A Paizo Ptolus project would be unbelievable. And I would buy it. In any format.
Let me emphasize that: In. Any. Format.
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I don't see any reason to support a dead world. The book was published and there seems no intention of reprinting it. I've wanted to get my hands on one but doesn't seem it's in the cards heh.
I doubt from a business perspective it makes any sense to publish materials for Ptolus.
I disagree. Ptolus is a finished product which is awesome in itself. You can play a lifetime in this city, without ever leaving it. The possibility of setting Ptolus in another campaign setting (like Golarion, Eberron, or the others) is giving this product an unbelievable huge range of usage in any campaign!
New sourcebooks are not really neccessary (it's all in there, already), but adventures are! Having a bunch of modules set in Ptolus would be awesome, and a good buy for anyone, having the book or not.
more to come...
It's dead in that the company doesn't produce the core anymore. Paizo's original intention with the Pathfinder RPG was to produce it primarily because WOTC no longer makes the 3.5 edition core books. Monte doesn't keep the Ptolus books in print, therefore I doubt they'd support it. I mean I'm just following their logic on this one.
I've no doubt it's a great setting, but you don't go out making a product for a market that is shrinking I think heh. Trust me, once I'm back in the states I'd love to get a hardcopy of Ptolus, as long as I'm not breaking the bank on it.
And I'm wondering how good the adventures would be if you don't have the book for it. If it's that easy to plug n play things, then why not just buy city based adventures and drop em into Ptolus?
I guess for me, I really don't see any reason for them to try to splinter their talent into making things for a system that's no longer alive. It would detract from their core world. I mean Paizo's cool and all, I love their stuff but there are limits. I'm sure they could do a bang-up job making me a batch of cookies, cleaning my house, and washing my car too but I'd rather they spent their time on things that are better for everyone ;p
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(...)And I'm wondering how good the adventures would be if you don't have the book for it. If it's that easy to plug n play things, then why not just buy city based adventures and drop em into Ptolus?(...)
There, sir, you have a point! Sure, I use all manner of Urban adventures in my Ptolus campaign, but having Ptolus specific ones would be awesome. And yes, it might be hard to pull off a modules set in Ptolus which could be useable for everyone. But I am sure you could take care of that.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Well, that's pretty much the same with any setting-specific adventure.
You can run Rise of the Runelords in, say, the Forgotten Realms, with minor changes to personal nouns and flavor details. Standard D&D goblins work; the Realms has stone giants and ogres and white dragons.
But if you set it in Varisia, it syncs up with the setting more solidly, and there's a lot more flavor to many of the incidental details.
The same is true of "Queen of Lies". Drop it in Greyhawk or Golarion, or anywhere else with Drow, and it'll work with a minimum of fuss. But run it as part of a Ptolus campaign, and odd little details elsewhere suddenly pay off.
A good adventure ought to be independent enough that you can port it to other settings and have it make sense unto itself. But that flexibility shouldn't be seen as a weakness.
"If you can run it as a generic adventure, why tailor it for a specific campaign?" Because there are still a lot of good Ptolus stories to tell.
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I shouldn't be surprised, but nevertheless I am surprised again and again by some people's attitude in these threads:
It's similar as in the beta testing threads. Whatever doesn't fit into some people's personal image of roleplaying game is not suitable for the game at large and most especially not for the Paizo product line (even if there are other people's persuasive arguments showing that there's more than one truth about the given topic)
Why seem we role players so often fall into the intolerant lot of people, even though the image of nerds should create rather more solidarity with each other and tolerance about different opinions?
If it's that what some people think: I don't think that talking down other people's opinion does in any way improve the likability of realisation of your personal product wishes... ;-)
Talking about the topic at hand:
The big Ptolus book is not in print any more, but the pdf version is available and is unlikely to grow unavailable any time soon (compare: the Ptolus book, a listing of other Ptolus products). So far the availability of the Tome of Horrors Revised as PDF-only didn't prevent many people from using it, either. ;-) So this can't be a decisive reason against Ptolus modules.
