I have an idea what I'm going to do....but, figured I'd toss this to the masses. Player has no clue he is dealing with a Deck of Many Things and does this: "Clive frowns and picks up the deck of cards . He takes them out of the pack , inspects them , silently shuffles them on the dining room table , and suddenly flips them in the air over the table and onto the floor . “
My Pending Answer: Roll 1d20 +2 to see how many landed Face Down. Then roll (x number compared to card type) to eliminate from list. Remainder all take effect.
By RAW, he failed to declare how many he wants to draw. As such, the cards have no effect.
I would have him roll an Arcana/intelligence check DC 20 to realize what the item is and how much risk he was just in.
I would be tempted to use the 'failed to draw the required # of cards" rule and have ALL of the cards take effect. But he did not declare any, and technically could be be said to have declared "0", in which all cards in 'excess' would fade away to nothing without any taking effect.
But I think it is best to simply say nothing happens at all because he never activated the magic item by declaring how much he would draw.
I'd have the deck do something creepy, like all the cards landing in a particular pattern, but it really depends on why you decided to introduce a deck of many things in the first place, it's inherently a source of chaos for a campaign.
I'd have the deck do something creepy, like all the cards landing in a particular pattern, but it really depends on why you decided to introduce a deck of many things in the first place, it's inherently a source of chaos for a campaign.
This.
The Deck of Many Things can be a campaign killer as easily as having an evil rogue in the party can. It is so random and swingy if you use it per RAW. That you're looking for some kind of random effect of doing this, suggests you like the chaos so go for it. Bring on the nuttiness.
For me and my table, I would never openly roll on the deck's outcomes: I would randomly roll until I got something that "worked" for the campaign. Random enough that it's random but with DM Veto over anything that would break the game or break my players. Or I'd just pick a result because it's a great plot hook for more adventure....
Experienced players will see a deck of cards and will immediately cast detect magic/identify. Newer players might fall for it, but will probably hate the experience.
I love the deck and usually give to my players very early in my campaigns, but what makes the deck epic is the players knowing what it is and the effects it can have.
When a player pulls a card, it needs to feel as a turning point, because it is. It can destroy your campaign in the blink of an eye - that's why most DMs dislike using it randomly, which is totally understandable.
If someone pulls a card and destroys your game without any setup, there is no pay off. Basic story telling, for it to be a pay off, it needs to be a promise, if it's out of the blue, the only one that might think it's fun is the DM.
There are ways to cheat. The deck is designed so that you can literally have a real deck of playing cards and use that. Only the DM can hand select the cards in the deck, removing any he thinks will make the characters too powerful - or to weak. The Void, Sun are prime examples of cards I might not insert into the deck.
I've seen the Deck of Many Things completely wreck two campaigns so I don't recommend it since, in my opinion, the chaos/cool/randomness just isn't worth it.
TL;DR Without the stated intent to draw a certain number of cards, I wouldn't have the deck do anything special.
RAW here are the rules on the deck:
"Usually found in a box or pouch, this deck contains a number of cards made of ivory or vellum. Most (75 percent) of these decks have only thirteen cards, but the rest have twenty-two.
Before you draw a card, you must declare how many cards you intend to draw and then draw them randomly (you can use an altered deck of playing cards to simulate the deck). Any cards drawn in excess of this number have no effect. Otherwise, as soon as you draw a card from the deck, its magic takes effect. You must draw each card no more than 1 hour after the previous draw. If you fail to draw the chosen number, the remaining number of cards fly from the deck on their own and take effect all at once.
Once a card is drawn, it fades from existence. Unless the card is the Fool or the Jester, the card reappears in the deck, making it possible to draw the same card twice.
The key part is that the person drawing the cards has to declare exactly how many cards they will be pulling out of the deck for them to do anything.
If a character doesn't make a declaration then the DM has a couple of choices. Since it says that any excess cards drawn have no effect - then if you didn't declare any number, every card drawn is excess and does nothing. I think that makes the most sense personally.
However, the text also says that all the cards fade from existence when drawn and reappear in the box.
So - two ways I could see running it ...
1) When the cards are pulled without a declaration they are just regular cards. You can play with them and put them back in the deck. You could even keep some normal cards in there if the deck is missing some so you could play a card game with them. In this case, flipping them all over would be a bit anti-climactic - nothing would happen but the cards would still detect as magical. Keep in mind that RAW, the identify spell or handling the deck for an hour would inform the character of the nature of the deck.
Also, I would add the following if I was running the deck this way "Daily, at sunrise, any cards that are still out of the deck magically reappear in the case".
If a character holding the deck declared a draw then any cards not in the deck would fade from existence and all cards would appear in the deck in random order. Pulling out a few mundane seeming cards is not a way to avoid the bad ones.
2) When any card is pulled from the deck it fades from existence and appears again in the box. This way you can't play cards with it but all cards will always be in the pack in random order all the time.
I'd have the deck do something creepy, like all the cards landing in a particular pattern, but it really depends on why you decided to introduce a deck of many things in the first place, it's inherently a source of chaos for a campaign.
I'd say something like this. Since, as others have pointed out, he didn't declare how many he'll draw, maybe they just end up neatly, perfectly stacked back in place. That should at least let the player know they're dealing with magic.
I made up a deck of Many Unusual Things for a fun encounter. I used a complete deck of cards, including jokers, and made a table for the effects of each card. Some were cool, such as a player's GP doubling, some were just silly - a player's toenails and fingernails each became a different color, and some were interesting, such as having to speak in rhyme for an hour, or being able to only speak in goblin for an hour. One player gained proficiency in bagpipes.
