Decks of Destiny on BackerKit

Decks of Destiny is the big* boxed supplement for TFT. Like the original set, it was Kickstarted, and earned 1,172 backers. Lots of stretch goals were hit during the campaign – more than we expected, making this an even bigger set than planned. It’s full of a variety of goodies, primarily for GMs, but also useful for players. As I write this, U.S. backers should all have received Decks of Destiny, and we have some left for the BackerKit for Hexagram 4.

The cool stuff starts with the cover. Created by Brandon Moore, it shows an octopus wizard in his laboratory. (By the way, we are working on octopus miniatures. They are not part of this set, but Some Day . . .)

Now turn over the box and check out Brandon’s Spider Fortress of Doom. Is that awesome, or what?

And there is SO much other stuff. I literally had to unbox my own copy of the “All The Newness” carton to jog my memory about everything we put in here . . .

Look At All The Cards!

Decks of Destiny includes, if I have not overlooked anything, just over 400 cards. These were definitely the fun part to create . . . especially the rumors and treasures. Most of the cards are dry erase, meant to be used with the included marker so you can add notes directly on the card. Many other markers will work perfectly well on these cards, but Sharpies won’t erase! Always test first.

Rumors

We started off with 30 of those, and stretch goals built us up to 60.  You can play the Rumor cards as literal rumors and let the party follow them up, or you can just take them as “fact” and use them for adventure seeds. The very first one I wrote might still be my favorite:
“A Mechanician has built a clockwork cart full of sandwiches. If you put a silver piece into the mechanical hand, it will give you a sandwich wrapped in a paper that tells your fortune. A joker tried to fool the cart with a copper piece filed down to the size of a silver, but a big padded boot popped out of the side and kicked him in the fork, to general laughter. The sandwiches are good and all the fortunes are favorable. What could go wrong?”
And there’s a journal listing all the rumors, so you can keep track of what the party has heard, what is true, what is false, and where it’s led.
Some year, when my mental batteries recharge, I’ll have a blast writing up some more rumor cards, but these should last you for a while.

Treasures

The treasure cards were just as much fun to create. There wound up being an even 100 cards, but many of them have a die roll and multiple items. They range from things you might find in our own world (“A puppy, all big eyes and big feet. He is friendly and will grow up into a very smart smooth-haired shepherd-type dog, the equal in combat of a big wolf, with IQ 7. The players don’t know this unless someone is an Animal Handler or has appropriate Area Knowledge, but this type of dog is bred as guard and companion to high nobles in a nearby kingdom. As an untrained puppy he’s worth $1,000; as a mature dog and friend he will be worth much more to his person!”)
. . . through the obscure (“32 round discs of ivory, coin-sized. They have complex inlays of different colored metal, but no writing. Perhaps they are coins and the inlays indicate their value? They are totally unfamiliar to the group, even to one with Recognize Value.”)
. . . to the completely over the moon (“A can labeled Disappearing Paint. There’s enough here for about 20 square feet. Roll 1d:
    1-3 – It is bright red when painted on, but after an hour it seems to vanish.
    4 – Whatever is completely covered with the paint becomes invisible.
    5 – Whatever is completely covered with the paint vanishes. Gone forever.
    6 – Shortly after you find it, it disappears.)”
    Make of that what you will!
    There’s also a journal for the Treasures. Record who found what and when . . . and, perhaps, what unexpected powers you have added to some of them.

Fighter Cards

There are 24 orcs and nine octopi (these were the last stretch goal). Add them to your collection of fighters, so you can randomly draw foes, or quickly make up teams for an arena battle. Remember that an octopus, with its eight arms and various advantages, is worth about three starting fighters.

Wizard Cards

You asked for them, and here they are, 24 assorted sorcerers from starting-level apprentices to super-experienced adepts – suitable as patrons or as the Big Bad for a whole adventure. These are double-sized cards to hold spell information. Some represent nonhumans.

Crossover: Four Perilous Journeys

There are also 12 cards based on Gaming Ballistic’s Four Perilous Journeys adventure book. (Which is an excellent TFT supplement, but you don’t have to have it to use these cards.)

Creature Cards

70 double-sized cards with play data and illustrations. Use them for reference, or to randomly draw a foe. The colored tabs on the sides indicate habitats, so you can (for instance) quickly make a sub-deck of all Caverns creatures. The habitats are always in the same place on the cards, so if you have color perception issues you can still find what you want. Many creatures are found in more than one habitat, of course. “Special” most often indicates creatures that are mainly found around civilization; check the text.
Before going to print, we published a lot of the cards on the forums, and got useful comments (and error checking) from the fans. I like doing this, and I expect we’ll continue.
    • Some stats, especially high ones, are given as ranges so the players will not know exactly what to expect.
    • You don’t have to give the players the name of a creature that is not familiar to their characters. Hide the stats on the card and just show them the picture!

Skill Cards

There are 25 of these, each listing a coherent set of skills. Pick one, or draw randomly, to turn any fighter card into a fully developed character.

The Player’s Pack

A set of 13 cards for the combat options, plus one each blank fighter and wizard card, plus a dry-erase marker and a character journal. Convenient for anyone, but especially intended for new players. The option cards are divided up by colors to make it easy to see what you can and cannot do.

Labyrinth Cards

These 62 hex-shaped cards let you lay out a dungeon in advance, or pick one card at a time as the party progresses. See the instruction card packed with the tile set. These cards were conceived and created by Guy McLimore. There’s also a journal keyed to the cards, to make it easy to keep track of what you create.

Random Roll Box Lid

Inside the box lid is a drop table to let you populate those rooms as you create them! Note that there are some “d3” rolls there. If you don’t have a three-sided die – well, we’ve created one! **  In the meantime, for a d3, 1-2 is 1, 3-4 is 3, and 5-6 is 3. The drop table was created by Phil Reed.

Megahex Tiles

13 sheets of them, to complement the ones in your Legacy Edition set, and a storage box. We probably won’t release any more megahex tiles, except for those that come in the adventure books, on the theory that you now have enough of these to do pretty much whatever you want.

Bookmark Character Sheets

There are eight of these, all different – character sheets in bookmark form.

And What About “All The Newness”?

Kickstarter supporters had the opportunity to upgrade to the “All The Newness” package, which contained more great Stuff! Illustrated storage boxes and folders, another journal, character sheet pads, another Player’s Pack . . . and some special goodies.
• More acrylic dice! Four 14mm green and four black ones, matching the red and blue ones in the Legacy Edition.
• Two big (25mm) metal dice featuring images by Liz Danforth. One has six dragons; the other has six wizards. These are table-killers – roll them on a playmat! And since that means you need a playmat, you get not one, but two  . . .
• The 24-inch-square “Octopus Lair” playmat created and illustrated by Dyson Logos.
• And the 24-inch-square “Spiral Arena” mat – my own design, with graphics by Dyson Logos. Playmats are rolled up in a separate compartment, because nobody wants their playmats folded.

On the whole, I’m very proud of Decks of Destiny. The goal was to give you tools to make it even easier to jump into a play session, and I think we succeeded. And it looks SO pretty . . . I hope you like it, too!

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* At 7.75 pounds for the base box (13.7 pounds for the whole “I Want All The Newness” carton), it’s definitely an armful. Any heavier and I would have had to call it Decks of Density.

** Alas, the d12/d3 is brand new, and not included in this box. But Warehouse 23 has it!