#ptolus — Public Fediverse posts

Join the chat https://www.twitch.tv/goldpublic for Session Zero character creation session with my D&D group for our new urban campaign in the Ptolus city setting. OSR Swords & Wizardry GOLDpublic Twitch TV stream is ON now. #DND #Ptolus #Roll20 I'm not the Dungeon Master this time. 2026

@HeyeBodo

Weiter bei meiner Online - #WFRP-Runde mitspielen. Weiter meine #Ptolus / #DnD - Runde meistern.

Und vielleicht ein paar Sachen aus der deutschen Sagenwelt in #BRP konvertieren.

On #Saturday , we finally had another session of our #Ptolus -based #dnd campaign, after an involuntary break of two months. But it was a fun one, despite not having any "real combat".

The PCs continued to explore the ancient ruins beneath the city. Since they have been curb-stomping the monsters they have encountered as of late, I decided to put a tough obstacle in their path: A stone golem (they were three Level 7 characters, and a stone golem is CR 10).

Instead of fighting it to get past it, they decided to distract it so that one party member could sneak through the door it was guarding. This worked like a charm - and luckily for the party, the character who snuck in was the one with common sense.

As in, "Nope, I am NOT going to touch the Obviously Evil Artifact, and leave it right where it is - I'm just going to plunder the rest of the room."

Another character would probably have made a different decision, but _she_ didn't have the shadow powers that would have allowed her to slip under the door.

Anyway, the party got a few further clues towards what happened to bring this old city to ruin, and I have to figure out a new way to tempt the PCs towards Chaos. 😁

In last evening's #ttrpg session, the PCs once again decided to do something entirely different than what I had anticipated, forcing me to improvise.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer to run heavily detailed settings (like #Ptolus ) - knowing a lot of background about the world makes improvising with consistency easier, at least for me.

In the last session of my #DnD campaign (set in #Ptolus ), the PCs successfully raided a slaver hideout, rescued a bunch of slaves, and captured two of the slavers whom they will try to interrogate for further information.

As they have made themselves a target by the backers of the slavers, they will now move into a safehouse where they will be (hopefully) shielded from scrying until this blows over after a few days. So now I need to come up with some ideas for a session where the PCs will be cooped up in the confined space of this safehouse. Any suggestions?

#ttrpg

I could use some #dnd advice.

The PCs are currently exploring a sunken city which was destroyed by the local chaos gods (the Galchutt of #Ptolus , if it matters) thousands of years ago. I am in need of two things:

- Uncanny hints they can find of the horrible, horrible things that happened here.
- Obscure, gribbly monsters that might lurk there still, after all this time. And with "obscure" I mean "not any of the standard monsters in the Monster Manual", but pulled from the history of D&D (and if there is a #DnD5e conversion, so much the better).

The party consists of 4-5 Level 5 characters, so something in that power range would be useful. #ttrpg

I always try to make situations and scenarios in my #ttrpg campaign a little more complex than they appear at first glance. If the PCs are smart and pay attention, they might figure out what is really going on - and if not, it becomes a plot point they might realize at a future time in the campaign that puts the situation in a new light in hindsight.

For instance, in my initial session for my #Ptolus campaign, I had the PCs start out in an inn where there was an assassination attempt against a merchant who was staying in the same inn.

But they decided to question one of the goons on their own, out of earshot of other people - and learned that this was part of a war between two rival organized crime rings, and the merchant was providing alchemical supplies for drug manufacture for one of the gangs.

This put the whole situation into a new light, although they haven't yet decided what to do with the situation. It _also_ provided some extra background information on the political situation of the city they are traveling to - a meaningful reward for the characters that has nothing to do with treasure.

I've recently started running a #DnD 5E campaign set in #Ptolus . If you are curious, I've posted a writeup of the story so far here:

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/d-d5e-preparing-a-ptolus-campaign.923998/

Yesterday, I finally started my #Ptolus campaign (using #DnD 5E). The characters first met each other in a tavern - I know that that's a cliche, but it's one I've never actually used before (usually, my D&D campaign start with the PCs having to go through the immigration offices together...).

And, of course, the PCs got into their first fight! They _thought_ they were protecting an innocent merchant from an assassination attempt, but when they later interrogated one of the goons, they learned that this was really an organized crime hit against one of the suppliers of a rival drug gang. Which put a bit of a damper on the characters' mood, but the _players_ had fun.

#ttrpg

Six days until the first session of my #Ptolus #5e game.

I've decided to lean on the trope of having the group meet in a tavern.

Except the tavern is on fire and actively being attacked by undead. Roll initiative.

@[email protected] Yeah, my slight personal preference would have been for #Pathfinder 2E, but the players outvoted me.

