Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Deck of Many Things 

Most detailed review of the DoMT I've ever seen ~ :)

My favorite version of this item appears to be a simple, nondescript paper pack of cards with a lable and large ink blot on the cover. The ink blot obscures the name and reads The Deck Of Ma__ Things. When you draw a card, it instantly transforms into a non magical but useful item that has the word "Manny" inscribed on it, plainly visible. It's a deck of Manny's Things.

I heard a hilarious D&D story regarding someone using an effect of the deck with a Wish spell. >Party is facing a pit fiend. >Character casts Wish (possibly from a scroll, I don't remember), stating "I wish the pit fiend was affected by the Balance card of a Deck of Many Things" as the wish. >The effect works. The pit fiend cries out in agony for several moments as its alignment is forcibly changed from lawful evil to chaotic good. It then flies off in a heroic manner, no doubt to fight against everything lawful evil, thereby saving the party from a horrible, agonizing fate.

Legends say the deck was forged by the mysterious "Wizards of the Coast".

The Ace of Spades that even Lemmy wouldn't want to draw.

Imagine a duel between two players with each a deck of many things, you could make a whole game out of that.

I always give my players the deck of many things at level one and just set back and watch the 'll sweat bullets if and when they are going to draw and what they are going to get from drawing. It's the little things in life like this that brings this dm joy.

The deck is like fire: it can be an incredible tool, but if you don't apply it appropriately it'll burn down everything that you've worked to create.

The bard killed our home city on accident. Since the bard was a beloved hero and everyone's friend and had everyone at the highest positive attitude. During the height of a citywide celebration. He picked a single card from the deck. Our fighter has inadvertently swtiched decks. If anyone attempts to intervene they get their own special aspect of death summoned to fight. And since everyone including, the cult leader and the mayor loved the bard.... The DM pretty much short-circuited as the city was emptied overnight. A bustling city deserted among festivities. The kingdom walled it off and forbade anyone from entering or taking anything from the city. After all if whatever responsible killed off 12th lvl adventurers. It would be able to off the kingdom. So the city was simply struck from the records.

In one game I played in we came across a deck, I mentioned for no reason "Watch me draw the worst card." and sure enough that is what happened, sent straight to a NPC's dungeon as a prisoner. I suppose that the silver lining was that I was backstabbing the entire party at the time due to my desire of getting rid of a NPC paladin that was travelling with us.

I’ve this idea of a deck of many things, where the drawer of the card gets the main effect AND the companions(people who persist in accompanying the drawer) get a unique effect while witnesses of the drawing are also effected with a unique effect. The magical effect for the drawer is inversely related (positive-negative) to the magical effect that is imposed on the companions or witnesses. (Example:drawer gets a boon so companions/witnesses get curses and vice versa). In addition, the amount of witnesses/companions related to a drawing of this type of deck of many things has a relative amplifying effect on the effect for the drawer, as well as having a modest diluting effect relative to the number of witnesses on the intensity of the effect on the witnesses/companions. This would create a really cool storytelling effect where in a veteran npc deck-bearer-drawer who’s experienced many highs and lows via this powerful magic, and has learned about how witness/companions to a drawing effects it, imposes on the attentions on all of busy tavern’s patrons, to make a drawing…. I am assuming that if someone has survived through drawing from the deck enough times that they have learned about this effect, that they have been fortunate enough to mostly benefited from the magic of the deck. However, on that NPCs last drawing, they are killed from a negative effect and the players get the positive effect and also become the bearers of the deck with only whatever mad ramblings about how the deck works they were able to hear. It would make it like a monkeys paw, that carry the possibility of unloading the negative affects of it on to other people, and would be so tempting to try to increase the positive affects for the drawer by having more witnesses (but this would also be how the deck keeps getting passed around because the more witnesses there are the more chance there is for people to take it or whatever)

I used the deck of many things in a game and rigged it to further my plot I had going. I let the player shuffle, then took a hint from Matt Colville's video on the item and hid the cards I wanted drawn in the lid. I flipped it shut, then when it came time to draw... he split the deck... the first card drawn after splitting the deck imprisoned him on another plane. So my plot just went out the window and the campaign turned into a rescue mission. Unfortunately the bad guys finished their plans on the material plane with their absence.

