GC 2006 - Ptolus Hardback $120!?!

[Staffan]

Either that or he's been writing non-stop for the last twelve months and his editor's in China.

Well, the last Malhavoc books that consisted mainly of new material and were written by Monte were Book of Hallowed Might II and Legacy of the Dragons (I don't count the AU Grimoire, since it was mainly converting stuff from the Eldritch Might series, nor Arcana Evolved since it didn't have all that much actually new material). I think both were released pre-Drivethru, so they have the same DTRPG release date: June 3rd 2004... which was more than a year ago. So yes, Monte seems to have spent most of the last year on writing Ptolus.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I'm usually an amazon purchaser, but I may pre-order depending on the answers to the questions I had above.

It's a very sweet pre-order package, IMO.

It sure is. It makes it very difficult to not do so, especially with the payment plan. The payment plan is what sent Ptolus from being merely interesting-I'll-take-a-look-when-it-comes-out to I'm-thisclose-to-buying.

 

[Mystery Man]

It's the price of gas that's driving up the price of Monte's books! He has to fill up his tank too you know.

But then again so do I.

Just a whack-job theory I'm tossing out there to stir up the pot...

 

[Crothian]

Wow. Why the fuss? Gamers have been paying these kind of prices in the CCG market for some time now - a full box of Magic boosters runs $129 and I've watched guys buy two to five boxes when a new set comes out.

and they complain about prices too. you can'y judge the product by the complaints it gets now.

 

[Piratecat]

Monte must be in financial trouble...

Actually, I'd argue the reverse. To be able to produce a really high-end, gorgeous book with a ton of pages suggests stability and decent financial resources in order to fund the writing and production effort.

Admin hat on: While there's nothing wrong with discussing RPG companies' financial state, please make sure you do so in a way that doesn't come across as offensive.

 

[fuindordm]

If it had been a 40-60 dollar Plotus campaign book with B&W interior art on the level of AU or Iron Heroes, then there's no way I would buy it--it would sound like "just another campaign setting" to me.

Ironically, the higher price tag (and preview information) increases my confidence that this is a book I might actually use. With that high a page count, the level of detail should be high enough to make DMing almost effortless. With the full color, high quality interior art and maps, I know that I could give lots of stuff to the players to help them immerse themselves into the setting. The player's guide idea is brilliant--I so wish that Eberron had had something like that.

So now I'm wrestling over whether or not to buy it, even if only for bedtime reading and idea mining. But I have no doubts that the price tag is appropriate.

Ben

 

[Pants]

120 isn't that much money. I've noticed that in the ordinary business of life there are random, unexpected costs you just have to pay, of that caliber and even larger. (Like, for example, noticing that my old suit doesn't fit me, and I need to buy a new one for graduation - 170 euros *PLONK*) Unexpected costs of that size, and larger, haven't wrecked my budget thus far .. so an expected cost of that size doesn't worry me too much.

Yeah, well buying a suit for an important occasion and buying a luxury item are kinda different. One you kinda need, the other, not so much.

 

[teitan]

What? You're shocked at the outrage? When I was younger and worked at a gas station, when cigs went from $2.00 to $2.25 I had people cursing me out as if I were the cause of the problem.

People are emotional and see strange signs in the entrails of their pray.

I can relate to this, I live in a small town and work in a restaurant, not fast food though, and recently Columbus instituted a smoking ban. Well people from Columbus come down and when I ask if they want to sit in smoking or non I get the dirtiest looks and occasionally I get berated. I even had one guy call me a dumb a$$ redneck and ignorant a$$ because we have a smoking section... I am not even from around here and if you know me, redneck and dumb and ignorant are not words that apply to me by any means. I actually told this guy off politely and said if you don't like that we have a smoking section you can leave. I have never been more offended in my life. His family was apologizing and telling him to shut up and before I finally broke down, I told him off AFTER HE HAD COME UP TO THE REGISTER just to chew me out some more, he had been demanding corporates phone number! The family said they weren't even from around here but about 500 miles away!

Jason

 

[teitan]

Lastly, there's a list of our publishing partners with this product, including a few details of the upcoming Ptolus comic book series.

Monte... you sure you want to work with the Dabel Brothers? They seem "inconsistent" and "controversial" in their dealings to be polite...

Jason

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Hooray!

I hope this, and WLD, put multiple nails in the coffins of 32 page adventures and settings that contain only useless high level detail because of their page counts.

Unless improvised, I strongly suspect that a D&D campaign with exceptional depth requires this kind of page count.

So you would rather there only be mega books like this and no 32 page 12.99 adventures I can buy, tinker with a bit, and then drop into my Greyhawk game for a few sessions of fun? I'm not sure what your statement is trying to say I guess.