D&D 5E Walk Like An Egyptian Pt II

[Zardnaar]

As some of you know I have been working on an ancient Egyptian campaign. I have changed a few names bit for the most part it will be using map of Egypt on earth. Influences are pop culture, books like The Mummy by Anne Rice, The Mummy movies, Gods of Egypt movie, Stargate SG1 and even Star Wars Legends. Also various documentaries on Youtube have also helped.

Resources in addition to the core 3 5E books include various desert and Egyptian themed adventures in Quests of Doom, various races from the Kobold Publishing Midgard, Southlands, Unlikely Heroes, Sandstorm, Darksun, Pathifnder Osirion, and The Hollow World PDF from Mystara. Other major cultures include fantasy not Roman and Not Greeks.

The Theme

Fanatasy Egypt and surrounding lands

Concepts

Ancient Past
Deserts
Undead
Constructs
Tombs/treasure
Nile (aka Nuria).

Generally anthropomorphic races are fine and since I have Fantasy Greeks things like Minotaurs are also fine. I have covered my thoughts on themed games here before but I find to hammer home the point of a theme you do no let in races, classes etc that negate, trivialise or do not fit the theme. Something like a warforged for example is out, Lizardmen, Minotaurs, Gnolls etc are in. A Warforged for example can ignore the desert conditions and walk through the Nile and not drown. Other things generally belong on specific world or campaign based on those worlds. Nithia (Egypt) might be a sandbox, my game is not only the classic 4 races make it into my game from the PHB.

Most of this was in my original walk like an Egyptian thread.

Here is how I plan to structure my game, as always advice and input here would be great. BTW I plan on using the real world map of Egpyt so i will use real life terms so I do not confuse anyone.

Nithia is a land of ruin and faded glory. Most of the human population is in the Nuria Delta, roughly from Cairo to Alexandria. The further south you go the worse it gets. Civilization ends about 20 miles south of Cairo with the Nithian remnant giving way to the deep desert and the lands of middle and upper Egypt. My fantasy pyramids of Giza the limestone coating has been melted with fire (Dragonfire?), and roving bands of Gnolls are everywhere. Fantasy Sakaara, Amarna, and Thebes are going to be major locations. Amarna will have an undead Egyptian heretic in it probably a mummy lord while further south the Valley of Kings will have a Lich. Various tombs will have vampires, wights, mummies etc in them and unlike the real world most tombs will have guardians and will be plundered. IRL the tom,b of Alexander the Great went missing, my equivalent will be around t be found but Orokio will be alive in stasis for the PCs to find.

If the PCs want to establish strongholds seizing lands of the desert and freeing slaves and captives and locating lost villages etc will allow that.

I think I will structure the game like Kingmaker and have a hexcrawl exploration game with keyed locations of tombs etc to find. I also plan on doing an aquatic adventurer or two where the PCs can go into the Nuria and recover treasure off boats or get into underwater tombs. Undead Dragons could also be put into some of these tombs and locations along with some extraplanar portals and "Stargates". Old school energy drain may also come back but it will cause exhaustion rather than level loss- Egyptian Wights and Vampires can be a bit nastier.

Level 1-3 Raid low level tombs
level 4-5 Aquatic adventure
Level 5-10 Hexcrawl and explore the land/tombs
Level 11-15 Learn the secrets of the ancient past/establish domains (if they want to)
Level 16+The ancient past returns

The Nile itself will be a point of light, its reasonably safe to travel on subject to things lie pirates, undead hordes in the water and marauding Dragons, its the locations near there that will have the nasty stuff. The Valley of Kings I plan on making that more like the Valley of the Dark Lords from Korriban in the Star Wars Universe. The Valley of the Dark Lords is based on the Valley of Kings anyway so full circle there perhaps.

The big bads I am leaning towards a reveal I have been building up towards for 20 odd years over numerous campaign. What happened to an ancient race of basically Melinboneans. Well they are likely undead entombed beneath the desert sands with undead Dragons. A CR 12 lvl 18 wizard can be riding a CR 15 undead Dragon. In the South Thebes, Aswan and the Valley of Kings will be key locations.

This is a very rough outline of my plans so far. Fishing for any ideas the collective ENworld hivemind has.

 

[Quickleaf]

Sounds like we have some parallels in our gaming at the moment Since fantasy Egypt is on my mind, I have a couple ideas...

