Egypt

[Imhotepthewise]

The biggest problem I've found building an ancient Egyptian campaign is action. Egypt was socially rigid and travel between nomes or counties discouraged. Upper class people were somewhat paranoid about travelling out of country because they would not be adequately taken care of if they died. I found two book series that had lots of action set in Egypt. One was the Lord Meren mysteries by Lynda S. Robinson. The other was Wilbur Smith's River God and the Seventh Scroll (great dungeon idea!). There are other books around I haven't read. GURPS Egypt is a lot in one spot. Several websites are out there supporting ancient Egypt. I'll try to post them later. Tim.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Re: Re: Egypt

Do you want a custom world, or do you want it to 'plug-in' to an existing world (like FR or GH)?

To be honest, I haven't even gotten that far yet. I think I'd lean more towards a custom world since I love designing settings and characters. But right now, I want to look at everything. This is still a ways off.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

 

[KnowTheToe]

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=822538#post822538

this is a thread discussing ideas for running in Egypt like campaigns.

 

[Artimoff]

I've never played/read them, but maybe the Desserts of Desolation series of modules from the late 80's. You could probabaly find them on ebay.

 

[Merova]

Testament

Do you really recommend it for someone who just wants the Egypt setting info?

Hi all!

I definitely recommend this book for Egyptian games. Many of the mechanics introduced in this game are perfectly appropriate for an Egyptian game. The equipment lists are excellent. The classes are well designed. The magic, feats and combat rules are solid.

Egypt itself recieves over twenty, densely written pages of treatment. Egyptian history, culture and religion are all given a quick but helpful treatment. Yes, that's much less than the Israelites get, but the game is called Testament.

Compare this to the Nile Empire supplement from Avalanche. It's got 64 pages of vague text and horrendously buggy mechanics. With Testament, you may get a smaller page count in dedicated treatment of Egypt, but the quality is endlessly superior. When combined with the general setting information, you end up with a much deeper and impressive setting supplement upon which to build an Egyptian campaign.

GURPS Egypt is a very good. But having to convert everything may be a bit of a chore. YMMV.

In any case, thanks for reading. Good gaming!

---Merova

 

[MulhorandSage]

TESTAMENT, from Green Ronin.

I'll say it again. TESTAMENT, from Green Ronin.

One last time, for absolute clarity. TESTAMENT, from Green Ronin.

Rules on being a Khery-heb (Wizard), Eqyptian Culture, History, stats for famous historical and legendary Egyptian personages, and Egyptian religion. Awesome resource, but one more geared for a fantasy campaign.

Alternatively, you can pick up GURPS Egypt. With an absolutely smothering blanket of facts, lagends, stories, etc. You can't go wrong with a GURPS supplement.

The downside is it's not d20, but it is reasonably convertible.

Glad you liked what we did with Egypt in Testament (you too, Merova). I wish we'd had more pages for Egypt (and a *lot* more for Babylon) but a lot of work went into what we managed to fit in the available space.

The definitive d20 Egypt book is yet to be written, though GURPS Egypt is certainly worth checking out (Spike Jones, who edited and developed Testament, also edited GURPS Egypt).

Scott Bennie

 

[Klaus]

Although it isn't a rulebook, I can't recommed Christian Jacq's Ramses series of novels enough. It's 5 novels that revolve around Ramses II's reign, from his 18th birthday to his death at age 90-something. It features lots of action, ideas for adventuring and a veritable D&D group in his inner circle of friends:

Ramses, the noble
Ameni, the scribe
Moses, the architect
Asha, the rogue/spy
Setaou, the snake-charmer

And if you like that, Jacq's follow-up series, the Stone of Light, focuses on the decades following Ramses's death, and specially on the Place of Truth, the artisan community that built the Valley of Kings and the Valley of Queens.

 

[Spike Y Jones]

Thanks for the kind words on Testament and GURPS Egypt, all.

For myself, I'd recommend Testament for a fantasy campaign and GURPS Egypt for a historical one, and if your tastes are inbetween, then whichever is closer. I'd also recommend the Desert series of AD&D modules for a fantastic Egypt (i.e., one where pyramid interiors have dozens of rooms, not just four or five, and where the magic is high level) campaign.

Spike Y Jones, editor, Testament and GURPS Egypt