You Own How Many Player's Handbooks?!

Four. This could be the end of the post, but of course it's not the end.

When 5th edition D&D launched in 2014 I decided to pick up two copies of the Player's Handbook, two copies of the Monster Manual, and one copy of the Dungeon Master's Guide. This was initially because I took advantage of a huge sale at a friendly local game store concurrent with my pre-order of the 3 core books from an online retailer, and having a spare PHB at the table has benefits.

It has always been the case that rules, spells, and other information need to be looked up during play. I have never met a gamer yet that can actually memorize and spontaneously recall everything in the book despite one who claimed she had an eidetic memory.

When I began playing AD&D in 1981 at least half of the large group picked up their own copies of the Player's Handbook despite being a bunch of cash strapped teenagers, and we always had plenty on hand at the table (and we read them too). Over the years that has not always been the case. 

During the second edition years I stuck mainly to 1st edition rules until close to the end of 2e. Within my group I was the only person to pick up the 2nd edition PHB. I suppose that was a good thing because less than two years later the campaign switched to 3rd edition (pre-official launch, I had an advance copy because I worked at a distributor and had to drum up sales) and more of the players picked up their own copies.

When 3e revised into 3.5e, most of the owners of the 3e version upgraded to copies of 3.5e so there wasn't a shortage at most tables where I played the game.

I did in fact pick up the 4e books and honestly tried to play, but over time it became apparent that it wasn't working for my group so I only know of two of us that had the book. This was what lead to me having a rekindled enjoyment of Old School Rules.

About two years ago I decided to switch my campaign over from using the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rule set to 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons to take advantage of the update of Monte Cook's Ptolus. We would have been playing 5e in the run-up to receiving the revised Ptolus, but COVID had other ideas.

Wait, what about the third and fourth copies of the PHB? Knowing it would take some time for my large group to get familiar with the differences between the OSR system and the modern game, I decided having ready access to the books was a good idea. 

My goal was not just to make the rules available at the table, but to have them available to the players between sessions. Besides myself, all but 3 of my potentially 10 strong player group (if everyone played at once) live under the same roof. By making copies accessible the thought was that the players could get a jump on class, race, and system knowledge. I don't know if that is working, but suspect not. 

Regardless, they have adapted quickly to fifth edition and enjoy playing with the newer rules. The books see lots of activity during the game sessions as players are seeking info on what their characters can do, what their spells do, and how to beat the crap out of their opponents. 

One of the four copies stays at home along with a copy of the Monster Manual and DMs Guide, for my use preparing to DM sessions. I also play in a Roll 20 group and find it handy then as well.

I'm aware that Wizards of the Coast are planning a special relaunch of the game to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D&D. What has been said so far is that this will not be 6th edition, but more like a 5.5e. I will certainly be picking up one copy of the book to join in the celebration of my favorite hobby, but I have no interest in trying to convert everything again.

So there you have it, four copies of the 5e Player's Handbook.

Ptolus: City of Adventure Review (500th blog post)

Another of the rewards from the Ptolus update Kickstarter a couple years back is the book of new adventures titled Ptolus: City of Adventure. It contains three adventures within the setting, Doctrine of Ghul, The Runeblood Blessing, and Return of the Ebon Hand. All three have already been released in .pdf form to the backers. All three adventures are aimed at characters of level 5 or level 6, but can easily be modified to allow for other levels (easier upward I think).

Monte Cook Games recently announced the pending release of the softcover book through their online store. Anyone will be able to purchase the book, and backers will receive it for only the cost of shipping.

The first of the three scenarios, Doctrine of Ghul, is time sensitive with the characters racing against a potentially permanently lethal deadline. There is a lot to like in the adventure, but there are a few very dangerous points that can derail not just the story, but even the campaign. I may be running this one for my group, but it will require some re-engineering to avoid a disaster. Run out of time and any characters affected by the hook are just gone.

In the early .pdf version there are some discrepancies with the Challenge Rating of a few of the NPC antagonists. Pella should be a CR 6 instead of CR 5 based on the Mage character type in the NPC section of the Monster Manual. Pella also has an extra capability, but I cannot see pushing her CR to 7 because of it. The Formless Hunger might actually be over valued. I seems like it is pretty close to the capabilities of a Gelatinous Cube which is CR 2, but with a few peculiarities. Alberik Vormund is clearly about two CR below what he should be based on capabilities (8 instead of 10). Sadly these issues were not corrected for the print version.

