THE DECK OF MANY THINGS - Yay or Nay?

[@SasquatchChief]

Our group encountered a deck of many things and for the most part, everyone drew from deck except me. Best event was, the warlock who was holding on to it while we were in a fight decided to close the door to the room and draw from it. Our ranger opened the door so he could take cover behind the wall, but upon opening the door and seeing "Death" in the same room decided to just close the door quietly, leaving the warlock to deal with the consequences. He turns to the rest of us and says in his best Jim Carey voice, "Do NOT go in there!"

[@theDMLair]

Ha, that's classic. Drew Death. And then his buddy ignores his plight. LOL That sounds like something one of my players would do... 😂

[@100kwithnovidschallenge5]

@@briarjosiah5691 Yeah, no one cares.

[@WattWolf]

So the dm in my game introduced really early because he had this kinda "Random items roll" type thing. Basically all of us died, but because it was so early in the game, the dm turned it into a dream as if we never drew from the deck in the first place. It was all in good fun though! XD

[@theDMLair]

Yeah, I think early in the game the deck has a 95% chance of destroying everyone in the party. Whether by death or other catastrophes that low-level PCs just don't have the resources to recover from. (Fortunately the same all-powerful hand that introduces the deck has the power to undo the consequences, even though doing so breaks immersion and suspension of disbelief to some degree.)

[@starspawn507]

I like the _idea_ of the Deck of Many Things, but it can be very game-breaking in its base form. If I were to use it, I’d probably homebrew some cards for it.

[@theDMLair]

Yes, the Deck is a remnant of the hardcore days of gaming that I feel is still kept around because it's a classic magic item. DM's who use it should be very careful, or as you say, homebrew some cards that aren't as crazy. 😀

[@BrazenBard]

@@theDMLair I do believe, way back in a Dungeon or Dragon Magazine, there was a Tarot Deck of Many Things with... less extreme effects on the list and more cards. Don't recall offhand if that was a full deck, or just the Major Arcana, though...

[@tkgwildfire5339]

The deck needs 76 cards to match with tarot cards.

[@NegatveSpace]

It sounds fun to have some first level characters draw from it and make a whole campaign out of what happens. Maybe the characters find it and think its a regular card set, deal out some cards each and they all take effect.

[@NegatveSpace]

@The Infinity Sock Hmm Yeah after thinking about it I think either the consequences should be toned down or maybe even starting a campaign at a higher level to try it out might be fun.

[@hunterotte4085]

I remember a long time ago a friend of mine who was DM-ing gave us it... It went into chaos, and when someone finally got the wish spell through the moon they wished "I wish time was reversed to the point before Chris drew the first card!". And when we were about to relive it he took the deck of many things from Chris's hand and chucked it over the side of our sky ship and into the ocean below and turned to us saying "Crisis averted!". XD

[@JK-qo1mh]

I loved watching the level of excitement everyone has around the table. I've used the Deck one time and it was such a tense, beautiful moment. Took the players 2 years to rescue the banished ranger.

[@theDMLair]

Oh yeah, it was definitely one of the most fun game sessions we'd had in some time. My players fulling intend to go rescue Daeris at some point, too. (Her soul was stolen away to the Abyss.) The PCs will be level 20 now, so it might not take 2 years to get her back. 😂

[@wewriteweirdshit9765]

The first player to draw from it in my group drew the void. It led into an awesome side quest where the party has been journeying through the abyss to rescue their comrade's soul, but it's been awful hard to convince them to draw anymore after that! Maybe I'll show them this video (stopping after the second player lol) so they can see the good possibilities too!

[@theDMLair]

LOL - Yes, stop after the second player... 😂

[@wolfeye3275]

The void traps the soul of the one that draws it and cancels out any remaining card draws they have so the cards she drew after the void was drawn technically didn't have any effect on her character. Assuming that she was actually holding the deck when she drew the cards deck of many things would have been destroyed when she drew the talons card because it is not an artifact and therefore would have never drawn the void in the first place.

[@stateofhibernation]

And that... is why you do not give into peer pressure lol

[@theDMLair]

Lol, yep. We all still feel a little guilty...

[@johnjustjohn5866]

This is exactly why you give into peer pressure

[@theDMLair]

Lol, also agree...

[@lyrix9753]

Deck of many things are bad mkay

[@100madmic]

I got lucky with mine all the players drew from the deck and I was new one out of the bunch.

[@adep247]

That initial reaction from your players Luke! Awesome! (Typing as I’m watching)

[@theDMLair]

I know. It was AWESOME! lol I had been waiting for that moment for months.... 😂

[@hellfire286]

I quote from The Void effects "You draw no more cards."

[@Sharkey007x]

hah, getting stuck in the Abyss and then getting flipped to Lawful Evil is super fitting. She has been corrupted by the environment.

[@theDMLair]

Yep! Lol

[@marathuzula9024]

You describing the dragon is why people fell in love with Matt, well done. That was a awesome experience.

[@theDMLair]

Thanks! 😂

[@RussNo1]

I drew the "enmity with a demon" card. I used my negotiation skills, (with random dice rolls), to convince the demon that his vendetta with me was illogical and unjustified. That it was magically created and not real. The demon had no idea why it hated me and decided to leave me alone. Who's the ninnie that eats water mellon with a fork?

[@BimdoeDoll]

My only problem with the deck is the shear amount of stuff that stright up kills/imprisons/completely changes your character. In 5e at least the cannon good effects are not worth it in the slightest.

[@shebvixen]

I'm running a game for my brother and his kid's. One of them is super impulsive and isn't quite getting the whole cause and effect thing, maybe this could be a learning experience👼... or funny 😈, funny works too.

