Deck of Many Things
It's always scary as a DM to bring out a Deck of Many Things - it can be deadly and devastating. However, there it was, a Deck dealer on Level 6 of the Inner Fane in the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil super-module.
And I was ready. Years ago, Dungeon Magazine (I'm pretty sure) had published a full 22-card "deck". This actually consisted of a couple of pages that they suggested you first laminate, and then cut up, which I did. It's a bit miniaturized - each card is about two by three inches. The back of each card is the same, but the face of each has a picture and the DMG caption. In all the years I've owned it, I have only used these cards once before, I believe, so I was chomping at the bit to use them again. But, nervous too!
Four of five Players (including me - I am playing a PC with the party) chose to draw cards, but this is truly waywalker's story. Among the rest of us, Tasha got a little bad (Euryale: -1 to all saving throws forevermore), lilacfree got some bad (Balance - change alignment) and some good (Key - gain a major magic weapon), and I got mostly bad (Fool - lose 10,000 XP and you must draw again; and Skull - defeat a dread wraith or be forever destroyed) and some good (Star - gain +2 to an ability score).
But waywalker's luck changed the game in a way I totally did not expect. Let me just start by saying that, minutes earlier than the Deck part of the game, he suffered a bit of real life tragedy. Stranger dogs broke into his chicken tractor and killed four of his chickens. Now, I know this may not sound like a big deal to anyone who has never actually lived on a farm before. But when you are a farmer, which he is, currently relatively small scale notwithstanding, this hurts. You know every animal you own individually, and you have expectations for each. Each one has its role. Each one has its place in where you see the future of your farm. For a pack of dogs to bust in and kill four chickens - well, it's an infuriating injustice. If they had just a point or two more of Intelligence, those dogs would fully appreciate how lucky they were that they were gone before waywalker found out what had happened. A firearm was procured and a very brief hunt was engaged - I'm just saying.
I'm not sure waywalker could have drawn his three cards better if the Deck had been turned face up! First he drew the Throne - gain +6 to Diplomacy and a small keep. We had just been discussing how the party needed a clear, public base of operations! Then, he drew Moon - you get 1d4 wishes. His PC's only "bad" luck of the day was that he rolled a 1 on that d4. Finally, he drew maybe the best card of all, Sun - gain a medium wondrous item and 50,000 XP. Holy crap, 50,000?!? This catapulted his character from level 12 to level 15, and with the end of game XP award, he actually made level 16. It is now William, Radiant Servant of Pelor's world - we are just living in it, lol.
Footnote 1: William used his one wish to erase my PC's XP loss, so I ended up with a net positive gain overall. Plus I awarded my PC some extra XPs for defeating the dread wraith in single combat. It was crazy easy, though, because of the ambient conditions when the Death figure appeared. You see, William had a constant spell effect going on his weapon that was the equivalent of real sunlight, and wraiths have "sunlight powerlessness" - they cannot attack when in sunlight, lol.
Footnote 2: After the game, I hung out at waywalker's and elena23's house for awhile. He and I agreed that we are greatly looking forward to how lilacfree plays out her PC's alignment change. She emotionally invests into and "gets inside the head" of her PCs to a degree that we both consider remarkable. It should be interesting!
And I was ready. Years ago, Dungeon Magazine (I'm pretty sure) had published a full 22-card "deck". This actually consisted of a couple of pages that they suggested you first laminate, and then cut up, which I did. It's a bit miniaturized - each card is about two by three inches. The back of each card is the same, but the face of each has a picture and the DMG caption. In all the years I've owned it, I have only used these cards once before, I believe, so I was chomping at the bit to use them again. But, nervous too!
Four of five Players (including me - I am playing a PC with the party) chose to draw cards, but this is truly waywalker's story. Among the rest of us, Tasha got a little bad (Euryale: -1 to all saving throws forevermore), lilacfree got some bad (Balance - change alignment) and some good (Key - gain a major magic weapon), and I got mostly bad (Fool - lose 10,000 XP and you must draw again; and Skull - defeat a dread wraith or be forever destroyed) and some good (Star - gain +2 to an ability score).
But waywalker's luck changed the game in a way I totally did not expect. Let me just start by saying that, minutes earlier than the Deck part of the game, he suffered a bit of real life tragedy. Stranger dogs broke into his chicken tractor and killed four of his chickens. Now, I know this may not sound like a big deal to anyone who has never actually lived on a farm before. But when you are a farmer, which he is, currently relatively small scale notwithstanding, this hurts. You know every animal you own individually, and you have expectations for each. Each one has its role. Each one has its place in where you see the future of your farm. For a pack of dogs to bust in and kill four chickens - well, it's an infuriating injustice. If they had just a point or two more of Intelligence, those dogs would fully appreciate how lucky they were that they were gone before waywalker found out what had happened. A firearm was procured and a very brief hunt was engaged - I'm just saying.
I'm not sure waywalker could have drawn his three cards better if the Deck had been turned face up! First he drew the Throne - gain +6 to Diplomacy and a small keep. We had just been discussing how the party needed a clear, public base of operations! Then, he drew Moon - you get 1d4 wishes. His PC's only "bad" luck of the day was that he rolled a 1 on that d4. Finally, he drew maybe the best card of all, Sun - gain a medium wondrous item and 50,000 XP. Holy crap, 50,000?!? This catapulted his character from level 12 to level 15, and with the end of game XP award, he actually made level 16. It is now William, Radiant Servant of Pelor's world - we are just living in it, lol.
Footnote 1: William used his one wish to erase my PC's XP loss, so I ended up with a net positive gain overall. Plus I awarded my PC some extra XPs for defeating the dread wraith in single combat. It was crazy easy, though, because of the ambient conditions when the Death figure appeared. You see, William had a constant spell effect going on his weapon that was the equivalent of real sunlight, and wraiths have "sunlight powerlessness" - they cannot attack when in sunlight, lol.
Footnote 2: After the game, I hung out at waywalker's and elena23's house for awhile. He and I agreed that we are greatly looking forward to how lilacfree plays out her PC's alignment change. She emotionally invests into and "gets inside the head" of her PCs to a degree that we both consider remarkable. It should be interesting!