💥 Bob World Builder Metal Dice (SOLD OUT) www.onlycrits.com/products/bob-world-builder-limited-edition-metal-dice-set ✅ LIKE & SHARE: kzread.infovideos ✅ PATREON: www.patreon.com/bobworldbuilder

@whitefox3189

Жыл бұрын

Deck of many things is an Artefact an object of untold power, one of two exeptions to Anti-Magic Field, other being the Will of Gods. Moon and Void are horrible, but any other card can be dealt with. Balance is bad, but only because interpretation of how Alignment works. For me alignment is a personality, your goals should not change, a truly loyal person remains loyal. A Lawful Good Paladin who seeks justice will continue to seek justice, but they may be more ruthless then they used to. A Lawful Evil knight can be someone who will serve their master as long as their intentions are pure, like slaughtering people to stop the spread of disease or killing all life to end all suffering, but if they commit murder simply because they enjoy peoples suffering, then the knight would backstab their master.

@craigcarter947

Жыл бұрын

Find a Dungeon #19 and look at The House of Cards for a cool dungeon using the cards of the DoMT.

@clarkkent163000

Жыл бұрын

What's the dated and offensive term? Since it was censored, my brain needs to know what it is. I can't find anything and I can't think of one that fits that starts with M. Ah, found it. Old term used for people with down syndrome. A bit of a barbaric term.

"I draw 2 cards. First card is Talons, and all your possessions become dust and disappear, including the deck. An hour later the donjon card is drawn and the character disappears without warning." The idea of the deck continuing to draw after it disappears is hilarious to me.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Oh man that's too good! xD

@domczixyt707

Жыл бұрын

Wait, the deck can dissapear like that?

@sleepinggiant4062

Жыл бұрын

It's magic. You announce how many are drawn, and that is a magical obligation that forces you to "draw" that many cards (take that many effects). Other cards can cancel it or add to it. It's more odd to me that you can't stop drawing.

@XerrolAvengerII

Жыл бұрын

the deck of many things is awful and shouldn't be included in modern games, in a meaningless dungeon crawl with expendable characters the deck is irrelevant

@domczixyt707

Жыл бұрын

@@XerrolAvengerII *-999 social credit* sorry but ur opinion is irrevelant

In the old version of the game, finding treasure gave you xp. That's why some of those cards give you xp when they gave you treasure and the 5e version doesn't.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I guess I forgot to clarify that. Thanks!

@Snoil

Жыл бұрын

Yep spot on. I still remember my first draw as a noob back in middle school, gained INT for my MU 1st draw, and my 2 hireling ftr guards turned on me on the 2nd pull. That was a shocker and kept me from getting TOO deep into the Deck! Good times

@ndseer1335

Жыл бұрын

@@crunchbar7995 Nah, milestones is better than tracking xp.

@forsaken7976

Жыл бұрын

@Crunch Bar that’s a bit harsh

@KitKatHexe

Жыл бұрын

@Crunch Bar "He's out of line... But he's right!"

I've been playing since 1977, so I've seen the DoMT in every edition. Never had it break a campaign. But, have had incredible adventures because of it. My advice for DMs is to know the cards, and prepare for their consequences, before introducing it into the world. Also, make sure it is always in the possession of a NPC who appears once or rarely. That way, the party doesn't just decide to draw cards on a whim. 🤠👍

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Very smart advice!

@seankeaney823

Жыл бұрын

I have been playing since 1981 and have also seen it in every edition. It’s risk/reward structure do not fit well into a 5e play style and much like Global Thermal Nuclear War, the only way to win is not to play. I find this especially true with less experienced DMs.

@twilightgardenspresentatio6384

Жыл бұрын

Yes, knowing the cards is super important or it can really throw off any balancing or directing you’ve done. Balancing. Who even does that? You’d need to know the characters and player styles super well to even start trying to balance combat.

@kevinkorenke3569

Жыл бұрын

The best advice I can give is to never ever allow this to be rolled randomly. If you want this in your campaign, make it the focal point of the campaign.

@DaDunge

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I used it in my campaign. I planned for it and it ended up working great. Also I limited the characters to a single card each.

In my very first campaign as a dungeon master, I was playing around with a lot of mechanics so that I'd be prepared if I ever had to deal with it again. I gave my players the Deck of Many Things at level 4. One of my players instantly drew the card that gives you a Fighter who believes it is his destiny to serve you. TL;DR version, he discovered he wasn't real and was created by magic and ended up becoming the BBEG of the campaign. It was AWESOME!

@CrabTastingMan

Жыл бұрын

Wow what happened for him to turn on the party and how did he gain power and a whole faction to do his evil bidding?

@pinkliongaming8769

Жыл бұрын

So wasn't he right about his destiny then? Why would that cause him to turn evil?

@smashbrandiscootch719

Жыл бұрын

@@pinkliongaming8769 He wasn't evil. He was angry. You act like villains can't be layered.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

I love that! haha

@lightning_11

Жыл бұрын

Wow, that's a crazy villain arc!

What I always tell people is to make their own decks that suit the campaign they are running. Customizability in all senses for the perfect wacky, random, helpful, hurtful, all around fun magic item.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Great take! :)

@7ninjasstudios808

Жыл бұрын

I've been working on something like this, because I went down a rabbit hole and made a custom Tarot for my world with relevant symbolism, and using that as a DoMT seemed like a reasonable followup project...

@KaitouKaiju

Жыл бұрын

So many complaints about D&D items and mechanics can be solved by being more creative

This does encapsulate a lot of why players fear it. I think DMs fear it more due to their belief that the players might get upset if they don't get lucky or have drastic random consequences for their fun.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Yep it's kind of a minefield haha

@MasterGhostf

Жыл бұрын

I think people get too attached to characters. So when something legitimately threatens the character that isn't the BBEG people sometimes get pissy. Its an adventurer sometimes you die. i do think if your DM is killing the party often, thats an issue.

@roguebarbarian9133

Жыл бұрын

@@MasterGhostf I'm on a two-year win streak of having my characters survive all their campaigns and one-shots. I want to keep it that way.

@seekingfurtherlight34

Жыл бұрын

@Rogue Barbarian is it really a win streak though. I want to know my character can make a bad choice, roll unlucky, stand and fight and may not live to see the morrow. Or even sacrifice himself for an innocent he just met without the table trying to stop it.

@Nazinsky

Жыл бұрын

@@MasterGhostf I mean, yeah. I get attached and see my characters and their party members as my babies. I love them.

The idea to change the XP based cards into skill based cards is a really nice idea.

@twilightgardenspresentatio6384

Жыл бұрын

Yup

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

My favorite use of the FATES card was when I played as a teenager. We were using ADnD rules (and I'm not sure if this was the actual rules or if I had read it wrong at the time). One of my players used the FATES card to undo a deathblow on an enemy that another PC had landed.... Just so their character could be the one to land the deathblow and get the exp for the kill! 🤣

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Haha that might be the simplest use of the Deck of Many Things that I've ever heard!

