Deities & Demigods (1980-1) for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is a well-known hardcover. Even folks who know very little about D&D history know the old DDGs have the Cthulhu and Melnibonean pantheons in them.

Well, not all DDGs have Cthulhu. I see a lot of mistaken eBay sellers who think all the Erol Otus art covers have C&M.

Nope.

Over at our reference site page for the AD&D hardbacks, I have an aid for distinguishing the editions, which I condensed from a much longer write-up over at The Acaeum.

Quick Check

Some online sellers confuse printings, and will claim C/M mythos when they’re not actually present. Asking for the page count is the quickest indicator:

144 pages = Cthulhu/Melnibonean
128 pages = both mythos gone

Printings

Only the 1st & 2nd DDG printings have the Cthulhu and Melnibonean pantheons:

1st – Has C/M mythos. No thanks to Chaosium.
2nd – Has C/M mythos. Thanks to Chaosium.
3rd – No C/M mythos. TSR Wizard logo on cover (as with the prior two printings). Thanks to Chaosium. Back cover still claims “seventeen pantheons”.
4th – No C/M mythos. Now has the TSR Face logo on cover. Thanks to Chaosium (still!). Back cover now correctly states “fifteen pantheons”.
4th+ – No C/M mythos. “Thanks to Chaosium” gone. (Finally!)

Deities & Demigods in stock in our shop

DDG PDF is only $10 at DriveThruRPG

Comparison Photos of the Different Printings

Deities & Demigods 1st 1st TOC — Table of Contents, 1st and 2nd printings

Deities & Demigods 1st 3rd TOC — Table of Contents, 3rd and 4th printings

Deities & Demigods 1st 1st credits — 1st printing credits. No acknowledgement to Chaosium.

Deities & Demigods 1st 3rd credits — 2nd through 4th printings. “Special thanks” to Chaosium.

DDG back panels — DDG promo text on back cover. 1st through 3rd printings on left (despite 3rd print having only 15 pantheons). Finally corrected in 4th print (right).

4th printing also updated to the TSR “Face Logo”

A look at the lost pantheons

Some RPG collectibles command higher prices based on esoteric or trivial differences. Not so with the Deities & Demigods that have the Cthulhu and Menibonean pantheons. The DDGs without them really are lesser books [EDIT: Not entirely! See Zenopus’ comment at bottom of post]. Erol Otus and Jeff Dee contributed (in my opinion) some of their best work to these sections.