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Downcrawl Encounter Deck

From

Aaron A. Reed

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Premium 2.75" x 4.75" Tarot Card(s)

$19.95

A crumbling bridge over a river of lava, ancient maps carved deep into every inch of stone. But guarding it, a primal horror of living, angry rock...

The Downcrawl Encounter Deck helps you quickly generate unique and interesting story-based encounters for your game of Downcrawl 2E or any subterranean adventure (as well as providing quick results for Fungal Foraging of interesting mushrooms). Drawing from the Encounter Deck replaces the Travel Encounter and Fungal Foraging moves and tables in Downcrawl, making it quick and easy to generate random surprises during a journey.

The Encounter Deck cards fit together like jigsaw pieces to assemble a spontaneous encounter. Here's how it works:

Your first draw gives you an encounter type (Challenge, Threat, Opportunity, or Location).

Each Encounter type has its own instructions for drawing more cards to form a dynamic encounter.
- For instance, a Challenge encounter combines a Situation with a Threat and Opportunity, representing the risk and reward of engaging.
- In the Challenge draw shown below, the party encounters an old man trapped in a deep pit: if he can be rescued, he might provide valuable directions to your destination (an Opportunity for Tack, Downcrawl's navigational resource), but the dangerous terrain around the pit will make rescuing him harder (a Threat of damage).

Encounters get riskier as your Danger level rises during travel. Encounter cards with a red skull instruct you to worsen your draw in various ways if your Danger level has reached the given threshold.

Threats also show Portents, letting you use the Encounter Deck along with Downcrawl's Add a Danger move. The GM (or one player) can draw a card, read only the Portent aloud and keep the card until the Threat is revealed.

Finally, the Encounter Deck can also replace Fungal Foraging rolls from Downcrawl. Draw three cards and line up the purple fungal growths to assemble them into your find: a Primary Effect, name, and Side Effect, as in these "shadow stinkhorns":

Fungal Foraging results from the Encounter Deck.

The Encounter Deck has been carefully designed to squeeze inspiration into every inch of each card, while still keeping font sizes legible for easy reading. Lines and color-coding help you align the recombinable cards properly. The Deck contains 36 premium tarot-sized cards with hundreds of total prompts, including over two hundred memorable possible Situations from the tables in the Downcrawl book:

Ancient battlefield, thousands of skeletons
Opulent funicular, donation box, twenty-minute ride, windows painted black
Hunter stalking a fearsome predator, possibly imaginary
Gear-room of an enormous clock keeping an unfamiliar time
Competing ferry boats crossing a foul-smelling river
Ancient coliseum, massive but long-ruined
Happy family of four living in large glass terrarium; beg you not to break the seal or the Tallmarm will be angry
Floor coated with purple ichor, effects unknown
Fifty-foot gap in the path with a hazard in between
...and many more

For the ultimate Downcrawl experience, the Encounter Deck is a great add-on to any campaign.

A spread of Encounter Deck cards

Watch a video of the Encounter Deck in action! Note: this was shot with a pre-release version of the deck with work-in-progress art and design.

Downcrawl Card Decks!

The Downcrawl Deck puts nearly all the table results from the rulebook on a deck of tarot-sized cards
Want even more prompts? The Even Deeper Deck offers a completely new set of even weirder prompts. You can also get both Decks together with a colorful tuckbox.
The Encounter Deck helps you generate random mushrooms and travel encounters for Downcrawl (or any underworld adventure). Simply draw a card and follow the instructions for that card type to assemble an encounter out of further card draws.
Purchase all three decks in a Bundle for significant savings over buying them individually!