@modemuffel9911

Жыл бұрын

That’s awesome, well earned Xp!

I think it'd be fun to play a character who was a fighter created by the Knight card, and their master died so they're searching for a new purpose, and they have no memory before the moment that player drew the card.

@Lombra619

Жыл бұрын

It's exactly what I'm playing right now. We were at a climax of the campaign (we were all level 15), the DoMT was a big part of that, my character drew the knight card and made him draw more cards. The knight leveled up to level 9 because of the Sun (he also has a strength of 24 now because he drew 2 Star cards), and now I'm playing such character on a quest to retrieve the soul of another PC who drew the Void while my main character is recovering from some long term injuries. Fun times. PS: we immediatly knew where the soul of our friend went thanks to another PC that drew the Vizier card. It's been pretty wild.

@Kadel___

Жыл бұрын

Dude I'm doing that right now except my character has self worth/abandonment issues due to the fact that the original cardholder was such a high level they didn't want them. They straight up told my character to sit on a park bench for a bit and then left. It's been pretty fun and interesting to RP as this kind of character.

13:54 Killing the devil after it comes to you is easier than finding it, yes. However, devils don't permanently die unless killed in the Nine Hells, so you will have to look for it if you want to get rid of it permanently.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Good point!

@hariman7727

Жыл бұрын

Dimensional Anchor.

@michaelcohen8259

6 ай бұрын

I think the idea is, if you kill the devil, that ends the magic. It may return to life in the Nine Hells, but the magical enmity is broken. At least that's how I interpret it.

@backonlazer791

6 ай бұрын

@@michaelcohen8259 I think that's a fair interpretation. I suppose it's up to the DM.

I gave my PCs the deck in our last campaign, they drew 9!!! cards in a single session, and completely bamboozled the campaign in the best ways, but it didn't end the campaign. I would have no reservation now, with the experience I have, throwing the deck at a party of any level, but I would *not* recommend it to a newer DM or someone who doesn't feel comfortable with extreme improv.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Haha oh man, yeah if a campaign can survive half the deck basically spilling out, it can survive anything.

@muddlewait8844

Жыл бұрын

The thing to remember with the deck is a DCC canard: *anything* is *possible* if the players want it enough. Donjon’d and unhappy with that? Welp... recovering that character is now your next set of adventures.

@russellee5216

Жыл бұрын

My party drew 10 in a flurry of trying to fix after the Half-Orc Barbarian became a Kobold (I edited some of the cards). I definitely would use the deck again, but player knowledge of it is such a double-edged sword.

@QuesoCookies

Жыл бұрын

@@russellee5216 That's why I think it's good to always customize the cards in the deck. The players might correctly guess the item, but if the cards are always different, the surprise and chaos of the item remains.

@TheDndGenasi

Жыл бұрын

They drew the factorial of the factorial of the factorial of 9? Just say the number, I dont wanna do maths

I used a homebrew twist that the card takes effect when you look at it. This allows me to spread single cards out as loot that a “tarot” themed warlock faction can be found with and the players can kind of build their own deck card by card.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

That's a fun twist. Leaning into the tarot theme is a great idea

@backonlazer791

Жыл бұрын

How does that work, exactly? The first person to find the card activates it? Wouldn't that make individual cards super powerful since you can repeatedly use them since it's the only option and if the card is bad and you stumble upon it does it automatically screw you? The Deck of Many Things working is based on it being a deck, so I'm interested to know if you have accounted for this.

@bryansmith844

Жыл бұрын

@@backonlazer791 it's something I made up for our campaign so it can work however you like haha. I wanted to have the cards be kind of like a consumable item, no matter how you found it once you reveal it you activate it (unless it's already activated, then it's just a card, but detect magic would tell you if it was active or not) The way I have it working in my game is that the triumvirate of hags has the deck of many things. When they need a particularly important task accomplished by one of their hunters they allow the hunter to take a card as payment. This of course may be good or bad (the hags care not which) and activates once the owner "turns it over" or looks at what card it is. This can be done as soon as the card is drawn, or in the case of a bounty hunter NPC kept a mystery until an opportune moment (this guy was planning on saving the card he got until he was on deaths door to use as a hail mary, or possibly never looking at it...) Once the card is looked at and the power activates though, it becomes nothing more than a mundane card. One of the PCs stole the card from this dude and looked at it, promptly revealing the RUIN card haha. So it goes

@backonlazer791

Жыл бұрын

@@bryansmith844 Hmm, interesting take. So if they're consumable will they reappear in the world after being used? Can there there be multiple copies of the same card?

@bryansmith844

Жыл бұрын

@@backonlazer791 I don’t think I would have multiples floating around because I still like the idea that this is a super rare/powerful/weird item and after the magic effect is consumed, maybe it has to be shuffled back into the deck to become active again

"Bruh" really sums it xD

@talscorner3696

Жыл бұрын

I think The Throne has improved with 5e, because it effectively gives the group free sessions

The deck can be an amazing storytelling tool! In my last campaign, I played a Goliath Artificer named Kallus, who was inspired by Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. A runt of the litter who yearns to become a master of shapeshifting due to his own body insecurity. Party found a modified Deck of Many Things, and me being clueless and impulsive I drew one immediately. I rolled a nat 1, and drew the dreaded Void card. DM described me falling into a coma, and as my party dragged me back to a tavern and tried to make a plan to find a cleric to figure out how to heal me. DM described me slowly shrinking, growing strange hair, and sprouting ears and a tail. Apparently DM set the Void card to essentially randomly change your race, and I ended up as a Tabaxi. It was very ironic that my goal to master shapeshifting aligned so well with the card outcome!

The card I was most afraid of as a player was the ruin card. Not because of the lost wealth, but because of the lost investment in the world of the campaign. That card is basically a big middle finger to players who actually took the time to engage and contribute to the world the DM created. I spent a long time building a little shop from the ground up in our campaign, had a little family home, made investments with a bank, we had a player whose life's dream was to own and captain a ship, which he got, we had another player who opened a restaurant, another who was bequeathed some priceless family heirlooms when he resolved trauma from his backstory, I could go on. You're right that the physical game play mechanics of your character losing their wealth is not that bad, but this card almost specifically aims to hurt the *player*. That's why it's my least favorite card in the deck.

@hariman7727

Жыл бұрын

Bob is focusing on in game dynamics too much. Many of these cards affect the DM, the group balance, or throw off the track of the campaign and derail anything the players are enjoying.

@Xplora213

Жыл бұрын

I think your campaign relied heavily on certain growth strategies to keep you engaged. I think it would be appropriate to just strip all your current cash or something like that - a motivator to go treasure hunting rather than something to destroy your investment in the game. Rules As Written presumes you were playing the game as written. Building a personal investment portfolio isn’t what you expect people to play!

im not 100% sure, but i think "petrification" saves in older editions was towards everything that could affect your movement, slow, frighten, actual petrification, etc

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Ahh, I'm not sure either. I took it at face value

@FridgeEating

Жыл бұрын

​@@BobWorldBuilder In older editions the saves were not tied to Ability Scores, but rather a class-dependent set of 6 saves with somewhat confusingly specific names.

