Pyramid Review
The Deck of Many Things (for d20 System)
Published by Green Ronin Publishing
Layout & Design by Hal Mangold
Art by Eliane Bettocchi
Twenty-four cards (22 artifact cards & two rules cards); full color, in a tuck box; $9.95
They say any good GM can really put his performance over the top by providing a few props in play. They need to be something special, though, like treasure maps, replica weapons, or paper made to look like old parchment. However, even better than this would be something custom-made for your game, though how many groups outside the miniatures companies actually offer something useful in this respect? The Deck of Many Things may not be a wand of wonder or a cloak of displacement but it's a lot easier to simulate and it has actual uses for anyone sitting around the table.
If you've only been playing Dungeons & Dragons for, say, a week, you might not know what this deck is. It started as an insert in an issue of Dragon magazine and became one of the most infamous items ever: a deck of cards from which strange and wonderful occurrences might arise. Or not. A stout hero states how many cards he's willing to draw from the deck and, once committed, pulls them out one at a time.
Sometimes it's good. A dedicated follower might appear and pledge his steel to your cause, or you could gain riches, or you may be granted a certain number of wishes. On the other hand, you might not be so lucky. All your magic items could . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: May 18, 2007
Copyright © 2007 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.