Has anyone actually played this, or even looked at it?

Opinions?

I haven't looked at it at all, and while I recognize the gargantuan level of effort it represents, I think it also represents precisely the wrong direction for games to be heading, speaking in terms of the wellbeing of the industry.

But I'd like to know what everyone else thinks.

RPGPundit

I'm hearing a lot of people liking it, and appreciating the sheer amount of stuff it has bundled in.

IIRC, they're also selling it in parts on DriveThru.

What I liked about it:

It comes with tons of book marks.  The book has three ribbons attached to it and in the back of the book are book marks with different words on 'em for easy reference...the terms I can't remember but things like NPC, Monster, Rules, Magic, etc.

It is way more setting book than I find I will ever have use for but what I dig about it is that it is a book made to be used in the field.  Its a 700 pound gorilla but a 700 pound gorilla that is made to be put on the game table and played hard.

This is just from a browse through at Gen Con while waiting to interview Monte.

I looked at it on the rack. I picked it up. Realised I need more reps down at the gym.  Groaned a little...from catching sight of the price sticker. Then let it thud back down and hoped that it wasn't damaged so that the store staff would make me buy it.

I'm curious as to why you think it is a bad direction RPGPundit? I know you don't think much of setting mixed with a game. But I think it is a supplement to a game. Or do you mean the boutique price-point?  Because in spite of my groan, at first blush it would appear to provide value. It just isn't the particular product I'm looking for right now.  Plus I will say the price and size has me a bit nervous and waiting to hear from others if it does in fact stand up on it's own in use, or is just too overblown and collapses under it's own weight.

P.S. I'm a bit of a sucker for any marketing plan that involves PDF, even if I'm not sure how the serialization is going to work for them. I'm really growing to like digital as the primany way to use an RPG book.

I'd  buy it to read through if it weren't so pricey, but just as entertainment; I can't see myslef using it. In a year or so, I'll get used for far less...

Quote from: blakkieI'm curious as to why you think it is a bad direction RPGPundit? I know you don't think much of setting mixed with a game. But I think it is a supplement to a game. Or do you mean the boutique price-point?  Because in spite of my groan, at first blush it would appear to provide value. It just isn't the particular product I'm looking for right now.  Plus I will say the price and size has me a bit nervous and waiting to hear from others if it does in fact stand up on it's own in use, or is just too overblown and collapses under it's own weight.

I guess it could be said that a big expensive product like that is a severe gamble and caters to the same sort of folks that bought the World's Largest Dungeon. It's a niche product within a niche industry.

Quote from: Sojourner JudasI guess it could be said that a big expensive product like that is a severe gamble and caters to the same sort of folks that bought the World's Largest Dungeon. It's a niche product within a niche industry.

Well I don't think the entire gaming industry could go this route, and I don't see a lot of desire too. The risk would be quite large to take on regularly.  But I do see it being possible that there is room for the occational product like this. I suppose we'll see.

I know at least one person that pieced together multiple products into a large city mainly because of a lack of a really large city product. He started with a city type product, but it simply was lacking in scope for what he was looking to do.

The entire industry has been going more and more in this direction, of huge glossy beautiful, hardcover books for people who are at least as much "collectors" as they are gamers, people who are sufficiently drooling fanboys or connoiseurs that they will be willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money for what amounts to a luxury item.

In other words, rather than do the hard work of trying to create good and affordable material that can draw in new purchasers, they are going for the quick buck with the elite collector. Something that, in the end, will destroy the industry.

RPGPundit

I own number 360.
Ptolus is not built as collector's item. It's a huge step forward in usability. Fully indexed, sidebars with cross references clear layout, that's easy on the eye. Naive realistic illsutrations, not some Manga shit.
It's like a Meerschaum pipe:
Superiour, smoother smoke, but a little bit pricier.


And the campaign setting itself is very much to my liking:
Cthuloid backstory, limits on planar sillyness, Monotheistic State church, middle european look and feel, while staying true to Core Book assumptions. It's a bit like a traveller sector:
Enough info mapped out to keep travelling, and you can use it for different kinds of campaigns.

All in all the biggest innovation is it's ease of use and elegance in production values. It's not nearly as lavish as the flavour-of-the-month games. It's more akin to a university textbook than fantasy art porn we all have become used to see.

It's huge and pricey, yes. But everything in it is of value. No filler, all content.

Ok, I was more curious about this sort of thing than debating the ideological aspect of producing this kind of book. I'd pretty much made my mind up about that bit, what I wanted to know was what people who owned it thought of it, and what parts were good/which were bad, etc.

So, this is helpful. What else can be said about it?

RPGPundit

A lot of parties, groups and organizations with believable motivations to fuel "story engines" for quite some time. Though some people dislike the warrior-nuns...

Quote from: RPGPunditThe entire industry has been going more and more in this direction, of huge glossy beautiful, hardcover books for people who are at least as much "collectors" as they are gamers, people who are sufficiently drooling fanboys or connoiseurs that they will be willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money for what amounts to a luxury item.

In other words, rather than do the hard work of trying to create good and affordable material that can draw in new purchasers, they are going for the quick buck with the elite collector. Something that, in the end, will destroy the industry.

Trying to tell people what they must want to buy by ignoring customers with cash seems a rather odd tack as well. If this was the only kind of book out that would be a different issue, but frankly I don't see anything approaching a dearth at the lower price-point stuff (both with good value and not so much).

I still see a lot of different price points. Yes some of these higher end ones are showing up more, from casual observation. I can only guess because the money is there, and if it isn't then you won't see as many in the future.

Further, if the book is as solid as it superficially seems to be and as Settembrini describes I think it marks the very kind of book that is good for gaming. That being a quality item of value for it's price. As such it would seem to suggest that hard work was in fact done, or at least something that resembled hard work enough to get results.

P.S. You certainly do seem to have the ability and propensity to take a concept that at the core is sound and then ride it way, way out into left field till it dies of exhaustion. :pundit:


@ Settembrini: Thanks for the lowdown.  So I take it you have read through at least sizable portions of it? Have you used it yet at the table? How about the extras on the CD, what did you think of those?  I did quickly flip through a Player's Guide hardcopy in the store and it looked ok.  Hard to judge the actual accuracy, conciseness, and coverage of the distillation without comparing to the full book though.

I'd say any product would benefit from Ptolus production values in regards to textual arrangement and indexing, no matter what the pagecount or how many illustrations.

EDIT: The CD was a letdown. i had hoped for all illustrations in digital form, so I could print them as handouts. Apart from that ther e is neat stuff on the CD, but not as neat as the book.
I have not GMed it yet.

Quote from: RPGPunditThe entire industry has been going more and more in this direction, of huge glossy beautiful, hardcover books for people who are at least as much "collectors" as they are gamers, people who are sufficiently drooling fanboys or connoiseurs that they will be willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money for what amounts to a luxury item.

Yeah.  That'll be me.  I don't even play D&D and I'm seriously considering it.  I wonder if it'll be OOP by Christmas...