Dragon 334, Malhavoc's Surprise = Ptolus

[Vocenoctum]

Since it does, indeed, appear that Erik Mona has confirmed the mystery product is Ptolus, my reaction is...umm, well, OK. I have to admit that this doesn't really pique my interest all that much. I'm sure it'll be a fine product, but I have so much setting material now as it is...

I'm just not sure why the Uber Secretiveness was needed.

I do find it amusing that it escalated to the point fanboi's were thinking he was going to write Greyhawk or D&D fourth edition through Malhavok though.
People are funny.

 

[A'koss]

Ptolus?

Wow... I'm quite surprised actually. I'm guessing that it will be more that just a rulebook, but also a bunch of adventures keyed to the setting. Probably some tie-in products as well - minis, maps, etc.

I wish Monte all the best of luck with this, however it's not for me. I've looked at Ptolus before and I hate to say this but... it never struck me as all that unique. It could be any major city in the Forgotten Realms or Eberron. Hell, it's hard not to draw parallels between it and Waterdeep/Undermountain (Ptolus is a city with a huge dungeon underneath). It's high magic and embraces all the D&D conventions of bountiful monsters, fantasy races (inlcuding aasimar/tieflings/litorans), wizards and even guns other bits of technology (gears, printing presses, etc.) to a limited extent...

On that note, maybe that's exactly the demographic Monte is targetting - "Look, fits right in to your FR/Eberron game!"

A'koss.

 

[romp]

at 640 pages it would quite extensive, and it is a complete campaign from beginning to end, if i read the malhavoc site correctly maybe that is what Monte meant by "getting at the heart of 3ed." I also imagine he has minis, etc. planned for it. His stature right now gives him the clout to do this kind of stuff,

I am intrigued enough to look at it, which is more than I can say for Eberron (I finally broke down and bought the main book after reading Baker's novel). The pdf might be more my speed though, overcrowded gaming bookshelf is groaning with dead tree books.

 

[Simplicity]

Ptolus always struck me as unique... Giant freaking spire in the middle of the city.
Invisible floating upside down pyramid magehall. It's got plenty of interesting points
to it. It definitely feels more high magic than I would normally like. And wheras in
Eberron, magic found a technological/cultural place, in Ptolus magic still seemed reserved
for the wizards.

Of course, as I said... It's hard to judge a setting based on tidbits scattered here and there. A good setting book is like a good album. The individual songs are great, sure, but they've also got to tie togther into a whole. As Monte said, I think we'll have to wait until it's released before we actually see anything to get majorly excited about.

I'm just hoping for a Faneraider PrC.

 

[Acid_crash]

What's Ptolus??? I'm clueless on this.

**I was also hoping for Planescape**

 

[Simplicity]

What's Ptolus??? I'm clueless on this.

**I was also hoping for Planescape**

Follow the link...

http://www.malhavocpress.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?ptolus

It's Monte's home campaign but it's appeared in various Malhavoc products.
It's kind of a D&D celeb campaign... If you consider game designers celebs.

 

[Wormwood]

This news makes me happy. In fact, happier than I thought I would be.

I've been slavering for Ptolus for years. I've found myself unsatisfied with the last couple of campaign settings I've bought.

SOLD!

 

[Christoph the Magus]

Add me to the "big whoop" list. I hope he sells a million copies, but I won't be getting it. There are already plenty of settings on the market and I'm very happy with the run I'm running. (Kalamar, FYI)

 

[Monte At Home]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Yeah, you know, at this point, that would be my reaction too.

I'm looking forward to the next couple of months where I can talk a lot more about this product and hopefully show that it's really not like anything that's been done in the game industry so far. There's a lot of info in the Dragon article, and there will be a LOT more in coming months at our website.

Not knowing much about the setting, was Ptolus developed around the time that you were working on 3E?

Yes. Ptolus/Praemal (Praemal is the name of the world) was the very first 3E campaign. It helped shape the rules, and was shaped by them as they developed.

 

[Vradna]

Hmmm, you idea's intriguing to me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter

I am interested in Ptolus. I'd like to see it.

Though, for 640 pages (3/4 the size of the World's Largest Dungeon) we must be looking around $75USD?