HEAVEN & HELL (1985): The Christian Mythos for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

At the same time as the RPG industry was running scared from the Satanic Panic of the Eighties, small press Gamemaster Guides brought the Christian pantheon to AD&D in Heaven and Hell.

TSR had re-titled and re-covered Deities & Demigods as the more “safe” Legends & Lore in 1983 (despite the content remaining the same). And going forward into 2nd edition AD&D (1990s), demons and devils were likewise renamed as Tanar’ri and Baatezu, respectively.

Heaven and Hell (which I’ll term “H&H”) went in a different direction, instead embracing a fairly faithful interpretation of Christian tradition mixed with Dante’s Inferno. The author is Teddy C Ryan III (who these days writes Christian cookbooks). Publisher was Gamemaster Guides, very obscure even for non-TSR small press entities (more on their other offerings at the end of the post). GG products are all rare today.

H&H follows the DDG model, presenting Angels and Demons in game terms and how they’d interact with player characters. The book also introduces a new cleric subclass – The Believer – which adjusts the cleric class to a more Christian presentation. Later, H&H details an altered multiverse with the various levels of Heaven and Hell, which retains the names familiar in AD&D: Tartarus, Hades, Acheron, etc.

Heaven & Hell is a bit thin on Dungeon Master guidance in how to design adventures that take advantage of the material… though the DDG is similar in this respect.

Got a copy in the shop at the moment, so let’s look through it!

Heaven and Hell

1985 … Teddy C Ryan III … 42 pages … Gamemaster Guides TCR 0004

Check Wayne’s Books Inventory for Gamemaster Guides

Check Noble Knight for Gamemaster Guides

Inside Covers

Inside the covers are Encounter Tables for Upper & Lower Multiversal Hemispheres.

Credits & Table of Contents

Map & Forward

A discrepency on the part of most Role Playing Authors has left the industry cluttered with a numerous amount of Mythologies and Pantheons of Dieties, as well as unlimited amounts of Devils and Demons to choose from.
Nowhere, has a truly accurate representation of the Hierarchy of Heaven and Hell (as applied to Role Playing Games) been available, until now.
The information in the following pages is derived from several versions of Biblical Reference. In no way should all the information be held as completely accurate, for no Mortal has the power to comprehend all there is to know about the supernatural, Heaven, and Hell. However, all the contents herein are based on Christian Doctrine and those that belive that Life is not restricted to merely the Material Planes will hold this information to be most enlightening.

The Celestial Chronology gives a brief synopsis of rebellion of Satan & God’s Creation & the prophets.

The Believer

This is a Clerical Sub-Class designed especially for the use of Christianity in Role Playing Games. The Believer will have a more strict Code of Morals and because of their complete devotion and belief in God, they will never fight unless it is Totally Necessary (ie. in Self Defense, etc.).

True Believers can be from any intelligent race with a soul (which would exclude elves in AD&D, as they have spirits and not souls, if my recollection is correct). 1% are Resurrected Believers who have Perfect Glorified bodies with attributes of 18-20 and glow with a clerical light. The text implies these are Player Characters, interestingly enough. True Believers have a guardian angel assigned to them. They can also pray for angelic intervention in a time of great need.

Anti-Believers also exist, and have similar, but opposite abilities. They have a demon assigned to them to ensure they remain corrupted.

Upper Multiversal Hemisphere

Here the levels of Heaven are described in ascending order, starting with Purgatory (“a place for Good Souls that have passed beyond the Material Plane to prepare to enter the Heavens.“). From there, the Seven Heavens follow in succession from the First (“the Good Souls who have accepted the gift of Life through Christ“) to the Seventh (“About the Throne of God will be found the Souls of the Most Righteous having received status above the Angels“).

Those righteous few who can be at God’s Throne witness an awesome sight:

The Presence of God is a brilliant blinding Light which engulfs the entirety of his Throne. This Presence is hotter than any Sun and the Empyrean about it is so hot as to cause anything to burst into flames. Thunderings of Voices proceed out of the Throne, the sound of many waters; this being the voice of God himself.

The Angels are described and statted here, beginning with the Archangel Michael (“The Prince of All Heaven”). These proceed down through the more modest angelic beings. The Seraphim and Cherubim are interesting , as they are described biblically-accurate:

One pair of Wings covers their face (as they are not allowed to gaze upon God), another pair is used to cover their feet (for their feet may not touch the Throne of God), and the last pair of Wings is used to Fly
about the Throne of God…

Finally, the Major Prophets & Saints have short bios.

Lower Multiversal Hemisphere

Hell is well-described in its various layers. Limbo is described as:

Limbo is the place for heathen Souls who remained unbaptised in Christ throughout their entire lives. For not accepting Christ they could not enter Heaven; and for not committing entirely to Satan they are spared the Lower Hells. Souls here are filled with shame having realized the errors of their way.
Limbo is ruled by the Queen of Evil Dragons. At its farthest edges are the Gates into “Hell Proper” where great thunderings can be heard.

Last is Gehenna:

Everything within this area is continuously consumed by the blaze and reformed again. This is a never ending cycle in Gehenna. Any creature within this Plane, will experience the full sensations of this cycle beyond the threshold of any discomfort and agony ever imagined. […] Gehenna is the Place of final punishment and retribution for all of Evilkind. Since the First Judgment at the end of Armageddon, the False Prophet and Anti-Christ have been imprisoned here.

As with the beings of Heaven, Hell starts with the Arch-Cherub Lucifer… Satan. A fallen angel who’d led a rebellion against God, Satan is “…the Master of all Evil and the origin of such from the beginning. Satan is extremely powerful and a formidable foe to the Archangel Michael. He is not an independent rival of God though.“

A shorter list of demonic beings follows.

Then an artist interpretation of the Planes of Hell (as described in Dante’s Inferno) finishes the book, as well as References.

Gamemaster Guides product list

I’ve never actually had any of these in the shop. Here are a couple of pics I found in past Ebay listings for Exotic Characters and Worlds and Dragons Throughout the Multiverse.

My copy comes with a loose flier catalog for Gamemaster Guides, including releases from Australian company Adventure Simulations (which GG was the US distributor).