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Hi!
It will be a good while until I start running MM, but would like to prepare and get aligned with the theme and locations of this adventure.
Any and all suggestions for other material to reference would be appreciated. Will try to keep the list updated regularly.
The list:
Movies:
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
The Scorpion King 1/2/3
Stargate
Kingdom of Heaven
Prince of Persia
Shows:
Rome
Books:
Music:
indiana joans for the tomb raiding
Movie: Asterix and Cleopatra! Monica Bellucci is always a true goddess, but as Cleopatra she´s unbelieveable. OF course it´s more of a funny movie.
Under the Pyramids / Entombed wit the Pharaohs. It's in the public domain, so go forth and give it a look.
Also, Bloch's Fane of the Black Pharaoh.
Found this on Youtube. Really good background music!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsOMalz_454
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Actually some albums from Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard are a good match too. Especially in dungeons, a bit eerie and mystical at the same time.
The list:
Movies:
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
The Scorpion King 1/2/3
Stargate
Kingdom of Heaven
Prince of Persia
Indiana Jones
Asterix and Cleopatra
Hidalgo
Sinbad
Aladdin
Shows:
Rome
Sinbad
Books:
Under the Pyramids / Entombed with the Pharaohs - H.P. Lovecraft
Fane of the Black Pharaoh - Robert Bloch
1001 Arabian Nights
The Holy Bible (Genesis, Exodus)
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Pathfinder Tales: Death's Heretic - James L. Sutter
Music:
Aladdin OST
Scheherazade Symphonic Suite - Rimsky-Korsakov
Prince of Persia OST
The Best of Lisa Gerrard - Lisa Gerrard
Just a quick google (e.g. ancient Egypt) will produce a lot of pictures that might help, as well as some quite nice YouTubes.
PS: can I point out that The Epic of Gilgamesh are Indian and the Bible dosnt add much atmospherics about Egypt.
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Egypt / Desert themes were requested.
Gilgamesh is Mesopotamian, aka Iranian/Iraqi in current geography. Very much desert themed.
Most of the Bible takes place in the Middle East, and although only parts are desert themed, the entire region is appropriately thematic. Genesis and Exodus have parts that occur *IN* ancient Egypt. A few books of the Old Testament occur during the Chaldean occupation and the Babylonian Captivity, which occur in modern Iraq.
On the note of the Bible and Egypt
Movie:
Prince of Egypt
Joseph: King of Dreams
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Although it never inspired me to run an Egyptian-themed campaign, I feel compelled to mention my third-favorite fantasy novel of all time, The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. Most of the main villains worship the ancient Egyptian gods, and wield sorcerous powers based on ancient Egyptian beliefs. Late in the novel (in the year 1811), the main hero goes to Alexandria, and joins a group of Mamelukes in time to watch them get slaughtered by Muhammad Ali, who, according to the novel, was working with the aforementioned sorcerer-villains to do it. Towards the end, the hero even has a brief encounter with Set himself.
Talking about Soundtracks, the Dune (1984) OST and 300 are also a pretty good fit i think.
It's been a while since I've seen it but Lawrence of Arabia features the desert as a point of tactical concern, movie-wise. (I'm glad to see someone mentioned Hidalgo.)
Music: I've always found the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony to be evocative of the desert for me. Not in an action sense, mind you. More of a pensive, night-time under the stars sense.
(Yeah, also looking forward to this one. Won't start it until after I've read the last volume. By which time we should be in the 2nd half of Part 2 of Skull and Shackles. I mean to run that one to its conclusion so there is a serious risk of running concurrent campaigns.)
I could have been clearer. All deserty inspiration is welcome, Egyptian/Arabian/Persian/North African/Middle East/Mediterranean
The list:
Movies:
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
The Scorpion King 1/2/3
Stargate
Kingdom of Heaven
Prince of Persia
Indiana Jones
Asterix and Cleopatra
Hidalgo
Sinbad
Aladdin
Prince of Egypt
Joseph: King of Dreams
Lawrence of Arabia
Shows:
Rome
Sinbad
Books:
Under the Pyramids / Entombed with the Pharaohs - H.P. Lovecraft
Fane of the Black Pharaoh - Robert Bloch
1001 Arabian Nights
The Holy Bible (Genesis, Exodus)
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Pathfinder Tales: Death's Heretic - James L. Sutter
The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
Music:
Aladdin OST
Scheherazade Symphonic Suite - Rimsky-Korsakov
Prince of Persia OST
The Best of Lisa Gerrard - Lisa Gerrard
Passion: The Last Temptation of Christ - Peter Gabriel
Dune OST
300 OST
Symphony No. 2 in A Major: II. Allegretto - Ludwig van Beethoven
I ran an Egyptian themed campaign for AD&D/3.5 several years or so ago.
These 2 books were particularly helpful:
The River God by Wilbur Smith, it's a fantasy/historical Fiction - I just stole some of his ideas for encounters and NPC's.
Nefertiti-Michelle Moran, was a light read but gave lots of nice descriptions of how the Egyptian royalty lived, like putting lilac perfume in their toilets, etc. this is also a historical fiction but with no fantasy elements.
And don't forget Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra which is a really nice product: http://greenroninstore.com/products/egyptian-adventures-hamunaptra-pdf
Also you should add Cleopatra - 1963 film with Elizabeth Taylor, that's a classic
D'oh!
You know, no matter how many times I read a book, I never fail to misremember the details.
Although it never inspired me to run an Egyptian-themed campaign, I feel compelled to mention my third-favorite fantasy novel of all time, The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.
Towards the end, the hero even has a brief encounter with Set himself.
I just finished my seventh (!) reading of the novel, and feel I must correct myself: He saw Apep, not Set.
