The results of yet another silly idea, "what if I wanna have a different type of Deck of Many Things in a game. A type that doesn not completely fuck over things but would still be interesting for players to mess around with and with potential to cause shenanigans".
Or, well, I did not explicitly set out to do exactly that but I ended up with results for the cards that are much lower power level than the original Deck of Many Things both because the world I run my games in currently is atleast aiming for the low-magic grim fantasy kind of theme, and because I'm a coward when it comes to flat out adding large scale destruction and ascension to godhood to my games.
The deck presented here is largely based on actual tarot deck imagery and most card effects atleast very loosely tie into how those cards are sometimes read.
Roughly half of the cards in this deck affect a person tho whom they are being read. This can be either another person, another PC, or even the reader themself if they are doing a reading alone.
I chose to make the cards a bit more interactive with the world in this way because I felt it would create interesting moments where a party member give another PC a reading and the results might afffect either one of the characters or even both in some cases, but also because I wanted to make the deck be something that can be used several times and that supports drawing several cards at once rather than being about drawing single card at a time and having them disappear after granting their effect.
Deck of Many Fates
Old and worn deck of cards, the edges all frayed and the faces of the cards full of small scratches presumably resulted from sliding the cards across or on a coarse surface. The images on the cards are somewhat faded in their colours and in more than one spot there's small doodles on them either to draw in features that have been worn out or to add some extra ones.
When giving a reading with this deck, consult to the card effects below. A reading can consist of any amount of cards which's effects will stay active untill another reading is given. There are four extra cards in the deck on top of the traditional major arcanas of tarot, these can be represented by one card from each minor suit if you wish to use actual physical deck of cards.
- I. The Fool - The image of a minstrel waltzing off a cliff with no care in the world, distracted by the bright sun.
The person to whom this card is read will survive unscathed from the next time they would suffer falling damage. - II. The Magician - Pictured here is a professor hunched over a foaming vial in laboratory that's drawn in astounishing detail.
The person to whom this card is read will find themself knowledgeable about the next subject they hear anyone pondering about. - III. The Hight Priestess - Depicted is a woman dressed in flowy robes laying atop a moon, a cencer hanging from her out stretched hand.
The person to whom this card is read will find themself unable to act the next time they're in the presence of someone they recognise as holy. - IV. The Empress - The image in the card is that of a noble woman holding a glass of wine, sitting down with a flower in her hair.
The person to whom this card is read will have others bend to their will within reason as long as they perceive those people to be below them in social status, likewise the person tho whom this card is read cannot oppose those who they perceive as above them in social status. - V. The Emperor - King sitting on a mighty throne with a stern expression, a bloodied sword and a severed head, both resting against the throne, have clearly been added as an addition to the original art.
The person giving the reading for this card will be able to command whoever they are reading to with the authority of their king once. - VI. The Hierophant - A Depiction of lavishly dressed priest giving a sermon before a group of people, the bottom of the card is covered in small scribbles of names worming up all the way to the backs of the people on the card.
If the person to whom this card is read shares a name with one of the names scribbled on the card (2-in-6 chance) they will slowly grow to admire the person giving the reading, eventually to the point of devotion and worship. - VII. The Lovers - The picture is of man and a woman in fancy suit and dress, sitting there facing each other with a spear that they don't seem to care about piercing both of them by their chest. The person giving the reading for this card will share the next amount of damage they would take with whoever they read this card to, and vice versa.
- VIII. The Chariot - Depicted on the card is a beautifully painted chariot with no horses, a spear rest against it's side.
The person to whom this card is read will find themself driven to be on the move soon, wether they wish to or not. (By monsters, bandits, tax collectors, angry nobles etc.) - IX. Justice - Pictured on this card is a dwarf pulling a longsword from the earth with both hands firmly grasped around it's hilt, in front of him on the ground lays a halfling perhaps waiting for his judgement.
The person giving the reading for this card learns one sin the person they're giving the reading to has committed. - X. The Hermit - Snowy mountain range, underneath which a man is sleeping all curled up.
The person to whom this card is read will experience uninterrupted rest the next time they lay down, and will only wake up after fully rested. - XI. The Wheel - On this card is a picture of a jester tied to large wheel, three daggers have hit the wheel while one has sunk itself to the jester's arm.
