Mummy the Curse is a game where you play ancient undead creatures from an era prior to the rise of Egypt, a product of the Nameless Empire. Driven by ancient gods of the Underworld, they seek artifacts, destroy unholy monsters, and perhaps remember who they once were. Powered by an ancient ritual, the Rite of Return, which reanimates them from death and makes them impossible to permanently destroy, they are servants of the ancient Sorcerer-Priests who made them.
As with most of Onyx Path's books, this one begins with some introductory fiction. The material is flavorful and hints strongly at the strengths and weaknesses of mummies. One thing I found interesting was that for the most part the viewpoint character is not a mummy but one of his mortal servants. I think this serves to better highlight the peculiar personality of a mummy who has just woken from its slumber.
As I've hinted one of the major themes of the game is the recovery of memory. Mummies, being many thousands of years old, have lost most of their memories of both their human life and previous periods of activity. Mummies spend most of their existence in a state of death from which they recall nothing. Only when they are called to perform a task or an intruder disturbs their tomb do they awaken. And when they do they rise as rotting remains of incredible power and almost no vestige of humanity remaining. It is only with time that they recall their human past.
So a major focus of the game is the mummy reclaiming its lost humanity and knowledge about who they were. Unlike other games of the Storyteller system, mummies do not get a prelude. They also have Memory codified as a morality trait, one that begins horribly low and can get lower still with further "deaths". Thus there is some encouragement for players of mummies to raise their Memory, if only to avoid devolving into merciless tools of the Judges of the Underworld.
When a mummy first awakens it is incredibly powerful. In game terms its power stat, called Sekhem, begins at 10. This allows them to boost their attributes, particularly Strength and Stamina, to superhuman levels in addition to other potent effects. They begin in their tomb with their artifacts and easy access to their cult who are charged with protecting them and aiding their work.
As the game progresses however their Sekhem decreases reducing them from horrific monsters to merely tough and magically potent beings who seem human.
As in most Storyteller games there is a division of political groups (Guilds) and inherent aspects of the character (Decree), a five by five array that the mummy fits into. The Guilds are the ancient groups of craftsmen that the mummies served in mortal life. Briefly they include the Engravers of Amulets, assistants and secret police of the Nameless Empire; the First Alchemists, workers of potions and the source of the Empire's wealth; the Inscribers of Texts, scholars and judges; the Shepherds of the Shell, funerary priests who mastered the dead; and the Builders of Effigies, masons and engineers who used monumental architectural to build the Nameless Empire. The guilds give an Affinity, an innate power of the mummy, as well as the ability to handle certain magical artifacts, called Relics, more easily. All in all the book does a good job of breaking up the standard groupings of sneaks, warriors, sages, rebels and leaders we have seen in Mage, Vampire, and Werewolf.
The second set of slots are defined by the Decree, that Pillar of the mummy's soul which he or she proclaimed before the Judges of the Underworld. According to Mummy there are five parts to the soul: Ab, the heart which controls feeling; Ba, the spirit which drives them to do great deeds; Ka, the constant essence of a soul; Ren, the true name of the soul; and Sheut, the shadow that dwells on magic and secrets. Decree defines the mummy's strongest Pillar and favored Attributes. This could tie in interestingly with the five part soul discussed in Mage the Awakening's Left Hand Path.
A final choice needs to be made. Which Judge the mummy made his or her decree to. There are 42 judges which might seem a bit overwhelming except that most Judges only hear a single type of Decree. The mummy gains another Affinity based on their Judge.
The powers of a Mummy are fairly potent. Affinities cover a range of powers with each Affinity tending to give three or more lesser abilities. These range from being able to interact with ghosts to animal companions to lowering the target number for successes on a die for a certain class of actions.
More potent abilities are Utterances. These potent "words of power" start off weak but their upper levels (powered by mummies with 4 or 5 dots in a Pillar) can cause Biblical destruction. As an example one power allows you to know where you are by looking at the night sky. But with further Pillar expenditures, you can use it call down a meteorite from the sky. At its highest levels, you can use it to learn hidden secrets or call down a swarm of meteors over an large area.
A mummy's innate abilities are potent as well. As mentioned above they can raise their attributes with Sekhem. As undead, they are resistant to bullets. They also have a potent healing ability that exceeds that of Werewolves. By spending a pot of Pillar they can heal three bashing damage per turn as well as a lethal damage per turn. But more importantly, while healing they can not die. It is impossible to kill them. Only after the healing stops do they finally die.
And dead mummies always come back.
Mummy the Curse has a separate Storyteller section. Since Memory is a strong theme of the game there needs to both be secrets about the setting that the players don't know and a definite past for them to learn. I'll be keeping my spoilers to a minimum for this section.
The first chapter begins with several pages of exposition by way of a series of letters. I've mentioned before how I dislike this. Thankfully this section is fairly brief and does not say much new about the setting. The rest of this chapter then delves into the truth behind what happens when a mummy dies or seeks to break the cycle by reaching Apotheosis.
The second chapter of this section discusses the antagonists of the setting. Surprisingly there is little on the hinted sixth guild, the one destroyed while the Nameless Empire still stood. There is however a good deal on the Lifeless. This hodgepodge group includes some disturbing monsters made from stitched together animals and who haunt twilight looking for relics to feed on...or mummies.
One type of Lifeless, the Shuanksen, is actually quite similar to mummies. These foes have a serious tie to the darker bits of the mummy back story, things most of them no longer know. They also possess Bane Affinities, cursed affinities with disturbing powers.
Other foes include other mummies, mortals, and wayward cults. One of the latter, Last Dynasty International, has become an evil corporation. I'm a little saddened that they made no overt tie with this group to the Chieron Group. They would seem to be excellent as division or rival of that Hunter the Vigil conspiracy.
Finally we get new ghost powers, plus the option for playing a ghost as a full character. The new abilities greatly expand a ghost's capabilities and the character rules would be a great addition for a mixed group of mummies and other "immortals". As a Wraith the Oblivion fan, this makes me pretty happy.
The third chapter dwells on relics, artifacts Mummies seek either for their own ends or to take back to the Underworld for their Judges. There are many cool cursed items here.
The final Storyteller chapter deals with running the game: how to use the themes and frameworks for the group as a whole. My favorite framework is called the Rotating Pyramid. In this campaign framework, one player plays a mummy and the others play cultists, mortal allies, ghosts bound to the mummy, and the like. The players would rotate who played a mummy each adventure as the mummies cult summon each for different problems.
Finally we get a sample adventure. The game would definitely make good convention game. It starts with lots of action as the mummies are awaken by their cults to stop some misinformed drug dealers. Then you jump to investigation to find out who sent these mortals and why. One thing that seems odd to me though is having several mummies hiding in Rio de Janeiro. It seems like there are plenty of other, better places. However the kickstarter did well enough that the city book for Rio will be made so perhaps that book will convince me.
Overall Mummy the Curse is a good game. There are places where the book feels inconsistent but this might be the mismatch of what mummies remember compared to what the truth really is. I'm glad I supported it and I think it will make a great addition to anyone's gaming library.
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