Because of how saves in 1e worked, the Medusa was effectively "Take a penalty to all constitution based saves." As petrification was the save used to oppose spells such as polymorph as well.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Ahhh that certainly changes things!

My favorite deck of many things moment was our fighter getting The Fates and completely erasing the BBEG destroying his platoon in his nation's army way back in his pre adventuring backstory. So he rolled up a new character and when we visited that nation to stop the BBEG, we got to see the NPC version of his first character as if his platoon was never defeated and he continued being a soldier in that nation's army. Was really neat and clever on the player/DM's part.

Thanks for all you do Bob You’re a real asset to the D&D community. Much love.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much! :)

campaign ending? perhaps not. but the benefits are mid and the downsides can easily end any enjoyment a player may have in their character

@dwil0311

Жыл бұрын

Yep, they can be fun and engaging, but only in certain types of campaigns with certain groups. It requires buy-in from everyone at the table. I imagine a lot of people's reservations have to do with how they have no agency in deciding whether or not another player does something that could completely derail/alter a campaign.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Exactly

The one time I encountered one in a campaign, we didn't realize you decide from the get go, how many you draw, and then it disappears. We actually had it not disappear at all. But it was fun, because it gave the party a chance to see everyone else get cool stuff (we had incredible luck), which pressured everyone into taking a gamble. My character drew the knight card or whatever it's called, and said knight was now in my service. My paladin, not seeing anything bad happen from the deck and not knowing it's a possibility handed the knight the deck and invited him to draw a card. The knight drew the card that traps your soul in pandemonium. So from the party's perspective, he just poofed out of nowhere, and then immediately died.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

That part about the knight is awesome! xD

The Gem card is more powerful in 5e than it might seem on the surface to you. Yes, it's fifty gems worth 1,000 gp each, but if the player can choose... diamonds, for example, are worth their weight in, well, diamonds, for their use in resurrection spells and the like, and there are other gems that are needed as material components. And if you have spellcasters with you, those gems can be significantly more useful than mere coin. Also, I just got the idea for a campaign - the party must go out and find the physical manifestations of all 22 cards, to gather the complete Deck of Many Things and keep the stray cards from causing chaos and confusion in the world...

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Great point about the diamonds!

@jordanrodrigues1279

10 ай бұрын

Only if they're accompanied by the deck's guardian, a lazy yet adorable spirit who fell asleep somewhere and picked up the local dialect. (I wish I had players who would let me do that)

I think sumoning extra deaths is actually a good idea. The reason is that it makes it harder and easier, or easier with the right strategy and harder for exp, so you get more. In other words, you can all sumon your deaths far away, then run towards the dude and all destroy his death, then there are four of you and one three deths, or five and four, and you can do stuff like charge the middle, then fall back, while manuevering your ranged or others to the side so that if it falls back, it can be hit, then three are two, and you can have it so that the engagers are having one block the other, not to mention that you can kite them around and have a ranger shoot. Even come right at the ranger, and duck or dodge. So um That's not all. It's more simple too. Having an aoe fire on three of them after you deal with the one focused on the aoe guy, you can have him hit the three maximum times. Now, you all could get more xp if the monsters action ecconomy you. That is, four spawning four minis is 16 on one dude, and then you have three guys. So, it should help.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Action economy is the name of the game haha

I introduced an item called the Deck of Fate into my homebrew 5e campaign. It was introduced as a plot device, most of the cards would introduce a new quest, or give the players a story point to follow, so it basically generated interest, hoping they'd use it when they were bored. The PCs learned little about it, just putting it away and never using it. I think that they were scared simply because it was a "deck", even though it had no relation to the Deck of Many Things.

@clareyoung2765

Жыл бұрын

Awww - that sounds awesome! Sorry your players didn’t take it up! What were some of the cards?

@Stray7

Жыл бұрын

That's when you have it start flipping cards off the top of itself on its own.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

That sounds fun! Definitely worth trying to bring back into your game--just assuring your players that it's not nearly as risky for them as *that other deck*

@Xplora213

Жыл бұрын

@@Stray7 Jumanji style

A truly wonderous magic item that I ran into for the first time back in middle school. I'll never forget my character's first encounter with a mysterious gypsy fortune teller!

Great review of the Deck of Many Things. I am an old school AD&D DM, and have continued to DM a 1/2nd edition of AD&D. It is at heart, 1st edition while grabbing interesting elements of 2nd and Unearthed Arcana. To put things in perspective for old style D&D. 1. We played in groups, and we played for long stretches of time. We played many different sessions across many different characters. Because AD&D was fixed and abilities were tied to race and class, you wanted to experience more and thus you had to have multiple characters. 2. The Deck was highly feared and loved by everyone. Yes, in our games, you could lose the character, but this was not as a big deal when you only have a few months of experience with the character. It was almost never used by anyone who highly valued their character. No one touched the deck at level 9 plus. But, your henchmen might… 3. In my games, it is a level 4-7 item. Enough to make big strides for your character, but not enough time to get serious attached to it. 4. Everyone knew the effects of the deck, so there were zero surprises. People knew exactly what they were doing. 5. I imagine it is different for each group, but in our case, the DM would also allow you to roll up a new character and place it a couple levels behind the rest of the party. You might even get your stuff back depending on the party, but, most of the time the party would take all your valuables. \ 6. Since the modules were normally designed for 4-6 players, if you had a small group (2-3 people), we always had the characters play 2 players. 7. There were rules for henchmen, they do not count as a full character and certainly had no vote in party activities. They were passive and largely just around to fight. 8. In a 15th level party of 6 players, you might have 1-4 henchmen for EACH player. We had battles in the abys that lasted for 2 months… ok, that room is done. Next…. Really interesting to see how new games are played. Very different from my style and the sessions I still occasionally play. Thank you!

Great stuff as always, Bob. It’s wonderful to see your channel flourishing. I think the deck probably suits the more ‘gonzo’ style of play in which it originated, with everyone happy for the campaign to be led by wacky twists of fate. In more story-led campaigns it could be a step too far for some. But I say embrace the Chaos! Always look forward to your videos. Nice one! 🤓

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Thanks very much! Yeah I think it's all a matter of taste--like just about everything in D&D haha

@prophetzarquon1922

Жыл бұрын

... but, the GM sets the scene & the players write the story; no?

I just ran a one shot for my siblings. They were asked to retrieve a 'deck of cards'. Rather than returning the Deck, they drew. My brother pulled four cards: Knight, Rogue, Moon (2 wishes), and then Balance. Then my sister pulls Balance and then Donjon (negating her third card). My brother kept his now chaotic evil character to maybe use again one day. We all had fun. Honestly, pulling from the Deck in the first session to set up the campaign might be fun.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Glad it went well!

