The Deck of Many Things: Card Reference Guide

Creating an Adventure Spread

To prepare the deck for creating an adventure spread, shuffle the cards, being sure to rotate some cards as you do so some cards will be upright and others reversed (upside down). Then lay out the top nine cards in a cross pattern, as shown in diagram 2. Each card represents a situation, person, creature, location, or treasure in the adventure, using the signifiers for each card described in the "Reading the Cards" section. You can pick any of a card's signifiers for any of the positions in the diagram, so let your imagination wander and build a story that excites you. Treat the cards placed sideways as upright if the top of the card is on the left and as reversed if the top is on the right.

[image: Diagram 2: Adventure Spread]

Lay out the cards in this order:

• 1: Party Gathers. This card represents the situation the characters are in before the adventure starts. It might be a place where they meet, a person they're visiting, a treasure they're all drawn to for different reasons, or a dangerous creature unrelated to the adventure to follow.
• 2: Adventure Begins. Place this card across the first card to represent how the adventure starts. It might be a situation that starts the action, an individual who gives the adventurers a quest, or an attack by a creature that prompts the party to follow it to its lair.
• 3: Journey. To the right of the first card, place a card that describes the transition from the introduction to the adventure location—probably a person, creature, or location the characters encounter along the way.
• 4: Entrance. Draw a card and place it to the right of the Journey card. This card describes the entrance to the adventure location. It might represent a creature that guards the entrance or the physical details of the entrance itself.
• 5, 6, 7: Challenges. These three cards describe the primary challenges the characters must face in the adventure. They might be creatures, people, or situations. Arrange these cards in a vertical line to the right of the Entrance card. You can draw additional cards if you want more than three challenges, or fewer cards for a shorter session.
• 8: Treasure. This card, placed to the right of the Challenge cards, describes a treasure that is the ultimate goal or reward of the adventure.
• 9: Guardian. Place this card across the Treasure card to describe the final obstacle the characters must overcome to achieve their goal and claim the Treasure. It's typically a creature but can also be a situation.

Example

Jennifer is running a game for her players next week, and she doesn't have an adventure planned. She decides to use The Deck of Many Things card set to generate adventure ideas. After shuffling the deck, she places cards as shown in diagram 3. Here's the adventure she creates: if a creature's name is bold, its stat block appears in the Monster Manual unless otherwise stated:

[image: Diagram 3: Example Adventure Spread]

• 1: Party Gathers. Jennifer's first card is the DMTCRG upright. She likes the idea of starting off in a fairground. The characters can engage in carnival games before the action starts.
• 2: Adventure Begins. Jennifer draws the DMTCRG card reversed, whose creature signifier suggests the fairground is overrun by small creatures fleeing from a rampaging monster. She decides the creatures are panicked goblins; they're not malicious or intent on fighting. but their arrival cre- ates chaos. Jennifer isn't sure what the monster is yet, but it should be a threat that demands heroic action from the characters.
• 3: Journey. Jennifer draws the DMTCRG card reversed. She opts to use the person signifier—a con artist—for an encounter during the journey. As the characters travel to where the rampaging monster was last seen. they're targeted by a con artist who pretends to be a refugee displaced by the monster. Jennifer decides this con artist is a bard (whose stat block appears in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse) who uses the Charm Person and Sleep spells to try to overcome the characters and steal their belongings.
• 4: Entrance. When determining the lair of the rampaging monster, Jennifer draws the DMTCRG card reversed. This card's place signifier could be a simple underground cavern, but Jennifer finds the idea of a place with narrow windows or arrow slits more evocative. She envisions a gatehouse built by the fleeing goblins, which the rampaging monster has driven them from. Because the gatehouse is built for goblins, the ceilings are low and the doorways narrow, posing interesting tactical challenges for the characters as they explore.
• 5: Challenge. For the first challenge, Jennifer draws the DMTCRG card reversed, which indicates a creature that has escaped captivity or gone feral. She decides the goblins kept a pack of worgs in their gatehouse, and now the hungry worgs prowl the corridors. While the worgs are likely to attack, clever players might be able to get past them non-violently, perhaps by feeding them or speaking to them in a language they know (such as Goblin).
• 6: Challenge. For the second challenge, Jennifer draws the DMTCRG card, opting to use a green hag investigating the gatehouse with an eye toward making it her new home. The hag warns the characters that fate isn't on their side, but she won't attack unless the adventurers force her hand.
• 7: Challenge. The third challenge is the DMTCRG card reversed, which suggests another creature fleeing from a larger or more dangerous creature, namely the rampaging monster at the heart of the adventure. Jennifer figures there must be goblins in the gatehouse, perhaps in a hastily fortified chamber; she creates an encounter using a goblin boss and enough additional goblins to give the characters a fight. The goblin boss won't be satisfied until the adventurers, the hag, and the rampaging monster are all gone from the gatehouse. The adventurers can resolve this by clearing out the monster and the hag, winning the grudging appreciation of the goblin boss.
• 8: Treasure. 8: Treasure. Jennifer draws the DMTCRG card for the adventure's reward, which indicates precious gemstones or a magical gem. She decides a treasury in the gatehouse has a store of precious gemstones; she uses the tables in the Dungeon Master's Guide to generate a treasure hoard of gems appropriate for the characters. She also adds a Spell Gem (a magic item described in Out of the Abyss) to make the treasure more memorable.
• 9: Guardian. For the Guardian card. Jennifer draws the DMTCRG card, suggesting an impartial enemy like a Construct or Beast. After a quick search of the Monster Manual, Jennifer decides that a helmed horror is perfect for her party. She decides the goblins must've fought the helmed horror's creator, and now the Construct is rampaging through the gatehouse to satisfy its creator's final command: "Avenge me!" Jennifer places the Spell Gem in the helmed horror's helmet; the Construct can use this gem, but without its creator to recharge it, that's a trick that works only once, If the heroes defeat the helmed horror, they can claim the Spell Gem for themselves.