[@fortuna2699]

This is actually a really interesting subject, and one that I have... unique experience with. As I mentioned in the comments of another video, I run a campaign that I record and post to KZbin regularly. Because of that, I wanted to make sure it was not only interesting to play, but also fun for an audience to watch. I've had experience with the Deck of Many Things, and knew it might throw my campaign into a horrible, horrible loop of suffering and misery, but I liked the random nature of card draws. So instead, I improvised. The Fortuna campaign revolves around the PCs finding a souped-up version of the Deck of Many Things called 'The Deck of Everything'. Mechanically, the players roll a 1d100, and gain a random effect based on the number rolled. Unlike the DoMT, this artifact has 100 random possible outcomes, most of which are non-game-breaking and intended to be entertaining, funny, or throw a wrench into/ help out the players in current events. For example, a player's weapon might turn to solid gold, or they might get a monkey butler named Steve. The deck is also sentient, and will attempt to charm players into drawing it if it's been ignored for too long (it has the personality of a small child seeking attention). One of our players drew a card and got to learn a small personal spoiler of the campaign early on, while another received a curse from the deck that gives them a 1/10 chance that a brick wall will block their path every time they walk through an open doorway or archway. That curse has become a major plot point for her, since she spends a lot of time trying to figure out a way to remove it. The point I'm making here is don't be afraid to improvise with what you've got. If an artifact or pre-made adventure isn't exactly what you want for a campaign, there's no rule that says you can't change it a little to fit better.

[@theDMLair]

That is really cool. The non game breaking part is key. As the Deck can wreck havoc. I love that your deck is sentient and seeks attention. I would have a blast role-playing a small childish voice begging for attention. "Hey, take a card! It's been days since you've looked at me!"

[@NegatveSpace]

Randomly blocked doorway sounds like a great thing to add and sounds hilarious

[@danieldosso2455]

Never experienced TDoMT personally but I've heard stories much like this where it's either really good or really bad. This video has me excited to encounter it at some point in my gaming life

[@theDMLair]

I definitely think it's worth trying out at least once or twice in a game or two. The thing is that something catastrophic is almost guaranteed to happen. That's why I saved it for for the end of the campaign that I was running. The players found it when they were like level 17 I believe. I figured at that point in the game they probably would be able to handle whatever horrible thing happened and if they couldn't well the campaign was almost over anyway. Even though something horrible happened one of the players I think overall it was a fun experience. And then we had an entire Adventure designed around rescuing her soul from Tiamat so that was lots of fun. But I can easily see at low levels the deck of many things could just be catastrophic Beyond recovery given certain bad drawers and other circumstances.

[@ronmreyes]

I had a DM who had a modified deck of Many things, we where playing 3.5/pathfinder rules and the scenario went as such: We had recently raided a Hag Coven, and found on one of them 2 desks, one desk was for reading fortunes, and the other was a deck of many things (which was wrapped in a cloth with contact poison. (The hags where immune, but our party member almost got poisoned). The poison had a compulsion effect that forced the drawer to draw upto 3 cards. Fortunately they did not get effected but all of us ended up drawing 1-2 cards. The effects where as follows: Me - I drew one card, which resulted in: I essentially could use 2 archetypes at the same time (At the time, Dream and Winter Witch archetypes) My Brother - Brother drew 2 cards which resulted in: Enemies had a bonus to critical him on physical attacks, he could use 2 archetypes at the same time (Such as Cavalier - Beast Rider and Samurai archetypes) Friend 1 - He drew 2 cards which resulted in: He could where 2 magic items that take up the same slot without increasing the the number of used slots, this was cancelled out by having all magical items in the "Chest" slot counting as non magical when worn. Friend 2 - He drew 1 cards which resulted in a close family member being targeted/ in danger of being murdered. I have to say it really made for an interesting session, I'm just glad non of us died!

[@theDMLair]

Yeah, sounds like you guys mostly made out like bandits! 😂 I wonder if the DM intentionally modified the deck so it'd have much more good than bad (which is cool if that's what he did) or if you all just got lucky. :D

[@ronmreyes]

We got really lucky, After we checked the list, some of them where really bad, like all your magic items become Mundane, Loose 1 level, (he had one for spell caster loose 1 spell slot!!) so we really made out without to much trouble. Although with 3.5, the Debuff my brother got, meant that enemies where like 5% more likely to crit him. All crit ranges where increased by 1 against him... so for instance, if they crit on 19-20, for my brother they cri him on 18-20 or if they normally crit on 18-20, they can crit him on a roll of 17+. So all of a sudden he was very paranoid about critical hahaha. The guy who basically treated all magic items as mundane, had it on his chest spot. So his enchanted armor was now plane leather if he wore it. On the bright side he could wear an extra ring! (but he was still miffred) because it granted extra AC and Stealth before. So I have to say it wasn't terrible. We where just suuuuuper lucky. I made out like a bandit.

[@theDMLair]

That's awesome. Really lucky. A good thing because some of the bad stuff would truly suck... 😂

[@michaelghilardi5260]

I love how her character alignment changed it makes for an interesting story later on when/if the party recover said character

[@theDMLair]

Let me know what happened in your game when the deck of many things was introduced! 🔹D&D book giveaway open until the end of September: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2rWeYSGqZx_orM

[@JacesSanctum]

Desk?

[@theDMLair]

The Desk of Many Things... Stat that magic item... LOL 😸

[@lanfae9353]

So I was in a campaign where we got the Deck at the end of the second session and found out that this was the DM's plan from the start. There was no campaign, per se, just the Deck and what we did with it. There were three players. The other two liked gambling more and decided to draw a bunch of cards and got some great stuff. Then they finally got me to do it, and I drew one card and immediately got Void! It led to a fun puzzle dungeon for the other two and I was honestly very amused taking notes while they did that, and they restored my character and everything was good. I finally did draw some more cards later and got the one that gives a powerful magic weapon and also finally got Star to give myself a +6 Dexterity modifier, so all's well that ends well. The boosts from the Deck even eventually enabled one character to become a god at the end of the campaign!

[@BaloosSketchbook]

Well I had quite a fun time when I first time introduced Deck to my players. It was just 2 weeks ago. They where/are lv 5 players group of 5 but at that session on 3 players where together. (I know lv 5? I'm an evil DM but they had fun) first couple cards where great, Ranger took 2 and both were great, paladins got a knight companion, fighter got a dancing rapier. But then my Ranger got a bit greedy and drew all of the rest cards and I mean ALL, he got tons of exp, devil as an enemy, someone to kill and so on. Fun fact last card was void card which he did not draw but fighter did and she got void... Got for them that it was just an illusion in Rangers mind so they survived but this fact was only known on next session. It was fun to watch them thinking about new characters and stuff. I gave them a bomb and I don't regret it 3:)

[@theDMLair]

Wow. Who lost all their magic items and had their soul sucked away?

