http://www.teilzeithelden.de/2014/07/26/rezension-mummy-the-curse/

Wer erinnert sich noch an die Welt der Dunkelheit? Diese Buchreihe war in den 90er Jahren der Marktführer unter den Horror-Rollenspielen. Spieler verkörperten keine schmächtigen Ermittler auf dem Weg in den Wahnsinn, sondern Kreaturen der Nacht: Vampire, Werwölfe und Dämonen. Im Jahr 2004 beendete der herausgebende Verlag, White Wolf, die Serie in einem apokalyptischen Kampagnenband (Time of Judgement) und stieß damit vielen Fans vor dem Kopf. Was dann folgte, war eine vollständige Neuauflage. Die Neue Welt der Dunkelheit (oder nWoD) kam ohne starken Metaplot aus und war mehr auf persönlichen Horror ausgelegt – konnte aber nicht an die Beliebtheit der ersten Version anknüpfen. Der Verlag und seine Schreiber wurden von CCP Games aufgekauft und für das Massive-Multiplayer-Spiel EVE Online verpflichtet. Die Welt der Dunkelheit schien tatsächlich untergegangen zu sein. Warum erzähle ich das eigentlich alles? Nun, es ist wichtig um zu verstehen, wie Mummy: The Curse zustande kam und warum das Buch so ist, wie es ist. Im Jahr 2012 gründete Richard Thomas, der ehemalige Creative Director von White Wolf, die Firma Onyx Path Publishing (OPP) und erwarb die Rechte an der Horror-Rollenspielreihe. Das Team begann sogleich neue Bücher herauszubringen. Das erste davon, The God-Machine Chronicle, war ein Meta-Hintergrund für die nWoD und eine Überarbeitung der Grundregeln von 2004. Auch bei Blood and Smoke (Vampire) beschränkte man sich auf kleinere, mechanische Veränderungen und leichte Umgewichtungen im Hintergrund, um die Fans nicht noch einmal zu verärgern. Doch mit Mummy: The Curse betritt Onyx Path erstmals Neuland und bringt eine unbeliebte Horror-Serie der 90er in die nWoD.

Die Spielwelt Mummy: The Curse spielt, wie könnte es anders sein, in Ägypten. Dort gab es noch vor den ersten Pharaonen, so verrät das Regelwerk, das Imperium der Irem. In diesem fanden Zauberer einen Weg zur Unsterblichkeit und damit eine Möglichkeit ihr Reich für immer aufrechtzuerhalten. Doch der Weg dazu führte über Menschenopfer und Reisen durch die Unterwelt. Hier wird es interessant, denn die Spieler verkörpern solche Unsterblichen, die nach Ewigkeiten aus dem Totenreich zurückgekehrt sind und sich plötzlich in der modernen Welt wiederfinden. Statt des alten Imperiums gibt es Flugzeuge, Autos und das Internet. Das könnte ein Setup für B-Movie-Klamauk sein, doch Mummy: The Curse hält auf jeder Seite tapfer einen bitterernsten Ton aufrecht.

Die Auferstandenen Die Mumien nennen sich selbst „the Arisen“, was man auf Deutsch grob als „die Auferstandenen“ übersetzen kann. Sie erwachen selten von alleine, sondern werden meist von einem Kult erweckt, oder wenn jemand versucht ihre Gruft zu plündern. Gerade erwacht, sind sie mächtige Monster, kaum mehr als ein Skelett mit Bandagen und mit einem klaren Auftrag – etwa „Verteidige deine Gruft“ oder „Hilf dem Kult in seiner Not“. Ihnen fehlt zunächst jeder Bezug zur modernen Welt und Moral. Dafür bringen Arisen aus dem Totenreich große Macht mit und übertreffen mit ihren enormen Kräften nahezu alle anderen übernatürlichen Wesen der Welt der Dunkelheit. Doch hier kommt der Haken: Je länger ein Arisen erwacht ist, desto menschlicher wird er. Dadurch gewinnt er Erinnerungen an sein früheres Leben zurück, verliert aber auch nach und nach seine Macht, bis er wieder einschläft und ins Totenreich zurückkehrt.

Was machen Mumien so? Arisen sind vor allem eins: fremdartige Monster einer längst vergangenen Zeit, die nach und nach etwas über die Welt lernen. Dabei ist das Zurückgewinnen der eigenen Erinnerungen auch ein Selbstfindungsprozess und Mummy: The Curse damit letztlich ein esoterisches Spiel. Es geht nicht darum, Intrigen zu spinnen oder Monster zu verhauen, sondern darum, der eigenen ewigen Existenz einen Sinn zu geben. Dazu kommt eine gemeine Zwickmühle: Handelt ein Arisen früh und im vollen Besitz seiner Macht, aber ohne Durchblick, oder versucht er erst die Gegebenheiten ganz zu verstehen und büßt dabei einen Teil seiner Macht ein?

Doch nicht Ägypten! Beim Lesen von Mummy: The Curse fällt auf, dass das Setting nicht im modernen Ägypten mitten in sozialen Unruhen des Arabischen Frühlings spielt (was ein großartiges Setting gewesen wäre!), sondern, dass es die Auferstandenen unter anderem nach Amerika verschlägt. Im Buch wird immer wieder auf Washington D.C. angespielt, das angeblich von Mumien nur so wimmelt und wohl in einem eigenen Settingband nachgeliefert wird. Das hat sicher auch mit dem Smithsonian Museum zu tun, das zahlreiche Ägypten-Ausstellungen beinhaltet. Ein Schelm, wer jetzt an Nachts im Museum 2 (2009) denkt. Doch wie bei allen Rollenspielen der World of Darkness-Reihe ist es natürlich auch möglich, jede andere Stadt der Welt als Schauplatz zu wählen.

