Pick the wrong card and not even a restful good night’s sleep is guaranteed.
“The elevator pitch is I want to make your games feel more epic,” Di told me.
“I want to make those highs feel higher and those lows feel lower.”
And that’s one of the things that has always drawn me to fantasy.
When you hit high levels of play in games like D&D, you want that drama too.
I personally think you want that drama the whole time, but particularly at those high levels.
And I feel like those should not be the only options.
It’s a “safe” part of the game.
There’s no true mechanical downsides to sleeping.
They just add some risk.
But what if going to sleep did carry terrifying consequences?
Di described Creeping Stoneflesh as an example.
Maybe nothing will happen.
Regardless, the act of sleep is now a gamble your character has to take.
She continued: “Let’s see.
Healing does not affect you the same way, and it affects the way that you regain hit points.
It affects how you receive healing.
And, as the name of the deck implies, it’s not all bad either.
There are cool boons to be discovered and storylines associated with each one.
I was like, ‘What do I want?
What benefit could I receive where I would be so amped?’
And the answer of a little pixie that’s your buddy is number one on my list.”
According to Di, each card comes with two associated quests.
“And you might use them however you want, obviously,” Di said.
I generally don’t think that a curse that lasts forever is fun.
I like giving [players] an opportunity to undo it.
And then for boons, you are undertaking the quest to earn the boon.
[Game Masters] don’t have to use it that way.
But the implication is you have to earn a boon of this strength.
She just does whatever she feels like in the moment.
She has no filter.
She says things she’s not supposed to say to NPCs; she’s that character.
We love her for it.
That player has invited chaos into her character’s life.
That, to me, is indicative of a player who wants that kind of chaos.
She wants something crazy to happen when she opens that book; she’s doing it on purpose.
And I have been that player too.
I’m absolutely that player.
And as long as you communicate to your players that there are stakes around [an action].
And then when there is a consequence to that risky choice, nobody’s shocked.
Nobody feels like they’re being targeted."
There’s a lot of versatility in when you could use this deck as well.
I think that that flavor is still valuable.
And I am relieved now.
I’m very relieved about the way that that has ended up shaking out.
Obviously, there are changes that make that backwards compatibility a little bit more complicated… Obviously we wrote it in the context of 5e.
And some tables just won’t."
The deck is set to launch on October 1.
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