[@BaloosSketchbook]

@@theDMLair Fighter named Artemis, She was even scared when Ranger used Wish spell (also granted from card) and summoned very last boss of campaign, whom was Ancient Black Dragon named Sala'zar (thou that dragon Is modified really deadly). it took him one acid breath to kill them all, but as I said it was just a dream/vision in Rangers head. so they got lucky... this time... 3:) muahahahaha

[@OnigoroshiZero]

The first one was great. Getting the curse in the beginning, then the 3 Wishes, and finally the powerful being that want to destroy him. You can explain it like the player's character stole some powerful magic from that being, and at that moment the being realized the character's presence when he stole some of his power and will start hunting him to take it back, or something like that. The second just had all the luck in the multiverse. And the third, well, seems like the multiverse had no more luck to spare after the second...

[@fiercemushroom4840]

I wish I had a good story about The Deck of Many Things but unfortunately for me it has such a reputation for campaign ruining shinanagins that despite handing it out twice, the players refused to use it. I was incredibly excited about it the first time too but what ensued was a 45 min debate about should we or shouldn't we. Tempers started to flair about what if scenarios of people dying or losing everything and ultimately they decided it just wasn't worth the risk. Truthfully, I have never been so disappointed in a game as I was that day. To make matters worse, since I always have to DM, I never get to be in a position to actually use the deck as a player. This type of thing has been a bit of problem in past games though, any item that has a reputation for causing chaos will almost certainly be left unused. Which is why I had to start making my own magical items with wild effects to catch the group off guard. I have very few complaints about the group but the psudo-metagamings cocerning the big name magical items like the deck of many things or the Hand of Vecna is really starting to get frustrating.

[@theDMLair]

Yeah, that doesn't sound like any fun. 😢it's the DECK OF MANY THINGS! Someone needs to draw from it... Otherwise no fun. I would have been supremely disappointed had my players not drawn anything from it, too. Two outright refused, two volunteered, and we peer pressured another into it. 😂 But yeah, custom magic items with odd effects sounds like the way to go if your players know the preexisting ones so well that they are metagaming it.

[@shokoranathegoose8607]

ok so i know this was a year ago buuttt, care to tell us any stories about the items you came up with?

[@aidanjackson5084]

I was actually a player for one campaign and our Tiefling Paladin actually got a Deck of Many Things early on (like session 2 or 3). He occasionally drew from it throughout the whole campaign and he was quiet lucky with it as well. Granted, the deck was altered a bit so there were some things the traditional DoMT has that this one didn't and vis versa. His first draw was two cards: first one allowed him to change any moment from his past or that would happen. He saved that one for later. Second draw summoned Death forth, in which he then used the first card to say he never drew Death and it returned, the other card turning to ash. Rest of the campaign saw a draw every few sessions or so. One of them actually helped us escape from a Green Dragon encountered via a random encounter roll and cut down travel-time to our next location, since the campaign was on a bit of a time limit.

[@1supermanprime]

in our game the dm spreads all the shuffled cards on the table and any one that wants to pick picks the amount of cards they want, they announce they are taking 3 cards for instance, then after we all get our card picks the dm goes player by player to see what happens, note all cards remain facing down and only when it is reveal time are they turned face up. this method eliminates players getting repeats of anything anyone got before. also i have been playing d$d for 34 years.

[@johnpayne6175]

My singular encounter with the deck was back in my 2nd Ed days. I drew a wish. Another PC drew the Vizier, (know the answer to the next question asked), so I asked the other PC how I could phrase a wish to gain control over the deck of many things, without any monkey paw effects. That is how my character gained the ability to draw from the deck of many things and control where the effects happen.

[@drewharner3387]

Deck of many things will always be in my games. A full decl always exists but it only come out right before the bbeg so it allows them to take a little break before the nitty gritty run of the final boss arc, and lets some fun stuff to happen and possibly some gear ups. But its always very late game

[@theDMLair]

Yes, the Deck is lots of fun. just best reserved for late game, IMO. :D

[@sionry5229]

I know some ppl who used it when it FIRST was released in Dragon Magazine. The stories from that group were always fantastic. They made use of the Deck for the effects of spoiled potions when coming across a long-abandoned hut. One of the PC was a hardy follower of the God of chaos (and drinking!) And got the party to try some of the Potions. Hyjinks ensue and one of the PCs turned into a dragon. (Edited to fix typoes)

[@slashb7836]

My group just acquired one. There's something one of my characters would risk anything to use The Fates on. It's probably still a couple few weeks before he has the opportunity to draw cards, and he'll definitely be doing some prep time to minimize some of the risks. He's a researcher by nature so he'll be able to prepare well for the possibilities

[@TheBubbleob]

I ran a game once inspired by a video Zee Bashew did where the players were restricted to playing as Goblins that had just stolen (somehow) a full deck of many things. No campaign strings attached. They then promptly started drawing ridiculously luckily and burned their way out of a heavily populated dwarven metropolis. As a DM i can't remember the last time I laughed so much so constantly. It was amazing.

[@henryhunter9643]

My DM gave us a Deck of Harrowing (5e but based on the Pathfinder item) at level 2. We are a 2 person group so we got some nifty magic items earlier on to balance it out, which we (mostly) don't abuse. The Bard got the Deck of Harrowing and one of the first things he did with it was present to to a preaching doom cultist in Neverwinter. The card he drew forced another 3 cards. I forget the first card, but the second forced his clothing to become adamantite, and the third caused him to become a soul gem. That gem is now decorating a magical mandolin he has dubbed 'The Pimpolin' due to the many gemstones decorating it.

