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Ptolus ongoing review p.1...10
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<blockquote data-quote="Thomas Percy" data-source="post: 3051355" data-attributes="member: 11931"><p>XXI. The Sewers</p><p></p><p> „There is always a bigger fish” is a simple truth about the sewers. If you have a map of them, you can always find that below the Oldtown there’s abandoned, sealed, and used by various scum old sewage system. You explored it already, you can always find a diary of sewers’ builders with strange, dangerous, sealed tunnels marked. And so on. </p><p></p><p>Water flow can be interesting factor in this dungeon crawl, especially durning a rain. </p><p></p><p>Next, we have random encountes table. I’m not kind of DM who organizes his game around these tables, but Ptolus’ sewers is dangerous place, so I need such table to stop my PC using it as a teleporter free of charge. </p><p></p><p>Rat Hunters? Everyone of them has equipement worth 4500gp. They are paid 3gp per rat. It means everyone of them personally killed 1500 ratlings. Simple killing of 265 rats (ratlings, and ratbrutes beyond 7th level) will make an adventurer 12th level munchkin! Well… the system doesn’t work. Ok., enough bulls--t, these guy have an equipement bought by city watch or something. </p><p></p><p>Finally we have dungeon crawl adventure „Ratman Nest” for levels 3-4. It is rather boring imho hack’n’slash, but it contains some not bad adventure hooks. It’s possible to become ratmen ally. But who is ratman anyway? You can compare it to the wererat without lycantrophy, or to Warhammer’s Skavens withuth Warpstone (but why? There is chaositech in Ptolus!) </p><p></p><p>Maybe some readers will be surprised, but I don’t find this chapter boring, unnecessary etc. – I like these sewers because I don’t have better (if you have, repeat in this thread, thanks).</p><p></p><p>XXII. The Caverns</p><p></p><p>I’m not interesting in this chapter, maybe other reviewer covers it in the future. Sorry. </p><p></p><p>XXIII. The Dwarvenhearth</p><p></p><p>The Dwarvenhearth is Moria without a Balrog but with some another entertaineers. It shouldn’t be surprise to anyone, this „Moria” lies below the City by the Spire, because everything ugly lie there. </p><p></p><p>We start from history of Dwarvenhearth which ends durning the Ghulwar, when the dwarves finally abandoned and sealed their city. The Ghul was second of mightiest bad guys in the history of Ptolus, someone similiar to Saruman (as I understand) – a powerful scum who’s personal hero was the-greatest-scum-ever. This „saruman” has a citadel (Goth Gulgamel) in the middle of The Spire, and his celebrity has a citadel (Jabel Shammar) at the top of The Spire. Mr Second has created new races of orcs, which shocked dwarves so much, they (dwarves) abandoned their city. They are ashamed because of this, they want to be worthy of their city again – so we have an adventure hook for most of dwarven PCs. </p><p></p><p>Next we can read how to get in to Dwarvenheart – generaly you need a hammer. More interesting is description of various enemies you can meet inside: one guardian outsider, a few dwarven outlaws which were left behing (either accidentaly or intentionally because they were criminals), a few dwarven guardian ghosts and golems; and dark elves, who try to plunder as much as they can. I like the team of these drows, especially a ranger specializing in using two mini-crossbows at once. </p><p></p><p>Next, Monte gives us sample treasures we can rob (firearms, mithral, adamantine and other materials I’ve mentioned in previous part of my review) and descriptions and floor-plans of a few generic locations of such „moria” (bastions, houses etc.)</p><p></p><p>Finally there is small dungeon crawl adventure placed in the Tomb of last king of dwarves, who has fallen in the heroic battle, when he has done some heroic deeds using his gauntlet –artifact called Platinum Cestus. This mini-adventure resembles a lot Durlag’s Tomb from „Baldur’s Gate 1: Tales of the Sword Coast” computer game, but there are no puzzles. But!!! you can improve it easy (if you like), because Monte described old dwarven organization of puzzle-lovers with some sample riddles. </p><p></p><p>The Dwarvenhearth is not very original location, but I like it as it is – as a generic abandoned dwarven realm. I will use some of this material (especially The Tomb of King Stardelve) at my game sessions. </p><p></p><p>XXIV. Goth Gulgamel</p><p></p><p>I like this name, it sounds dark enough, but... I don’t know your players, but my players have strange gift of sound associations. There was cartoon movie „Smurfs” some years ago, and the main bad guy there was wizard Gargamel – ugly old idiot. So, I see my players, in the eyes of my soul, saying: „Let’s kick Gargamel!”