What is Lords of Ragnarok

It’s a area control, monster fighting, temple building, statue building, player power heavy board game. Now, that sounds like a lot and it is a lot in the Lords of Hellas. It isn’t what I’d call a “clean” game, there are weird interactions and things that happen, but the game is so much fun.

The main thing I talk about when I bring up this game is the end game, more details here. Basically, you win in multiple ways. Take over two areas, you win. Defeat three monsters you win. Control five temples, you win. Hold control of a statue when it’s done, you win. And that might be a lot, but in a five player game, everyone was close to winning.

That’s Lords of Hellas, Lords of Ragnarok is more of the same. This is going to be a very similar game with just a different theme. You can find more details for it over on Gamefound where there is a light preview page up.

When And Where Do I Find It?

Well, it is going to be crowdfunded on Gamefound instead of Kickstarter. You can sign-up for a notification when it goes live, and if you do and you decide to back it you get a free hero expansion, value approximately $8. The when part, no official date on when this one will launch. I am guessing that it’ll be going live around Thanksgiving, but I might be late on that.

Hype Level

1 of 5

Disclaimer like normal, I am hyped for this game, this is just how hyped I am.

1 of 5 might seem pretty low. But let’s remember that this is not a truly new game. This is a 2.0 version of Lords of Hellas or a reskinned version of Lords of Hellas. I own Lords of Hellas. So while I am excited for this because maybe some slight tweaks and a Norse mythology theme, I own it kind of already. So do I really need another copy, the answer is maybe.

Is Lords of Ragnarok a game that you’re interested in getting?

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Pros

• Based on existing game
• Established Company
• Norse theme
• Skirmish Game

Cons

• History of rulebook issues
• Skirmish Game

The Page

Monolith Games know how to create a good looking page and good looking minis. They have done a great job of highlighting it on this page. But I do have some issues with the page that knocks it down. It’s less in the content, more in the order of the content. The stretch goals take a prominent spot on the page, after the introduction. I really dislike it when companies do that. I want to know about the game first, and stretch goals while fun are an added bonus.

They do get into a lot of information on game play, which I appreciate. I’m less hesitant about the rule book and the rule set issues that Monolith is known for because this is based off of an existing game already. Though that is a downside as well, because now I kind of want the original game as well.

The Game

The game itself is interesting to me beyond the Norse theme. I tend to like skirmish games, in fact I just played Super Fantasy Brawl twice last night. But I want them to be somewhat unique. Super Fantasy Brawl keeps it super simple and easy to play. Then others like Krosmaster have a simple look to them and generally simple game play but add in a bit more complexity. This one seems to be a more complex skirmish game.

But there are elements of the skirmish that are really cool. Since you are playing as gods, you can pick up trees and terrain like that and use it as a weapon. This game looks like it should create those epic moments of story that you’ll remember for a long time. That is one of the big things that I really look for in a game, and I mean, who doesn’t want to pick up a tree and swing it around as Thor?

Back or Brick

This is a tough one. Because of the companies history I hesitated a little bit before deciding that right now it’s a Back for me. The main thing that concerns me is all of the add-ons, which I didn’t talk about before, but you want to get Odin, that’s an add-on, this game could end up being very expensive. What you get in the base game is solid for the price, especially with the stretch goals, but if you want everything, that’s $300, before shipping. Now I would just do the base pledge, but I kind of want Odin, so do I add in one add-on? Plus, I know I have an expensive Kickstarter coming up with Marvel United X-Men.

Have you played the original Mythic Battles: Pantheon? Did you like it? Are you backing or is this one a brick?

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The Collection

Numbers

A’s – B’s – C’s – D’s – E and F’s – G and H’s – I, J and K’s – L’s – M’s – N, O, and P’s – Q and R’s – S’s – T’s – U, V, and W’s

X, Y, and Z’s

XenoShyft: Onslaught

When I look at my collection there are certain types of games that I tend to have more of. I’ve talked about roll and write games, but I also have a lot of deck building games. I like the puzzle of trying to dynamically create the best deck possible but generally I don’t just want to be doing that. XenoShyft: Onslaught adds in tower defense with a fun theme that reminds me of Starship Troopers as you are fighting off wave after wave of bugs. What makes this game stand apart is the passing of cards to other players. Normally you just build your deck, but in XenoShyft, you can give other players weapons, troops, armor, etc that you buy which will then go into their decks. It’s a clever twist and a very hard game.

