I've wanted to pick this up since it came out, but it was just too pricey for me. I found a copy with all the maps and CD included in very good condition at the local McKay's for $50 and it is now mine. The book is a monster and I will be taking a while to read through it.

Success!

Be sure to tell us all about it. I'm all washed up on meta-talk.

Right on - enjoy!

Quote from: jeff37923;617610I've wanted to pick this up since it came out, but it was just too pricey for me. I found a copy with all the maps and CD included in very good condition at the local McKay's for $50 and it is now mine. The book is a monster and I will be taking a while to read through it.

Success!

Just saw some of the prices for that sucker....  nice score!

Ptolus is absolutely awesome.

I've eyeballed that bastard for a while. Congrats! I am envious.

Cool. I just made a deal to buy a used copy myself. Looking forward to the read, and debating how I'm going to convert it to an rpg I run! I'm considering 1st ed AD&D, or Runequest/BRP. How about you?

Quote from: RunningLaser;617621Just saw some of the prices for that sucker....  nice score!

I am normally opposed to paying more than forty bucks for an rpg. But this is one product where the price is worth it. I had heard bout it and been interested. Bought it off rpgnow. It literally hurt my fingers to make the purchase but very worth the price.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;617945I am normally opposed to paying more than forty bucks for an rpg. But this is one product where the price is worth it. I had heard bout it and been interested. Bought it off rpgnow. It literally hurt my fingers to make the purchase but very worth the price.

At 808 pages in PDF (and 670 + CD in print) I think it's fair to say that Ptolus gives more bang for the buck than the average $40 supplement.

Have only glanced through the pages so far, but one of the most intriguing parts that is the history section. So you not only get a city, but also the historical background of how that city came into being, that right there is campaign fodder as far as I am concerned.

As far as what game system would I use? Any in which I want a detailed medieval city. While designed for 3.x, it has enough extra non-system specific information to be used in other game systems.

The cover price is $120, and honestly I think it is worth that now that I have it in my hands. I'd kinda like to compare it to The World's Largest City by AEG and see how they both stack up to one another, but I think that Ptolus wins hands down.

Quote from: jeff37923;617955I'd kinda like to compare it to The World's Largest City by AEG and see how they both stack up to one another, but I think that Ptolus wins hands down.

I might be misremembering, but I don't think people had a lot of great things to say about World's Largest City.

Quote from: Grymbok;617946At 808 pages in PDF (and 670 + CD in print) I think it's fair to say that Ptolus gives more bang for the buck than the average $40 supplement.

I agree. There is a huge amount of content. And page for page, it is actually a good value. But it still hurts me to pay that much for a game.

Quote from: Baron;617939Cool. I just made a deal to buy a used copy myself. Looking forward to the read, and debating how I'm going to convert it to an rpg I run! I'm considering 1st ed AD&D, or Runequest/BRP. How about you?

I've run Ptolus in 3.5 as it was intended. You can read about it there: http://praemal.blogspot.com

I then basically rebuilt Ptolus 300 years in the past from the ground up using AD&D 1e as a base. You can read about the game (which is on hold at the moment) here on the RPG Site: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=18731

To give some background before answering that question.

The best advice I could give at this point is for you to just read the book. See, Ptolus was actually the first setting ever devised for 3rd edition. It's with Ptolus that Monte Cook and the others (Sean Reynolds, Chris Perkins, Bruce Cordell etc) experimented with the late 2e rules and then playtested the 3rd ed rules in progress. It's also been played throughout 3rd ed's run. All that to say that Ptolus pretty much *is* 3rd edition D&D, and that D&D 3rd edition reflects some aspect of Ptolus in return (the picture of the innkeeper in the DMG with the "no spellcasting allowed" sign behind him? That came from Ptolus).

There's a synergy operating between the system and the setting at a level that actually benefits both in actual play. It's why switching from one game system to another to run the thing is risking to lose a lot of the feel of the setting in return - it's not impossible by any stretch, and lots of people have done it, but I think it does lose something in the exchange.

My advice is, if you can stand the 3.5 rules, run Ptolus with it at first, as intended. Or with Pathfinder rules with a few targeted additions at worse (like if you are using the Advanced classes of Pathfinder like the Alchemist and all that, it'd be good for you to place NPCs of 20th level of each new class in Ptolus as well, since Ptolus actually features one 20th level character of each class of the 3rd ed PHB). Then you'll get a sense of how Ptolus works. It'll be that much experience with the setting that you'll then be able to recycle into changing the game system to build the Ptolus you want out of the original product.

Ptolus is one of my "great white whales".
Really kick myself for not getting it when I could have pre-ordered it for less than $100.

Quote from: jeff37923;617955I'd kinda like to compare it to The World's Largest City by AEG and see how they both stack up to one another, but I think that Ptolus wins hands down.

I own both. WLC is really bland and generic (not just vanilla, but really bland and soulless), and seems to have actually plagiarized elements of Ptolus (like the Spire), sucking all it could out of them to turn the whole into the most nondescript, unoriginal setting you could imagine. The result is just lame. I'd advise you to buy ANY city setting (like Pavis, Ptolus, Laelith, City State of the Invincible Overlord... anything) before WLC. It's still useful when you want to plunder the setting for some ideas and buildings and whatnot, maybe, but compared to Ptolus it totally, unequivocally, completely sucks and doesn't hold even a casual inspection, let alone a complete reading of both.