Of all the magic items in d&d, this ones a game changer! I love the deck of many things....nice one kiwi!

6:58 Anyone else repeat, "THEE ACE OF SPAAAADES!" in their heads after Professor Pickett said it? -raises hand- .... Just me?

AJ if you are going to do more videos of wondrous item could you cover the instant fortress and the Mage's Magnificent Mansion?

Why would you call metagaming on them playing with an arcane russian roulette? Trust me, if they were gonna metagame they wouldn't touch the damn thing in the first place.

AJ Pickett Do you remember seeing any magazine articles (Dungeon, or Dragon) about substituting implements for potions and magic items? I used to have characters use them to make things like war clubs of strength out of Annis bones, or healing potions out of Hydra livers and giant bee honey and things like that.

Excellent work on this deep dive video- thanks for posting!

I LOVE that you plugged my man, Matt Colville over at MCDM. I can't believe I didn't find your channel sooner.

I would love to challenge a BBEG with taking turns of pulling until one of us can no longer draw.

I did love this video about artifacts, but I love ALL your videos - imo you're the hands-down best provider of D&D lore. :)

also known as "catastrophe waiting to happen simulator 2018"

Is there any rules for what happens if npc characters draw from the deck? Can I gamble with devils and be like "I bet you are too scared to try this shit?"

Queen of Spades - Immediate death. No saving throw.

I call it the Deck of Hilarious Outcomes and my characters ALWAYS draw from the deck if they don't know what it is.

5th edition has an interesting line of what happens when you don’t draw as many cards as you said you would. You draw the entire deck is what

I like the idea of assigning one the nasty effects to legendary monsters as a one off last stand ability

For those of you that might be interested the Deck of Many Things was featured in Dungeon Magazine #177 starting on page 62 to 68 and set up (at least in the PDF I have) to be printed off on card stock for use. Also this is the exact same as the one feature in the 5E DMG with the only difference being a plain white border instead of the plain black one used in the 5E DMG.

Hehehe your accent and the word deck.... Brings out my inner Beavis and Butthead.

I love this video AJ!!! It is so descriptive and amazing!!!!

Of all the items out there that I'd like to know more about, for some reason the Holy Avenger was the first to come to mind followed by the Book of Vile Darkness.

Now I'm excited. Thanks for the vid on this campaign wrecking item.

This is great. I had to listen to this twice :D

just woke up.this is my coffee

Just for fun how about a deck of misfortune that only has negative effects ranging from minor annoyances to horrors, but there are a few positive cards that come with negative effects as well, and how about a deck of wonder that has only positive cards? Both the decks appear to be a deck of many things unless a high DC perception check if made to spot the differences, the deck of wonders can only have a single card drawn from per person before it vanishes, but the deck of misfortune works like the deck of many things when it come to drawing cards, except it also has a compulsion effect on it making whoever has it desire to draw more then one card from it if they choose to draw.

The deck of many things were also a prop in 2nd Ed. D&D that they made from card stock included in a Ravenloft boxed set. The story was that they were a set of cards from a tarokka deck that the Vistani used to tell fortunes with. The Vistani were depicted much like the Hollywood troupe of gypsy. It was a really neat setup because fortune telling could drive the story forward in many different ways. I do also believe the Vistani are mentioned in the adventure Curse of Strahd.

I will never use one of these things. However, hearing funny stories about what has happened to unfortunate player characters is usually very entertaining.

Could an Artificer create a Counterfeit Deck Of Many Things to sell, promising it would only be good things? One with Mind influencing effects that cause those who draw from it to THINK that a given thing has occurred when it hasn't? That could be a very simple yet devastating cursed item, imagine a player charging a Balor with what he thinks to be a Holy Avenger he found thanks to this Deck Of Lies but it is actually a perfectly ordinary sword. Imagine a character finding out that he only THOUGHT he had a great boost in strength thanks to an illusory level. The best thing about the scam for the mage who created it would be the fact that most people who bit off more than they could chew thanks to it wouldn't survive to come after him.

