GC 2006 - Ptolus Hardback $120!?!

[Vocenoctum]

And why doesn't it do it for you? Not Ptolus, but ANY book? Why can't one book be worth $120?

Why would it? Call it the law of diminishing returns, but once you hit a point, the eyes glaze over and the further material is wasted. The book is too big to handle easily, too big to curl up with and use.

But, what it comes down to is "in my opinion, there's no one book that would be worth $120 to me".

 

[mythusmage]

... and I know at least one person here who could probably afford to buy this for the 1000 people on EN World right now ...

If he needs my address he can contact me through the email link in my sig. Or he could visit my blog (you can find it through my site) and make a donation there.

 

[mythusmage]

Right, hence why I said a mid-range product with less frills could be cheaper.
But really, asking someone to justify 640 pages of content when 130 of them are art, isn't really fair!

Because we're visual animals. We get things faster when they're illustrated, when we can see what's being talked about. For text to be as useful as text an pictures it has to be very well written. Even then things will be missed that wouldn't if there were illustrations to, well, illustrate the subject.

And properly used pictures set the tone. Check out Iron Kingdoms: World Guide some time. The interior illustrations do a damn good job of setting the feel of the place. There's a reason why they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[mythusmage]

Well that's the $120 question, isn't it... What I want to know is what people are seeing in this book that is worth dropping that kind of money on sight unseen? As I pointed out earlier, everything I've read about Ptolus (so far) seems to suggest that it's just another standard D&D city - so what am I missing here?

It not just another standard D&D city, it's Monte's D&D city.

 

[Crothian]

If he needs my address he can contact me through the email link in my sig. Or he could visit my blog (you can find it through my site) and make a donation there.

Alan, hold your breathe....

 

[mythusmage]

Ptolus is just a city? Tell me good people, how well do you know your home town? I live in a city. A big one at that. In this town's 413 square miles you have far more going on than gets covered by the local news. So it's not all save the world stuff. To a leather worker a low level sorcerer pilfering fresh hides for experimentation is a big deal. And who knows where the investigaton might lead?

Back when I first started playing we made a trip to the city. We soon learned to rest up in the dungeon, where it was safe, before making expeditions into town.

 

[mythusmage]

Alan, hold your breathe....

The last time I tried that I still didn't get the neato toy being adventised on tv. (Mr. Robot I think it was. Got it for Christmas instead. Wore out the play potential inside an hour.)

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Also, you're paying $35 and getting a book now, as opposed to paying $20 now, $10 for the next 10 months, and getting nothing until the end. (I'm not sure why folks would pay the $120 now, you're not losing anything between now and next year. Preordering later should make more sense...)

Some people get paid by the month, and so a larger number of smaller payments affects them less.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Actually, my position is "why can't it be a 550 page book with a normal cover for $60".

I rather suspect that the nifty binding, CD, and handouts aren't actually contributing that much to the price. Maybe $10-$20, $30 at most.

Brad (who would buy Ptolus in a heartbeat if owning it meant my characters are forever immune to energy drain!)

 

[Sundragon2012]

With a payment plan in place, I see nothing wrong with the $120 cost. The payment plan makes moot these arguments about accessibility. Nearly anyone can afford the payment plan and if they can't afford the low monthly payments, they couldn't afford the book at $100, $80, 0r even $60 dollars upfront.

Because Ptolus isn't my campaign world I wouldn't be paying $120 for it right out of my pocket, but I am going to shell out a couple dollars a month to get a beautifully produced book with great crunchy bits and great fluff and maybe some good OGL mechanics I can borrow for my own work. I am placing my pre-order on monday.


Chris