The Harrow Deck of Many Things

EEEEEEEEEEhehehehehehehehe, a card or two, should you

A Harrow Deck of Many Things, spread before you on a stump in the woods.

EEEEEEEEEhehehehehehehehe, tell me adventurer, would you like to draw a card from a deck of many things? What future will it unfold, a vast fortune could await.
Have a peek, my dear, and draw a card, or three.
What adventure will you unfold, EEEEEEEEEEEEhehehehehehehehehehehe
Here's a D100 and a magic item table if you want to break open that random magic item from The Wanderer lol

So, this, this I have been wanting to make for a while now. The Deck of Many Things, or the Harrow Deck of Many Things, both are incredible. One has been called the campaign killer, but like hear me out. Firstly, harrow, but still, it's not uncommon that a person is getting tired of playing X character. Soooooo... how's your luck feeling that day? And otherwise make it a funsie, a like "yah no, not now, but like for funsies, do you want to see what you *wooooould* have gotten?" Like those are just fun, say it involves intentional... intent, and funsie draws are allowed, DM it. Like it could even help draw in an NPC that you want to bring into the fun, add to the experience.

And now, I'm not too sure how overall rare it is that someone has made a physical copy of the Harrow Deck of Many Things, as a physical copy of this cannot be purchased (by my hunting, as of 2021). So what I did is, I bought the actual Harrow deck from Paizo, and it arrived as the regular tarot deck for Pathfinder. The Many Things part I had to create.

And, again hear me out, half the point of this is that half of it does *good* things. And let's be honest here, between the DOMT and the HDOMT, the downsides are far more comical in harrow, and more of a storyline adventure than anything else. Like the best card got nerfed a bit, but they got rid of the worst of the worst, and yah, the rest the bad ones are comical more than anything else. And there's some hilariously good ones, like you wanna become a werebear? Get your own demiplane? Aw yeah, let's hook that up. Reforge any item (magical or not)? An item becomes intelligent? Like there's some cool stuff in here. By far the least damaging of all of the decks of many things that I've come across, and most recommendable. Well, the Tarot of Many Things is pretty funky, but I'd give this one the nod as being the tamest.

So, I set out about copying the list of effects from d20pfsrd (linked above), and popping them into Kolourpaint of all the things, and I will explain why. I wanted to be able to have the font as big as I could, so that when I printed it shrunk down, the letters would all be crystal clear. The image files for it are over here if you would like to print your own, please have at it. As well, here's the full magic item table (it shimmers!), and the text version of it too if you like.

Anyways, I designed it to be on two pages, since it was far too unreadable as a single page. To give credit to Staples though, when I did try, it was *technically* readable, as in like... an inch from your eyeball type of thing, but yah two pages. Also I needed the curses page because there's a random card for it in there, and I *cannot* come up with those on my own, I am way too much of a goodie-goodie and my brain just refuses to come up with anything. So yah, this beats standing there with a dumbfounded look on my face, for my part, feel free to skip it on yours. It's a pretty comical list tho, so that part's good. And my character can remove them anyways, so regardless. Also, having the two harrow pages on a single side gave us an extra surface for the d100 magic item table, so that works.

So to make the 'paged' side, I taped 80% of the second page down to the card (I should add, the card that I taped over is the 'created by paizo, etc etc' small print card, which has text on both sides, so that works well. It had the borders on it though, and the same card stock!). So I taped over 80% of the second page there, then put tape on the underside of the last bit, used that to make the back of the hinge for the two pages and taped the first page onto there, and then proceeded to double-side the first page with tape, as well as finish taping down the rest of the first page. This way, the hinge is essentially taped down to the card all along the seam, without that itself needing to be the actual hinge. It works well, and I folded over all tape corners so there's about 8mm of overlap over the edges. I should add that I decided to do it this way, as opposed to having the two pages directly back to back, for a few reasons. For starters, design choice, and secondly so that the text wouldn't show through and make it difficult to read. I thought about drawing the L5R/Paizo/D&D logo into there, or a Beholder or something, but I realized that I could put the magic item table on there, as well as the stats to the Holy Avenger, because that's awesome.

