Deck of Many Things - Expansion Pack

[Rubberband_Man]

Hey everybody!
So I recently acquired a deck of Tarot cards because I'm a massive nerd. I realized after purchasing them that the Deck of Many Things is based on Tarot cards. I took a look at the DMG entry on it and discovered that not all the cards have been assigned an effect. Not only that, but the cards that do have an effect are totally out of order! I wanted to make an expansion pack for the Deck to accommodate a complete deck, so I thought I'd ask you guys for help.

Here's how a basic deck of Tarot cards is structured:
There are 78 cards in a complete deck, 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana

The Major Arcana (or Trump cards):
There are 22 cards in the major Arcana. Each of these cards has a special name and meaning. They are numbered from 0 to 21, and they typically have more potent/significant meanings with respect to the whole card reading/divination aspect. With respect to the actual playing card game, the Trumps are comparable to the royalty in a normal poker deck (This can be confusing as there are kings and queens in the minor arcana). Altogether, the Major Arcana should be considered the more "important" cards, possibly having more extreme effects.

The Minor Arcana:
The remaining 56 cards are known as the minor arcana. They are structured much like a normal poker deck, with 4 suits and 14 cards per suit. Unlike a normal poker deck, however, each of the minor arcana has a different image on it. For instance the 10 of swords has an image of a man impaled by ten swords on it, while the 10 of cups has an image of a man and a woman beneath a rainbow with ten cups on it. Each card has a different divinatory meaning.
The four suits are swords, wands, cups, and coins (pentacles).

Here are the names of the cards.
Their pictures and divinatory meanings are on this website: http://www.ata-tarot.com/resource/cards/
Additionally, the ones already in the Deck of Many Things are bolded, and cards that are given an effect on this thread are bolded and have an asterisk (*). You can find the existing effects on DMG pg278

Major Arcana
None (0 or 22) The Fool
1 The Magician* - Rubberband_Man
2 The High Priestess* - NichG
3 The Empress* - NichG
4 The Emperor* - NichG
5 The Hierophant
6 The Lovers* - NichG
7 The Chariot* - NichG
8 Justice
9 The Hermit
10 Wheel of Fortune* - NichG
11 Strength* - NichG
12 The Hanged Man
13 Death
14 Temperance* - NichG
15 The Devil
16 The Tower
17 The Star
18 The Moon
19 The Sun
20 Judgement* - NichG
21 The World* - NichG

Minor Arcana
Suits are swords, wands, cups, and coins (pentacles)
Ace of swords* - NichG
2 of swords
3 of swords* - NichG
4 of swords
5 of swords
6 of swords* - NichG
7 of swords* - NichG
8 of swords
9 of swords* - NichG
10 of swords
Page of swords* - NichG
Knight of swords* - Rubberband_Man
Queen of swords* - Rubberband_Man
King of swords* - Rubberband_Man
Ace of wands
2 of wands
3 of wands
4 of wands
5 of wands
6 of wands
7 of wands
8 of wands
9 of wands
10 of wands
Page of wands
Knight of wands
Queen of wands
King of wands
Ace of Cups
2 of Cups
3 of Cups
4 of Cups
5 of Cups
6 of Cups
7 of Cups
8 of Cups
9 of Cups
10 of Cups
Page of Cups
Knight of Cups
Queen of Cups
King of Cups
Ace of Pentacles* - Rubberband_Man
2 of Pentacles
3 of Pentacles
4 of Pentacles
5 of Pentacles* - Rubberband_Man
6 of Pentacles* - Rubberband_Man
7 of Pentacles* - Rubberband_Man
8 of Pentacles
9 of Pentacles
10 of Pentacles
Page of Pentacles
Knight of Pentacles
Queen of Pentacles
King of Pentacles

There are 56 cards with no effect! I will not stand for this until I can use a real deck of tarot cards as a Deck of Many Things!

I'll start us off:
The Magician: Player gains a permanent +10 divine bonus to any one knowledge skill. Lose all ranks and bonuses for 2 other knowledge skills permanently (Player's Choice).

