Dragon 334, Malhavoc's Surprise = Ptolus

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Hmm, I'm intrigued.

I think 3.5 needs more settings. It's been a while for everything but Eberron. And the big E still seems a bit generic at present, maybe it'll grown into itself with a good big module.

But then again sounds like Ptolus will already have some of that.

Then again and again 640 pages is just dang impressive, and I'm wondering what it will actually look like/consist of.

 

[Felon]

Monte's pretty up-front about the fact that he wants his D&D setting served up like one big over-the-top Star Wars cantina. That's not really for me. I don't want my gamers to feel like they're in a place that's too bizarre and inaccessable for them to really ever immerse themselves.

And a 640-page book is absolutely the wrong way to go with a setting book. Really, setting designers gotta get it in their heads one of these days that it's all good and well to sell an ultra-detailed setting book for a DM to pore over, but the players who come to the table knowing nothing about the world need a primer that answers all their basic questions--in particular, "what's cool or fun about playing in this particular world"?

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

I will say the following quote is so true that it almost scares me, making me want to check the kitchen for hidden microphones:

I really can't guess what he's got up his sleeve, but I think he's been playing this one close to the chest for a long time. I think that that's why he hired Mike Mearls in the first place. Mike is an excellent designer, and hyper-prolific to boot. His game sensabilities seem similar, or at least compatible with Monte's, so Monte and Sue were sitting around the kitchen table after a game one night and Monte said to Sue "I'd really like to design X. That'd be cool!" and so Sue asks
"Why don't you?"
"It would take forever. I wouldn't be able to write anything else for a year!"
"So, don't write anything else for a year. The whole reason you left Wizards was to write what you wanted, right?"
"Yeah, but Malhavoc can't survive a whole year without new new products. How would we pay for Marley's food?"
"So hire somebody. Bruce and Sean and Skip have all written for Malhavoc. We could just hire some people to write other Malhavoc-y products while you work on X."
"We can't hire a whole writing staff. What we need is a caffiene-powered robot."

I was delighted that I hit so close to the mark, and I promise that if there is surveillance equipment in Monte's kitchen, I didn't put it there (BTW Monte, Marley's been chewing on one of the low microphones; it makes a REALLY annoying noise on the recording and I'm worried that it could hurt her. I just thought you'd like to know.)

I have #334 in my hands. It's............................Ptolus.

Full-color. 640 pages. Sweetness.

JediSoth

I really didn't believe JediSoth. I'm surprised. Now that I think about it, though, I don't believe that there will be nothing more to it than a campaign setting. I think that when Monte says that it goes right to the core of 3rd edition, he's saying something significant.
In coming months, Monte-bashers will call this project self-aggrandizement. I don't believe this. I think that Monte will use Ptolus as a vehicle for something more - and I, for one, look forward to seeing what comes of it.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Monte's pretty up-front about the fact that he wants his D&D setting served up like one big over-the-top Star Wars cantina. That's not really for me. I don't want my gamers to feel like they're in a place that's too bizarre and inaccessable for them to really ever immerse themselves in.

You had a hard time getting into the Star Wars Cantina scene??!?

Man, that scene feels more like home than home does. I do not recommend the American southwest to you, though admittedly blues and jazz are a lot harder to find than they used to be.

Western Swing, though, has made something of a comeback and you can still catch some Rock-a-billy.

A Red Elvises concert is about as Star Wars weird as you can get outside of a convention.

I would agree that primers are a necessity, but purely as a supplement. An ultra detailed book at the least gives me a wealth of option to pick, choose, or ignore and at the most saves me a load of trouble.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I liked it better when it was a secret.


Though...it could be good.

 

[Morte]

Ptolus. What's Ptolus? *looks it up* Ah.

640 pages. Hmm. Makes me think of the way the World's Largest Dungeon has been reviewed -- it seems it's plain easier to GM WLD than other off-the-shelf material. There's no campaign integration issue with stitching adventures together. The stat blocks are on the page you're already looking at when you find you need them. And so on. It appears to be a great boon for a busy person who's GMing because it's their turn, not because they like making up campaigns.

I'd kill for something like this for Traveller (Trav setting/adventures are right at the other end of the usability scale, as far as you can get). I almost took up D&D to run WLD so I wouldn't have to do 4-6 hours of prep for every session.

Now what if this Ptolus book took that and ran with it. What if it included setting, and adventure, and rules, all designed to work synergystically, all easy to use. And maps, and maybe minis or battle mats for the climactic fight or who knows what. If it amounted to "a new way to publish, buy and use the material" rather than especially new material. A partial solution to the "RPGs are twenty minutes of fun packed into four hours (with the GM doing another six hours in the background)" problem.

That's something you'd have to actually see and use to appreciate. It wouldn't be obvious from a product announcement.

Well, I can hope. Who knows, maybe in another ten years a Trav publisher would copy it...

 

[JohnSnow]

I actually was speculating something of this nature on the Ryan Dancey "products other than rulebooks" thread.

I could easily see Monte using Ptolus as a vehicle to present an ultra-detailed gaming experience right out of the box. That's a hugely attractive proposition, however you feel about Ptolus itself.

If that's the case, it's a way of selling adventures in such a way that publishers can make money off them, and gamers can enjoy them. The computer gaming industry makes money selling consoles (gaming mechanics, if you will). They then make money selling toolkits of rules combined with interface and story (programs). That's an interesting paradigm for the RPG industry to consider emulating. To draw an analogy, if 3e is an Atari 2600, maybe Ptolus is "Combat." As to why Ptolus? Well...why not? Since it was Monte's campaign while 3e was in development, 3e was sorta designed for Ptolus. So if any setting can be viewed as a program for 3e, it's Ptolus.

If I'm right, and it succeeds, I predict we'll all be marking it as the moment that RPGs turned a corner.

 

[DaveMage]

At 640 pages and FULL COLOR, $75 is highly doubtful (not that I'd mind).

$90 or $100 is my bet.

I'm actually intrigued by this.

I love settings, and at 640 pages for a high-magic *city* sounds pretty damn impressive. (Especially in light of the fact that a mere 160 was just put into Waterdeep - supposedly one of the biggest cities in all D&D.) Also, since Monte is apparently passionate about this setting, I'm sure the care will have been taken to make it as good as can be.

What's not to like?

 

[ecliptic]

Chances are its 640 pages of the city and all surrounding lands. Probably even the whole world.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

This actually sounds intriguing.