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Journal: Revenge of the Mummy #2

Goal- get this game published and record every bit of its development from scratch!

So to follow up on yesterdays journal entry (FYI- these probably won't be every day once I really get going; this is just the initial phase of all the ideas coming together) I have a firmer idea of what is going on. Since ancient Egypt is a hobby of mine (archaeology would have been my minor if such a thing was allowed at university), this kind of fits, though I find more research needed to create a great setting. So thats what I did.

Research included archaeological digs and social climate of the 1930s (still going on). It also included research on animals common to Egypt (chasing the idea of anthropomorphic characters). So much information, my brain may explode.

So, here's the very most vague bit of the story- the Mummy (who could be one of a number of pre-created mummies) is awoken by evil sorcery -- the servants of Apep, the Egyptian god of darkness and destruction whose eternal goal was to swallow the sun. He's also the only god whose representation is consistent throughout most of Egyptian history, and he is the only one (aside from that upstart Aten) who was ever considered all-powerful. Anyway, the Cult of Apep wants to use the Mummy to destroy the world by finally devouring the sun. Nocturnal animals as adversaries, anyone?

This is accomplished by having the bad guys (as this is going to be a strictly cooperative game, the bad guys constitute game mechanics) accumulate 12 Darkness tokens (12 is an entirely arbitrary number that will be altered through rule crafting and play testing); alternatively they can kill all the characters, or destroy the artifact that can kill the otherwise immortal Mummy. 3 loss conditions for the good guys.

Obviously the players win is they can kill the Mummy.

With the win/loss condition taken care of, its now time to figure out basic game mechanics.

In order to kill the Mummy, players have 2 options - either they can build strength and bide time until the Mummy awakens fully, or they can be proactive and try to find the Mummy's tomb before he awakens. In addition, they will need to identify the Mummy so they know what artifact is needed to kill him.

This portion of the game is intended to run like clue, with players trying to identify their target by process of elimination. A successful "research" (or something similar) roll at specific locations like the Cairo Museum, or the Library of Antiquities will result in unveiling one of the mummies that isn't waking up. By process of Elimination, the players figure out who is waking up, what is needed to kill him (it will be a random combination of items for every game), and which tomb is his.

The items can be found by searching the Museum or a number of archaeological digs. The tomb is found by exploring the desert in a manner similar to tile laying in Betrayal at House on the Hill. Once the tomb is found, the artifact is identified and assembled, and the mummy is known its time to fight the boss monster!

Of course, along the way there will be evil NPCs. Split into 2 tiers, the lower level NPCs will be deployed via location card at spots around the map, forcing players to deal with those enemies if they wish to use that location. Upper level NPCs will be able to do all sorts of nasty stuff, from working rituals to awaken the mummy, to acquiring parts of the artifact needed to kill him so the players can't get it, to trying to generate more darkness tokens to destroy the sun, to summoning/hiring extra minions...you get the idea.

I'm about to begin making a rough map with equally rough rules to support it! I feel like I'm off on something great here, so why hold back?

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gamejournal | by Dr. Radut