Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes

Supplement IV Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes
Supplement IV follows the cover style of Supplement III. It's cover is white rather than brown and it has a full color illustration, this time showing two seated Egyptian gods. Like the cover of Supplement III, the cover of Supplement IV depicts another major influence on the game, this time mythology. Written by Robert Kuntz & James Ward with a forward by Timothy J. Kask I see no reference to either Mr. Gygax or Mr. Arneson as authors and I rather wonder what to make of that. The Forward mentions this is the last D&D supplement. I am guessing AD&D was already in the works. Mr. Kask states in the Forward what has been said before that the rules to the game are just guidelines. This attitude would soon change with the publication of AD&D, even though many referees including myself would continue to modify the game to suit our preferred play-style regardless of whether using the White Box or AD&D. Supplement IV abandons the usual organization of three sections based on the original three books in the White Box and instead lists the various pantheons one after another. Included are descriptions and stats in the D&D style for the Egyptian, Indian, Greek, Celtic, Norse, Finnish, Mexican, and Eastern Asian deities, heroes and magic of mythology as well as those from the Conan stories of Robert E. Howard and the Elric stories of Michael Moorcock. How the referee is to make use of this information is not specified. Personally I didn't. Supplement IV was not something I had in my collection until many years after I had acquired the White Box and other supplements. In my world, which I eventually named Deadmoor, clerics were not encouraged to pick a deity and as referee I offered no pantheon from which to choose. Oh, various deities would make a brief appearance as part of a particular story arc or module and my players were free to talk about any deity they wished, but there was no campaign pantheon in the usual sense. Clerics were just clerics. A friend eventually purchased a copy of Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes and for a time we had great fun playing the characters of Conan and Elric...and we borrowed a few magic items from this deity or that, but that's all I recall from those early days and Supplement IV. The copy you see pictured above is one I eventually got second-hand, just to complete my collection. Today, I am still not sure how I want to incorporate Supplement IV into my game.  It mostly just sits in my collection.