In addition to the sources you mention – Southlands is really great – I am drawing upon Gary Gygax's Necropolis (Swords & Sorcery) and Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra (Green Ronin); both are d20 system so quite a bit of work converting the crunch, but lots of good flavor/setting info.

Concepts

Ancient Past
Deserts
Undead
Constructs
Tombs/treasure
Nile (aka Nuria).

A few others you may wish to consider....

Bread-and-circuses (arena games)
Charioteering
The Afterlife / Duat
Social Castes & Slavery
Temple Politics
Nomadic Tribes
Upper/Lower Kingdom Feuds
Egyptian Magic

Generally anthropomorphic races are fine and since I have Fantasy Greeks things like Minotaurs are also fine. I have covered my thoughts on themed games here before but I find to hammer home the point of a theme you do no let in races, classes etc that negate, trivialise or do not fit the theme. Something like a warforged for example is out, Lizardmen, Minotaurs, Gnolls etc are in. A Warforged for example can ignore the desert conditions and walk through the Nile and not drown. Other things generally belong on specific world or campaign based on those worlds. Nithia (Egypt) might be a sandbox, my game is not only the classic 4 races make it into my game from the PHB.

Races are always an area I'm hesitant to comment on, as it really is up to each GM and his/her group's preferences. With gnolls, I've made them more jackal-like rather than hyena-like, which leads to correlation with Anubis, guardian/judge of the dead. Similarly, I've interpreted lizardfolk as more crocodilian, correlating them with the god Sobekh. Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra really runs with this idea.

Here is how I plan to structure my game, as always advice and input here would be great. BTW I plan on using the real world map of Egpyt so i will use real life terms so I do not confuse anyone.

Are you modeling your game after a particular era in Egypt's history? I've really been enjoying the Invicta series on "Moments in History"; actually decent historical coverage and they keep it interesting to listen/watch.

Nithia is a land of ruin and faded glory. Most of the human population is in the Nuria Delta, roughly from Cairo to Alexandria. The further south you go the worse it gets. Civilization ends about 20 miles south of Cairo with the Nithian remnant giving way to the deep desert and the lands of middle and upper Egypt. My fantasy pyramids of Giza the limestone coating has been melted with fire (Dragonfire?), and roving bands of Gnolls are everywhere. Fantasy Sakaara, Amarna, and Thebes are going to be major locations. Amarna will have an undead Egyptian heretic in it probably a mummy lord while further south the Valley of Kings will have a Lich. Various tombs will have vampires, wights, mummies etc in them and unlike the real world most tombs will have guardians and will be plundered. IRL the tom,b of Alexander the Great went missing, my equivalent will be around t be found but Orokio will be alive in stasis for the PCs to find.

On one hand, going with classics that the players will expect (mummies, undead of various types) is a great way to give the players what they want & evoke the theme. However, you may want to include a couple surprise twists to keep things fresh, especially if you're including hexcrawling exploration. A few I've done or have been contemplating doing...

• A group has been stealing dead corpses...suspicions go to a necromancer or mummy lord...but it's just cultists trying to deny their rivals the afterlife.
• Opening the sarcophagus, torches at the ready, the PCs find...a swarm of scarab beetles which devoured the body once held within, but not its golden ornamentation!
• A tyrannical nomarch or city ruler is said to demand sacrifices for her "sin eater", and locals are haunted by dreams of their dead loved ones. It's actually a fallen sphinx, whose frightening presence helps keep tribal raiders at bay.

I think I will structure the game like Kingmaker and have a hexcrawl exploration game with keyed locations of tombs etc to find. I also plan on doing an aquatic adventurer or two where the PCs can go into the Nuria and recover treasure off boats or get into underwater tombs.

On Adventure Lookup I've had some success searching for 5e adventures by environment (e.g. desert). Looks like not many underwater adventures, however.

Undead Dragons could also be put into some of these tombs and locations along with some extraplanar portals and "Stargates".

The "dragons" of Egyptian myth tend to be really big snakes, maybe with vestigial wings, entities like Apep or Ankh-neteru. Most had cosmological roles, and seemed to have a connection to what I call - for lack of a better name - cult of snake wisdom. Serpents had a dual role in Egyptian culture as both life-takers and wisdom-granters. For example, you might have the party face a "blue dracolich" but describe it as an enormous skeletal king cobra watching over the tomb of the line of kings which brought it low, making sure no one ever resurrects those kings & stealing any funerary offerings for its own hoard.

