Ptolus at Amazon?

[The Shaman]

Hell no. I'm not chasing a donkey unless so ordered.

That can be arranged...

I have a great picture in my head of Normand running across the rocky hills of Algeira chasing a mule.

Yeah, me too!

You check out the Ptolus stuff yet, Shaman?

Nah, no interest - if I play a fantasy game again, I'l either dust off the homebrew or use the Wilderlands.

 

[Barak]

Everybody always dumps on Normand, totally disregarding the fact that 1-He's the one holding the RPG, and 2-He has more HPs than anyone else.

 

[The Shaman]

Everybody always dumps on Normand, totally disregarding the fact that 1-He's the one holding the RPG, and 2-He has more HPs than anyone else.

Considering how he handles those grenades, he needs more hit points than anyone else!

Though I admit he came up with a pretty good plan for catching those escaping equines.

Okay, no more hijacking the Ptolus thread...

 

[Vocenoctum]

Nobody needs a discount on this stuff. It is, to be blunt, luxury goods. The thousands of dollars I spent of gaming books I 'need' is just silly.

You have folks that want a discount (i.e, they want the book, but just want to pay less) and those that need the discount (i.e., those that can't afford to buy the book without a discount). The lines are in relation to Ptolus, obviously you don't "need" it to live, but in order to get it, some people might need a discount.

And really, what we're talking about here is someone intentionally blocking people from getting a discount. I can get that discount on lots of other books, but Monte Cook says "no, not on Ptolus!".

Saying people that want to buy it on Amazon only because they want to save a few bucks is simply a strawman.

 

[Bobitron]

Well, I need a discount on a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and a nice set of Sonus Faber Amatis and Levinson amplifiers, then.

If you want something, you save the money for it or buy something else you can afford. It's unfair to say Monte is deliberatly stopping people from getting a discount. Any retailer is setting their own prices on the book. If my LGS sold a hundred copies at $100 each, you can be sure Monte would be happy with that. He's just taking a stand on the side of the LGS rather than mass-market retailers to sell his expensive product.

 

[Barak]

Perhaps, but he's sorta (not completely) coming off as Ferrari stopping the shipping of their cars to that one huge retailers that sells the cars for 40,000$, because they think a Ferrari shouldn't sell for less than 90,000$, regardless of the fact that they get the same 30,000$ per car sold.

 

[Bobitron]

Sure they would. They have a brand name to protect. Producers of expensive and exclusive items like $120 books of the sort discussed here should limit the distribution of their goods in my opinion.

 

[Turjan]

Although I don't like that I cannot buy the book at amazon, I can understand Monte. For such a small company as his, a book like this is a big financial risk. I suppose that most of the outrage comes from his stance on LGS, which I call bs on.

I just want to add one point that gets somewhat forgotten during the current discussion.

We have the amazon price of $75.59 for the Ptolus book, compared to the price of $119.99 plus shipping for the Ptolus book, the Night of Dissolution adventure and five copies of the Player's Guide. Then there's stuff like access to material on a special website and, what I personally don't care for, a signed and numbered book.

If you look closely, you will see that there is an effort to compensate for the price difference. You might not like it, and I'm not overly happy about it, either, but I can understand the reason behind it. I wouldn't want to gamble my family silver on such a project, either.

 

[Barak]

I didn't say they wouldn't, I'm saying he's coming off like they would if that happened. Which is "in it for the money exclusively". I don't believe that that's how Mr Cook is, btw.

 

[Talgian]

While I firmly stand by Monte and his decision to help the lifeblood of our hobby, the FLGS (hope I didn't say anything incendiary there ), I did see this:

http://frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=28329

I don't know if FRP will get it, but it appears, judging on what they do, that they order through the hobby channel. If that is the case, then presumably they'd be able to actually offer it at that price, minus the frills of a real (oh, there I go again ) pre-order.

-Talgian