I see it in the cards. Whether you know it by its formal name, D&D, The Forgotten Realms, or just DnD, I have a few tips on Wizards of the Coast’s 2022 The Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck for you! The D&D deck was developed by Adam Lee from WotC and illustrator Fred Gissubel. So listen up, adventurers across the lands, this deck has some serious potential for your gameplay and study! For a little brief background, I have been entrenched in roleplaying games and a have had a genuine interest in tarot for over a decade. I find these topics to be fascinating to think about, and intertwine, based on my own personal perspective that imagination often reflects a transcendent truth greater than the sum of its parts. Tarot is a great activity to see this in action.
While magic in the land of D&D is fantasy, as is its uses, the mythological and archetypal origins of D&D is derived like most fantasy in ancient traditions and its more modern influencers like Tolkienian and Lovecraftian magic systems, and can be interpreted with an understanding of this mythology. And the universe with its related derivations continues to invite new ways to imagine the world like this fantastic deck.
I was slightly shocked to see such a real artifact as this complete deck available as part of the official materials for the D&D game experience. I bought the deck on sale at Target after Christmas, since I’d been on the lookout for pretty much any decks they had. That’s pretty much all there is to say about that.
I’ll just throw this out here, and say knowing how to read tarot is probably going to be the primary factor in how useful you find the deck. While it is a very fine deck, it’s not what I’d consider a beginner’s deck–yet it is too, in sort of a weird way because it’s aimed at gameplay. The suits and arcana of this deck are not traditional to the standard wands, cups, swords, and pentacles of more traditional decks like the Rider Tarot. I found that I could read these new suits just fine though, as I would any other deck–with a little bit of creativity. This deck has great potential as either an in-game aid or personal tarot deck. So, let’s take a look.
Table of Contents
What’s Included in the Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck?
The attractive slightly larger form box comes with a manual and a pocket with ribbon to easily retrieve the cards, of which there are 78 in total. They’re slightly thicker than your standard playing cards, but easy enough to shuffle on a flat surface.
The cards are all illustrated in detailed, colorful, enchanting symbolic imagery from the world of D&D. If you are familiar with Tarot, there are a set of major arcana and minor arcana and pips. The guide explains everything about them and what they mean. As I mentioned before, they do not use the standard suits. I think this is to kind of keep the fantastic element and relevance to the game prominent.
How to Use Intuition to Play The D&D Tarot Deck
There are four suits. Wisdom, Strength, Intelligence, and Charisma. If I really had to compare, I’d probably go with something like this: Wisdom = Wands, Strength = Cups, Intelligence = Swords, and Charisma = Pentacles. They have unique meanings though, and it really doesn’t help much to compare. The booklet lays out the meanings a little bit differently, summarily like this:
- Strength: The physical ability to change your environment. Inner resolve and passion.
- Intelligence: How intellect can shape our world. Mind over matter essentially.
- Wisdom: The internal world, perception of inner subtleties. Language of the heart.
- Charisma: Influencing the material world with persuasive energy. Personal power and inner beauty.
Part of the reason I am writing this, is to address what I have seen as reviews commenting this cannot be used as a personal tarot. It can. Actually, I’d go so far as to say you can use any deck of cards as a tarot. I have found cartomancy guides for every form of traditional playing card, since they are based on the same principles. Some decks work better than others though, and the qualifier is how much symbology and clear interpretability the images on them have. This deck has TONS of symbology in its images, and as such, makes it a really potent deck to read–I will say, it does help if you have a lot of interest in the fantasy/D&D genre because the symbols will make more sense.
Since the deck’s manual has explanations of suggestions on how to interpret the cards, this is not difficult at all really. I agree with the deck though, that to get into the mindset of the cards it helps to have some clear question or thing you want to know, such as “What is a quest that my character needs to solve most in order to progress their storyline?” This is not a suggestion from the booklet, but you could totally play it this way.
Ways You Can Draw the Cards With the DnD Tarot Deck
A spread in Tarot is how you lay the cards out to answer a question. The booklet included suggests a few varieties, such as single card pulled to answer a quick question. The booklet has storyline guide suggestions under each card reference in the book too that are great for actual campaign use if you’re looking for a basic RNG use, it even has examples in the foreword. The booklet’s primary suggestion though is the five card draw that tells you your characters quest, issues associated, and ways to triumph.
I asked a simple question. How to write this article. The result, while secret to me, was logical, and did work. The booklets gives a suggestion to use your intuition and use discretion for reversals or unclear layouts. This is traditional of tarot, and essentially the purpose.
You might need to spend a little bit of time to uncover why the cards are relevant. This might be a great time to chat with your teammates about what the cards might mean, or perhaps have a snack adorning the game table. WAIT, you brought snacks to your game right?!?
Try Your Own Luck and See What’s in the Cards
Give it a go. I’ve given a few suggestions here. I was surprised that the deck was so clear in its symbolism, and I am definitely interested in exploring it further. This article could get updated even with all the possibilities if I make new discoveries about this deck, which I’m quite glad I own now. The cards included are very diverse and have a huge range of topics to explore and engage with. On average, you might not ever see all the cards in your time with them–just statistically and maybe cosmically?
I’m not here to convince you of anything, but if you got this sweet deck for Christmas, you have acquired an awesome tool for gameplay, creativity, and reflection! I hope this brief guide helps you get from it what you needed.
Thanks for reading MrDavePizza.com. Have a look around my site for more guides, reviews, and topics.
