Pantheon and Other Role Playing Games: Five Wild Games

by Robin D. Laws

As the title suggests, this is not one game, but five. They are all based on the same system and are all sold in a single book, so there is only one entry in the RPG Index.

The game system of all the games is the Narrative Cage Match. In this system, players take turns in adding one sentence to the story that must mention their own character and may mention only one other character. The players may also add supporting characters (NPCs) to the story. The players use beads (or jellybeans or coins) for challenging plot elements of other players, or for bribing other players. A scoring system determines the winner of the game.

There are five different scenarios to chose

Grave and Watery, in which a monster runs amok in a deep sea station.
Boardroom Blitz, in which the characters fight for the control over a megacorporation after the owner passed away.
The Big Hole, in which the characters try to retrieve their hidden robbery loot ten years after they robbed it.
Destroy all Buildings, in which the player characters are giant rubber monsters who have to destroy Tokyo.
Pantheon, which mainly consists of two "In the beginning, there was nothing. Now what do you do".

Genres: Role Playing Games

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Writer and game designer Robin D. Laws brought you such roleplaying games as Ashen Stars, The Esoterrorists, The Dying Earth, Heroquest and Feng Shui. He is the author of seven novels, most recently The Worldwound Gambit from Paizo. For Robin's much-praised works of gaming history and analysis, see Hamlet's Hit Points, Robin's Laws of Game Mastering and 40 Years of Gen Con.