Ptolus - D&D, AE, or hybrid?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Straight D&D, since it is the D&D playtest setting, after all, along with Malhavoc stuff that came out of it in the various Might books.

Having said that, since so much of it was borrowed, flavorwise, for the Lands of the Diamond Throne, I'm starting to consider picking up AU and Diamond Throne for a lot of the flavor elements, and invariably, there'd be some leakage.

 

[Stormborn]

Straight DnD (although with only 2 players I am going to use gestalt PCs). I doubt either of them wants to, but I was going to allow them to use the lithorian w/o LA but racial levels from AU (don't have the Evolved version) if they wanted.

 

[diaglo]

OD&D(1974) boxed set

 

[Stormborn]

OD&D(1974) boxed set

OK, diaglo, honest question: Is this just you being you, or are you actually planning to run or play in a Ptolus game using the 1974 rules?

 

[diaglo]

OK, diaglo, honest question: Is this just you being you, or are you actually planning to run or play in a Ptolus game using the 1974 rules?

i'm currently running an OD&D(1974) campaign. it is the only one i'm refereeing.

i'll convert the Ptolus stuff to add to the campaign somewhere. just like i did for all the other published material i use in the campaign.

 

[Desdichado]

Other than the fact that both have litorians and both were written by Cook (which are pretty weak links, IMO) why would Ptolus be any more likely to be played using the AU/AE rules or a hybrid ruleset than any other D&D setting? I'm really not seeing the connection here...

I pronounce it Ptolus. Just like it's written. 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.

Then again, I'm a bit of a linguistics g33k, so I may be alone in that opinion...

[size=-2]EDIT: Maybe that should have been lyntuystyc pgyyk?[/size]

 

[Mark Hope]

Other than the fact that both have litorians and both were written by Cook (which are pretty weak links, IMO) why would Ptolus be any more likely to be played using the AU/AE rules or a hybrid ruleset than any other D&D setting? I'm really not seeing the connection here...

There are a handful of connections between the two settings (largely derived, afaik, from the fact that they are both products of Monte's imagination). The AE giants feature in the Praemal setting, for example, along with the litorians. Loresong and quickling faen seem to have featured at one point - their names are used to represent halflings and gnomes in Ptolus. I have the impression that there are certain thematic similarities that make an AE/Ptolus hybrid something of an interesting prospect. In Monte's home games, the crossovers are even more pronounced (AE classes and races featuring in Ptolus), but I'm not sure how representative that is of the published version.

 

[Desdichado]

In other words, the connections I already mentioned, mostly.

I still don't see why using AE or a D&D/AE hybrid is a more compelling proposition for Ptolus than it is for any other D&D setting. NOTE: I'm not complaining about the prospect; I like AU/AE a lot, and could get behind using a lot of the classes in D&D games as it is. I just don't see how Ptolus is a better candidate for that than, say Eberron or Forgotten Realms is.

 

[Voadam]

D&D rules. How do you pronounce Ptolus anyway? Is the P silent?

I and my group pronounce it like "Toll Us" toll as in toll booth

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"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Other than the fact that both have litorians and both were written by Cook (which are pretty weak links, IMO) why would Ptolus be any more likely to be played using the AU/AE rules or a hybrid ruleset than any other D&D setting? I'm really not seeing the connection here...

Much of the flavor of the Land of the Diamond Throne was scooped out of Ptolus, where there were no gnomes and halflings after the playtesting was done, they were faen, etc.

The giants explicitly left the area around Ptolus and explicitly arrived in the Land of the Diamond Throne. Even if it wasn't Monte's intention that it's the same planet, it sure looks like it a lot of the time.

And hell, I'm using Freeport and Redhurst with Ptolus. Having the Land of the Diamond Throne be an off-the-map region would hardly be the biggest tweak to the setting in comparison.