Mesopotamia -- impressions?

[Hawkeye]

I am sorry. I have tried and tried, but I just can't do an impression of Mesopotamia. Maybe I better stick with Ancient Greece?

Hawkeye

 

[Arnwyn]

I just personally would have preferred more focus on setting and less on adventure.

Vice-versa for me. I buy Necromancer Games products for their adventures, not their 'sourcebooks'.

They did the right thing, in my view.

 

[Belegbeth]

Vice-versa for me. I buy Necromancer Games products for their adventures, not their 'sourcebooks'.

They did the right thing, in my view.

I agree. I just picked up *Mesopotamia* and think they struck the right balance between 'sourcebook' material (30 percent) and adventure material (70 percent). I also like the fact that the adventures are all loosely related to each other, rather than constituting a monolithic "mega-adventure."

My main criticism: no beginning adventures! The ones included are for the 5-12 level range. This is kinda annoying -- it would be nice to have some suggestions on how to START a Mesopotamia campaign.

That criticism aside, I really like it.

 

[Belegbeth]

... Essentially, it's an Egyptian setting designed specifically to work with the tropes of standard D&D. It's a spiritual cousin to Al-Qadim or Nyambe--not an attempt to be a "historical" setting, but the creation of a history-inspired setting that is still very much the game we all know and love. It was very heavily researched, so most of the cultural info is indeed historically accurate, but in those instances where gameplay clashed with accuracy, we chose gameplay.
...

Based on your criticism of the *Mesopotamia* book, I have to ask: will there be adventures included in this product?

Background material is nice, but seeing how a setting can be realized in actual, playable adventures is really useful.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Based on your criticism of the *Mesopotamia* book, I have to ask: will there be adventures included in this product?

Background material is nice, but seeing how a setting can be realized in actual, playable adventures is really useful.

With apologies in advance for pulling the cryptic routine, I really can't talk about specific contents of the set until Green Ronin's announced them. Sorry.

And not to beat a dead horse, but my statement on Mesopotamia shouldn't be taken as criticism. It's a perfectly fine book. It's not what I wanted it to be, but that's purely an issue of my own preferences, not a problem--real or perceived--with the book.

But then, I prefer my cultural settings to be very different from core D&D. I like the fact that books like Oriental Adventures and Nyambe offer different core classes and different or changed core races. So anything in the way of a cultural setting that doesn't go that route is going to be less appealing to me, but that doesn't mean I can't recognize that it's a solid, well-written book.

 

[Treebore]

You can get more info, and ask the author specific questions by signing into ezboard for a free account and going to Necromancers messageboards and post in the Mesopotamia forum.

Besides, if you haven't "discovered" Necromancer games yet, you will want to book mark their site and messageboards for when you become an official fan of their stuff. Check out their publishing partner, Troll Lord Games. I assume you already know of their connections to White Wolf.

 

[Particle_Man]

My main criticism: no beginning adventures! The ones included are for the 5-12 level range. This is kinda annoying -- it would be nice to have some suggestions on how to START a Mesopotamia campaign.

I guess you could always do the old "set it in the future of the mesopotamia campaign, run the characters from levels 1-4, have a curse/plague/undead all three destroy most of the world's pop., have a scientist/historian/wizard determine that the only way to save the world is to prevent the curse from being uttered in the first place, and sends our heroes back in time to do just that."

But that doesn't start with ancient mesopotamian PCs in such a campaign, alas.

 

[pogre]

Good stuff - useable for non-Mesopotamia campaigns. I'lll be using part of it at our gaming session tonight.

 

[Belegbeth]

.... But then, I prefer my cultural settings to be very different from core D&D. I like the fact that books like Oriental Adventures and Nyambe offer different core classes and different or changed core races. So anything in the way of a cultural setting that doesn't go that route is going to be less appealing to me, but that doesn't mean I can't recognize that it's a solid, well-written book.

*Mesopotamia* does have "new races" (essentially a summary of different human cultures in/around the region) and new classes in the form of prestige classes. But you're right insofar as it is does not introduce any new core classes, and keeps all the PHB classes (paladins in Babylon seem ... odd).

This raises an interesting question: namely, what is the appropriate trade-off between adhering to the established DnD ruleset, and providing milieu-specific rules (variant rules, new classes, etc.)?

Given limited time, and the difficulties involved in informing players about all the changes, I am somewhat inclined to cleave as close to the standard rules as possible, and try to convey the character of the setting through other means.

 

[scourger]

Thanks for all the information in this thread. I looked at the online announcements for this book, but I am really intrigued by it now that I have read this thread. I also like the idea of a camapign sourcebook adhering as closely as possible to the core game. The idea of new "campaign" classes being prestige classes is awesome. The game really doesn't need new core classes to appeal to me. I also really like the idea that this book is more about playing adventures in a new setting rather than just presenting a bunch of new, variant (and invariably confusing) rules. I'll give this one a look if i can find it at my FLGS.