Variant: Dungeon Spread

A dungeon spread is a simpler version of an adventure spread that's optimized for quickly building dungeon-focused adventures. In this variant, you divide The Deck of Many Things card set into three separate decks: a locations deck, a features deck, and an optional story deck. For simplicity, use the literal meanings of the cards in the locations and features decks; these cards are straightforward descriptions of potential locations and of the creatures, treasures, and other features characters might find in these locations.

If you want to create a prelude to the dungeon, use the optional steps that call for the story deck, and give those cards their full range of symbolic meaning as discussed in the "Reading the Cards" section. If you'd rather dive straight into the action, you can skip those steps and omit the story deck.

Using these separate decks, lay out the cards in a slightly modified adventure spread:

• 1: Party Gathers (Optional). Draw a card from the story deck to represent the situation the characters are in before the adventure starts.
• 2: Adventure Begins (Optional). Draw a card from the story deck to represent the situation that starts off the adventure.
• 3: Journey (Optional). Draw a card from the story deck to represent the journey to the dungeon.
• 4: Entrance. Draw a card from the locations deck to determine the dungeon's location, then place a card from the features deck across it to describe a feature found at the entrance.
• 5, 6, 7: Challenges. Decide how many challenges you want the adventurers to encounter before reaching the treasure and its guardian. For each challenge, draw a card from the locations deck to describe the challenge's location, then place a card from the features deck across it to describe the challenge itself.
• 8: Treasure. Draw a card from the features deck to describe the treasure at the end of the dungeon.
• 9: Guardian. Finally, draw a card from the features deck to represent the guardian of the treasure and a card from the locations deck to describe where the treasure and its guardian can bc found.

Using an Adventure Spread During Play

In addition to using an adventure spread to plan your adventures, you can also use it during play, simultaneously giving the players a glimpse into the future and planning their adventure. An easy way to do this is to plan a social encounter with a fortune teller near the end of a session or play. (The Fortune Tellers table suggests descriptions for seers.) Talking the role of the fortune teller, lay out the cards in an adventure spread in view of your players, narrating as you go.

When your players speculate on the meaning of the cards, use their ideas to interpret the spread. If you embrace their guesses, your players can enjoy feeling clever for figuring out the "real" meaning of the reading—when in fact they've helped create it. You might also deliberately confound your players by steering away from their interpretations as you build the adventure.

When performing this reading, introduce each card as you place it in the spread (you can use the suggested wordings below). Briefly describe the relevant signifier for the card, but don't include any specific examples listed in the card descriptions:

• 1: Party Gathers. "This is where your future begins." Reveal the card, then choose a signifier for the card and describe it to the players,
• 2: Adventure Begins. "Then someone or something intervenes, leading you down a new path." Reveal the card, then choose a signifier, describing it to the players as an agent of change.
• 3: Journey. "As you take your first steps into the future, forces will oppose you." Reveal the card and describe the forces that will oppose the characters on their journey. Again, remain vague.
• 4: Entrance. "Now you stand on the threshold of what is to come." Reveal the card and describe the place where the characters' future will unfold.
• 5, 6, 7: Challenges. "Within this place, you will face challenges." Reveal the cards one at a time. For each one, choose the creature, the person, or the situation and describe it—or talk about the general meaning of the card and the range of challenges it refers to.
• 8: Treasure. "Beyond these challenges lies the goal you seek," Reveal the card and describe the treasure that awaits, Since treasures can include monetary treasure, art objects, and magic items, you might want to describe the general meaning of the card and the range of things it can refer to rather than specifying one kind of treasure.
• 9: Guardian. "One final guardian stands between you and the object of your quest." Reveal the card, choose either the creature or the situation. and describe it to the players.