HackMaster Gawds and Demigawds
Gawds and Demigawds is the book of deities for HackMaster. Released in May 2003, this 184 page softcover book retails for $24.99.
Gawds and Demigawds is a HackMaster take on the classic TSR work Deities and Demigawds and other TSR books on deities from the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Mystara, Greyhawk, Birthright, and Zakhara settings. It also contains the deities from the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting and the Aldrazar gawds that appear in the KODT comics.
After the perfunctory introductory material in the standard HackMaster Jo-Jo Zeke speak (don't steal, update to the current HackMaster version, and this book is not for morons) and a long table of contents listing every one of the 350 odd gawds and 29 pantheons, the book discusses General Principles of Gawdliness for 9 pages and explains a little of the history of the Gawds of Twillight Last. Those familiar with Deities and Demigawds will note that General Principles on Gawdliness is faithful to the prior work in its discussion of the power of the gawds and divine ascension-though a few new lines bring in the Zeke-speak that makes reading HackMaster books enjoyable. A new rule in that section is ancestral worship-if PCs die with sufficient Honor and level (90 and 10th level) and are in the Great Honor window, they can become ancestral spirits. If their kin worship them, the ancestral spirits intervene for them when calls for divine intervention are made; this may not happen a lot but it did once in my game when a samurai ate a dragon brain and tripled his levels, making him a level 33/level 6 character and now said samurai watches over his clan.
Two pages are devoted to the Legend of Creation, the War of the Tablet of the Ages, and the establishment of the Gawds of Twillight Last. Contrary to prior discussion, the Gawds of Twillight Last are not the sole survivors of a raging gawdwar-they are the most powerful left on Garweeze Wurld (also known as Aldrazar) and dominate the lesser deities. Creation of this universe was by Zelaur, the gawd of Honor, the sole survivor of a prior gawdwar. Zelaur found the Motherstone, and used it to rebuild the universe. He created the gawds who then created titans, dragons, and lesser races. The gawds started fighting for worshippers and Zelaur tried to stop them, but it looked like a great war was imminent. So, he made the Tablet of the Ages, compelling gawds to fight only with proxies and ensuring peace. The problem-some gawds got their spheres and divine rank and were displeased at their new station. Yi'Gor, gawd of Treachery, the bad seed son of Zelaur, violated the compact. Yi'Gor seduced his own mother into helping him betray his father, made the HackMaster swords (some fifty at the time but now there are only 13), and shattered the Tablet of the Ages into 12 or 13 pieces. This started the War of the Tablet of the Ages, and whole pantheons were slain; the war ended because the gawds were starting to lose power and a stalemate was a victory for none. After the armistice, the factions formed into five cabals, each of which corresponds to a HackCouncil (the organization for HackClass characters). Lawful Good, Chaotic Good, True Neutral, Lawful Evil, and Chaotic Evil all formed Cabals and they drew in some of those with neutrals in their alignment descriptors to them. The Cabals consist of greater gawds and those who were greater gawds and they are the only ones to have Zealots (specialty priests as discussed in the Zealot's Guide) in HackMaster. Each Cabal has lesser members in alliance, such as the Unbound Cabal headed by Odin is aligned with a variety of Norse deities.
After the introductory chapter are gawds arranged alphabetically by pantheon. The first is Aldrazar, the gawds of Garweeze Wurld. Illustrations show the Heritage Stone monoliths used by those worshipping the Aldrazan pantheon and the bulk of the deities illustrated in the book appear in this chapter. Old favorites such as Luvia and Draper appear, though many images are recycled from the KILL vs. Travelers crossover comic. There are some humorous bits in the gawd descriptions, like the mother deity, Sumar'Fareen, having the Time Out power to punish naughty adventurers and a joke about Markovia, gawd of oceans, and a similarly named gawd of baked goods he may or may not have put to final rest.
The other chapters follow the Deities and Demigawds standard Gary Gygax set: a little on the pantheon and its history, a little on religious practices, then statistics for the gawds and major entities. Again, the old-school mentality is shown through lumping many non-human deities into a chapter of the same name. However, Dwarves, Drow, Elves, Gnomes, and Halfling deities all get their own chapter. Two beings from a roleplaying game named after an H.P. Lovecraft story also appear-in their HackMaster form. Most of the revisions are quite faithful-though some gawds were trimmed from each pantheon, the more significant ones stay. More importantly, the class levels and magical powers and general capacities and personalties of gawds in the Gygaxian version are carried over nicely into HackMaster terms. A class might change here or there because HackMaster has more classes, but it just fits. The few deities with substantial changes, such as Lovitar (always popular with the PCs back in the day), are explained well or an aura of mystery is left for the GM to explain away and reveal a nugget of plot. With 350 deities, you are pretty much covered with all the significant gawds in any version of AD&D, though their pantheon names will differ a little-Fading Realms instead of Forgotten Realms for one example. You can spend quite a while looking for one and where they reside, which is where the Appendices come in handy.
Appendix I lists the planes of existence, shows diagrams of them, and discuss astral and ethereal travel and combat; this is homage to Gygax's work. Appendix two lists a few divine minions, but those could have be placed in the pantheon. Why the Celtic mythos Pack of the Wild Hunt and Master of the Wild Hunt and Water Dwarves need to be in this section is beyond me. Appendix III is the Big List O'Gawds and it is alphabetical by pantheon and then alphabetical. So, Aknar is the first gawd listed and Zann is the last. The gawd's name, sphere(s), Pantheon, Alignment, and Stature (power level as a gawd) are listed. An index follows, so you should have no trouble finding the divine being you are looking for.
Artwork is black-and-white line art by the Brothers Fraim, Doug Curtis, and Jolly Blackburn, save for the cover. Scott Kester is the artist for the color cover. The cover is five-color, featuring purple, yellow, green, white, and grey. The old Deities and Demigawds depicted a gawd, a dragon, and worshippers. For HackMaster, we get the god throttling the dragon with one hand, a priest performing a ceremony with green energy emenating from hims hands, and a throng of purple-robed worshippers holding torches and worshipping. Old-school nostalgia hits you if you know the old-school, but the twist makes it a little different. Interior art is mostly by the Brothers Fraim, and is in the norm for their style, somewhat cartoony black-and-white line art. My personal favorites are the illustration of Thor on page 132 and Markovia on page 21. Thor seems to be hiding from his blinding lighting and Markovia is dripping little drops of liquid like a gawd of oceans should. As HackMaster is a PG-13 game, the more lurid pictures from the prior edition have been softened; this makes me somewhat sad because that was a key part of the reason for worship of deities such as Lovitar and a key part of gaming history. I know why the changes were made and respect the artists, so it's not a major lament. After all, the violence in HackMaster is depictly more luridly than the nudity and violence in the classic works.
In sum, Gawd and Demigawds is an amazing reference work for HackMaster players and GMs and thus a must buy unless you have a home-brewed campaign. For non-HackMaster players who want some deity ideas, this is also an excellent source as it is far less expensive than acquiring each of the TSR pantheon books it uses material from, and by introducing the KODT pantheon (Aldrazar if you weren't paying attention) and the pantheon of Tellene, the excellent official Dungeons and Dragons setting that Kenzer and Company produces for 3.0 and 3.5, you've got a number of new deities.
I give it 5 stars out of 5.
