I always like to insert and update the gaming world with new material I find. After reading the Ptolus Players Guide, it’s inevitable… Ptolus will surface on Talamasia’s landmass if my players like it or not

Of course I never force my players into doing anything, but as long as it’s my home brew cooking and I’m the cook, they would eat it one way or another.
Two of my players already read the guide and the e-mails I’ve received from them show of the great anticipation on their part, which makes it much more exciting for me to run a campaign there.

Monte, I’m sure Ptolus would be GM Friendly, like most of Malhavoc’s products and I’m happy to have it preordered.

The only thing I’ve really kept from Greyhawk (so far) is the town Saltmarsh which is well detailed in the DMGII. I don’t know anything about the historical richness of its lands, and I find that liberating. Saltmarsh has plenty of hooks written in it that we can go back and forth between dungeon crawls and urban adventures.

Our first adventure which they just finished was one of Goodman’s Dungeon Crawl Classics. It took us an exasporating seven sessions (we game every other week for three hours) and this next Friday they get to Saltmarsh for the first time.

As for settings in general, some appeal to me and some don’t. I don’t like FR because I wouldn’t know where to begin. Player’s knowledge range from “read every book” to “don’t know, don’t care.” So far we’ve had fun with Kara-Tur (original OA setting) and now Saltmarsh.

I tend to seek out settings that are generic enough to have different types of adventures and then be able to plop in a published module when I don’t want to prep as much. Getting back to the theme of the column, its the publisher’s job to sell me on the setting and plot hooks, and sell the players new roles and feats.

Yep — I should have been clearer about that. They’re definitely not the same, but I do think they’re well-tailored to their target audience: The Ptolus PG focuses on setting, while the T20 QS focuses on rules, since (IMO) most folks will want to see what’s different from standard d20.

That’s when I started considering new settings, namely Ptolus and Eberron. The Player’s Guide to Ptolus was my hook for that setting. I thought it would be ideal for the players to really dig into a new setting with a free resource that’s an easy read, but for the various reasons stated in my earlier post, I chose Eberron instead.

In Eberron, the various locations explored throughout the campaign will have significance for the players since they will have a decent understanding of the recent and impacting history of the world. I’ve looked through the Player’s Guide to Eberron; I plan on purchasing it very soon, and I’ve already made it a recommended (but not required) reading for my players.

Eberron was our first pick, but between having to copy and hand out the first section of the book so they can roll up characters, and the lack of themes early on made it a difficult choice beyond the first adventure. Also for most new gamers Eberron is nothing quite like they’ve experienced, with the mix of “magic-as-technology” and a heavier reliance on character development. I would suggest picking up the Players Guide though. While it does not have the crunch (classes, races, feats, etc.) that comes in the Campaign book, it has two great features. First section is about characters concepts that players can think about when creating and playing. The second section is much larger and contains all the info about the world with the deep-dark secrets taken out.

My group may go back and try Eberron again, and if we do I’ll be sure to let them all borrow this book to scan through and get a better idea of what makes this place unique.

Again, litorians are kinda sparse on the flavor aspects, although that’s by design. I kinda view them as shamanic types and the AU/AE enhancements support this, with rituals associated with nature/honor and litorians having a spell template that grants bonuses to spells that buff attack or defense. How this will work in a city-type environment, I don’t know. They appeal to me a lot though, and I hope you have some success.

I really liked the idea of the presentation of the Ptolus package and the all of the extra material available with pre-ordering, but I hated the idea of being coerced into preordering for the sake of making sure I not only get the bonus material, but a print copy at all. I felt like the promotional aspects of Ptolus’ release were rather manipulative. “Reserve your print copy now because we won’t be printing anymore if they run out, most of the bonus material won’t be available even if you buy the PDF versions, which are all that will be available in the end.”

There’s no discussion of future support for Ptolus in the form of more published adventures or any other material. I kept looking at my collection of Eberron books and thought about my money and time already invested for that setting. I also liked the extensive resources available in Dungeon Magazine, Dragon Magazine, WotC’s site, and the prewritten adventures already published. Eberron supports all official D&D content by design. To me, using what I had was a better investment than shelling out another $120 for a new campaign and spending so much time reviewing 1,000 pages of setting content.

Considering the only print version was the $120 package, it just didn’t seem fair to have DMs make such a massive investment in such a narrow window of time (not including DMs you preordered early) for a setting that might not pan out for them.

That’s pretty much the flavor I got on the Litorians, so as a player, I could create a background that would be pretty cool, but the detail is missing. How do you create this character? What are the traits and stat modifiers that are required? Is it just a Human with a tiger’s head?

As a primer, however, it totally piqued my interest. But if I wasn’t already getting Ptolus, then I might feel a little frustrated at the lack of detail.

Kestrel – I totally agree with you; if the player information can’t grab you, then how can you expect the GM info to sell it to the group?

I find when rolling out a new adventure that I have to be my own mini-publisher in preparing character requirements and background info. If a real publisher wants my group to try out their new world they’ll either need to start publishing more aids like a “free” Player Guide or give me enough info to shoehorn it into the Core Rules Greyhawk campaign I’m now running.

DMN: About the litorians — Think anthropomorphic lions and tigers with a very outdoorsy attitude and a strong cultural code of personal honor.

I see a lot of benefit in the Player’s Guide/DM’s Guide split. Setting books are the sort of thing only one person needs, and only if they’re being used. I’ve been looking for supplemental D&D 3.5 material to use in a campaign, and there are a few setting/crunch books that appeal, because they explain the focus of the book within a matter of moments, and I can see direct ways of using them in the game. As a DM, especially, I’ll rather check out the player material than the DM material initially. What the players see should be a good representation of the whole; if it can’t interest me as a player, there would be no hope of it interesting me as a GM. With each iconic setting or game, you can sum it up in few words, and usually a sentence. If you take that summary, just add the bits needed to begin playing only and publish it, you have the player’s guide.

CJ: I think there’s a lot of merit to your compromise approach. Your players want a city game, Ptolus is a city game — hard to argue with that. You want Ptolus specifically, so you give them free reign on everything else. Very workable.