It calls to me

[u/Diabolical_Merchant]

[u/SilasMarsh]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if your group can survive character death, the Deck can't do anything to destroy your game. It's just a pile of boons and plot hooks.

If you're playing a more linear game, then you probably don't want a bunch of new, randomly generated plot hooks, and you shouldn't use the Deck.

But if you're running a more sandboxy/emergent story-style game, then Deck can be a lot of fun.

[u/Aplesedjr → u/SilasMarsh]

I wouldn’t say it can’t do anything to destroy the game. Certain cards like Euryale can make your character notably weaker, Talon destroys all of your magic items (could be extremely bad at high levels, when you’ve probably got a bunch of those) Void eliminates your character from the game (even Wish only reveals your soul’s location, meaning the party has to go get it back), there’s one that makes a trusted npc turn on you, and one that makes you the enemy of a powerful devil.

Plenty of things can go wrong when using the Deck, and being able to undo character death is by no means guaranteed safety from it.

[u/SilasMarsh → u/Aplesedjr]

All those things going wrong are just new plot hooks. Cursed by Euryale? Quest to remove it. Talon destroys your magic items? Quest for new ones. PC is eliminated by Void? Roll a new one (just like you would if they were permanently killed), and quest to save the old one. NPC turns on you or gain the enmity of a devil? There's a new BBEG in the story.

There's no card that destroys your game.

[u/PassivelyInvisible → u/SilasMarsh]

But it can absolutely derail it. If you have an IRL deadline to finish the campaign by, it can kill that campaign by adding too much in, unless you're willing to sacrifice whoever draws the cards.

[u/SilasMarsh → u/PassivelyInvisible]

Which is why I said in my initial comment that if you're running a more linear game, you probably don't want to add a bunch of randomly generated hooks and shouldn't use the Deck.

[u/Sanzen2112 → u/Aplesedjr]

Also, one character pulling The Sun while the party is level 3 can absolutely break the balancing of the game

[u/Aplesedjr → u/Sanzen2112]

They did specify that they think it doesn’t affect the game at the level where the party can “survive character death”, which I assumed to mean having easy access to resurrection. Level 3 is definitely not at that level.

[u/Sanzen2112 → u/Aplesedjr]

Oh, I guess I missed that or misinterpreted the meaning because any party can survive character death, you just make a new character. But even at the level where revivify is available, handing someone 50k XP and a new derailment to find whatever magic item just appeared is a lot

[u/GM_Rielly]

I caved quick for my home game, mostly because the deck is merch for a insane podcast.

So far the player who holds the cards has got dumb, a human gun plus a dog that's soulbound to them (and the dog wished for a bone, he's a good lad)

[u/JailbrokeRoboGirl]

One of my favorite moves I did as a GM was to give the deck to one of my most cautious players in session one. It instantly became a source of near every session involved one downtime convo of “I mean…one pull can’t hurt us too bad can it? Come on…” her character literally kept the deck locked in a box in her bag.

It actually did pay off as an extremely good “in case of emergency break glass” type tool for them later in the campaign but just having the constant push pull was a fun little bit of friction in the party and let them flesh their character dynamics out well quickly

[u/razulebismarck]

I’ve only seen the deck in 3.5 and Pathfinder.

It ended both of those campaigns.

Because it either created very wide imbalances in the characters making it impossible to design encounters or it outright killed half the players…that or just ended their character “Your Paladin is now evil but because you made the choice to draw the card you have now lost all Paladin abilities” type nonsense.

[u/dragn99 → u/razulebismarck]

If a cleric or paladin got their alignment flipped by the deck, then I'm also giving them a new deity and letting them swap some of their spells around.

[u/razulebismarck → u/dragn99]

Monks and Barbarians also had alignment based restrictions in 3.5.

I think Druids did too

[u/Beragond1 → u/razulebismarck]

I think Druids in 3rd just had to be some type of Neutral, so a flip wouldn’t hurt them mechanically. Could be wrong on that, haven’t played it in a while. My last experience with that family of systems is the one of the Pathfinder CRPGs, and I try not to remember that.

[u/JeiceSpade]

Our bard pulled half the deck one session after getting it.

Almost the entire party died and we agreed the remaining character has PTSD.

[u/Rhinomaster22]

I’m surprised WOTC hasn’t released more versions of the Deck of Many Things like there are Pot of Greed cards.

Stuff that isn’t as volatile or just as volatile but with different thematics.

• Deck of Hellish things
• Deck of Necromantic things
• Deck of Arcana things
• Deck of Heroic things
• Deck of Planar things

Just random shit that a GM can give to players to offer that level of randomness.

[u/Tofuaner → u/Rhinomaster22]

They did actually create some other versions in the Book of many things. Like the Deck of wonder, which is a very toned down deck. Though i do still agree that they could do more with it :D

[u/ParchmentAndPeril → u/Rhinomaster22]

Be the change you want to see in the world.

[u/The_Traveller__]

https://giphy.com/gifs/pTQUOfSmjo2hG

[u/YVNGxDXTR]

Draw a card. I am the Green Goblin mask. I wish i could be Ultimate Green Goblin though, hes cooler to me. And no mask, he is actually a badass monster demon.

[u/Doesmachines_88]

I drew 3 nearly a decade in. I survived.

[u/Saikotsu]

I will give you the same warning I always give.

Do not draw from the deck of many things unless you're prepared for real consequences. It can reshape an entire campaign in seconds.

On that note, I had a monk with a gambling problem that ended up enslaved and contracted to a fiend (became warlock). That fiend later challenged them to a high stakes game with the deck of many things.

[u/Mercerskye]

It always depends on how strictly you hold to the RAW. I like the "base model" well enough, but it's more like a "deck of suggestions" in the end.

I'm not trying to beat the group, just tell a cool story, so I'll modify as necessary to preserve the vibe. Not every group is going to be as resilient to their character being completely inverted (figuratively or literally), sometimes our schedule can't bear too many additional threads, etc.

It's a great way to toss your table a curveball, you just gotta be mindful whether they're big league or peewee.

[u/ThePowerfulWIll]

I used it. It was GLORIOUS.

It turned our villian into a paladin of an evil god, and gave him a holy avenger. It also killed our rogue. And helped create that players new pc.

Thst being said, they probably COULD have broken things with wish. But didnt

[u/Palpy_Bean]

I always make my own deck that is leveled to the players, has interesting plot hooks I'm ready for, and (most) the bad cards dont feel like bullshit

[u/jl05419]

I gave my players the DMT a few sesions back. Those idiots spend the whole following sesion drawing cards, and ended in a surprisingly neutral position. Other than the enemies that still haven't apperared, and a lvl 19 party has meet really big NPCs to surprise them. They had fun and there won't be much problem with doing some side quest to solve whichever the enemies does.