[@evadecaptcha]

For a balhannoth's lair, I rolled a random treasure hoard, which had a deck of many things in it. I decided to let the pcs loot it. One of the pc's had a backstory tie to a niece the party had failed to save from mind flayers. However, failing to save her, led them on a quest to save a city from mind flayers. The first players drew a few good things, gems, magic items, the soldier. Then the player who had lost the npc drew the fates card, which he used to reverse the event that lost his niece. This wound up changing the past in such a way that the party never made it to the city they had previously saved - when they visited the city again, it had been destroyed. The party was never led on the path that led to the deck either, so they never got the gems etc. It completely changed the trajectory of the campaign, which was fun, though I had to prepare a bunch of extra stuff on their new route, but the main plot and BBEG stayed the same, so it didn't break the campaign, just completely derailed it for a while.

[@laurenpickens9028]

I live the deck of many things! I've slightly changed some of the stuff, if they would kill the players, very slightly in a way that it's still dangerous but not deadly and usually it contains a self contained adventure

[@halfmoonbooks8573]

Also, Daeris could become your new big bad. Her soul was corrupted by the abyss and she comes back, now lawful evil as the powerful being hunting the party from that one draw in the first 3.

[@darkpaw1522]

I used it once by accident in my game. Rolled on an extended wild magic table which spawned it, no regrets so far. Guy rolled a d4 for a number of cards (landed on 4). First was the Diamond, then the Fool, The Fates, and ended with the Void. I allowed him to use the cards in the order they were drawn. So it ended with him using the Fate to make it so one of the Kingdoms (a princess was the BBEG) and make it so the princess's kingdom was never formed.What they didn't know is the princess was the Queen of the Winter Fey Kingdom. At this time they was also in the Feywild. So....yeah. They imploded the campaign.

[@fishyboi98]

I used the deck as part of a puzzle in the final dungeon of my campaign. Each room was based off of a class of magic. The Bard's Challenge was a wooden table, with a Deck of Many Things in the center, and a magical number floating above it. Basically, the number indicated how many cards had to be drawn. A few rules were that if someone drew only one card, the counter wouldn't change. If they tried to draw all the cards required in one go, it would go up. I was also using a modified deck, with 52 results, so that I could use a standard deck of playing cards that the players had to physically draw from. I removed some cards, found some homebrew ones I added, and the worst thing that happened was the PC's accidentally got two plot important characters killed.

[@oduco5348]

from my expirience the deck offers more quest ideas / adventures that can be explored. The only card that in my opionion can break the campaign is The Fates and Vizier. It allows the players to figure out the BBEG plan etc. which destroies some parts of a campaigne. All of this is considered if you homebrew the campgain as we most of the times do

[@imUmoron]

**all magic items turn to ash** "Huh, That's everything! What more could I lose?"

[@lynnskelton7971]

Loved watching the interactions and how Luke describes what happens for some of the items drawn. I will be introducing the Deck into my campaign. Currently the heroes are in the Medusa's Lair and if they defeat her, they will probably find the Deck which will be in a sturdy locked wooden box in plain view on a table. An explosive glyph of warding is on the underside that will go off once it is picked up. Yes, I am devious. When they open up the box, the deck will be face down. In my world, the card faces are blank. When they draw them, the image slowly appears and is interactive (kind of like the pics in Harry Potter) and causing the result assigned to that pic to happen. As for the Deck, I had a custom designed 22 card deck made using pics I found online that I liked better. I also made the change that the cards don't return to the deck. Why? REASON 1) They may find more than one set throughout the land and each set may be complete or have 2-10 cards missing to start. Before the session, the deck is spread out face down on the table and mixed up, "wash" them as they say in poker, really well. I roll a 1d10 and while face down, randomly slide that many cards out from them (min of 2). If I roll a "1" then no cards are missing. I gather up the remaining cards face down and place back in the box. The cards that were removed are set aside. Let's say I rolled a 7, I will slide out 7 random card from the cards and set them to the side. I gather up the remaining cards and place them in the box. When they find the deck and decide to draw from it, they tell me how many they will draw. They draw the cards one at a time and turn the card face up to be revealed. I tell them what they experience as the picture begins to do its thing. EXAMPLE: "Key: The blank face of the card begins to turn a golden color. From within that new color a golden key takes form, beset with jewels and a crest of a lion holding a key and a shield at the top revealing a ship. The key begins to turn back and forth. As it does so, it takes on a three-dimensional look until it progresses to the point of sliding off the card to the ground below, leaving the card blank once again. As you look down at the key you notice a magical light radiating from it filling a 5 ft area with bright light and a dimmer form of the light another 5ft beyond that. Upon reaching down and picking it up, you have a sense of confidence that there is not a lock in this world, magical or not, that could keep you from opening it. Without realizing it, the card in your hand is no longer there." (NOTE - I changed up the original to be the above and to fit the image on the card better) REASON 2) When drawing from the deck they have, if you don't have cards returning, then it makes it a bit more tense not knowing if what remains actually remains...mostly good, mostly bad or evenly mixed. Also, though still considered in their possession, I keep the Deck so they are not tempted to look at them during or after the game. I want what is drawn at any point in time to be a surprise. ___________ As inferred above, I have also changed a few of the deck's original results to fit more of what is shown on the card itself (i.e Key Card above) and to be a little less "breaking" of the campaign. Also, since we don't use XP but milestone, I changed those up to fit the actual pic on the card. Here are more examples: > The Key: Has the description mentioned above, but the DM Note states,... "The key provides the light as mentioned, but it does not turn off. So, there could be some issues with that depending on how and when they handle the key. It also provides the one who pulled the card, no other PC or NPC, the ability to unlock any one door, lock, set of bindings, or other locked barrier. This includes magical gates or portals that have specific requirements to activate. Once the key is used on a lock (Magic or not), unbeknownst to the holder, it will dissolve into the either. *********** > The Fool: Originally it had you losing 10,000 XP and allowing you to draw another card. I changed it to the following..."As you look upon the blank face of the card, a picture of a man sitting among bones holding a dagger pointed at his face appears. As it comes into full view you feel something being drained, no, pulled from you. You can literally feel (use the hero's highest score among INT & WIS. If the same, have them roll 1d6 with odd = INT and even = WIS)… • (INT) Knowledge you once had leaving you. You can sense your recall is not as effective as it was. At the same time the card slowly turns to ash in your hands. • (WIS) The ability to perceive things physically or spiritually leave you. At the same time the card slowly turns to ash in your hands.   DM: This card immediately causes the drain of 1d4+1 points (with a minimum of 2 point drain) of Wisdom or Intelligence (whichever is the hero's highest score). The reduction affects other aspects of the hero accordingly. *********** Last Example of change: Comet - originally - Hero single-handedly defeats the next hostile monster or group of Monsters encountered and gain the XP for it. To fit the card pic, I changed it to basically the spell "Melf's Minute Meteors"... "The smell of sulfur and pine tar rises from the card. A meteor shoots across the sky upon the card then quickly turns and exits the card toward your head, exploding into six tiny meteors and causing fire damage across your face and head and anyone within 5 ft of you. Everyone in range make a DC 15 DEX SAVE.   Fail = Full 2d6 Fire Damage / Success = ½ damage.   As the comet explodes upon you, you are cast into a vision of YOU casting a meteor at a target whereupon it explodes causing fire damage upon them. As the vision fades, you feel heat about your head, but no damage is being caused. Then you sense them, six tiny meteors orbiting your head. (They are visible to all who look upon you).   As a bonus action on each of their turns thereafter, they can expend one or two of the meteors, sending them streaking toward 1-2 targets they choose within 120 ft of them. Once a meteor reaches its destination or impacts against a solid surface, the meteor explodes. Each creature within 5 feet of the explosion point must make a DC 15 DEX SAVE.   Fail = Full 2d6 Fire Damage / Success = ½ damage.   DM: With each casting, the meteor/s cast are expended. Also, hero rolls a DC CON Save (10+ the number of remaining meteors), to keep the remaining contained in their orbit. If they fail the save, one shoots forth in a random direction and explodes upon the first object or being it hits causing the above fire damage. ________________________ Anyway, enjoyed the video and hope the above inspires ideas for when you decide to intro DoMT into your world.

