Pantheon (Game)

Dani and Renya playing Pantheon

A card game based around the deities, spirits, and religious figures of Pelted (and later human) religions. Renya is an expert at this game, through petitioning Kajentarel and the Battleangels; so too is Kerov.

Description

Originally the deck only included Pelted divine beings, but eventually an expansion set came out that included human ones. The deck was "ten years in the research and creation" as there are far more human divine beings than Pelted ones.

More expensive versions of the cards come with info-films; less expensive ones have a booklet.

Rules

The game is played by drawing a random condition card; if a player has a card they can play to match it, they do so. If one player can play a card and another can't, the first player gets the point. If neither or both players can, the round is a draw. If the round is a draw due to both players having relevant cards, the draw can be broken by playing a second relevant card from the hand, though this is risky as it more rapidly depletes the player's hand.

If the game is at a draw when the round ends, a second condition card will be drawn at random, and whichever player's already-played card matches best wins the round.

Rounds can be played "blind," where the condition card in play isn't known until after the deity cards have been chosen.

Divine beings from the Pelted deck

• Iley, god of the Tam-illee, depicted smirking
• Naem-fili, avatar of the Malarai, depicted with tears in her eyes
• "winged catlike women in pale robes"
• "fierce nude griffins all golden with loincloths of lake and gemstones" (Battleangels)
• "sinuous hexapedal half-ghost creatures in blue and rime-white."
• Christ, a man in brown robes with a halo, crouched before a pack of wolves

Divine beings from the human deck

(with the condition cards they meet in Rayna's and Kerov's first game)

• Kali, a blue four-armed snaggle-toothed female
• St Francis of Assisi, a tonsured man in brown robes surrounded by animals (historical human)
• Athena, a grey-eyed woman in a white gown tied in gold cords bracketed with olive trees (presides over battle)
• "A man in tights with a harp and an open mouth" (can't place this one) (historical human)
• Kitsune, a pale woman in colorful flowing robes with no less than four fox tails
• Quetzalcoatl, a feathered snake
• Coyote, a dancing man with what looked like the head of a Hinichi wolfine (sense of humor)
• Chac, a brown-skinned man surrounded in corn and rainclouds (tied to the seasons)
• Demeter, a plump woman with a basket of grain (tied to the seasons)
• Morrigan, a woman in a black gown with crows (presides over battle)
• "a fierce-looking man in a helmet, bearing a round shield" (Ares?) (presides over battle)
• Thor, a heavily-muscled blond male with a hammer
• Venus, a sloe-eyed woman with a cocked hip and a knowing smile (preached love)
• Hestia, a friendly, round looking woman with elaborate curls (hearth-guardian)
• Christ, a human man, in brown robes and crowned in a halo (preached love, popular among other races)

Sample condition cards

• Sense of humor
• Esteemed for trickery
• Historically recorded as an actual human being
• Tied to the seasons
• Presides over battle
• Hearth-guardian
• Preached love
• Popular among other races