Die Regeln Bei Mummy: The Curse mussten die Autoren keine Rücksicht auf eine Vorlage der neuen Welt der Dunkelheit und ihre Fans nehmen. Das Ergebnis ist Neuland, auch im Sinne der Spielmechaniken. Anders als Vampire oder Magier starten Arisen mit großer Macht (Sekhem), aber niedriger Menschlichkeit (hier als Wert Memory genannt). Bei bestimmten Meilensteinen – wichtigen Ereignissen der Geschichte – während des Aufenthalts in der modernen Welt steigt der Memory-Wert, sinkt aber gleichzeitig der Sekhem-Wert. Dies ist zwar eine interessante Umsetzung der Themen des Spiels, funktioniert damit aber genau entgegengesetzt zu anderen Settings der Welt der Dunkelheit wie Vampire oder Werewolf. Schlimmer noch, die Mechanik ist an sich wenig intuitiv für ein Rollenspiel („Wie, mein Charakter wird mit der Zeit schwächer?!“). Dafür schöpft Mummy: The Curse gerade zu Beginn des Spiels aus den Vollen. „Utterances“ heißen dabei die beeindruckendsten Fähigkeiten in drei Stufen. Ab Stufe zwei ermöglichen diese biblisch-cineastische Effekte wie das Beschwören von Sandstürmen oder einer Zombiehorde. Dazu sind die unsterblichen Arisen (wen wundert es?) besonders schwer zu vernichten. Wird ihr Körper zerstört, kehren sie einfach aus dem Totenreich zurück, nur mit etwas weniger Sekhem. So wird die temporäre Vernichtung des eigenen Charakters zu einem Spielelement.

Charaktererstellung Bei der Charaktererstellung folgt Mummy: The Curse weitgehend den Regeln der nWoD. Nach der Erstellung als Sterblicher wird das Arisen-Template angewendet. Der Spieler wählt dabei eine Gilde aus, zu der er in der alten Irem-Kultur gehört hat und die, vergleichbar mit einem Clan der Vampire, den Charakter prägt. Dazu wird der Charakter an einen Totengott (Judge of Duat) gebunden, der besondere Eigenschaften der „fünffachen-Seele“ (Pillars) prägt und passive Kräfte (Affinities) verleiht. Das Problem hierbei: Zu Beginn des Spiels liegen die Vergangenheit des Charakters und die genaue Beschaffenheit der Irem-Kultur noch im Unklaren. Hier ist sehr oft der Spielleiter gefragt, der einem Charakter sogar bestimmte Werte mit auf den Weg geben kann. Zum Schluss gibt es für Arisen immerhin 20 Erfahrungspunkte extra, um ihr hohes Alter zu honorieren.

Besonderheit: Kulte Eine Regel-Besonderheit des Spiels sind die Kulte (Cults). Jeder Arisen braucht mindestens einen Punkt in diesem neuen Hintergrund. Wer mehr Punkte bei der Charaktererschaffung hierfür ausgibt, startet gleich mit einer großen Anhängerschaft. Der Kult kann eigene Vorzüge (Merits) erhalten und selbst ausgestaltet werden, von okkulter Verschwörung bis internationaler Organisation. Damit bindet das Spiel sterbliche NSC eng an einen Arisen und ermöglicht Konflikte zu lösen, ohne dass der Charakter selbst in Erscheinung tritt. Während der Kult handelt, bleibt die Mumie in der Grabkammer (Tomb), wo ihre Kräfte sogar noch stärker sind.

Bonus: Geister spielen Ein Bonus für Spieler und Spielleiter findet sich im Kapitel über Geister. Hier wird eine regeltechnische Möglichkeit eingeführt, Geister bewusster und menschlicher zu gestalten und mit Erfahrungspunkten aufzuwerten. Damit können Geister in der Welt der Dunkelheit auch zu Protagonisten werden. Das hat zwar mit Mummy: The Curse weniger zu tun, ist aber eine nette Dreingabe. Schließlich sind Arisen eng an das Totenreich gebunden und können auch mit Geistern sprechen.

Spielbarkeit aus Spielersicht Eigentlich klingt Mummy: The Curse perfekt für Gelegenheitsspieler: Die Charaktere starten mit großer Macht, ohne genaues Wissen über ihre eigene Geschichte und (zumindest eine Zeit lang) ohne große Skrupel. Doch gerade für Gelegenheitsspieler ist dieses Horror-Rollenspiel nichts. Denn die Atmosphäre von Mummy: The Curse und die Themen des Spiels können sich erst in einer längeren Kampagne entfalten und erfordern einen höheren Anspruch als „Mumie wacht im Museum auf, ist verwirrt und terrorisiert die Gegend“. Dazu kommt: Einen Arisen zu verkörpern, heißt zu Beginn ein fremdartiges Monster zu spielen, das kaum Identifikation mit dem Charakter zulässt und einiges an Vorstellungskraft erfordert. Einigen Spielern dürfte auch unwohl dabei sein, die Vergangenheit des eigenen Charakters – und damit einen wichtigen Teil seiner Persönlichkeit – ganz in die Hände des Spielleiters zu legen. Das größte Problem liegt jedoch in der Wiederspielbarkeit des Settings. Mummy: The Curse enthält nämlich Spielern zu Beginn bewusst einige Informationen vor. Das mag zwar beim ersten Mal elegant sein, da Spieler mit ihrem Arisen nach Antworten suchen, die der Spielleiter nach und nach preisgibt. Dieses Element fehlt dann aber schmerzlich bei einer zweiten Kampagne. Auch als Teil der sonst so beliebten Cross-Over-Spielrunden (ein Vampir, ein Werwolf, ein Dämon etc.) sind Arisen durch ihre Spielmechaniken kaum brauchbar. Wer von all diesen Punkten absehen kann, dem gibt Mummy: the Curse ein einzigartiges und forderndes Spielerlebnis. Je weniger Mitspieler dabei vorhanden sind, desto intensiver wird die Geschichte um die Selbstfindung und Rückgewinnung der Erinnerung. Dabei gehört Mummy: the Curse zu den Rollenspielen, die im Team aus Spielleiter und Solo-Spieler mit absolutem Fokus auf einen Charakter wohl am besten funktionieren. Oder aber man nutzt den Vorschlag des Regelwerkes eine Kultisten-Gruppe um einen Arisen zu spielen – wahlweise auch mit wechselnden Rollen.

