This Pondering entry of the Pick Up Pile will be a long one as it’s covering the Deck of Many Things set for Dungeons and Dragons 5e, published by Wizards of the Coast . So that’s two books and a deck of 66 cards to go through.
I have the limited Alternate Art cover set of this, however the covers are the only difference in the two versions, the internal contents being identical. The cover is very nice, with spot gloss effects on any raised details and artwork, further enhancing them. This is another winner in the line of Alt art books.
I’ll go chapter section by section and chapter by chapter through the Book of Many Things, giving an overview of contents and commenting on them.
The first section is the Dungeon Master’s Toolbox, each chapter covering ways the deck can be used by the DM to enhance their game, even if not using it as the magic item itself in game.
Fool. As with the tarot card that shares it’s name this section is concerned with beginnings. It details the history of the Deck of Many Things throughout the earlier editions of Dungeons & Dragons. From the first appearance in Greyhawk 1975 where it was 18 but nameless cards (the effects of which did have some resemblance to the modern deck) to the set that comes with this book. The more recognisable names and effects starting to be codified in the ’79 DMG. An interesting, if maybe too brief, history of the deck. The rest of this chapter serves as an overview of those that follow.
Key. This chapter has details on how to introduce the deck to your game without breaking it. Several adjusted decks are listed, tailored to different group tastes, such as a relatively low powered deck for lower levelled characters or one with harmful cards suitable for a horror themed game. The there are brief sections on how to introduce the deck in your game’s story and how to introduce the effects of a card draw. Following is a section suggesting magic effects for each card when used a s a separate artefact on its own. Such as the Gem card storing a 6th level spell and being able to cast from it daily, or the Star granting advantage on saving throws for 10 minutes. A really nice alternate use for each that could be worked into a campaign where players are assembling a deck from scattered cards, and want to use them for something before the deck is complete. Finally there is a part dedicated to making new cards, suggesting that any characters attempting this should be at least 17th level and it should take a long time and some exceptionally rare components. Perhaps more suited to NPCs unless you have a very high level open ended campaign.
Balance. Randomisation and inspiration are at the core of this chapter. This covers how to turn the deck into quick NPCs, by using the art as inspiration. An alternate version of the in game inspiration mechanic os presented. Instead of the re-roll mechanic in the main rules draw a card from the deck and use that effect when appropriate, such as advantage on saves, extra damage, or temporarily blinding an opponent that hits you. Then the chapter covers journeys and encounters. For journeys draw two cards from the Deck of Many things. The first to inspire the challenge, then when resolved turn the second over to represent a consequence, either positive of negative depending on their actions. For encounters two sample lists are provided with normal playing cards corresponding to creature names, draw from this deck whenever you need a random encounter on a journey. I may be tempted to build this deck from Magic:The Gathering cards from the Forgotten realms expansion, so I’d have cards with the creatures on them directly, depending on how cheap they are second hand. A neat alternative to rolling on an encounter table.
Puzzle. As the name suggests, this chapter deals with puzzles, riddles, and traps. For puzzles it suggests a couple inspired by the deck. Each has hints, customisation notes and suggested difficulty levels. Riddle have a short section on design and how to write them, with focus on structure, hints, and theming. Then there are 22 riddles provided each answered by the name of one of the cards from the Deck of Many Tings. Three trap focused rooms complete the chapter, each with Deck related elements such as a balance beam, sun light, or a skull shaped door. A little too specific to be used in a non Deck of Many Things based campaign, but could be easily tweaked using the provided advice to make them fit anywhere.
Gem. A chapter on wealth and rewards, as you may expect by its name. Whilst there are more magic items in this book, they are all indexed here to make them easier to find. There’s advice here on how to deal with the effect of sudden wealth on a campaign. How this will circumvent the profit motive, how true power can’t be bought (really powerful items are very rarely sold), and how spreading the wealth to the needy could come up in a narrative. Following this are 22 magic items, each one themed after a card. For example there’s the Donjon’s Sundering Sphere that can make any weapon a +1 weapon that can banish a creature for a turn, or the Jester’s Mask which can act as a +3 spellcasting focus which can provide a magic teleport on reaction and turn a natural 1 into a 20 once a day. Some great items in here and some good advice for how to deal with wealth in games.
