Tell me about Ptolus

[ssampier]

I am all set to start a new campaign (probably a hybrid 3.5 game). I had a concept of taking Roman Britain meets Cthulhu, plus technology and culture fast-forwarded to D&D style norms and equipment. I was thinking about how much time and energy I wanted to put in.

A year ago I purchased the PDF of World of Praemel, the first pdf in the Ptolus campaign. I skimmed it at the time and later forgot about it.

I recently re-read the World of. It's fascinating read. I was thinking I could eventually buy the Ptolus set. I would change some elements and file off the serial numbers of other elements.

Maybe you can explain some of the thorny elements of the campaign to me.

1. I like the long history. Long history equals lots of ruins to explore and mysteries to solve.

2. Open, only Ptolus is (over)detailed.

3. Gods: all deities except Lothian seem somewhat one-dimensional to me. I would like to replace them with more Anglo-Saxon (Norse influenced British gods) and Roman gods.

4. City of Ptolus: lots of evil--the Spire and Dark Reliquary---in one place. Yet no one seems particularly upset or concerned. Huh.

5. I see some evidence of elder gods. I do see they are not worshiped except by an order of Knights (can't find the q.v. yet). Any possible Lovecraftian influence here?

6. Galchutt. (a) They are trapped in this world and can do icky, evil, vile things. But they do not completely destroy or rule the world. Why?

(b) In the Night of Dissolution, the Vallis Moon returns. What does this mean for the inhabitants of Praemel and Galchutt?

I see on page 26 (60 for the big book) it indicates, "Galchutt will marshall their evil forces and finally dissolve the Seven Chains, destroy the soul of the world, and lay waste to Praemal." That sounds very bad; Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

 

[(un)reason]

I am all set to start a new campaign (probably a hybrid 3.5 game). I had a concept of taking Roman Britain meets Cthulhu, plus technology and culture fast-forwarded to D&D style norms and equipment. I was thinking about how much time and energy I wanted to put in.

A year ago I purchased the PDF of World of Praemel, the first pdf in the Ptolus campaign. I skimmed it at the time and later forgot about it.

I recently re-read the World of. It's fascinating read. I was thinking I could eventually buy the Ptolus set. I would change some elements and file off the serial numbers of other elements.

Maybe you can explain some of the thorny elements of the campaign to me.

1. I like the long history. Long history equals lots of ruins to explore and mysteries to solve.

2. Open, only Ptolus is (over)detailed.

Yeah, this is an intentional design choice. Monte obviously decided that the city was the important thing, and concentrated on making enough detail to run an entire campaign without ever leaving it. If you want to run stuff more than a few miles away, you have pretty much free rein.

3. Gods: all deities except Lothian seem somewhat one-dimensional to me. I would like to replace them with more Anglo-Saxon (Norse influenced British gods) and Roman gods.

This would not be hard. Apart from the gods that are secretly Galchutt, and a few significant ones like father claw, the other gods don't really have that much integration to the larger world. Monte wanted that kind of conflict between the monotheistic god and the kitchen sink full of little gods. Who exactly the little gods are isn't that important.

4. City of Ptolus: lots of evil--the Spire and Dark Reliquary---in one place. Yet no one seems particularly upset or concerned. Huh.

Yeah, this falls apart if you look at it too hard. Remember there's also a large concentration of celestials and adventurers to foil their dastardly schemes as well. I figure that it kinda balances out, only with lots of fighting and stuff involved. Anyone who doesn't want to live in interesting times gets the hell away.

5. I see some evidence of elder gods. I do see they are not worshiped except by an order of Knights (can't find the q.v. yet). Any possible Lovecraftian influence here?

Yes. Very much so. Monte wrote call of cthulhu d20, and he puts that kind of stuff in most of his products. (McWoD, Arcana Evolved, etc.) If you don't like that, it does get a little tiresome.

6. Galchutt. (a) They are trapped in this world and can do icky, evil, vile things. But they do not completely destroy or rule the world. Why?

They'd like to destroy the world, but couldn't figure out how, so they decided to sleep and wait for a good opportunity. They don't rule it because that's not the way they think. They're essentially a destructive force that only holds off on destroying themselves because they want to take the rest of the multiverse with them. Not trying to destroy the universe for them is like a human committing suicide, a violation of their basic instincts. (not that a few haven't, and that is a definite plot point. The zaug get up to some pretty sneaky stuff for supposedly stupid creatures.)

(b) In the Night of Dissolution, the Vallis Moon returns. What does this mean for the inhabitants of Praemel and Galchutt?

I see on page 26 (60 for the big book) it indicates, "Galchutt will marshall their evil forces and finally dissolve the Seven Chains, destroy the soul of the world, and lay waste to Praemal." That sounds very bad; Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

Indeedy. It's up to the PC's to save the world, as it should be. Get the adventure, it'll explain the specifics.

 

[Holy Smokes]

Good questions!

Spoilers! (just being sooper-safe )

[sblock]
3. Easy-peasy. Cake.