Spielbarkeit aus Spielleitersicht Spielleiter können in Mummy: The Curse zeigen, was sie drauf haben. Das müssen sie sogar, denn das Spiel schiebt einen Großteil des Hintergrundes der Charaktere in den Aufgabenbereich des Meisters. Leider hat gerade das Kapitel „Storyteller“ einige Lücken. Hier hätte noch mehr auf den Hintergrund der Arisen und der übernatürlichen Mächte im Hintergrund (Powers that Be) eingegangen werden müssen. Auch beim Thema Feinde der Arisen herrscht eher Ratlosigkeit. Statt mächtiger, übernatürlicher Feindbilder auf Augenhöhe werden lieber abtrünnige Gilden beschrieben und Gründe geliefert, warum die Unsterblichen einander angreifen könnten. Einzig die „Lifeless“, Sekhem-fressende Geschöpfe mächtiger Nekromantie, haben wirkliches Antagonisten-Potential. Die Beschreibungen glückloser Grabräuber sind hingegen eher unbrauchbar und wohl nur der Vollständigkeit halber und dem Thema geschuldet beigefügt. Insgesamt ist es als Spielleiter einfacher, Arisen als NSC oder Feinde in eine Geschichte einzubauen, als eine Kampagne für mehrere uralte Unsterbliche zu spinnen. Andererseits ist Mummy: The Curse ein Rollenspiel, das Geschichten auf mehreren Ebenen ermöglicht, verbunden durch Rückblenden, Erinnerungen und Episoden, in denen nur Kultanhänger vorkommen. Wer als Spielleiter ein Setting für eine anspruchsvolle, komplexe und epische Geschichte sucht, ist bei Mummy: The Curse goldrichtig. Die zahlreichen Artefakte der Arisen sind dazu Ideengruben für einzelne Abenteuer.

Preis-/Leistungsverhältnis 20 EUR für ein PDF sind ein stolzer Preis, der sich aber dank der Fülle an gut geschriebenen Lesetexten, interessanten Hintergründen, Artefakten, Sonderregeln für Geister und Plotideen als World of Darkness-Fan auch dann lohnt, wenn man gar nicht vorhat, eine Mummy-Runde zu spielen. Auch das Hardcover als Print-on-Demand hätte sicher teurer ausfallen können als 35 EUR.

Erscheinungsbild Das Cover von Mummy: The Curse wirkt etwas schlicht im Vergleich mit anderen World of Darkness-Bänden. Dafür ist das Innere des Regelwerks hervorragend gestaltet. Die Lesetexte sind ansprechend und spannend geschrieben und die Illustrationen in gelblicher Sepia-Optik sind ausnahmslos passend und von sehr hoher Qualität. Dass die Informationen des Buches in Spieler- und Spielleiterabschnitt aufgeteilt und damit manchmal unintuitiv platziert sind, mag man diesem Buch gerne verzeihen. Ein Bogen zur Kurzübersicht oder ein etwas besserer Index hätten Mummy: The Curse aber gut getan.

Fazit Mummy: The Curse ist ein Sonderling der neuen Welt der Dunkelheit. Das Spiel ist sehr experimentell in seinen Mechaniken und anspruchsvoll in seinen Themen. Es erfordert eine Rollenspielrunde, die sich auf das Spiel einlässt und die Tragik und Esoterik des Settings ernst nimmt. Dazu steht und fällt Mummy: The Curse weit mehr als viele andere Rollenspiele mit der Qualität des Spielleiters, der hier großen Einfluss auf die einzelnen Charaktere und deren Hintergründe hat. Damit ist das neueste Produkt von Onyx Path Publishing nicht für Jedermann und schon gar nicht für eine unerfahrene Spielrunde geeignet. Doch wo Mummy: The Curse als Rollenspiel einige Schwächen hat, ist das Buch als Hintergrundmaterial für andere Welt der Dunkelheit-Runden sehr brauchbar. Wissensdurstige Magier dürften mit dem Irem-Imperium, den Totengöttern und der von Zauberern geschaffenen Unsterblichkeit ganze Kampagnen verbringen können. Vampire und Werwölfe haben in den übermächtigen Arisen und ihren verborgenen Kulten neue und gefährliche Antagonisten. Und die Möglichkeit Geister als Spielercharaktere zu wählen, wird sicher in mancher Cross-Over-Runde Anwendung finden. Persönliche Notiz Mummy: The Curse hat eine eigene Faszination, die sicher auch an der Präsentation des Buches liegt. Mich persönlich haben die Arisen nach Lesen und erstem Spielen nicht mehr losgelassen. Jetzt brauche ich nur eine Spielrunde, die die Zeit hat und sich auf eine mehrjährige Esoterik-Selbstfindungs-Kampagne auf fünf Zeitebenen einlässt …

This review first appeared on http://www.ding-irl.com/Mummy-The-Curse.html

Note: To play this game you will need the New World of Darkness core rule book!

Mummy: the Curse is the first new game line for the New World of Darkness since Geist: the Sin-Eaters in 2009 and it promised on its release to do some things a bit differently from the other games, taking the nWoD and the Storyteller system in a new direction. My interest in this game started several months before its release as White Wolf had a blog on their site that was being updated by the developers on a regular basis giving info, teasers and the occasional spoiler. So by the time I got my hands on this game, my expectations were pretty high and, despite Mummies not being my first choice of supernatural antagonist (I missed out the old versions of Mummy from the classic world of darkness line), I couldn’t wait to get a game going. So, did it disappoint?