The next section of four chapters is the Character Creation Section, with each being geared towards a group of three character classes. Each has items and spells as applicable that for each group, and Destinies which are a table where you draw a card which gives a question or statement to help flesh out the personality of your character. For the Destinies I will cover the Jester, Comet and Fates card for each class group.
Rogue. Unsurprisingly this chapter features rogues, and it also bards and rangers. There are a couple of magic card decks featured, The Card Sharp’s Deck for those Gambit from the X-Men moments, and the Deck of Miscellany which seems related to Presto from the old D&D cartoon’s hat with the random crap you can draw from it. From the destinies, the Jester card says hardships bring out your optimism, The Comet says a powerful member of a thieves guild opposes you, and he Fates card asks what did you do to earn a favour from an important individual. Great stuff to flesh out a background. Then there are four stat blocks of Rogue NPCs, one for each tier of play. These are intended to be used when someone draws this card from the deck. Useful to have on hand.
Sage. This chapter is based on arcane casters, wizards, warlocks, and sorcerers. The cartomancer feat is here where you can load a card into a spell and learn a specially flavoured version of Prestidigitation. Then there’s some spells with AOE damage, psychic damage, or summoning a death spirit as the effects. For destinies the Jester says you come from a line of wild mages even if this is not reflected in your magic, the Comet asks if you seek or reject the immense power it’s said you’re destined for, and the Fates says your studies are driven by a desire to alter reality. The largest magic item in the book is next, the Deck of Many More Things. This is a deck of 44 new cards which can be added to the traditional 22 card Deck of Many Things or used on their own. They include the Elemental which makes you immune to a damage type, the Prisoner where magic chains ensnare you and are very difficult to remove, the Undead where a revenant rises and pursues you, and the Door which give you the ability to cast the Gate spell a limited number of times. I really like these new cards there’s a lot of power level options and they feel right when put next to the originals.
Fates. This chapter is described as being for the more spiritual characters, Clerics, Paladins and Druids. However this is a much weaker link than the class specific parts of the other chapters. First up are two new backgrounds, the Rewards and the Ruined, representing people who have had a massive upheaval in their life, maybe by a DoMT card. Each adds features and traits suited to the flavour. The destinies in this chapter tie to these backgrounds. The Jester stating you were brought up to follow a prophecy of doom but see hope instead, the Comet saying you were born under a bad sign, and the Fates say you made an important choice once that still haunts you. Next up are the magic items, and the first and only real class themed part of this chapter, and even then only the Fate Dealer’s Deck (a spellcasting focus with a minor healing or harming effect) requires attunement by a Paladin of Cleric. Then we have supernatural gifts, similar to the ones in the DMG, but each themed to a card of the deck itself. The Charm of the Flames summoning devils, Balance returning damage, and the Charm of Many Things allowing you to bestow the effect of a random card on a willing victim subject. A lot of useful parts to this chapter, but a bit of a let down for any Druid, Cleric or Paladin players.
Knight. Yep, this is for the fighty punchy types. Fighters, Barbarians, and Monks are covered here. First up are weapons and armour, understandably for some of the more gear centred classes. Armours that enable you to speak with the dead or generate an antimagic field, weapons such as the Sword of the Planes where you can cut holes in reality to create passages to other planes, or some +1/2/3 had wraps for unarmed fighting. The destinies follow with the Jester stating you feel like a laughing stock but hope to make something of yourself in battle, the Comet says you’ve been promised an inheritance if you make yourself a hero, and the Fates saying a fortune teller foresaw you finding yourself in battle. Finally there’s a section on running allies form when you draw the Knight card. Who runs them, what skills should they have, how prominent should they be? Also it has a stat block for the Deck Defender a magical construct you can use to replace the fighter suggested by the card.
