How to Use Tarot in D&D 

What if I told you that tarot cards could make your D&D sessions more mysterious, immersive, and dramatic — and there’s a full spread of ways to use them in your campaign? If you’re ready to finally find a use for that Tarot Deck you got in a Kickstarter, then read on!

Because tarot decks are beautiful, and they can enrich your setting with mysticism, vibrancy and unpredictability, as well as a ton of juicy gothic vibes. But unless a game specifically calls for a tarot deck, it’s hard to know what to do with one. Sometimes, you need a little direction. 

This guide will provide it, along with a list of fun and interesting ways to incorporate tarot into your gameplay!

Tarot & D&D: A Fated Match

Tarot and tabletop gaming isn’t a new combo - in fact, they’ve been in a secret relationship for decades, and it's time we talked about it openly.

‍The Deck of Many Things - that legendary stalwart of D&D – is essentially a tarot deck with chaotic and extraordinary powers. You might get treasure, you might get death, you might gain the ability to press CTRL-Z on reality — or get yeeted into an extradimensional prison. 

And Curse of Strahd, one of the most beloved modules ever, uses the Tarokka deck as a game mechanic. At the start of the campaign, Madam Eva reads the cards, and the results randomize the location of powerful items, and where Strahd's weaknesses lie. Which means that every time you run Curse of Strahd, the cards literally change your FATE. 

From Pathfinder’s Harrow Deck, to Jester’s oracle deck in Critical Role, to games that use tarot as a core resolution mechanic… tarot is everywhere in DnD. 

Why Cards? Why Not Just... More Dice?

But first of all, why would you want to? I mean I have dice. YOU have dice. Oh, so many dice. So why add cards to the mix?

Well, a twenty-sided die – even a pretty one – is just a number. 

But a beautiful illustrated card, turned face-up on the table with a thud, is a drastic event. 

The cards have evocative names. And they signal to your players something MAJOR is happening. Something fated. Even the prettiest dice just can’t do that. 

A Crash Course in Cartomancy

Grab that beautiful tarot deck off your shelf because it’s time to examine your cards. A standard tarot deck is made of the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana, with a total of 78 cards.

For a tarot deck, you’ll probably recognize the Major Arcana right away. These 22 cards are based on familiar archetypes, like The Fool, The Hanged Man, The Lovers, or Death. 

They’re numbered from 0 to 21, so you can use them to replace a D20. But you can also interpret them pretty easily, based on the artwork, or their place in the Hero’s Journey. For example, look at the Tower card. Nothing good going on there. And the High Priestess? That’s definitely a threshold guardian. 

The minor arcana are 56 cards that resemble a deck of playing cards with values running from Ace to King. The Jack is split into two cards, the Page and the Knight. 

The suits are wands, swords, pentacles (sometimes called coins), and cups. They represent the four classical elements: fire, air, earth, and water. If you’re familiar with the symbolism associated with those elements, congratulations! You are most of the way to interpreting the minor arcana. 

Just combine the card’s value with the suit’s domain. 

For example, an ace of pentacles might mean “a seed being planted” or investment in a new business venture, because aces are beginnings, and pentacles are “earth and material wealth.” 

• Aces are new beginnings
• Twos are partnerships
• Threes are teams
• Fours are stability
• Fives are conflict
• Sixes are decisions
• Sevens are reflection
• Eights are effort
• Nines are “the homestretch” and 
• Tens are completion 

As for the court cards, the page is a student, the knight is a messenger, queens are embodiment or welcome, and kings are authority or leadership. Of course, in a D&D game, they could just mean actual people with those titles.

Combine these value meanings with the suit’s domain, and you have 56 amazing prompts for your next tabletop adventure! 

The minor arcana are also useful for skill checks, answering yes or no questions, or determining events that might have a category and a value (like treasure!... or monsters…) 

If this doesn’t sound like what you’re looking at, you might not have a tarot deck. You might have an oracle deck. Oracle decks are like a freestyle divination deck with no standardized structure. For these, it’s actually encouraged to interpret them however you see fit, based on the imagery.