We used the deck. It was crazy, how lucky the orc who drew them. Got mostly good cards. He got the level 4 knight. This Knight named Bradford killed many of strong monsters. He became a legend after stopping the BBEG.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Awesome!

@ryanrhino2318

Жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder Yeah it was awesome. He should have died like 10 times but luck prevailed

Give your players a set of cards "with many things on it", and instead of giving them the deck of many things, give them the deck of illusion. Best delivered on the first of April. :D

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Haha very nice

If you plan ahead, there are no pitfalls for using a Deck. Predetermine locations for Thrones, Donjons, and Void cards, always have NPCs that befriend each character in case they draw a Rogue or Knight, and project far off goals that seem impossible to tempt players into using their Vizier or Fates. I prefer to play the Deck in a way that seems like it was a waste of a card because it happened anyway. "Gem, well that's good because all we managed to pick up in this dungeon was this little pouch off that dead adventurer. I never did check to see what was in it . . ."

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Yeah preparation is key, and that's a fun idea for how to implement the results of the cards!

Great tips! The deck sounds scary because it brings so much chaos. BUT, remember DMs: it's up to you when you give this out. And you can review the cards beforehand to brainstorm ideas how to work the card results into your campaign. When I've used it, I only let players draw cards at the ends of sessions, to give me time to think!

@ericalvarado4072

Жыл бұрын

Listening in, but are games now very fixed? In my games, old school based, the DM balanced out the effects to allow the game to be playable. Someone dead, roll a up a new character, give him a few extra levels, off to the races again.

Backstory idea: you are the fighter made by the deck. After drawing your card, your old master drew another card and disappeared. Your bond is to find them

@riptide3340

Жыл бұрын

That’s amazing! I’m a permaDM, but this is a cool NPC idea as well.

When I was a kid, my family and another family played AD&D campaign. About 2 years into the campaign, we ran across a Deck of Many Things (us kids loved it since our DM had actual cards to draw). Everyone in the party (9 characters, with 3 parents playing 2 characters each to better balance out the party with people who knew what they were doing) drew a card, and all of us managed to draw good cards. I can't remember everyone's card anymore (more than 15 years ago), but it was really helpful for the campaign. I got the extra character fighter henchman (not too odd or overpowered given our parents already each had 2 characters). But the main card I remember was the Sun. Background, our only cleric managed to only roll 3 hp when we started the game (called her "Papercut" for years because that's all it would take to off our entire party's only healer). We'd gotten to maybe 3rd level on average for the party (she'd been promoted to "Splinter" or some other nonsense) and this saved our asses for the remaining years we played this campaign. She jumped up so many levels, which skyrocketed her hit points and abilities, allowing us to progress without the DM having to scale down encounters as often. It was a lot of fun and we were very lucky.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing! :)

We were a group of 3 players, all level 2, alongside the DM. We came to getting a reward from a minor deity for services rendered. The DM gave us a choice that we needed to make as a party; either everyone draws a card each from the deck or we each gain an uncommon Magic item of our choice. I'm not too fond of gambling, so voted for the item, the other two voted for the deck - so deck it was. The first player drew Ruin, so lost some minor amount of gold and their possessions - they were quite irritated, but accepted it begrudgingly. I drew the Sun, instantly getting me up to level 9 as a Wizard and the DM gave me a Ring of Spell Storing - yup, I was both horrified and bemused, since you know, I'm already the Wizard in this party, let alone 7 levels higher with a very powerful item. The last player drew the Fates and instantly declared what one event was erased from existence - the deck appearing. DM was nice and decided that since that would mean there would have been only one option we get our magic items instead. Not sure how I feel about the deck, but one thing was for sure; Vindication was MINE!

Anything breaking a campaign is really down to the flexibility of the people playing. New situations popping up can definitely make things difficult for the DM but with endless options for creative solutions all the cards do is make new situations for the party to experience. Losing all your property can throw a situation on its head, can make a party that was rich and powerful have to work to build things up again. Fighting death can be incredibly character defining for someone who survives that.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Bingo!

@hariman7727

Жыл бұрын

Losing all magic items was ruinous in older editions. There was a 3.5 Living Greyhawk mod that caused characters to be enslaved and lose ALMOST everything. So many characters ended up ruined that they had to change the poverty rules to allow characters a chance in hell of recovering from the losses... and you'd still end up behind your level curve due to the loss. A LOT of the cards disrupt the current adventure/flow, or kill a character/remove RP opportunities or add complexity, so it's more brutal than it seems from this "BUT MUH FIFTH EDITION AND MILESTONES AND TOO MUCH MONEYS!" video makes it out to be.

@davidjennings2179

Жыл бұрын

@@hariman7727 I'm guessing you had a difficult experience with this in the past, which is why it seems to personal. I'm sorry you had to go through that. However, a good DM will give characters ways to work themselves back up. A good party will support them in that and a good player will use this as a formative arc for their character. Yes, no doubt they'll be frustrated at first - that's understandable. Adverse situations develop a character a lot more than the easy ones though - the deck gives some options for that. If you aren't willing to take those risks then perhaps don't draw from the deck. The impression of the video is wildly inaccurate, Bob compares 5e because it's the most common version. It's also a very childish way to put a grievance across, are you sure you're old enough to have played 3.5e?

@hariman7727

Жыл бұрын

@@davidjennings2179 you know you whipsaw between kindly compassionate and utterly rude backhanded insults, you do realize that? In the living grayhawk campaign, which was dungeons & dragons 3.5, there was a mod called "Barbarous Coast", if I remember correctly, which had a final battle where the party was teleported into a citywide invasion to attempt to stop at least part of the invasion. If you lost that battle, you were enslaved and you lost everything, and you were given 200 gold to start the rest of your adventuring career over. Because of the specific ruling at the time of that mod's release, and because living grayhawk had to follow those specific rpga rules because it was official campaign mods that were played nationally, for the first couple months at minimum players could not claim having utter poverty because they had a couple hundred gold and were not allowed to drop that gold to meet the poverty requirements. So many characters became unplayable because a fighter at the levels for that mod would lose all of their equipment, and wizards would lose their spellbook, among other things. It is about the fourth worst written mod in the entirety of living greyhawk that I played, and the only reason I have the ability to say fourth worst written is because I played in the sheldomar valley/Keoland, which were notorious because one of the mod writers in the area literally could not read the rule book to make a decent encounter. So there was no room for the DMs to adapt to that or allow leeway so the character could be recoverable. As for the deck of many things, I don't like it because I find the chaos of it off-putting. I don't want to lose a character because of a magic item that is designed to tempt players on a meta scale, that also affects the player Dynamics and DM so directly. Yeah, other people can have fun with it, but I hope I never see it again. Also you don't realize how much of a jerk you're being, because I'm 40, and the only reason I'm being nasty here is KZread is where I tend to let my brakes off a little. So please think about insulting a person and comments questioning someone's age, because they only make you appear... Well, read your comment into a mirror and ask how you'd feel if someone slaps you in the face with an insult, then tell me what word you'd use. Tl:dr: yes, I've had a set of bad experiences with deck of many things and other random bullshit that really hurt characters of mine. Also, read your comment into a mirror to yourself and consider how you sound, because your most recent comment was pretty rude.