Overall these chapters have a lot of very nicely designed magic items, and some interesting features. The Destinies system is great for getting you thinking about your characters background. It’s just a shame that Clerics, Paladins and Druids got dealt a bad hand.
The next section is four chapters collectively referred to as The Celestial Suite. These are inspired by the Sun, Moon, Comet, and Star cards. The first three mainly detail an organisation linked to the relevant celestial body, giving stat blocks for members and details on an HQ or meeting hall. They also cover using each organisation as antagonists or friends. The fourth chapter mainly covers a Zodiac system that could be used in game.
Sun. This chapter covers the Solar Bastion, an organisation that styles themselves after knights. They monitor Decks of Many Things and try to inform and protect people who have them and try to prevent misuse of them. They also, secondarily to this, try to prevent misuse of other powerful magic items.
Moon. The Moonstalkers are the focus of this chapter. A thieves guild whose members are all evil lycanthropes, including Werevultures who are new in this volume. The organisation’s HQ is not location specific in the book so can be placed in any world, with doors that link to many cicties. The Moonstalkers name stems from their pursuit of people who have pulled the Moon card from the deck to manipulate the wishes they gain from this. As for where this organisation falls in relation to other guilds, this lot are described as being particularly morally bankrupt, so use them for stuff even your regular bad guys would balk at.
Comet. this chapter gives us the Heralds of the Comet, a doomsday cult that wish to bring about the end of all things. So best used as an antagonist, rather than an ally. The refer to the comet that heralds the end as the All Consuming Star, which cult members actively power through rituals. This chapter also has a couple of pages on apocalyptic events which could befall your campaign world. It gives a list of possible warnings such waters changing to blood, or the sky changing colour. Then it details a list of possible cataclysms such as the tarrasque awakening, or the gods fighting each other or being stripped of their power. A great chapter if you need to inject some DOOM into your campaign.
Star. The last of the chapters in this section covers the Sky of Many Things, a zodiac for use in your game. Each sign is based on one of 12 Deck of Many Things cards, and given a time of year it covers, rather than a specific month. As many D&D worlds use different calendars to each other. So for example early spring is covered by the sign of the Sage, it’s nickname being The Wise One, Garnet its associated birthstone, Sphinx the related creature, Purple the colour , and Intelligence its attribute. It is said those born under this sign are destined to solve a confounding mystery. Each sign is given such a description and this could be a fun extra to drop into character creation. The chapter then has location details for an observatory building that could be dropped into a game anywhere suitable, and a Telescopic Transporter, a magical device for travelling to other celestial bodies. Useful if you want to jump into a Spelljammer campaign.
A decent section, useful organisations you can drop into your game, and a fun character backstory mechanic.
The next group of chapters covers Adventure Locations. Some covering a location specified on one of the cards that you may end up visiting, or being taken away to. Each one feels geared towards a different play style too, ideal for mixing up gameplay.
Jester. This card covers the Seelie Market, a travelling fey market that can appear anywhere and travels in carriages pulled by a Moonstone Dragon. There are stalls where you can buy birds, magic fruit, spell scrolls, magnifying glasses to read the scrolls, and really creepy dolls. Of course, this being a fey market payment isn’t in coin. The main attraction here is Oddlewin, the Nilbog fortune teller who appears in a lot of the art for this set. He reads the cards from his 9 card deck to tell the fortunes of the players, and the book gives advice on how to make these fortunes come true in game. He also, with a bit of cajoling, will let players draw a card from his deck to get the usual effects as he loves the chaos this can cause. A really flavourful location, with vibes similar to the Witchlight Carnival. There’s no planned combat encounters here, so a good place for a breather.
Throne. So you drew the Throne card and now own a keep, well here’s the keep, good luck keeping it. This chapter describes Harrowhall Keep, a haunted small castle with a previous tenant that needs dealing with. This is a mini adventure in a contained location geared for level 8 characters, but fairly easy to adjust up or down, there is advice in a the book on how to tweak it. At the end of it you get a really cool home base and a ghost cat. A more combat focused chapter than the last, but with one hell of a reward – actual home ownership. I’d maybe force the Throne card in a drawing to get payers to do this so they end up with a base to call their own.
