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.

Take to the Skies

My players are always full of surprises and creativity, that’s what I love about being their DM. Here was last night’s situation with a bit of background. Their party has been hired to aid a town of surface Drow who is under threat of attack from a group of Underdark Drow. Our intrepid heroes were first tasked to infiltrate the Underdark Drow city to discover when they were planning their attack for. They managed to steal some parchments from the war room which contained two plans for routes of attack but none of the parchments said when they would attack. The priestess in charge of the above ground Drow asked them upon return if they would stay and aid in the fight against the Underdark Drow. There was quite a bit of debate about whether or not to stay but after a long discussion, they all agreed that they would stay and aid in the town’s defense. They had two days about town before the Underdark invasion began, the army of Underdark drow coming at them from three sides.

The party decided that they would aid the side with the least defense. Their plan of attack was not something I expected. Tyr is playing a shape-shifter (a race that we homebrewed) and their plain was to used aerial combat by having him shift into a griffin. Here’s the mechanics of how I ran the all-out war. The surface Drow have an army comprised of themselves and the aid of a dwarvish division and a deep gnome division. The other side is composed of Drow and slaves of varying races. Everyone is technically fighting all at the same time, our party is engaged with one small group of bad guys at a time. When that group falls they engage the next group of combatants. There is no time for rest or even to down a healing potion in-between encounters.

Hal and Carter’s PC’s jumped on Tyr’s Griffin took to the skies circling over their prey. Carter’s PC is an excellent archer so he was doing some amazing damage from the back of the griffin. Hal, to the contrary, is not designed for ranged combat so after a couple of rounds of him not even giving the evil Drow a sting he waited until one of the times Tyr dove down for an attack and jumped off of Tyr’s back in order to engage the enemy on the ground where he was more effective. Now this is one of those times where you have to not be a slave to the rules. If you want to be technical for Hal to dismount Tyr would have had to land and stay standing on the ground until Hal’s next turn for Hal to take the action to dismount. That would mean that Tyr and Carter would have to stay vulnerable on the ground until it got back around to Tyr’s turn again when he could use his movement to take back to the skies. It doesn’t make for very entertaining game play. However a griffin screeching on an attack dive with a raging halfling barbarian leaping from his back and landing soundly on the ground beside an opponent, now that is interesting game play. For the rest of the night this is how they battled; with Hal on the ground raging connecting with flail and shield bash (aiming specifically for the Drow’s groin region), Carter sniping them from the sky with his bow, and Tyr ripping them to ribbons with his griffin talons and beak. It was pretty epic.

They are only two encounters into the war. There are waves to come and a few other surprises up my sleeves. The guys enjoyed themselves and hopefully they will continue to have fun with what lays in store for them. It will probably take two if not three more sessions to get through the war. I’m know I’m looking forward to it, and I hope my players are too.

5 Tips for the New DM

I remember the overwhelming feelings I had the first time I DM’d. It seemed like a most daunting and perhaps even an insurmountable task had been laid before me. I didn’t know any other DM’s at the time, I had no one to ask for advice or to guide me through the process. Below you’ll find a few things that I’ve learned that can help out those new to DMing.

1.Make the game more important than the rules. Yes, we need agreed upon rules in order to play the game but don’t become a slave to them. No rules lawyers need apply. What is most important, first and foremost, is providing a great game for the players. Sometimes the best way to do that is to fudge the rules or in some cases make your own rules. What playing D&D is about is telling an engaging interactive story. Never forget that your most important job as a DM is to tell a great story for the players. Everything with DMing is a judgment call. Trust your judgment, if a player wants to do something and it doesn’t quite fit with the rules but it would make for a great part of the story always feed the story, not the rules.

2.Don’t be afraid to really role play NPC’s. It can be difficult not to feel self-conscious but as a DM you need to have multiple personalities and act them out. One of the things that is often talked about among DM’s is how to get their players to better role play their PC’s. The DM sets the stage. Play your NPC’s to the hilt. Firstly, because it makes the game more alive and memorable. Secondly, because the DM sets the tone. It may take some time but if you as the DM throw yourself into role playing NPC’s it will set the example and create an atmosphere where players are more comfortable with role playing themselves. They don’t have to feel so self-conscious because you’ve created an environment where role playing is normal not, weird and they aren’t alone in role playing. One thing players have told me as to why they shy away from role playing is because they feel weird about it. They don’t want to be the only one at the table doing it. If as a DM you are putting your heart into role playing then the players no longer feel weird about it because they aren’t the only one trying to role play.