The more egregious of the mistaken CR values occurs at a point where the NPC could easily TPK a party that are likely nearly out of resources and very low on hit points. Action economy aside, there are abilities available to the opponent that can partially shut down PC effectiveness and the firepower of the foe is great.

Doctrine takes place both in the city and in the dungeons and caverns below.

The second adventure, Runeblood Blessing is the real gem in the trio. I cannot give enough praise about how solidly this one has the feel of the setting. It is packed with sidelines that make use of the core elements to add flavor through the course of events. Several districts of the city become sites of activity as things progress and I find that exciting because the city deserves to be explored and experienced.

The core of the plot involves a pair of NPCs granting some advantages to everyday residents on up through delvers, and even members of the nobility. Of course with the gifts comes the cost. While fortunately this adventure doesn't have the race against the clock urgency of Doctrine of Ghul, it does still give a sense that things cannot be ignored for long.

Characters will need to do some investigating to sort things out, but the central focus and the various sidelines make the process fun. There's also a little twist for the purpose of aiming the PCs in the direction of the root issue, and to give them a chance to get involved in something positive.

I don't recall finding any CR problems with Runeblood Blessing like there were in Doctrine of Ghul and there's nothing in it that is likely to wreck your campaign. It is high on my list for possible inclusion in my game.

Third and definitely my least favorite of the adventures is Return of the Ebon Hand. It explores aspects of the setting faithfully, though it fell somewhat flat for me. 

The scenario takes characters into the dungeon below the city, but the hooks that get them there might be ignored without working in connections the players will feel inclined to pursue. The fix for this deficit is simple enough so you shouldn't write this one off. There is enough here to keep a dungeon focused party interested for some time, and the amount of available experience points will certainly keep level grinders invested.

Encounters within feel too tightly packed, but maybe the close proximity of everything is meant to evoke a sense of claustrophobia or to hearken back to some of the old dungeons from the early days of D&D.  

Everything about the dungeon and the inhabitants carries a weird and sometimes intentionally horrific vibe. Characters will definitely feel the need to put a stop to the machinations of at least one of the three factions they'll interact with. Also important is the fact that the Ptolus setting has a way to fix almost anything that might affect characters in a negative way.

Maybe Return of the Ebon hand is a better adventure than it feels to me. It is entirely possible my mood wasn't right when I chose to read it through. You should certainly give it a look to see if it would work in your campaign. I haven't had a chance to introduce the party to the Ebon Hand so using Return is not in consideration till well after that happens.

TM and © 2021 Monte Cook Games, LLC

Monte Cook, you magnificent bastard

He's done it again. My wallet = his bitch.

Anyone that knows me or that has followed the blog for a time already knows I love a bunch of Monte's previous work, especially Ptolus, which is awesome for production value and content.

Although I skipped the kickstarter (don't recall why, but I suspect I just wasn't feeling it), I have gone ahead and committed to the preorder for his new game - Numenera. I fully expect this to at least match Ptolus in quality of materials and potential for ages of play.

It took me a while to come to the decision to preorder Ptolus as well, but I had more time than kickstarters typically provide and back then I still got in early enough to get a signed and numbered copy of Ptolus. I'm kicking myself for not trusting Monte and going ahead and supporting this kickstarter like I should have.

I hope Monte is ok with me posting this image from his work. If not I'll gladly remove it.

From reading the website, the play test reports, and looking at the posted art work for the game, it strikes me as if someone took a blender and filled it with bits of The Dying Earth, Call of Cthulhu, Gamma World, Rifts (Paladium), and a dash of old Heavy Metal magazine stories, especially the Moebius works. It also has been influenced by Gene Wolf's Book of the New Sun series and I suspect Mike Grell's The Warlord comic series.

Looking at the art of Numenera you can already see some of the Moebius influence. These two pieces are by Moebius for comparison of influence:

The Numenera books are going to be art rich to help convey the mystery and awe of the setting. I recommend going to the site and looking at the gallery showing just some of what is to come. Lead artist Kieran Yanner is brilliantly talented. While I personally find some of his black and white work too heavy and thick, he really shines with his color work, especially his landscapes. The manuals and support material are going to be a treat for the eyes.

In recent news, the people responsible for the popular computer game Torment: Planescape are already committed to producing a sequel in this new setting. The title has been announced as Torment: Tides of Numenera. The kickstarter for the computer game will be announced at some point in the future.

For those not yet ready to go prowling the game website, the short version is this - it is a billion years in the future. Many very advanced great civilisations have risen and fallen. The current inhabitants of earth are trying to use artifacts from the past to build a new great civilization. Arthur C. Clark's third law is in full effect: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Numenera promises to be interesting from a system perspective as well. What information on the site indicates and what podcast interviews Monte has done seem to point to a simple and flexible set of mechanics.

