D&D’s Deck of Many Things is an experiment that failed at the wrong time
The Deck of Many Thingsis unlike anything that has come before in the history of Dungeons & Dragons — an elaborate boxed set with multiple components, all focused on bringing a beloved magical item to life. It’s a singular project thrust into a yawning portal in the seminal role-playing game’s release calendar; the next take on 5th edition isn’t due out until later this year. But it’s the wrong product delivered at the wrong time, cast off into hostile waters already churned by corporate controversy that looms over the entire franchise.
It’s a shame, because the final product is actually pretty cool.
At the center of The Deck of Many Things is the deck itself, consisting of 66 gilt-edged, tarot-sized cards. Fully 22 of those cards are representative of powerful magical spells first introduced to the game way back in 1975, many of which have game- and campaign-breaking effects. Pulling a card from the Deck is a surefire way to cause absolute chaos in just about any D&D game by gaining levels, losing levels, killing characters, or having wishes granted by a djinn. Having a beautiful, physical representations of those world-shaking spells is a delight.
Together a full or even a smaller, more curated version of the Deck can be used to divine things at the table — just like a traditional tarot deck. Players can get a reading from a character in-game, of course, but there are also ways to use the cards to plan out encounters, traps, or small adventures. By dealing a simple three-card or a five-card spread you can add variety to any situation. With a full nine-card spread you can even create an entire campaign, one that flashes from the DM’s hand directly to the table thanks to its elegant gilt-edged design. And it’s that gilt edge, it seems, that has caused this product the bulk of its troubles.
Early on in the life cycle of 5th edition D&D, the team at Wizards of the Coast took pride in printing all of its books in the United States. But the economic realities of
Read more on polygon.com
