Ptolus: City by the Spire

Game Master EltonJ

A city of mysteries, secrets, and dark histories, Ptolus lies forever in the shadow of a towering stone spire reaching impossibly high into the sky, an enigma and reminder of evil long past. In Ptolus, the supernatural is expected and treachery lies around every corner—or is it that the supernatural lies around every corner and treachery is expected? Either way, the city of Ptolus abounds with danger, magic, intrigue, and above all, adventure.


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So, I picked up the Ptolus Campaign Setting off of DriveThru and I want to put it through it's paces. A Pathfinder campaign in Ptolus can work out well, in theory. My other three games have slowed to a crawl. However, I'd like to justify picking up the book.

This is just an interest check. Playing will require the Ptolus Player's Guide at least (still available for free). And yes, there is firearms available in the city, but the decline of the Empire has made them rare (so this means gunslingers are comparatively rare in Ptolus).

I'll post a primer on this thread if there is enough interest. I want to see how much interest there is first.


Maybe. Heist into big property owners game? Could be interesting in ptolus.


Very very interested....love Ptolus big time! :)


I'd like to play this. I think I briefly looked at the huge book quite a few years ago, but I don't remember anything from it.


Color me interested. I'll go see if I can find a copy of the Ptolus Player's Guide.


You can still get it free here.


It looks like a high-magic city? Potentially interesting, I'll watch for the campaign or adventure idea.


The setting looks very interesting from my cursory skimming of the players guide. Just the kind of Fantasy World I prefer.


i miiiiight be interested.

are you planning more delving, more intrigue, or 50/50? something else?


Tenro wrote:

i miiiiight be interested.

are you planning more delving, more intrigue, or 50/50? something else?

I have a few surprises. Perhaps a little more intrigue than delving. Although, Tenro, if I were a player I'd probably be a Dark Market regular.


Interested !


What sort of campaign guidelines and house rules are you considering?

Personally I am hoping (and looking) for a typical 20-Point Buy, almost anything 1st-Party, with few Optional Rules in effect style of campaign (Which is the kind of campaign I usually run, but rarely get to play because none of my locals have ever been willing GM Pathfinder).


That will go into the primer. Chaositech is a big part of the campaign, no doubt.


Interested...


Okay that's seven so far.


I am always interested in new games. But I would like to know enough about the thrust of the game to make a character that would fit.


Philo Pharynx wrote:
I am always interested in new games. But I would like to know enough about the thrust of the game to make a character that would fit.

That's simple. I thought about running the campaign straight out of the book. The adventures in the book, complete with the Night of Dissolution and the Banewarrens adventures. I haven't given it much thought about what to do beyond the campaign in the book. I just barely got it yesterday.

Some people want more of a city campaign. Ptolus can actually accommodate a pure city campaign, although it wasn't designed for it (50 percent above ground, 50 percent below is the original Ptolus Campaign design). If I were playing in Ptolus myself, I'd spend some time in the Dark Market to pick up some, ahem, extra help.

Intrigue is certainly doable. I bet some people would like to see how they can interact with the Noble Houses now, and see a campaign set around that.


Reading the player's guide it definitely seems like an interesting setting.

Liberty's Edge

Love ptolus. Have the hard cover from way back. Ran quite a few city adventures in Ptolus but never actually ran the adventure that came with it. Lol


Im interested, though intrigue is not something i consider myself good at, especially in PbP space.

I'll probably make some combat-oriented magic character with a chaositech feel and dark market ties


Well, color me interested. Just to ask, are you willing to allow any third party material, specifically Spheres of Power?


AdamWarnock wrote:
Well, color me interested. Just to ask, are you willing to allow any third party material, specifically Spheres of Power?

Tenro always asks me that and I'm such a wuss when it comes to Spheres of Power. I even have it on my hard drive somewhere. It must be a popular little supplement.


Sphere's of Power is probably one of the most popular supplements for homebrew Pathfinder games because it whole-cloth replaces the Vancian Spellcasting system (which is generally considered draconian). I'm not very familiar with it, but I imagine it is a lot like Ultimate Magic's Words of Power system in that it has very little on-going support and no backwards compatibility.


Cantriped wrote:
Sphere's of Power is probably one of the most popular supplements for homebrew Pathfinder games because it whole-cloth replaces the Vancian Spellcasting system (which is generally considered draconian). I'm not very familiar with it, but I imagine it is a lot like Ultimate Magic's Words of Power system in that it has very little on-going support and no backwards compatibility.