[@MstEli]

The one and only time I encountered the deck of many things was in the hands of an enemy. They drew from the deck and (I think, this was about 6 years ago now) exploded. The thing is, there was an npc with us who was an explosives savant, and had a bomb on her. She was too close to the enemy, so when he exploded, the bomb also exploded and made a bigger explosion, sending half the people on the bow of the ship off it, and in freefall.

[@primeemperor9196]

The Deck of Many Things was really nice to me. It gave me a follower, two magic swords, and an ASI. My friend, on the other hand, got banished to the void (He had an ability to rewind time one time.) and had to fight a cloud giant. (He had a vorpal sword and rolled a nat 20 after about 3 rounds.)

[@targetdreamer257]

There was a small homebrew and the DM dropped it fairly early. The idea homebrew was our character's got pulled to a different plane of existence and it was going to be a survival style campaign. There was not cities or cavillation for that matter in any place we went to. I think I pulled the throne and got a keep, I got a huge boost in hp (shot up to level 6 or something), all my saving throws -2 and some kickass weapons. One of the other guys pulled donjon so he rolled another character. Three more characters rolled and each pulled either the void or the donjon. That pretty much killed that homebrew.

[@ShaneandJay]

Great video! Deck of many things is a game changer for sure and man that last player got screwed!!👀

[@theDMLair]

LOL - Yeah, poor Daeris! HOWEVER, there will be future rescue mission for her. So, I'm sure everyone will have fun doing that. Even a lot of the bad things from the Deck can turn into interesting parts of the game if handled well. But, yes, there are other things that are just bad news no matter how you look at it -- like all magic items disintegrating.

[@JacesSanctum]

the DM Lair I''m glad that a rescue mission happens, since it would be a waste of a good opportunity otherwise.

[@theDMLair]

Yes, I'm a fan of turning player actions and decisions into more fun down the line. 😈

[@MonkeyJedi99]

A game I was playing in got a deck of similar cards (custom game, slightly different deck) and after the first person drew two cards, which sequentially gained them unimaginable wealth then took it (and everything else) away, we tricked a table of locals to use the deck to play poker, and sat back to watch. They got some good cards and some bad cards, and they attacked us for tricking them. We beat them, and took all the items they had gained from the deck, dropping the cards in the sewer on the way out of town.

[@simonprod1001]

My forever DM made an antagonist with a unique ability to basically force people to draw from the deck of many things. You might reach into your pocket and pull out a card. What's this? Oh. It's doom. I'm pretty sure he culled the most extreme cards from it. Do, it was more than likely The Deck of Quite a Few Things. It got our wizard imprisoned, and we had to do a jail break mission. Our bard had drawn the card that gives you the solution to a problem. He instantly knew several handy items we'd likely need for said mission. I don't think he stacked the deck. It was definitely a fun way to implement the deck. Give your bbeg the special ability, Tarot Master. Fun stuff.

[@adep247]

Late in the campaign is my vote too. That was awesome. I’m so going to do it at the end of my current one 😎

[@theDMLair]

Yes, that session was one of the best we've had in a long time. TONS of fun, even for the player who lost everything. In the next session, she came back with a new PC and was all amped up to go. There's lots of fun to be had with the Deck of Many Things, that's for sure. But I suspect with the wrong group, it could cause lots of issues and drama, too.

[@RikkuTakanashi]

What I would do is I would have where they could go and perform some long complex ritual which would "purify" the deck and remove all the negative effects or at least make them mild compared to ultra spicy. Like, with the void instead of the soul becoming trapped somewhere, the person physically gets trapped in an object, like a genie in a lamp kind of situation and they have to find some "key" to unlock them. It would still be bad, but not AS bad, and the person could still reasonably play the character on the side.

[@ollieollie3288]

I'm running my first game this week, and I'm inculding a "deck of pointless things" with things like a colour changing mage light and a speaker which can only play one song on repeat.

[@theDMLair]

That sounds like fun! 😁

[@ronniejdio9411]

The one song is Chumbawumba"s I GET KNOCKED DOWN BUT I GET UP AGAIN

[@craigjones7343]

I thought that one a card was drawn from the deck it was considered to be used and was not put back into the deck.