@davidjennings2179

Жыл бұрын

@@hariman7727 Compassion doesn't mean we don't call people out when they're out of order. Yes you've clearly had a difficult experience and I'm sorry you had to go through that. However, it doesn't give you a free pass not to be called out when you lash out at others. You accept that you're being nasty on KZread, perhaps take your own advice and consider how your comment would affect Bob - he puts effort into these videos, they're his livelihood.

I used a watered down version of the cards for players under level 11 in 5e, but our games use xp levelling, sidekicks and character death so very little chnages had to be made

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Nice, yeah it sounds like your group's style fits well with the original design of the deck

Lol, DoMT is great, I had my players play gin rummy with the DoMT. All the cards are great and DM’s should feel free to ADD more cards.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Now that's a bold move! haha

The item is interesting, it just shows its age from all the changes D&D has gone through as a hobby over the years. The character burn rate is a major thing. Players would most likely have to roll up new PCs all the time. And if that's the case, there's no sense in putting *too* much effort into a backstory for each one of them beyond the basics. Conversely, it's common now for players to write extensive and detailed backstories for their character. If you're told that your lawful good fighter is suddenly going to have to switch to behave in a chaotic evil manner, that probably wouldn't matter too much if you just rolled her up and slapped on a generic backstory. If you devoted a lot of energy to why the character is the kind of person they are, being told "just be evil now" on account of a random result from a magic item feels a lot different.

Love this history of the deck!! Great insights as always bob! You are so awesome at interacting with your community! If you have time will you share with us... What is your favourite card to draw? What is your favourite card to see another player draw?

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed this video. It was fun to compare the past and present versions of this item, and I have a similar video coming up for one of the core classes! I'm the worst at picking favorites, but the first that comes to mind for either case would have to be Moon. Those wishes could be chaotic, but that's what I think the deck is for :)

@Aemery17

Жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder Love to see Moon in effect as well! My Favourite is when someone only wants to draw one card but picks the idiot! So Harsh and tense! And it's happened to me before It's so funny. Looking forward to the class breakdown history lesson too! Your content is always improving and I love watching the channel grow!

Everytime I have run into the deck, its needed to be retconned that we didn't find it

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Sorry for your loss

Had a player draw 2 cards from the deck a few years ago. First card was Comet, second was Death. He took it as the lesson of "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger". Shouldn't expect anything else from a Monk/Fighter multi class.

@oz_jones

Жыл бұрын

My Shadow-monk half-orc would embrace the Death card. Hell yeah.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

That's actually a perfect combo haha

@Xplora213

Жыл бұрын

I hadn’t considered this - the minor death isn’t necessarily a major obstacle if you just gained levels and were given a Staff of the Magi or something to overcome it.

In the previous campaign I ran, I had given the party a deck. A while later I had an encounter (unrelated to the deck) where I had a character (who unannounced to the party was actually a goddess in disguise) do an interaction with the party and one member of the party did something completely unexpected, they asked this goddess (in disguise as an old man) if they wanted to draw a card from the deck. This was crazy but I decided to go with it, as luck would have it, the card that the goddess drew was the fate card. This immediately got my brain spinning and I let the use of the card stew for a while before using it. Then at a predetermined time, I had fate rewrite itself as the goddess used the card to rewrite a point in history decades before, resulting in a few things to change in the party, most notably one of the characters changed classes and partially changed species as I turned one of the characters into a Divine Soul Sorcerer (a demigod). It led to a pretty wild time for the party and completely took everyone (except that player which I did check with in advance) completely off guard.

I've been playing since AD&D and used the deck in most of my campaigns. I love it and so have most of my players

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Glad to hear it!

I have only seen the Deck of Many things used once before, that being when I ran XPtoLevel3’s One-Shot called The Doorngeon (a door themed dungeon) for some friends. The card that grants wishes was actually used pretty well. They used it to bring back characters that had died to some of the other cards. Surprisingly, the card that was the most awful was the Sun. Having one player become a lot more powerful and higher level is only fun for the person that draws the card. It ruins the game for everyone else because the one player that’s higher level basically does all the work in combat while everyone else just sits back and watches. In my case, the player that drew the card ended up being three times the level of everyone else.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Yeah that's wild! If I used XP instead of milestone, I'd probably just divide the XP from Sun among the whole party or something

I remember reading that one guy's group had a homebrew version with extra cards, which include: Scales: Your body, over the course of 1d10 + 1 days, will slowly and painfully transform into a dragon, determined by the dm to be either metallic or chromatic, you will experience intruding thoughts that come with the dragon in question, i.e being more prone to deceptive tactics if turning into a green dragon. The Magician: Gain the alliance of a 4th level wizard, who believes you are the key to solving a mystery that they have been trying to solve. The Dagger: A PC or ally will suddenly gain a great hatred of you, and will seek your demise. If a PC is affected, they are not to reveal as such until the right time, where such a revelation will hurt their target the most. The Mimic: The next object you interact with, i.e doors or chests, will become a mimic, it will revert to its original state once it is slain. This card will act like another card, DMs choice, until it's effect takes place, then it will reveal itself as the Mimic card. The Outsider: You gain the attention of a god, either good or bad, determined by the dm, who seeks to interact with you to fulfill their own goals.

"Merchan-dice". I see what you did there, Bob.

You’re right. These are almost all useable! I felt the Death fight should have a reward and… a scythe that never misses or something like that.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

That would be a great reward!

@MasterGhostf

Жыл бұрын

Agreed, but I would then scale the death to be equal to players.

I once built a character who wanted to find the Deck to draw the Moon and use a wish solve a mystery of his lineage. The DM was nice enough to run with it, so we had the Deck as a McGuffin for our campaign.

@Xplora213

Жыл бұрын

I like this. Gives a sense of nobility and purpose, like the first and third Indiana Jones movie. Yes you are happy go lucky but you are a good guy.

man... I have been playing D&D since 1978 or so I remember all the starting and what not I am a generational player? Damn... I feel old now

In NADDPOD campaign of Bahumia, the Knight card was drawn, and we were treated to the beloved Balnor! Some amazing adventures indeed. 😆🧡

Back in the day, chaotic and malicious magic from the dm was still super common. Player vs dm was very common. You were often playing him, not the adventure. There was often a “winner” of dNd at those tabletops. I’m not totally against that, but you gotta be open to losing like you’re playing a game if sorry.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Yep the more I read of Gygax's work, the more it seems like he would have been a pretty harsh DM lol

@burgsrus

Жыл бұрын

If you had a DM that was going against you then that was just a bad DM. Same thing can happen today in 5e. Edition does not makes a difference. The difference was the players were not superheroes at lower levels. They were not even superheroes at higher levels. The game was never about creating superheroes, it was about surviving. You had to learn to run when were wandering through the forest and stumbled on the ancient green dragon at level 3. The other important thing you learned was avoiding the fights all together if you could. Because it was more about exploring the world and finding the weird things in it than fighting. It was about finding the loot, because that was so valuable, that was how you leveled up. Not killing monsters. That is my big issue with milestone xp. There is no insistence to adventure. Everyone just plods along with the story. Every few sessions the GM hands out levels and even if your character missed a session you get a level. Because everyone has to be equal.

