Tarokka Mechanic For New Players

[Tobias Blackburn]

Hi everyone! Great to see the site is still going!

I'm planning on a campaign with my wife and two of her friends who have never played DnD before. I'm thinking of running a tweaked Curse of Strahd (which will be my third time running it).

I have the old Talon Dunning Tarokka deck from the 3e release and I wanted to use it more in the game. One thing I was thinking of doing is allowing them to make Tarokka draws to help them, but with a potential downside.

Here's the rules I have so far.

- Each player has a suit (sword, star, glyph, or coin) assigned to them according to their character class.
- A number of times per day equal to their proficiency modifier, they can draw from the deck.
- If they draw a suit card, they add the number on the card to their roll.
- If the suit matches the one assigned to them, they add double the number on the card. Drawing the 10 of a suite assigned to them makes the roll a crit.
- If they expend Heroic Inspiration when drawing, they can look at the first card and decide if they want to take it. If not, they have to draw again and take the next one.
- If they draw a major arcana card, something bad happens.

With 40 suite cards and 14 Major Arcana, it gives them a bit over a 1 in 5 chance of drawing a major arcana card and something bad happening to them. Also, as they are drawing from the same deck throughout the session, each good draw by one of them steadily increases the chance of a major arcana draw for all of them.

I may only reshuffle cards back into the draw deck when they level, so they don't feel like instantly pulling for every little thing.

I wanted to mine the community and see if they had some suggestions on the kind of issues the Major Arcana could cause if they are drawn. I'd like the flavour to be more than just forcing a re-roll with disadvantage. Something a bit more flavourful and a bit more roleplaying based is more what I'm thinking of.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Hi everyone! Great to see the site is still going!

I'm planning on a campaign with my wife and two of her friends who have never played DnD before. I'm thinking of running a tweaked Curse of Strahd (which will be my third time running it).

I have the old Talon Dunning Tarokka deck from the 3e release and I wanted to use it more in the game. One thing I was thinking of doing is allowing them to make Tarokka draws to help them, but with a potential downside.

Here's the rules I have so far.

- Each player has a suit (sword, star, glyph, or coin) assigned to them according to their character class.
- A number of times per day equal to their proficiency modifier, they can draw from the deck.
- If they draw a suit card, they add the number on the card to their roll.
- If the suit matches the one assigned to them, they add double the number on the card. Drawing the 10 of a suite assigned to them makes the roll a crit.
- If they expend Heroic Inspiration when drawing, they can look at the first card and decide if they want to take it. If not, they have to draw again and take the next one.
- If they draw a major arcana card, something bad happens.

With 40 suite cards and 14 Major Arcana, it gives them a bit over a 1 in 5 chance of drawing a major arcana card and something bad happening to them. Also, as they are drawing from the same deck throughout the session, each good draw by one of them steadily increases the chance of a major arcana draw for all of them.

I may only reshuffle cards back into the draw deck when they level, so they don't feel like instantly pulling for every little thing.

I wanted to mine the community and see if they had some suggestions on the kind of issues the Major Arcana could cause if they are drawn. I'd like the flavour to be more than just forcing a re-roll with disadvantage. Something a bit more flavourful and a bit more roleplaying based is more what I'm thinking of.

1) The chance is actually over 1 in 3. However, as the bonus to rolls can be so high, I think the risk is still balanced.
2) I ran once a Cosmere RPG adventure, where they have a 'plot die' mechanic: The GM or the players can choose to 'raise the stakes' and roll a 1d6 inscribed not with numbers, but with 'complication' and 'opportunity' symbols. Rolling the plot die gives you a +1 to your next roll either way - but 'opportunity' invokes a positive plot twist, and 'complication' a negative one. These twists are improvised, and the players can suggest ideas - though the GM has the final say on what happens.
It was very fun, and I think it was a lot better than if there was a more organised mechanism. However, that was a very lighthearted, low-stakes one shot - maybe in a horror campaign it would break the tension and give the game a more 'dark comedy' vibe (which isn't necessarily bad. Just non-standard.)

[Joël of the FoS]

Hey, nice to see you.

For added mystery, you could add cut scenes to your game where a vistana (a NPC they already met) is thinking of the players' future and trying to see their future. She lays card on the table in cross pattern...

[SkiBird]

With 40 suite cards and 14 Major Arcana, it gives them a bit over a 1 in 5 chance of drawing a major arcana card ...

1) The chance is actually over 1 in 3.

54 cards, 14 of them are no bueno. You then have a 14 in 54 chance of drawing a card that is no bueno.

14-in-54 = .259259259

Just about 26%.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

With 40 suite cards and 14 Major Arcana, it gives them a bit over a 1 in 5 chance of drawing a major arcana card ...

1) The chance is actually over 1 in 3.

54 cards, 14 of them are no bueno. You then have a 14 in 54 chance of drawing a card that is no bueno.

14-in-54 = .259259259

Just about 26%.

Oops. Though it's 14 out of 14.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

With 40 suite cards and 14 Major Arcana, it gives them a bit over a 1 in 5 chance of drawing a major arcana card ...

1) The chance is actually over 1 in 3.

54 cards, 14 of them are no bueno. You then have a 14 in 54 chance of drawing a card that is no bueno.

14-in-54 = .259259259

Just about 26%.

Oops. Though it's 14 out of 40.