3.Appeal to the senses. None of it is real but a good DM tries to make it feel real to the players. Immerse your players in the game through their senses. Don’t overload them but whenever they are in a situation try to appeal to at least two of the five senses. Do they smell pies cooling in a window or maybe the stench of sweaty mud covered orcs? It’s easy to focus on what the players see but be sure to include other senses to make the encounter more complete.

4.All creatures are not created equal. Your players will encounter many creatures and villains through your campaigns and they do not all used the same fighting styles and tactics. An abolith doesn’t fight the same way as a kobold or an acolyte. Part of roleplaying is making sure that you make things challenging and interesting by basing your creatures’ actions on their own intelligence level and what tactics they would naturally use. The monster manual can help with this, read the description of each creature you will be using. Take some time to think about what that creature’s natural behavior would be. Does it make knee jerk reactions or is it more calculating? Is it usually found alone, in a pack, or with specific other creatures? Answering these kinds of questions will give you a better understanding of what makes the creature tick and using this information will make your encounters richer and more memorable.

5.Don’t be afraid to wing it. Whether running a mod or a campaign of your own design you must keep in mind what I call the law of DMing, “Your players will always find a way to mess up your best laid plans.” At some point they, are going to deviate from what you expect or want them to do. Don’t let this send you into the wall. Wing it. Always be ready and willing to wing it. One of the things I do is think about what some of the different choices my players might make when presented with a situation. Thinking about this ahead of time helps me to be more prepared but even then I still have to wing it at some point in almost every session. Have no fear and remember that your campaign isn’t written in stone; it’s okay to just fly by the seat of your pants. The main thing you have to remember in pulling this off is not to let your players know that you’re making it up as you go. If you’ve ever seen a cat fall off of a chair and get up and walk away like, “I meant to do that,” that’s the attitude you need to take. If you act like you meant to do that all along your players will never be the wiser and the game will go on without a hitch.

The Flailing Barbarian

Last night's session began with a plague of technical difficulties which put us all in a flippant mood. After we got over our microphone difficulties we discovered that roll20 is in the middle of revamping their character sheets so all of the player characters and my NPC's were all messed up. We overcame these issues and moved on with the session. It was just one of those nights though.

They began the night on the outskirts of the surface drow town they had been hired to go to. In order to get there, they had to cross a less than spectacular bridge. This began Hal's night of horrible rolls. Near the end of the bridge he fell through. He then failed his check to grab onto the bridge as he fell. He did manage to grab onto some rocks on the side of the cliff to keep himself from falling to his death. Then he failed his dex check to retrieve his rope and hook from his backpack and lost his rope down the chasm. After all of this Tyr lowered his rope over the edge allowing Hal to grab on and be pulled up. There was some joking and some cursing, during which Tyr rolled a sleight of hand check to tie a rope onto Hal's belt, he then proceeded to kick the halfling over the cliff and let him dangle a moment before pulling him back up.

They took care of the niceties in town and then headed off into the cave system. The cave opens into a dwarf mining operation that has a series of catwalks leading all over it. Our pour halfing was as nibble as a rhino on rollerskates. Again he failed his check to make it across the crosswalks. By this point Carter had had enough of the fumbling barbarian and picked him up and carried him across the remaining catwalks.

The group then encountered a group of goblins who demanded gold from them in order to pass. Figuring they'd be able to make quick work of goblins they declined to give up any gold and engaged them. For the most part, they did well but then the goblins started to make mince meat out of Tyr, hitting him several times in a row. In the end, only the goblins died.

Owlbears

We have started our newest campaign and so far it's a success. The party this time consists of; a half-elf ranger, a halfling barbarian, and a shifter rogue/monk. My husband and I homebrewed the shifter race for this adventure. He wanted to base his character off of the character Geth from the Eberron book series and we used the 5e race format to create his race based off of existing races.

