skullsinthestars Profile picture
Jan 1, 2022 16 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Time for an #OldSchoolDungeonsAndDragons that is truly classic! Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976), by Robert Kuntz and James Ward!
This book was the fourth and final supplement to the original "0th edition" D&D rules. It starts with a pretty amusing foreword by the editor. One of the rare times I know of that an editor admits "loathing" the project they worked on!
Curiously, the latter part of the foreword shows that the book was designed to address another early problem in D&D: power "Monty Haul" gamers! Basically: "Here are the stats of literal gods. If your characters are more powerful, you're doing something wrong."
The book literally just dives right into gods. We have the Egyptian pantheon to start...
Including Ptah, who is described as the "God of Outer Space," a description I've never heard before but I dig it.
Then the book rolls right into the gods of India!
And then onto the Celtic gods...
Odin gets a LOT of detail, including his weaponry. I love the editorial decision to allow an exclamation point to highlight the *10* arrow attacks, which admittedly is quite a few!
The Finnish gods have something wild: they can move at *infinite* speed. I assume there's something in Finnish folklore that this is based on, but it's the only time I'm aware of "infinity" being an official stat.
It was a bit of fun nostalgia for me to see the minor Finnish gods, because my very first D&D cleric worshipped Loviatar (from Deities and Demigods), which was admittedly a random choice.
This book possessed something that the later Deities and Demigods would not: the gods and lore of Robert E. Howard's Hyborea, including Conan!
The Hyborean section includes lots of details on characters and magic from the Conan stories, including this character from the classic "Tower of the Elephant."
GD&H also included the Elric pantheon, with stats for Elric. Famously, these would be removed from later editions of Deities and Demigods because TSR didn't want to promote competitor Chaosium's games and stories.
After this, we have the Mexican and Central American mythos...
The book wraps up with a description of Eastern mythos, and ends just as abruptly as it began. It really is just a list of stats!
This book would be replaced with the 1e Deities and Demigods, which most people are more familiar with! But that is another story... /END

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More from @drskyskull

Nov 18, 2022
So here's my hypothesis on the whole Musk twitter deal. 1/
Dude LOVES Twitter. As a narcissist, he can't get enough of the adulation of the right-wing mouth-breathers. But Twitter keeps banning the people he loves, so he becomes convinced that Twitter is a liberal SJW organization. 2/
He decides to teach them a lesson, and make an offer to buy the company. Absolutely convinced that it is a left-wing political site, he's sure they'll refuse his offer, even a ridiculously good offer. Then he can say "aha! they're so woke!" and his fans will cheer. 3/
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Nov 16, 2022
Hey let's make Twitter like the old days! Speculate with an example of a #FakeTrumpAnnouncement!
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Oct 8, 2022
1. Russia’s invading Ukraine, threatening nukes -better stay out
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I take the threat very seriously, but Putin has opted to give us no choice. Giving into nuclear blackmail from a genocidal aggressor is not an option.
It’s really weird that people think that giving into a genocidal murderer who only respects strength will somehow make us safer.
Read 4 tweets
Aug 27, 2022
Let me do a quick #OldSchoolDungeonsAndDragons, and a real classic: Rahasia (1984), by Tracy and Laura Hickman!
Rahasia is one of two adventures that the Hickmans originally self-published, along with the other classic Pharaoh. It was originally published by their Daystar West Media in 1980, in a run of no more than 200 copies.
The Hickmans originally wrote and sold D&D adventures to fund their own interest in the hobby. However, they ran into financial difficulties and sold their first two adventures to TSR, who also hired Tracy Hickman as a writer.
Read 15 tweets
Jul 3, 2022
Since I've already seen an incredible amount of this abuser logic coming from the pro-forced birth crowd, I wanted to take a moment to address it. I too started out as a person with a "moderate" view of abortion -- which it turns out is exactly what Roe allowed. 1/
But it quickly became clear that the pro-forced birth movement have no interest in making abortion less common. They have no interest in comprehensive sex education, easy access to contraceptives, or resources for family planning and support. 2/
In fact, they largely oppose these motions. Famously, when Sandra Fluke argued before Congress that women should have better access to birth control, she was labeled a "slut." Pro-forced birthers have no interest in any practical means of reducing abortion. 3/
Read 26 tweets
Jul 2, 2022
Also watching some Weirder Stuff.
Lemme just say again: STEEEEEVE
Also: ROBIIIIIIIIN
Read 6 tweets

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