The magic item table actually came later, I first made the harrow bag, the miniature dice bag, and even the dice roller, before I'd finalized what I wanted on there. Oohh, and I also glittered the edges of the magic item table, and the Holy Avenger! And then the pencil bag and mini showed up a little bit later (also there's a copy of Raven's character sheet in there too).

And so... the Harrow Deck of Many Things.

Draw a card my sweet, who knows what lays inside, EEEEEEEEEEEheheheheheheheheheeee

Built May 8, 2021 (box) through to April 29, 2022 (magic item table)

. . . . October 2, 2023: More to follow, scroll down!

The box open, with the little fold-down tabs being coincidentally and comically bent in the middle, due to where the cardboard was folded originally, making it look like the box is cackling or something with its arms up.

The box showing the cards inside, the many things card partially slid out beneath, the divination book slid out more, and the folded up full page printout (on waterproof paper!) of the many things behind that. Also, for some reason the image file itself is much smaller than the rest of the images, some weird quirk that happened to the file at some point, possible misclick, I have no idea. In either case, it's a smaller image, like thumbnail size, about 200 pixels across. Which they're shown on the page as, sized to 200, so it suffices y'know, and like now the box is gone actually, because after I made the harrow bag, the box was kinda deemed superfluous, so I ended up incorporating the cardboard from it into the deck of many things box, so I can't get the picture again lol. Also yah, this box is inside of that box, which I find kinda funny.

The first page of the Harrow Deck of Many Things, showing the first half of the cards, in really tiny text.

The second page of card descriptions, inside the folding part

The back showing the curses. My character has remove curse though, so it's really more for comedic purposes than anything. Did you want a sword that makes you have to scream out what you're doing with it in order to use it? I mean, that's pretty comical.

The inner fold, showing the magic item list, with the stats for the Holy Avenger sword underneath.

The red velvet-like bag created for the harrow cards, sitting on the ground.

The tiny bag, for the tiny five millimeter dice, which are kinda shown beside my finger for size comparison

The deck on top of the big bag, and also the small bag and the tiny dice.

The little case that has the dice tower inside of it, with the little dice bag tucked into a designated spot beside it. The inside is the same red velvet as the bags. The fabric is visible beneath the dice tower as well, which is made from clear plastic, and between the hinge joints is a coiled paper that says spell scroll haste. The bag is in it's spot, while a 20 sided dice is being dropped in, and a twelve and a four sided dice is on the base. The rest of the dice are inside of the bag.

The miniature for Raven Facebiter, wearing a pink shirt and dark brown pants, and a slightly lighter brown cloak overtop. She's holding a carved wooden staff, a frog is on her left foot, a fairly is on her left shoulder, and a fly swarm is hovering behind her, laying on a light brown wooden table.

The red harrow bag with the deck to the right of it, and the Raven miniature on her pouch above the deck. The closed blue dice tower case is to the right with a beholder painted on the top, sitting on its own red bag, with the harrow's tiny dice bag and dice beneath. To the right of those is a mechanical pencil, eraser stick, and spare lead tube on a red velvet pouch for them, all on the wooden table.

The red velvet pouch closed and filled with all of the preceding picture's contents, sitting on the wooden table.

Perform a Harrow / The Harrowing spell / A Many Things draw

Official pages 1 2 3

October 2, 2023

. . . . And then there was released a second edition of the deck!!! Strangely about 1/2 cm taller, but much shinier, and with much redesigned cards! And a cool embossed back to them as well, WOW I was not expecting to see this when I ordered it. And I had to order it, like camman, that was gonna happen.

