Blast from the Past

[athelind]

Back when I was just a teen, and fantasy role-playing games were shiny and new, TSR released Dieties & Demigods, a volume containing a multitude of divinities for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

This book had a great deal of influence on gaming in general (including the revelation that, if you give something hit points -- even a god-- PCs will try to kill it, and often succeed). The first printing had an even greater influence on the campaigns in which I was involved in High School, because of the inclusion of pantheons based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Michael Moorcock. Because of a dispute with http://www.chaosium.com/, who published licensed RPGs based on those settings, those chapters were excised from later printings of the book.

For those of you interested in a trip down Nostalgia Way, the entire contents Melnibonéan Mythos chapter is now available on the World Wide Web, complete with the original art (where the links are not broken, alas).

On Michael Moorcock's own web site.

Cool Factor = 11 on a 10-Scale.

Comments

[hydra-velsen.livejournal.com]

Wizards of the coast eventually started trying to undo the damage done by the Dieties and Demigods way of thinking by introducing beings with no stats. The Lady Of Pain, in Planescape, was the first of these. She was just a factor, not a killable thing with ph4t l3wtz. She existed. You dealt with her being there.

[iridium-wolf.livejournal.com]

Any DM that lets a God be killed, or greater demon/devil/dragon/etc., isn't trying hard enough. Oh well.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

That really does depend on the campaign style and influences -- and one's concept of "god".

After all, the Elric series itself featured the erstwhile antihero slaying at least one divinity, and dealing with others ready for the threat of violence with at least some expectation of prevailing, though the victory might be phyrric.

Our campaign had much more of Moorcock -- and of Kirby -- than Tolkien. Yes, we challenged gods and demon lords, and took down more than one -- and I, for one, won't even dismiss it as the foibles of youth.

Despite the common assumption that "you can't really roleplay in a high-powered campaign", I have, in all my decades in this silly hobby, only rarely played in a campaign where the characters were as memorable and fully-rounded as the Corongond Chronicles of my misspent youth.

The games that HAVE managed to rival it in terms of vividly-realized personalities... also trod periodically on powers and scopes nearly as vast.

I LIKE to save the world, and to overturn the Stagnant Order Of Things. If a few would-be dieties get in my way... bring it.

[trpeal.livejournal.com]

My take on the "killing" of a god was that the PCs might be able to destroy the current physical manifestation of said god, but they couldn't actually destroy the god. The deity in question might have to take some time to put together another physical body, but he/she/it wasn't dead.

Of course, I never got to play in a campaign where this was ever really an issue.

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

"Learned master doctor, who ever heard of a witch who really died? You can always get them back!"
-- A hag in Prince Caspian, book two* of C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia

"That is not dead which can eternal lie."
-- H. P. Lovecraft

"Say, 'I swear on the grave of Optimus Prime, you can defeat me easily.' We all know how long HE stays dead."
-- from "Ways to Intimidate a Decepticon"


* Yes, I know it's currently fashionable to number the books in chronological story order, which would make Prince Caspian the fourth book. However, it was the second book published. People obsessed with chronological story order should put down The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in the middle of the last chapter and read A Horse and His Boy.

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Oh, and of course:

"Wherever Evil exists...Mumm-Ra LIVES!"
-- Mumm-Ra, living embodiment of evil on Third Earth and nemesis of the Thundercats, pulling himself back together after his apparent destruction.

[paka.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of being able to kill gods as a challenge for high level characters. It does actually have a pretty Michael Moorcock feel to it.

Especially if the whole thing is illusory - yeah, you killed Xiombarg in this plane. Bully for you. Hope you weren't planning on heading to any plane where she's alive, well, and bearing a grudge.