Ptolus
Encyclopedia
Ptolus is a campaign setting
for the Dungeons & Dragons
role-playing game
written by Monte Cook
. It was published by Malhavoc Press on August 10, 2006. Ptolus is also the name of the city featured in the campaign. It has received good reviews, and won the 2007 ENnie award for Product of the Year.
. Below the city are many dungeon
s, including the city's sewers and a forgotten dwarven city named Dwarvenhearth.
The book's author claims it is the "most deluxe roleplaying product ever published," weighing in at 672 pages with multiple special features, including a CD-ROM that includes a new adventure, The Night of Dissolution, and two previous Malhavoc products with Ptolus connections: The Banewarrens and Chaositech. The book was produced in hardback on full colour glossy paper. The first 1,000 pre-ordered copies of the Ptolus book had their copy signed and numbered by Monte Cook and also received a printed copy of The Night of Dissolution, which was not otherwise available at the time, and five copies of A Player's Guide to Ptolus.
A Player's Guide to Ptolus consists of the material of Chapter 1 of Ptolus. It was available for separate sale from several months before Ptolus either individually or in packs of five. As well as five copies coming free with pre-orders of Ptolus, it is also available in PDF format on CD that comes with all printed copies of the Ptolus book and available for free download. The contents of this book is designed to represent the common knowledge available to city residents or visitors to Ptolus. It is intended that each player in a Ptolus campaign should have access to a copy of this book.
's mythos, elves that have been perverted by a powerful overlord. They are considered more apt to be tempted by evil and most often do not have good family lives. (Since every child produced by a harrow elf will be a harrow elf, there is a common conception that the race has a tendency towards rape.) Harrow elves have considerable magic abilities, and their favorite class is monk.
.
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
for the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
written by Monte Cook
Monte Cook
Monte Cook is a professional table-top role-playing game designer and writer. He is married to Sue Weinlein Cook.-Roleplaying:Cook has been a professional game designer since 1988, working primarily on role-playing games. Much of his early work was for Iron Crown Enterprises as an editor and writer...
. It was published by Malhavoc Press on August 10, 2006. Ptolus is also the name of the city featured in the campaign. It has received good reviews, and won the 2007 ENnie award for Product of the Year.
Setting
Ptolus is based upon the setting for Cook's home game, which served as the initial campaign for the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons. The campaign centers around the city of the same name, which lies on the Whitewind Sea at the edges of the crumbling empire of Tarsis. The city lies in the shadow of an impossibly tall and narrow spireSpire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....
. Below the city are many dungeon
Dungeon
A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period...
s, including the city's sewers and a forgotten dwarven city named Dwarvenhearth.
The book's author claims it is the "most deluxe roleplaying product ever published," weighing in at 672 pages with multiple special features, including a CD-ROM that includes a new adventure, The Night of Dissolution, and two previous Malhavoc products with Ptolus connections: The Banewarrens and Chaositech. The book was produced in hardback on full colour glossy paper. The first 1,000 pre-ordered copies of the Ptolus book had their copy signed and numbered by Monte Cook and also received a printed copy of The Night of Dissolution, which was not otherwise available at the time, and five copies of A Player's Guide to Ptolus.
A Player's Guide to Ptolus consists of the material of Chapter 1 of Ptolus. It was available for separate sale from several months before Ptolus either individually or in packs of five. As well as five copies coming free with pre-orders of Ptolus, it is also available in PDF format on CD that comes with all printed copies of the Ptolus book and available for free download. The contents of this book is designed to represent the common knowledge available to city residents or visitors to Ptolus. It is intended that each player in a Ptolus campaign should have access to a copy of this book.
World
The world of Ptolus is called Praemal. 80% of its surface is covered with water, and it is currently in an ice age. The planet has two visible moons, and allegedly a third that disappeared eons ago.Chaositech
The technology of Ptolus is slightly better than usually found in other fantasy settings. Gun powder and clockworks are quite mundane. However, if somebody isn't satisfied with the possibilities that "normal" technology allows, they can turn to chaositech. Chaositech is a strange mixture of fantasy settings' magic items and cyberpunks' cyberwares. It is considered an abomination in the world, however, there are a few who consider it a great potential, and they would sell their own soul for a piece of it - as they usually do. As someone can find out from the name, this technology originates from chaos. One of the greatest experts in chaositech is the drow.New Races
Although Praemal is populated by the standard D&D races, there are few new races as well, and some twist in the original races, too. Races, that considered savage in other settings, are civilized people in Ptolus, like the minotaurs.Shoal elves
Seafaring elves; in the world of Ptolus, elves must sleep, and therefore they don't have the immunity of sleep spells and effects.Harrow elves
Despite the fact that dark elves exist in the world of Praemal (and, as usual, are greatly feared and despised), there is another twisted kind of elves. The harrow elves, which were created by Ghul, are terribly deformed and considered second-class citizens by most of Ptolus. They are very much like the orc race from TolkienJ. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's mythos, elves that have been perverted by a powerful overlord. They are considered more apt to be tempted by evil and most often do not have good family lives. (Since every child produced by a harrow elf will be a harrow elf, there is a common conception that the race has a tendency towards rape.) Harrow elves have considerable magic abilities, and their favorite class is monk.
Cherubim elves
Winged elves, who are more fragile, but very swift, too. They usually live in the mountains, and do not interfere with the life of other mortals. They have thin bones and pale skin.Litorians
Humanoid lions, who have a very strong sense of honour. They have extraordinary physical abilities and senses. This race also appears in The Diamond Throne, the setting introduced in Monte Cook's Arcana UnearthedArcana Unearthed
Arcana Unearthed is a role-playing game created by Monte Cook and first published in 2003. Described as a "variant player's handbook", the 256 page hardcover core rulebook bears many similarities to the Players Handbook of 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, on which Cook worked a few years prior...
.