The party started at level one, so the session was really about small encounters to get them leveled up a little before they get to the meat of the quest. I like to have times during the quest where my players are expecting one thing and get something completely different and I got to have a great one of those moments Sunday night. The party was moving through a stand of young trees and they could hear a stream ahead. They started to hear some splashing in the stream and started to sneak closer. Carter, the half-elf ranger, rolled a perception check which resulted in the following. “Through the trees, you, see what appears to be two bears splashing about in the stream.” They debated, should they go around or engage the bears. Hal, the halfling barbarian, wanted to go around but he was out voted. They snuck forward and I reveled the slide showing what they were fighting. “What the fuck is that!” Carter exclaimed. They were not up against two bears per say, they were up against two owlbears. What followed was a pretty impressive encounter that left Carter's character nearly dead.

Sunday was the first time I DM'd without the use of encounter maps. Hal was of course bummed, but I loved it. I think the encounters were much more fluid and it made my players better describe what they were doing in combat. Tyr and Carter are getting used to it, they both kind of like the visual of exactly where they are in relation to everything but they both said they thought it went well. It's only been one sessions of playing this way so I'm going to reserve judgment until we've got a few more sessions like this under our belts. At this point though I'm really liking the theater of the mind over the encounter maps. I'm not wasting time on tokens that didn't properly tie to character sheets, messing with the faulty initiative roller, or having to move tokens for players.

Changes to my Style

The Underdark is the main backdrop of my next quest, but the setting isn't all that's different. I'm approaching things in a couple of new ways. Normally I compose a quest by coming up with a plot skeleton and then I write out certain scenes that I plan to occur during the quest. Now, I've been fortunate in that this has worked out for me. I've never had to force my players into a situation. Thankfully they've always taken the hints and got themselves to where I planned them to be. I've been lucky because goodness knows they've thrown me a lot of twists and curves and polygons over the years. This time I just have the skeleton of the plot planned out, I don't have any prepared NPC dialogues or scenes. I normally DM 80% improv, 20% planned out in advance. For this quest, it's 1% plan and 99% by the seat of my pants. I generally do well at improv so I'm expecting that things should go well since I'm pretty good at coming up with things on the fly.

The bigger change this time has to do with mapping, I'm not using any. This is a pretty bold move given that we are playing on Roll20.net. Instead of maps players will have to use the theater of the mind. I've combed the net for tons of artwork and as they move through the quest I'll take them to different slides that will set the mood, the rest is up to their imaginations. I consider this to be a big positive because I don't really like using encounter maps on Roll20 for a fair few reasons.

Here are some reasons why I don't like them. A decent sized map takes up too much room on the grid, you can't see the map all at once without giving up tons of detail, and it's too hard to find the part of the grid you're working on when you actually have the map at a size where you can see all of the details. I've been using small maps so that the whole map fits on the screen but then I feel like I'm limiting the players' range of movement too much.

Tokens have proven to be a problem and I don't like to take time out of the quest to try to fix them. One of the problems we have is that Carter plays on an iPad and the app very often doesn't let him move his token. We waste time with him trying to move it and then I wind up just having to move it for him. All of which takes us out of the moment. The other problem I have is that tokens don't always reliably connect with character sheets. I've had so many occasions where I've tied a token to a character sheet and it works fine on one map but when we move to the next map I've got to retie the token to the sheet. I feel that tokens also take away from the players' imaginations. Rarely can you find a token that exactly or even closely resembles how a player envisions their character and I feel that that mismatch visual cue takes them out of the fantasy and makes it harder for them to role play their characters. In my last campaign I had a token that was very disruptive. The guys decided she looked like a stripper and there was no end to the pole and glitter thong jokes. Funny stuff, but what was supposed to be an intense wizards battle was way too light hearted. Don't get me wrong the guys had fun but my goal is always to get them deeper into their characters. Things in the quest can be funny, and I encourage that, but when the jokes bring us out of the reality I've created it's a problem in my book and that's why I'm going theater of the mind on this next quest.

My other problem is that I use Dundjinni to make the maps. First off something is wrong with mine, making me very limited in my map making choices. Making things worse than usual because I feel the program can't keep up with my creativity on a good day. I can't make maps that match what I imagine in my mind. For one thing it's a square system and my mind works on curves. When in nature do you find things that are a 90 degree angle? Now I know that there are curved walls you can use and there's always the pencil tool that allows you to draw but I still just can't get things close enough to my imagination. I think it's better to give good descriptions and let the players draw their own scene in their minds rather than throw a sub par map at them which gives them a visual cue that takes away from their imagination.

