Dungeons and Dragons: The Deck of Many Things triples in size with 44 new cards
Players of Dungeons and Dragons will be familiar with The Deck of Many Things. It's been around for a long time and has dramatically changed the course of many campaigns - with fate shifting cards that can level up your character, level down your character, grant them a keep overrun by monsters, or even banish them to The Void.
Wizards of the Coast are breathing life into this magic item with their latest release, updating it to a modern setting and adding many layers to the item.
For starters, it's a physical deck now - the box contains 66 unique cards, the vast majority of which are new. They're tarot-sized and can be used as an Oracle Deck, or to help build an adventure on the fly.
The set comes with 66 tarot-sized cards, with unique and new card art for each (Wizards of the Coast)Each card represents a person, place, treasure, monster, or situation, both upright and reversed, meaning a total of 10 different things represented by each card. The included book offers an idea for an adventurer's spread, which DMs can use to draw a random and unique campaign each time.
There are 44 new cards, each of which has an effect on par with the originals in terms of strength and power. For example, the new "Undead" card summons a revenant somewhere on the material plane, whose only goal is to hunt you down, while the "Ring" card grants you a magic ring, which is automatically attuned to you provided you have an empty attunement slot.
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Of the 66 cards in the set, 44 are brand new (Wizards of the Coast)There's also a "Dragon" card, which literally spawns and hatches a dragon egg in front of the player that pulled the card. Congratulations! Adventuring was hard, and now you get to enrich that experience by being a parent!
The card art is tied together with connections between each card - the Talons card is the hand of the Lich displayed on the Undead card, and is grasping for the ring in the Ring card.
Also introduced in this set is the idea of a "Sky of Many Things" - a zodiac for the world of Dungeons and Dragons. This zodiac is fleshed out pretty well, with it even helping you find out things about your character such as their favorite colour. Each star sign might also have magical effects in play while its visible in the sky, or for characters born under it.
The Sky of Many Things is more than just an astrological parallel though - it serves as an origin story for the Deck of Many Things. It's said that the first deck was created by the god Istus, the goddess of Fate, who drew the constellations down from the sky and made them into cards.
The Book of Many Things that comes with the set is more than just a manual for the cards, although it does contain a chapter for each of the cards with ideas, tips, and tricks. The Throne card for example grants the player a keep somewhere in the world, and the Throne chapter contains examples of potential holds and what monsters inhabit them. The Flames card draws the anger of a powerful archdevil, and now the Flames chapter contains three examples of creatures that might be angry with the player, saving the DM a lot of headache when using the cards on the fly.
Seelie Market is a location showcased in the Book of Many Things, and is an idea for a place where players might first meet the Deck of Many Things (Wizards of the Coast)In addition to this, it contains a new feat, two new backgrounds, and a host of new characters and locations. One such location is Seelie Market, where players might come into contact with the cards as early as level one.
This is an important element of the Deck of Many Things, because its so big now, DMs can deck-build, and some examples of such decks are included in the book. There's a starter deck idea, with only "easy" cards in it, or a so called "Deck of Many Horrors", which only the worst of cards contained within.
The voice of the book is Asteria, pictured here with Istus, goddess of Fate (Wizards of the Coast)Wizards are keen to stress that it's only as chaotic as the DM wants it to be. You can customised your Deck to fit your purpose and settings, including and omitting any cards that you think do or don't fit. If anything, the re-imagining of this magical item is designed to give the DM more power, getting rid of some of the chaotic and uncontrollable nature of the cards for them. It's meant to be chaotic for the players, not the DM.
The Deck of Many Things is available 14 November 2023, with two weeks of early access on D&D Beyond if you preorder.
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