Though I have to admit it makes running a #Ptolus campaign easier, since it already has 5E support.

My #ttrpg session got canceled due to plague and snow, so I sat down to do some more #MiniaturePainting instead.

I'm hoping to use some of these in a #5e #Ptolus campaign I'm planning to spin up soon.

My Christmas vacation is ending, I am returning to Oldenburg, and now it's time to start preparing for my upcoming #ttrpg campaign in earnest:

- We will be using #DnD 5E - the old version, not the newly released one, since that's more widely available and most players are familiar with them.
- Since one of the players complained that all his prior campaigns ended at low levels, we will start at level 4 and then progress a level every other session until we reach level 8.
- The setting will be #Ptolus , the giant city sourcebook by Monte Cook originally published in 2006.

I still don't have much information about the characters - only one player has sent me his character so far, and he's using a "Tamer" class from a third-party supplement which is essentially a Pokemon Trainer. (But he is a veteran player and I trust his judgment - while I do expect shenanigans, I do not expect min-maxing abuse.)

Then I will have to figure out how these characters fit in with the overarching mystery of the campaign, and how they might interact with the many, many factions in and below the city.

Looks like I will run a #Ptolus campaign next year.

#dnd #ttrpg

After some back and forth, I am pitching four different campaign concepts to my gaming group. The choice of systems I offer is #DnD 5E and #Pathfinder 2E.

Personally, I have a slight preference for Pathfinder - I find it to be more interesting, and am trying to move away from WotC after that OGL fiasco last year.

On the other hand, D&D has "native" support for the proposed settings (#Eberron, #Ptolus, and #ForgottenRealms ), and most of the group is more familiar with that rule system - so I suspect they will pick that.

Then we need to decide whether we will pick the "old" version of the rules, or the new edition that's currently being released. Which means I should look up what the major differences are...

Okay, I received first player feedback for my #ttrpg campaign pitches. They liked the #Ptolus pitch, but they have been rather oversaturated with #Golarion campaigns. However, they are also interested in campaigns in either #Eberron or the #ForgottenRealms .

To reiterate, this is what I am looking for:

- The campaign should have a fairly strong regional focus - a region which the PCs can explore in depth, make connections with local people and organizations, and visit the same places again and again but under changing circumstances. (One reason is that this allows characters easily leave and join the action if one player is absent. But I have also come to the conclusion that I work best as a GM when I do a lot of worldbuilding for the campaign area in advance, instead of trying to do a "scenery of the week" travel campaign).

- The PCs should have a reason to stick together beyond mere wealth acquisition.

- There should be plenty of room for characters to drive their own plots - individually and collectively - instead of merely reacting to the world around them.

So, any good ideas for regions and campaign frameworks?

#dnd
https://thefolklore.cafe/@juergen_hubert/113335382839115302

Repost your five favorite #TTRPG settings, regardless of system:

~ #Exalted
~ #Shadowrun
~ #Ptolus
~ #Earthdawn
~ #BellyOfTheBeast

@orangelantern

It's frustrating. I think I _could_ run it as a setting with a tighter mythology with some moderate amounts of effort. And the mythology doesn't even have to be fairly consistent - see #CallOfCthulhu for how to do this right, despite the many internal contradictions of the #CthulhuMythos .

But as written, the setting of Numenera is all style but too little substance. Which is disappointing. I _loved_ Monte Cook's #Ptolus setting, so I know that he can do better!

I am preparing to put a pile of my old #TTRPG books up for sale, probably on Ebay.

Here is the list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vsjPvDLNLDki5ltGgKb-c64ZV2mVhmXZu0xuS7bD32g/edit?usp=sharing

Highlights include: #Shadowrun 4eand d20 #Conan stuff, some #DungeonWorld material from Magpie Games, a brand-new copy of 5e #Ptolus, and some #TSR era D&D books.

Prices are just a touch under what I was seeing on ebay and Noble Knight for these items. Happy to knock off a couple bucks if you want multiple things, and we can figure out shipping cost together.

Die #RPGaDay2023 Antwort (16) RPG I wish I owned? Das ist wohl #Ptolus #MonteCook's City by the Spire" - #DnD5e kompatibel, aber vor allem ein auf eine Stadt konzentriertes #Worldbuilding, das #Absalom auf #Golarion übertrifft, mindestens vom Umfang her. Als Ebook erschwinglich https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/344033/Ptolus-Monte-Cooks-City-by-the-Spire Als Hardcover ein Trumm, das Markus Plötz von #UlissesSpiele leider für deutsch unpublizierbar hält: https://amzn.to/3DXcfqH Falls mir das jemand schenken will? Nur zu! #pnpde