Dragon 334, Malhavoc's Surprise = Ptolus

[Desdichado]

I must say that I do not greet the announcement with the heady enthusiasm of many here, nor do I greet it with the scorn of a good number of others. I see the announcement and shrug in indifference. Personally, I don't need another campaign setting. As it is I do not use any of the available ones! There are a great many detailed, different, and quite usable campaign settings out there. I happen to prefer my own setting. With my own campaign setting I know every single detail about it, often times without having to look them up. I know what is where, who did what to whom, and I know that my players are enjoying it.

Few people need another campaign setting. Heavens knows I don't. That said, that's what I most want to buy these days, because I can use stuff from them in all of the games I do play, even in my own setting. My shortlist of books to buy (after summer expenses of shipping kids to grandma and grandpa's house, etc. are done) include the second Iron Kingdoms book, the two Dark Legacies books, the latest Eberron book (Five Nations) and then the MM3.

Even without using a setting "out of the box" I get more mileage from setting books than any other. Some of the most used books in my collection include Midnight, CoCd20, Rokugan and Eberron.

 

[Ketjak]

This post is probably better suited to Monte's meta forums...

Fair enough. Go to www.malhavocpress.com rather than montecook.com and you'll bypass the splash page and get right to the meat of the site.

Agreed. That's why you can--if you use the splash page--click on the what's new button. However, I also still do the weekly message with links to all the new stuff just like before on the Malhavoc Press page, reached either by the Malhavoc Press button or the URL I mentioned.

Thanks for caring enough to provide the feedback, though. I do hope you come to the site.

Monte

Thanks for replying, Monte.

I wasn't aware that malhavocpress.com duplicates the montecook.com welcome site. That's an interesting choice - seems you'd want to funnel folks to the single site rather than pay to develop and maintain two sites, when one contains "personal" information that's a subset of the main (malhavocpress.com) site. If nothing new appears on montecook.com that does not also appear, why the second site?

That also makes the "splash" screen doubly useless. Not only does it present nothing new and interfere with access to information, but its main purpose is to present a navigation option to montecook.com that, if used, actually reduces information available to the user. As someone who wants to promote his product and brand to users, that seems harmful to business, not just silly. You want people to see you (your brand) and your products, right?

I did just check, and it seems to work from my PDA. I'll be back more regularly!

- Ket

Nit: both the montecook.com and malhavocpress.com have the title "Welcome!" In tabs or multiple windows, they appear identical when they're not the focus. That's because they're using the same template and weren't modified. Have your webmaster change the TITLE metatag ("<title>Welcome!</title>") to "Welcome to Monte's Journal!" and "Welcome to Malhavoc Press!" respectively.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Being that I've been running only Planescape since its release many many years ago (with a short lived but fun Ravenloft game), I doubt I'll actually end up running a Ptolus game. However, one great thing about PS is its ability to integrate all sorts of things that wouldn't work with other settings. So, I, for one, am looking forward to the release of Ptolus.

 

[Erekose13]

Montecook.com/malhavocpress.com is all one site. On the webhost Monte has just one set of files. Each of his domains point to different entry points to that site, but the site navigation exists for all. www.arcanaunearthed.com and www.arcanaevolved.com as well as www.ironheroes.com all point to different entry points too. Only Montecook.com points to the Splash Page, but it is just a portal to different pages all offered on every other domain he owns. Once you click on one of those pages you have access to the entire site. You can see the whole navigation if you click on the Site Map button on the bottom of the Splash page.

Edit: www.ptolus.com also goes to Monte's site.

 

[Campbell]

On a related note this issue is shaping up to be one of my favorites. While I haven't fully explored the contents of all the articles, all look like they contain solid fluff as well as some decent crunch. The article on alcohol will definitely see some use in my games.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

The cover looks sweet!

Does it?

pronunciation?
Is that a silent "t" or a silent "p"? Or are they both voiced?

Huh?

 

[ThirdWizard]

Huh?

TOELus?
ToeLUS?
PuhTOELus

I've always pronounced it TOELus, but I could be wrong. There's a thread about this very thing. It's probably best to nip it in the bud before it grows to Eberron status.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

TOELus?
ToeLUS?
PuhTOELus

I've always pronounced it TOELus, but I could be wrong. There's a thread about this very thing. It's probably best to nip it in the bud before it grows to Eberron status.

AH! I get it! Yeah, I guess I just assumed that it was TOELus - looks Greek/Latin, sounds Greeks/Latin. I treat the initial P as a diacritic, indicating that the following t is an ejective, but I really don't have any support for this, just personal preference.

EDIT: "Eberron status?"

 

[ThirdWizard]

EDIT: "Eberron status?"

"Drow" status would be more precise, but Eberron is also a campaign setting, so I thought it was more appropriate. Basically, its at the point where even if told how to pronounce it correctly, people will still use their prefered way to say it. I believe the "official" way to say Eberron is EE-Baron, but I have yet to hear anyone pronounce it that way.

 

[DaveMage]

TOELus?
ToeLUS?
PuhTOELus

I've always pronounced it TOELus, but I could be wrong. There's a thread about this very thing. It's probably best to nip it in the bud before it grows to Eberron status.

It's pronounced "Cindy".