Ptolus, where's the grab?

[ShinHakkaider]

The grab for me was that it was familiar, but not vanilla enough to bore me.

Ebberron turned me off because it just kinda screams "look at me!!! I'm cool!!!" which might be true, but I'm someone who likes to discover how cool things are at my own pace and not have it shoved in my face. I have the the setting book for Ebberron and it's OK. I was really skeptical about Ptolus as well until I read a few of the PDF's and took the plunge and bought the book. Best RPG purchase that I made last year. Like I said familiar but not too familiar, everything that I needed to run a campaign in the city in one book and the organization of it was pretty awesome.

 

[hexgrid]

I’ve perused the Ptolus website, read the reviews and players feedback in forums but I still can’t find anything that really grabs me. It just doesn’t seem to be anything different than any other fantasy setting released in the past few decades.

Honestly, if you've already done all this, I don't think you're gong to learn anything new in this thread... if it doesn't grab you, it doesn't grab you.

But some of what interested me in Ptolus:

-I was already a big fan of Monte Cook
-I was attracted to the shear spectacle of it's size and ambition
-I like that D&D assumptions are fully embraced, and that the setting is designed from the ground up to facilitate D&D play from levels 1-20.
-I had never run a campaign based around one single location, and wanted to give it a try.

 

[Nebulous]

I have Ptolus and enjoy reading it, although i've not run a pure game from it yet. I did run a solo adventure for a PC, Vale of the Sepulchre by Expedious Retreat, and i had to shoehorn that plot into the Ptolus cosmology. The beautiful thing about it though is that there were SO many hooks and nuances to the Ptolus book that made it an easy fit to the adventure. There were gods and organizations that fit perfectly with the player's preconceived character background, and there are long-reaching implications of the adventure that can easily segue into a full city adventure, as well as reinforcing the character's theme of being a cleric who lost his faith but still receives spells. Why? He doesn't know, but the Ptolus book has some ideas for any DM who wants to make some connections.

So yeah, it's nothing new (and a lot of it reminds me of Warhammer too) but what is there is really nicely done. But it's not for everyone. If you have Eberron and love it then there's not really a good way to make Ptolus fit as it is more than just a city. It really is a whole campaign setting and you would have to ignore a lot of it to make it jive with Eberron.

 

[Harker Wade]

I like both Eberron and Ptolus. I'm currently running a Ptolus game, but I've thrown in things from Eberron (Artificer, dragonshards, dragonmarks & Warforged) and from Iron Kingdoms (some of the firearms and Steamjacks). And everything seems to fit fine. As for flavour - Ptolus has plenty of it. I would suggest reading the Ptolus campaign journals. They are what hooked me years ago...

 

[satori01]

Ptolus Flavor I Love:

1) Galchutt- love these guys! Great name, great feel. Chaos Cultist/Ratman/ Chaositech makes for some fun times.

2) Chaositech: This deserves its own Number. When used well Chaositech is a bit of a moral quandary. The items are interesting, and often powerful, but you risk your soul and others soul while using them. Of course many players will be unaware of that fact when theyloot it. The concept of Chaoisitech is Intriguing to me, it is Anti-Science. A science based off utter randomness, which is really the opposite of science in general. Great Fun!!

3) Organizations: the groups in the book are great. There are a number of different organizations with their own goals, own agendas, and loyalties that are well mapped out, logically consistent, and like the real world, often sometimes have allies that count as strange bedfellows.

My own Ptolus campaign tries to capture the feel of living in an Empire, that like the Roman Empire, is slowly losing Cohesion, coupled with a Warhammeresque rise of dark Chaos forces and a corresponding rise of Inquisition like return of the Dominant religion, coupled with a wild west, boomtown/gold rush feel that is the new industry of 'Delving into the labyrinth below.

I find it an interesting blend, and rather exciting. The great thing about Ptolus is it logically, and effectively combines quite a few tropes, so whatever trope(s) one wishes to place emphasis on, can been done rather easily.

 

[BlackMoria]

You are comparing Eberron to Ptolus. A proper comparsion is Sharn to Ptolus. I have both and, for me, Ptolus wins hands down in the flavor department.

 

[Psion]

You are comparing Eberron to Ptolus. A proper comparsion is Sharn to Ptolus. I have both and, for me, Ptolus wins hands down in the flavor department.

Ptolus wins for me in the "actually has a fold-out map" department.

Rassin' frassin.... publishing a city book without a map... what were they thinking?

 

[Psion]

2) Chaositech: This deserves its own Number. When used well Chaositech is a bit of a moral quandary. The items are interesting, and often powerful, but you risk your soul and others soul while using them. Of course many players will be unaware of that fact when theyloot it. The concept of Chaoisitech is Intriguing to me, it is Anti-Science.

The concept is intriguing... too bad about the rules.

 

[Desdichado]

You are comparing Eberron to Ptolus. A proper comparsion is Sharn to Ptolus. I have both and, for me, Ptolus wins hands down in the flavor department.

Yes... and no. With Sharn, you're still "expected" to actually leave Sharn to embark on major adventures, although there is a fair amount of possibility for things to do within Sharn. But it's been designed and developed accordingly--much of the storyhooks lie in patrons or whatnot that will send the PCs away from Sharn. To Xen'drik or something, for example.

With Ptolus, you're actually expected to stay within Ptolus and it's immediate surroundings for an entire campaign. It's designed and developed accordingly.

 

[BlackMoria]

With Ptolus, you're actually expected to stay within Ptolus and it's immediate surroundings for an entire campaign. It's designed and developed accordingly.

I don't get that impression at all, but that's me. Ptolus is meant to go into a campaign world (Monte's world was called Praemal) but since Praemal was never designed to be released as a product, only very basic information about outside of Ptolus is provided.

The assumption is that each DM will decide where and how Ptolus fits into his campaign world. Ptolus is more a campaign within a campaign rather than a campaign all to itself but it serves both roles well. In Monte's campaign, his group(s) made frequent excursions outside of Ptolus.

Sharn reads the same way to a degree, at least to me. The only difference is that the world outside of the city of Sharn is detailed. Sharn can also be a campaign within a campaign or a campaign all to itself.

I think the comparison is fair. Ptolus is better product all around than Sharn, but my opinion - YMMV as always.