@AlyssMa7rin

Жыл бұрын

@@burgsrus I agree completely on the shift in mentality. I myself am running a 3.5e campaign in a custom setting with a metric buttload of homebrew. The characters defeated a werewolf lord, 4 wargs, and a random owlbear drawn by the noise, at level 3 (6 player party) so yeah, the challenging encounters they were supposed to ‘run from’ turned into ‘one level-up per session’

The Deck is the only real world cursed magical item in existence. It's a real world cursed item as It plays on the greed of the player (not the character) drawing the cards. Even with the knowledge that it can cause ruin, it still pulls a real life persons innate greed and desires. It is effecting a real person in the real world, not necessarily a character in the game. So it is more real then any other part of dnd.

Having never played D&D, but listened to CR season 1, I loved it simply because Travis was willing to try it out at random times.

Great breakdown. I'll have to give this a try!

Story time here: I've been DM'ing for over two years now a campaign that initially started off as a mixture of Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak that eventually turns into a condensed version of Tyranny of Dragons. In between my players wanted to run for the position of mayor of Phandalin and dive into one of the dungeons of the Undermountain of Waterdeep when I gave them a Deck of many things. The main plan was to try to stop the arising thread of Dragon Cultists to rise Tiamat from Avernus... however one of my players decided to draw four cards from the Deck... of course the first one was... The Void. At that point, the only point in the multiverse that would make story-wise was to send the soul to Avernus (also added bonus that the player once tried to steal an amulet that used to belong to Asmodeus, so this also made sense for the character to some degree). At that point the campaign shifted from a Tyranny of Dragons campaign to Baldur's Gate - Descend into Avernus. It took probably around 8-9 months of playsessions for my players to get Elturel back to the original place and the players soul back into the original character... However, they brought Tiamat with them... and now we're back to the original intended campaign but immensely higher stakes than before...

My DM loves giving us separate exp and splitting our levels it make us compete against each other for the power boost and is hilarious

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

With the right group, it sounds like fun! :)

A short tangent on XP, since you mentioned it: the PHB is actually amusingly vague about how much xp it takes to level up, only saying, "A character who reaches a specified experience point total [gains a level]" and then the experience points table is just kinda there with no more explanation given. Traditionally D&D works on the basis of a PC tracking the total amount of xp that they have ever received and gaining levels once they hit certain thresholds. However, thanks to the rather nebulous wording given in the PHB I have seen some people interpret the xp table as meaning that the total for each level is for each level only, so they have to gain 300xp to get to level 2 and then another 900xp on top of that to reach level 3 (a cumulative total of 1200xp) and so on. If you tally xp in the latter fashion, it averages out to totals much more reminiscent of AD&D and so might be worth considering if you're concerned about your PCs levelling up too quickly (or you could just split xp between the PCs, or both, like they also used to do in AD&D, just in case you want your PCs to never level up ever!)

I like the video for the most part. I know it's likely a play style thing but my groups aren't usually grossly wealthy by lvl 5. That's comes a it later. I also do not understand the issue with Knight. The way I see it, this is a follower/henchman with character levels that the DM runs and follows the PCs lead.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Yeah the wealth thing can vary a lot based on setting. For the knight card "You control this character." definitely refers to the player who pulled the card. It is essentially a henchman/sidekick, but if the party is only level 1-5, this knight is just a very powerful addition to the PC who gained it. Past those levels, it becomes less significant

@natekane1444

Жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder Fair points. I hadn't considered the lower level impact, based on my one time use it was higher level so I was skewed in my thinking. Also fair, I'd grant control in combat because you are right. I'd talk it over with the player to see what they wanted, but I'd be inclined to run them as an NPC outside of combat that follows the PC to the ends of earth. Or planes.

"Okay, you draw the Comet. Defeat the next hostile monster or group of monsters alone to gain a level." "All right. I grab a caterpillar off a nearby plant, Cast _Friends_ on it, and immediately drop Concentration."

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Hahah well said

i've literally seen this deck end a campaign, it was the 50k exp one, it rocketed one character into a whole different power sphere then everyone else. having henchmen and stuff though can be done right, the key i feel is just to make sure every player gets one. They also let you split the action cause the main party can do stuff and send off their b team to deal with other things in world at the same time. One campaign we started a fief and shipping port, our sidekicks ended up running our second ship.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

You bring up a good point that just applying the affect to the whole party might help for some cards--as long as everyone agreed to use the deck I guess

We had a lot of fun with a DoMT in the first campaign I ever played in 5e. The whole scenario, from the theft acquisition followed by 2 character deaths and a lot of perks for other characters to the inevitable loss of the deck, was fantastic fun, even for those who lost characters.

I remember that in one campaign I found a deck of many things. Since there is no effect if you don't announce the number of cards you are drawing, we just used it as a deck of regular playing cards. One time I accidentally said that I am drawing one card from the deck so I had to take a card that would have the magical effect. I got Moon, and I immediately use the Wish it gave me to remove the deck's magic.

I fear the balance card the most. Even though alignment isn't really used that much in 5e, I still use it as a guide for role playing, and this card will completely destroy my characters.

@boksman

Жыл бұрын

My thoughts exactly. I was under the impression that alignment was used primarily for roleplay in 5e, like an easy box to generalize your character motivations. Changing alignment changes the whole character! They'd be better of having died so you could at least make a new character that fits the way you want to play.

@clarechaddon2545

Жыл бұрын

@@boksman Yeah, exactly.

Great video, I have been avoiding giving my players the deck of many things, because of all of the negative things I’ve heard about it. Now I think it might just show up next session. I’m not worried about them defeating the BBEG with it. I already have another to rise up in its place,bwahahah.

@heathersharo5294

Жыл бұрын

And my players already have NPCS they run in combat, so if someone dies they have characters they can pick up and keep moving with.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

I do highly recommend choosing a few cards and preparing potential results for them! But give it a shot! :)

@heathersharo5294

Жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder will do!

I love the deck of many things, my sorcerer drew the three wishes about a year ago and I’ve been riding that luck ever since

having played several campaigns where the infamous deck of many things showed up, it always comes down to how the DM and the players want to interact. my experiences happened in 3rd ed. and the ones i remember most are when one party member found the deck and decided to draw all the cards, but he did so by having each person in the party draw 3 cards each while he drew none. the other is a campaign where once the deck was found the DM made some changes, the deck was 20 cards, the cards were useable once per day, maximum of 2 cards pulled per day per player, and most of the effects scaled for the party levels

I dont fear it because the one time it was brought in a campaign our dragonborn barbarian kept pulling out the good cards. We got a loyal companion, a bunch of treasure and wishes

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Those are VERY lucky pulls!