Tyr is game for this change and I think Carter will be just fine with it once he plays an encounter or two this way. Hall on the other-hand is not going to be happy about this change. Hopefully I'll be providing an exciting enough quest that by the end he will forgive me for not using his beloved maps. I hope this new quest with these changes will be as exciting as I feel it has the potential to be. I know I'm excited to dive into it.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, to the Underdark We Go

Things have been a little hectic lately and we've been hit or miss on playing which is why I've been lax in my posting. Last week we finished out the campaign, called Volk, that I based around Hal's cleric with an insatiable lust for killing the undead. I've noticed a trend in my campaign construction when my end villain isn't a dragon, I seem to make the uber “bad guy” a woman. I also tend to make evil NPC's women as well. It has something to do with the way I think. When you're driving down the road and someone's driving like a moron the average person will refer to the idiot driver as the opposite gender to themselves. I on the other hand always assume it's a woman and my husband always assumes they're a man. We're weird, what can I say, but I think it's the wiring in my brain. My players didn't bat an eyelash at the evil women NPC's but for some reason, a female necromancer at the end kind of threw them. They all expressed their shock and said from the way the quest had gone they were really expecting a guy.

This coming Sunday we move on to a new quest, most of which will take place in the Underdark nervous about this campaign. I shamefully admit I don't read the Drizzt books or the Dragonlance books, and I know nothing of Faerun, but all of my players do. Hal and Carter are a little familiar with the underdark and Tyr, my husband, is an underdark expert. I think I have a really good plot, but I'm afraid they won't find it up to snuff. I'm afraid I'll have something in the quest that they'll go, “that just wouldn't happen.” I've had Tyr give me an overview of the underdark. He's walked me through the levels, the races, fighting styles, monsters, and politics. Which I think has given me a pretty good handle on things. Still I'm nervous, I feel like I've got a lot to live up to and high expectations to meet. I've tried to read books that feature the underdark but to be honest I'm dyslexic and I can't read every old authors writing style. I do read, a lot, but books have to be written in certain styles for my brain not to turn them into a jumble. My plot seems pretty solid to me, though this one is a little different from my usual plot set up, more about that in another blog post. Despite my anxiety I'm really excited for this campaign, I think I'll be providing a rich experience that my players will be able to immerse themselves into. I'm always trying to get them to go deeper into their characters and I think this setting and plot will help them do just that.

Puzzling

Our last session was pretty combat intense. I try to balance campaigns out between story line and the amount of combat because I want my players to get caught up in a story not just smashing things. The way it worked out though, was that last night it was mostly combat. There were two breaks from combat and the first of them was in the ruins of a warlock’s tower. The warlock was still there and offered to play them at a game of Loki’s dice, a game I was inspired to come up with. I’ll dedicate a blog post just to the game when I get a chance. Both of the PCs played until they won magical items. 5e is written to be low in magical items but with just Tyr and Hal playing I felt they could use the boost. They are playing well but let’s face it, magic weapons and items are just freaking cool. Then the PC’s got to try out their new gear as they fought their way through a crypt of undead, where they found a mysterious amulet.

We moved back onto the main track of the quest as Tyr and Hal proceeded to a set of watery ruins. They are on an island but the ruins they must investigate have sunken into a small lake. It is here that the boys encountered a medusa and Hal became turned to stone just before Tyr could deliver the deathblow to the Medusa. With only two players I allowed Tyr to transform Hal back to himself with the death of the Medusa.

Their tribulations for the night didn’t end there. After defeating the medusa the next door they needed to get through was a puzzle. There is a mural around the room and a door with a strange locking mechanism. The mural is done in 10 frames. They depict in order; a boar, an elk, a bear, a snake, a fungus, a blink dog, a kobold, a kenku, a medusa, a hydra. The first of the three dials on the door has a snake, a fungus, a kobold, a kenku, a hydra. The second has a blink dog, a snake, a boar, an elk. The third and inner most has a hydra, a bear, a medusa. Answer: snake, blink dog, hydra. It is simply that the animals follow the order on the mural. So the first animal on the mural that is on the first dial is the snake. The nextt animal on the mural on the second dial is the blink dog and the next animal on the mural on the third dial is the hydra.

