So I gave my party a deck of many things, thinking it was just going to be a fun, little aside. I knew one player would draw for sure, then I assumed cooler heads in the group would take the deck and hide it. But nooooo, they started pulling cards in a round robin until all 22 were drawn! My newest player got the donjon and already needs to make a new character and our fighter picked the void. any advice on what to do??
Yeah, it kind of destroys the game. Either reveal it was all a dream, or start a new game, or very quickly have everything reversed by a God, or something.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
I had something similar happen. It was about two sessions from the end of a two-three year campaign and one of the characters drew the card that imprisons them in the place where a wish can only tell you where they are. My solution was to kind of hand wave it. I said, you all go on a quest and manage to rescue the guy from his imprisonment. Everyone go up a level and lets pick up where we left off. It was super cheesy, super meta-gamey. But everyone just kind of rolled with it and we moved on to finish the campaign.
I have been in three or four campaigns where the deck of many things was introduced. Each of them imploded directly due to the effects of the deck. If a player is lucky they become too powerful, if they are unlucky they are dead or removed from the campaign. Some of the cards become the focus or a major plot line of the campaign if the players happen to be strong enough to deal with the challenges, otherwise everyone dies trying. I've never been in a game or seen a game where the deck does anything useful.
At this point your options are probably to discard all the characters and start a new campaign or as someone else suggested retcon it as a dream or other type of experience (perhaps a warning from a god supporting them completing their current quest and showing them what will happen if they use the deck). The players can then agree not to use the deck until after the campaign is finished and they don't care about the characters anymore ... assuming that they are interested in completing the campaign.
1. Setting a fixed number of cards drawn, or using a set chance that the Deck disappears after drawing. So you the DM can decide how much impact the Deck may have. Pick a number out of the blue, roll a d6, d8, or d12 (or whatever combination of random you want) an after that many cards drawn, *POOF* goes the Deck. The latter method would be roll a d10 after each draw, add the number of cards drawn to the roll, on a result of 10+ the Deck disappears. If you like combine the two, so it is total cards drawn since discovery, so the most drawn would be 9.
2. Stack the Deck. There are a number ways of doing this, but in the end, it is about giving the Players the illusion of Choice, but with the results predetermined in the interest of the Fun of the Game. Don't want any characters to die or be removed from the campaign, don't include those cards at all. Learn to force shuffle, or if that isn't in your skill set, get two identical decks of cards, have the players shuffle one of them when the Deck is found, take it from them, and simply place behind the DM screen, and then when they want to draw from it, you simply pick up the "stacked" deck and hand it to them. Another solution is to not use a physical deck at all. Have the player's roll a d100, and then either leave the cards you don't want to deal with the consequences off the chart entirely, or simply state the result is whatever you, the DM, want it to be. Make sure the "good" nor the "bad" results will break the campaign and you'll be fine.
As far as you current situation; Restart is an option, but you may want to simply do a "redo", if the entire group is unhappy with the result, then simply tell them you aren't happy with it either, and can you Deus Ex Machina the campaign back to the point of the draw, make what happened a "foresight warning dream sequence" or something. Then employ the two bits of advice above to get a good gaming experience.
As a DM, RANDOM does not apply to you unless you wish it to. Do not put yourself in a position where RANDOM can simply ruin the campaign, even with some player recklessness. BBEG climatic fights resulting in a TPK due to dice and luck are fine, TPK because of a minor encounter or a Deck draw is not. Random events are only random when the DM wants them to be, else they are merely triggering predetermined events, the results of those events can have a random element, but should be heavily influenced by the Player's choices and actions.
IMO, the powers invoked by a Deck of Many Things balance each other out. It is possible that drawing all the cards results in some sort of explosion of magic, rips open a portal or some other devastating yet manageable effect. Also magic of this magnitude should draw the attention of some Abyssal Lord or some other high ranking denizen. GOOD LUCK!
the way i handle the deck of many things is to have a shop owner or a gambler or just the old random goods peddler have it and have the person offer the players a game with it the players pay a certain amount of gold to draw a card or something similar to this
Why not roll with it, consequences are consequences. It's a cool magic item in the game and people always discredit it with derailing a campaign. If people aren't prepared for the cards to determine the future, they shouldn't put it in.