So what I'm thinking is, as described in this song-a-day (youtube link, also shows the very first card draw), the older deck works well for the dusty ol' kicking around in my witch's bag kinda style, kinda old, kinda scraggly, kinda rough. And for at conventions, faires, that type of thing, that's when the fancy deck comes out. So that works well. Pics first, then some more details below. Have a look at the first pics, and some of the comparisons/differences between the two decks.

The card box, in shiny gold with purple lettering. The box like the cards in 2e have a wing-like surround to the images, and is much larger than the cards themselves. The cards inside are held in the center with cardboard borders, and the instruction manual is the size of the box itself, which is in the next pic.

The opened box, one again saying Pathfinder Harrow Deck on the inside of the lid, with the cards contained in the center of the box by a cardboard surround, with a golden ribbon wrapped under the cards, which then goes back overtop so that both the instruction manual and the cards can be easily lifted out with it. The back of the cards shows a large golden orb in the center, with a curly trimwork on the top left and bottom right, which curls up to the respective corners of the cards themselves. The border of the cards is a detailed linework similar to the wings on the box, as well as more geometric linework in the four corners. The instruction manual is also shown, a white paper rulebook which appears to be almost identical to the original on the inside.

A handful of the 2e cards, The Inquisitor, showing a grand sorcerer holding a book, surrounded by chains, and the pages flying out of the book. This card, in the deck of many things, would allow the person who pulled this card to force anyone to answer any one question truthfully. The second card shown is The Keep, a grand castle on a mountaintop, defending itself from an attack with fiery balls being launched below. This would get you your own demiplane. The third is The Winged Serpent, the wish card, which shows a white snake with rainbow wings facing upwards on a cloudy background. The fourth is The Theater, showing a much more detailed fighter and dragon emerging from behind curtains, both held up by puppet strings. This would increase one of the drawers stats by 1. Bottom row, the fifth card is The Silent Hag, mentioned below in the text about the name change. An eyeless wrinkled, purple hag with stringy white hair holding an eyeball in her left hand. In the original card it was in her mouth. This would force the drawer to choose between being blind, deaf, or mute. The next is The Paladin, a majestic fighter with a white cape holding a golden sword. This card would bestow the drawer with the Holy Avenger sword. The seventh card is The Tangled Briar, which shows a skeleton sitting in a wooden frame with a red glowing background, with thorny vines coming from the top and the bottom gripping the frame. This card would let you speak to plants, and they would have to answer any question truthfully, but it would in return summon shambling mounds for you to fight. The last card shown is The Cricket, which shows a black cricket playing with a deck of cards in front of a dark, starry background, sitting atop an apple with a sword in it. This card would allow the drawer to pull up to three more cards, and with each additional card, their speed would increase by 10 feet.

This picture shows comparisons between the 1e and 2e decks. The first shown is The Winged Serpent, the original, and all originals, being a more comic-style drawn white snake with a green head, with larger rainbow wings, still facing towards the top left. The newer version shows a much more elaborate fully white snake, with smaller rainbow wings. Second is The Cricket, which in the original shows a cricket with a white top hat and suit, playing with a deck of cards, sitting beside a large apple with a sword in it, and the newer version is a much more realistic looking cricket, without any suit, still playing with cards, sitting atop the apple with a much larger sword in it. The third is The Wanderer, which in 1e shows a travelling centaur carrying many items on their back, with just a plain slightly textured brown background, while the newer just shows a heaping pile of miscellaneous goods, rope, a clock, cheese in a bird cage, with a mouse on top, a shield, a helmet, chimes, and other items. The next card is The Theater, which shows a very comical, almost paper-cutout rendition of a fighter defending against a dragon emerging from behind curtains. No puppet strings are shown in the original. In 2e, it's a much more realistic fighter in golden armour, possibly the same as from The Paladin card, defending against a much more detailed green dragon emerging from behind curtains, but puppet strings are shown connected to both. In the last card shown, The Avalanche, the 1e version shows a rocky cliffside becoming a large golem, throwing a horse and cart from the path off a cliff, while the 2e version shows a black horse and cart being attacked and broken by a cloud giant behind them, atop a cloudy ground, much different from the original.

