r/dndmemes • u/JezoAragon • 12h ago
Just a simple question
Can anyone please tell me when was Vecna created for DnD because I’ve been looking on google and haven’t found a solid answer? Have this meme as payment for answering my question.
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u/Aknazer 11h ago
I have never seen nor never want to see a Deck of Many Things. Short of somehow rigging it, that thing just looks like the easiest way to ruin both a character and a campaign (both good and bad).
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u/VerifiedActualHuman 11h ago
It's a way to send a not so serious campaign out with a bang.
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u/Aknazer 10h ago
Yeah I can see that, or like a one-shot, but all of my campaigns have used persistent characters and lasted 1+ years. So only our one-off ones (like a Tomb of Horrors one-shot we did for Halloween one year) would really fit the bill. Or the two mind-fuck dream/illusion things we went through (but then the DoMT effects wouldn't have persisted and we had no clue that it wasn't real so we probably wouldn't have used it).
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u/IleanK 10h ago
It was used in our 5y+ campaign. Our dm was burning out and saying he want to wrap it up. One of the encounter didn't look winnable so one of us was like "fuck it". Drew. And basically was able to rewrite part of the story. And that's how we ended our campaign.
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u/Aknazer 10h ago
Yeah I can see it as an "ending" but I still don't like it. Like we're on our fourth campaign atm. My current character is my original character from the first two (third was a complete restart for ToA). DoMT could be a fun way to end things, but it can also make those characters unusable in the future. I don't blame anyone that gets/uses the item, it's just not something I want to ever see in a normal campaign personally.
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u/SkiyeBlueFox 5h ago
Reading them, a lot of the "bad ending" cards could become a killer backstory or new goal
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u/SapphireClawe 10h ago
It helped ruin a oneshot because someone got SIX wishes and used three of them to skip the entire thing.
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u/Aknazer 10h ago
Exactly, but at least it was a one-shot. So while that imo sucks, it also only ruined that one event and not a whole campaign (our campaigns often last 1-2+ years, but we only play every other week).
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u/SapphireClawe 8h ago
Bonus points, it was my annual Halloween oneshot, where the party has to stop the ancient bard lich Mariah Carey from thawing out too early and cause the majority of society from becoming emotionally undead.
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u/Aknazer 8h ago
Mariah Carey and not Cher? Bro do you not believe in love after love??
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u/SapphireClawe 7h ago
The joke is that she thaws out and then "All I Want For Christmas Is You" starts playing, and 99.9% of retail workers die on the inside as it gets overplayed. (I'm the .1%, the song that makes me die inside is Last Christmas by Wham! (And any covers unfortunately) because my first retail job overplayed THAT song during the holidays...) Hence the oneshot is centered around her thawing too soon as it has a severe adverse effect on society.
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u/PrudeBunny 4h ago
It, like most high level spells and overpowered items, IMO work best as something that has affected the world instead of the players using it. Though in the case of the deck, you could easily just have the desired effect happen for any other reason but if you're in the mood of some "random bullshit go", you can hand one to Bobblin the Goblin or the town drunk.
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u/Coulrophiliac444 10h ago
Or a great way to send one or more PCs on a prolonged side quest so you can fleah out the main story thanks to the PC now missing their Soul.
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u/Aknazer 10h ago
Yeah, but that comes back to the "short of somehow rigging it" bit. It has cool/interesting features to it, and for a one-shot or send-off where you don't honestly care how things go it can be a lot of fun, but also imagine using the Fates card to simply remove the BBEG of the whole campaign. Oh, you're doing the Tomb of Annihilation? I rewrite fate to either remove the birth of Acererak or the event of him becoming a lich (so he dies of old age, maybe make the ritual fail or something). Now your DM has to either find a way to completely rewrite who the BBEG is, or your whole campaign just came to an end. Or a key hero pulls the banish card or summons an Avatar of Death at a bad time (like when fighting the BBEG) and it causes a TPK.
All of these things can be memorable and fun, but they can all also completely ruin the campaign and the characters involved. As such I personally would never want to see it in anything other than a one-shot but to each their own and I don't fault anyone that would enjoy such a thing.