Status: Played

Yahtzee

The classic roll and write game, Yahtzee. I still play this game fairly often with my parents, though I did introduce my dad to Ganz Schon Clever over the holidays. Yahtzee is a pretty simple puzzle to figure out as you just roll the dice three times and you need to maximize your score. I don’t mind that I haven’t played it as much recently, though I do still enjoy it, because I don’t think about it much when playing now. But it’s still the granddaddy of the roll and write genre and a good game to play and chat while you play.

Status: Played

Yggdrasil Chronicles

I picked up Yggdrasil Chronicles partly because it looked amazing on the table. This game has a 3D tree element that is your playing board that just looks great on the table. Plus the game has pedigree being based off of a previous game called Yggdrasil. In this game you take on the roles of gods from Norse Mythology, makes sense given the name, and you are trying to defeat and stop certain scenarios from happening. Oh, and there’s the life tree, Yggdrasil and it rotates, really excited to try this one.

Status: To Be Played

Zombicide: Green Horde

I never thought that I’d pick up a Zombicide game. They look good, but I prefer my dungeon crawler style games to be more fantasy focused and less zombie focused. But when I won the game, I won’t say no to it, so it got added to my game shelf. The minis in this game look amazing, as you’d expect from CMON. I do want to get it to the table still, as I haven’t sold the game yet, because it’s such a well known game series, I feel like I should try it. And I think it’s the type of game that I’ll enjoy, even if it doesn’t get to the table all that often.

Status: To Be Played

Zombie Dice

Zombie Dice is another one of those filler games that I’ve played a lot. I don’t mind it too much though. Zombie Dice is a simple push your luck dice game where you are trying to get as many brains as possible before you’re taken out by a shotgun. If you get hit three times, you’re done and you can’t bank the brains that you got, but if you push your luck, maybe you’ll roll more brains and be faster as the first person to 15 brains. This game is so much like Farkle, but it’s way faster and less strategy, which is fine for a game that is only about pushing your luck.

Status: Played

Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl

Final game on the list is one that I got to demo at GenCon in 2019. It was an interesting demo because while we got a very good feel for the game, it wasn’t a full demo and some of the rules were lost in translation, mainly because the rules weren’t in English yet, so the demoer was teaching it based off of the demo that they got from the Polish game designer. Zona works really well, though, for me, because it has a lot of elements that I like. You have a unique character, there is interesting combat, and there is exploration. Chernobyl happened like in our world, but in this game there is magic and mutated monsters and more which is always a good selling point. Can you get to the secret vault inside the power plant before time runs out? That is another thing, this game is competitive, but it’s very possible for the game to just win if players don’t move fast enough.

Status: Played

There’s the list, later today we’ll look back, run some numbers, and do my favorite game for each letter, like I’ve been asking you guys to do over on Twitter and Facebook. But before I do that, what are your favorite game starting with X, Y and Z? What games do I need in my collection?

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Stormsunder: Heirs of Ruin

As we’ve talked about before, I like big epic campaign games, however, I have quite a number of them coming. I held off on Stormsunder for a few different reasons, first it was in between two big projects, Marvel United and Frosthaven, but also because it was by a company I wasn’t as familiar with, but I still couldn’t quite walk away from it.

What kept and keeps drawing me to it is that this is a deck building/deck construction game. So while in Gloomhaven you have your hand of cards, this one allows you to upgrade a changing hand of cards as your character levels up. In this one you’re adding those cards, and your character is growing and developing and unlocking new skills, and that system for leveling up your character just makes a lot of sense to me.

One thing that has kept me on the fence, besides the price, it’s a big campaign game so it’s going to be expensive, but also just the amount of game play. It boasts 300 hours of content, and that’s a lot. In fact, that might be too much. I love epic story campaign games, but when do I have too many that I won’t ever get to them all? Plus there are more coming out and more that I’m going to be talking about. I can play them solo, and I want to do that more, but if I play for two hours twice a week, let’s say, just Stormsunder: Heir of Ruins would take me 75 weeks to get through. Now, I could make that go faster, or I could take breaks, but it’s a lot of time.

So, no real excitement meter to do on this one. The pledge manager is opening up soon, theoretically, and I have to decide if this is one that I want to get the game or not. I’m looking at it and seeing so many things that sound cool that I really want to back it, but it isn’t cheap and there’s so much content. So, will I back it, that’s up in the air.

