What are your good or bad experiences with the Deck of Many Things? Do you ban it from your games or do you make up your own version that's more/less punishing?

My part first ran into the deck as part of the module. I had to face a Medusa for the sole purpose of keeping my life, I gained nothing by defeating her. More recently my DM has had our party roll on a table of magic items rather than go by the module and we found the Deck of Many Things twice since then. I gained a level and got to ask the DM one question. I of course asked them the exact location of the item/place we were looking for. A member of my party first lost all of their magic items and then lost all of their non-magic items.

Don't draw cards. That would be the easiest solution. Having it come up in a module probably serves a purpose but getting it twice on a random table seems like the DM may be a bit magic crazy with loot rewards. I've DM'd and played many, many campaigns and honestly I can only remember the deck of many things coming up once. Personally, I only use random loot for lower level encounters/lairs. When my players get to high enough level that a deck *could* be part of the loot, I have the loot chosen because I need it to fill certain needs to advance the campaign.

My worst experience with the Deck was when we defeated a Red Dragon, a member got a deck and everyone chose a card. My card instantly removed all non-magic items from my inventory, including whatever was in my bag of holding. It didn't help I was gathering items for a NPC which all just magically disappeared. My ranged weapon wasn't magical, so that was gone, I lost all my coins, and spell focus (which we deemed not magical) also vanished. Fast forward a few sessions where we defeated a mummy lord and somehow found another Deck. I pulled a card and immediately all my Magic items. All my attuned stuff and magic weapons, gone. Luckily one of our teammates got lucky and got multiple Wish spells and wished for all my stuff back which was nice, but still it kinds sucked. In a matter of in-game days I lost every piece of possession i owned (briefly). It was pretty funny at the end of the day, but what are those odds!

We got the Deck in a treasure pile in a work drop-in campaign. At level 5 I think, lol. These one shots tend to have deadly combat.

Me and 5 other players were fighting the BBEG, an immortal evil bard who kidnaps people around town to use in his gladiator fights. The BBEG turned into beholder and things were going badly. Our party make up wasn't the best to deal with it either. All melee martial and druids. Our paladin got immediately Death Ray'ed in the first round...he rolled for his HP and had only 40-something at level 8. Our druids kinda ran around in wild shape and didn't use spells too often. Then I was a bear barb and my gf was a swashbuckler with booming blade. The beholder was mostly flying, so we had limited ways of dealing with it. Then one druid got disintegrated. So we're down 2 people and trying our best to hit the flying beholder with my limited javelins, and the swashbuckler was trying to figure out an item we found in a previous session that related to the BBEG, thinking it might give a clue on how to kill him, so she wasn't able to attack much. So my gf, now held up by the beholder's telekinetic ray, decides to pull the Deck out and hope she gets something good to help us in the fight, lol. She declares two cards and pulls the Fool. XP wasn't an issue in drop-in campaigns with a set level, so she just has to pull another card. Gets the Flames lol. Nothing happens with that yet (and probably never will, the DM left and took another job...that was our last game at work), then the last card. Ruins. So her swashbuckler is floating in the air...held up by the beholder's eye ray...and loses everything. Her armor, weapons, all the gem and gold treasure she has collected...gone. It was hilarious! We all had a good laugh, and I got the killing blow by taking the dead paladin's Cape of the Montebank and teleporting on top of the beholder and killing it with my "big anchor" (my barbarian was a pirate)

Definitely a fun item for one shots or short campaigns but I'd never pull from it with a character I care about.

I got a wish scroll and wished for a deck of many things, ONCE, that is the key word here. I will probably will never wish for that cursed deck again, after I got it I drew one card, ruins, now i had nothing but underwear and a flaming rapier, next card, FLAMES, now i have to face a devil with a flaming rapier, just great. I thought that it couldn't get any worse, so i drew another card, rouge, now the devil is really mad at me and procedes to kill me. Moral of the story, don't use the deck of many things. (I know I seem salty about this but now I just look back on this and laugh :D)

I've never used it, but I did once include a Deck of Illusions in a treasure hoard. My players immediately assumed it was a Deck of Many Things, hid it away, and didn't touch it for the rest of the campaign!

Hi just wondering, what is a deck of illusions? I have never heard of it before.

A Deck of Illusions is a magic item that allows you to summon illusory creatures and characters based on the card you draw.  Unlike the Deck of Many Things it's completely harmless.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

A Deck of Illusions is a magic item that allows you to summon illusory creatures and characters based on the card you draw.  Unlike the Deck of Many Things it's completely harmless.

But the monsters don't know that until they pass their Insight checks

Yes, but my point was that when you use it, you don't have to worry about anything that comes from the deck trying to kill you.  Unlike a Deck of Many Things.