The use of Wizards of the Coast’s Open Gaming License has produced many Dungeons and Dragons products over the years, and it has now been used to create a handsomely heavy stock card deck with fifty drinks. “Dungeonmeister: The Deck of Many Drinks” released at the end of May and is a good gift for that fantasy TTRPG player who imbibes more than just beer and wine. The book gives plenty of cocktail recipes that contain classic elements with some fantasy flavoring.
One such drink is the Wight Russian which uses heavy cream, like the original White Russian. The card it is printed on makes the quip, “They have disadvantage on attack rolls and perception checks…” The deck’s back design is red with burnished gold illustrations. The face shows an illustration of the drink, along with some buffs or banes for a character.
This allows the cards to be used in a roleplaying game, a drinking game or both! The cards seem sturdy enough to be around alcohol and drinks, but I wouldn’t use them as coasters. They are also larger than regular playing cards, so they will not disappear on the gaming table with any books, sheets, dice or miniatures.
The deck has an eighty-page booklet with the drink recipes and some ideas of how to utilize the deck. The different drinks can be utilized as magic items, much like the Deck of Many Things, a recently revamped Dungeons and Dragons supplement book that GiN reviewed very favorably. The new Deck of Many Drinks is designed very similarly to that famous magical artifact, and in fact can be used in conjunction with it during campaigns.
For example, players in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign can pull from the Deck of Many Drinks during a regular Dungeons and Dragons game and then abide by what those cards dictate, whether it’s a positive effect or a negative one, kind of like with the actual Deck of Many Things. So, it would be good to pull the Necromancer card because it protects your whole party with an undead servant. But it would not be so good to pull the Turn Undead card, as it is interpreted very literally.
The book points out that the cards can also be used as treasure to be traded or found in a game. A dungeon master with a sense of humor and a love for table props would find this aspect lots of fun, especially if they had the accompanying drinks handy. The idea that players could craft one of these cards is also pointed out in the book and some examples are given on how to make that happen during an adventure. So even the players can get in on the fun, especially if they were playing somewhere with an open bar.
How would one get the players in the mood for such a product? The book imagines setting a campaign inside a tavern that would set the mood for using the deck, and even provides a few bartender NPCs that could be used for that purpose. Two really interesting ones include Maraschino the Gnome and Scoville the Warforged as examples, but there are quite a few others. The paragraphs that introduce NPC bartenders are very well written. They are good characters to use as tavern keepers or bartenders even in a normal game.
For flavor, the System Reference Document for Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons is even utilized in the seduction rolls and stealth check cards. In fact, much of this deck relies on puns and performance humor, all of which can really spice up a campaign, in addition to the drinks, of course.
The “Dungeonmeister: The Deck of Many Drinks” set makes for a great gift for a dungeon master or even for a dungeon master to buy to use with their favorite players. It’s a great way to add something fun and tangible to the gaming table. It would be perfect for a lighthearted adventure like an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign, but it’s also a great way to break the tension of a serious campaign and give players a humorous gaming session sprinkled liberally with fun and interesting beverages.