The System

At first glance things seem pretty familiar if you are used to the other nWoD games, character creation involves choosing from one of 5 guilds and one of 5 decrees, much like auspice/tribe(werewolf) and clan/covenant(vampire), which then give access/reduce the cost of certain abilities. You have a power stat, Sekhem, which works in many ways like Primal Urge(WtF) or Blood Potency(VtR), and a morality stat, Memory, which (in some ways) works like the morality stat in the other games. However, on closer inspection, there are some major differences Mummy has to the other games, one of the big ones being the power stat, Sekhem, unlike other games where this starts (mostly) at 1 and players must slowly rise it up to 10 with experience points, in Mummy you start at 10! For those unfamiliar with nWoD this means your character starts very powerful and is capable of some really awesome effects. This doesn’t last long however, as the more time you spend alive, the more your Sekhem falls and the weaker your character becomes until it finally reaches 0 and your character returns to its default state of being dead (don’t worry you will come back to life, mummies are immortal after all). This adds a huge amount of tension to the game when players, whose characters where melting gang members’ guns and warping peoples’ minds in one scene, find themselves not much better than those same gang member a few scenes later. It lets the players know that the clock is always ticking and that they have to use their time wisely to accomplish their goals in time.

The new mechanics work really well in this game, adding theme without bogging the game down, I was surprised at how little time I spent looking things up in the book compared to other games when running them for the first time. That’s not to say they are easy, there is a lot to take in and no doubt I messed a lot of things up that will have to be ironed out in later games, but, like I say, it was no more difficult than any other standard RPG of about this length (about 300 pages).

One aspect of character creation I really like is the Cult and Tomb merits that all mummies start with but that can be customised a great deal. Your tomb is where you keep your relics and your remains and therefore, where you will be “arising” most of the time. These can be ancient burial chambers, pyramids, modern skyscrapers, a beach house in Malibu; they can be booby-trapped, haunted and all manner of other features added to provide comfort, anonymity or just to keep out Brendan Fraser (I’m sorry, but I actually really like those films!). Your cult is a group of people who, to cut a long story short, take care of your affairs while you’re dead and provide assistance and resources while alive (the roll of the cult is a bit more complicated but I have a feeling this review will run on so I will try to keep it brief!). You get to decide how they operate, are they your typical chanting robe-wearers operating in the shadows, or are they a multi-national cooperation making hostile take-overs to protect your interests? This customisation really expands the scope of the game, and could also be used other games, designing a tomb full of traps and having some mortal characters stumble upon it would make a great game (who says you can’t do dungeon crawls in nWoD!).

The abilities come in the form of Affinities and Utterances, Affinities being the minor powers and Utterances being the major (and I do mean MAJOR) powers. These are wide and varied, from raising the dead to removing people’s memories or turning solids into liquid and vice versa. They are great and really add a lot of thematic value; although I have to admit the layout of this section is a bit of a headache. They’re arranged alphabetically and not by their prerequisites meaning you have to look through them all to find the ones available to your character. It’s FAR from ruining the game and am not sure if they could have done a better job another way, but be prepared for a lot of page turning (or mouse-scrolling) during character creation. There is a load more I could talk about regarding the system, but I’m wanting to move on so will sum things up by saying the way the new mechanics support the theme in this game is excellent, I can see that after a while the mechanics will fade into the background allowing you to put all your energy into role-playing.

The Setting

As I mentioned earlier, mummies are immortal, sorcerers in a pre-historic Egyptian empire cast “The Rite of Return” upon them, causing them to rise from the dead to survive through the ages to be the caretakers of relics of the nameless empire. Now, that is a VERY condensed version of what’s going on but as one of the main themes of the game is self-discovery it’s probably best you find out the rest for yourself. Most nWoD games present worlds full of mysteries that the players and characters must discover during the game, however, Mummy: the Curse takes this idea to another level! The memory mechanic means that your character is never completely sure of their own past let alone what is going on in the world. The upshot of this is that the game not only allows, but actively encourages you, to include flashbacks in your game and lets you do it without player/character’s knowledge clashing and making them feel forced. The characters may be on an adventure in the modern day and then something triggers their memory and the scene cuts to the 1600’s when they last visited the area. Now in other games you would have a problem as why didn’t your character remember what had happen in the past up until now? Why didn’t they remember they made an enemy or lost a loved one? Well in mummy the answer is simple, they didn’t remember because they DIDN’T REMEMBER it until they had the flashback. This allows storytellers to weave epic, millennia spanning tales of intrigue that lets the players explore their character’s personality in a totally unique way. Even if you are used to running vampire games that last for centuries, they are usually linear, moving ever forward in time, meaning there isn’t much opportunity to go back and fill in the gaps. This is the reason that Mummy caught my interest; I can’t wait to start building a long running campaign and being able run scene from the player-characters’ past and see how it plays out.

Again, there is so much in this game that is awesome, the amount of effort that has gone into getting the theme right is amazing, every page just sucks you into this dark, ancient, gothic world. The art work is fantastic and the short stories between the chapters are the best of any nWoD I’ve read so far. I am really looking forward to any source books that come out so I can get more immersed in the world of the Arisen.