Third, the deck has always been a suicide pact between all characters involved

The deck of many things is awesome not just out of being cool but also in the old definition of the word as in meaning that it has the power to bless curse or destroy you at a moments notice

If you're running a campaign that you're heavily invested in, DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF PELOR, INTRODUCE THE DECK OF MANY THINGS!!!

Definitely using this one! Thanks aj

Nice work A.J.

Once you prepare for the use of the Deck of Many things and consider all the possibilities (game plan them a bit ) then there is little that D&D and the players have that can implode your skill as a DM. Accept the challenge young DM and achieve greatness ! (add storm effects reverb here )....... But if it crushes the party - not my fault:)

No kidding, I too keep my Tarokka deck with my dice. AJ, you said something about it being neutral gods of luck, but for the first time really thinking about how they work, I was forming a headcanon. Decks of Many things are playing pieces within the symbolic multiverse casino of luck. For the universe's table you have Tymora, the CG goddess of fortune at the Great Wheel within the Gates of the Moon, and at the other end you have Beshaba, the CE goddess of misfortune at Blood Tor within Gehen. Other deities of luck may partake for whatever it is they want, but in essence it is part of a game where Tymora and Beshaba are trying to shift luck to good or evil respectfully, reward the good and punishing the evil, or rewarding evil and punishing good. In terms of you saying it disappears, I kind of like the idea if the DM could manage to have luck itself somehow play a part, somehow the deck ending up in someone else's hands, and or disappears or is replaced without them noticing by the unseen hand of a deity of fortune. And in addition, the wish from the deck comes to mind that I think that wishes gained from different sources can have different effectiveness. A genie will try and play on the wording, while a wizard's wish may be well thought out, but an untrained person using a deck wish may likely not have the picture in their head marry up well with reality, and have strange effects. Like a heavy drinking wishing to solve a conflict might unintentionally make everyone drunk.

Finally! Well done, sir!

good video AJ

Tommarow my party will start heading to the location of the castle we got from the deck we have to clear it out and claim it

I love the deck if many things, and had the misfortune of running into a red jester in a recent session, got hit with a flames card from the little jerk. Its a good thing that it happened at the close of the campaign, but we will likely be revisiting those characters so I might just need to be on guard. You know I wonder about the lore of the red jester, and I bet that would be an interesting video.

Some quick fire magic item ideas: Wardrobe Of Holding (looks at closet overstuffed with band t-shirts.) You KNOW nobles would commission an Artificer for such a thing for simmilar reasons on a setting like Eberon where magic is common enough. If one was stolen it could be a good McGuffin for the party to bring back. A Deck of many trivial but good things. Things like "Tasty Meals: The food your party eats be it from hunting, at an inn or from rations is EXTRA tasty giving each one a +1 die for good morale usable once that day usable for any mental challenges." The Perfect Outfit: A simple comfortable shirt/pants or skirt combo & that appears to anyone viewing it as the best outfit for how the wearer wants to be perceived. Communication Mirrors: Skype via Magic Mirrors essentially, allowing for those who can afford it to be able to communicate with others via far distances if the other party has one too. This would be perfect for a conspirator game & you could even have compact sized versions for communication with those on the move. It would allow a party member to remain in contact with an instructor or mentor.

Thanks for the vid sir.👍🏼👍🏼

What about a bag of holding that the owner could turn invisible would be great for smuggling items past guards or escaping prison because the guards haven't realised your holding a bag filled with tools.

I understand putting card back as a way to keeps odds when picking the next being the same But I'd say if you pick the same one twice in the same pull it would either be a blank or you'd redraw. Mostly to keep things interesting but also doubling some of those cards can be game breaking...

Simple, let players keep the good effects, make bad effects reversible with some efforts. Make games so much easier to run.

I know recently you said you'd been on a health kick, but I also really like what you did with your hair whilst modelling the t-shirt at the end of this video.

I think I this intro the best

If greater restoration, and resurrection, or revivify work to revert the effects of the deck, a powerful party good handle most of the negative effects.

