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D&D: A Glimpse of Fate – Deck of Many Things Preview

2 Minute Read
Oct 23 2023
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After Planescape, there’s one last big release to round out the year, and that’s the revamped Deck of Many Things. A kinder, gentler chaos.

The Deck of Many Things is an iconic D&D artifact with a bit of a deadly reputation. And for good reason. The Deck of Many Things can absolutely transform a campaign, often for better or worse.

One character might end up rewarded with a new level, or with magic items and other treasure. Another might end up banished to an extradimensional void, unable to affect the world. Or worse, they might lose experience points or magic items!

But now, in a big boxed collector’s set (and hopefully individual books later) you’ll be able to get a Deck of Many Things for 5th Edition! Let’s take a look at what fate holds in store.

Do You Dare Draw? Probably! – Deck of Many Things

This book includes advice, adventure locations, and new monsters for Dungeon Masters, as well as character options, magic items, and organizations for players, all inspired by the deck.

This set also includes lavishly illustrated cards for the Deck of Many Things, including additional cards that triple the deck’s size, allowing you to build the perfect deck for your campaign. An accompanying guidebook shows how to use the cards as a traditional oracle deck or to create D&D adventures inspired by the cards.

The Book of Many Things and the newly revamped Deck of Many Things add 44 new cards to the Deck, bringing the card total to 66. Hence the tripling in size. But fear not, you can still have the original experience. Or create your own, as the book has advice on limiting your campaign’s Deck of Many Things to 22 cards.

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There are plenty more options—and typically much kinder ones. After all, 5th Edition’s reputation for being gentler on the characters that players get so attached to isn’t without cause. But, as you can see in the video, there’s still plenty of chaos to go around.

And alongside the new cards are a few other tools to play with. New backgrounds and feats. Though sadly, the subclasses introduced in the “Many Things” Unearthed Arcana seem to have vanished. Whether this is because WotC is moving away from releasing more subclasses permanently, or because it simply wants to wait until the new 2024 edition of D&D is out remains to be seen.

What do you think is in the cards for the Deck of Many Things?

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Author: J.R. Zambrano
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