Egyptian Adventures!

[Tyler Do'Urden]

I've just taken a look at Necropolis and the Pharonic Pantheon section of Deities and Demigods, and I'm thinking of taking a crack at an Egyptian-style campaign setting for a change of pace from the typical high-medieval style. Here's the basic situation:

Imagine Egypt circa 200 BCE, under the Ptolemaic Dynasty.

There are three kinds of humans: Khemites (egyptians), Hellenes (greeks), and Impirians (romans).

There are Dwarves (Hebrews)

There are Elves (Chaldaeans, Persians, and people of the Arab penninsula)

There are Halflings (oasis-infesting savages who enjoy the taste of man-flesh (sorry, Dark Sun fans!))

There are Gnomes (spirit-folk who are viewed as a type of djinn)

I'm thinking of loosely mixing Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Arabian themes together, combined with a holy war over Khem between the native Khemites waiting for return of their God-King, the Hellene usurper-pharoah Apophis, and the mighty Impirians, who along with the Elohim (Dwarves) and the Chalans (Elves), look on and prepare to pick up the scraps from this mighty conflict.

Now here's what I'm interested in finding out: I need to know what 3rd edition rules supplements would be useful, and what adventure modules for any edition, available either off the shelf (in the case of new stuff) or in ESD (in the case of the old) would be useful. Also, any one who has any ideas what weapons, armor, monsters, spells, or rules would be useful or not- please contribute your thoughts.

Here's what I have right now:

All five of the "splatbooks"- I wrote out a list of appropriate prestige classes (many more seemed appropriate than I thought would). I added religious requirements to some (for example, Mages of the Arcane Order must be worshippers of Isis, Elemental Savants must worship Thoth or Hermes, and True Necromancers must worship Anubis or Hecate, only Khemites could be Red Avengers).

I have Oriental Adventures and Swashbuckling Adventures- although most of the classes and creatures would be inappropriate, I'm considering allowing the use of some feats from these books.

Spells and Spellcraft, Seafarer's Handbook: Not sure on what to use from these.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Chrisling]

My strongest suggestion would be to dump the non-humans. Elves in Egypt? Dwarves as Jews? That's like a grain of sand under my skin, I think.

Other than that, I think classical and bronze age civilizations are underused fodder for RPGs and heartily approve.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

(somehow i always end up pimping FR....)

FRCS has a region called Mulhorand which is an adaptation of ancient Egypt, and the 2e supplement Old Empires gave more details on this region. you could loot either for ideas...

 

[bwgwl]

(and somehow i always end up pimping GURPS books... )

it's not d20, but you might want to take a look at GURPS Egypt. like most GURPS supplements, it's fairly light on rules and heavy on description and content. i would highly recommend it.

 

[Geoffrey]

My strongest suggestion would be to dump the non-humans. Elves in Egypt? Dwarves as Jews?

I agree. I think your ideas for an Egyptian campaign have a lot of potential, but dwarves and elves and such would just rip your game right out of Egypt and plunk it in Middle-earth.

 

[Carnifex]

On the other hand the hyena-headed gnolls and jackal-headed arcanoloths would fit right into an egyptian-themed setting

 

[bwgwl]

I agree. I think your ideas for an Egyptian campaign have a lot of potential, but dwarves and elves and such would just rip your game right out of Egypt and plunk it in Middle-earth.

i dunno. i can totally see a brown-skinned dwarf in a tunic with one of those Pharoah-style goatees working on the pyramids or some other impossibly-large Egyptian stone architectural project.

call the elves "Peri" -- fey-like creatures from Persian myth -- and they fit right into a Middle Eastern setting. make their culture desert-focused instead of foresty, and they'll be swell.

i totally agree with making the gnomes a minor form of genie with their innate spell-casting ability and all. i almost did that with an Arabian-style campaign i ran a while back.

if you have access to the FRCS or Dragon, think about throwing in the genasi as human-genie crossbreeds. they fit the flavor of the setting perfectly IMO.

i think the idea here is not to "faithfully emulate" the original setting in its entirety -- that'd be kinda boring IMO. it's more about making a fantastical version of the original setting by throwing in things like magic and nonhumans. now that's a lot of fun!

how about gnolls as the chosen people of Set? (sure, they're hyenas and not jackals, but it's close enough! )

 

[Maldur]

ok, ill second te gurps book its a great resource.

For people in Egypt, I also would go for humans and maybe some animal headed races. Dont forget nubians! there are quite a lot of them in Egypt. ( see if you can find info on the black-farao's)

Buildings and temples are HUGE!!!!!!! Make them overwhelming!

For more info ask in about four weeks then I have just returned from three weeks in Egypt ( finally vacation).

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

That sounds like an insanely fun idea for a campaign setting, Tyler. I can't really think of anything interesting to add to it, though it could be fun to convert existing adventures to an Egyptian theme. For example, maybe the Banewarrens were built under a pyramid instead of under a wizard's tower.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I saw the coolest egyptian minis at Gencon, unfortuneatly I cannot remember who made them. I was so mad because I could not find the booth to spend much of the unspent money I brought to the Con.