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What is Ptolus anyway?
- Thread starter DM-Rocco
- Start date
Ratmen - heavily infulence by chaos, most you'll encounter will be of the forms of ratlings (small humanoids), ratlords (medium humanoids) or ratbrutes (large humanoids). Their society as a whole does not create anything they steal everything they desire and they desire magic and technology the most.
I'm not sure what the big deal was with availability. I was considering purchasing it from an online vendor via Ebay, who was selling it at $87.50 CDN. In this particular case, I've ordered from that vendor a few times now, and I trust him, as everything's come through ok. He had it in hand.....then I walked into my local FLGS, and they had it for $120 CDN. It was just sitting there, with 5 copies of the players guide, the print version of Night of Dissolution, and everything. I did the numbers, and when you add $24 for shipping to Canada to $87, and then the $10-20 in duties I'd likely get charged at the border, and I figured for the $5 difference, may as well pick it up locally.
I can definitely see the quality is there.....but I'm not sure the book is for me. I'll have to finish looking through it. It's excellent in quality....I'm just not sure how much use I'll get from it. But, I could probably do an entire campaign with it so...of course, it's so big, I've just flipped through it so far. It's difficult to really get a feel for the whole thing until I really dig into it, which will likely be a few more days before I can start.
Banshee
I can definitely see the quality is there.....but I'm not sure the book is for me. I'll have to finish looking through it. It's excellent in quality....I'm just not sure how much use I'll get from it. But, I could probably do an entire campaign with it so...of course, it's so big, I've just flipped through it so far. It's difficult to really get a feel for the whole thing until I really dig into it, which will likely be a few more days before I can start.
Banshee
DM-Rocco
Explorer
I decided to buy it. I have a friend who works in a game shop and scored me a copy for $90.
I was hoping for the Amazon route, I could have saved serious cash, but that didn't seem an option.
My wife said it counts as my birthday present, but i think I may open it early
This is by far the most expensive book I have every bought.![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Thanks for all the advice. Now, I hope I like it as much as all of you guys.
I was hoping for the Amazon route, I could have saved serious cash, but that didn't seem an option.
My wife said it counts as my birthday present, but i think I may open it early
This is by far the most expensive book I have every bought.
Thanks for all the advice. Now, I hope I like it as much as all of you guys.
Jürgen Hubert
First Post
Mistwell said:
OK, let's add it up.
Ptolus costs $120.
The Banewarrens cost $6.67 in PDF form.
Chaositech costs $6.00 in PDF form.
"Night of Dissolution" is not available in PDF form yet, as far as I can see, but since it is smaller than the other two, let's assign a value of $5.00 to it.
Substracting all these from $120 leaves us with $102.33.
Dividing that by its 672 pages gives us a per-page-price of about $0.15/page.
This is slightly more expensive than the WotC campaign settings (though still cheaper than their hardcover supplements), but since we are not taking about WotC but a smaller company that can't afford to print books in such a high volume, I am willing to make this minor concession here.
In other words, I bought it and am very happy with it.
Infernal Teddy
Explorer
Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Am I the only one who read that in the book and thought of the Giants from AE?
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Lots of people did. Playing "spot the AE element in Ptolus" is one of the fun elements of the Big Book, especially since things are so muddy with where they came from originally. (OTOH, this means pretty much everything Malhavoc has come out with can be mined for Ptolus games -- the Book of Eldritch Might is even mentioned explicitly in the Big Book as a powerful artifact, for instance.)Infernal Teddy said:
Varianor Abroad
Explorer
Being as how the giant race in AE calls itself Hu-Charad, I'm not at all surprised. If you read one of the Design Diaries, and Benris' journal at montecook.com, you learn that Sue Cook wanted to play a giant, so Monte worked it into the story. She's probably the only giant in Ptolus, but it's a darn cool element. One other "AE-esque" element that exists - again very minor - is that the gnomes call themself "faen" and do not have chalky gray skin and big noses....
Ptolus is a hive of scum and villainy with great restaurants.
It is not a location, it is many locations, each of which could provide an evening's entertainment if the players aren't careful. It's the sort of place where you don't need formal adventures. You could do a 1st through 20th campaign based just on how PCs and NPCs get along. Introduce them to the Balcazar crime family some time, and watch as your players dig themselves in deep.
Ptolus is really a city guide. Albeit a fantasy city. It is a guide to the city, the people that live in it, points of interest, and items of interest. It is a place that will kill the fool and reward the prudent. A place where demons can have honor, and devas be treacherous. It is a place where people live.
Ptolus is not a place where you have encounters. It's a place where you meet people, sometimes get involved with them. A place where you might end up helping somebody out, or stopping their schemes. Where others might aid you, or stymie your plans. It's the kind of place where a good GM is ready to go with the players, if they decide to help the potter with his cart load. Ptolus helps those who improvise well.
Ptolus is life, with all its upsets and confusions. Life with its disappointments and rewards. Times of boredom and times of excitement. Times when the tension stretches your nerves so taut you'd scream at a zephy's touch. Times when it gets so boring you, a first level bard, are ready to head on down to the Necropolis at midnight and play insult games with one of the resident balors.
It's not what they put into the package that matters. What matters is what you get out of it.
It is not a location, it is many locations, each of which could provide an evening's entertainment if the players aren't careful. It's the sort of place where you don't need formal adventures. You could do a 1st through 20th campaign based just on how PCs and NPCs get along. Introduce them to the Balcazar crime family some time, and watch as your players dig themselves in deep.
Ptolus is really a city guide. Albeit a fantasy city. It is a guide to the city, the people that live in it, points of interest, and items of interest. It is a place that will kill the fool and reward the prudent. A place where demons can have honor, and devas be treacherous. It is a place where people live.
Ptolus is not a place where you have encounters. It's a place where you meet people, sometimes get involved with them. A place where you might end up helping somebody out, or stopping their schemes. Where others might aid you, or stymie your plans. It's the kind of place where a good GM is ready to go with the players, if they decide to help the potter with his cart load. Ptolus helps those who improvise well.
Ptolus is life, with all its upsets and confusions. Life with its disappointments and rewards. Times of boredom and times of excitement. Times when the tension stretches your nerves so taut you'd scream at a zephy's touch. Times when it gets so boring you, a first level bard, are ready to head on down to the Necropolis at midnight and play insult games with one of the resident balors.
It's not what they put into the package that matters. What matters is what you get out of it.
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