Ptolus - Support

[Thomas Percy]

This will be an art pack with concept arts of various buildings, streets and some trickets (as a book from the bookstore) described in Ptolus with some text pasted from the Ptolus book.

 

[Monte At Home]

Well, I have to say I want it wrapped up in a nice bow and presented to me!

Like some of the older crowd on the board, I am in my mid thirties, my gaming group is all in the same age range. Most have kids, my wife and I are thinking of having kids. My time is limited, but I like to game when we can all get together.

So if my gaming group is interested in the product, I need to know how much the book encompasses. Making up a lot of starter material/adventure jump off points is not something that interests me highly (the end result of Dawnforge, the expected consequence of Wilderlands).

I think you may be thinking of this product a little incorrectly. It's not the beginning of a line, it is the line. Oh sure, I reserve the right to set the next adventure I write in Ptolus if it strikes me to do so, or whatever, but the Ptolus package is meant to be everything you need, particularly with the inclusion of the Night of Dissolution adventure, which you get for free if you preorder through us or your local retailer. All the adventures, all the locations, the NPCs, the organizations, etc. If you the kind of DM who wants it all laid out for you, Ptolus will serve you well (there's plenty of room for expansion, as well, if you're the kind of DM who wants to make it up on your own). I wrote about this in more depth in this article.

Will there be future Ptolus content from Malhavoc? It's possible. Maybe even likely. But it will be purely add-on. The book has all you need to run a full campaign without really any prep work (besides reading, and deciding which location/adventure to use next). It has all you need to run a couple of campaigns if you're willing to do some work.

That said, as others have noted, there's a lot of cool Ptolus support in the form of miniatures, map products, counters, and so on as well. There's even a Ptolus comic book, the first issue of which comes out next week. I highly recommend checking those out as well--Paizo Publishing, Skeletonkey Games, Fiery Dragon and DBPro.

 

[Monte At Home]

I havn't seen any Arcana Evolved titles in over a year.

The Spell Treasury, an AE hardcover, came out just a couple of months ago. Transcendence and came out last June. Ruins of Intrigue came out last April. AE itself came out only just over a year ago, actually.

It is true that we don't churn out lots of books every month like other publishers. We have a different approach and a different strategy. We like to think of every Malhavoc book as sort of an event. Quality over quantity, as they say. (That's not a slam against other publishers. Many of them put out quality as well. I can only speak for Malhavoc, and Malhavoc's approach.)

I certainly hope Ptolus is everything people want it to be because it's likely that what you see is what you get.

I agree.

 

[DaveMage]

I bet Forge Studios did their art first.


Peace and smiles

j.

Well, lest I sound all negative, I want to point out that I *do* like their work - I just want it to match.

 

[BSF]

I believe that your question is akin to asking if there will be future support of "Worlds Largest Dungeon" in that it is both a setting and an adventure path.

Personally I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that Ptolus will be of good quality.

That being said Malhavoc, seems to be falling into the "too many settings" trap IMHO.

Just when Arcana Evolved started to be a "well rounded playable world" they released Iron Heros.

I havn't seen any Arcana Evolved titles in over a year.

Now that Iron Heros has built up it's following the company has focused all it's attention on Ptolus.

I certainly hope Ptolus is everything people want it to be because it's likely that what you see is what you get.

I can see where you are coming from and your perception is certainly justifiable. But remember that Malhavoc is a relatively small company. I believe Mike Mearls was responsible for Iron Heroes and since Mr Mearls has moved on to WotC, the support for Iron Heroes would be harder to do given the time spent on Ptolus.

I'm not saying you are wrong. I just think you are seeing more the impact of production schedules and differing projects than a changing commitment to product lines. Monte's attention was focused on Ptolus during the time period that Iron Heroes support would have been in development. Whether there will be more support for AE and IH in the future, I don't know.

Back on topic, I am not sure how much support will be needed. There is a lot of projected material in the book and CD. There appears to be some third party support being lined up and Monte might decide to release new material. But what kind of support are you looking for? More adventures? The lands around Ptolus? Even more NPCs? This monstrosity of a book might be so big that a Ptolus focused supplement might be challenging in itself.

 

[SSquirrel]

BardStephenFox took the words out of my mouth. Monte was busy w/Ptolus while Mearls was doing IH stuff. We still saw Transcendence and other products make the light of day during the last year and AE isn't the kind of setting that Monte is going to turn into FR. Meaning, you won't have players KNOWING what is on the corner of Waterdeep 2 blocks away. Or a muc hmore obscure city. W/the well detailed Ptolus maps, you just MAY know what's on those corners heh.

