Pick a Card, Any Card – A Deck of Many Things Explainer
D&D can get pretty chaotic, but there’s nothing more enticing, terrifying, and powerful than the illustrious Deck of Many Things.
Welcome, Adventurers! Dungeons & Dragons is the premiere roleplaying game on the market, and it has a wealth of fun twists. From powerful magic items to deadly enemies, there are tons of things that Dungeon Masters can throw at their party of players. However, there’s nothing more game-shifting than the Deck of Many Things.
What is the Deck of Many Things?
In its original incarnation, the Deck of Many Things was a collection of 22 tarot-style cards, usually stored in a leather case. Each one had a powerful magical effect, but the card you drew was always random. If you tried to look at the cards ahead of time, the magical effects would all trigger simultaneously (not a good thing).
Early in 2024, Wizards of the Coast released an updated version of the Deck of Many Things alongside a companion sourcebook. This new set gave us a gorgeous, tarot-sized deck of cards for use on the tabletop and introduced 44 brand-new cards to spice up card draws. You can pick up the new set here.
What Do the Cards Do?
In the latest iteration, the cards have a wide range of powerful and potentially deadly effects. To determine which you draw, you can either draw from a printed set of cards, or consult a d100 table. There are two possible decks: one containing twenty-two cards and the more common containing only thirteen. Once drawn, a card vanishes from your hand and reappears in the deck. That means that you can redraw the same card twice, a change from previous editions.
Card effects vary in power and severity. Some are simple, like a rare magic weapon appearing before you or a devil deciding it hates you personally. Others are much more far-reaching, like the ability to rewrite a moment in time, gain a small number of Wishes, or become entombed in a far-off place guarded by a powerful centurion. My personal favorite is the effect that summons Death itself to fight you. If it kills you, you can’t be returned to life by any means, and if your allies harm it, a copy of it starts to hunt them as well.
Can I Use the Deck of Many Things in My Game?
Of course you can! The Deck of Many Things is a wonderous item, which means it can exist across the dimensions in whatever realm you want to base your campaign. Want to set the game in Ravnica? Niv-Mizzet can draw a Wish card. Are you more of a fan of Dragonlance? Maybe you can trick Lord Soth into drawing the Death card. As long as you’re willing to introduce Chaos into your game, the Deck of Many Things is a fun bit of spice for your table.
I would offer a warning, though: the Deck of Many Things can have devastating effects on the flow of your campaign. While some cards have relatively low-stakes effects, some can break your carefully crafted stories. Having your character vanish from the pages of history right before their months-long arc ends can be frustrating for a player. Alternatively, the big bad in a campaign you’ve been building up for two years vanishing thanks to an unlucky pull can make for an unsatisfying end. If you bring this live grenade into your game, approach with caution.
Do I Have to Have the Official Deck?
While there is a gorgeous new printed deck, it isn’t required to play with the original. In 1974, when the deck was first theorized, the cards were drawn from a standard deck. You can also use a percentile die and assign each roll to a different card. However, I would suggest picking up the set if you want the most up-to-date rules and the additional 44 cards.
That also gives you the tactile feel of drawing an actual card, and you can remove cards you don’t want in your game (an unwary adventurer may have drawn them already). Either way, don’t let not having the cards hold you back! If you want a Deck of Many Things, there are dozens of ways to do it.
The Deck of Many Things Outside D&D
The RPG table isn’t the only place to find the Deck of Many Things. Thanks to the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Magic set, you can cast it alongside your favorite Commanders. It’s a decently powerful card, as you would expect from the DoMT, with some potentially devastating drawbacks. It could get you some powerful effects but also hand you a game loss if you aren’t careful. Like it’s Tabletop counterpart, be cautious if you test the Deck of Many Things.
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