It actually works like d20 Dynamic Spellcasting from GoO's d20 Advanced Magic. The latter is better because it works with spells you know and you can convert new spells to the system. Plus Dynamic Spellcasting covers creating magical objects. Spheres of Power is very different but is mechanically the same as Dynamic Spellcasting. It just doesn't cover item creation.


Spheres of power makes for some really characterful and thematic spellcasters. Much more so than vancian casting IMO. I still haven't really figured out the nuances of it though.


I would normally want to play a spellcasting class, but I might go for pure fighter this time. Chaositech is present? If I played a particularly flawed fighter, chainblades or worse might be an option.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.


Not exactly. There are some similarities, but Drop Dead Studios does support Spheres of Power. If you scroll down this page, you'll see supplements to the main book. Another thing is that Words of Power still had elements of Vancian spellcasting in it. For example, if a wizard used a word he'd prepared, he still lost it unless he had it prepared again. In Spheres of Power, however, the limiting resource is spell points. However, you can still be useful even if all of your spell points are gone. It's also flexible enough to allow a player to get close to a lot of archetypes for spellcasters you see in popular media, plus the limitations and traditions allow the players and the GM to have more flavorful options than is implied with the standard Vancian system.

Another way to look at it is that Words of Power is a kit for building vancian style spells while Spheres of Power is a kit for building spellcasters and their spells.

As for backwards compatibility, you can have both Spheres of Power and the standard system in play at the same time, and there's nothing precluding magic items from both systems being used at the same time as far as I'm aware.


I am very interested. This looks fun.


Kertuffle wrote:

I am very interested. This looks fun.

Great. I'll work up some kind of additional to Ptolus' player's guide (which is the primer).


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Quick Primer:

Everything stands in the Player's Guide except for a couple of notes.

1. Alchemists, Summoners, Witches are allowed. Gunslingers are a viable class, but only one or two characters are allowed to be gunslingers.

2. You get 25 points for stats.

3. Chaositech isn't available at first.

4. two traits.

5. In the beginning, you are on your way to Ptolus.

6. Core Rulebook races allowed. Elves are known as "Shoal Elves" not "High Elves."

7. Level 2 characters to start.


So are we limited to just CRB classes plus Alchemists, Gunslingers (limit ~2), Summoners, and Witchs?
For example, could I build a Cavalier, Swashbuckler, or Slayer?
Also, how do you feel about Archetypes, Unchained Classes, and Alternate Racial Features?


Cantriped wrote:

So are we limited to just CRB classes plus Alchemists, Gunslingers (limit ~2), Summoners, and Witchs?

A. No, but I'm in a game right now so I had to do a quick primer.

Quote:
For example, could I build a Cavalier, Swashbuckler, or Slayer?

A. Yes, you can.

Quote:
Also, how do you feel about Archetypes, Unchained Classes, and Alternate Racial Features?

A. They can be allowed.


Interested.


Thinking about an Unchained Rogue. I just have a couple of questions for the GM.

1. How goofy are you okay with things getting?

2. Are there going to be any opportunities to stuff a character into something frilly for a job? If so, how often do they crop up?


Right now I'm considering either a dungeoneering Slayer that invests in Trapfinding, or a healing & diplomancy focused Cleric (Cardinal).


AdamWarnock wrote:

Thinking about an Unchained Rogue. I just have a couple of questions for the GM.

1. How goofy are you okay with things getting?

A1. Hopefully not all that goofy. I'd like a balanced party to handle what comes their way.

Quote:
2. Are there going to be any opportunities to stuff a character into something frilly for a job? If so, how often do they crop up?

Yea, there might be some opportunities for cross-dressing. (Something frilly? To me that's cross-dressing if you are playing a guy. Sorry, my mind automatically thinks genderbending when I see that.) How often? Probably not often, but you'll get some.


Cantriped wrote:
Right now I'm considering either a dungeoneering Slayer that invests in Trapfinding, or a healing & diplomancy focused Cleric (Cardinal).

We can work out the particulars if you are playing a healing and diplomacy focused cleric. Like what subdomains you can have access to.


Well, I was thinking about two different approaches. The first was the tomboy daughter of a noble and the second was a guy that, unfortunately for him, is pretty androgynous. I was going to play them for laughs rather than drama, but yeah, while competent, they are most definitely on the goofy side.


It seems very high magic. Are there flying ships? If there are then I think I'd like to play an electrokinetic apprentice shipwright.