Old school energy drain may also come back but it will cause exhaustion rather than level loss- Egyptian Wights and Vampires can be a bit nastier.

YMMV, but my group really hates exhaustion and avoid it like the plague. But as long as you foreshadow that undead do that, and don't spring it on them unaware, should be ok.

Level 1-3 Raid low level tombs
level 4-5 Aquatic adventure
Level 5-10 Hexcrawl and explore the land/tombs
Level 11-15 Learn the secrets of the ancient past/establish domains (if they want to)
Level 16+The ancient past returns

One thing you might consider is giving them some more "high adventure" like escaping pursuers on horseback or chariot, or rooftop battles to prevent an archer from assassinating a high priest. Good at low levels, when they're squishy.

If you want to run a low-level tomb, consider something more puzzle-centric. Also, I try to introduce a twist whenever I run a tomb-exploration session: enemies block the entrance, lurk outside to ambush the PCs, or arrive as rivals; during a fight the floor collapses introducing an entirely new area within its own mysteries; hints in scrolls/murals about a treasure chamber that no passage seems to lead to; etc.

The Nile itself will be a point of light, its reasonably safe to travel on subject to things lie pirates, undead hordes in the water and marauding Dragons, its the locations near there that will have the nasty stuff. The Valley of Kings I plan on making that more like the Valley of the Dark Lords from Korriban in the Star Wars Universe. The Valley of the Dark Lords is based on the Valley of Kings anyway so full circle there perhaps.

The Nile was absolutely a life-giver but it was also considered dangerous, with crocodiles, flesh-eating fish, and legends of El Naddaha (a siren-like creature). You could differentiate its two sides according to a day/night cycle, or according to certain stretches between the cataracts, or even with some kind of an event tracker if you have "an evil rises along the Nile" theme.

The big bads I am leaning towards a reveal I have been building up towards for 20 odd years over numerous campaign. What happened to an ancient race of basically Melinboneans. Well they are likely undead entombed beneath the desert sands with undead Dragons. A CR 12 lvl 18 wizard can be riding a CR 15 undead Dragon. In the South Thebes, Aswan and the Valley of Kings will be key locations.

Ah! Very fun! You might do some more foreshadowing with discoveries of dragon fossils at a construction site, tomb, or old cave turned hide-out.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sounds like we have some parallels in our gaming at the moment Since fantasy Egypt is on my mind, I have a couple ideas...

In addition to the sources you mention – Southlands is really great – I am drawing upon Gary Gygax's Necropolis (Swords & Sorcery) and Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra (Green Ronin); both are d20 system so quite a bit of work converting the crunch, but lots of good flavor/setting info.



A few others you may wish to consider....

Bread-and-circuses (arena games)
Charioteering
The Afterlife / Duat
Social Castes & Slavery
Temple Politics
Nomadic Tribes
Upper/Lower Kingdom Feuds
Egyptian Magic



Races are always an area I'm hesitant to comment on, as it really is up to each GM and his/her group's preferences. With gnolls, I've made them more jackal-like rather than hyena-like, which leads to correlation with Anubis, guardian/judge of the dead. Similarly, I've interpreted lizardfolk as more crocodilian, correlating them with the god Sobekh. Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra really runs with this idea.



Are you modeling your game after a particular era in Egypt's history? I've really been enjoying the Invicta series on "Moments in History"; actually decent historical coverage and they keep it interesting to listen/watch.



On one hand, going with classics that the players will expect (mummies, undead of various types) is a great way to give the players what they want & evoke the theme. However, you may want to include a couple surprise twists to keep things fresh, especially if you're including hexcrawling exploration. A few I've done or have been contemplating doing...

• A group has been stealing dead corpses...suspicions go to a necromancer or mummy lord...but it's just cultists trying to deny their rivals the afterlife.
• Opening the sarcophagus, torches at the ready, the PCs find...a swarm of scarab beetles which devoured the body once held within, but not its golden ornamentation!
• A tyrannical nomarch or city ruler is said to demand sacrifices for her "sin eater", and locals are haunted by dreams of their dead loved ones. It's actually a fallen sphinx, whose frightening presence helps keep tribal raiders at bay.

On Adventure Lookup I've had some success searching for 5e adventures by environment (e.g. desert). Looks like not many underwater adventures, however.