Ptolus is ridiculously well detailed, tons of adventure hooks, a couple of main Adventure Paths, the Delver's Guild site for us pre-orders, etc etc. Monte could never put out another Ptolus book and most of us would never use everything found in the main book, cdrom and Delver's Guild site. I know I'm copying everything from the DG site and saving it for later use

 

[woodelf]

That being said Malhavoc, seems to be falling into the "too many settings" trap IMHO.

Just when Arcana Evolved started to be a "well rounded playable world" they released Iron Heros.

Arcana Unearthed wasn't initially a setting. Frankly, i wish it had stayed that way--the large %age of Diamond Throne content in Arcana Evolved was one of the main things that prevented me buying it. Iron Heroes isn't a setting and, unless i missed a product, the supplements haven't created one for it yet, either. Most of Malhavoc's non-AE, non-IH products are either settingless or set in the same world as Ptolus. I don't see the problem.

There's no such thing as 'too many settings'--there's just 'too little support for the one you like'. And, for all we know, Diamond Throne (frex) is getting the same level of effort devoted to it as if Ptolus and IH never happened. Maybe the AE/DT products are coming out just as fast as Monte has good ideas for them, and without other products in between, we'd just see bigger gaps, rather than more of something else.

 

[woodelf]

I read the Player's Guide last night and it was cool. i've already pre-ordered, based on 1) Arcana Evolved which just rocked. and 2) the online previews for Ptolus. That was enough to convince it will be a winner.

I don't like everything Malhavoc puts out, but most of it is great stuff that injects some real sense of fantasy back into my fantasy.

Yeah, the particular things that have me torn right now are:

• I've been wanting a super-deluxe, super-detailed fantasy city setting for a couple decades.
• How useful will Ptolus be for not-D&D3E, and for that matter non-D20 System play? (Maybe Monte will answer this question, since he's missed it when i've asked on the Malhavoc forums.)
• I absolutely love Malhavoc's crunch. I'm merely luke-warm on the fluff--generally speaking, averaged over all the products to date. There are some Malhavoc products where i love the fluff and won't use the crunch as-is. But i'm pretty sure Ptolus is mostly fluff--so will i like the fluff?
• Diamand Throne leaves me cold. Should i use this as an indicator of what i'll think of a different Monte setting?
• Arcana Unearthed rocks on toast, and i love every word of it. It's the game that got me playing D&D again, and the book that convinced me to buy D20 System. (No way i'm ever playing D&D using the D&D3[.5]E rules again.) Should i use this as an indicator of what i'll think of Ptolus?
• I still think Arcana Unearthed is one of the best-looking RPGs of all time, and perhaps the best-looking D20 System book; I think Arcana Evolved is down-right ugly. Yes, i know, (1) tastes will vary and (2) that doesn't affect the content. Except for readability issues--what's with all the red text in AE?
• I'm a bibliophile. A part of me wants this book for the book, with the gorgeous layout and nice paper and bound-in bookmarks and so on, irrespective of the value of the content to me.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

The Spell Treasury, an AE hardcover, came out just a couple of months ago. Transcendence and came out last June. Ruins of Intrigue came out last April. AE itself came out only just over a year ago, actually.

To be honest I was not counting Spell Treasury because it seemed to be primarily a compilation of material previously published seperately. I didn't notice alot of new content.

I forgot Transcendence, which was new content and was published in the last year (11 1/2 months ago to be specific). So I stand corrected.

Also while there has been limited "official" content diamondthrone.com has some good fan articals. Not to mention that I game with Bill Collins (a.k.a. Valinor Abroad) a couple of times a year. So I probably shouldn't complain.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Hey Mav, that's very cool of you to say so! I should say that I'm lucky enough to be able to game with you a couple times a year. 8) Not to be a complete pimp, but what about Tell It To My Axe or Akashic Nodes or Circle of Rites ? While not "official" Malhavoc stuff, those are AE products.

Now, with respect to the Ptopic at hand, are folks looking for more "player-oriented" crunch for Ptolus? DMs will get a complete "setting in a box" plus an insanely cool bunch of miniatures. (I'm right now trying to figure out a way to get a second job to be able to afford the whole line.) Players get to use any D&D or AE or heck, portions of IH* products in Ptolus that their DM allows. Then there's Book of Roguish Luck, which has a ton of stuff highly usable in a city campaign. I'm just wondering what's missing for the player?

*I can definitely see Iron Heroes stunts and zones in Ptolus, along with more stuff out of the Book of Iron Might.