GC 2006 - Ptolus Hardback $120!?!

[Kvantum]

Why do I get the feeling that there will be only a few pre-orders... until the Player's Guide gets its free pdf release in May?

 

[tetsujin28]

Monte must be in financial trouble to soak the gaming community for this kind of bread.

I roll my eyes. Roll, roll.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

It looks absolutely beautiful so far, which is a good thing, I suppose.

More power to you, Mr. Cook. I love to see barriers of design pushed, and I love the fact that companies are starting to click with the fact that this is a hobby that can support high end, prestige products.

Patrick Y.

 

[2WS-Steve]

The previews look terrific -- gorgeous and well organized for use. I like the travelogue format and featured NPCs and so on in the sidebars.

As far as price goes -- I thought World's Largest Dungeon was worth it's $100 tag and 120 seems reasonable for this. And I love big, ultra-detailed cities. Someday I'll be able to run a campaign with Ptolus, City State of the Invincible Overlord, World's Largest City, Freeport, and Bluffside.

 

[Corwyn_kop]

A payment plan? A payment plan...Im not sure if this is utterly absurd or brilliant hehe. I can see my monthly checklist now. mortgage...car...insurance...ptolus... For some reason the option of a payment plan is making me completely reconsider a product I hadnt planned on giving a second glance at (well maybe a second or third if it is really pretty). Do we have to pass a credit check?


Corwyn

 

[Numion]

A payment plan? A payment plan...Im not sure if this is utterly absurd or brilliant hehe. I can see my monthly checklist now. mortgage...car...insurance...ptolus...

To be honest when I read the monthly payment thing, I immediately thought about "Weird Pete" from Knights of the Dinner Table .. something he would do

 

[rounser]

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.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Speaking of Chaosium, they did have at least two special editions and they were both costly. I remember one was like $75 with a terrycloth and green leather cover and gold Cthulhu symbol on the cover and only saw the other one at Cons.

Years ago, I remember getting a flyer catalog from Chaosium. It asked if people would be interested in a huge, deluxe Call of Cthulhu adventure. It would cost about a $100 (and that was wayyyy back in the 80s (as I recall), mind you), but would include handouts and props, such as an idol that the investigators were supposed to find. It sounded cool, so I replied that i'd definitely want one if/when it was published. Never heard anything else about it, except that the adventure eventually became "Horror on the Orient Express," which was a boxed set, but not of the size of the product they initially talked about.

Anyway, this Ptolus product reminds a lot of that, except it looks like this one will get published as promised.

 

[BryonD]

and I love the fact that companies are starting to click with the fact that this is a hobby that can support high end, prestige products.

Patrick Y.

Now that I agree with competely.

I'm not really in the market for campaign settings. But the price itself isn't a problem and I'd love to see other high end products come down the pipe.


And the art does rock. Who knows, maybe I'll buy this just as an indulgence. It could be a good read and simply fun to own. Sigh, first dent in my armor.

 

[Frozen DM]

That said, I'm not going to apologize for putting together a deluxe book with a fantastic cover, amazing artwork, high quality paper, handouts, a full color poster map, and so on. Personally, I think the game industry deserves some really kick-ass high end products as well as the smaller, less-expensive ones, like our 32-page Player's Guide to Ptolus that we're releasing in May for $1.99 (yep, that's 2 bucks for the print version, and the pdf will be free).

Nor should you. I personally love the fact that the game industry is experimenting more and more with both the quality (in terms of physical presentation) and size of products. I remember not too long ago people being incredulous at the size and cost of the World's Largest Dungeon.

The game industry needs a broad range of products, from small, concise pdfs, to large deluxe products. If the market can support these products I say more power to the publishers. I don't remember who said it, but a few years back there was some discussion (maybe here, or maybe on newsnet) about the need for high-end products, products breaking the $100 barrier. How the industry could afford to finally expand out to this market. We've started seeing that in the last year, and I think it makes for an exciting time in the industry.

I'm personally glad to see Malhavoc taking this step and look forward to reading more about the book.