Dusk Raven
2017-07-04, 07:16 PM
So, most of us are familiar with the Deck of Many Things, and there are other magical decks such as a Deck of Illusions that I've seen in 5e... but I've been wanting to create my own deck of magical cards, based on a Tarot deck. Now, the Deck of Many Things has Tarot counterparts for each of its cards, but those don't make a full Tarot deck, and the DoMT cards don't necessarily match the real meanings of the cards. Balance radically shifts a character's alignment, which has no meaningful relation to the Justice card, and summoning a Dread Wraith - the effect of the Skull card - doesn't really connect to the Tarot's Death card, which is about new beginnings or changes in life if upright, or resistance to change if upside-down.
So, I thought perhaps I - and anyone willing to help - would go through the list of traditional Tarot cards, examine their symbolism, and come up with 3.5/Pathfinder effects to match - both for the "upright" and "reversed" positions. For example, take the aforementioned Death card, with its symbolism of change and stagnation depending on position. For the "upright" effect, the next time the user of the card dies, a Reincarnation spell is cast upon them, without the typical negative levels or potential spell slot loss. However for the "reversed" effect, the next time the user would level up, their XP is instead reset to the minimum for their present level.
The basic idea of how the deck works is that a character can draw a card, and either keep it to use whenever they see fit, or draw a new one, causing the one they had to vanish. They are made aware of the effects of each card as they draw it. Each card can be used once, and has an "upright" and "reversed" effect - and which one takes effect is random. Usually one is good, situationally or otherwise, and the other is bad, also situationally or otherwise.
Other possible ideas to include might be the ability to give Minor Arcana cards that are drawn to someone else who does not have a card - if that someone takes possession of the card, the original holder can draw a new one, although they can't accept the old one back if they do so. Likewise, the new owner of the card must choose between using the card he has or drawing a new one. But Major Arcana cards must be used or abandoned by the one who drew them.
So, anyone think the idea has enough merit to provide feedback or help come up with card effects for a Pathfinder or D&D 3.5 version? They don't all need to be Deck of Many Things level - the Major Arcana are obviously powerful, but the Minor Arcana can have lesser effects - and as a result are also not as bad for the user if the negative effect comes up. But there are a lot of cards, and I'm open to suggestions for effects, particularly by anyone familiar (or willing to speculate) with Tarot symbolism! You can find a number of admittedly subjective interpretations, but have a link that seems worthy (if wordy) if you want an example site: http://www.ata-tarot.com/resource/cards/
So, I thought perhaps I - and anyone willing to help - would go through the list of traditional Tarot cards, examine their symbolism, and come up with 3.5/Pathfinder effects to match - both for the "upright" and "reversed" positions. For example, take the aforementioned Death card, with its symbolism of change and stagnation depending on position. For the "upright" effect, the next time the user of the card dies, a Reincarnation spell is cast upon them, without the typical negative levels or potential spell slot loss. However for the "reversed" effect, the next time the user would level up, their XP is instead reset to the minimum for their present level.
The basic idea of how the deck works is that a character can draw a card, and either keep it to use whenever they see fit, or draw a new one, causing the one they had to vanish. They are made aware of the effects of each card as they draw it. Each card can be used once, and has an "upright" and "reversed" effect - and which one takes effect is random. Usually one is good, situationally or otherwise, and the other is bad, also situationally or otherwise.
Other possible ideas to include might be the ability to give Minor Arcana cards that are drawn to someone else who does not have a card - if that someone takes possession of the card, the original holder can draw a new one, although they can't accept the old one back if they do so. Likewise, the new owner of the card must choose between using the card he has or drawing a new one. But Major Arcana cards must be used or abandoned by the one who drew them.
So, anyone think the idea has enough merit to provide feedback or help come up with card effects for a Pathfinder or D&D 3.5 version? They don't all need to be Deck of Many Things level - the Major Arcana are obviously powerful, but the Minor Arcana can have lesser effects - and as a result are also not as bad for the user if the negative effect comes up. But there are a lot of cards, and I'm open to suggestions for effects, particularly by anyone familiar (or willing to speculate) with Tarot symbolism! You can find a number of admittedly subjective interpretations, but have a link that seems worthy (if wordy) if you want an example site: http://www.ata-tarot.com/resource/cards/