Lemme see some crazy cool ideas!

*EDIT*
Cards will now be credited to the one who assigns an effect to it. If multiple effects are assigned to the same card by different people, I will choose the one I like more and credit that person. If you disagree with my choices, then look through the posts and pick the ones you like more :P

[Kazudo]

Judgment: Cast FATAL.

Haha...but really, I like the notion. I really do. It's kinda tough to come up with stuff for this. Do you want them based on the Tarot's actual outcome or what?

[ArqArturo]

I wouldn't add an expansion, because then DMs would argue that the new cards are pretty OP, and then we'd have to make different adventure modules for each version.

As someone who's not really well-versed in the IRL Arcane Arts, I have to say it looks interesting. I've a friend that has a collection of decks of playing cards (his centerpiece is an heirloom of his great grandfather: A set of cards bought during the Mexican Revolution, which I believe they might be Huckster cards, I just need Hoyle's Book of Games), and he owns a Tarot deck, so I'll ask him.

[Rubberband_Man]

Well, as far as I can tell the effects in the DMG are only tangentially related to the cards actual meaning. I only posted the meanings in case somebody wanted to go the extra mile. In any case, the Deck of Many Things is kind of OP to begin with. I mean the moon grants you 1d4 wishes, the tower bankrupts you, and Death makes you fight a Dread wraith by yourself and if you die you become un-revivable. It's an item that you put in a campaign because you have lost interest and just want to screw with people.

[NichG]

The Wheel of Fortune: You and another person of your choice (anywhere) both draw one card.
The World: You may cause a new landmass to rise from the depths of the ocean and be instantly covered with life as if it had been that way for centuries. You have control over the overall shape, terrain, and type of environment of the new land. The maximum extent of this landmass is a 150km x 150km area, and it cannot overlap with any existing landmasses (minimum distance is 50km offshore).
Strength: One-time boon: you may choose to expend this card during a fight. For the remainder of that fight, all of your attacks that hit automatically crit.
The Chariot: Within the next 24 hours, you must choose the destination for a permanent 20ft diameter planar portal that will appear at your location. If you do not choose, the portal appears automatically, but with a random destination.
Temperance: You gain a permanent +5 divine bonus to Will saves, but you cannot ever choose to voluntarily fail a Will save, even against harmless or beneficial effects.
Judgement: If you are Good aligned, your preferred weapon gains the Holy enchantment for free (as in, it does not increase the cost of future enchantments). If you are Evil aligned, lose 5000xp and draw twice more. If you are neutral, you may choose either outcome but must choose one of the two.
The Lovers: Gain infinite-range/cross-planar telepathy with anyone your character has a romantic relationship with, now or in the future. If you do not currently or at some time in the future have a romantic entanglement, one is provided randomly and in a likely highly awkward fashion within a week.
The Emperor: Within the next 10 minutes, you may issue a single edict. This retroactively adds itself to the legal codes of every nation on your present continent (it can be removed through normal channels, or ignored if obviously non-sensical or insane to obey such as 'everyone must kill themselves right now', but in general people will act as if a former ruler instituted this law).
The Empress: Choose one organization/faction/type of enemy that is opposed to you. Members of that side must make an effort to capture you alive rather than kill you in the future. This is a compulsion associated with a DC 40 Will save that bypasses immunity to Mind Affecting.
The High Priestess: You receive a vision from a deity (not necessarily the one you worship). This vision includes a quest or demand. If you fulfill the quest, you gain permanent access to one of that deity's domain spells of your choice as a 1/day SLA. If you refuse the quest or take longer than 6 months to fulfill it, servants of the deity are sent to attack you.


