Sources Say: The Deck of Many Things

 

Name: The Deck Of many Things

Produced By: Wizards of the Coast

System: D&D 5e

Genre(s): Fantasy

Ah, the Deck of Many Things, the destroyer of campaigns. I’ve had one encounter with the Deck as a player and once used it as a DM, back in 3^rd edition. I think many players have at least one story of the Deck appearing in their games, usually leaving death and discord in its wake. So, it seems that Wizards has seen fit to explore the Deck, its origin, and expanded it to fill many more roles in your games. The box comes with The Book Of Many Things, a reference book for the cards, and a set 66 very well made cards of the Deck of Many Things.

To start, let’s discuss the Deck. They’re Tarot sized (so about double the size of regular playing cards) with this gold leaf looking stuff on the edges. These cards look great, the art, and everything. They’re very well done. You get the original 22 Deck cards, two of which have been renamed, and then two more sets of another 22 cards. These can be used for the “expanded” uses for this deck, as I discuss below.

Which brings me to the next part of the box, the reference book. This book is kept with the Deck, which is nice, as it should prevent some damage to the cards if something happens. The book includes how to use the deck as an in-game Tarot type divination tool, letting the players or the DM do some fortune telling for the game. They can also be used to design an adventure or a dungeon, using the cards as an inspirational tool for games. I actually kind of like this idea, as it can help a DM come up with something on the fly or when they’re stumped on where to go next with the campaign. The last part of the book is the definitions the cards have as divination tools, how they can represent people, places, and locations, beyond their general meaning, as well as what they mean when reversed. If you’re familiar with Tarot, you’re going to know how that all works already. Honestly, I could totally see using these cards at a LARP or a party or a con and having a bit of fun with them.

The final part of the set is The Book of Many Things. This book is one that you may or may not find useful. It contains a history of the Deck (both in universe and production history), how to use the Deck in your games, and how to set up your Deck by selecting different cards. It then goes on to have a chapter based around the OG 22 (the original 22 Deck of Many Things cards from the various DMGs over the years). Puzzles, trap, adventures and side-tracks, as well as groups of importance that have risen up around the Deck over the centuries, each of these are given a chapter. As you might remember (or just look up), the Throne card gives the player ownership of a Keep, right? Well, if you don’t want to come up with one on the fly, they have one you can use, based on an old adventure published in Dungeon magazine. There’s also the Donjon and Void cards, which have very negative effects on the characters, and there’s a chapter for each of these effects. What I really love about this book (so far, still working my way through it) is giving you a lot of uses for the Deck itself. You can let players hang on to them after they draw them, using them as magic items on their own. They give you advice on how to use the cards to make and solve riddles, which is something I really struggle with.

I do hope that they’re going to sell these cards separately, maybe in a “core deck” that has the OG 22 cards, and then an “expanded deck” with the total 66 cards and maybe the reference book. Or just sell the cards and reference book as the boxed set they already kind of are. As for the Book, it’s one of those “nice to have but I probably wouldn’t buy it” for a lot of people. I’d be willing to bet that we’re going to see this set broken up into two different products down the road: The Deck of Many Things (with the reference book) and The Book of Many Things. It would make more sense to me for them to break it up into making people spend more on things as time goes on, especially since most people probably just want the Deck more than anything else.