The OD&D books were originally small booklets, as was Chainmail. I purchased this book, and Chainmail at the same time. Chainmail came in the normal, smaller booklet size. This book came in a full-size book. I thought "Great! So the print is extra large." NOPE. They printed a booklet size book in a full-size book, so the pages small pages, centered in a large book. Even the cover is like that. So there's inches of extraneous white space around every page. It looks absolutely ridiculous. It's embarrassing. Why print on larger pages and then print at the smaller size? Was this a conscious CHOICE? Or was this simple incompetence - a printer so poor, they didn't know, or care to know, how to resize a publication or select the correct size for said publication? How is it possible to be this enormous of a company and yet be this totally useless when it comes to POD stuff? This isn't a rare occurrence - their POD books often have people's notes written in them where they grabbed a PDF off the internet and just printed it with no care about the quality - their 1st ed DMG actually has text printed across images! Oh, did I mention they charge an extra dollar? You pay extra for a bunch of blank white space unnecessarily taking up room and making it harder to read. Like, they literally added blank paper and then charged for it. Absolutely despicable. Considering how much wealth this company has, there's no excuse for POD products this pathetically poor. I'm actually embarrassed to have this missized misfit on my shelf. I also forgot they removed two chapters - so it's an even bigger waste of space. They literally remove info and add blank pages AND CHARGE EXTRA FOR IT.

One last thing I noticed - they retyped the table of contents to account for material they removed. So, the only thing they actually had to type was the ToC. In the ToC, they spelled "Egyptian" with a "q." So yeah. They not only botched reprinting the book in every way possible, in the ONE PLACE they had to replicate something on their own, they misspelled one of the very first words on the page.

I'm so angry at this insult of a book I'm half ready to throw it in the trash and just print one myself. Then it can be properly sized and not censored, oh and the very first page can be correctly spelled. What an embarrassing, shameful, effortless money grab this garbage is. Couldn't even spring for the color cover after sticking it in me without lube like this huh?

Dungeons & Dragons Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes

Credits

Written by Rob Kuntz & James Ward

Illustrations are not credited

Version

This PDF is taken from the original edition premium reprint and is thus titled “Book VII” instead of “Supplement IV.” This version omits the Hyborea and Melnibone sections that were present in the original book. The PDF has bookmarks

History and Trivia

Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes was originally released in July, 1976 and was the last supplement for the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

Is it Pretty?

The cover art is new for the premium reprint and replaces the Egyptian themed cover art for a depiction of Thor. Interior art is almost non-existent, consisting only of a few symbols and section division embellishments. What is there is decent enough but the overall lack of artwork makes the book rather bland in appearance.

Zero stars.

Is it Professional?

Unlike previous supplements, this one does not follow the section divisions aligning with the core set booklets. Instead, it is organized by pantheon. This makes navigating the book fairly simple and allows the Dungeon Master to easily reference a single pantheon during play if needed. Despite the general lack of artwork, the layout of the book is functional and, unlike monster entries in previous supplements, statistics are provided with each deity and monster entry. This book is definitely a step up from previous supplements in the professionality of presentation department.

One star.

Is it Useful?

Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes offers stats and brief descriptions for gods and monsters from Egyptian, Indian, Greek, Celtic, Norse, Finnish, Mexican/Central American, and Chinese mythologies. Since it was written in the 1970s and adapted for use in a game, the descriptions are not really accurate to the mythologies, stories, and folk tales from which they are derived.

Each god entry consists of a stat-block, and a brief description of their appearance and powers. Personality, history, and other details are left to the DM to research or invent. There are also some monsters and magical items described as well.

The Norse pantheon get the most detail with several gods having expanded descriptions of their magical weapons, artifacts, and companions.

The Finnish section details heroes who have a variety of powers and items and are equal in power to the gods of the other sections. Mothers get a special entry and a variety of powers, oddly enough.

DMs will find quite a bit of useful and interesting information in this book, though they will need to flesh out a lot of the details themselves.

One star.

Is it Affordable?

With a price of $4.99 for the PDF and $8.50 for the print-on-demand option (or $10.50 for the print/PDF bundle), this is definitely worth the money compared to the $60+ you’ll be spending for an original print copy.

One star.

Note, however, that if you want the omitted sections, you’ll have to pay the extra for an older print copy.

Is it Fun?

Though the details are a bit sparse, there’s plenty here for DMs to add some divine influence into a campaign.

One star.

Where to find it

The PDF and print-on-demand versions of this book can be found on drivethrurpg, listed as OD&D Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (0e). Original printings can be found on ebay and similar sites.

Conclusion

Other than the lack of art, this book is a gem sure to enhance an OD&D DM’s campaign. 4 out of 5 stars.

Please consider supporting my patreon for more reviews and other content - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=8208616

printed over sized was going to keep in box with other book but is to large.

Aside from the typo, that this was advertised as Supp IV, but I received Supp VII instead, the quality of the reprint is great, quite durable, and the clarity of the images, are more than I could have hoped for. I’m very pleased with the reproduction, only wish that other classic mods/classic booklets were also available in soft cover print, and not just as a PDF.

As with the previous reviews, it's too bad they had to edit out original contents for the rerelease. Todays' gamers are missing out on a lot of original content that us "old timers"were able to enjoy.

Shame the melnibonean and hyborian mythos are missing, but what can you do?

Thank you for trying to preserve the history of D&D

This is a wonderful old book to have available. I won't rip on it too much for the quality of the scan, snce this older book is likely harder to find in good condition.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Nice to have this available, and it is a good example of early roleplaying creativity.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: nothing, although in an ideal world the scan would be better and from a better hard copy<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>