I had been playing D&D since age 9 or so, when Ian M__ of Middletown, a classmate of mine, introduced me to the game.
We soon left town, and I couldn’t find anyone else to play D&D with through high school. I pored over the rule books, drew some things, sketched some stuff on graph paper, ventured off into other RPGs, played a Lot of IMoria, and then started playing in earnest in college.
I was doing a lot of flying.
I haven’t played in years. My son is getting old enough to play, so I dug the stuff out of storage, hadn’t opened the book in probably 25 years or so.
When I opened up the DMG,
It fell open to this page, naturally. (I’ll let you click on the image to see what page it’s on, and where the card is placed. Go ahead, I’ll wait.)
A Deck of Many Things is a magical item, when you draw a card from it, a random effect happens, sometimes very good, and sometimes very bad.
The rule book lays out an procedure to build one out of an actual deck of playing cards, so the the player can act out the role of his PC, see what I’m saying?
The bookmark is an Ace of Diamonds, one of the cards you’d use in a Deck of Many Things. It’s as if it’s an old Deck, and this is the only relic you have left of an old friend. You know, if you were a retired adventurer.
Here is the entry for The Vizier (AD).
Oh, well played, young man. That’ll do.