How to Allow a PC to Read Tarot in 5e

Fun fact about me, I’m an intuitive tarot reader.  Tyr supports me in my passion, even if he openly admits that he doesn’t understand it.  I was quit shocked about a week or so ago when he turned to me, as he was working on a PC he’d like to play when we get a new group together, and said that he thought this particular PC would read tarot and what kind of checks would I make him roll and how would it all work?

I hit google and tried to find out if a system already existed for this.  One thing I found someone called a Wyrder deck (I believe that was the name, I can’t refind the forum where I saw it) but as a divining tool it was used only by NPC’s and was more commonly used to play a version of strip poker than to gain insight or guidance.  I found one or two accounts of DM’s who attempted to use a deck of tarot cards as a prop for a fortune teller NPC.  There is also the Tarokka deck featured in The Curse of Strahd, but again it’s meant to be used as a prop for an NPC.  Nowhere could I find a system for a PC to use the tarot.  There is the spell augury but that is nothing like reading a tarot deck even though the spell description says that cards can be used for the spell.  Some other DM’s I talked to suggested an arcana check but that doesn’t really fit either.

Let me say a few words about what tarot really is and then you’ll understand why I have chosen the system I have for a PC to read tarot.  My system does require that the DM know a little something about tarot in order for it to work.  Tarot is not magic.  The cards themselves have no powers.  I’m sorry if this bursts anyone’s bubble or takes away from the mystique of tarot.  Tarot cards are triggers for the reader to connect with their subconscious mind, higher self, intuition, and in some cases spirits but this last one applies to fewer readers.  The “gift” is really in the reader not the cards and there’s nothing magical about it, it is in fact rather natural.  Reading tarot cards is a skill that you learn just like you learn to play an instrument.  Some folks will pick up a trumpet say and they’ll get as far as playing Three Blind Mice.  Some will get good enough that they do pretty well in their high school concert band.  A few will get good enough to go on to the philharmonic.  The same is true for tarot, anyone can pick them up and use them a bit but only some have the skill to read them well.  This was very important in devising my system.

In my system a PC does not have to be a spell caster or be proficient in arcana to read the cards.  If the PC’s background allows them to be proficient in a card game then they can choose the tarot as being what they are proficient in but they can still attempt to use the cards even if they aren’t proficient in them.

There are two different checks involved depending on what the PC is wanting to do.  If the PC is say in a town and wants to read the cards for folks to earn a little gold then it is a performance check.  They can add their proficiency to their performance check if they are proficient with the tarot.

If they are trying to gain insight or divine then it is a straight wisdom check (with proficiency if it applies).  Why did I choose wisdom, because it is for checks where you might get a gut feeling about something, basically it’s the closest thing to intuition that D&D has to offer.

As I said this method requires the DM to know a bit about tarot.  If the PC succeeds on the wisdom DC then I tell him that he has drawn such and such card and what it means.  The cards will give some honest but not exactly crystal clear insight to the player.  If the player fails the check I’ll choose cards that are very fuzzy and vague and really won’t give them any true insight.  Should the player fail the check by five or more then the cards will either give them fuzzy or false information.

Here’s an example…

The PC asks if an NPC they are trying to find is still alive.  Let’s say the NPC is indeed still alive.  If the player succeeds he may draw The Sun, indicating that the NPC is alive and well.  If the player fails the check he may draw the Nine of Swords, indicating that there is a need for concern but also not giving a definitive answer one way or the other.  Let’s say the dice just hate the player that day and he fails by more than five, he may draw The Moon indicating that the NPC is in danger of dying if not already dead.

Add flavor to your use of the tarot cards by giving the deck a suitably D&D name that fits your campaign.  This particular PC is a Shadar-Kai so I call the deck The Deck of Shadows.  In different campaigns I’ll call it different things to fit the theme or the player.

What Happened to the Group?

You may be wondering what happened and where I’ve been and why I stopped doing blogs and posting to the Facebook page.  Well, as I had announced we picked back up playing D&D with Hal and Omar around July of last year.  Omar had turned over a new leaf and while we were in session he was almost a different person.  I had high hopes.  We were playing during the day on Sundays, because of Tyr’s work schedule and to be fair to Omar he had said from the beginning that Sundays were not the most convenient for him.  Also, Omar isn’t the biggest fan of children and since we were now playing during the day instead of after the kids went to bed it wasn’t Omar’s ideal situation.