So the first three pictures show the 2e box and a handful of cards. SO much shinier, fancy fancy box (as compared to the original above), and much creepier cards, they were definitely looking to ramp up the creepy factor on these. Don't worry, we still got Dennis lol. The fourth picture shows the comparison between some of the 1e and 2e cards, and you can see some are similar, and some are VASTLY different. Although, this was released in 2e to go along with the Stolen Fate adventure path from Paizo, which might be cool to collect along the way, though for my purposes it will mainly be the Harrow Deck of Many Things. Yah we already got a paper in the box for that lol.

Several other things of note in the 2e version is, several of the cards were renamed, like The Idiot became The Fool for some reason, the others in that link. And as well... my ant queen! They've gone and changed The Queen Mother! Completely removed the image of an ant on the front, awwwww, I'm so glad that I still have the 1e deck lol. Like, I assume this change (and I imagine all of the others) was to better fit with the 2e adventure that it's associated with. And on that point, I am SO glad that they brought around a 2e version of the deck regardless, and didn't let it fade into 1e, keep it alive. So it's awesome that, and wow, it is SO bright and shiny and fancy, the imagery, just wow, incredibly detailed and a lot more elaborate.

It's still, of course, going to be deck-of-many-thingsed, and like I said, will be my fancy deck to pull out at faires, while the scraggly ol' one will ride in my backpack, for travellers on the go, mweeeeeeeeehehehehehehehehehe.

. . . . February 21, 2025: And still just a little bit more!!

At one point, I had a secondary (regular 1e deluxe (Paizo)) harrow deck, but the face of one of the cards stuck to another one, and it tore the face of one of the cards. It irked me, it annoyed me, I was down to just one harrow deck (lol), or rather, one of that 1e style harrow deck. So I looked online. I knew that since the above 2e came out, it would be harder (and more expensive) to find the 1e version, but to eBay I went to have a look around. And... what's this? The Pathfinder Chronicles ORIGINAL original harrow deck?!? And for £40, these are usually like 120, what is this?!? Box is pretty beat up, doesn't come with the instruction book, but the cards are complete. I have to, I have to, I have to. And so I did, on February 4th, the order was placed, and expected by the 28th. And it was generally forgotten about for the next few weeks.

Feb21: Doo de doo de doo, gotta run out for a minute, doo de, oh, what... a lil box for me? I haven't ordered anything that might need a box, I got like... a halfpenny coming, the farthing, oh, is also there, cool, that showed up... huh. I do have a maneki neko (wiki) keychain coming to add to my backpack, maybe it's that. So I open it up in the bus, and... OH YUS, you are a week early, I am NOT complaining! Immediately, immediately we count the cards. No instruction book, fine fine, got the additional chronicle cards, ok cool, counting the rest 1, 2, 3..... 52, 53, 54 YUS! In almost immaculate condition, the box is scraggled, the book is astray (but can be found on Paizo's page here!), and the cards, mwah, just poif. OOHH, we have a new backup, if I ever decide to use these. I dunno, the box may be scrag, the book may be gone, but I'm gonna protect it. Honestly, in ye olde waterproof deck bag with silica gel packets in it, it would get beat up more, possibly pressed at an angle and torn. And so I decided to take some spare sheet-plastic I had kicking around for ages, and re-fold it to make a protective case for this. And so, after about an hour, it was complete. Ignore the lines in the plastic, ignore the bubbles in the tape, this is to keep the box from getting bent and twisted. I also added a kinda I-shaped paper into the inside of the box to keep the two sides of cards from sliding into eachother, and it's now fully encased in rigid plastic, nice.

