May 3, 2019: How Does Decks Of Destiny Work In A Game?

Our ongoing Kickstarter campaign to create a big box of fun for use with The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition is continuing to gather support, with Decks of Destiny growing heavier and heavier as stretch goals are unlocked and more is packed inside. Over 275 cards now, a handful of journals, new megahexes . . . But how do you use all of this in a game? That depends on your play style and how you use The Fantasy Trip ruleset for adventures.

Solo play. Set yourself a goal – defeat three creatures, explore three Labyrinth cards, destroy as many wizards as possible in 30 minutes – and jump into the action. Using either the Labyrinth cards or the drop table in the lid of the Legacy Edition box, start exploring a random labyrinth and go until your chosen character is defeated or you achieve the goals you set at the start of the session. Bonus: Post your goal and results to The Fantasy Trip group on Facebook and challenge others to beat your record.
Tactical dungeon co-op crawls without a GM. Using the drop table in the Legacy Edition box, along with the Decks of Destiny cards, you and your friends can construct random encounters as you pull cards from the various decks in the Adversaries part of Decks of Destiny. How you choose cards is completely up to you; do you roll a die and draw that many orc fighters to battle, or do you choose one card each from the orc fighter, wizard, and creature decks and pit the unlikely team against your own characters? Either way, you can use the new treasure decks to determine the rewards after you slaughter the opposition.
One-on-one arena battles. Each of you draws a wizard card or an orc fighter card, and then you use the Melee or Wizard map and dive into a quick arena combat. If you wish, add more to each team to make a larger and deadlier battle.
Game-mastered adventures . . . when there's no time to plan an adventure. Okay, GM. We've all been there. Game time is in 15 minutes and you do not have an adventure ready. No problem! Draw one Labyrinth card and place it on the table. That's the opening of tonight's dungeon! Using the megahex tiles, or a dry-erase hex battle map, prepare the dungeon and then point at one of the openings and say: "You've reached the terrible dungeon. Enter, if you dare!" You can randomly draw a creature card – and a treasure, of course – every time they enter a new room. If they get to an edge, draw another Labyrinth card and keep building the dungeon. Go until you wipe out the entire party or until it loops back and they find an exit. If they don't choose to take it, that's their problem; you still have a whole deck full of monsters.
Game-mastered adventures . . . with a planner. So you're one of those responsible and organized GMs who puts the rest of us to shame? Okay, then you'll want to use the Labyrinth, Rumor, and Treasure journals found inside Decks of Destiny to plan a short adventure. Each journal includes a copy of all of the associated cards, as well as space for campaign-specific notes. A little time is all you need to construct a complete adventure from the tools in the box.

Regardless of how you use Decks of Destiny, the overloaded box of accessories is a great way to jump right in and enjoy your game in new ways. With the Kickstarter campaign closing on June 3, there's still time to join and help unlock stretch goals.

You missed out on last year's Kickstarter for the Legacy Edition of the game? Great news! The Decks of Destiny project includes an Everything reward level that will get you up to speed and load you down with enough material to enjoy The Fantasy Trip for decades. How do we know? Because the core of the Legacy Edition game was played for over three decades when the game was out-of-print . . . and all of the new stuff we're creating (with your support!) is adding more and more to the library of options.