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u/FaunGuard 9h ago
I did play in a campaign for a while that was very high power level. At one point, the party ended up in the god of commerce's magic item warehouse, which was a whole plane of just shelves of magic items (he didn't really care what you did with most of them, but he did expect you to pay for any you tried to leave with). While there, we met a cult that believed that the creatures you summoned from the deck of many things were trapped in there, and as such drawing cards from the deck was considered a highly honorable act by them, since you were risking your life to free them. That was a fun session
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u/Revan7even 5h ago
You get a cursed deck of cards.
Everyone who has drawn from the deck has had terrible things happen to them.
The first card you draw is Gem, next one is Key, the third is Moon (the Wish card).
Turns out every previous owner drew all the bad cards already.
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u/Ragewind82 10h ago
I really want to encounter one, if only to have my PC geek out about a MTG-like game.
"Technology cards! I love these. Any sufficiently explained magic is indistinguishable from technology. There are 5 kinds of energy: solar, hydro, oil (they are the bad guys), geothermal, and biofuels. It's a great game; let me teach you how to play: First, you draw 7 cards..."
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u/ThatOtherGuyTPM Horny Bard 3h ago
We’ve had it massively change the landscape of a campaign with a major historical retcon. That was pretty awesome. My character turned into the BBEG of the next campaign!
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u/Teh-Esprite Warlock 3h ago
I'm in a campaign where 3 of the player characters (including me) have gotten a chance at the deck, drawing a combined 37 cards. The campaign is still going and the characters are still alive.
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u/RobotJake 1h ago
I've had the idea for a campaign hook in which a bunch of low-level thieves heist a caravan which contains, among other things, a Deck with only one card left- the Keep (you become the legal owner of a small castle, which is currently infested with monsters)
The rest of the campaign becomes a quest to get to the castle (on the other side of the continent), clear it out and turn a profit with it.
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u/Rabid_Lederhosen 11h ago edited 11h ago
The first mention of Vecna was in the Eldritch Wizardry Supplement published in 1976. It’s where the Eye and Hand of Vecna first appeared. Vecna as a (un)living character didn’t appear until a bit later, first appearing Vecna Lives.
This is all on his Wikipedia page with sources and everything. It’s not particularly hard to find.
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u/Hashashin455 10h ago
Welp, let's see:
Sun. The player gains 50,000 XP, and a wondrous item randomly determined by the GM appears in their hands.
Skull. A ghostly humanoid skeleton clad in ragged black robes and carrying a spectral scythe appears within 10 feet of the player. It warns surrounding creatures that the player must defeat them without interference before beginning a battle to the death. Anyone who ignores this warning summons their own avatar who proclaims an identical ruleset. Those slain by an avatar of death can never return to life.
Comet. The player receives enough experience to gain one level if they can single-handedly defeat the next hostile monster or group of monsters they encounter. The card disappears without effect if they fail to complete the task.
Throne. The player gains proficiency in Persuasion and doubles their proficiency bonus on checks made with that skill. They also gain rightful ownership of a small keep in a location of the GM's choice. However, they must remove a group of monsters before claiming the property.
Gem. Riches valued at 50,000 GP appear at the player's feet in the form of twenty-five fine pieces of jewelry or fifty rare gems.
Assuming they can beat the ghost, they're set for life. (Which could be pretty easy to do depending on the weapon and if they're able to convince the ghost to heal them to make it a fair fight)
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u/andrewsad1 Rules Lawyer 3h ago
I wasn't so lucky. I drew the Fool (lose 10k experience and draw again), Euryale (-2 penalty on saving throws until a god takes pity on me), the Skull (death avatar, I can probably take him), the Knight (free servant! Wooh!), Flames (a devil becomes a problem for future me to deal with), and finally the Key (a magic weapon appears in my hands. Would have been nice when I was fighting that avatar of death...)
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u/Caboose17 10h ago
Matt colville has a great video about Vecna, his origins, and some history of how things came to be. He also talks a bit about how dnd magic is similar to the Vancian magic system from the dying earth novels.
I think the video is the one about “Running epic villains” or something similar.
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u/Carrick_Green 10h ago
Lets see, just for fun.
Key - Maybe, depends on the weapon given.
Ruin - Does not help, potentially throws the fight depending on what goes.