Should I want to use it specifically I can always open one side, and until then, you are safe. I took a photo of several of the cards, of the three versions, to compare them in general. The Pathfinder Chronicles deck is definitely smaller like a regular deck of cards, and has the suit face in a large crest, and a different border (and back of course). The image is the same, but I do prefer my regular deluxe harrow deck for the border and that crest not hiding some of the picture. The 2e harrow deck is of course, completely different lol, though still incredible.

And so, the trifecta is complete, the three version of the harrow deck, in my possession. And of course the numerous regular-playing-cards-converted-harrow decks, and yah just one of the regular deluxe deck, but yes. Also I've found that when drawing for others in the wild, like 99.9% of the time I'm just using one of those converted card decks anyway, so the deluxe can stay in the campaign bag to travel with this dusty old witch to game instead, and keep away from the outdoor rain. And also yes, I did include a copy of the Harrow Deck of Many Things instructions in the box before protecting it in plastic, MWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!! Draw a card or two, should you. From one of the open decks please, here, lemme get...

Kabutroid holding the Pathfinder Chronicles Harrow Divination Deck on the bus, a black and bluish grey box with a lithe woman on the front wearing mystical red and purple clothing, holding up a card from a set of nine of the table in front of her, which also has a drinking glass, a mug, a mouse, several gold coins, a knife stuck into the table, and a candle in a vase.

Three rows of cards on a wooden table, of five cards each, The Winged Serpent, The Queen Mother, The Paladin, The Theater, and the back design of the card. The top row is all slightly smaller cards, the border around the image a black diamond and dot pattern, and a crest with the symbol for strength, intelligence, charisma etcetera are enlarged in the position on the card indicating their alignment. The back of the card is the same image from the box, a woman in mystical clothing holding up a card in front of a table containing eight other cards from a 3 by 3 grid. The second row contains the larger, tarot-card sized deluxe harrow deck cards, which have the same images on them, a white couatl with rainbow wings, an ant wearing a crown surrounded by grubs, a smiling paladin holding a sword with one hand and holding their other hand out to you, a theater puppet of a dragon fighting a paladin in front of a set of curtains, and the yellow face with a red somewhat woven pattern border, and the six symbols for the character stats in the middle. The third row are nearly identical sized, but shimmering and bright, with more elegant linework borders and almost completely different images, still a white couatl for the wish card, but drawn in a different design, the queen mother is now a human surrounded by... human grubs I guess, white, half-formed humanlike tiny creatures with giant eyes, the paladin is more fully suited, glowing gold and still holding a sword and a hand out to you, the puppets in the theater are drawn with much more detail, and the back is an elegant gold and blue linework design with an orb in the center with spikes and feathers extending from it.

The box, sitting on the wooden table, but now encased in form-fitting plastic that protects it from all sides, including the cardboard protrusion from the top with the clip strip hole in the center, shining and glistening from the light above.

Additional quotes for a cackly witch:

A curious thing, what could appear. Why anthing, if you draw but one.

Adventurer, change you seek, and change is what I have in store. Dare you draw a card?

A curious thing, oh what could it be, perhaps you'll draw one, perhaps you'll draw three!

Good or bad, either could occur. Who knows what could happen.

What does an adventurer need, a demiplane perhaps? Who knows...

A spell, a thing, a wonderous item, who knows what could arise. All you need is to draw but one.

A card, a card, a wonderous thing, who knows what you'll get, perhaps you'll be king!

ps: Yah I gotta say it, all for funsies, don't harm anyone, but like... these cackley lines are gold. They roll pretty good, so I'm keeping them here for others. My current quotes are more shop-based and related to adventurers coming in and asking for the cards ("Adventurer come, what is it you seek, is it something quite rare, or something unique? <Customer responds> Ahh, you seek the cards, oh what could it be, oh what could it be, we'll draw out the cards, and then we will see", that style). But the cackling though, you gotta cackle.

Yah of course I came up with a way to save everyone, I'm Betty Rubble, of course I did.

My best witch's cackle lol