When D&D meets the Old Testament!
If you're interested, you can still get this book for a more than fair price at Paizo: Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era. It's going for $2 through tomorrow -- really, how can yoiu go wrong at that price?
I've got a copy, and it does a decent job of covering the subject, aiming for a point between "Mythic" and "Historical". It has character classes and Prestige Classes for the main ethnic groups of antiquity (all human, save for some Nephilim; sorry, but there are no Hebrew dwarfs or Assyrian orcs), including some odd ones like the Qedeshot (basically Canaanite Temple Prostitutes [hmmm... oddly enough, their slave status is not mentioned]), who have powers revolving around fertility and (literal) sexual healing; Israelite Levite Priests, Psalmists (basically divine bards), and Champions of Israel, with the Judge and the Prophet as PrCs; Egyptian and Babylonian wizards; and Spies as rogues.
It also has a good section on the cultures, histories, and pantheons of the various nations of the time, along with their deities both famous (I.e., Anubis, Baal, Astarte) and lesser known, like Assyrian Nergal or Canaanite Mot, God of Lifelessness.
There's a section of monsters and a few animals from the time period, including some very frightening demons, and a section on Sin and Piety as game charactertistics.
It handles the subject material more respectfully and even-handedly than you'd think (I half expected a pro or con Bible-bash, and was thankfully disappointed). But it's still odd to see game stats for Moses, Deborah, and David and Goliath.
Anyway, I hope someone enjoys reading this.
Best all, and the Will Sanborn review/link is coming, I promise.
I've got a copy, and it does a decent job of covering the subject, aiming for a point between "Mythic" and "Historical". It has character classes and Prestige Classes for the main ethnic groups of antiquity (all human, save for some Nephilim; sorry, but there are no Hebrew dwarfs or Assyrian orcs), including some odd ones like the Qedeshot (basically Canaanite Temple Prostitutes [hmmm... oddly enough, their slave status is not mentioned]), who have powers revolving around fertility and (literal) sexual healing; Israelite Levite Priests, Psalmists (basically divine bards), and Champions of Israel, with the Judge and the Prophet as PrCs; Egyptian and Babylonian wizards; and Spies as rogues.
It also has a good section on the cultures, histories, and pantheons of the various nations of the time, along with their deities both famous (I.e., Anubis, Baal, Astarte) and lesser known, like Assyrian Nergal or Canaanite Mot, God of Lifelessness.
There's a section of monsters and a few animals from the time period, including some very frightening demons, and a section on Sin and Piety as game charactertistics.
It handles the subject material more respectfully and even-handedly than you'd think (I half expected a pro or con Bible-bash, and was thankfully disappointed). But it's still odd to see game stats for Moses, Deborah, and David and Goliath.
Anyway, I hope someone enjoys reading this.
Best all, and the Will Sanborn review/link is coming, I promise.