Maybe 6-7 years ago, I had been playing a 3.5 Edition D&D campaign, as a Chaotic Good swashbuckler/duelist following the tenets of Cayden Cailean. I’m usually a seat-of-my-pants player, full of crazy on-the-spot schemes, so it worked well for me. We were playing through Curse of the Crimson Throne, which was a mostly city-based game. Although my freedom-fighting character was fun, and his devil-may-care attitude got the party into and out of lots of scrapes, he just wasn’t being very effective- a lot of his abilities were based around fighting humanoid-type weapon-using opponents and catching people unawares, which was really unhelpful when we started running into tons of undead, and my piddly 1d6 damage (due to Strength penalty) was just not cutting it. Even though I’d taken some levels in the prestige class for my god, allowing me to smite evildoers and heal people, I wasn’t being terribly effective. The party was a fair way into the game (10-12 levels or so), and someone had bought a Deck of Many Things prop (a printed set, nice artwork and everything). As someone’s birthday present, our GM let us find an in-game Deck, and each choose if we wanted to draw one (or more, per player) cards. One player got Wishes, then got to know how to get out of their next dilemma, then was imprisoned by an evil god, then knew how to get out and burned all of his Wishes, and settled for a sack of gold coins. One character made a terrible planar enemy, and then got a pile of cool magic items and a servant all to himself. I drew a few cards- the Throne (+6 to Diplomacy and a small keep), the Balance (change your alignment to the most opposite from you), and the Jester (+10,000xp, or two more draws). So my fun-loving, freebooting, Devil-may-care swashbuckler turned into a land-owning Lawful Evil manipulator, bent on twisting the world to his will. He was pretty much Discworld’s Lord Vetinari. (Side note: as I qualified for the Blackguard class, which allows you to “trade in” some of your previous Paladin levels if you have any, my GM allowed me to trade in some of mine and change my levels around) He didn’t want to turn against his friends, because he knew that they far outclassed him. Besides, they were useful, so until he came to power... My newly-Machiavellian manipulator changed his tune completely, if not his actions. He freed slaves, did favours for the local Barbarian tribe, and worked against the villainous Queen. And as part of everything he did, he schemed. He took notes of people’s weaknesses. He worked his way into confidences, and masterminded the revolution. He spent his money on stuff not related to the party directly (funding revolutionaries, investing in the church and local businesses, buying off local Lords for influence, or so the other players heard), as well as buying others extra healing potions and a variety of consumables which were handy for them. And he stroked his little goatee and promised that “when I come to power,” things would be different. The other player were happy to have these costs sorted without having to contribute their own cash, and my combat prowess had risen considerably, so they were pleased that they didn’t have to be looking after me so much, as well. I wrote notes for each player, put them into named envelopes, and handed them to each player, as well as one for the GM. And then, at the close of the campaign, the villainous Queen vanquished, I asked my party members to open their envelopes, starting with the GM. The GM’s card listed all the steps I’d taken at each point, the money I’d spent on bribes, the Diplomacy checks I’d made to arrange everything. She checked it, double checked everything, checked my skill bonuses and gear, and then nodded “go on”. The barbarian was elevated to leadership of his tribe because I had the previous chief assassinated, settling his blood-debt forever and putting him exactly where he had always wanted. The city’s laws were changed to stop discriminating against the barbarians, which meant they stopped raiding and started trading with us. The cleric found that the high priest of his church had been imprisoned for blasphemy and treason, leaving him to take the reins... except for finding out that he was addicted to the drugs I had taken over control of, and that he could not cure himself of. For a small sum and considerations, I’d keep him in control of himself, and the church. Our party’s rogue took no persuading: I offered him the mask of the city’s vigilante, and the keys to the cells. He would be able to travel as he liked, cause havoc as he liked, and never be imprisoned. He just needed to ignore the particular things I asked him to look away from. And our wizard, my most dangerous and perceptive ally, well, his card just read a number, 34. It was the Fortitude save DC for my Assassination attempt, as I slipped my envenomed Assassin’s dagger into his ribs. He looked quizzical, rolled... and came up with a total of about 18. (He was a good friend of mine, and was quite pleased with the plot outcome, so he didn’t mind) I reached under the table and pulled out a plastic toy crown which I’d brought, and placed it on my head with a grin. “That’s right. I told you all that when I came to power, things would be different.” The players were silent. No-one could believe I’d gone to this level of planning or preparation. The GM smiled and called the end of the campaign. And that’s the story why the Deck of Many Things isn’t allowed at that GM’s table any more. (Originally posted on Game Masters Stash on 10 May 2018) Categories All Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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