The person to whom this card is read will find themself extremely lucky in everything they set out to do for the next three days, but on the third day all of their successes will be paid for in misfortune. The opposite is true for the one giving the reading. - XII. Strength - Holy warrior wrestling a wolf, the animal looks ferocious but the man is pinning it down with his bare hands.
The person to whom this card is read to will find strength within themself whenever doing something perceived as heroic by themself (+2 to str mod when doing heroic stuff). - XIII. The Hanged Man - The faded image of a man hanging from a tree by his foot, he looks up at his tangled foot and looks somewhat annoyed.
For the rest of this reading, all the effects are reversed to affect the other person instead (So if card would affect the reader it affects the person to whom the card is read instead and vice versa). - XIV. Death - Almost comical looking depiction of death on his scrawny and malnourished pale horse staring into the far horizon.
Both the person giving the reading and to whom this card is being read are suddenly aware that one of them must die for the other to keep on living. (If reading this card by oneself, the person becomes painfully aware that they must end their life.) - XV. Temperance - Picture of a reserved lady throwing away the contents of a goblet into a much larger vessel.
The person doing the reading for this card and the person to whom this card is read will be compelled to balance out whatever they have the largest difference in (wealth, level, hp, etc.). - XVI. The Whale - This card is titled "The Whale" but the artwork resembles more of a rotting snake coiling around itself, if snakes had heads shaped like that that is.
When this card is revealed, anyone witnessing it can feel their guts sinking almost as if suddenly falling. Water turns foul and muddy. - XVII. The Tower - Depiction of a classic wizard's tower with the top few floors of it exploding from the inside and crumbling down.
The person to whom this card is read will lose something they are carrying with them but will find double it's value in silver later on. - XVIII. The Stars - A woman pouring the contents of two large vases into a lake reflecting the stars.
The person doing the reading for this card gains the effect of the earlier revealed card (or next one if this is the first card in the reading). - XIX. The Moon - The image here contains two dogs howling at a full moon in front of two towers, half of one of the dogs have been drawn in after being worn out.
The person to whom this card is read will develop a madness that they can mostly supress, except for during night time - XX. The Sun - This image is of a highly stylised sun smiling down on a field of flowers, with people dancing in a circle down on the field.
The person to whom this card is read may re-roll one of their Hit Die, and do so with one die size larger than their normal Hit Die. - XXI. Judgement - Depicted is a firey bird alight in flames and rising from a fire, the bird's beak is open in a cry of triumph or pain.
The person doing the reading for this card has to choose either themself or the person they're doing the reading for, after which that person will be absolved of the last sin they've committed after experiencing punishment for it by the universe. (No-one will recall the person having committed that sin afterwards.) - XXII. The Land - A great empty plain with high mountains crowning it in the horizon.
The person doing the reading for this card can revert one thing about the person they are giving the reading to to it's original state if they so wish. - XXIII. The Giant - Image of a large man posing triumphantly, four times the size of the others standing by his feet.
The person to whom this card is read will find that anyone under their leadership will not falter and will follow them even to certain doom. - XXIV. The Mountain - Incredibly well detailed depiction of a mountain range as seen from above at a slight angle, misty and snow-covered mountain tops rising towards the viewer as shadows demonstrate their sturdy ridges.
The person to whom this card is read will somehow gleam the moment of their death from the reading, giving them the ability to try and avoid it. (The PC can force a re-roll the next time they would die from result of a die roll.) - XXV. The Sea - Deep dark blue sea, raging and foaming with stormy clouds hanging over it.
The person giving a reading for this card will find themself fascinated by the shapes of the waves drawn on the card that seem almost like they are moving and will develop an obsession with water, wanting to see the patterns it makes as it moves. This may lead to madness over time. - XXVI. The Pit - Depicted here is a well with no walls, a deep pit with pavement around it, as seen from almost directly above with no bottom in sight.
The person to whom this card is read will be able to exchange all their current levels for levels in another class of their choosing, rolling their new hit die and keeping whichever hp total is higher the new or the old one.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zYuUI36BB8A-hdTA8kTp4OVxychjFfeBd0J6S4W-7t8/edit?usp=sharing
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