The Format

White Wolf released this as a virtual box set; it includes the core rule book (split into 2 books, one for the player and one for the storyteller), a storyteller screen, interactive character sheet and an adventure. Firstly the idea of splitting the book into 2 is a really good idea, more than any other game I can think of, players will spoil it for themselves if they read the storyteller’s section as there are some BIG mysteries in this game. The interactive character sheet is great, (saves you doing a 30 second Google search to find one on the net but every little helps!). I have to admit I wasn’t sure what the point of the screen was as I tried to print it out and it didn’t come in any way of putting the pages together that made a physical screen. Maybe you’re just supposed to keep it open on your PC screen whilst playing but then why have a picture on the “back”? Maybe if I mess about with the settings on my printer I could do a better job but am in no rush to waste more paper. Finally the adventure, Eve of Judgement, uses white wolf’s SAS system which for those of you unfamiliar with these, basically break the adventure down into scenes each with their own card giving you a brief outline of what’s going on, who’s involved and what help and hindrances there might be for the players. I was hoping it would include some ready-made characters so we could jump right in but unfortunately it didn’t, however, despite certain layout issues, it didn’t take too long to get a character ready. We found this was a great introduction to the game and its new mechanics, the players get plenty of opportunity to test out their awesome powers and the feeling of the ticking clock comes through very well. A great first experience, especially when planning a game of this nature can seem a bit daunting at first, it was nice to be shown the way before diving in.

Conclusion

Well, if you hadn’t already guessed, I love this game! It has some of the most unique ideas and concepts of any game I have ever played, ideas that would never have thought to try myself (talking about the flashbacks here). The Gothic flavour is as present in this as any nWoD games and the world just gets you thinking about how you can present its mysteries to the players. If you like any of the nWoD games so far then this is a must buy, if you haven’t played any yet then it will blow your mind! I like the virtual box set format, the adventure is just right, the sheet is a nice bonus and I may even discover what you are meant to do with the screen one day! This game comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and is a truly unique RPG, buy it now!

Originally Published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/11/tabletop-review-mummy-the-curse/

I’ve always been a huge fan of the various Mummy products White Wolf has put out over the years. The original supplement for First Edition World of Darkness was something I used a lot over the years, and I was thrilled when my favorite version of the undead got their own full core rulebook in Mummy: The Resurrection. Then White Wolf killed off the Old World of Darkness and replaced it with the new version. I’ll admit I strongly prefer the oWoD, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying products put out for the NWoD like Left Hand Path and Blood Sorcery (Winner of Diehard GameFAN’s Best Sourcebook Award in our 2012 Tabletop Gaming Awards!). Still, something has always been missing from the New World of Darkness, and that was Mummies. That is… until now.

Back at the tail end of 2012, White Wolf and Onyx Path Publishing did a Kickstarter for Mummy: The Curse, which would be the first NWoD core rulebook release since 2009 and the first appearance of Mummies in that setting. I admit, I wasn’t impressed with how the first two White Wolf oriented Kickstarters were handled, nor was I impressed with either of the end products. Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Companion was flat out disappointing, while Children of the Revolution was merely mediocre (but had some great art). However, Onyx Path’s third Kickstarter, for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition (Which I’m currently going through) was a vast improvement in the way they did things, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and joined with 1,766 other Kickstarter backers to fund Mummy: The Curse. The campaign was not only successful, but it raised 350% of the funds Onyx Path Publishing was looking for, ensuring several more releases for the new Mummy line would be forth coming.

So I’ve had Mummy: The Curse for a month and a half now and I’m just now writing the review. This is for three reasons. The first is that at nearly three hundred pages, this is a huge tome of text to wade through and make sure I understood all the important details before critiquing the product. The second is that I wanted to re-read the core World of Darkness manual and flip through all three oWoD versions of Mummy for comparison and contrast reasons, which meant even more time spent reading and researching before writing. The third is that because Mummy: The Curseis such a esoteric game, it took me a while to figure out what I was going to say… and more importantly, how to say it. In the end, though, I can sum up my feelings on Mummy: The Curseis one sentence: Mummy: The Curse is by far the best core rulebook for the New World of Darkness line in all aspects, but it’s also the hardest to recommend simply because it’s going to take a very specific group of gamers AND a pretty methodical Storyteller to make a one-shot, much less a Chronicle, work. Intrigued? Then read on my friends…

The thing about Mummy: The Curse is that it’s probably too esoteric for a lot of gamers, no matter how wonderful the design of the overall package. That’s because, more than nearly every other tabletop RPG that I can think of, players give up huge chunks of their character to the Storyteller. In some ways, it’s like a lot of old video game RPGs in which you can customize the character, but in the end you’re still following a path laid out by the developers (or in this case, Storyteller) with very little room for deviation. Unlike most games, the Storyteller will actually be responsible for at least one of your Mummy (called Arisen in the same way a vampire is a Kindred or werewolf is a Garou)’s powers. As well, much of your character’s history, back story and very existence is decided by the Storyteller rather than the player. All the players involved in a Chronicle need to be comfortable with the idea that what they are mainly providing is an aspect of the character they are playing, rather than the fully fleshed out being they would normally play in an RPG. This is a bit daunting of an idea, and I can totally see how some gamers will instantly be turned off by this concept, especially those that dislike playing pre-generated characters in an adventure. Most gamers want to create a character from scratch rather than play a character that is handed to them, and I totally understand that point of view. In that same vein, some players don’t want to give up control of their character to the person running the game, even slightly. If either of those sound like you , Mummy: The Curse is not for you. In some ways, you are a passive participant in the character’s eternal existence, and this is a DESIGN CHOICE that you have to be aware of going into the game, lest you sit unhappy or worse, make the game miserable for your fellow players.

