Ask me about Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra

[Quickleaf]

Q&A

Thanks for all the great beta Ari! If you're still answering I have some questions...
1. How is resurrection treated given the egyptian "coming forth by day" tradition? How are those who have been resurrected treated socially? 2. In the Khemti theocracy, is there a place for the House of Life (lay magicians)? 3. How much did CA's work on the mummy player's guide influence the product (if at all)? 4. Is there a default PC background/mission in the books? As in, you are servants of Pharoah seeking to stop the Wasting? 5. Can you elaborate more on the magic system and how it varies from traditional D&D? Are there rules for designing your own spells? 6. Is mummy a template (or a group of templates I hope! )? 7. How are lycanthropes treated in Khemti? Blessed by the gods to assume their forms or cursed? 8. Are there any new core classes that don't have a parallel in traditional D&D? 9. Last question... In Al-qadim there was a gamemaster secrets section which broke GM information down city-by-city; how is the gamemaster book organized in Hamunaptra? It doesn't have adventures right, so is it similar to the al-qadim book with plot hooks for each city-state? 10. Are there rules for slavery?
Sounds like a well researched and imaginative product...looking forward to checking it out. And happy halloween too!

 

[Quickleaf]

Q&A

Thanks for all the great beta Ari! If you're still answering I have some questions...
1. How is resurrection treated given the egyptian "coming forth by day" tradition? How are those who have been resurrected treated socially? 2. In the Khemti theocracy, is there a place for the House of Life (lay magicians)? 3. How much did CA's work on the mummy player's guide influence the product (if at all)? 4. Is there a default PC background/mission in the books? As in, you are servants of Pharoah seeking to stop the Wasting? 5. Can you elaborate more on the magic system and how it varies from traditional D&D? Are there rules for designing your own spells? 6. Is mummy a template (or a group of templates I hope! )? 7. How are lycanthropes treated in Khemti? Blessed by the gods to assume their forms or cursed? 8. Are there any new core classes that don't have a parallel in traditional D&D? 9. Last question... In Al-qadim there was a gamemaster secrets section which broke GM information down city-by-city; how is the gamemaster book organized in Hamunaptra? It doesn't have adventures right, so is it similar to the al-qadim book with plot hooks for each city-state? 10. Are there rules for slavery?
Sounds like a well researched and imaginative product...looking forward to checking it out. And happy halloween too!

 

[Mouseferatu]

Thanks for all the great beta Ari! If you're still answering I have some questions...
1. How is resurrection treated given the egyptian "coming forth by day" tradition? How are those who have been resurrected treated socially? 2. In the Khemti theocracy, is there a place for the House of Life (lay magicians)? 3. How much did CA's work on the mummy player's guide influence the product (if at all)? 4. Is there a default PC background/mission in the books? As in, you are servants of Pharoah seeking to stop the Wasting? 5. Can you elaborate more on the magic system and how it varies from traditional D&D? Are there rules for designing your own spells? 6. Is mummy a template (or a group of templates I hope! )? 7. How are lycanthropes treated in Khemti? Blessed by the gods to assume their forms or cursed? 8. Are there any new core classes that don't have a parallel in traditional D&D? 9. Last question... In Al-qadim there was a gamemaster secrets section which broke GM information down city-by-city; how is the gamemaster book organized in Hamunaptra? It doesn't have adventures right, so is it similar to the al-qadim book with plot hooks for each city-state? 10. Are there rules for slavery?
Sounds like a well researched and imaginative product...looking forward to checking it out. And happy halloween too!

Wow. That's a lot of questions.

I can't answer them all clearly, because a lot of them address areas I didn't work on, but I'll do what I can.

1) I can tell you that the specifics of the afterlife/the underworld, and the multiple stages thereof, are addressed in the book. How it directly impacts resurrection, however, I couldn't say.

2) While all magic is, to some extent or another, divine, not all wizards are priests.

3) I'd say a great deal--or rather, it would be more accurate to say that the same knowledge and interests that inspired and qualified him for the job of one are the same that inspired him to create the other.

