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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2035064" data-attributes="member: 1129">Egyptian Adventures HamunaptraWhat is Egyptian Adventures Hamunaptra? It’s a new entry in the Mythic Vistas line of settings by Green Ronin Games by C.A. Suleiman with Steve Kenson and Ari Marmell contributing to the writing. It’s a boxed set of three books and a full color folded map. It’s 216 black and white pages for $39.95.So what is it? I hate movie reviews that go, “It’s the next E.T.!” as that doesn’t do a lot to tell you about the movie, but in this case, I think it’s appropriate. Have you heard of Nyambe? It’s a fantasy version of Africa taken into the d20 game engine. Unlike say Relics & Rituals Excalibur which shows you how to take fantastic elements of one genre and put them in d20, this book puts a fantasy version of Egypt into your hands.Looking through the books, I’m a little surprised they went with a boxed set format. Nothing here really justifies it. There are no cardboard handouts. No small player guide booklets. No friendly summaries of rules. Just three books and a nice map. Now I’ve seen enough products to know that this map could’ve been glued into a hardcover book of this size without problem. Seems like a wasted opportunity to me.There are some minor things in the book that I’d have to playtest more to see how they work out. For example, because it’s an Egyptian style setting, there is no heavy armor. How does the effect high-level play as character don’t have enchanted full plate to back them up? Time will tell.The largest book at 96 pages, starts us off, The Book of Days. This includes the races, core class variants of Hamunaptra, feats, equipment, and spells. The background of the setting is one of murder, advancement, betryal, destruction and blessings by the gods and other standards of fantasy with an Egyptian twist.The book’s crunch starts off with the races. Most of these will be familiar to readers of the Player’s Handbook as they’re in most cases, the same race but with the numbers filled off. Want to play a Halfling? Look up the Asari, a small race that has bonuses to certain rogue skills, saving throws and racial weapon skill like with throw weapons. Now the favored classes are changed in a lot of these cases and some of the material, like the Anpur or gnolls, is brand new, so don’t assume that everything is exactly the same.The nice note about the Anpur is that if the GM wants to run gnolls as per the Monster Manual, he can consider them savages and a different branch of the Anpur race as opposed to a brand new race. A viable idea as these gnolls are a 0 level race that in essence, replaces the half-orc.The core classes have some small variations, but I’d rather see the space used for just listing the differences rather than listings that give me the Hamunaptra name of the core class and listings for special abilities that state, “See the PHB.” For example, the Bahati is the Monk and it’s abilities are detailed. Look up Flurry of Blows and you’ll see the text.  The Khebenti or Rogue on the other hand, has every ability listed as “This functions as the rogue ability described in the PHB.” Well, if that’s the case, why even put the class here as opposed to a footnote that Rogues are Khebenti in this setting and that there’s a minor change in skill selection depending on the rogue’s point of origin?Now that’s not to say that every class here is a straight repeat from the Player’s Handbook. After all, there’s no heavy armor here so no one has automatic proficiency with heavy armor. Well, okay, there’s a little bit more of a difference in that the Hekai or Sorcerer, gets Eschew Materials as a bonus feat, the standard familiar and spell swap but also improved metamagic and innate spell. The former adds two spell levels to the metamagic feat and lets the sorcerer cast it as a standard action as opposed to a full round action. Costly but useful. The innate spell on the other hand, allows the Hekai to cast a spell even if say, bound, gagged and naked as long as he’s conscious. The spell has to be at least five levels lower than the maximum level that the Hekai may cast and they get this ability three times so they can select one 0, one 3rd, and one 4th. It’s a nice touch and showcases the differences at least a little.There are some new feats to help characters out like Armor Expertise where the character reduces the armor check penalty and can sleep in medium armor without becoming fatigued or some divine flavored reats like Racial Weapon Mastery, where the character gains a bonus when using his racial weapon. For example, gnomes may use daggers as ranged weapons without suffering an attack of opportunity while in a threatened square.The equipment section isn’t anything outstanding but does round out the book nicely. A few more illustrations would’ve been nice, but I think most know what a javelin and handaxe look like. Some exotic weapons work their way here, but some are just carryovers from the PHB like the Ptahmenu (dwarven) Waraxe or the Dire Flail.Some new rules for magic are included that help the GM capture the flavor of the game without making magic too powerful. Things like reducing the metamagic penalty when taking extra time to cast a spell. New domains and spells help round out spellcasters but doesn’t include a unique and customized spell list for casters of this setting.Book Two, The Book of