On a parallel level, the sheer control the Storyteller has over the PCs thoughts, dreams, hopes, personality and history means they need to be exceptionally good at running a game. Mummy: The Curse is NOT a game for a person running a tabletop title for the first time, nor is it even for someone who casually runs a game now and then. A Mummy Storyteller needs to be exceptionally organized, have an end game in mind from the very beginning that he or she pushes players to, but they also need to make it feel like the players have a lot more control over where the game is going and how they get to that end point than they actually do. The game offers a lot of rules and mechanics that could easily be abused by a bad GM to force players into a very linear adventure, where all they are really doing is rolling dice rather than acting out or breathing life into a character. Again, these mechanics are a design choice, and in the hands of a good Storyteller, they will add to the overall tone and feel of a Mummy chronicle, but in the hands of a bad Storyteller, these same mechanics will come off as (or purposely be used to say), “Play this adventure exactly how I want you to or you will be punished.” Again, all these things are why I say you need a very specific makeup of people to let Mummy: The Curse play as it is meant to. You need players who are willing to give up a larger chunk of their character than they ever have before in exchange for a unique experience that may really let them grow as a roleplayer, in addition to a Storyteller that can craft an intricate adventure without abusing the mechanics of the system OR the trust players have to put in him or her to make this game work. If you have all the people lined up correctly, Mummy: The Curse promises to be one of the most fantastic and original RPG experiences you’ll encounter. For everyone else though, Mummy: The Curse is best left read rather than played.

So let’s talk about the core concept of Mummy:The Curse so I can better illustrate what I’ve been talking about. Each player usually takes on the role of a Mummy. Now this can vary. Perhaps one plays a Mummy, while another plays a servant of the Mummy, and a few others play cultists devoted to it. Because Mummies are so rare, as well as arguably the most powerful creatures in the New World of Darkness, a triad or more of Mummies might be akin to say, oh, a Technocracy convention in town where the guest speakers are Caine and the Wyrm. Okay, maybe not that bad, but I’m trying to make a point that Mummies are amazingly powerful, from being able to hurtle a gross of meteors from the heavens at their enemies to being able to bring the dead back to life. However, this nigh unstoppable power is tempered by the fact they are awake and walking around the earth too often. For long stretches of time, Mummies lie dormant in their tomb (or Judges forbid, a British museum) until they are awakened. Various ways to awaken a mummy include despoiling their tomb, trying to damage their physical form, being summoned by their cult which is in need of their aid, or a Storyteller device known as the Sothic Turn, which is a time every X number of years (purposely leaving out the number for spoiler reasons) where Mummies arise without a specific reason. Once awake, Mummies are at their most monstrous and powerful, able to tear apart even some of the most powerful creatures of the NWoD without thought or hesitation. The catch is that, indeed, when they first wake up, Mummies really aren’t capable of thought or hesitation. They are little more than death dealing automatons until their memories catch up with them. Some Mummies, however have lost much of who they are to the ravages of time and the constant phasing between Lifeless and Deathless cycles. Others, however, retain a decent amount of recall regarding who and what they once were – but not all of it. This concept of memory and what makes a being him or herself is the primary focus of Mummy: The Curse.

Memory is somewhat, but not really, diametrically opposed to the Sekhem trait. Memory replaces morality/humanity/what have you in Mummy. A character starts off with three dots (out of a possible ten), but you can purchase more in the character creation process. However, when first awakened, Memory is at zero, and it slowly climbs to your starting level. Memory can be raised or lowered through the course of play. The higher the Memory, the more the character remembers about themselves and all of their previous awakening. The lower the Memory, the more the Mummy is an automaton, going about the mission it was resurrected for and little else. Sekhem, on the other hand, is the pure magical energy animating the Mummy. You start off with a full ten points of Sekhem, which slowly dissipates throughout the adventure/campaign/Chronicle. The lower the Sekhem, the lower the characters abilities and powers get. Once Sekhem hits zero, it’s time to go back to sleep until the next summons. With ten full points of Sekhem, a Mummy is at its most powerful, but it’s also when the Mummy’s Memory is at its lowest, making it a potential mindless killing machine bent only on its mission – if it is even aware of that at first.

Now a Mummy can slow his Sekhem loss by staying true to the reason he was raised. Staying on course slows the process, while taking time to explore the world they have awoken to, or rediscovering who they are (say, raising memory) speeds the process of Sekhem loss up. So how closely does one follow the path laid out for them? Do they plow forward with the mission? Do they abandon their quest in order to figure out who they are? Do they see how far they can stretch out their time on this plane to accomplish goals of their own in addition to the one that raised them? These are all questions the player must answer, knowing all the while the Storyteller can call for a Sekhem roll on them based on their actions, or more importantly, inaction.

Hopefully, with all this in mind, you can begin to understand why so much of the PCs background and history are given over to the Storyteller rather than the player. As a good deal of Mummy: The Curse revolves around self-discovery, if the player has every tiny detail of the PCs back story determined before the first scene ever begins, then much of the very reason one plays Mummy is lost. There’s also the inevitability of player knowledge bleeding into character knowledge. I know not everyone is guilty of exploiting this, but it does happen to some extent. As well, in the case of Mummy: The Curse, knowing everything, or even a huge chunk about your character’s back story, robs the player of the thrill of discovery or shocking twists that may occur as the Mummy regains some of its lost memories. So as you can see, Mummy: The Curse not only requires some pretty skilled players to make it work, but also a very strong sense of trust between players and Storytellers. Players need to be able to trust that they can hand off what is usually a big chunk of the player domain to the person running the game. Storytellers, meanwhile, need to be able to craft an intricate story while making sure the back stories they have planned or want to use jibe with the rough personality guidelines the players come up with. You don’t want to slam a player with things that are completely alien to the core concept of the character. Unless you’re Vince Russo, but even then Mummy: The Curse isn’t late 1990s WCW.

So that, my friends is a snapshot of one of the most important aspects of Mummy: The Curse and why it is one of the most awesome and innovative ideas for a tabletop RPG I’ve seen in some time, though that same originality is what will no doubt bar the game from being anything more than a very niche product. Still, while the vast majority reading this probably aren’t the audience for playing Mummy: The Curse, I can’t recommend READING the book enough to see just how outside the box the game is while still holding true to traditional RPG trappings and White Wolf style mechanics. There’s still so much more to the game I haven’t covered, but seeing as we’re 2,500 words in already, let’s give a quick overview of what you’ll find in the core rulebook, save for the above concepts we’ve already discussed.