They’re deeply thematic, and custom designed, like just the Major Arcana on steroids. 

You can still use them for your game in a bunch of ways. 

How to Actually Use Tarot at Your Table

So now you know which cards you have, let's talk mechanics. Here’s just some of the ways to use your tarot deck – or oracle deck – in your RPG game tonight.

Portents and Omens.

To set the mood and theme a session, start your game night by drawing a single card from your deck, and show it to your players. 

Describe how they come across it in game - maybe a vision, a dream, or a prophecy?

Then, let it sit on the table, mysterious and threatening…. And watch your players spend the entire session trying to figure out what it means. 

They will theorize. They will spiral. It will be delicious.

And of course, this card should have real power in your session. If you pull the Devil, someone’s bonds are coming back to bite them. Or literal imps might show up. The Knight of Cups might be a literal knight whose lost love needs rescuing, or a drunken Paladin in need of redemption. 

And a simple number card – say 6 – might show up as a number of mooks they have to fight, the hour they meet someone, or the number of times a bell chimes.

These small details feel resonant and ominous, and will spook your players in all the right ways. Remember to make a note in your World Anvil session notes, so that if a card comes back, it can come back WITH A VENGEANCE

Alternative to Dice

Tarot cards are divination tools, imbued with centuries of cultural meaning. So for certain foes, or in certain locations - for example, when fighting a coven of hags, or entering a haunted castle - you might use them to replace your d20s. 

So how do you do it? 

Well, the major arcana of a tarot deck has numbers 0-21 - which means it’s a d20 plus a little bit of bonus juice. And that makes this a very easy substitution. Shuffle the deck each time, and let them pick a card instead of rolling a dice.

For an epic battle, you can let them have that bonus 21 – or remove it if you don’t want them to have two bites of critical success. And on that 0, maybe the villain gets an extra turn? Let the PCs know there’s something even worse than a critical fail… 

Now, I’m not suggesting you do this for an entire game, but it certainly makes one dungeon, or one encounter, deeply memorable and packed with genre flavour. This short-term thematic change will make your players sit up straighter and lean in. 

Replace a riddle or puzzle

Or for a different kind of encounter – say a replacement for a riddle or puzzle – have players encounter a guardian, like an enchanted statue or door, and use a minor arcana card draw. 

The GM and player each draw three cards, and pick the one they think is strongest. 

High card wins and, to break a tie, go with the suit that thematically matches the challenge.

Add Complications

But if you’re loyal to your shiny math rocks, there’s still a way to use tarot in skill checks as complications. Complications are a common mechanic in OTHER RPGS and they can be fun in D&D too. Here’s how to do it. 

On a portentous or important roll (you decide which those are) have the player draw a card after they’ve rolled. This determines a complication. Think of this as a:

• yes, you succeeded, BUT… or
• No you failed, AND… it’s even worse than you thought! 

‍Swords might mean a pyrrhic victory–you won, but at what cost?! That guy might be back for revenge, maybe the guards are now after you, or perhaps you woke a sleeping dragon. 

‍Cups might mean an emotional or health cost. A level of exhaustion, a poisoned condition, or maybe they’ve now pissed off their god, patron, or the quest-giver.

‍Pentacles can mean money lost, or a favor owed. Perhaps costly equipment is broken, a ripped money purse that’s only discovered later, or a lost treasured item.

Wands could mean a curse or unexpected magical effect. At the thin end of the wedge, it’s really hard to sneak when you can’t stop giggling. But you can also use more serious conditions. 

Pro tip - you don’t need to let players know exactly what happened right away. You can let it hang, and bite them in the butt with it later. 

