Dragon 334, Malhavoc's Surprise = Ptolus

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Showoff.

That's normally pronounced "linguist," but I think of myself as a descriptivist, rather than a proscriptivist, so I don't meant to correct you, but only to point out that you have employed an interesting innovation here.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

There's a picture of the cover in Dragon. Or what I presume is the cover. Technically, it could be a very nice looking piece of artwork that is going to be the basis for a very unusual toothpaste advertisement, but I doubt it.

Showoff.

 

[Odhanan]

I for one am thrilled with this announcement. Ptolus is a campaign that brought some of the most imaginative third edition designers together around the game table. Ptolus grew with this gaming experience and D&D became better for it, since the "City By The Spire" was created around the D&D rules, and not the reverse.

Perhaps this is what can be the most appealing to fans of D&D that are also interested somehow in game design: this idea that Ptolus in fact was one of the big playtests (if not *the* one) that brought us 3E as we know it. Usually, the core rules are bent to fit a particular setting. Here with Ptolus this is just the reverse. This is the archetypal D&D as seen in the mind of some of its prominent designers.

Now, that's also a city book. And a huge adventure book. And loads of various factions, noble houses, groups and guilds that could be adapted to nearly any type of homebrew. The undercity and warrens could easily serve as inspirations for Undermountain for instance.

To get an idea of what I'm talking about, you can read about Ptolus here:
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?ptolus

I'm really looking forward to this one!

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

The cover looks sweet!

http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?mpress_Ptolus
Okay. Clearly, you are, once again, correct. I defer to your wisdom, and now I really want this book.

[sblock]I still want my copy of Dragon 334, though.[/sblock]