. </p><p></p><p>Ad rem. Goth Gulgamel is dungeon crawl adventure at levels 13-14, but I advice to explore it a few levers later, because you are not Monte’s D&D industry professional players and your characters can be not so powerful as eg. Cordel’s. From the opposite side of view, all locations there were described by Monte, who knows like no other how to use D&D rules to make something powerful with CR lowest possible. So, be warned – especially if you try to get inside at level 12 or lower – you will be dead. For sure. It’s even logical, because it explains why some riff-raff adventurers don’t explore this dungeon yet. </p><p></p><p>I’m not a fan of dungeon crawl adventures, but I must admit it’s another (after Ebon Hand) duncrawl from Ptolus I will play. You can read my explanations and other „reasons why” above. I like a picture of the castle, and its floor-plan (which you can find in the handout in envelope). No, I love the plan, it’s one of the best strongholds’ plans I’ve ever seen. I like the idea that the citadel is placed in a dark void called The Utterdark. It means you can (as DM) place unlimited additional locations there... your PCs simply go into the dark. One of adventure ideas (looking for staff of magi) propsed at the end of this chapter is based on this fact. </p><p></p><p>You can meet three gangs of bad (or good) guys living there. You don’t need to fight any of them. One can even cooperate with some of them. There are a few no-nonsense new magic items, NPCs with Monte-combo-stats and very imho interesting place – Entrophy Sphere. This place is a gate to other most interesting Ptolus’ places, and it’s a Warpstone (mutagen) for spells. To reach it, you must make some interesting imho quests. </p><p></p><p>Goth Gulgamel is an adventure I will DM absolutely.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Thomas Percy, post: 3051355, member: 11931"] XXI. The Sewers „There is always a bigger fish” is a simple truth about the sewers. If you have a map of them, you can always find that below the Oldtown there’s abandoned, sealed, and used by various scum old sewage system. You explored it already, you can always find a diary of sewers’ builders with strange, dangerous, sealed tunnels marked. And so on. Water flow can be interesting factor in this dungeon crawl, especially durning a rain. Next, we have random encountes table. I’m not kind of DM who organizes his game around these tables, but Ptolus’ sewers is dangerous place, so I need such table to stop my PC using it as a teleporter free of charge. Rat Hunters? Everyone of them has equipement worth 4500gp. They are paid 3gp per rat. It means everyone of them personally killed 1500 ratlings. Simple killing of 265 rats (ratlings, and ratbrutes beyond 7th level) will make an adventurer 12th level munchkin! Well… the system doesn’t work. Ok., enough bulls--t, these guy have an equipement bought by city watch or something. Finally we have dungeon crawl adventure „Ratman Nest” for levels 3-4. It is rather boring imho hack’n’slash, but it contains some not bad adventure hooks. It’s possible to become ratmen ally. But who is ratman anyway? You can compare it to the wererat without lycantrophy, or to Warhammer’s Skavens withuth Warpstone (but why? There is chaositech in Ptolus!) Maybe some readers will be surprised, but I don’t find this chapter boring, unnecessary etc. – I like these sewers because I don’t have better (if you have, repeat in this thread, thanks). XXII. The Caverns I’m not interesting in this chapter, maybe other reviewer covers it in the future. Sorry. XXIII. The Dwarvenhearth The Dwarvenhearth is Moria without a Balrog but with some another entertaineers. It shouldn’t be surprise to anyone, this „Moria” lies below the City by the