The Osirians - Why pseudo-Ancient Egypt?

The PCs have been puzzling out the heiroglyphed doors of the Osirian culture in GURPS DF Felltower. It's a pseudo-Ancient Egyptian (hereafter pseudo-Egyptian or Egyptian) culture.

That brings up several "Why?" questions.

Why a pseudo-Ancient Egypt culture?

Basically, because I have some kinda-Egyptian minis. Mummies, things like that. I have Toob toys of Egyptian gods that might be mostly correct. Or look correct-ish. So clearly, I need to have a pseudo-Egyptian or actual Egyptian culture to use them. Oh sure, I could have other mummies from other cultures, but I like the fantasy Egypt ones I have. I may as well stick with them.

Still . . . I could make it a true Ancient Egyptian setting, right, and still use them and accept that aesthetic inaccuracies are just that - surface errors like minis with armor that doesn't really look quite right or swords that are too big.

And it does have a cost, of course - it gets a weird mix of player knowledge vs. character knowledge.

Why not "actual" mythic Ancient Egypt?

First off, mythic Ancient Egypt isn't really full of mummies guarding their loot with weapons and magic.

Second, I'm not an expert on Ancient Egypt, nor do I have time to become one. I'd certainly make errors.

Third, it would encourage the players to investigate by searching Wikipedia for information and to one-up the ref by knowing the subject better than the ref instead of trying to learn things in actual play.

Fourth, it would limit my imagination. I'd rather have a setting that owes more to Iron Maiden album covers than to history books. That owes more to mummy movies than actual mummies. That owes more to AD&D and Rolemaster than to history books.



So I'll take the tradeoff of players wondering if they "know" Osirians have pyramids so I can just make stuff up and use the minis I've got. It's really a tradeoff, and I get how for some people that can yank them out of the game of pretend. But for me, it actually helps me play pretend better. If the PCs ever get to a mythical East, it'll likely be more of a Kara-Tur mishmash than a thoughtful look at Japanese historical culture and myths. If the PCs head back to Olympus expect more of the same - some bits of the myths as I like them rather than a real look at Greece. Just like Sterickburg sits in a weird mishmash of Europe of multiple centuries (plate armor and mail and fencing weapons and throwing spears all at once) and cultures (pseudo-Vikings adventuring with Renaissance swashbucklers and armoured late-medieval knights and crusading holy warriors) and garbled myth (medusas and giant spiders and goblins and banshees), the rest of the world (and attached worlds) are meant to be a pastiche of what seems like fun, gameable elements of other cultures. The pseudo-Rome in this world doesn't fight the pseudo-Carthage - instead, it's peopled by apes!

So don't expect historical accuracy so much as fun. Or what I think is fun, anyway.

It'll get worse past the Jester Gate. Or better. Much, much better.