@ZyroShadowPony

Жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder extremely!

I think the Fates card works best with a time limit. Prevent what's about to happen? Sure! Undo what just happened? Absolutely! Alter an event that took place weeks ago? Prevent something years in the future? No can do; fate only remains pliable for a moment.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Great point!

Great video. One of my absolute dream campaigns is to have the players find a deck in the first dungeon they enter, but drawing any cards also twists and messes with reality causing all sorts of other problems, thus setting up a campaign to fix the changes. I would probably run it with OSE or Knave instead of 5e though, and WOULD tweak some of the cards a little.

In a campaign I played in university, the DM introduced a mid-level quest where the reward was one draw from a Deck of Many Things that had been modified to remove perma-debuffs and give every card at least one benefit. I think that the flame card did a bunch of fire damage, but then the PC got fire resistance. Everyone liked how it had a lot of randomness without, for example, giving one PC a level boost while another lost all their magic items. (Note: this was Pathfinder, AKA D&D 3.75 so some of the cards, like Talons, had more bite.) Now, one of the players in that campaign was new to the game and didn't realize that the Deck had been modified. Shortly after, he ran a campaign and put the Deck in front of our level 3 characters. We were a bit hesitant, but eventually decided to each take one card... I pulled the Skull. Which in that system meant that I had to fight a CR 13 grim reaper. The DM looked at me and said "how about we swap that for a different card?"

In my experience, the 'fear' from the Deck of Many Things was the whole risk-reward aspect of the deck itself and the consequences that came from trying your luck. Nothing more, nothing less. In no instance that I can think of has a group resisted drawing from the Deck when offered the chance (one or two characters may not try their luck, but someone drew at least one card. Always.)

I think the Deck of Many Things have suffered a kind of parrot effect of veteran players talking about their experiences and newer players taking their word for it, passing it along with exaggerated effects. More people should use the deck, it won't end their PC at all. 😈

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

I agree that it was/is more risky in old school games, and those stories were passed down, probably with embellishment too. Then today people are so afraid to use it that they don't know how it won't necessarily cause the major harm they've been "warned" about. I do think it can end a PC though!

This was a good angle on the Deck! Although the chatty DM in me thinks it is worth mentioning that Ability Scores actually carried more weight in AD&D than they do in 5th Edition. While there are derived scores (like your attack bonus) for the ability scores, there was also the Ability Check roll: to accomplish any task related to an ability that was not covered by some other rule (and a lot of those rolls come up), you roll under your ability score. So every 1 point increase in an Ability Score was a flat 5 percentile point increase in being able to succeed on an ability check. This became even more valuable in 2nd Edition, when nonweapon proficiencies were introduced. Killer video!

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Excellent points! I am definitely not well versed in the actual gameplay mechanics of these older editions!

Thanks for making this and really going into detail! Personally, I was pretty scared of the deck of many things, but this makes me feel like it can be a great tool to help spice up a campaign.

Back when I used to play D&D 2e I gave one of my players this chaotic item of my own creation in which I made. It was a coin of Good & Evil. When flipped depending on which side it landed on would give and outcome, either good or bad. I had to roll a d100 for the result on each chart (I think each chart had 100 possibilities, too). Well, anyway, I got this idea from a coin I got in an EverQuest expansion box and physically handed it to the player, tell him anytime he flips it in real life his character flips it in the game if able to do so. One night he was feeling rather frisky and flipped it 16 times in a row without waiting for any of the results 🤣 I wonder if I still have the paperwork buried somewhere....?

Flames card would actually be a fun way to multi class to or start as a warlock.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

I love that idea!

@gatonegroloco

Жыл бұрын

Or hey, make it even more spicy. You pull the one that summons an avatar of death but instead it summons an avatar of undeath.

@backonlazer791

Жыл бұрын

Do you mean that the devil would give you powers? Why would it do so if its intention is to kill you?

Thats a bloody nice background my guy. You have a really nice home by the looks of it.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

There are basically two rooms in my apt. This is the other one lol--but thank you very much! We've filled it with D&D stuff to make it nice

I recently played a one shot with my group using the DoMT where for every 25 minutes we would all each draw our given choice of cards whether it be one card or two. The one shot was with our made characters delving into a dungeon where we had to go and face the Lich King, of which our party consisted of; Warforged Paladin of Vengeance named Gabriel(Me), a Changling Rogue Thief named Nix, an old granny Haregon Druid named Nadaline, an Eladrin Elf Ancestor Guardian Barbarian named Azazel, and a Half-Drow Elf Nature Cleric named Mitz'ry. In our one shot the deck offered some quite unique results that definitely flipped the session over its head, from Nix getting the Balance card and suddenly siding with the Lich King in exchange for their own Changeling society and city to call home and live their lives without being accused of being fraudulent or deceitful, to Azazel getting cursed by both the Euryale and Flames card, which thankfully I had gotten the Moon card several times throughout the session to help remove those negative effects at least not without sacrificing something of value in my possession like my +3 Greatsword. And my god, you cannot imagine how many times we all had drawn the Skull and had to single-handedly beat the Avatar of Death over and over again. There were other such fun events, like Nadaline quite literally performing a mass genocide of over 100 Goblins in one turn with Call Lightning, a questionnaire about the Lich King based on information we've gotten from our other campaigns, and even a bit of gambling with our homebrewed Gourd Lord monster dressed up as Santa Claus. When we reached the Lich King at long last, I alone took the fight to the Lich King where as Nadaline and Nix fought each other. Now with Gabriel, I made this character into a full on TANK; A Warforged Paladin, Defensive Fighting Style, +3 Plate armor and shield, with Defensive Fighting Initiative Feat and Defensive Duelist Feat, and would most often cast Haste on myself, granting me I believe 35 AC I believe(we were all 15th level characters and I gotten the Sun which gave me a level up to 16th level). Yet despite all this, it still wasn't enough. Especially with the Lich King knowing Meteor Swarm, a Rogue that had the habit of taking stealth and dealing a sneak attack of 8d6, and two Dracoliches clawing at me. Yet against the odds, I still fought on to my last breath. With my last ditch effort though, I used my last Wish to send my remaining team members who were on my side somewhere far and safe away from where we were. Leaving Gabriel to make his last stand until he was finally overwhelmed as his core was then taken to be used for a possible encounter in our main campaign. This session mind you started at 11AM, and ended at 8PM. It was an absolute blast and everyone had an amazing time with it.