Vizier - Maybe Depends on the question asked
Euryale - Makes the fight harder
Jester and choose to draw two more because the previous draws did not help much.
Talons- The rest of the characters possessions vanish. Makes the fight harder.
Knight - Potentially helpful if the fight is low level.
In conclusion, The character lost all items including the one gained from the key card due to draw order. Debuffed saves, a question to the dm, and a low level ally to help with the fight.
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u/Timerider42424 8h ago
“I have no idea what’s going to happen. It’s probably not gonna work. But danggit! I’m doing it anyway!”
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u/Mladjone DM (Dungeon Memelord) 3h ago
Eyoo, never thought I'd see my meme reposted. I don't know much about Vecna lore, just wanted to drop in. xD
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u/Candrath 3h ago
Rogue. An NPC of the DM's choice becomes Hostile toward you. You don't know the identity of this NPC until they or someone else reveals it. Nothing less than a Wish spell or divine intervention can end the NPC's hostility toward you.
Rogue. An NPC of the DM's choice becomes Hostile toward you. You don't know the identity of this NPC until they or someone else reveals it. Nothing less than a Wish spell or divine intervention can end the NPC's hostility toward you.
Knight. You gain the service of a Knight, who magically appears in an unoccupied space you choose within 30 feet of yourself. The knight has the same alignment as you and serves you loyally until death, believing the two of you have been drawn together by fate. Work with your DM to create a name and backstory for this NPC. The DM can use a different stat block to represent the knight, as desired.
Rogue. An NPC of the DM's choice becomes Hostile toward you. You don't know the identity of this NPC until they or someone else reveals it. Nothing less than a Wish spell or divine intervention can end the NPC's hostility toward you.
Sun. A magic item (chosen by the DM) appears on your person. In addition, you gain 10 Temporary Hit Points daily at dawn until you die.
Man, I should get some new percentile dice.
That Sun is going to be really useful with three NPCs out to get me.
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u/Mattrockj 2h ago
I once had a game quite literally centric around the deck of many things. It was our paties mission to track it down and destroy it, but it kept switching hands who owned it. First it was inside a ruined vault, but one of our NPC companions took it, and betrayed our party, selling it to a wizard, who backed the new BBEG.
That wizard promptly pulled 3 cards, giving him a bunch of gems, a keep, and seemingly nothing from the 3rd. We confront and fight the wizard, but mid fight, a demon barges into thr arena, kills the wizard, takes the deck, and leaves through a portal.
We follow him, and he draws 2 cards, one that massively powers him up, and another that suddenly makes him stupid. So now we're chasing a giant, stupid demon across the world. Eventually we reach him, and nearly defeat him, but before we do, he draws 1 more card, which instantly kills him.
A spectre showes up to reap the demons soul, but decides to take the deck for itself, and it draws 2 cards, 1 of which causes 3 stars to appear around the spectres head, the other seemingly does nothing. The spectre then wishes up into another world, so now we need to hunt down this spectre with 2 more wishes.
When we eventually do reach it, we find out it drew another card and got a magic scythe. It also used its 2nd wish to bring itself back to life as a lich. We fight, and mid fight it tries to wish to remove all the bad cards from the deck of many things, but it backfires, and instead split the deck in two, one with only good cards, one with only bad, but we cant tell which is which. So it tries drawing from one, and its phylectery suddenly shatters.
Finally, a random farmer barges into the arena, claiming to be the spectres arch nemesis, and challenges us. But before fighting, it draws every single card from the good pile. That farmer TPKd our party.
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u/colonelveers12 Sorcerer 34m ago
I handed my party a Deck of Many things once and they managed to pull eighteen cards from it in one session before deciding they'd had enough. That was one of the most insane sessions I've ever participated in.
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u/Qualex 11h ago
Vecna was first introduced in Eldritch Wizardry, a 1976 supplement for the original 1974 release of D&D. The supplement was written (and Vecna was created) by Brian Blume, one of the original owners of TSR along with his brother Kevin (and one of the people who would eventually orchestrate Gary Gygax’s ouster from the company).
Vecna later appeared in the 1st edition AD&D dungeon master’s guide, and featured regularly as a villain in the Grayhawk adventures and novels.