Gates, picks up where Relics & Rituals Olympus and Excalibur have failed in that it provides a setting to run all of this good stuff. In 56 pages, you get notes on caste, racial relations, time keeping methods, merchant activities,  lexicon, and social customs. A write up on the gods of the pantheon, including their favored animal and weapon, domains and portfolio, allows players of a priest to have a little more variety than just Ra worshippers.The section on the city states of Khemti provides up with Hamunaptra, a city of over a hundred thousand or Avarna, Isyut, Per-Tefnu Raqote, Terenuthis Tjekut, and others. Each one has a summary block including patron deity, population, ruler, other important figures, resources, allies and rivals. Each one has history, people, and important locations. These factors aren’t fully detailed nor mapped, but provide an ambitious GM with the bones of a setting.So now that you’ve got the setting and rules for core classes, what’s missing? That’s right, we’re missing some more players toys like prestige classes, which are found in Book Three: The Book of Law. It doesn’t start off with PrCs, but rather, with adventure ideas, including an excellent 100 adventure seeds.Advice on using the desert to force characters to deal with the environment while traveling, as well as rules for charioteering, are included alongside numerous new organizations that the GM can use as patrons or enemies. Pit the characters against The Compact of Dust, an alliance of religious fanatics who want the world to be devoured by the Wasting, a condition brought on by the wrath of Ra, to the Red Hand, a group that can easily be used as a stand in for desert raiders lead by the gnolls of the Red Land.After that, that’s when we get the PrCs. An odd choice of them here as they could’ve been included with the other player material but that’s okay. The section starts off discussing which PrCs from the core book (DMG), are appropriate and then moves into the unique ones of this setting. These range from the Desert Scorpions, assassins of the Red Lands to the Serpent Dancers, masters of serpentine movement that fight defensively gaining Evasion and Uncanny Dodge in addition to being able to administer a coup de grace as a standard action as opposed to a full round action.Other player toys include new magic items. No great artifact swords, but a few unique weapons like the Scorpion Blade that poisons it’s victims on a critical strike or the Amulet of Life that acts as a death ward for as long as the amulet is worn. Not a great selection of magic items and no illustrations but it’s a start. Perhaps Phil will come along with A Dozen Egyptian Artifacts and help round out the series a bit.For the GM and his toys, what haven’t we covered? That’d be monsters. It covers creatures by type, and mentions that found in the core rules that’d be a good fit for Khemti, as well as new creatures. I look forward to springing a desert elemental on a Forgotten Realms Part as they move through Anauroch or a Greyhawk Party as the travel through the Sea of Dust. I’m anxious to see how Dragons like it when they hear of the Great Sphinxes, a new breed of Sphinx that rival, and perhaps surpass them for sheer power. Who would want to battle the Father of Terror, a master of terror that clocks in at a CR of 40 with the abilities of a 19th level spellcaster in addition to his potent poison and other deadly physical abilities?The map of Khemti is four pages and in full color. Ed does a great job of providing texture to the map but perhaps makes it look a little too historical as large sections of it are rendered hidden by Egyptian symbols in the upper left corner and a blown up map of Kamunaptra. Interior art is handled by some of the industries best and gives the book a great feel. Some fan favorites include Toren Atkinson, Kent Burles, and Jennifer Meyer in addition to Beth Trott and Mike Vilardi. In terms of readability, it follows standard two column format with gray text on boxed sections like weapons and side-notes.In reading the book, I found myself, much as I did with the Book of the Righteous, inspiried on certain campaign ideas. I’m not saying I want to stop my Black Company campaign right now and start running a Hamunaptra game, but I can easily see some of the things here making their way into future campaigns. I can see adding a lot of this detail to say the Forgotten Realms and it’s kingdoms based on Egyptian myths that have recently been overlooked in Lost Empires. I can see myself allowing players access to the core classes here for flavor as well as showing how favored classes and other racial details can change due to environment. I can see using the Sphinxes of this setting as prime movers and shakes that even the Chosen in the Forgotten Realms tread wearily about.One of the nice things about the setting, is that because the map isn’t all inclusive or world spanning, the GM could insert this into another campaign. The desert in and of itself acts as a natural barrier and GMs wishing to push certain types of adventurers, like those of exploration or battles against fate and destiny, can easily use many of the ideas here.Green Ronin has brought Egyptian Advnetures to life here. They’ve made this setting as viable as Nyambe, Rogukan or Al-Qadim. Now if only we can get WoTC to license out that latter setting to them, we’d be set.</blockquote>

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