Mummy: The Curse is actually two books in one. The first half of the book is the “Player’s Guide” while the second half is the “Storyteller’s Handbook.” If you’re familiar with most White Wolf games, you’re used to these being two separate purchases. Part of me is quite skeptical about having both in the same book, if only because you KNOW whoever picks this up is going to read both sections and get spoilers a plenty. I’ve yet to meet a gamer who, when given a similarly laid out book, hasn’t at least snuck a peek at what they shouldn’t have read. So while I like that you’re getting both books for the price of one, I do worry about the fact the World of Darkness game with the most locked in metaplot and a game heavily based on secrets offers that almost irresistible temptation to those that would play it. Again, this harkens back to my repeated comments that it takes a very special type of gamer to “get” Mummy, much less play it.

Chapter One is “The Arisen World” and it is here the book discusses how different Mummy is from other Storyteller products. I do find it interesting that both here and in the Kickstarter video that the Old World of Darkness version of Mummy is brought up, and how that game featured the most heroic characters in that system, while Mummy: The Curse does not. I beg to disagree, because I find the Mummies of Mummy: The Curse to have just as much heroic potential, if not more. After all, a hero puts the mission before their own personal desires and needs. They’re selfless and self-sacrificing, which in many ways are traits the Arisen hold. As well, it takes a very different kind of hero (but one no less heroic) to stand in the face of everything they have been told is how they are supposed to act, what they are supposed to do and how things are supposed to work and say, “No, you are wrong,” drawing a line even in the face of madness and physical torment. This is another thing many Arisen will have to deal with. So no, I disagree with the creators that the Arisen are less heroic than their oWoD counterparts. Closer to any other NWoD “race,” the Arisen have the most potential for heroic deeds and noble actions – it’s just up to the player to get their character to that point.

Chapter One also covers the back story of the Mummies in this world. You’ll learn about the culture they came from, the land of Lost Irem, who made the Mummies and why, along with the reasons for how the Arisen are the only true immortals in the New World of Darkness, and the awesomeness and horror that comes with that powerful gift. Chapter One is all the rich information about the setting and the characters that inhabit it that is needed in order to understand the core concept of Mummies, as well as the options open for character creation.

Instead of character classes, clans, and the like, a Mummy in The Curse is a multi-faceted creature with many options to choose from. You’ll first have to pick between one of the five guilds that Mummies come from. First there is the Maa-Kep, who are the middle management caste in the era when Irem was still known to the world. They are the masters of amulets and tend to be modest, hard workers. The Mesen-Nebu are the Alchemists, the Sesha-Hebsu are the scribes, the Su-Menent are the priests and the Tef-Aahbi are the masters of idols and effigies. Picking a sect (the one that best fits the character) nets you that Guild Affinity – a multi-faceted power that the Mummy can use regardless of Sekhem or Pillar ratings.

From there, the player picks from a list of forty-two Judges. The Judge is basically the specific godlike being the Mummy serves, directly and indirectly. Choosing the Judge determines the Mummy’s defining Pillar and gives them another Affinity. As you can see, there are a LOT of options laid out for character building in Chapter One, and it’s not even the chapter devoted to the concept!

Chapter Two is “The Modeler” and this IS the actual character creation area. Here’s where you do the usual World of Darkness stuff like choose your Attributes and Skills, but also your specific Mummy oriented stuff. I’ve mentioned Pillars briefly, and these are categories comprise an Arisen’s five-faceted soul. The defining Pillar is the core aspect of the Mummy and it’s the most powerful. The five Pillars are Ab (heart), Ba (Spirit), Ka (Essence) Ren (Name) and Shuet (Shadow. The defining Pillar also gives your character another category to belong to, similar to the earlier guilds. You have the passionate and instinctive Lion-headed for the Ab, the Falcon-headed adventurers for the Ba, the strong willed Bull-headed for the Ka, the studious and knowledge seeking Serpent-Headed for the Ren and the contemplative Jackal-Headed for the Shuet. So you can have a Jackal-Headed Tef-Aahbi, but also a Serpent-Headed Tef-Aahbi. It’s a combination of things, similar to birth form and moon cycle combinations back in Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

After that, you get your Affinities and Utterances, which are the two types of powers Mummies get. Affinities are related to a specific Pillar, while Utterances require mastery of two or three Pillars. You get three affinities – one for your Judge, one for your Guild and a third one that the Player or Storyteller picks out. You then get one or two Utterances. You get two if you have at least one dot in each of the five Pillars. So it’s up to the player to get an extra magical ability by having a little in all areas, or only one Utterance, but a higher level in less pillars, which will give them access to the upper tiers of the Utterance. Personally, I’d take the two Utterances because a) I like well rounded characters, b) extra crazy awesome power and c) Utterances cost a lot more than Pillars in the beginning of the game.

Finally, you do the merits, willpower and then the character is given between 20 and 125 experience points right off the bat to spend. Hey, Mummies are the oldest and most powerful creature in the NWoD. It’s like the Elder trait from the old Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand book in a way. The chapter follows the character building process, with detailed descriptions of all the new stats that are unique to Mummy: The Curse and how they work, along with new merits and the personalities of the five “heads” you can choose from. Personally, I’d have preferred to see all of this BEFORE you launch into character building, as that flows better and lets a player know his options first before having to choose them, and thus flip through the book looking for descriptions and a better understanding of what you just read. You don’t throw algebraic equations at a kid without first explaining what algebra (or an equation) is, do you?