[@Number01]

I loved this video! Seeing you run a home game made me want to ask you about your set up. What is behind your DM screen? What cheat sheets do you use on the screen? Audio set up? Music? Laptop or paper notes? What does your DM Binder look for random tables and other useful tidbits? I think I'll introduce the deck of many things soon! I love random effects/tables and both great things and terrible things to happen to my players. Muahahhaha Thanks for another great video!

[@NateFinch]

We got a deck back in 2nd edition. The DM had customized it some, including saying that you didn't have to put a card back before drawing another. So, we summoned creatures to draw all but one card from the deck, figured out what card was left, and then could decide whether or not to draw that card for ourselves. Totally broke the game :)

[@jamiejohnson41]

Quick tip about deck of many things: you can tell if it's good or bad based off of the color. If it's red (diamonds/hearts), it's good (or at least not bad) if it's black (clubs/spades), start praying to your deity.

[@Saiyijon]

Our DM introduced a modified deck when we were low level. One guy fought death and got cursed with a -2 to a stat of the DMs choice. He also lost all wealth and many items. Someone got a magic item and I got 3 wishes. My paladin was going to revive an NPC from his back story and walk a new road of redemption. Sadly the campaign was cancelled before he could bring back his beloved. He had a dark backstory involving the death of the woman he loved due to his choices. It was a fitting end for him.

[@Joshuazx]

As a player, I don't want a damn thing to do with the Deck of Many Things. As a character, I would have to play my character and draw a card. This topic has given me an idea! From now on, all of my character will hate decks of cards and will want to burn any deck of cards he gets his hands on. That way, if I ever am given a deck of many things by the DM, I will be playing my character if I burn the deck without hesitation.

[@jacksonlindsey2521]

Me and a few friends were playing a home brew game and we had possession of the deck for some time and decided to use it. We both agreed to clear the deck. Every last card was drawn by the both of us. We took turns drawing from the deck he got the void card and vanished lucky we were friends with God and he gave him back after finding him on his book shelf. In the end I got 3 wishes and our estate and thane titles were taken from us as well as my friend getting 50 gems. I used the wishes to get us back our house. And even gain the powers of a vampire without the downfalls of it. I the used the last wish for a Genie who could grant 50 more wishes.

[@haveswordwilltravel]

If I were to ise this magic item on my players, I would pick several cards in advance and have them “randomly roll” to see which predetermined card and effect they draw. This would be used to segway into an adventure, such as The Rogue card granting the enmity of a powerful fiend, or the Knight granting a henchman, who needs to be rescued. The Gem would grant treasure as promised, but it would be from the hoard of a powerful dragon who learns of the player’s luck.

[@BrazenBard]

...You don't have an actual Deck of Many Things, and resort to regular playing cards? How disappointing... ;) But srsly, a full Deck is a bit too gambly for most, I think - but playing with a partial Deck of Many Things can be greatly unsettling to the players, since that's going to skew the odds in some way, and they don't know which way. ;) Best thing I've ever had happen, though, was when a PC got a magical deck of cards, drew one in a crisis, and a fighter appeared in front of him. Some twelve seconds later, he realized he had a Deck of Illusions, rather than a Deck of Many Things, so there was some frantic scampering at that point... :P

[@theDMLair]

Yes, and to boot the regular playing cards are 20 years old and dug out of my basement. :)

[@WitherLord888]

I pulled out some blank paper index cards and drew out my own deck because I was too lazy to use a real one....wait a sec....XD

[@GhøstGïrll13]

As you pull cards you’re usually supposed to remove that card from the deck haha. That’s how the deck is “balanced” in a way. I gave my party a deck at 5th level. They’ve pulled 12 cards and everything is still fine somehow.

[@theDMLair]

You're right! We actually screwed this up in our game. I realized this far after the session.

[@lunavarion]

@@theDMLair Actually, I read a bit about this in the DMG last night. It said that only a couple cards (such as the joker) are permanently removed after being drawn. The rest of the cards return to the deck and may be drawn again. This implies that the deck is supposed to be shuffled after each card is drawn and reinserted. DMG 162: "Once a card is drawn, it fades from existence. Unless the card is the Fool or the Jester, the card reappears in the deck, making it possible to draw the same card twice."

[@josephward4620]

Whenever we start a higher leveled campaign and are allowed to pick an item or two to start, house rule for higher levels, rather than random rolling I always grab a Deck. One thing we do different than what I saw here was that the card drawn disappears from the deck afterwards. Love the Deck.

[@theDMLair]

Yes, we (and I mean "I") was not using the Deck correctly. I overlooked the part about cards disappearing after drawn. That would have changed things A LOT I feel.

[@josephward4620]

@@theDMLair You did say it was at the end of the campaign anyway correct? So at that point is was about the fun factor not the actual campaign.

[@thajocoth]

Isn't the deck supposed to lose cards as you draw them, removing the possibility of repeats?

[@soddof7972]

only on your own draw i think

[@cthulhufhtagn2483]

One of these days, I want to run a Deck of Many Things campaign. With a homebrew deck, obviously - the existing Deck is primarily one-off events, whereas this would need to be events that act as adventure hooks - but with the right players, I think it would be SPECTACULAR.

[@kotik5762]

I had a player draw twice, the first caused an avatar of death to show up and since that wasn’t going well, they drew the second card during the encounter, hoping to escape the fight unharmed. Well, their soul escaped... to a Lich’s Phylactery.

[@BlackRainRising]

All I can say is... F the Deck of Many Things, and F the lesser known but still in existence Bag of Beans Also I really loved this video seeing your game in action, would like to see more.

[@theDMLair]

Lol. Yeah the deck is... fun? I have some of my games recorded and up on my 2nd channel The DM Lair Streams, though I stopped recording them.

[@Sharkey007x]

Bag of Beans? Does it belong to Jack?