I've been a part of three games that included the Deck of Many Things. None of them were ruined in any way.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Glad to hear it! :)

I had it (sorta) as a hidden treasure belonging to the BBEG. It was a d20. They knew it was radiating magic and no idea what it did. The wizard rolled the first one and got zapped into another universe. Then the die teleported to another dungeon.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Sounds about right lol

My experience with the Deck of Many Things (from a player perspective) is from AD&D module I6, the original Ravenloft. Down in the dungeons of Castle Ravenloft, you could find a deck. We did, and as this was pre-internet days, and when only the DM had read the DMG, none of us knew what it did. Of the 6 of us, 2 got soul trapped, one lost a level due to xp loss, I forget what the others got, but Strahd picked off the rest of the party, campaign over. DM wanted to run us through three other adventures, finishing off with us fighting Flame (the red dragon on the cover of The Dragon #1). He really didn't want to run again, and I didn't play too much until I moved to a different state.

I'm running a deck of many things in my campaign, but I'm using the book of many things, in a section about single effects for cards. It's kinda interesting so far, each card can be used once per day, for example knight if the player throws it the card starts folding itself but getting bigger before it becomes a deck defender lasting for 1 minute following the orders of the player who summoned it. Sage, cast contact other plane contacting a mysterious figure that the players can question once per day. Comet. As an action, you can hold this card aloft and call down a fiery meteor to a point you can see within 120 feet of yourself. Each creature within a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 6d6 bludgeoning damage and 6d6 fire damage, or half as much damage on a successful save.

Did something happen to the audio? It kinda sounds like a recording through a phone from a year or 5 ago

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

You have excellent ears lol, I recorded this audio on an updated version of the same program I always use, and it seems to have some new automatic settings I didn't know about. Basically it had a super intense background noise cancelation that overcorrected in a couple spots. Overall I thought it still sounded okay, but it might also be that this was recorded in a different room than usual

As a GM, the deck of many have never ruined my champain. It only ruins a champain if the GM allows it to but RAW i have never had a problem

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

As a few others have said, I think preparation is key, and keeping the deck in possession of an NPC helps a lot

16:57 The only characters it would affect greatly are usually lords and/or kings-and you don’t lose lord/kinship, the way it would happen is that your lands/fiefdom is seized.

The ending of the movie Galaxy Quest is a great example of the Fates card.

Start off a level one module with players let them choose from the deck of many things might be interesting

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Yeah the cards are certainly more devastating (or amazing) at level one!

0:22 “bruh”

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

bruh

A night hag offered my players a choice to draw a card from the deck in exchange for certain rare ingredients and items. One player got 3 wishes _(rolled a 6)_ and got his allignment changed while a second player got divine intervention; a god now owes him an answer to one question. My other 2 players were rightfully too scepticle to take the trade. This happened at lvl 4, but honestly I'm just using their creative ways of utilizing the wishes as new input for whacky adventures. I did make clear that casting Wish takes 1 action so the wish must be spoken within 6 seconds, and as a rule I told them "the more you try to break the game, the more consequences it will yield; besides that I just want you to have fun".

I ran a short (10 ish sessions) campaign that was partially built around a desire to run a deck of many things and it was wild. The party started at level 5 but so many Sun cards were drawn that by the end of it everyone was at least level 11 with two of them being level 16. The Skull is fine because if you're at the start of your adventuring day, the Avatar of Death is easy to defeat so it's only a punishment if you draw from the deck at low HP. The Knight cards are fun, and I ruled that drawing those cards again just leveled your existing Knight up 4 times and the players really loved their new NPCs. Definitely the most devastating combo is Vizier + Wish because it allows a player to find the optimal wording for their wish. This was used twice, once to make the Vampire Paladin lose his Paladin powers by making his Demon Prince master lose all her contracts and worshippers to the PC Warlock's Patron. The second time allowed them to stop the ritual that was going to summon said demon prince so they only had to fight a Nightwalker and a bunch of Vampire Spawn instead. They destroyed that combat encounter by a landslide. If I was to run a deck again I think I would change 3 things: 1. I dont think you're supposed to be able to declare draws from the deck after you've done it before. The deck should be a finite resource rather than a potentially endless supply of xp, magic items, and Wishes. 2. I love the original concept behind the Void where you still got to pilot your character but their soul was elsewhere. I think that makes for a potentially really cool arc if you have the right DM and Party. 3. The two cards I would remove are the Donjon and the Sun. The former is too similar to the Void without the potential fun of the soulless PC arc, meanwhile the later is just too much of a power spike. 1 or 2 levels of difference between the players is fine but leveling up 5 levels and getting a magic item everytime you draw that card is way too much. Having seen the deck drawn from about 30 times in that one campaign alone, I can firmly say the Sun card is stronger than 1d3 Wishes.

I'm only part way through but I have to disagree with you on a point. I do believe that having members of the party be different levels is potentially game breaking, not because it is unfair for certain members of the party to be more powerful than others, but because it makes designing encounters that will be challenging but not deadly for all members of the party rather complicated. Granted, the CR system for designing encounters is famously flawed to begin with, and I would love a better method for designing balanced encounters, but especially with some classes a single level up can make some significant changes to the capabilities and overall power level of that character, especially with certain multi-class combos.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

That's a graet point!

If certain cards would ruin just remove them a tell your players "it seems some cards are missing" for favour text

@stephenadams8712

Жыл бұрын

Maybe have a plot hook to find out what happened to last ower who drew them cards

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

That totally works too!

The first I heard of the deck was on NADDPOD. It didn't break the campaign, it made it! A level 4 fighter was summoned and was not expected to survive the episode, but became a fan favourite.

I've used the deck twice in different games. Both were a lot of fun and I will use them again. As long as you understand whats in the deck you can prep for it and mix it into your world just fine.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Bingo!

@db5627

Жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder really enjoy your content. Thank you for all the hard work that goes into it.

If I where to use this I would use xp progression

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

That would make it easier to implement for sure!

I’ve used the deck once during a Pokémon game. One of the players pulled Death and their Pokémon was killed and my player felt pretty bad. Since this was a fun game I let the player keep the Pokémon and it gained ghost type.

@BobWorldBuilder

Жыл бұрын

Excellent improvisation!

@affsteak3530

Жыл бұрын

Imo a devoted Pokemon rising from the grave as a Ghost type to stay with their trainer is perfectly in line with Pokemon's lore and themes.

@hariman7727

Жыл бұрын

@@affsteak3530 Or if that pokemon has an egg, the egg hatches and becomes a Cubone.

I am running a Multiverse campaign focused on the Rod of Seven Parts. I have pondered the DOMT. Gond is a reoccuring NPC, he definitely has a copy. Maybe a devil has a copy too. You have swayed towards bringing into my campaign.

My Pathfinder group encountered the Harrow Deck of Many Things, which is a bit different. It had some pretty interesting results, like turning the group's wizard into a werebear, but the funniest thing was when a card was drawn that raised one of their past enemies from the dead and, soon after, a card was drawn that turned a hostile NPC into a friendly one. So with this combo they actually gained an ally! The NPC couldn't help much because the campaign was in its final legs and they had looted his spellbook so he couldn't magic himself to their aid, but I think he eventually became a royal advisor when the werebear became a king.