I chose to base effects on the suit of the card drawn, so hearts affected minds and emotions, diamonds affected wealth and possessions, clubs affected weapons and attack rolls and saving throws, and spades affected proficiencies and skills.
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I have an idea what I'm going to do....but, figured I'd toss this to the masses. Player has no clue he is dealing with a Deck of Many Things and does this: "Clive frowns and picks up the deck of cards . He takes them out of the pack , inspects them , silently shuffles them on the dining room table , and suddenly flips them in the air over the table and onto the floor . “
My Pending Answer: Roll 1d20 +2 to see how many landed Face Down. Then roll (x number compared to card type) to eliminate from list. Remainder all take effect.
By RAW, he failed to declare how many he wants to draw. As such, the cards have no effect.
I would have him roll an Arcana/intelligence check DC 20 to realize what the item is and how much risk he was just in.
I would be tempted to use the 'failed to draw the required # of cards" rule and have ALL of the cards take effect. But he did not declare any, and technically could be be said to have declared "0", in which all cards in 'excess' would fade away to nothing without any taking effect.
But I think it is best to simply say nothing happens at all because he never activated the magic item by declaring how much he would draw.
I'd have the deck do something creepy, like all the cards landing in a particular pattern, but it really depends on why you decided to introduce a deck of many things in the first place, it's inherently a source of chaos for a campaign.
This.
The Deck of Many Things can be a campaign killer as easily as having an evil rogue in the party can. It is so random and swingy if you use it per RAW. That you're looking for some kind of random effect of doing this, suggests you like the chaos so go for it. Bring on the nuttiness.
For me and my table, I would never openly roll on the deck's outcomes: I would randomly roll until I got something that "worked" for the campaign. Random enough that it's random but with DM Veto over anything that would break the game or break my players. Or I'd just pick a result because it's a great plot hook for more adventure....
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Experienced players will see a deck of cards and will immediately cast detect magic/identify. Newer players might fall for it, but will probably hate the experience.
I love the deck and usually give to my players very early in my campaigns, but what makes the deck epic is the players knowing what it is and the effects it can have.
When a player pulls a card, it needs to feel as a turning point, because it is. It can destroy your campaign in the blink of an eye - that's why most DMs dislike using it randomly, which is totally understandable.
If someone pulls a card and destroys your game without any setup, there is no pay off. Basic story telling, for it to be a pay off, it needs to be a promise, if it's out of the blue, the only one that might think it's fun is the DM.
There are ways to cheat. The deck is designed so that you can literally have a real deck of playing cards and use that. Only the DM can hand select the cards in the deck, removing any he thinks will make the characters too powerful - or to weak. The Void, Sun are prime examples of cards I might not insert into the deck.
I've seen the Deck of Many Things completely wreck two campaigns so I don't recommend it since, in my opinion, the chaos/cool/randomness just isn't worth it.
TL;DR Without the stated intent to draw a certain number of cards, I wouldn't have the deck do anything special.
RAW here are the rules on the deck:
"Usually found in a box or pouch, this deck contains a number of cards made of ivory or vellum. Most (75 percent) of these decks have only thirteen cards, but the rest have twenty-two.
Before you draw a card, you must declare how many cards you intend to draw and then draw them randomly (you can use an altered deck of playing cards to simulate the deck). Any cards drawn in excess of this number have no effect. Otherwise, as soon as you draw a card from the deck, its magic takes effect. You must draw each card no more than 1 hour after the previous draw. If you fail to draw the chosen number, the remaining number of cards fly from the deck on their own and take effect all at once.
Once a card is drawn, it fades from existence. Unless the card is the Fool or the Jester, the card reappears in the deck, making it possible to draw the same card twice.
The key part is that the person drawing the cards has to declare exactly how many cards they will be pulling out of the deck for them to do anything.
If a character doesn't make a declaration then the DM has a couple of choices. Since it says that any excess cards drawn have no effect - then if you didn't declare any number, every card drawn is excess and does nothing. I think that makes the most sense personally.
However, the text also says that all the cards fade from existence when drawn and reappear in the box.
So - two ways I could see running it ...
1) When the cards are pulled without a declaration they are just regular cards. You can play with them and put them back in the deck. You could even keep some normal cards in there if the deck is missing some so you could play a card game with them. In this case, flipping them all over would be a bit anti-climactic - nothing would happen but the cards would still detect as magical. Keep in mind that RAW, the identify spell or handling the deck for an hour would inform the character of the nature of the deck.
Also, I would add the following if I was running the deck this way "Daily, at sunrise, any cards that are still out of the deck magically reappear in the case".
If a character holding the deck declared a draw then any cards not in the deck would fade from existence and all cards would appear in the deck in random order. Pulling out a few mundane seeming cards is not a way to avoid the bad ones.
2) When any card is pulled from the deck it fades from existence and appears again in the box. This way you can't play cards with it but all cards will always be in the pack in random order all the time.
I'd say something like this. Since, as others have pointed out, he didn't declare how many he'll draw, maybe they just end up neatly, perfectly stacked back in place. That should at least let the player know they're dealing with magic.
I made up a deck of Many Unusual Things for a fun encounter. I used a complete deck of cards, including jokers, and made a table for the effects of each card. Some were cool, such as a player's GP doubling, some were just silly - a player's toenails and fingernails each became a different color, and some were interesting, such as having to speak in rhyme for an hour, or being able to only speak in goblin for an hour. One player gained proficiency in bagpipes.
I chose to base effects on the suit of the card drawn, so hearts affected minds and emotions, diamonds affected wealth and possessions, clubs affected weapons and attack rolls and saving throws, and spades affected proficiencies and skills.