[@TonyThomann]

That was an AWESOME opportunity for Darius to become the object of the next campaign… the group trying to find and free her while she tries to relieve them all of their gold, possessions and magic items ( mwa ha ha, Lawful evil feels GOOD! )

[@eliericksson.8950]

Me: Thinking of giving this to my players as they prepare to fight a insanely hard lich BBEG boss fight... Imagine what could go wrong, or epicly right... :D

[@justinhorrocks8564]

The way my DM ruled the deck, is that it's finite. We were on a ship to a new locale, and an NPC comes up to me as I'm playing solitaire and asks me if I like cards. He asks me if I had heard of the Deck. (Table goes wild) using character knowledge (deck does tons of cool effects) I decide to draw the one card left the NPC had. PRAISE THE SUN...and the dam rolls...a new Deck. Which does have a sense of logic. I then draw 5 cards, including another sun (but item destroyed by talons...only magic item so not to bad), then hand the deck back to the NPC. Who draws the moon. And wishes for his weird acidic slime swamp good to be released. Campaign over. Didn't get to apply my 4 levels

[@justinhorrocks8564]

Since he ended i,t, we were free to ask any questions we wanted about NPC goals. Apparently everyone was out to destroy or rule the world in their own way, Wich didn't sound too fun.

[@honkeykong4049]

"With my luck I'm gonna draw death..." *I mean, I think in your specific case you have about a 41% chance of doing so, yeah.*

[@Spugedelia77]

I'm just going to do The Lesser Deck of Many Hands for my party, they are at level 5 at the moment. Let's see how it goes

[@WexMajor82]

Oh, the deck of Many Things! Time to drop something in the Styx!

[@contaejus]

Yeah hey man so I got a long story. So I started playing with some random people a couple years ago on roll20, a couple months later the dm describes a prison wagon with 3 halflings imprisoned in it. I discussed with the party my actions, deciding to change how they appear with a spell, I got a nat 20 with my sneak so the guards didn't know it came from me hiding in the bushes. We successfully magically disguised the halfing npcs, one of them turned out to be an assassin similar to GoT faceless man, the assassin gave me a coin as thanks for his help. Up until this point, the DM never watched game of thrones, and we thought that was a little amusing. Fast forward about a year later, and we reach some town in need of church repairs, a food bank for beggars and children, and it had a thieves guild. Me (a wizard homebrew) and the rogue decide to hit up the thieves guild, I asked the rogue to, in thieves cant, negotiate for me if I wanted anything. The dm had described to me a snake-like staff, and foolishly put a deck of many things in his game. I said hell yes, I want the deck of many things. So the DM as his npc said "do you have x amount of gold?" well that was over twice the amount of gold I had at that point, but then I remembered the coin that I got earlier in the campaign. It was a coin that could summon an assassin and one shot nearly anything, one time use. I presented this coin to the NPC, and the DM forgot that I even had this thing. He reluctantly gave me the deck of many things, he had no other choice but to say yes, because the coin was just that valuable LMAO! I drew some cards, got richer, lost a few stat points, gained a few items, and eventually we made our way to the nearby plains which he described as being full of monsters but there appeared to be one monster killing the rest. Turns out that monster was the god erinyes having some fun, it was making its way towards us, and the DM said we better hide or it's going to kill us. I said nah, I'll persuade it not to, I'm good at this shit. I persuade the god into playing a "game of cards", one of us would draw from the deck of cards if we lose the d20 dice roll, this continued on until the dm got scared for my character, scared that my character might die, or his world might blow up lmao. He said that Erinyes is now enamored with me, and we had a little flirt scene with her and my tentacles, and then she took off. Then a dragon appeared and started killing monsters. The party had snuck and eventually slain the dragon, and we met up with a druid afterwards. Turns out the dragon was the druid's dragon, and it was clearing the plains of any monsters. I said oh shit, there's only one way I could think of bringing this dragon back, with a fates card. I drew from the deck, having like 18 cards left or some high number, and I drew the fates card first try, like god damn. The party said no no, we'll find a way to replace the dragon, hold onto it. We continued in the plains, and came to a Roc nest, the forge domain cleric fashioned a cage, and to cover the sent, I had bloody leather rags from a previous escaped involving a bag of beans and a pyramid, but that's a story for another day. We got the druid to agree to using the baby Rocs as a replacement in the future, then headed into a nearby cave. The cave was abandoned the DM said, and that there were now succubus and incubus in there. We fought, and I was about to go down, when I said well shit, I might as well use the fates card now. So with that I changed it so that the mine was never abandoned, creating a whole new side quest in which i lived, the succubi and incubi were gone, and we were able to get a good bit of mythril and stuff. A week later I drew a card (the deck of many things was homebrewed a bit) and it was a card that creates a doppelganger of myself, places it in a random location in the world, and its alignment was the opposite of mine. The idea of lawful neutral tentacle wizard thing runnin around with a deck of cards is pretty silly, and the dm just went with it.

[@elishmuel1976]

is the backround music added afterwards or is it on during the session? In any case, it's a great effect during session play!

[@cthulhufhtagn2483]

I mean...it does specifically say on the Void card that you draw no more cards, but hey, I won't question it.

[@jaboulymarouly5314]

damn i would love to see these people game together in a full campaign

[@KevinGarrisonVA]

If you want to incorporate the deck of many things early in your game, but think the item is hell on earth, consider homebrewing some of the cards. Add some, take some out, or change the effects of the cards.

[@robertburns4429]

One of my players (back in second edition AD&D) was playing a wizard. He declared for two card. His first card granted him a wish. He banked the wish to be able to offset a negative second draw. The second draw caused him to lose intelligence...enough intelligence that he lost the ability to cast his higher level spell. He then used his with to, and I quote, "I wish to draw that card again." Of course he meant to redo the draw to get a different result. The DM however declared that this meant that he drew the same card again...causing him to lose sufficient INT to lose all spellcasting ability....

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Sound like the kind of DM who gives out wishes just to mess with the players.

[@YaBoiMeatBallze]

A Major arcana tarot deck makes a cool prop for the DOMT

[@supersmily5811]

This might be wrong, but "You draw no more cards" seems to imply that cards don't fly from the deck either, since that would mean every DOMT that has ever had a particularly bad pull would explode, ultimately destroying all of them in existence. They're already Legendary rarity, so it seems excessive to have in-built mechanics that would destroy the deck when the ability to draw itself is out of the player's control.

[@Señor-Donjusticia]

I came here to learn more about Tieflings and you suddenly tell me that this video is all about the deck of many things!? WHY DIDN'T YOU MAKE THIS CLEAR!?!?