Ruin. not much to do with the card other than the name, but this covers Gardmore Abbey, returning from 4th edition. As this is a more sandbox styled location there are descriptions of the abbey ruins themselves and many of the features around and under them. it also covers the history of the area, giving details of key events over the last few hundred years. There are a few groups at play in the area, some probably too powerful for a straight up fight for most characters, including a Red Dragon who lives in the ruin. However, a clever group could play them off against each other. I really like that one of the groups is a bunch of Minotaur archaeologists, just so unusual, but I guess they won’t get lost in any dig sites.
Donjon. The first of the two real “Oh Shit” cards in the deck, this chapter covers the place where you go when drawing this card. This prison is an alien metal sphere drifting through the Astral Sea. Here we have adventure hooks for why you might be here, advice on running it with a player whose main PC is trapped here (mainly use a temp character) and a 30+ room map of the donjon itself. As I’ve said before, if someone’s dome the work for me, I’ll use that. So if a player in a game I was running drew this card, I’d use this chapter.
Void. The other “Oh Shit” card in the deck. The one where your soul vacates your body and is trapped in an object. First up is the advice on running that character’s player, either play a temporary character for the mission, or play as the soulless character on a quest to get it back. There is advice on how the lack of soul affects them, and ways to represent it mechanically. Then comes the house of cards, a demiplane created when the Void card is drawn that the soul is whisked away to. 23 rooms, an entrance and 22 named and themed after a card. For example the Fates room is split into three chambers, each with Hag in who asks characters a question and rewards honesty, the Hags appearing to be the same woman in different stages of her life. I really like this chapter as it has the potential to turn the “Oh fuck, not this card” game wrecker into a fun side adventure.
This section has some great locations that can be dropped in anywhere. You don’t even really have to draw the cards to us the last few. Maybe your PCs could be hired to help get someone out of them.
The Final section of the book Adversaries and Rivals describing monsters, creatures, and the creators of the deck.
Skull. This chapter is structured similarly to the NPC faction ones in the Celestial Suite section. Here we meet the Grim Harrow an organisation of undead who were created by being killed by the spirit of death summoned by the Skull card. They then banded together and swore to destroy the Decks of Many Things throughout the multiverse, which they believe will allow them to finally truly die. However their methods are brutal and they will kill any who stand in their way. Stat blocks and a description of their home plane , the Gardens of Decay, are provided. Another usable faction with a very Wild Hunt flavour to them.
The Flames. The card that draws the ire of a powerful fiend. This chapter gives details of three, a devil, a demon, and a yuggoloth, all with stat blocks, roleplaying advice, and guides for using them in a game. First up is Aurnozci a demon who has a cult making sacrifices in his name in a effort to free him from the Abyss. Next is Hulgaz the Tempter, a manipulative charismatic devil, who offers ruinous “gifts” that always have a steep price. Such as a strength increase that also gives the recipient lycanthropy. Finally there is Malaxxix, A yuggoloth who is more suited to combat encounters and can teleport to anyone wearing one of his cursed creations. So if a PC just happens to find one, well there’s a combat encounter ready to happen. All useful individual fiends suited for different types of gaming group.
The Talons. Only related to the card by name, as there’s not much you can put in a book based on “your stuff crumbles.” So this chapter is where they put a any new monsters that didn’t fit thematically in one of the others. Hierophant Medusas who are divine champions given a purpose, Rifflers who are card themed destiny obsessed fey, and the self explanatory Werevultures number among them. This chapter also has the index for all the stat blocks in the book, similar to how the Gem chapter indexes the items.
Euryale. And the last chapter of the book, the only card with the name of an individual. Here was have details of the human Asteria and the medusa Euryale the characters responsible for the creation of the first Deck of Many Things. We get their history, details including stat blocks, a map of their home of Cair Ophidian, and adventure hooks for using them in your games. A suitable wrap up for the book, giving the last word to the in world creators of the artefact.