Spire, because everything ugly lie there. We start from history of Dwarvenhearth which ends durning the Ghulwar, when the dwarves finally abandoned and sealed their city. The Ghul was second of mightiest bad guys in the history of Ptolus, someone similiar to Saruman (as I understand) – a powerful scum who’s personal hero was the-greatest-scum-ever. This „saruman” has a citadel (Goth Gulgamel) in the middle of The Spire, and his celebrity has a citadel (Jabel Shammar) at the top of The Spire. Mr Second has created new races of orcs, which shocked dwarves so much, they (dwarves) abandoned their city. They are ashamed because of this, they want to be worthy of their city again – so we have an adventure hook for most of dwarven PCs. Next we can read how to get in to Dwarvenheart – generaly you need a hammer. More interesting is description of various enemies you can meet inside: one guardian outsider, a few dwarven outlaws which were left behing (either accidentaly or intentionally because they were criminals), a few dwarven guardian ghosts and golems; and dark elves, who try to plunder as much as they can. I like the team of these drows, especially a ranger specializing in using two mini-crossbows at once. Next, Monte gives us sample treasures we can rob (firearms, mithral, adamantine and other materials I’ve mentioned in previous part of my review) and descriptions and floor-plans of a few generic locations of such „moria” (bastions, houses etc.) Finally there is small dungeon crawl adventure placed in the Tomb of last king of dwarves, who has fallen in the heroic battle, when he has done some heroic deeds using his gauntlet –artifact called Platinum Cestus. This mini-adventure resembles a lot Durlag’s Tomb from „Baldur’s Gate 1: Tales of the Sword Coast” computer game, but there are no puzzles. But!!! you can improve it easy (if you like), because Monte described old dwarven organization of puzzle-lovers with some sample riddles. The Dwarvenhearth is not very original location, but I like it as it is – as a generic abandoned dwarven realm. I will use some of this material (especially The Tomb of King Stardelve) at my game sessions. XXIV. Goth Gulgamel I like this name, it sounds dark enough, but... I don’t know your players, but my players have strange gift of sound associations. There was cartoon movie „Smurfs” some years ago, and the main bad guy there was wizard Gargamel – ugly old idiot. So, I see my players, in the eyes of my soul, saying: „Let’s kick Gargamel!”. Ad rem. Goth Gulgamel is dungeon crawl adventure at levels 13-14, but I advice to explore it a few levers later, because you are not Monte’s D&D industry professional players and your characters can be not so powerful as eg. Cordel’s. From the opposite side of view, all locations there were described by Monte, who knows like no other how to use D&D rules to make something powerful with CR lowest possible. So, be warned – especially if you try to get inside at level 12 or lower – you will be dead. For sure. It’s even logical, because it explains why some riff-raff adventurers don’t explore this dungeon yet. I’m not a fan of dungeon crawl adventures, but I must admit it’s another (after Ebon Hand) duncrawl from Ptolus I will play. You can read my explanations and other „reasons why” above. I like a picture of the castle, and its floor-plan (which you can find in the handout in envelope). No, I love the plan, it’s one of the best strongholds’ plans I’ve ever seen. I like the idea that the citadel is placed in a dark void called The Utterdark. It means you can (as DM) place unlimited additional locations there... your PCs simply go into the dark. One of adventure ideas (looking for staff of magi) propsed at the end of this chapter is based on this fact. You can meet three gangs of bad (or good) guys living there. You don’t need to fight any of them. One can even cooperate with some of them. There are a few no-nonsense new magic items, NPCs with Monte-combo-stats and very imho interesting place – Entrophy Sphere. This place is a gate to other most interesting Ptolus’ places, and it’s a Warpstone (mutagen) for spells. To reach it, you must make some interesting imho quests. Goth Gulgamel is an adventure I will DM absolutely. [/QUOTE]
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