Monte Cook Games’ Next Kickstarter Is Ptolus (for 5E and Cypher)

Monte Cook Games’ February Kickstarter (they tend to operate on about two per year) is Monte Cook’s massive city setting Ptolus. It will be available for both D&D 5E and for their own Cypher System.

The original was a nearly 700-page book which came out in 2006.

“The critically-acclaimed Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire is a 672-page hardcover with additional physical and digital content and premium production values. It details the fantasy city of Ptolus, an adventurer’s haven built atop vast underground dungeons and adjacent to a massive, mysterious spire. The book is lavishly illustrated and contains scores of detailed maps, along with uncountable NPCs, creatures, locations, and items. The original printing sold out upon release, and is one of the most highly sought-after RPG titles on the collector’s market. It has since been available as a print-on-demand title, but in a two-book format that lacks premium features.

The new Ptolus will release in two versions: one for 5e, and another for the Cypher System. The book will follow the format of the original as closely as possible, and retain all of its premium design features. The Ptolus Kickstarter campaign launches in February.”

 

[Aldarc]

How do you put d20 into Cypher system?

I feel that design premises, heroics, adventure design (encounters) work differently (and I am really uncomfortable about same stats / pools used for actions and damage in a fantasy system created for dungeon delving).

Jein. This is one of the things that leads the Cypher System to feel a bit more like OSR. There is not necessarily low HP, but there is a resource management game involving the risk/reward spending of your stat pools. IME, this leads to players being more cautious about combat, exploration, and other encounters that may deplete their pools. A lot of the Numenera game does entail dungeon-delving, as your are exploring lost ruins or exotic locations in search of numenera, such as cyphers, artifacts, and schema for devices. This goes back to the prior point as the XP incentives in Numenera is not around defeating monsters or combat, but in making discoveries, uncovering artifacts, and so on.

 

[ruemere]

Jein. This is one of the things that leads the Cypher System to feel a bit more like OSR. There is not necessarily low HP, but there is a resource management game involving the risk/reward spending of your stat pools. IME, this leads to players being more cautious about combat, exploration, and other encounters that may deplete their pools. A lot of the Numenera game does entail dungeon-delving, as your are exploring lost ruins or exotic locations in search of numenera, such as cyphers, artifacts, and schema for devices. This goes back to the prior point as the XP incentives in Numenera is not around defeating monsters or combat, but in making discoveries, uncovering artifacts, and so on.

I see your points, it's just that paying stats to just try something, with the payment stat being also your hitponts, does not sit well with me.

It really turned me off.

Yes, there is the option of not paying but unless your character is extremely experienced, you will be seriously handicapped.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would love to have this, but I can't afford $150 and I don't want it in PDF.

Maybe I can convince one of our DMs to buy it instead

At this price point (kind of like Beadle & Grimm's stuff), this feels like a joint table purchase kind of Kickstarter.

I am not kidding when I say I've been using the 3E edition for 14 years. I've also been a player in a related campaign for most of that period. So for me, it definitely is worth its very high sticker price.

 

[Aldarc]

I see your points, it's just that paying stats to just try something, with the payment stat being also your hitponts, does not sit well with me.

It really turned me off.

Yes, there is the option of not paying but unless your character is extremely experienced, you will be seriously handicapped.

If you don't like it, then you don't like it. That's okay. I have found that reception of the Cypher System tends to be more divisive than other games.

However, I have not really experienced much of an issue with what you describe either as a player or as a GM running the game. This difference, in part, may stem from differences of experiences between the TTRPG and the computer game. For example, you don't have to really pay stats to try something unless you are expending Effort or using an ability that has an associated pool cost. But typically the cost comes either from a pool that your Type excels at or from a pool that you are not using as much, such as a Glaive using Intellect-based powers.

 

[ruemere]

If you don't like it, then you don't like it. That's okay. I have found that reception of the Cypher System tends to be more divisive than other games.

However, I have not really experienced much of an issue with what you describe either as a player or as a GM running the game. This difference, in part, may stem from differences of experiences between the TTRPG and the computer game. For example, you don't have to really pay stats to try something unless you are expending Effort or using an ability that has an associated pool cost. But typically the cost comes either from a pool that your Type excels at or from a pool that you are not using as much, such as a Glaive using Intellect-based powers.

I agree that my experiences may be skewed by cRPG.
Question - is there any online play example of Cypher-based dungeon delving?

Note: The reason for my interest is that I would love to invest in Ptolus Kickstarter, however I would hate to purchase an elaborate paper press. And the Kickstarter lacks Cypher-related details. I am also not a 5E person (more a PF1, quite a lot 13A, quite disdainful of PF2's "combat mode, interact/manipulate action" tag-tag-tag festival).

 

[DragonBelow]

I agree that my experiences may be skewed by cRPG.
Question - is there any online play example of Cypher-based dungeon delving?

Note: The reason for my interest is that I would love to invest in Ptolus Kickstarter, however I would hate to purchase an elaborate paper press. And the Kickstarter lacks Cypher-related details. I am also not a 5E person (more a PF1, quite a lot 13A, quite disdainful of PF2's "combat mode, interact/manipulate action" tag-tag-tag festival).

You might be better served by the 3.5 version then, which you can buy at drivethru and what not

 

[Aldarc]

Question - is there any online play example of Cypher-based dungeon delving?

Not that I am aware of, but a substantial portion of official Numenera adventures are fundamentally dungeon-delving bizarre science-fantasy ruins: e.g., crashed spaceships, space stations, science facilities/labs, the remains of an alien biomechanical creature, etc. However, I would say that Numenera leans more heavily on the Exploration pillar of dungeon-crawling, whereas (again, IME) D&D leans more heavily on the Combat pillar of dungeon-crawling. Numenera is less about fighting monsters in dungeons and more about recovering numenera in dungeons.

The Jade Colossus is a dungeon-delve centered around a mysterious jade structure that randomly burst from the ground beside a town five years ago. The book includes resources for making randomly generated maps and various encounter tables.

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I would be curious to see how the Cypher System handles the playable fantasy bioforms of Ptolus. The Cypher System is more anthropocentric, with most of its fantasy settings presuming that you are human. Alien and fantasy species exist for Numenera, the Strange, and Gods of the Fall, but they are not entirely satisfying as it requires your Descriptor, whereas humans get to be an Intelligent Jacks, a varjeen only gets to be a Varjeen Jack. However, I would probably prefer having species/race being mostly cosmetic and then letting players have the option to choose from species/bioform-based themes. I'm not sure if this is the route that Monte & Co. will go.

 

[Carmen Sbordone]

I would love to have this, but I can't afford $150 and I don't want it in PDF.

Maybe I can convince one of our DMs to buy it instead

For reference, the book was $120 14 years ago. 30 dollars more in that time isnt bad

 

[Eyes of Nine]

For reference, the book was $120 14 years ago. 30 dollars more in that time isnt bad

Couldnt afford it then, and I was a game store owner! Of course I wasn’t playing d and d then either so I didnt want it anyway.

 

[Mistwell]

For reference, the book was $120 14 years ago. 30 dollars more in that time isnt bad

I am not saying it's an unfair price. I am saying I cannot justify that expense for this product for my family.

If it were $8.33/month for 18 months...naw I still couldn't justify that recurring payment for a single product like this. Because it's not something I share with my entire family, like a movie or amusement park visit or bike or netflix subscription. Nor is it something useful for my ability to bring in more money, like work clothing or gas for my car. It's pure entertainment and of the "just me and not the entire family" type. I can justify $30 for something like that, but not $150 in one shot.