Somebody said Rimali (goes on high lore alert)

I have a critical role Major Arcana Tarot deck that i use for the deck of many things

My personal homebrew was almost as devastating. The deck of desire. You could only draw two cards a time. The PC's chose the deck of many things over it. Hahaha.

Oh my is this smiling elf-maiden at the end AJ's better half? This channel is full of surprises. 23:45

The Deck of Many Things: Because making the DM cry is fun.

Also known as "You better believe the ever-loving fuck out of the heart of the cards."

Ah my favorite item. The deck of many thing you don't want. Ruining campaigns one card at a time.

With the card rules it kind of sounds like you can circumvent bad luck by just not pulling as many cars as you said once you got a bad card. But if you got a good card you keep it. Not sure I got it right. But it seems like a way to kinda cheat it

The two things I hate the most seeing in a game: the deck of many things and a wild mage... I know most of the time I will be paying the price for the draws and wild surges. I must restrain myself from outright trying to hide or destroy the deck or becoming a pc killer when a wild surge hits me. Rough times. I just cant wrap my head around the attractiveness of random mayhem and free gifts. To each his own I guess.

I was always afraid of this one

Book of infinite spells!!!

I love early D&D personally.

Yeah man,I've used the Deck of Many Things since the beginning and you don't have enough room in your comment section for all the times I've played god just at the beginning of each session! "Dude!?......Wheres my soull!?" Yeah after using it so many times we have mages that only graduate after successfully creating a single plaque in the deck and after producing archmages for 2 centuries in our highest colleges we've gotten quite good at it!

I would LOVE to hear the fan made hear the fan ideas for magical items. I have a simple one as well that has a musical inspiration: The Gilded Violin. This is a golden violin that gives the possessor proficiency in playing it. It also gives a +(3+X) bonus to all rolls to convince anyone of anything or to perform any action after they have heard a musical piece played on this instrument even if it is against their moral code, where X is equal to the character's levels of as a Bard. This effect is usable 3 times a week on the same subject & is cumulative. There are a few down sides of course to something if this power, like The One Ring in The Lord Of The Rings this instrument will attempt to morally corrupt anyone who uses it guiding them via suggestions that at times will require a Will saving throw to resist. The Violin will trigger as Lawful Evil by any spell that can detect aliment and actually scalds the hands of Good Outsiders who attempt to grab it as if it was heated to being red hot. If used once per week the owner must make a Will Saving throw to avoid suggestions by the Violin that are aimed at changing his alignment to Lawful Evil. If playing in a Modern Earth setting such as Urban Arcana the item can be traced back to a raid on a Drug Kingpin operating out of a large plantation estate just outside of Atlanta Georgia. After a raid it was subsequently stolen from the Police evidence locker. "Do you honestly think I would lose to some pathetic fiddle playing redneck? He got that golden violin because I WANTED it on the material plane. Now it will attract an exponential stream of mortals to us as it corrupts the performer & he corrupts others. That dumb fiddle player may have gotten the violin but we ended up with his soul despite me throwing that little contest." - Asmodeus

Someone needs to do a Jumanji story with this where the group or a single character gets trapped in the deck. Maybe the decks maker has made a card that creates it's own demi-plane and teleports the person who draws it to that plane for some unknowable purpose.

So the way I saw my first gamemaster use it wasn't as a standard magical items. Rather, we went to a vistani cartomancy parlour that charged very high price for their service. They told us that in its world of origin these cards divined the future, but in our world, they changed our future. We drew a few cards, spent a lot of gold, had a lot of fun. My gamemaster had designed his own card effects, which made things rather interesting instead of unexpected.

18:57 Vellum is a kind of parchment.

What if a true-netral character, draws the flip alignment card?

3.5e system for rules on creating magic trap items. Mage of Cards, .. a.) Treat an illustrated card as a wand effect with unlimited charges. 52 individual spell items that form a complete deck. example, Death card activates 4th-level Lesser Planar Binding spell calling an 8hd death spirit. gear to attack the puller of the card or whoever the card wielder wants the spirit to attack. Takes .. magic the gathering card game to a different level.

It's possible to pass WHAT between many hands? My virgin ears!