[@CrimsonFox36]

I like the idea of the DoMT. But the risk of your character being deleted is too great.

[@princesskanuta3495]

CONGRATULATIONS on 1000 subs!!!! You deserve it!!!!!!!!!😈😈😈😈😈😈😈👊👊👊👊🍕

[@theDMLair]

Thanks so much! 😂 And thanks for your Patreon support! Really appreciate it! (Your shout-out is coming in a future video... 😃)

[@GuruChaz]

This is basically gambling with your character. Never give in to peer pressure. Can you put limitations on the deck? Like having it appear in an adventure as an alternate reward, draw once and then have the deck disappear?

[@thisiscoral]

Im surprised the other players in the table dont resemble the DM 😂

[@ashleypreim9014]

I played a character that for some reason ruled by my dm, was tricked into pulling a card from the deck by another player. I refused to look up what the card meant for my character, preferring to remain blissfully unaware of her fate. All I had as a clue was that the card burnt to ashes after she drew it. Later she went on a date with a royal only to have it interrupted by another player’s sister (npc) that none of us trusted who had apparently become possessed by a devil from the nine hells. This devil had some unfounded sworn vengeance against my character and her destruction (my character drew the flames card) and threatened to destroy everything she loved before giving her a slow painful death in the nine hells (it was especially upsetting for my character given that she is a warlock with the pact of the celestial, who has the disposition of a Disney princess). This caused the campaign to turn into a mission of gathering information about this devil and how to destroy it. We were able to amass an army of paladins to exorcise the devil from the npc it was possessing. Killing it permanently meant traveling to its home turf within the nine hells and killing it there. Even though I unwillingly drew a card, I’m not mad about it. It was a fun experience to role play and an exciting turn for the campaign to take. My character survived and actually grew from the experience as it’s become one of the more memorable arcs of the campaign.

[@zachsmith6175]

My DM made his own deck of many things, so... I slowly drew all the cards... or got random civilians to draw them, potato potato. Note worthy happenings: 1. Lost my right arm 2. A volcano formed under our about-to-be-base, and the next card granted us ownership of an island 3. Some poor sap drew both "instant" death cards 4. The paupers district of a major city mysteriously got nuked 5. Convinced a black dragon to draw two cards, striking itself with the flames of an ancient red dragon, and summoning an ancient bronze dragon right next to it (easiest dragon fight ever) 6. Corrupted previously mentioned bronze dragon, and, as a party of 2 mid level spell casters, forced the DM to suggest a joint session with his party of 3 fighters (standard, polymorph into a t-rex, dragon fight)

[@benpayne3254]

I think if I have a player draw a card from the deck of many things after they draw and after the effect, the card/s would disappear and then return to the deck with the deck being shuffled, then the next person will have the same chances as the last :)

[@saiyanbuster5377]

Wonder about giving this out while the party is still in Phandalin

[@100madmic]

there was time in the old D&D group we got Deck of many things and I was the only one that got two rare cards everyone else got enemies or something like that and I was the new player I was also playing the bard. I had to save a player with one of the cards I got. I don't remember what level we got though.

[@chrisperrien7055]

Legendary Artifact of total randomness? , not really something you want in a long running campaign and something almost never found. We found a partial one in AD&D in some module at lvl 14-15. Using the assumption our wizard knew of such things(we all knew the DMG) we never used it and it just got stashed in his lab/library. And some partial XP was awarded to the party for finding it, not total as nobody drew from it. IMO to use one a DM would have to build the deck and make a plan for the results, sorta like what should do for anything involving legendary artifact, those are the basis for whole campaigns, not just pulling cards during a game session. Ithink that was going to be the plan one day, but the DM never got around to working out the issue, and we didn't want to anyway.

[@cmoore6547]

How about working for a collector to gather the scattered card to reform the deck just so he could draw from it. ( In this game it only worked if all the cards were present)

[@jeremyvik3509]

I am surprised by the lack of RP that went on during this. Is this an example of how much your characters talk about what happened and quickly move on vs talking about how their characters feel about such incredible changes to the positive or negative? It doesn't even have to be with character voices, but if my character had all their shit disintegrate, my character would have some words and feels.

[@deitieofall6634]

NO!!! When you draw the void you stop drawing cards! I know this artifact well, and after the void is drawn, this ends you draws

[@redfeildre349]

I thought when you drew a card that card disappeared from the deck forever. You couldn't draw the same card twice.

[@theDMLair]

Yep, we screwed that rule up when we ran it.

[@ferociousmaliciousghost]

I'd do it at the end of the campaign. Just in case of a TPK.

[@jackservans6906]

If I ever gain a deck of many things, I'd turn to the character mine was closest to, the most honorable among them. I'd empty my pockets and give them all of my magic items, in a sack, before I even draw a single card. I don't care if I have to doff magical armor, because the worst thing that can happen is that the avatar of death is summoned, and its scythe is an instant hit anyway.

[@dynestis2875]

Metagaming at it's finest.

[@iaifia3224]

So im planning to drop it in one of my groups... lets see how this goes...

[@Hacktank]

In my campaign i drew the following: destroys all your magic items, destroys all non-magical possesions, -2 to all saves, and the enmity with a demon.. Rip.

[@rennokdaeran9352]

i had a dm that gave us the deck earliy on..but the players kept pulling bad cards..my rogue seeing the deck as evil stole it so no one could draw from it again hehehehe

[@lunavarion]

I have a couple questions about the DoMT. What's the best level to give it to the PCs? After all, one of the cards gives the PC their own level-4 knight. That's only useful around levels 3-5, right? Also, another card gives the PC a wondrous item the DM randomly chooses. What's the best table to roll for that?

[@theDMLair]

Honestly, I'd wait until at least level 10, if not level 15. The DomT has a tendency to ay least derail campaigns and I feel those effects are amplified at lower levels.

[@lunavarion]

@@theDMLair Thanks.

[@michaelmorey3110]

Once a card is drawn, it fades from existence. Unless the card is the Fool or the jester, the card reappears in the deck, making it possible to draw the same card twice. Only one of them should have gotten the wishes.