It’s hard not to get excited about the recent release of Dungeon’s & Dragons’ The Book of Many Things. After all, a handful of cards doesn’t have to be about winning or losing; they can be about creating a wealth of shared stories around the table. We’ve compiled a list of games that explore play through a deck of cards, spinning epic tales from the delightful chaos of a random draw.
So, grab your deck, and shuffle the cards — let’s take The Book of Many Things’ lead and deal out a new story for ourselves.
Channel A
# of Players: 3-11
Time to Play: 30 minutes
At a Glance: Use cards to pitch an anime series and win over fans!
Roll20 Gives You: Rules, 112 Premise Cards, 272 Title Cards, Playmat, 13 Chibi Player Tokens & 1 Producer Tokens
You Gotta Check Out: The team variant ruleset!
TK’s Favorite Part: The social media challenge ruleset – great for influencers or charity events!
Join the chaotic fun of this party game where you dive into Channel A’s quest to cook up the ultimate anime sensation. Unleash your inner creativity, string together titles like Love Ninja Z or Fighting Fight Fighter EX, and see if you’ve got what it takes to become next season’s shounen or shoujo sensation!
Bonus Action: If you’re looking to expand your collection of anime-themed card games, run over to DriveThruRPG and try out Raspberry Heaven, Dogtopia Rising: The Apawcalypse, and Lily X Blade (Primary Wheel).
Fiasco
# of Players: 3-5
Time to Play: 2 hours
At a Glance: An award-winning story-telling game inspired by cinematic tales of small-time capers gone disastrously wrong
Roll20 Gives You: 4 Rulesets and Variants, 16 Outcome Negative Cards, 16 Outcome Positive Cards, 49 Dragonslayers Cards, 29 Poppleton Mall Cards, 49 Tales From Suburbia Cards, 20 Aftermath Cards
You Gotta Check Out: The Dragonslayers kickers – spice up your fantasy scenes with weird magic!
TK’s Favorite Part: Poppleton Mall – you’d be surprised how much trouble you can get into in the food court!
Get ready for a hilarious tale featuring regular folks armed with big dreams and questionable decision-making skills! It’s a rollercoaster of poor choices, tarnished reputations, and powerful ambition — with a slim chance (let’s be real, it’s slim) of winding up right back where you started.
Bonus Action: Love hilarious heists and kooky crimes? Try out The Score, Ghost Court, or A Cunning Plan!
Spindlewheel
# of Players: 1-4
Time to Play: 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on Play Pattern chosen
At a Glance: Interpretive tarot-like storytelling game where you weave together a story from card to card
Roll20 Gives You: 103 Classic Deck Cards, 75 Kickstarter Expansion Cards, 5 Expansion Info Cards
You Gotta Check Out: The rules of Entanglements – bind yourself and your story to another player
TK’s Favorite Part: The Wheel of World Creation – spin a world’s story and cut it with the snip of the shears
Craft narratives by interpreting each Spindlewheel card’s idea and context. Embrace the enigmatic nature of the cards, where upright and inverse texts represent opposing forces or two facets of the same strange coin; let your tales unfold in any direction, favoring the upright but allowing for intriguing twists if needed.
Bonus Action: Explore magical story-telling and world-building in games like Spoken Magic, Lost Things RPG, or check out QuestCrawl on DriveThruRPG or Thralls of the Red God: Five-Card Fictions Vol. 2 on DriveThruCards.
At Blade’s End
# of Players: 2
Time to Play: 1-2 hours
At a Glance: Two-player Dice & Prompts Adventure Deck game about two Rivals and their misadventures, all leading up to their final encounter
Roll20 Gives You: 20 Conflict Cards, 20 Duel Cards, 5 Props Cards, 3 Rivalry Cards, 14 Strife Cards, 20 Traits Cards, 5 VS Cards
You Gotta Check Out: The 5 tokens for the Rivals’ attributes
TK’s Favorite Part: The Pact ability – succeed or fail together!
It’s a clash of wills! Will will it end in a clash of triumph or with a faded whisper? With the dynamic Rivalry deck and unique player Traits, every playthrough promises a thrilling and unpredictable adventure.
Bonus Action: It takes two to tell a tale – explore more 2 player-compatible card games on DriveThruRPG and DriveThruCards with games like The Murdered Third, Poisoned Chalice, and Extinction at Camp Summersaurus.
Affection Game
# of Players: 2-4 Players
Time to Play: 1-2 Hours
At a Glance: Answer the questions on the cards honestly and reveal your truth to your companions
Roll20 Gives You: Rules, 5 Color Playmats, Fillable Handouts, 17 Cards
You Gotta Check Out: The Fillable Handouts for Players to answer questions posed by the cards
TK’s Favorite Part: The Needs and Reactions Handout, for informing players on healthy communication throughout the game
You wake in the midst of divine machines: each card beckons you to share your heart, from lighthearted tales with one eye to forging deeper connections with three eyes. Reveal the truths that pave the way back home.
The only way to win is to be vulnerable.
Bonus Action: Explore identity and emotions with other card games like For Our Family, and games on DriveThruRPG like Our Minerva, Mannerism, and Candy Teeth.
The Book of Many Things
Party Level: Any
At a Glance: A sourcebook that explores stories using the Deck of Many Things
Roll20 Gives You: 50+ Magical Items, 30+ Monsters, 22 Cards, 3 Spells, 2 Backgrounds, 1 Feat
You Gotta Check Out: Rifflers – a fey creature that wanders the planes in search of the cards from the Decks of Many Things!
TK’s Favorite Part: The fate hag – love anyone bold enough to fool around with destiny!
Unravel the secrets of the infamous Deck of Many Things! Dungeon Masters encounter foes like the Grim Harrow, locales like the headquarters of the benevolent Solar Bastion, and campaign advice, while players discover new magic items (wait, there’s a Deck of Many More Things???) and spells inspired by the deck’s cryptic cards, all narrated by the fearsome warrior, Asteria.
Bonus Action: Stack the deck (see what we did there?) with EVEN MORE MAGICAL CARDS from Dungeon Masters Guild! Check out The Deck of Multitudinous Things, Tarot of Transcendent Treasures, or D.O.M.T. A Divination Method!