There are other possible reasons:
- Paizo wouldn't have a legal grasp on both the big Ptolus book and any new modules: They don't have to, though. Necromancer Games is a good sample of a company going through three publishers by now (White Wolf, Kenzer & Co., and finally Paizo) and publishing products with them.
- Ptolus doesn't fit into Golarion: That's very true right now, but it could change. Golarion is developping and if Monte's cooperation with Paizo intensifies...
- Monte Cook and Paizo could consider both settings to be too wide afar from each other (in style of presentation, in setting composition (deities, power groups, classes, technological level etc.): This is something very hard to guess from outside.
For this reason I am most interested in hearing Monte Cook's and Paizo's opinion on this topic.
The thread at least clearly shows that there is quite some demand expressed by existing customers. I am also pretty sure that current module customers would really appreciate the special tone of Ptolus adventures and the fact that this is a setting by Monte Cook - so far the number of urban modules ("U"-series) is starting to lag behind anyway and so any new high quality "U" modules should be welcome...
The link above clearly shows that there already are more products than just the Ptolus book playing in this setting. So I hope that Monte Cook and Paizo will eventually decide to publish new Ptolus adventures - be it as Pathfinder Modules or as Malhavoc Adventures published by Paizo. ;-)
Cheers,
Günther
Chief Technical Officer
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Folks,
We're certainly open to working with Monte and potentially helping him and Malhavoc achieve whatever goals they may have. But it's up to him to decide what those goals are, and what form our help might take.
As for the combination of Ptolus and Golarion (or Zobeck and Golarion, or any other campaign setting and Golarion), we'd prefer to keep our focus on making great chocolate, and let other people focus on making great peanut butter. If you want to make yourself some peanut butter cups, you'll have fine ingredients.
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Folks,
We're certainly open to working with Monte and potentially helping him and Malhavoc achieve whatever goals they may have. But it's up to him to decide what those goals are, and what form our help might take.
As for the combination of Ptolus and Golarion (or Zobeck and Golarion, or any other campaign setting and Golarion), we'd prefer to keep our focus on making great chocolate, and let other people focus on making great peanut butter. If you want to make yourself some peanut butter cups, you'll have fine ingredients.
Great. Your analogy has made me hungry.
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Folks,
We're certainly open to working with Monte and potentially helping him and Malhavoc achieve whatever goals they may have. But it's up to him to decide what those goals are, and what form our help might take.
As for the combination of Ptolus and Golarion (or Zobeck and Golarion, or any other campaign setting and Golarion), we'd prefer to keep our focus on making great chocolate, and let other people focus on making great peanut butter. If you want to make yourself some peanut butter cups, you'll have fine ingredients.
Well said. I've seen one person's idea on where and how Ptolus could fit into Golarion. I haven't see the same for Zobeck. While this thread is more about an adventure series, and not the following, I would like to see peoples' conceptions on how to fit both great cities into Golarion . . . where and how.
Well said. I've seen one person's idea on where and how Ptolus could fit into Golarion. I haven't see the same for Zobeck. While this thread is more about an adventure series, and not the following, I would like to see peoples' conceptions on how to fit both great cities into Golarion . . . where and how.
I have: Zobeck in Golarion
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Fitting Ptolus into Golarion is tougher. For one, the rest of Ptolus' world is a little blander and more mundane. Ptolus gets its huge influx of "adventurers" because it's seen as the natural place for them.
For another, the best analogue to Lothian would have been Aroden, who's no longer around.
Drow are different.
Hmmm...
I'd be tempted to set Ptolus as Absalom, sometime in its history. Perhaps during the "City at the Center of the World" stage, or the "Age of Blades" or even the "Mithril Age," although that recent a setting would beg the question of what's happened to the Spire.
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(...)So far the availability of the Tome of Horrors Revised as PDF-only didn't prevent many people from using it, either. ;-) So this can't be a decisive reason against Ptolus modules.
I am with you, Günther, except for this quote above. Using monster-pdfs is far easier than using such a huge thing that Ptolus is.
However, Ptolus not being in print anymore shouldn't be a reason not to produce stuff for it!