4) Nope. It's an open campaign setting. You certainly could play agents of (one of) the Pharoah(s) seeking to stop the Wasting, but it's just one of a near infinite list of possibilities.

5) The system is, at its core, the default D&D magic system. As we said before, the objective was to create a D&D-compatible setting. A great many of the alterations are flavor-oriented, such as having four types of magic rather than two. There are, however, mechanical aspects, such as the ability to combine casters in rituals that increase the potency of spells.

6) Honestly don't know. I didn't deal with mummies in my monster section. Sorry.

7) You know, again, I have to admit I'm not certain.

8) Tricky to answer. Strictly speaking, every core class has an analogue in the core rules, but some are a lot more similar than others. Some are identical (mechanically, not in terms of flavor), but others bare only a vague resemblance to their initial inspiration.

9) Not organized by city-state, no. The DM's book has all the info players shouldn't see, such as monsters, setting secrets, advice on running Hamunaptra campaigns, etc. It's also got some info that players can see, but that it's up to the DM in terms of how much to include, such as lots of info on magic in the setting, and the setting's prestige classes.

I'm sorry I couldn't answer more of your questions clearly, but as I said, a lot of them focus on areas of which I don't yet have complete knowledge. (While I obviously have a general sense of the whole project, having read the setting bible and the outline, I only know specific details of the stuff I worked on myself.) Still, hope you found at least some of it useful.

 

[Quickleaf]

thanks

Your answers were great. Thanks Ari. I'm totally pre-ordering my copy!

And in the next week I'm developing a website with some work I've done for merging my home-brew city of Antekh into a Khemti-compatible format. It includes a write-up of the city, its history, temples, a cast of very colorful characters, 3 new prestige classes (Utchatu, Spirit-Sworn, Guardian of the Eternal Boundary), new feats, a couple new monsters, an artifact, a couple new magic items, and a new PC race, the Maa-Kheru (Unliving; literally "voice of truth"). Can't wait to share it with the community!

Also, I have a question about the borders used in the .pdf preview files... I would love to use those in presenting my work for the web community; it would make it really mesh with the setting, but I don't know Green Ronin's take on that. Is it legal? Any suggestions?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Also, I have a question about the borders used in the .pdf preview files... I would love to use those in presenting my work for the web community; it would make it really mesh with the setting, but I don't know Green Ronin's take on that. Is it legal? Any suggestions?

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

As for the legality of using the borders, I honestly have no clue how Green Ronin feels about that sort of thing. You might want to head on over to their site and either e-mail them directly, or ask on one of their forums. (Many of the GR staff frequent the boards over there.)

 

[Quickleaf]

release

Does anybody know, is it true that copies of Hamunaptra aren't getting shipped until the end of December/beginning of January (as Amazon.com told me)?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Does anybody know, is it true that copies of Hamunaptra aren't getting shipped until the end of December/beginning of January (as Amazon.com told me)?

If it's true, it's news to me. Last I heard, they were shipping out any day now, literally. Wouldn't be the first time Amazon was full of it, scheduling-wise.

 

[Pramas]

Does anybody know, is it true that copies of Hamunaptra aren't getting shipped until the end of December/beginning of January (as Amazon.com told me)?

No, it's not true. All the components are finished. I need to catch up with the printer and confirm, but it was supposed to ship to our warehouse on Friday. It'll take a couple of weeks to work its way through the channel (has to go to Osseum, then to distributors, then to retailers) but it'll certainly be out this month.

 

[Quickleaf]

Thanks Chris!

One more question, Ari, and it's about magic this time. Is the true name mythos part of the setting? Do the Khemitians believe that even gods are powerless to the proper magic spells, and that discovering the true name of gods give the mortal untold power over them? Or are the priests puppets of the gods, and quite squashable?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Thanks Chris!

One more question, Ari, and it's about magic this time. Is the true name mythos part of the setting? Do the Khemitians believe that even gods are powerless to the proper magic spells, and that discovering the true name of gods give the mortal untold power over them? Or are the priests puppets of the gods, and quite squashable?

While I wouldn't go so far as to say that mortals can hold "untold power" over the gods specifically, the concept of True Names, at least as applies to mortal beings, does indeed appear in the book.