Encounter-a-Day

14 Responses to “Treasures & Trinkets: The Deck of Many Things”

1. 

   Chgowiz, on January 2nd, 2009 at 8:24 am Said:

   I’ve tried to make it less campaign-shattering here.

   Why?

   I remember our group found one of these things when we were about 5th level. This goes back a few years to when I was playing in high school.

   Part of the fun, for us, was after one of us was permanently changed into a troll (and he continued to play the troll as a PC), and after another had a wish granted, we knew we were dealing with some heavy mojo here. It added a great deal of fun and spice to know that this thing was like dynamite and that we had great power/great doom in our hands.

   How would you make this if you freed yourself from constraints? I’d like to see a 4E version of the same 2E version.

2. 

   Asmor, on January 2nd, 2009 at 8:48 am Said:

   I’m not really sure what you mean by freeing myself from constraints… I didn’t really consider any of my design goals to be constraints, anymore than I’d feel constrained designing a village when I could have made a castle.

   Frankly, in my limited experience (I’ve actually only seen the DoMT come up once before, in an epic-level 3rd edition game), everyone else was too attached to their characters to mess with the deck. I was the only one willing to take a draw, and half of them didn’t want to be anywhere near me when I did.

   On top of that, in 3rd edition at least, there was a stipulation that a character could only draw from a particular deck once. What a waste!

   And then there’s the fact that there are a couple cards which basically say, “tear up your sheet roll up a new character.” This is even more extreme than the save-or-die effects which 4th edition specifically avoided.

   So, to sum up, I like my version because:

   1. It follows the 4e design ethos of not screwing a character over due to a bit of bad luck

   2. It has the potential to be used not just multiple times, but multiple times per session.

   3. It doesn’t cause any headaches for the DM or players in terms of plot, character development or bookkeeping.

   All that said, I’m not against an “old school” style DoMT… I just wouldn’t want it in a 4th edition game. Actually, it could be quite fun for Savage Worlds, were I still running that, or Warhammer. Just not D&D 4th edition.

3. 

   The Last Rogue, on January 2nd, 2009 at 9:50 am Said:

   Nice job good sir. Nice job. However, I believe they already have the Deck statted up in 4e as an artifact.

4. 

   Vagnaard, on January 2nd, 2009 at 1:42 pm Said:

   I have been looking for this thing everywhere! And now, you made it. Incredible. Thanks!

5. 

   Asmor, on January 2nd, 2009 at 5:31 pm Said:

   @The Last Rogue: Where? I’m not aware of its official existence anywhere, though it wouldn’t surprise me if someone else had statted it up as a fan creation.

   @Vagnaard: Glad to help. I’m quite happy with how it came out too.

6. 

   Saragon, on January 5th, 2009 at 9:48 am Said:

   It’s weird – I prefer the temptation that the original, powerful Deck of Many Things presents to players. (And some of its negative consequences, like imprisonment, can be neat plot hooks – I’ve heard of one DM who turned the Donjon card into a quest to free a PC trapped in a djinn’s castle on the Plane of Fire.) That said, calling this a minor Deck of Many Things seems entirely sensible, especially for 4e.

   Of course, if I added this to my own campaign, I might make it the not-quite-so-minor DoMT – a secret 5% chance that instead of the minor effect, they get the major effect. Which makes the item much more interesting to the players – where did it come from? Did it start as the major version? Or did someone tamper with it?

7. 

   Tim White, on January 5th, 2009 at 9:58 am Said:

   I really like the fact that you made this something that people might actually be willing to risk drawing from in the heat of battle. I think it fits well into the overall 4e design aesthetic of “don’t make things people won’t use”.

   I did note a small typo in the description of “Gem”:

   each the gem as quickly and efficiently as powerful

   should be:

   each the gem as quickly and efficiently as possible

   Cheers!

   Tim

   Tim White’s last blog post..Return to Northmoor Meta Episode 3 – Interview with Fred Hicks of OneBadEgg.com

8. 

   Asmor, on January 5th, 2009 at 3:38 pm Said:

   @Saragon: I almost called this a minor deck of many things, but decided not to since that would imply the existence of a major deck, and I was not willing to make one nor put one into my campaign.

   @Tim: Precisely. It’s meant to be something fun that the characters can use either when they’re way ahead of the curve or desperate. It still does have the potential to swing a close fight against them, though, so they can’t use it haphazardly…

   Also, thanks for catching that typo.

9. 

   Saragon, on January 5th, 2009 at 5:27 pm Said:

   @Saragon: I almost called this a minor deck of many things, but decided not to since that would imply the existence of a major deck, and I was not willing to make one nor put one into my campaign.

   Perfectly reasonable. The funny thing about the ‘major’ Deck of Many Things from the D20 SRD is that most of its effects translate rather well to 4E simply because they’re such major effects. “Gain a level” is just that, no matter what D&D system you’re playing with.

   To use my mythical campaign again as an example: Just because it’s called the minor Deck of Many Things doesn’t mean the major version is easily accessible, or that it even exists outside of fables and gleemen’s tales. (Most major artifacts aren’t easily found, after all.) Still, it’s quite reasonable to think that some crafty mage heard a description of the true deck’s powers and created a much weaker version to mimic its powers on a smaller scale. (Whether or not there were several copies made, each sold as the “true” Deck for enormous sums of money by our trickster mage, may never be known.)

   Still, Asmor, definitely a neat item and a good take on a low-powered artifact.

10. 

    Vagnaard, on January 7th, 2009 at 12:50 pm Said:

    I gave this to my players in the dragon hoard they just got.

    They love it even if they tend to get “bad” cards more often then not.

11. 

    Asmor, on January 7th, 2009 at 2:44 pm Said:

    Very cool. I was hoping to use this against them, and then give it to them, on Saturday but we started late and ended right before the fight where they’d have encountered it. :/ Next session…

12. 

    Steamtunnel, on January 28th, 2009 at 11:34 am Said:

    Where did you get the template for the treasure description?

13. 

    Asmor, on January 28th, 2009 at 2:54 pm Said:

    I made it. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, you can view the source of this page and do it yourself, too. You’ll need to download the file 4e.css which is linked in the header.

    If any of that didn’t make sense, I probably wouldn’t suggest doing it.

14. 

    Humor and Opportunity « Thieves’ Cant, on July 22nd, 2009 at 8:51 pm Said:

    [...] skill challenges; entertainment in the form of campaign logs, material in the form of new monsters, items, or art . . [...]

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