The power and symbolism of Tarot, the imagination of Dungeons & Dragons– you’d think these two things would come together more often in our lives. This May, they’ll be arriving in a tangible form as Penguin Random House will be publishing the deck, not as a part of a D&D game, but as an actual set of Tarot cards for your own use.
There are all kinds of Tarot decks with a multitude of themes and iconography. And when I say all kinds, I mean it. For example, here’s a deck based off “The Golden Girls” from my own personal collection. You know, for the person who has all seven seasons of the show on DVD but still doesn’t have enough of Rose, Blanche, Dorothy, and Sophia in their life.
Whether you see Tarot cards as a legitimate tool for divination or just simple pieces of paper, the artwork and symbolism attached to these cards can range from simple, to ornate, to impactful. Given the wide amount of characters, class types, and monsters in Dungeons & Dragons, there’s quite a bit to draw from to link to the major and minor arcana. Personally, I’d love to see if and where the classic Beholder monster winds up.
Penguin Random House says:
This officially licensed tarot deck pays homage to the lore of Dungeons & Dragons by pairing characters and encounters with the Major and Minor Arcana of tarot. The characters of the Major Arcana align to the Rider-Waite Tarot while the suits of the Minor Arcana are mapped to abilities within the game of D&D.
The publisher also notes that the deck does comes with an informative book that aims to help introduce the Tarot to newcomers. Pre-orders are up on various websites, including Amazon, and will officially be released on May 24th, 2022. If the cover is anything to go by, the deck looks extremely promising. Hopefully the accompanying guidebook will be sufficiently detailed, but we likely won’t know until we pick it up. Several of us here at Nerdbot are excited to get our hands on it, but will anything be able to trump the power of Bea Arthur in “The Golden Girls” Tarot deck? I think not.
