Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context TabletopGame / MummyTheResurrection

Go To

1[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mummy_TR_PG_p138_4078.gif]]
2%%[[caption-width-right:150:some caption text]]
3
4Mummies are part of a legacy that dates back to AncientEgypt, granted immortality by the Spell of Life. While they can be killed, they always come back after a sojourn in the Underworld; it's near-impossible, even in the World of Darkness, to finally kill a mummy once and for all. Such an ability is vital in their mission: they are warriors in the fight against Apophis, the Great Serpent, who seeks to devour existence. They also have potent Egyptian magics to assist them in their battle.
5
6That much, at least, remained constant across ''Mummy'''s various iterations.
7
8''Mummy'''s long history began in the early years of Creator/WhiteWolf's TabletopGame/{{old World of Darkness}}, with a supplement released shortly after the first edition of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', titled simply ''Mummy''.
9
10The truth behind [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Set's murder of his brother Osiris]] was that the various participants were -- or became -- supernaturals of one type or another. Osiris and Set were [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade vampires]], Isis and Nephthys [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension magic-workers]]. When Set murdered and dismembered Osiris, Isis and Nephthys resurrected Osiris with magic, and he returned having learned secrets of life and death. Together, they pooled what they knew to create the Great Rite, the Rite of Rebirth, the Spell of Life, and used it to save the life of Horus, son of Osiris and Isis.
11
12Set slew Osiris once more, sending him to the Underworld. Horus rose to avenge his father, driving Set into hiding, but he continued to manipulate Egypt from the shadows, expanding his influence into the wider world. Over the millennia that followed, Horus and his followers would use the Rite to create new immortals to assist in the battle against Set and the other servants of Apophis -- the mummies.
13
14''Mummy'' second edition expanded and updated the original, bringing it in line with the WOD circa ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming''.
15
16Then, in 2002, as part of the "Year of the Scarab" (a Middle Eastern-themed year), White Wolf revamped Mummy, giving it its own hardback: '''Mummy: The Resurrection'''.
17
18The final book for ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'' had unleashed the Sixth Great Maelstrom, the Dja-akh, laying waste to the Underworld. Across the world, the immortals of prior ages saw that new champions would be needed to take action against the darkness heralded by the Maelstrom. Osiris roused from his dormancy to pass on a new Spell of Life, joining a shard of an ancient soul shredded by the Dja-akh to a modern mortal with a flawed spirit, creating the Amenti, the new Reborn. The mallki of South America merged with the souls of their descendants to create the Teomallki. The Eight Great Immortals of China, cast out of heaven, sought followers of the Tao, souls in balance, to be given the gift of immortality, forming the Wu T'ian, the family of heaven.
19
20''Resurrection'' was the first version to introduce splats, known as ''dynasties''. Amenti dynasties were based on the type of soul-shard the new mummy had bonded with, Teomallki dynasties on which culture the mallki had come from, and the Wu T'ian on whether they were aspected to yin or yang.
21
22The ''Resurrection'' corebook gave full writeups for the Amenti, with guidelines for the others; they received full writeups of their own in the Mummy Player's Guide.
23
24Unlike the [=oWOD's=] main games, ''Resurrection'' didn't provide core rules in the main book, requiring a main WOD corebook to play. There was only one supplement, the ''Mummy Player's Guide''.
25
26''Mummy elements'' have popped up in the TabletopGame/{{new World of Darkness}}, notably the Osirans of ''TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated'', the Purified of ''Immortals'', and ''TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters''. A full ''Mummy''gameline came out in 2013, ''TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse'', providing a distinctly [[DarkerAndEdgier darker take]] on the mummy mythos.
27----
28!!This role-playing game provides examples of:
29
30* AnatomyOfTheSoul: Primarily based on Ancient Egyptian belief: body (khat), heart (ab, the centre of consciousness), true name (ren), sekhem (spiritual energy), ka (protector of the body), khaibit ([[ShadowArchetype the shadow]], the darkness in the soul), sahu (eternal aspect of the soul), ba (the psyche, the soul part that travels into the Underworld), and khu (link between body and soul). Five of these (ka, ba, sahu, khu and khaibit) were the basis for the Amenti's dynasties.
31* BackFromTheDead: Not all that quickly, though. In Resurrection, it could be anything from a year to a day, minimum, while in the earlier editions it took several Underworld adventures.
32* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: In theory, the Amenti are supposed to uphold this. In practice, this is [[CrapsackWorld the World of Darkness]], so evil never needs any help and good always needs lots of it.
33* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: A positive example in ''Resurrection''. Since the new mummies are created from merging a powerful soul fragment with a mortal whose soul had a weakness in the corresponding part, the result is a person who excels in the area that once used to be their greatest failing. Thus, an ExtremeDoormat becomes a fearless warrior, a self-destructive person becomes a paragon of healthy lifestyle choices, a philistine becomes a visionary artist...
34* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: See above.
35* CainAndAbel: Set and Osiris.
36* CameBackWrong:
37** Some mummies are missing... pieces due to a [[GoneHorriblyWrong flawed]] Spell of Life.
38** Asekh-Sen are a sort of pseudo-mummies that can come back to life four times. Since they do so by merging with an evil spirit, each time they come back they're a little more monstrous.
39* ChummyMummy: The Amenti are pretty friendly, as mummies go.
40* CreepyCrossdresser: In Muslim countries, [[CameBackWrong Asekh-Sen]] of both genders find it useful to hide their deformed bodies by dressing up in burqas.
41* CrossoverCosmology: Set firmly in the TabletopGame/{{old World of Darkness}}, primarily drawing on ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'', ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' and ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse''.
42* EvilCounterpart: The seven Bane Mummies, Set's attempt at creating his own immortals. Unfortunately for him, his version of the Spell of Life was flawed, and his candidates came back bonded to evil spirits known as Banes (whom players of ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' will recognize as Wyrm servitors). They now had their own agenda, and it didn't include Set. He didn't try again.
43** The Wu T'ian (the Asian counterpart to mummies) have the Wu Kuei.
44* FunctionalMagic: Hekau (simply called magic in first edition), a form of Rule Magic that incorporated Alchemy, Device Magic (amulets and effigies), Theurgy, Necromancy, and True Names, all powered by sekhem.
45* GroinAttack: Self-inflicted by khaibit-focused Amenti. When they undergo the Spell of Life, it sends them into a murderous rampage that only ends when they tear out their reproductive organs.
46* ImmortalProcreationClause: Averted in Resurrection, which also established that previous editions' mummies were infertile.
47* {{Immortality}}
48* KarmaMeter: Humanity in the first two editions, Balance for the Amenti, Direction for the Teomallki, and Quest for the Wu T'ian.
49* LighterAndSofter: Compared to the [[CrapsackWorld rest of the]] [[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness cWoD.]]
50* LivingForeverIsAwesome: A major theme of Resurrection.
51* MutuallyExclusiveMagic: Subverted for the most part. Unless stated otherwise, Amenti, Teomallki and Wu T'ian can all learn each others Hekau (albheit costing more XP than their own). There are some exceptions though. For example Wu T'ian can't learn Naming (their magic is incompatible with it) and don't learn Necromancy (it's considered redundant as Lung Tan, their Yin aligned Hekau can achieve the exact same thing)
52* {{Mummy}}: But of course. In addition to classic Egyptian-style mummies, the game provides Chinese and South American mummies.
53* NeverFoundTheBody: Averted; as mummies [[TheCatCameBack temporarily]] leave a corpse, there's even extra health levels to describe how badly the body is damaged, like Scorched and Pulverized.
54* NighInvulnerability: It takes [[DrivenToSuicide losing the will to live]], AntiMagic, or being at ground zero of a nuclear blast to permanently kill a mummy. And even that last one doesn't fully work[[note]]Total atomization of the khat means a mummy can't be resurrected, but they still exist in the Shadowlands as a sort-of ghost...an ''unkillable'' ghost who can even survive ''Oblivion itself''.[[/note]].
55* ResurrectiveImmortality: Mummies can be killed just like anyone else. In the first two editions, they couldn't heal much better than humans, and occasionally needed to die to replenish their souls. In Resurrection, they healed much faster than humans, and could boost that further through magic. They didn't need spiritual replenishment.
56** A quirk of Teomallki existence is that, unlike other mummies, they still age, albeit far slower than humans. When they die, they reset to the age they were at their original death.
57* RetGone: Forgetting the Person's Name erases the victim's True Name, removing them from existence and wiping them from the memories of all who knew them. It's believed to be the one way to kill a mummy for good.
58* ShoutOut: The intro to ''Mummy'' second edition was written by a mummy called Kharis for his long-lost love Ankh-es-en-Amun, both originally from the 1930s/40s Universal Mummy movies (though they had no connection in the movies).
59* TokenGoodTeammate: Among the other TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness gamelines; in most of the gamelines (with the arguable exception of ''Mage'') the creature types are generally assumed to be mostly evil, selfish or WellIntentionedExtremist types at best with the (usually) more pleasant [=PC=]s being among the rare exceptions. While GoodIsNotNice can sometimes come into play, the Amenti are assumed to be generally good people focused on saving the world and not given to using methods that harm innocents.
60* WeWillMeetAgain
61* WhoWantsToLiveForever: A key issue in the first two editions, courtesy of their flawed Spell of Life. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] for the Amenti, whose immortality comes without any real inherent drawbacks (though they're all new, only becoming mummies a few years ago at most, so whether they'll be able to handle immortality long-term remains to be seen).
62

Top