect.
Donjon: You disappear and become entombed in a state of suspended animation in an extradimensional Sphere. Everything you were wearing and carrying stays behind in the space you occupied when you disappeared. You remain imprisoned until you are found and removed from the Sphere. You can’t be located by any Divination magic, but a wish spell can reveal the Location of your prison. You draw no more cards.
Euryale: The card’s medusa-like visage Curses you. You take a -2 penalty on Saving Throws while Cursed in this way. Only a god or the magic of The Fates card can end this curse.
The Fates: Reality’s fabric unravels and spins anew, allowing you to avoid or erase one event as if it never happened. You can use the card’s magic as soon as you draw the card or at any other time before you die.
Flames: A powerful devil becomes your enemy. The devil seeks your ruin and plagues your life, savoring your suffering before attempting to slay you. This enmity lasts until either you or the devil dies.
Fool: You lose 10,000 XP, discard this card, and draw from the deck again, counting both draws as one of your declared draws. If losing that much XP would cause you to lose a level, you instead lose an amount that leaves you with just enough XP to keep your level.
Gem: Twenty-five pieces of jewelry worth 2,000 gp each or fifty gems worth 1,000 gp each appear at your feet.
Idiot: Permanently reduce your Intelligence by 1d4 + 1 (to a minimum score of 1). You can draw one additional card beyond your declared draws.
Jester: You gain 10,000 XP, or you can draw two additional cards beyond your declared draws.
Key: A rare or rarer Magic Weapon with which you are proficient appears in your hands. The DM chooses the weapon.
Knight: You gain the service of a 4th-level Fighter who appears in a space you choose within 30 feet of you. The Fighter is of the same race as you and serves you loyally until death, believing the fates have drawn him or her to you. You control this character.
Moon: You are granted the ability to cast the wish spell 1d3 times.
Rogue: A nonplayer character of the DM’s choice becomes Hostile toward you. The identity of your new enemy isn’t known until the NPC or someone else reveals it. Nothing less than a wish spell or Divine Intervention can end the NPC’s hostility toward you.
Ruin: All forms of Wealth that you carry or own, other than magic items, are lost to you. Portable property vanishes. Businesses, buildings, and land you own are lost in a way that alters reality the least. Any documentation that proves you should own something lost to this card also disappears.
Skull: You summon an avatar of death-a ghostly Humanoid Skeleton clad in a tattered black robe and carrying a spectral scythe. It appears in a space of the DM’s choice within 10 feet of you and attacks you, warning all others that you must win the battle alone. The avatar fights until you die or it drops to 0 Hit Points, whereupon it disappears. If anyone tries to help you, the helper summons its own Avatar of Death. A creature slain by an Avatar of Death can’t be restored to life.
Star: Increase one of your Ability Scores by 2. The score can exceed 20 but can’t exceed 24.
Sun: You gain 50,000 XP, and a wondrous item (which the DM determines randomly) appears in your hands.
Talons: Every magic item you wear or carry disintegrates. Artifacts in your possession aren’t destroyed but do Vanish.
Throne: You gain proficiency in the Persuasion skill, and you double your Proficiency Bonus on checks made with that skill. In addition, you gain rightful ownership of a small keep somewhere in the world. However, the keep is currently in the hands of Monsters, which you must clear out before you can claim the keep as. yours.
Vizier: At any time you choose within one year of drawing this card, you can ask a question in meditation and mentally receive a truthful answer to that question. Besides information, the answer helps you solve a puzzling problem or other dilemma. In other words, the knowledge comes with Wisdom on how to apply it.
The Void: This black card Spells Disaster. Your soul is drawn from your body and contained in an object in a place of the DM’s choice. One or more powerful beings guard the place. While your soul is trapped in this way, your body is Incapacitated. A wish spell can’t restore your soul, but the spell reveals the Location of the object that holds it. You draw no more cards.”