Now I'm looking at Life Oracle instead of Cleric (Cardinal) as a better Healer/Diplomancer, I just have to decide which Curse I would take. Either Clouded Vision or Lame seem like good choices for a dungeon delver.

Liberty's Edge

Do you want submissions here, or are you going to open a recruiting thread. I am looking to play an urban ranger who worked as a guard in another city.


Oh shoot i was thinking of some serious chaositech flavor and being really creepy. Not actual, crunchy chaositech but Spheres of Power crunch masekd with chaositech fluff. Is it OK to have heavy chaositech fluff (but not actually chaositech items), or is the fluff also banned for game reasons?

Also, i see core rulebook races allowed. What about drow? They seem big into chaositech.


Wondering. Would you allow race builder? Want to try out a skink build. From warhammer fantasy


Seth86 wrote:
Wondering. Would you allow race builder? Want to try out a skink build. From warhammer fantasy

Yes.

Tenro wrote:
Oh shoot i was thinking of some serious chaositech flavor and being really creepy. Not actual, crunchy chaositech but Spheres of Power crunch masekd with chaositech fluff. Is it OK to have heavy chaositech fluff (but not actually chaositech items), or is the fluff also banned for game reasons?

A. We can talk about it.

Quote:
Also, i see core rulebook races allowed. What about drow? They seem big into chaositech.

A2. Drow are hated for being drow. If you want to play a drow, you've really got to have an interesting background (like, explain why Ptolusese won't kill you on sight).

Daniel Stewart wrote:
Do you want submissions here, or are you going to open a recruiting thread. I am looking to play an urban ranger who worked as a guard in another city.

I might open another thread.

Adam Warnock wrote:
Well, I was thinking about two different approaches. The first was the tomboy daughter of a noble and the second was a guy that, unfortunately for him, is pretty androgynous. I was going to play them for laughs rather than drama, but yeah, while competent, they are most definitely on the goofy side.

Okay. We'll see how it goes when you submit your character.

Kertuffle wrote:
It seems very high magic. Are there flying ships? If there are then I think I'd like to play an electrokinetic apprentice shipwright.

I'd rather wait until August for flying ship possibilities.

Cantriped wrote:
Now I'm looking at Life Oracle instead of Cleric (Cardinal) as a better Healer/Diplomancer, I just have to decide which Curse I would take. Either Clouded Vision or Lame seem like good choices for a dungeon delver.

Cool.


Awesome :)

Do you have an RP limit? not that im expecting more than 20 :P


Seth86 wrote:

Awesome :)

Do you have an RP limit? not that im expecting more than 20 :P

10, 15 is pushing it.


Thanks, i sent you a preliminary build, just so you can have a look :)

Working on background. some of it already done


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Ptolus Pathfinder Primer

What is Ptolus:
That is covered by the Ptolus Player's Guide. It tells you everything you need to know about Ptolus: the City by the Spire. Essentially, Ptolus is a campaign produced with the Pathfinder and d20 rules turned up to eleven.

Rulebooks Allowed:
I have the following rulebooks that can be used: Pathfinder CRB, Advanced Class Guide, Advanced Player's Guide, Advanced Race Guide (my favorite book, by the way), Pathfinder Unchained, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Intrigue, and a few others -- mostly player companions. I will be allowing what is considered to be core.

Races Allowed:
All the races listed as major and minor in the Player's Guide are allowed to be used. Some races need the ARG treatment and one race, the Aram (Centaurus) is already given the ARG treatment.

Player Classes:
I don't know how many people will go into the classes from the core books, but Ptolus has ideas on how the CRB classes can fit. If you play a class not mentioned by the Player's Guide, use some common sense when using the Player Background table.

Starting Out:
You get 25 point buy. One Trait, One Drawback. You can use Background Skills too (profession: Wine Tasting is a background skill, for instance).


More Stuff.

Magic:
A lot of people would like to use Spheres of Power for the magic system. I'm typically a push over when it comes to this, because I have the book for it. Generally, I don't want to use it, but it seemed to work out in our other campaigns. So I'm allowing it for now.

I still don't have a story yet, but this primer should get you started. There are some differences with how the d20 system (3.5) and the Pathfinder system works. I'll figure out a good story when I have time to relax and I can think about it.

I want to do one where seven mages are conspiring to take over the Tarsis Empire. They would be specialist mages who believe that the Empire is crumbling and it's up to wizards to rule it more effectively.


So Alchemist Apprentice gives one +2 knowledge alchemy. How does this translate into Pathfinder?

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