Difficulty is determined by a level times 3 and can be modified downward by skills and other factors. For example if a creature was difficulty 5 to hit (5x3=15) you roll the d20 to meet or exceed that target. If you had some piece of numenera that functioned as a targeting device, it might knock the difficulty down by 1 meaning you instead need to roll 12. Conceivably you could use a combination of skill, effort (a limited resource based on character stats), and available numenera to reduce a target number so low you wouldn't need to roll.

It has also been mentioned that the players do most of the rolling. The main dice are a d20, percentile dice for the GM to use when preparing scenarios, and a d6 that will be used only occasionally.

It is unfortunate that I lack a regular committed play group currently or I would absolutely love to beg Monte to allow us to play test the system. (The weekly crew are involved with a fantasy sandbox being run by bighara of Echoes From the Geek Cave).

For character classes there are three types: Jack of all trades (Jacks), Nanos, and Glaives. See if you guess what they equate to?  If you said Thief/Bard, Wizard/Sorcerer, and Fighter, you win! Not that there's a prize or anything.

Character creation is fairly simple and can be broken down to a one sentence Mad-lib structure. "I am a blank, blank, that blanks; with the blanks being filled by a short descriptive word or statement, the class, and a focus. Example: I am a strong glaive that excels with javelins.

Experience is handled differently than most traditional games, but will sound familiar to the OSR crowd. Combat isn't where XP comes from, instead it results from discoveries. Sure, you'll have fights, but the goal is the numenera you seek and the story. Also, players can grant each other xp for good ideas, etc, and the GM can influence things by giving additional xp.

There's a lot more to know about Numenera than I could include in a single blog post. With that in mind I highly recommend you seek out the game website and even give a listen to the fan podcast Transmissions From The Ninth World for more detailed information.

And as a parting gift, more Moebius art:

Ptolus - Take Two

Monte Cook's award winning D&D campaign setting Ptolus is returning to print form.

Ptolus was originally released in 2006 as a single 672 page hardcover volume weighing 6lbs (yes, six freakin' pounds!), plus extras on CD and some stuffed in an envelope. There was also, for those that pre-ordered, 5 copies of the 32 page players guide, and some adventures.

The truely amazing product won 4 Gold Ennie Awards in 2007 for: Best Production Values, Best Setting, Best Cartography, and Product of the Year.

At the time it really helped push the bar for third party products very high, and I'm happy to say since then other companies have risen to the occasion in some areas of production, etc.

Besides the incredible quantity and quality of material encompassed by this monster of a game book, what shocked a lot of people was the price. The hardcover retailed for a whopping $120 and the PDF was $60. Many people remarked that a game book couldn't possible sell for that price and Monte, much to his credit (and happily for his bank account I'm sure) proved them wrong.

Originally I was one of the skeptics, however Monte's production journals and enthusiasm won me over and I became one of the 1,000 that pre-ordered the enourmous tome.

For details on Ptolus I recommend checking this link:
http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?ptolus

I may be wrong on the total number of print copies produced, however I believe it was over 10,000.

The book sold out long ago and occasionally a copy can be found on Ebay for upwards of $300.

Well, now after a nice long wait, Ptolus is making a return to print instead of remaining PDF only. (boy are the folks trying to sell their copies potentially going to be disappointed)

It will return in a print on demand format comprising not a single 6 pound goliath, but two smaller volumes. For proof, see this tiny picture of Monte at GenCon 2011 holding them up. You can thank the folks at Paizo for this pic.

Some of my usual suspects, er, I mean gaming group were part of the Ptolus campaign I was running a few years ago. They periodically voice the request for a return to the City By The Spire. I'm not yet ready to dive back into it despite my great appreciation for the setting.

Part of my reasons for holding back is the system is one I as a DM no longer feel comfortable running.

It was written for D&D 3.5 and while it is a playable system, I find the work required by that set of rules cumbersome when it comes to preparing monsters.

By that same token I don't feel converting it to 4th edition would work either. Too much up-front effort to convert and the character side doesn't feel right to me. The monster part is very much to my liking, but I can take what I get from that and port it back into the old-school game.

That leaves deciding on a format and converting. I'm pretty content to wait for now while I run the Lost Baronies campaign. Especially since scheduling is a major issue. Ptolus would demand an even stronger commitment from the players and right now that isn't going to happen.

What I would love though is for someone else to run Ptolus so I could be a player in that grand environment. Anyone? Beuller?