HEL: The Last Saga

I like games that have a bit of a dark feel to them. Tainted Grail is a great example of this, there’s something about a darker story that you just kind of feel, or at least I do, that I can get pulled more into the theme by the game itself. And this one has a Norse theme wrapped around it as you lead a second team into an unknown land to look for those who have gone before you, and no, I’m not talking about Tainted Grail again, though it does sound like it.

This game gives you more dice chucking, and almost randomness in the game play than Tainted Grail does, but still seems to be heavy with story. You go to various points on the map in the game and you find out what has happened to your clansmen who have gone before.

There were several things that drew me to the game besides the theme, first there is the religion mechanic. And different characters in your clan, they might be druidic, Norse, or Christian and depending on which they are, they can tap into their religion to unlock powers that you can use. I also like how the different member of the clans play differently. Not only do they have a different religion potentially but also they different powers beyond that.

I’m still really excited for this one. I can see it getting to the table pretty fast when it shows up. I like the theme, I like the setting, and the game play has looked good from what I’ve seen of it being demoed.

Excitement Meter: 8/10

Did you back either of these? What sold you or didn’t sell you on Stormsunder: Heir of Ruins? Should I back it when the pledge manager opens?

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In area control players are trying to control portions of the board for some benefit. This can be to win the game, it can be that they get a resource if they control the area, or it can allow them to acquire currency or victory points. To do this, you are looking to have either all or the majority of the pieces in an area.

Like I saw saying, the classic example of this mechanic is Risk. In Risk you are getting armies, taking them to conquer areas of the world hoping to eventually reach world domination and hold every area. You do this by rolling dice to see if you can defeat your opponent and push your armies out as far as you feel is safe so that when your next turn comes around, you can get more armies and push things out further in your march to victory.

As I was saying earlier, for some people, this mechanic can be considered mean or less fun to play because it encourages confrontation. If you have the majority or the area completely controlled, I might want it to help me win the game, so I’m going to directly interact with your pieces and negatively impact your plans. What can happen in games like this is that someone will take the early lead in the area control and then will have the other players gang up on them to help prevent them from running away with the game, but that can feel very mean to the player who is getting ganged up, and this is something very common in Risk, because there are just some positions that are extremely strong.

A lot of modern board games try and balance this out. Some of the examples I give will make it so that the confrontation is much more common but not as negative in the game. Or some games now balance it out by saying if you don’t have the majority, you get some lesser option or the leftover option from the person who has the most selects from. This helps keep the game from feeling as mean and as personal because either everyone is always in the midst of the conflict, or the conflict isn’t as directly negative as because you still get some reward. This really makes area control more appealing to a general gaming crowd and can remove the memory of old childhood fights while playing Risk.

Gateway Game

Smallworld – This game is one of those that is conflict all of the time. In this game you are collecting coins, which are victory points at the end of the game. To do this, you just look at the number of areas that you are controlling at the end of each round. So you are regularly fighting for areas on the board. But with Smallworld, a 2-5 person game, the map size changes depending on player count in order to keep the conflict level high. So on a three player game, you are guaranteed to be running into your opponents. Beyond that the race and trait combination that you select at the start of the game isn’t the one that you have the whole time. So maybe your commando pixies were good to start, but as your opponents start to attack you, you can put the pixies into decline and get a new race and start attacking your opponents with that race. So it’s a balancing act that keeps you in the game and in conflict throughout the game. But because there is so much conflict no one generally feels ganged up on.

Medium Weight

Hanamikoji – Now this game is actually pretty simple as well, but I really like it as a thinky two player area control/area influence game. In this game instead of a chunk of land like so many area control areas, you are trying to win the favor of Geisha. To do this, you have to give them gifts. What makes this game interesting is how the mechanics work. Each player has a total of four given actions that they can do, and they can do them each once per round. Each player gets four turns during a round, so they can either set aside a gift that their opponent won’t see, discard two gifts that won’t be used for influence, show three gifts, of what their opponent can take one, or create two groups of gifts that their opponent can see and their opponent picks one. The game plays extremely fast but offers more interesting and important decisions than a lot of larger games do as you try and puzzle out what your opponent might have based off of the choices that they give you.