We played for about a month or so and then it started.  Omar had something else he had to do so we’d have to skip that week.  Then the next week came and Hal couldn’t play because he didn’t feel good or would schedule something for during the time we were supposed to be playing.  It went on like this for several months.  The first couple of times it happened we played without whoever it was who couldn’t be there but it was getting to be all the time so we decided that if someone couldn’t play we just didn’t play that week.  That meant that we only wound up playing once a month or so.

We got to Thanksgiving and I said we should take a break until after the holidays because Hal wouldn’t be available for about two weeks around Thanksgiving and from when we had played before Omar wasn’t very available during December because of various Christmas functions.  We were set to resume after the first of the year.  Then Omar got in touch with Hal after Thanksgiving to pass a message to me (why he didn’t just call me I don’t know) that he didn’t have any commitments in December that would interfere with playing if we wanted to start again.  We set a date to start playing and low and behold the day of or the day before (it was super short notice) Hal informed me that he couldn’t play because he had something else to do, something he knowingly scheduled to have to do during the time we were supposed to be playing.  At this point I just threw in the towel.  We scheduled our session for the same day and time every week.  If Hal wanted to play he would have scheduled his stuff for a different day and time.

Omar and Tyr were pretty fed up with Hal as it was between canceling all the time (always on short notice) and the fact that he slept through almost every session.  We all used to give him slack because he said he was on a medicine that made him drowsy but then he quit taking all his meds so there wasn’t a good reason for him to be sleeping though entire sessions.  When he wasn’t sleeping he was on his laptop surfing the net.  Omar and Try had finally had enough during the session where they were in a fight and Hal (who was playing the cleric) was asleep during the battle.  He’d wake up for his turn in the initiative (sometimes) with no clue of what was going on, throw a fire ball (which hit allies and started a forest fire) and go back to sleep as soon as he was done.  The party was getting there asses kicked and it got to the point that Omar and Tyr were both yelling (literally) for the cleric to wake up and heal them.  He remained asleep and I wound up letting them kill of the monster a few HP early just before it would have been a TPK.  Hal finally wakes up and makes a comment about his PC needing healing and the guys shot him a look and say he’s nowhere near as bad as they were.  Hal’s response, “Why didn’t you tell me you needed healing?”  The daggers they shot at Hal as they looked at him and both not too politely informed him that they had literally been yelling for him to wake up and heal them and he didn’t do shit.

When I told Hal that we were throwing in the towel because yet again he couldn’t be at a session his response was that he didn’t really want to play with Tyr anyhow because the two of them don’t really like each other.  I wanted to say, “How would you know if you like or dislike playing D&D with Tyr or anyone else when you sleep through every session or search the web unless it’s your turn in the initiative order.”  I just chose to ignore the comment because I saw it for what it was, he didn’t like being called on the fact that he was always canceling so he was trying to shift the spotlight elsewhere and cry sour grapes.

Tyr and I very much want to get back to playing D&D but life is a little nutso right at the moment so we need to get a couple of things sorted out.  Once that’s done I’ve made up flyers looking for new group members.  There are two comic book stores, booth about a half an hour from us, that I’m going to ask if I can post the flyers there and there is a closer store that hosts Magic tournaments and I’ll ask if I can post a flyer there.   I’m confident that if the store owners will allow us to post a flyer in their shops that we’ll attract a couple of players.  Tyr and I have talked about the possibility of asking Omar if he’d like to play with the new group when we form it.  There are Facebook groups for the local area where I could advertise for new members but Hal belongs to many of those and there’s no way for me to prevent him from seeing the ads if I post in those groups.  Moving forward there is no room in the group for people who sleep during sessions.  I already had the rule that there were supposed to be no laptops at the table but Hal being a computer guy said he had everything he needed for his character on his laptop and couldn’t play without it.  Going forward no laptops at the table means no laptops at the table, if someone can’t play without their laptop then I guess they just don’t play.

My prediction is that we won’t move forward with getting a new group together until the end of spring or the beginning of summer.  In the meantime I’m working on some ideas for the new group.  Tyr is working on a couple of potential PC’s for him to play.  I’ll try to put up a few blogs between now and when we’re able to get a new group together and I’ll try to post more on the Facebook page.