Comments on: Treasures & Trinkets: The Deck of Many Things

By: Humor and Opportunity « Thieves’ Cant

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:51:37 +0000

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

By: Asmor

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:54:19 +0000

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.

By: Steamtunnel

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:34:22 +0000

Where did you get the template for the treasure description?

By: Asmor

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:44:49 +0000

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…

By: Vagnaard

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:50:50 +0000

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.

By: Saragon

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:27:23 +0000

@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.

By: Asmor

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:38:01 +0000

@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.

By: Tim White

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:58:09 +0000

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

By: Saragon

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:48:25 +0000

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?

By: Asmor

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:31:14 +0000

@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.