GC 2006 - Ptolus Hardback $120!?!

[JRRNeiklot]

120 bucks??? Plus shipping? That's like 6 lap dances plus cover charge! If Monte throws in a lap dance, I'll consider it.

 

[lanzaren]

cheeseburger tax

and really you only get 12 minutes of satisfaction from those dances.

I pre-ordered. After reading the Ptolus campaign journals I have always wanted to run a campaign like that. Now I am given the resources to do it. I play every week on mondays from 6-10:30. So far my AE campaign is at lvl 11, we have been playing for 11 months and three weeks. Ptolus is giving me enough material to run a solid cohesive adventure from lvls 1-15 easy. So with that theory, $120 divided by a years worth of playing hours is $0.58 an hour.
(52 weeks times 4 hours divided by cost)

$0.38 a game for 5 players and myself. I pay more on chesseburger tax.

See you in Ptolus!

 

[Numion]

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.

This thread seems to go from one extreme to another, doesn't it? I would prefer to have a selection of different size and prize modules. There would be little point in every module be a 100 dollar book for 20 levels .. sometimes you need less, sometimes more.

When different publishers were year or two back asking what people would like, I mentioned (like many others) a great big 20 level campaign in one go (a series of books, BIG book, whatever). Now there are many. I'm happy. 60, 120 smackaroos to eliminate almost all of my prep work (which I seem to be less interest in doing the more normal work I have, or the more .. friggin adult I have to be). Now, I've made a couple of pretty good adventures in my lifetime if I do say so myself - but whole campaigns? I'll have to concede that the Dungeon staff or Mr. Cook got me on that one.

 

[JoeBlank]

Wow.

Looking at the pre-order extras has wowwed me.

I'll probably never use Ptolus, but I am pretty certain that I will buy it. Signed and numbered does little to nothing for me, but all the extra goodies put this over the top.

Wow.

 

[freebfrost]

I was looking at getting it anyways, but I just went ahead and did the preorder today - it really does make it easier for budgeting purposes and with all the extras offered, well... that just made it that even easier to do.

Looking forward to it Monte!

 

[Yair]

I just spent 130$ on roleplaying purchases, actually. But that was for three books, one of which is indeed a whole campaign. Plus shipping, that's like another book (30$).
With shipping & handling, I'm guessing I'll have to pay about 150$ for this book. :shudders: Possible, but only if it looks REALLY promising. Definitely not as a preorder, or before I read about a dozen reviews.

 

[trancejeremy]

This at least is a better value than $10 32 page modules. If you buy $120 worth of them, you'll have what, 12, with a total of about 384 pages (Less, since you'll have the credits and OGL 12 times). This is twice that size of that.

The only problem I have with this is its potential to injure people. I had Traveller 20 fall on my head, and that hurt. This is twice that size - it could kill people. Better have a warning label...

 

[Henry]

The only problem I have with this is its potential to injure people. I had Traveller 20 fall on my head, and that hurt. This is twice that size - it could kill people. Better have a warning label...

ALL of this tells me NOTHING, however. Pure pointless blathering.

What I MUST Know about Ptolus, is...


,,,,Can it stop a bullet?

I estimate that the book will be 2.25 inches thick , and I've known of people who say that their 1st edition Oriental Adventures had stopped a pen knife thrown at close range -- what caliber of slug would this book stop?


You people really make me want to buy it. Has anyone taken a close look at the downloadable preview pages that are up? That thing is going to have some sharp art, nice maps, and a fantastic layout. I'm not kidding when I say that, based on Ed Greenwood's comments about the Forgotten Realms at Gencon '03, it's everything he wanted to see in a proper Realms Encyclopedia.

 

[Barak]

It's not really surprising.. We're talking about one of the most successful game designers (wether you like him or not has little to do with this), spending what, a full year doing nothing but preparing his personal campaign for publication.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Well, I had no idea the thread would end up this contentious when I started it, jeez.

My big problem with the book's price is that 120 bucks is a third of my GenCon book budget. It's definitely tempting, but... I just can't justify spending 120 bucks on it at GenCon just to get an autographed copy. Likely I'll go the Amazon route, too. $79 is a lot more palatable than $119.99 or whatever it will turn out to be.

Whoa - you'll spend $360 on books at GenCon? Yikes, that's my gaming budget for a year and half! Of course if I actually got to GenCOn I'd probably not buy anything locally for months beforehand. Of course now you'll have to be burned at the stake for not supporting your local games store