This puzzle is where we get into some principles of DMing. I’ve talked to a lot of DM’s who say, “When I make a puzzle that I think is easy my players find it incredibly difficult. When I make one that I think is hard, they solve it in seconds.” I thought the door would be easy, especially since I was emphasizing the words “in order” but my players found it too difficult. Granted it was after midnight when they were trying to solve this. Which leads me into one of the principles of DMing that I learned early on; always give your players an out. Never give them something that is impassable and quest ending. With this puzzle I gave the players an out. Tyr started to play with the door and discovered that when he landed on a certain animal there was a “click.” He played with the door until he got the right combo and thus it unlocked. Did I want things to work out that way? No, but everyone was tired and I felt the best thing for the quest was to give my players an out.

First Impressions of Roll20

Here are my first impressions on using roll20. First I have to say that my preference is always to play in person. I like the human interaction and my DM style with props etc. is just far more suited to playing in person. The situation we find ourselves in does not make in person play possible right now and our only option to continue playing was to find some way to play online. At first, we considered playing over Skype but that uses up a good bit of bandwidth and posed some sound problems. We decided to try out roll20.com and overall I think it worked well for having to play online. My overall review is positive but I’ll go through what I did and did not like.


Pros


~ I can add portraits in to set the mood, something I didn’t do in person.


~ I can import my handmade maps after scanning them onto my computer.


~ The whisper feature is great for passing DM notes.


~ 3d dice roll for those who prefer a dice roller to actual dice. I prefer real dice but Hal prefers a dice roller.


~ I control who has control of what tokens on the board.


~ The “ping” feature lets you draw someone’s attention to a specific point on the map.


~ The drawing feature makes it easy to mark the area of area effect spells. It also allows players to plot out their movements Madden style before actually making moves.


~ You can choose to use video & voice, just voice, or just chat to communicate with other players. You can enable the squares for video and have small or large screens or you can just show the nameplates of players. You can also mute a player, which comes in handy because Tyr and I are actually in the same room. This way I hear his actual voice and not his voice with a delayed computer echo.


~ I control what page players are on and I can view another page while they are on the page I assign them to.


~ Now I haven’t used this feature yet, I’ll be using it when we play next, but in theory, it seems good. It’s called fog of war and it lets you hide parts of the map and reveal sections to the PCs as you play. I had to watch a tutorial on how to use it because it’s not obvious what you need to do to make it work.


~ If we choose to in the future we can look for an additional player through roll20.


~ My players had a great experience.


Cons


~ We used voice only and it kept dropping out. We’d have to wait for it to come back, which held up game play. We’re going to download Teamspeak and give that a try. Which I find inconvenient, it just makes one more window I have to have open on my computer.


~ It takes a lot more time to set up a quest/campaign in roll20than it does to set one up for table top play.


~ Handmade maps don’t match up with the roll20 grid. There are ways to work around this but I still find it annoying.

~ Large maps are hard to use on this platform. You really need a small map that fits into the dimensions viewable on the map screen without having to scroll.


~ This is only an issue for the DM. You need too many windows open at one time and in order to see my word document where my quest is typed out I have to cover the chat box during battles or the whole screen when reading text.


~ It really is not designed for my style of DMing. If you’ve watched Chris Perkins at PAX he generally has his PCs on one map for the whole session and that works perfect with roll20. I on the other hand can go through ten maps in one session and that can be kind of cumbersome on roll20.


~ This goes along with the last con. This was a point Tyr brought up. He has to reenter his HP on every map. Time consuming and annoying. Now, technically as the DM there is a way I could make their HP carry over from one map to the next but then every time they level up I’ve got to go in and redo their token and then if I have maps already made up I’ve got to go in, delete their current tokens on those pages, and replace their tokens on those pages. I’ve got too much to handle as a DM as it is without adding that to it.


Again I have to say, nothing beats DMing in person. If you find yourself in a situation like us then roll20 is a great option.

Ship Combat

One of my challenges for this quest was coming up with a sea battle between my PCs’ frigate and a pirate frigate. Sea battles are one of the areas where I wish WOTC would iron out and have a set of rules and stats for. Since there are no 5e rules, at least at this point, for running ships I had to come up with my own. I devised an AC and HP for each ship and came up with ballistas and their stats. My PC’s decided they didn’t like the ballistas because they had to roll a strength check to load them and then make an attack roll to try to hit anything. So when the pirate frigate approached they choose to lob spells until the ship was close enough for boarding. I felt the strength check was necessary because Omar’s PC was a halfling, who obviously did not have the strength to load the huge ballistas on her own.