Tell me about "Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra"

Knightfall

World of Kulan DM
Ok, I tried to find a review of Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra by Green Ronin and haven't found anything yet. Thus, this post. Who out there has it already and what can you tell me about it. (I've seen the previews at Green Ronin's website but want more than that.)

Cheers!

KF72
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I got mine about 2 weeks ago. I can only say...."amazing." I am not much for reviews, but if you like Egyptian mythology and if you ever want to run a game using it, then it is something that you MUST buy.
 

BelenUmeria said:
I got mine about 2 weeks ago. I can only say...."amazing." I am not much for reviews, but if you like Egyptian mythology and if you ever want to run a game using it, then it is something that you MUST buy.

Yes, but what is the ratio between "background" and "rules"? What kind of maps does it have? How's the artwork?

Cheers!

KF72
 

I know Macbeth got it from Mousferatu. Unfortunately, Macbeth has also headed home for the holidays. I will email him to see if he can get online and maybe post some thoughts on it.
 

BardStephenFox said:
I know Macbeth got it from Mousferatu. Unfortunately, Macbeth has also headed home for the holidays. I will email him to see if he can get online and maybe post some thoughts on it.

Thanks, BSF!

I'll look for "it" in the morning. It's 1 am and I definitely need to get some sleep.

KF72
 

Short answer: it's great.

Long answer: What makes it so good? Well, first, the flavor. I'm not a hug fan of Egyptian mythology. I don't dislike it, I've just never really gotten into it much. But the flavpr of these books is awesome. The history and race sections in particular just drip flavor, and make for great reading. Sometimes it gets to be a little hard to keep track of the various psuedo egyptian names of races, classes, and such, but it never really stopped me from reading, just slowed me down every once in a while.

The setting is ritch with adventure hooks, and it really made me want to play. In my opinion, a good book is one that makes you want to use it. As long as it does that, it's wothy of at least a 3/5 score, perhaps more. I plan on writing a long review when I get back to my computer (writing from my families computer now, and having a hard time of it).

Overall, I would recommend it. THere's nothing amazingly revolutionary about it, but I did find it enjoyable and a great read. Far too many books have great ideas, but dry boring writing. Hamunapatra has great, flavorful writing and some good underlying ideas.

I may still be a bit enamored by my first read of everything (another good reason to wait for the review), but if I had to score it right now it would be a 4/5, maybe a 5/5. Probably more like a 4.5/5, or a 5/5 if you have a standing interest in Egyptian mythology.
 

If its intention was to be a new D&D setting with an Egyptian veneer, it pulls that off quite nicely. Extensive liberties were taken with the history, geography, and culture of ancient Egypt to fit the standard D&D tropes (for instance, adding a coinage system where one really didn't exist and giving the regular races and classes new flavor to fit the setting).

But, if you're at all familiar with Egyptian history and mythology, you'll probably have to check your impulse to say "That's not right" on every page. :) Because I'm very much familiar with AE, I'll probably do little more with Hamunaptra than cherry pick the bits I like and ignore the rest.

I'm not much of a crunch fan, so I really can't comment on the quality of the feats, spells, and such, but I'm guessing they serve their purpose.

As for the production values, the box is very nice, and the three books are good. Binding is nice. There's one table of contents in the first book that covers all three books, and no index to speak of (which is unfortunate). The interior artwork is all black and white, and ranges in quality from quite good to abysmal. What I've read of the writing is good, though I have noticed a handful of typos and editing errors. I have yet to find a page XX reference. :)

The 11X17 full color map is nice, though it's printed on one-side only and as mentioned above, takes some liberties with the geography and site locations of ancient Egypt.

So, all in all I'd give it a solid 7 out of 10. It's not what I really want in an ancient Egypt RPG setting, but I'm admittedly biased since I want more historical flavor and less fantasy. :) I don't think you'll be wasting your money if you pick it up.
 



Scribe Ineti said:
If its intention was to be a new D&D setting with an Egyptian veneer, it pulls that off quite nicely. Extensive liberties were taken with the history, geography, and culture of ancient Egypt to fit the standard D&D tropes (for instance, adding a coinage system where one really didn't exist and giving the regular races and classes new flavor to fit the setting).

That's exactly what we intended it to be, from the very beginning. We never claimed, nor wanted, to create "Historical Egypt D20." Rather, Hamunaptra is to Egypt what Al-Qadim is to Arabia, or Nyambe is to Africa.

That said, I'm glad you like it, even if it's not precisely what you were looking for. :)
 

Remove ads

Top