So I gave my party a deck of many things, thinking it was just going to be a fun, little aside. I knew one player would draw for sure, then I assumed cooler heads in the group would take the deck and hide it. But nooooo, they started pulling cards in a round robin until all 22 were drawn! My newest player got the donjon and already needs to make a new character and our fighter picked the void. any advice on what to do??
Start a new campaign. Giving a party the Deck of Many things you kinda need to be ready to have the entire game derailed by the deck.
Check out my latest homebrew: Mystic Knight (Fighter) v1.31
Yeah, it kind of destroys the game. Either reveal it was all a dream, or start a new game, or very quickly have everything reversed by a God, or something.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
We are halfway through out of the the abyss, they've done so much already! lol
I had something similar happen. It was about two sessions from the end of a two-three year campaign and one of the characters drew the card that imprisons them in the place where a wish can only tell you where they are. My solution was to kind of hand wave it. I said, you all go on a quest and manage to rescue the guy from his imprisonment. Everyone go up a level and lets pick up where we left off. It was super cheesy, super meta-gamey. But everyone just kind of rolled with it and we moved on to finish the campaign.
I have been in three or four campaigns where the deck of many things was introduced. Each of them imploded directly due to the effects of the deck. If a player is lucky they become too powerful, if they are unlucky they are dead or removed from the campaign. Some of the cards become the focus or a major plot line of the campaign if the players happen to be strong enough to deal with the challenges, otherwise everyone dies trying. I've never been in a game or seen a game where the deck does anything useful.
At this point your options are probably to discard all the characters and start a new campaign or as someone else suggested retcon it as a dream or other type of experience (perhaps a warning from a god supporting them completing their current quest and showing them what will happen if they use the deck). The players can then agree not to use the deck until after the campaign is finished and they don't care about the characters anymore ... assuming that they are interested in completing the campaign.
1. Setting a fixed number of cards drawn, or using a set chance that the Deck disappears after drawing. So you the DM can decide how much impact the Deck may have. Pick a number out of the blue, roll a d6, d8, or d12 (or whatever combination of random you want) an after that many cards drawn, *POOF* goes the Deck. The latter method would be roll a d10 after each draw, add the number of cards drawn to the roll, on a result of 10+ the Deck disappears. If you like combine the two, so it is total cards drawn since discovery, so the most drawn would be 9.
2. Stack the Deck. There are a number ways of doing this, but in the end, it is about giving the Players the illusion of Choice, but with the results predetermined in the interest of the Fun of the Game. Don't want any characters to die or be removed from the campaign, don't include those cards at all. Learn to force shuffle, or if that isn't in your skill set, get two identical decks of cards, have the players shuffle one of them when the Deck is found, take it from them, and simply place behind the DM screen, and then when they want to draw from it, you simply pick up the "stacked" deck and hand it to them. Another solution is to not use a physical deck at all. Have the player's roll a d100, and then either leave the cards you don't want to deal with the consequences off the chart entirely, or simply state the result is whatever you, the DM, want it to be. Make sure the "good" nor the "bad" results will break the campaign and you'll be fine.
As far as you current situation; Restart is an option, but you may want to simply do a "redo", if the entire group is unhappy with the result, then simply tell them you aren't happy with it either, and can you Deus Ex Machina the campaign back to the point of the draw, make what happened a "foresight warning dream sequence" or something. Then employ the two bits of advice above to get a good gaming experience.
As a DM, RANDOM does not apply to you unless you wish it to. Do not put yourself in a position where RANDOM can simply ruin the campaign, even with some player recklessness. BBEG climatic fights resulting in a TPK due to dice and luck are fine, TPK because of a minor encounter or a Deck draw is not. Random events are only random when the DM wants them to be, else they are merely triggering predetermined events, the results of those events can have a random element, but should be heavily influenced by the Player's choices and actions.
IMO, the powers invoked by a Deck of Many Things balance each other out. It is possible that drawing all the cards results in some sort of explosion of magic, rips open a portal or some other devastating yet manageable effect. Also magic of this magnitude should draw the attention of some Abyssal Lord or some other high ranking denizen. GOOD LUCK!
the way i handle the deck of many things is to have a shop owner or a gambler or just the old random goods peddler have it and have the person offer the players a game with it the players pay a certain amount of gold to draw a card or something similar to this
Why not roll with it, consequences are consequences. It's a cool magic item in the game and people always discredit it with derailing a campaign. If people aren't prepared for the cards to determine the future, they shouldn't put it in.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.