4. Monte addresses this directly, and make a pretty good case. There is a difference between what you know, the powers than be in the setting know, and what the vast majority of the population know. The locals just know not to go into the graveyard at night, and don't ask questions they don't really want to know the answers to. Also, Ptolus is just such a weird and atypical place in the world; as noted there's a tower of angels in the city too. Out of sight is out of mind.

The big book can provide the gestalt of the entire city, and once you build it up from all the pieces, it hangs together quite well.

5. Lots of lovecraftian themes that can be be easy repurposed, or not, as you choose.

6.a. The Galchutt are currently asleep, waiting for a certain event before awaking. They are asleep because the power source required to destroy the world is currently unavailable. Primordial heroes of the ancient past removed the Vallis Moon from the world to prevent the apocalypse the last time the Galchutt tried this. The Vallis Moon will inevitably return, so they're just cooling their heels in the meantime. That time is SOON!

6.b. Can't beat the dog-n-cats answer.., bravo!
[/sblock]

 

[ssampier]

Ptolus: Night of Dissolution:

# A description of Pythoness House, a haunted oracle and brothel that hides a trove of weapons vital in the fight against the Cults of Chaos.
# A huge secret temple of chaos where insidious fanatics worship the dreaded Galchutt.
# Details of a city-wide network of covert spies and agents that extends even into the highest echelons of Ptolus' elite society

You had me at Chaos Cult.

Normally I am not fan of 'save the world they said' 'I'd rather be sailing'.

 

[jasonbostwick]

The zaug get up to some pretty sneaky stuff for supposedly stupid creatures.

I've seen it mentioned a few times on Monte's boards (though searching is failing me right now...) that the Zaug are just a fill-in for illithids, which are WotC Product Identity and off limits.

If you check where the Player Journals from Monte's Ptolus campaigns match up to adventures in the published product, they face mind-flayer villains that have been replaced by the Zaug in most of the encounters.

 

[Beginning of the End]

4. City of Ptolus: lots of evil--the Spire and Dark Reliquary---in one place. Yet no one seems particularly upset or concerned. Huh.

Depends on what you mean by "concerned". The Necropolis is sealed; the Spire is sealed; and so forth. Multiple organizations and many very powerful individuals oppose the machinations of this evil.

It's kind of the urban equivalent of Mordor: Everyone knows that Mordor is the Heart of Darkness, but that doesn't mean they have the capability to destroy that evil. The balance of power waxes and wanes. In better times, the forces of good have driven the darker powers out of Mordor and even maintained outposts there themselves. But when the power of Minas Tirith waned, the darkness returned and strengthened.

Similarly, there are times when the evil powers within the Dark Reliquary have been driven into the deepest depths and the Necropolis has been safe to traverse. In recent years, however, that hasn't been the case -- the Necropolis isn't particularly safe, although there are many organizations trying to contain it or deal with it.

5. I see some evidence of elder gods. I do see they are not worshiped except by an order of Knights (can't find the q.v. yet). Any possible Lovecraftian influence here?

6. Galchutt. (a) They are trapped in this world and can do icky, evil, vile things. But they do not completely destroy or rule the world. Why?

Pretty heavy Lovecraftian influence, which is why the Galchutt aren't currently causing problems. (At least directly.) The Galchutt are sleeping, waiting for the Night of Dissolution to arrive.

One recommendation I would make: Reduce the amount of information the players know about some of this stuff. About the only mistake I feel Monte Cook made in designing the Ptolus products was the Player's Guide: It suffers from a common problem of Player's Guides in this industry. Instead of featuring player-only info, its instead focused on selling the big book. In the process it gives away too much and makes a lot of things seem like common knowledge which really shouldn't be.

 

[Plissken]

Don't waste your money on a thick $120 book if you think you're barely going to use it.

Other than that, I would recommend checking it out. It's pretty neat.

 

[(un)reason]

I've seen it mentioned a few times on Monte's boards (though searching is failing me right now...) that the Zaug are just a fill-in for illithids, which are WotC Product Identity and off limits.

If you check where the Player Journals from Monte's Ptolus campaigns match up to adventures in the published product, they face mind-flayer villains that have been replaced by the Zaug in most of the encounters.

I find this amusing, given that statwise they have very little in common, apart from being pains in the ass that can beat more powerful teams if you don't know how to deal with them, and make big chunks of the party feel like third wheels when fighting them even then.

 

[Wycen]

Don't waste your money on a thick $120 book if you think you're barely going to use it.

Other than that, I would recommend checking it out. It's pretty neat.

What he said. Our DM got all excited and used some of the beginning level adventures from the big book and then we went into the Night Of Dissolution adventure. And ended up skipping part because he wanted to go to 4E.

The Night of Dissolution didn't do anything for me. The reasons to save the world I didn't care about. Somewhere linking the "save the world" to "have fun" got lost.

 

[Armadillo]

4. City of Ptolus: lots of evil--the Spire and Dark Reliquary---in one place. Yet no one seems particularly upset or concerned. Huh.

And, it's not just evil. The principal religious and secular authorities are also in the city. There is some handwaving about how this is a subtle effect of the Spire gathering any forces that might free the Galchutt, but it is a simplification that made me less interested in the setting.

I'd have loved to see more info on Praemel, and more seeds for adventures outside of Ptolus.