The infamous Deck of Many Things, campaign killer or campaign Kickstarter?! For Less experience Dm's, I would recommend keeping this item out of your campaigns. At least until you feel you can handle the varied and random effects and possibilities situations the deck can create. In this regard being familiar with the effects of some of the greater cards in the deck can have is very important. Such as the proper use an execution of a wish spell as just one example. Being familiar with this magic item and it's many different effects is fairly important if you're going to include such an item in your campaign setting. Good luck and remember dungeon master is not just a term of endearment but a state of mind. :-)

Yay

If you think you are ever runnimg out of monsters to do then you should continue to do more magical items.

The fact this video has 777 likes makes me so happy.

Every player that wanted get this deck really bad hated it soon after getting it. Every one. Because it was still a fanboy item, I made many MANY homebrew items, alternative decks, that had larger rewards and even more grave costs. The Deck is not True Neutral, it is cursed. It's opposition cards in negative tend to outweigh its beneficial cards. It is a grey area cursed item that many benefited from, like people who get fiscal windfalls from wasting a LOT of their money by playing The Lottery. I have a LOT of homebrewed versions of the Deck of Many Things, many relative sources. I introduce it via encounter by plan or roll it randomly as a campaign spice. It is an underestimated campaign-altering item. No, I am not exaggerating. It is akin to being another player who is a bit random.

Some decks do not vanish. I don't recall an exact percentage though. Maybe 20% of them?

Oh man, i got fucked. XD

What happens if someone draws the scull and the party forces their way into the fight?

What triggers the effect? Is it seeing the face or drawing the card itself? And what happens if the player says that they'll draw all the cards or none of them?

Can u wish member back after queen?

so many blue cards

Only the truly masochistic will implement this item into their campaigns without homebrewing the results first. If you use it, better pray to the rng gods that you don't get any of the game breaking effects.

Monitor?

Huh the more I learn about d and d the more I realize Noah antwiler is the worst dungeon master of all time I think he breaks literally every rule there is about the deck of many things from how many cards you can draw to whether or not cards go into the deck.

THUMBS UP! Get this video to 1,000 thumbs up guys! :p

Stack the deck. That is the best way to handle it. 4th card is always K of Clubs. Because drawing 4 is just greedy.

This were not balanced ❤

To any GM who chooses to include either version of the Deck in his/her game, I have a very strong recommendation for you: *DIVIDE ALL EXPERIENCE GAINS AND LOSSES FROM THE DECK BY 10!* The reason for this is that the Deck Of Many Things was created for Second Edition, not Third or Fifth Edition (I have little knowledge of the abomination called Fourth Edition, so we'll skip that). In Third and Fifth editions, it takes 355,000 experience points to go from "fresh off the farm, never been with a tavern wench, one pissed-off troll or even a dozen orcs = TPK" to "killing demigods is just a warm-up exercise that we do before breakfast". Gaining or losing 50k (or even 10k) here would be an INCREDIBLY large swing. On the other hand, in Second Edition, it takes about double that amount to go from level 1 to level 20--for a Rogue, which was designed to level up the quickest in that edition. For the slowest advancing 2E class (wizard, natch), double the amount AGAIN. In Second Edition, 50,000 xp was nothing to sneeze at, but also not exactly a game-breaker. For some reason, Wizards of the Coast simply transplanted the Deck to Third Edition as-is, and apparently, still hasn't bothered examining its stats as of Fifth Edition. Dropping a zero from all the xp gains and losses would be a simple, effective method of making the Deck Of Many Things as suitable as such an item can be for Fifth Edition (unless, of course, you're running a Monty Hall game, but in that case, the unaltered Deck itself would be overshadowed by all the Major Artifacts[tm] the PCs would be collecting).

I created a deck that requires the player/party to create the image on the back of the card and then draw randomly .. it has three sets with three images -- to prevent memorization -- it only becomes active when all three images are complete . then only 1or two cards cam be drawn from each image -- NO ONE has done it.. COWARDS -- Muhahahaha

i love the fact that you said not to have the players do something they wouldn't do.Then gone into straight lore.I wouldn't be surprised people get lost and think it must be the race lore not the players.Chaos is bad.Sorry but it is.