Ptolus - D&D, AE, or hybrid?

[lukelightning]

It's simplest to stick with one system, and I like AE more (I run an AE game). However I have "D&Dified" a few of the rules, such as including fighters and rogues, and using D&D 3.5 style weapon sizing and cover rules (since they are simpler).

 

[Desdichado]

How would the p be pronounced? Puh Toll Us? PT is a nonsensensical combination to start a word IMO. It would need a vowel before it to pronounce both sounds e.g. "Apt" "opt"

That's not true at all, except from the standpoint of English. Plenty of other languages have consonant clusters that English speakers find impossible to say, but which somehow they do just fine with. How else do you think the Russians pronounce tsar or the Dneister and Dneiper rivers? How do you think the Germans pronounce the word zehn? How is it that Swahili can have initial sounds like Ng, Mb or Mv?

I'm not sure about Modern Greek, but the ancient Greeks had no problem importing a bunch of words with initial pt consonant cluster. It's not really that difficult to pronounce; I can do it, for instance. If I had a mike on this computer, I'd say it, record it, and upload it.

 

[lukelightning]

Regarding pronounciation of Ptolus: Rather than worrying about the "correct" pronounciation, embrace the ambiguity! Perhaps the Ptolus natives can spot an outsider a mile away when they do or don't pronounce the "P." Or perhaps the eastenders say "Puh-TALL-us" while the westenders say "Toll-us" or a certain social demographic says "puddle us."

How is it that Swahili can have initial sounds like Ng, Mb or Mv?

I don't know about Swahili specifically, but generally when a language has an "ng" it's a nasalized "g" pronounced just like the ng in "sing" without the "si." "Mb" is probably a nasalized b. I speak Taiwanese which has sounds like this.

 

[Ruland]

I tricked a bit.
My "Hybrid" vote means actually that I intend to do all d20 gaming from now on with the True20 system.
Including Ptolus.

 

[Arnwyn]

Straight D&D (modified for the Forgotten Realms, in fact). The litorians are the first to go.

 

[Voadam]

That's not true at all, except from the standpoint of English. Plenty of other languages have consonant clusters that English speakers find impossible to say, but which somehow they do just fine with. How else do you think the Russians pronounce tsar or the Dneister and Dneiper rivers? How do you think the Germans pronounce the word zehn? How is it that Swahili can have initial sounds like Ng, Mb or Mv?

I'm not sure about Modern Greek, but the ancient Greeks had no problem importing a bunch of words with initial pt consonant cluster. It's not really that difficult to pronounce; I can do it, for instance. If I had a mike on this computer, I'd say it, record it, and upload it.

Seeing as how I only game in English and that is how I have all my Ptolus materials English seems the proper standpoint for me to evaluate the pronunciation of Ptolus. Which would be a silent P as far as I can tell

Can you write out phonetically how you would pronounce the two together? "Puh" "Toll" is how the letters suggest to me they should be pronounced if the P is not silent as in Pfeizer or Pfeifer or Pflug.

 

[diaglo]

Can you write out phonetically how you would pronounce the two together? "Puh" "Toll" is how the letters suggest to me they should be pronounced if the P is not silent as in Pfeizer or Pfeifer or Pflug.

kinda like Ptooey... as in Yuck.

think of the castilian pronounciation of words vs the mexican version of spanish.

this is an English version of words... but instead of the lisp in castilian spanish it has a spitting p sound.

suffering sucatash... porky pig style english. Ptooey lus

 

[Desdichado]

Can you write out phonetically how you would pronounce the two together? "Puh" "Toll" is how the letters suggest to me they should be pronounced if the P is not silent as in Pfeizer or Pfeifer or Pflug.

Uhhh, yeah... Pt. You just say them together, but don't create an extra syllable to do it, like puh-toe-luss. Just Ptoe-luss.

By the way, the P is not silent in Pfeizer, Pfeifer or Pflug. Except when English speaker say them, of course. But in German you pronounce both the p and the f.

 

[prosfilaes]

Can you write out phonetically how you would pronounce the two together?

Sure, in the International Phonetic Alphabet, it would be /pt/. You could pronounce Ptolus as /ptolus/, although the vowels are quite questionable there.

 

[hexgrid]

Silent P before T only applies to English words that are of Greek extraction, which is nonsensical in this context. Adding a P and then not pronouncing it is just as weak and silly as randomly changing vowels to y just to give a "fantasy feel" to your names.

It's sort of pointless to quibble about nonsensical etymology of words in a fantasy setting, isn't it? How would you get past the fact that Ptolus uses the English alphabet? It's not possible for it to make sense.