I always play Wizards in D&D, and pretty much all fantasy RPGs, to be honest. Of all the DnD classes I've played, it accounts for probably 50% of my playtime, and that's because I just love what you might call 'procedural magic': the kind that needs props, recipes, and lore. Sadly, I can't do magic outside of D&D, but of all the ephemera and bunkum of real world 'magic', tarot cards are my favorite, for much the same reason I main Wiz. So, when I saw a crowdfunder for Dungeons and Dragons tarot cards, my arcane senses tingled.
The Adventurer's Tarot & Compendium is a project by Weird Works, a Seattle based purveyor of TTRPG supplements, accessories, clothing and assorted other doodads which proudly confirms (as I checked right off the bat) that it "uses no generative AI in any of the writing or art of its products".
Its current campaign, which has raised over $60k via tabletop crowdfunder Gamefound, actually marks the third printing of its 103 card Adventurer's Tarot deck, but this is the first time it's caught my eye. And oh, how it's caught my eye.
While the Adventurer's Tarot has been available for a while, the campaign's titular 'Compendium' is the main new feature on offer. It's a 250 page hardback book that's partly a guide to doing real life tarot readings using their deck, and partly what Weird Works calls a "voluminous collection of resources for using the deck to enrich your TTRPG experience".
What resources, you ask? According to the campaign page, the compendium has rules to use this deck for "Initiative, Inspiration, Critical Hits and Fumbles", but also, in a boon for folks that are really into using tarot cards to symbolically interrogate their inner selves, it has "reading questions to dive into your character's backstory". Building our your character's DnD background via tarot reading is a new one on me, but honestly, I'm kind of into it.
There's even a whole custom class in the book that Weird Works says it's only sold digitally thus far: the Wild Oracle, a magic user that, appropriately, uses an ensorcelled tarot-esque deck as the source of their spells. Per the Gamefound page, Wild Oracle players can "curate [their] own deck of spells" and then "shuffle and draw from [their] deck to summon a wild magical effect" - which at face value sounds incredibly swingy and almost certainly hilarious.
Here's the thing: I don't believe in magic. As much as I'm enchanted by tarot cards' beauty and tactile charm (I own several sets myself) I don't believe drawing random cards from a deck can supernaturally divine hidden truths or tap into a collective unconscious. Divining truths is a murky, subjective business of contemplating your mind, beliefs, and thoughts, best achieved via therapy and plain old living. Tarot cards are just pretty pictures that some folks feel help them join up those cognitive dots.
But perhaps my stolid refusal to put credence in anything supernatural in our world is half the reason I love magic so much in D&D, Warhammer, and all the other fantasy worlds I spend my time in. For all my skepticism, part of me wishes my tarot cards really could do magic, and so living out that particular fantasy in D&D appeals to me on a deep level.
Also, and this is probably more important: I love pretty pictures, and this tarot deck has some seriously good ones. Founder and chief artist Bee Ho says on the firm's site that they studied fine art at the Rhode Island School of Design, and I hope they got a good grade, because these cards are really something.
Weird Works' Gamefound campaign has finished, but by the looks of things you can still pledge and get your copy of the new book, the tarot set, cheaper digital versions, and various combinations thereof. The standard "Deck + Compendium" option, including the book and the Adventurer's Tarot in a rather snazzy gold etched black box, costs $69 (£51.72). I know I need to save cash for Christmas presents, but my finger is still on that button…
If you've already used the Adventurer's Tarot in your D&D games, please hop into the free Wargamer Discord community and let me know what you think of it! If you've used it for tarot readings, I'm almost as interested in that too, to be honest. Just because I don't think magic stuff works, doesn't mean I don't think it's rad.