Heavy Weight

Blood Rage – In this Vikings themed game, you are fighting with the power of the Norse gods backing your clan. You do this by spending action points and upgrading your troops and completing missions. To complete these missions and to get more action points for turns, glory for winning in battle, and other things, you need to control an area. However, conflict will arise as you raid an area and the opposing clans can come rushing in and try and stop you from being able to take it. This one is about grabbing that control each round and trying to get control of Yggdrasil so that you get improve in multiple areas. This game does a good job of balancing out winning fights and getting control of those areas and losing because of what is known as the Loki strategy. Loki is all about tricking people and gaining victory points that way. Definitely a good game all around with a lot of different objectives you can go for and an area control game that can allow you not to have to be purely in the conflict and you can still do well.

There are so many options for area control out there, these are just a few that I like a lot and that work well for a good variety of people. Area control or influence doesn’t have to be as swingy or give as many options for a run away leader as something like Risk did so it shouldn’t lead to hurt feelings like straight up conflict games can. What are some of your favorite area control games?

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In Ragnorak, Magne, a large but not always the most confident boy due to dyslexia, moves back to Edda, Norway where he was born with his mother, Turid and brother Laurits. It’s a sleepy town with one big industry, Jutul Industries that has most of the jobs. Magne and Laurits are dropped into a new school where Laurits fits in very quickly but Magne has trouble making friends, except for one other loner, a girl named Isolde. But there’s more going on in this town than meets the eye. Magne has an odd encounter with a shopkeeper right away when they come to town and he starts to notice things changing around him. From there the story takes some fantastical turns.

Let’s talk first about how I watched this show. Fairly often when watching shows from other countries I’ll watch it subtitled, this one I did not. I watched it dubbed in English. And I will say compared to some others I’ve seen dubbed, it works well. Yes, the mouths are off because of speaking another language, but overall I felt like it worked. What really works is t hat the voice actors are the same people who did the original voices, this means that you still get the same tone to match their facial expressions since they knew how they said it in the first place. So even if the moths don’t like up with what is being said, you don’t lose the feel. And I think the fact that they are going to carry a Norwegian accent into their English works as well. Growing up in Minnesota surrounded by a bunch of second a third generation Norwegians, there are a lot of mannerisms and speech patterns that carry over into the show. If you’re not as familiar with English/Norwegian speech patterns, I think it’ll still work fine, but might be easier subtitled.

I won’t go too much more into the story than I did in my little introduction, but I really liked it. It definitely has some young adult elements to it, but it isn’t completely young adult. The fact that they are high school students is always going to lend itself a little bit to that, but it does a good job of not dumbing it down to that level. I really enjoy how it delves into Norse Mythology in some ways. There are definite nods to things in the mythology that I didn’t notice right away but eventually became clearer and more interesting. The story is not extremely complex, but it doesn’t need to be, it has enough layers without feeling like it’s overly dramatic or overly convoluted. And they do a good job of developing character in a short time because the season is very short and the episodes aren’t all that long, the final episode is just over thirty minutes.

The look of the show is just beautiful. Now some of that is because Norway has amazing landscapes, because when it comes to special effects those do struggle at times. They clearly don’t have a massive budget for them, but for the most part there aren’t many in an episode. The rest of the filming, that of more standard school or house shots work for the most part. The inside and outside of the Jutul household always seems a bit disconnected because we never get to see a good transition between inside and out, but otherwise everything flows well and builds out the town of Edda.

Overall, this is a very fun show. I think that they do a good job with their blending of the mythology into a modern setting. It is a quick watch at only 6 episodes but still manages to pack a lot into those episodes. If you like that sort of mythology and real world blend, this is definitely one to checkout. And if the concept of Norse Mythology is interesting, I think it’s so fast that it’s probably worth it, even if you don’t love the idea of that fantasy real world blend. One that I’m looking forward to the second season of.

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Now, that could be less exciting, because there are a lot of generic themes out there, and a lot of games that are using themes over and over again. Especially now with copyrights not being extended to kingdom come, there are more works that are now public domain. A few years ago Sherlock Holmes became public domain and HP Lovecrafts work some time before that.

So what are some of my favorite themes on board games?

Epic Fantasy –
Super generic, but I really do enjoy a good fantasy game. Especially since a lot of them have a better developed story than most. Now it helps that I’m a big fantasy fan, so I can quickly understand what is going on with the various fantasy tropes and it allows me to get quickly into the story being told. Games like Gloomhaven and Legends of Andor do a good job of baking story into the actual game play themselves. I think what I like about the fantasy theme on board games is that it gives me a bit of that feeling of playing an RPG in a lot of the games and I can make my decisions like I am that hero. In a lot of ways it scratches my itch to play an RPG when I can’t be in a game as a player or as the GM.