As a whole this is a great book if you like gear, stuff, and options books. It’s mainly geared at DMs with only a few player options. The themed organisation is interesting putting items/spells/creatures in a chapter where they match the card. However hunting through for one is awkward, but you just have to remember the Gem and Talon chapters index items and creatures respectively.
Now with the first book down we move on to the cards, perhaps the main draw of the set.
They are presented in a large box, which also houses the guidebook, in three decks of 22 cards. The original Deck of Many Things on the left and the other two being the 44 cards of the Deck of Many More Things split into two piles.
The cards have subtle spot foil effects on the face of each, enhancing the artwork, and gold edging. They are, according to a calibrated ruler I “acquired” from a lab I used to work in, 70mm x 120mm. This makes them very slightly shorter and wider than the D&D Tarot released a while ago, by less than a millimetre, making shuffling awkward if you wish to mix hem without sleeving. Talking of sleeving, I am tempted to do that with this deck to protect the gold edging from wear.
The Deck of Many Things guide book starts with some alternative uses of the deck. First up is divinations, with 1, 3, or 5 card spreads for increasing clarity. Advice given here is to ask the players to help interpret and clarify the meanings of each card when drawn. What does drawing the Comet when putting the “past” card down in the spread mean to them? Work with the players to build a complete picture that can then be worked into your game. After this is possibly my favourite part of this book. Adventure spreads and their simpler cousins Dungeon Spreads. This is where you draw cards and place them in an arrangement to plan an adventure, using them as idea prompts.
The remaining pages of the book cover each card for use with these spreads. Each has full page are of the card and what it means when applied to a person, a creature or trap, a place, a treasure, or a situation. These descriptions are given for both upright and inverted cards. So 66 cards, each with 5 interpretations and 2 readings of each is 660 possible idea prompts from the deck.
As an example I drew the following cards for an Adventure spread.
- Party Gathers: Giant
- Adventure Begins: Tower
- Journey: Ruin
- Entrance: Dragon
- Challenges:
- 1: Construct
- 2: Fiend
- 3: Beast
- Treasure: Undead
- Guardian: Aberration
These were interpreted as follows.
- The Giant as a place refers to a place of great significance, so I chose a PC’s family home.
- The Tower as a person is someone reclusive, I decided on a reclusive relative.
- The Ruin as a for a place indicates just that, a Ruin. So I went with a ruined family estate.
- The Dragon card for the entrance represents a challenge, so I went with a Dragon scoping out the ruin to see if it would do as a lair.
- The Construct I took literally, this is an old animated suit of armour that was used for security that is now corrupted.
- The Fiend can mean a place infused with lower planar influence, for this I went with a rift has opened up here corrupting the site.
- Beast, again fairly literal as a creature. From this I decided that wildlife have invaded the ruin since its collapse and have been corrupted by the planar rift.
- Undead for treasure, something of use to the undead. I went with the Acheron Blade from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, as it protects against turning. (possibly the reclusive relative is undead and needs this property of the blade)
- Aberration when pulled to represent a person can mean a Warlock, who I decided is searching for the blade for their patron.
So from this we have the PCs being called to one of them’s family home, tasked with retrieving a sword from a ruin the family owns, having to bypass a dragon to get in, then having to contend with wildlife, corrupted security armour and a planar rift, all to fight a Warlock at the end to get what they came for.
Obviously it needs a few more details fleshing it out, but for a few minutes playing with some cards you get a pretty solid adventure structure.
This is a really neat prop that can either be used in game for its traditional chaotic results, or in character divination, or out of game for planning an adventure or making plot related decisions.
I wouldn’t normally cover the price in one of these entries, but as this is a premium item I thought it worth mention. The ideal way to get this set is the way I did, as a gift. However if I were to be considering it for purchase I would look at it this way. The set can be got for about the price of two normal D&D sourcebooks. This set includes one sourcebook, so if the cards, case and guidebook are or the same value as a sourcebook to you it works out about the same. It would be nice though if the Book of Many Things was available separately for those who don’t want or need the cards.
Three Kobolds With A Trench Gun 