In fact, my only real complaint about Mummy: The Curse is the layout of the book. So much could be positioned in a different order to improve both the flow and absorption of the material itself. Things just aren’t laid out in a smooth manner, meaning you’ll have to flip through the book constantly to look for something or for clarification. For example, I’d have put the description of the five heads right after the description of the guilds. That way, you get both set of options clarified and discussed in depth before you have to go into character creation. I’d also completely rearrange how affinities are listed in the book. There are a lot of affinities – eleven and a half pages worth. Mummy: The Curse chooses to list them in alphabetical order in the name of the Affinity. This is okay, but it is not search friendly. What the editors should have done is laid out the Affinities first in alphabetical order of the prerequisite and then based on the level of the Pillar needed. So for example, instead of powers being listed ABCDE, it would be by AB, BA, KA, REN, SHEUT – each with their own bold face imprint, so the reader knows which Pillar they are under, and then under that heading (or sub-heading) you would have the powers arranged by, say, AB *, then AB **, and so on. God, this would have made searching for powers so much easier, ESPECIALLY during character and NPC creation. Now, Utterances make sense to be strictly in alphabetical order by power name, because each Utterance has three levels, each of which requires a different Pillar (again, why you want to diversify in Pillars), but man, they could have definitely done a better job with organization in this book. Things just seem slapped together without any real sense of cohesiveness. That doesn’t lessen the quality of the game or its mechanics, but it does make the book feel clunky and neither reader nor player friendly. I will end this negative Nellie section with one last note – the PDF for Mummy: The Curse is kind of poorly made. You’ll find it has loading problems regularly, be it on a gaming style computer or e-reader. It’s just not layered well and, often times, if you try to change the size, part of the page simply won’t load up so you’ll have to move forward or back a page, then come back to the page you were reading, try to resize and hope you don’t have to repeat. This was especially painful on a Kindle Fire and/or iPad, but PCs seem to handle the PDF better. Still, if you’ve worked in the printing industry or made a lot of PDFs in your time, you’ll be able to spot some noticeable design flaws in how the PDF was made almost instantly. The good news is that none of these issues are major, merely annoying, and that they certainly won’t plague the physical copy of Mummy: The Curse. As well, while these issues plague the first and second version of the PDF given out to Kickstarter backers, there is a very good chance the final version that will be sold on DriveThruRPG.com will get these errors cleaned up. After all, last year the PDF version of Cthulhu By Gaslight was horrendous when it first came out, but Chaosium cleaned that up. I have no doubt Onyx Path Publishing will do the same, but just in case – here’s your warning.

The final chapter in the “Player’s Guide” section is “The Inhuman Condition.” This chapter is a combination of more information about the Arisen and the culture that spawned them, along with mechanics like how they heal, Sybaris (the reaction that a Mummy causes in other creatures), how a Mummy is resurrected after being “killed” in combat and more. It’s a nice, informative section with lots of helpful stuff to play a Mummy, both roleplaying and roll-playing wise, and a good way to end this half of the book.

The second half of the book is the aforementioned “Storyteller’s Handbook” and because so much of Mummy: The Curse rests on discovering secrets, be it about oneself of the world around them, I don’t want to go into too much detail here because it could potentially lessen the effect the game has on you. So let’s just lightly touch on it.

Chapter Four, “The Scroll of Ages,” gives the Storyteller a lot more information about how Mummies came to be, Lost Irem, the realm of Durat and other things players will have to discover as they go through the game. Chapter Five, “Faces of Undeath,” gives the Storyteller information on various NPCs and antagonists to fill little his or her Chronicle with. It also talks about how different Mummies will treat common things, like their cult or their tomb, quite differently. It’s quite clear that even though all Mummies have a compulsion to finish the task they were awakened for, they will all go about it in quite different ways. Chapter Six, “Vessels of Power,” talks about the artifacts Mummies are often compelled to seek out and how they work. It also talks about the potential powers and curses associated with them. Chapter Seven, “Framing Immortality,” is a chapter on how to properly run a game of Mummy: The Curse, and due to the nature of the game, it’s arguably the most important in the book. Anyone thinking of running this game needs to read this chapter several times over to prevent their Chronicle from turning into a game where the players are just kind of there, rolling dice and acting as Automatons while the Storyteller dictates everything via Sekhem drop rolls. There is a massive amount of behind the scenes and metaplot information in this chapter, ranging from locations to drop your Chronicle in to how to come up with a story that makes sense, where multiple Mummies are active at the same time AND working together.

Finally we have the Appendix, “Eve of Judgment,” which is a full length adventure for players and Storytellers to try set in Rio De Janeiro. It’s a pretty straightforward affair, but it captures the heart of what Mummy: The Curse is all about, constantly asking philosophical questions and making you question not only who you are (as a character) but what is the right action to take as a Mummy, as a sentient being, and as a servant of the Judges.

Okay, I need to stop. I’m at 5,000 words and I feel like I could write another 5,000 about the game because there is so much I want to talk about and praise the book for doing. Instead, let’s just leave it at “BUY THIS WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE TO ALL” and call it a day. For those that already have it, we can always go even further(!) in depth in the comments section.

All in all Mummy: The Curse is simply an amazing core rulebook, and page for page, it’s the best game set in the New World of Darkness yet. Mummy thrills me because it’s such an introspective game, even while your characters wield insane amounts of power. Yet, for a Mummy, the ability to say, scorch miles of earth with but a thought or raise an army of zombies with the flick of his or her wrist is nothing compared to the mental and spiritual aspects of the game. All this power, yet the focus will rarely be on combat. This is so beautifully done and balanced out that I am chomping at the bit to see the other upcoming releases for the game. I can’t strongly recommend reading Mummy: The Curse enough, but I do have to again reiterate that this is not a game for everyone. You’re going to need a very specific dynamic between the players and Storyteller for it to work. This is not a game I’d run with random strangers at a convention, for example. If you can find the right group to play Mummy: The Curse with, you will be rewarded with one of the most unique and philosophical tabletop games ever released. Sure, Mummy: The Curse will inevitably be a very niche game that only a small cross section of tabletop gamers will be able to play and enjoy the way it was meant to be played, but just because the game is a very niche one doesn’t make it any less awesome.