Lovecraftian –
I did a big board game battle post about all of the Fantasy Flight games that I’ve played with the HP Lovecraft world theme on them. I’m a bit surprised with how main stream Lovecraft is in board games, but it works in most of the cases. I will say that it gets slapped onto a lot of games that don’t need it. Like in Unspeakable Words, you’re just doing a pretty standard word game, but it has the Lovecraftian theme and cute Lovecraftian artwork on it. Now, that’s fine because it takes a game that wouldn’t have artistic direction and gives it some, but it’s kind of silly. Then there are games like Arkham Horror, Mansions of Madness, and Arkham Horror LCG that are just steeped in theme. Those games seek to make you feel like an investigator of some background who is really going through this world, dealing with the monsters, progressing the story, looking for clues, and sometimes dealing with the events of the normal world. It also does a good job of setting an aesthetic that is generally pleasing to play in but also being a horror focused game. It really doesn’t rely on blood and guts like some horror games would.

Sci-Fi –
Another super generic option, like epic fantasy, but I figured I should say more than just Star Wars. While the Star Wars games are great that I’ve played, Imperial Assault and Star Wars: Rebellion, there are other sci-fi games out there that I’ve liked as well. It’s interesting because you have a wide variety of scope with games in the Sci-Fi genre. Games like Star Wars: Rebellion, Battlestar Galactica, and Cosmic Encounters are planet level Sci-Fi games. And while Cosmic Encounters doesn’t feel like quire as grand a scope as Rebellion, it’s still a bigger game in some ways. Compare that to Imperial Assault and Clank! In! Space!, those games have a focus that is much more on a smaller part of the world. You’re on a planet or in a space ship dealing with things, but you aren’t as worried about the whole cosmos. Having that variety is what makes Sci-Fi such a strong genre to me.

Now, there are so many more genres out there, but you’re not going to have that much issue finding games in these genres, and I tend to gravitate towards them. There is one that I want to see more of though.

Weird West –
I really enjoy the weird west setting. Some might say that it’s a bit Lovecraft mixed with the wild west, and that’s probably pretty accurate. But when people say a Lovecraft game, that’s generally meaning 1920’s and Arkham area. Weird west can be a lot more than just that, and I like Shadows of Brimstone for that, though I’ve only gotten it to the table once. I need to go back and fix the monsters and hopefully stream that game at some point in time so I can actually play it some more. But the game is interesting and has some cool big moments to it.

Mythological –
Now, some might say this is part of fantasy, but I think I would qualify it differently than “Epic Fantasy”. Theming of games like Lords of Hellas, which I haven’t played or Santorini which is really an abstract game, but has the Greek mythology added to it, that’s a theme that I can get behind. What makes it generally pretty thematic is that all the deities have their own powers which really do track with the mythology that you’re in. Even if you aren’t going the standard Greek, there are now a lot of games with Norse Mythology. Blood Rage on the cards you draft does a really good job of creating that mythological feel for each deity that you can draft cards from. In fact, those cards are where you really get the theme of Norse Mythology in Blood Rage.

I could go on talking about more themes in board games. There are games with a heavily influenced theme by Japan and/or Anime. There are games t hat have cool adventuring themes that give you the Indiana Jones feel. There are a few themes that I’ll generally avoid though. If a game has the “trading in the Mediterranean” theme, that’s a hard pass for me. I’m also kind of done with the zombie theme at this point. I do like Dead of Winter, so I’m not opposed to it, but a zombie themed game isn’t all that interesting to me most of the time.

What are some themes you like in board games. What are themes that you want to see more of in board games?

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This can be a daunting task to figure out all the deities that you might need. Do the Elves, Humans, Dwarves,  Halflings, Tieflings, Orcs, etc. all worship their own god’s? If so, now you got to create not just a pantheon, but several of them.

I would go that they don’t all need their full pantheons, you can overlap some of them. If you think about it, a deity of nature might go by different names if they races are separate enough, but why would you have to have a Elven deity of nature who takes care of the forest and makes it grow and the human deity of farming that makes the crops grow be very different? That’s mainly just a lot more work for yourself. Along with that, do you need to know much about the Elven deity of the forest if they aren’t going to be part of the story? Figure out which ones you need at the start of your story and create the information on them, then if you need more, you can always add them in later as they come up.