9 of Swords: The next (level-appropriate) scenario you help resolve will have an additional strictly negative unforeseen consequence. This could be anything from something immediate to 'the little boy you saved will become the next evil overlord'.
7 of Swords: Gain a +7 to all rolls when fighting alone; suffer a -2 to all rolls when fighting in a team.
6 of Swords: An NPC close to you will spontaneously die of old age within the next 24 hours, unless you sacrifice someone or something else equally important to you instead (though in that case, they may die of something other than old age)
3 of Swords: Lose the support of a major ally, due to circumstances beyond their direct control.
Ace of Swords: Permanently gain +2 Int but lose 1 Wis. Draw again.
Page of Swords: Tarot shades join your next encounter as enemies in order to increase the encounter's CR by 2 (essentially doubling each enemy). However, XP and loot gained from that encounter is quadrupled.

[Jeff the Green]

Happy Squirrel: Each morning a portal to the Plane of Shadow opens at your location and 10d20 Skiurids (MMIV) pass through. You must make a DC 20 Diplomacy or Intimidate check, on which you may not take 10 or 20. If you fail, the Skiurids follow you the entire day, interfering with all activities you might attempt. If you fail by 10 or more, they immediately attack you. If you succeed, they follow you the entire day and attempt to help you with all activities you might attempt; they still have an Intelligence score of 2, however, so their help might not be particularly useful or well thought out. (If you are a Paladin or otherwise are required to abstain from associating with evil creatures, you fall if you succeed on the Diplomacy or Intimidate check. You may choose to voluntarily fail this check; treat this as rolling a 1 (or the highest number less than 1 that would cause you to fail, if your Diplomacy or Intimidate modifier would cause you to succeed even on a 1) for the purpose of determining whether the Skiurids attack you or merely hinder your activities.

The portal closes immediately after the Skiurids exit. Any Skiurids still alive when a new portal opens automatically return to the Plane of Shadow.

[Mcdt2]

AD&D actually has something like this, a deck of many things based on a complete tarot deck. Obviously it would require some updating to work with 3.5, but it would be good for inspiration at least. I know it was in the Encyclopedia Magica, Volume 1. It was originally in some issue of Dragon magazine, but I forget which one it was.

[Rubberband_Man]

Knight of Swords: A vassal of the nearest Kingdom to you immediately appears and attempts to recruit the character for a Holy Crusade to expand his kingdom's influence. If the character agrees, he is teleported to the Kingdom's nearest outpost where he will serve the knight for one quest of the knight's choosing. He may bring anyone with him that is willing. If character refuses, the knight immediately declares him a heretic and attempts to kill him. If others join the fight another knight of equal level is summoned to fight them. Treat all of these knights as NPC's of the character's level. Their classes may be decided by the DM.
Queen of Swords: A phantom of a long dead monarch belonging to a nearby kingdom appears to the player and speaks as the speak with dead spell for one hour. The phantom answers truthfully and to the best of her knowledge. At the end of the hour, the Phantom indicates the direction of her burial site and disappears.
King of Swords: A +2 holy or unholy longsword (DM's choice) appears stuck in the ground in front of the player. The first one to draw the sword from the ground (DC 30 Strength Check) may make a claim to the throne of the nearest kingdom with a 50% chance of success. If the claim is unsuccessful, the claimant is chased out of the town and forbidden from ever returning.

[Rubberband_Man]

Got bored. Doing more of these cause its fun.

Ace of Pentacles: 10,000 gp rains from the sky in a 500 ft radius centered on the player, dealing 5d4 points of bludgeoning damage to everyone within range.

5 of Pentacles: Player loses 5,000 gp and 5,000 xp. Gains cold resistance 10 and +4 bonus to all saving throws against disease.

6 of Pentacles: Player must donate 20% of their cash to a charitable cause as if affected by Geas/Quest. Once the donation has been made, the player is granted one limited wish, with the caveat that they may not ask for money or magical items for himself. However, he may ask for money and items to be given to others. This effect may not be removed by wish or miracle. Only the direct intervention of a deity may remove the geas/quest.

7 of Pentacles: Draw one more card. You may choose someone else to receive the effect of this new card. You can make this designation after the card has already been drawn.