Three Cards

[Intrepid]

Three cards to light a path for your way
Three cards to tell you fortunes part to play
Three cards to answer questions asked
Three cards to reveal your fated task
The first tells you where your foot will land
The second to tell you the riches to be had
The final card a warning to heed
The cards will tell you what you need...

This is how I want to start out the Ravenloft campaign I am planning, howver I wanted to ask some in put from the group. The basic gyst is that a group of outsiders is misted into Ravenloft (thinking most likely Barovia) and encounter a band of Vistani.They each get their fortune read with three cards. Deciperhing the meaning of each characters fortune would be the "route out of Ravenloft".... any thoughts or ideas?

[Dion of the Fraternity]

Here's what I'd do: use a Vistani darkling who's being hunted down by her kind because her tarokka deck has the Deck of Many Things incorporated into it.

[Don Fernando]

Perhaps to keep the mistery of your Intro (nice work BTW!) i'll keep the fortune telling for later in the campaign. not to far ahead, but enough for them to explore the demiplane and get a hold of the strange place they've arrived to. This way the players can go "Ah so that's what it meant" wich can add to the atmosphere of exploring a new domain. The Vistani who's reading the cards can even use the same phrases to depict each player's fortune.

Just my 2 cents.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I think it's a great idea. I've used tarokka readings to great effect. I even came up with a whole NPC based on one reading. If you're comfortable doing the reading on the fly, study the meanings of the cards (or feel free to makes something up if you can't remember). If not, deal the cards, mark them down and look them up later. Random inputs can sometimes inspire creative stories you wouldn't have come up with otherwise. Having a foreshadowed throughline to your campaign should be really cool.