Let me list out the pieces of advice I’ve already said and what I’m going to be talking about still, so it’s easy to understand the information:
1. Overlap Pantheons to reduce number you have to create.
2. Don’t come up with all of them, just as many as you need right now.
3. Let your players help you come up with them as needed.
4. Combine the areas that a deity might rule over.
5. Put most effort into the ones who are going to talk to your players, however that might be.

So, I’ve generally covered the first two on the list. Both of those are going to help you focus down on the number that you have to come up with, but let’s unpack them a little more.

Overlap Pantheons to reduce the number of deities  you have to create.

Now, you might be thinking that your Elves, Dwarves, Humans, etc. are going to be very separate. So they are all going to have their own set of gods to work with, and that seems like a lot of work. You really want to keep them separate, because the Elves, Humans, and Dwarves don’t get along and if they worship the game gods you’re going to have to make them get along. I would still give them a lot of overlap and maybe a unique one or two deities for each race. The way you can have them overlap, though, so that they still won’t be worshiping the same gods is let them have different names for each race. So Etheilien the Elves goddess of the sun, Manakal the Dwarven goddess of light, and Sepheria the Human goddess of the sun can all be the same deity, but all of the races can still deny that they are the same goddess. Or maybe it’s only the Elves who simply refuse to believe that the deity is the same for all three of them because they are Elves and they are special damn it. But this is going to keep your pantheons a whole lot more condensed and easy to work with.

You don’t need to know your full Pantheons at the start.

Unless your player characters are supposed to be demi-gods who interact with the pantheon all the time, you probably don’t need to know them all. If your party is a Dwarven cleric, Human ranger, and a Halfling rogue, you can probably cut down on everything you need to know. In this case, let’s say that all of them are tied in with a deity, and that’s kind of the focus of your game, the Dwarf would need to know about their deity that the cleric follows, probably a god of the forge, the Human who has a farming background would probably know the god and goddess of nature and fertility, and the Halfling rogue would probably follow some trickster god or maybe even a dark god of assassins. But start with the ones that are plot critical and work out from there as you need more.

Let your Players help come up with them.

This can even by tied in to the one above, but you don’t need to come up with everything on your own. Maybe you know that you have a few deities who you are going to focus on who need to be in the story. So spend your time creating those, however, you also know that you want your PC’s (player characters) to be connected to deities as well, just lesser ones. When you are having session 0, let your players know that, and work with them then and help them create their own deities that you can slot into the pantheon. So, maybe the Dwarven cleric still is going to follow the god of the forge, and the rogue follows the goddess of assassins and those are normal. But then you get the Human Ranger who follows the spirit of the great toad in the sky. Now you’ve got a toad in the sky as part of your pantheon, and that’s something that will probably be unique forever to your world, but you didn’t have to come up with any of them yourself, and your players are really able to tailor the deities to their characters backstories.

Give your deities a broad domain to rule over.

The extreme example of this would be to have a goddess of crops who then has lesser gods and goddesses under them for wheat, corn, flax, barley, etc. That’s too much effort, especially if it isn’t critical to the story. Now, if the story is that these lesser gods and goddess are fighting which is destroying crops and sending the lands into a famine, that could be interesting, but normally, you aren’t going to need that. In fact, you probably won’t even need the goddess of the crops, just make her the goddess of life. Now her domain stretches from plants, to fertility and birth, and where ever else makes sense. You’ve probably just saved yourself from having to come up with four or five other deities for the pantheon. So keep the areas broad and that will make your work easier.

Put Your Effort into the ones who are active in the world.

It’s very possible that you will need some elder gods who haven’t been involved with your world in a long time. Maybe they are still worshiped but they are less active. With those, don’t spend as much time on them. You’re going to create some lore for them, I’m sure, but if you also have some newer gods and goddesses who are active in the world, focus on those, because those are the ones that you’re players are going to interact with, not the elder gods in the background. Just focus on the ones who are important for the plot of the story you’re telling and the ones the PC’s are going to be interacting with.

Hopefully this has made what could be a very daunting task less daunting. I would really recommend just stealing from an existing mythological pantheon. If you don’t want it to be as obvious, change up a few abilities and rename them, you could keep everything else the same, and you’ve made it yours enough that your players aren’t going recognize it easily, and even if they do, that doesn’t really matter.

Have you run an epic game about the gods and goddesses of a realm. What tips do you have for creating a pantheon?

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