Why do D&D Players FEAR the Deck of Many Things?

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"I draw 2 cards. First card is Talons, and all your possessions become dust and disappear, including the deck. An hour later the donjon card is drawn and the character disappears without warning." The idea of the deck continuing to draw after it disappears is hilarious to me.

In the old version of the game, finding treasure gave you xp. That's why some of those cards give you xp when they gave you treasure and the 5e version doesn't.

In my very first campaign as a dungeon master, I was playing around with a lot of mechanics so that I'd be prepared if I ever had to deal with it again. I gave my players the Deck of Many Things at level 4. One of my players instantly drew the card that gives you a Fighter who believes it is his destiny to serve you. TL;DR version, he discovered he wasn't real and was created by magic and ended up becoming the BBEG of the campaign. It was AWESOME!

I've been playing since 1977, so I've seen the DoMT in every edition. Never had it break a campaign. But, have had incredible adventures because of it. My advice for DMs is to know the cards, and prepare for their consequences, before introducing it into the world. Also, make sure it is always in the possession of a NPC who appears once or rarely. That way, the party doesn't just decide to draw cards on a whim. 🤠👍

This does encapsulate a lot of why players fear it. I think DMs fear it more due to their belief that the players might get upset if they don't get lucky or have drastic random consequences for their fun.

What I always tell people is to make their own decks that suit the campaign they are running. Customizability in all senses for the perfect wacky, random, helpful, hurtful, all around fun magic item.

I think it'd be fun to play a character who was a fighter created by the Knight card, and their master died so they're searching for a new purpose, and they have no memory before the moment that player drew the card.

The idea to change the XP based cards into skill based cards is a really nice idea.

I gave my PCs the deck in our last campaign, they drew 9!!! cards in a single session, and completely bamboozled the campaign in the best ways, but it didn't end the campaign. I would have no reservation now, with the experience I have, throwing the deck at a party of any level, but I would not recommend it to a newer DM or someone who doesn't feel comfortable with extreme improv.

My favorite use of the FATES card was when I played as a teenager. We were using ADnD rules (and I'm not sure if this was the actual rules or if I had read it wrong at the time). One of my players used the FATES card to undo a deathblow on an enemy that another PC had landed.... Just so their character could be the one to land the deathblow and get the exp for the kill! 🤣

13:54 Killing the devil after it comes to you is easier than finding it, yes. However, devils don't permanently die unless killed in the Nine Hells, so you will have to look for it if you want to get rid of it permanently.

"Bruh" really sums it xD

The card I was most afraid of as a player was the ruin card. Not because of the lost wealth, but because of the lost investment in the world of the campaign. That card is basically a big middle finger to players who actually took the time to engage and contribute to the world the DM created. I spent a long time building a little shop from the ground up in our campaign, had a little family home, made investments with a bank, we had a player whose life's dream was to own and captain a ship, which he got, we had another player who opened a restaurant, another who was bequeathed some priceless family heirlooms when he resolved trauma from his backstory, I could go on. You're right that the physical game play mechanics of your character losing their wealth is not that bad, but this card almost specifically aims to hurt the *player*. That's why it's my least favorite card in the deck.

The deck can be an amazing storytelling tool! In my last campaign, I played a Goliath Artificer named Kallus, who was inspired by Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. A runt of the litter who yearns to become a master of shapeshifting due to his own body insecurity. Party found a modified Deck of Many Things, and me being clueless and impulsive I drew one immediately. I rolled a nat 1, and drew the dreaded Void card. DM described me falling into a coma, and as my party dragged me back to a tavern and tried to make a plan to find a cleric to figure out how to heal me. DM described me slowly shrinking, growing strange hair, and sprouting ears and a tail. Apparently DM set the Void card to essentially randomly change your race, and I ended up as a Tabaxi. It was very ironic that my goal to master shapeshifting aligned so well with the card outcome!

I used a homebrew twist that the card takes effect when you look at it. This allows me to spread single cards out as loot that a “tarot” themed warlock faction can be found with and the players can kind of build their own deck card by card.

Because of how saves in 1e worked, the Medusa was effectively "Take a penalty to all constitution based saves." As petrification was the save used to oppose spells such as polymorph as well.

My favorite deck of many things moment was our fighter getting The Fates and completely erasing the BBEG destroying his platoon in his nation's army way back in his pre adventuring backstory. So he rolled up a new character and when we visited that nation to stop the BBEG, we got to see the NPC version of his first character as if his platoon was never defeated and he continued being a soldier in that nation's army. Was really neat and clever on the player/DM's part.

im not 100% sure, but i think "petrification" saves in older editions was towards everything that could affect your movement, slow, frighten, actual petrification, etc

campaign ending? perhaps not. but the benefits are mid and the downsides can easily end any enjoyment a player may have in their character