Don’t use a complication for EVERY roll - it’ll slow down your game. But it can be great for death-strikes, risky rolls, or dramatic story moments. Or simply if you want to introduce some tension. Drawing from a deck in a high-stakes moment – knowing a complication is coming – can be electric. 

It can even be a payoff for the omen card you drew at the beginning of the session. 

Pull a card on a critical fail

Or instead of complications, you can add boons and twists  – this is a fun one taken from Janet & Dimitris’ own gaming table

On a critical fail, EVERY player draws a card. Players keep the boons - numbered and royal cards, which they can use to bolster their rolls, reroll, or get instant successes on certain skill checks.

Sharing the system with your players on World Anvil makes it super quick to reference whenever they need to, without asking you every time. 

BUT the GM keeps all the major arcana, the twists. Those are coming back to haunt the players. As a GM, you can be open about which card is which catastrophic event or big bad evil guy. This method keeps tarot cards front and centre in the game - but it keeps things balanced. Both GM and players get fun things to do. And you can always tweak it to use in your own way. 

Having your fortune told

Of course, the classic way to use tarot at the table is with fortune teller NPCs. Let your players sit across from a mysterious old woman who lays out three cards and tells them their futures — and then make it come true in unexpected ways. 

Hecate – the ancient Greek goddess of magic & witchcraft – might show up, read fortunes, and give out a piece of poetry - essentially a small prophecy - with each card. And that creates spooky mystic things which eventually happen to the players! The look on their faces will be worth every second of prep.

If you choose to do this, reward players who pay attention – throw them an Inspiration Point if they spot a prophecy coming true before you have to point it out. 

Of course, prophecies and omens only really work when people remember them, so keep a note in your World Anvil session notes, and encourage players to add them to their character articles or player journals so they remain  impactful. 

After all, prophecies no one remembers… are just crappy poetry. 

Games of Chance

And then you have in-world card games! Perfect for taverns, gambling dens and hives of scum and villainy, a game of chance is a great way to set the vibes, and a really beautiful tarot deck does that in spades…. No pun intended. 

Since the minor arcana contains essentially the same cards as a poker deck, the simplest way to do this is take just the minor arcana and remove the extra face cards. 

You can play a regular game like poker or Blackjack, but with beautiful, thematic cards. 

And it’s not just filler. Maybe the party needs to raise funds for a resurrection spell, or they’re using the card game to suss out a suspect? 

(We’re definitely not recommending you turn this into an in-world drinking game and make them all make constitution saves. Or let your bard play strip poker.) 

If you're feeling adventurous, there are tons of real-world games for full tarot decks, if you want to teach one to your players. The World is your oyster. 

Rewards and Boons

And finally, to the victor, the spoils, and a tarot card can theme which loot your PCs find. Higher numbered cards mean more gold coins, and a face card might bring a twist, a curse, or a royal crown. 

Wands create magic items, swords conjure rare weapons. Cups can add potions to your haul, and pentacles are great for scrolls.

You can even add unusual boons and blessings, if a Patron or Deity is pleased with the party’s actions. Or curses if they’ve divinely pissed someone off. 

Drew The Sun? Advantage on your next social encounter. Drew The Hanged Man? Delay the consequences of your next critical fail Draw Death? Maybe the player wakes sensitive to light, garlic and the smell of blood? Well, you decide.

Worldbuilding bonus

And as an extra worldbuilding bonus, you could create your own in-world version of the major arcana, linked to your setting’s pantheon and history. Create a custom article for your in-world deck on World Anvil — define each card, its symbolism, its in-universe history. 

Make it a living part of your worldbuilding rather than a prop you bought online, and your players' minds will explode.

Conclusion

So, how are you going to use that tarot deck gathering dust? Or maybe you have another method you prefer! Join the World Anvil Discord and let us know! 

And if you’re a fan of all things mysterious and spooky, you could really transform your next session… by sending your players to a GHOST TOWN. Learn how to craft the creepiest abandoned settlements of your players' nightmares, and integrate them into your stories.