The "dragons" of Egyptian myth tend to be really big snakes, maybe with vestigial wings, entities like Apep or Ankh-neteru. Most had cosmological roles, and seemed to have a connection to what I call - for lack of a better name - cult of snake wisdom. Serpents had a dual role in Egyptian culture as both life-takers and wisdom-granters. For example, you might have the party face a "blue dracolich" but describe it as an enormous skeletal king cobra watching over the tomb of the line of kings which brought it low, making sure no one ever resurrects those kings & stealing any funerary offerings for its own hoard.


YMMV, but my group really hates exhaustion and avoid it like the plague. But as long as you foreshadow that undead do that, and don't spring it on them unaware, should be ok.


One thing you might consider is giving them some more "high adventure" like escaping pursuers on horseback or chariot, or rooftop battles to prevent an archer from assassinating a high priest. Good at low levels, when they're squishy.

If you want to run a low-level tomb, consider something more puzzle-centric. Also, I try to introduce a twist whenever I run a tomb-exploration session: enemies block the entrance, lurk outside to ambush the PCs, or arrive as rivals; during a fight the floor collapses introducing an entirely new area within its own mysteries; hints in scrolls/murals about a treasure chamber that no passage seems to lead to; etc.


The Nile was absolutely a life-giver but it was also considered dangerous, with crocodiles, flesh-eating fish, and legends of El Naddaha (a siren-like creature). You could differentiate its two sides according to a day/night cycle, or according to certain stretches between the cataracts, or even with some kind of an event tracker if you have "an evil rises along the Nile" theme.


Ah! Very fun! You might do some more foreshadowing with discoveries of dragon fossils at a construction site, tomb, or old cave turned hide-out.

I have not thought to much about the political situation in the remaining Nithian lands. I'm not basing it to much on real life, its D&D so things like Dragons will be in the game. Leaning towards no strong central authority so no Pharoah. Kind of like a Oman province with no Rome I suppose.

I have quite a few underwater adventures I can run. Thinking of 1 in the Nile and 1 in Alexandria equivalent.

 

[Draegn]

There are a few scenes in Whitley Strieber's Lilith's Dream that you might find to be of interest.

https://www.amazon.com/Liliths-Dream-Tale-Vampire-Life/dp/1451613318

 

[Eltab]

"Philistines": really tough warrior tribes showed up in the not-recent past and beat the stuffing out of a Pharaoh - maybe the last Pharaoh? They moved to a seaside oasis that usually is a favorite invasion launching pad.

"Israelites": a group of outsiders came to Nithia and were presently enslaved. Something (records are sketchy about this*) happened such that the slaves departed (fled?**) into the desert. Their descendants are currently living a safe distance away. Both cultures despise and distrust each other. They serve as inadvertent sentinels to protect against invasion: any Power that bothers these people, is enough to have Nithian leaders prepare for trouble before it arrives on their doorstep.

* because no self-respecting Pharaoh is going to have the following carved into eternal rock, describing himself: "I picked a fight with some slaves and had my head handed to me on a silver platter."
** the Official History says the slaves fled Pharaoh's presence, but doesn't say why he chose not to pursue and re-capture them

 

[Zardnaar]

"Philistines": really tough warrior tribes showed up in the not-recent past and beat the stuffing out of a Pharaoh - maybe the last Pharaoh? They moved to a seaside oasis that usually is a favorite invasion launching pad.

"Israelites": a group of outsiders came to Nithia and were presently enslaved. Something (records are sketchy about this*) happened such that the slaves departed (fled?**) into the desert. Their descendants are currently living a safe distance away. Both cultures despise and distrust each other. They serve as inadvertent sentinels to protect against invasion: any Power that bothers these people, is enough to have Nithian leaders prepare for trouble before it arrives on their doorstep.

* because no self-respecting Pharaoh is going to have the following carved into eternal rock, describing himself: "I picked a fight with some slaves and had my head handed to me on a silver platter."
** the Official History says the slaves fled Pharaoh's presence, but doesn't say why he chose not to pursue and re-capture them

Have not figured out what the lands to the NE are, Sumeria perhaps a land of ancients levant no idea.

 

[gyor]

I suggest buying and reading the old 2e supplement Old Empires for FR which detailed Mulhorand, the Egypt of FR. Desert of Desolation is an Egyptian Style Themed adventure in 2e as well.