Re: Ptolus

From: "Terry Bigrigg" <ahzadjinsai@?????.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 5:04 PM
Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Ptolus


>> Do you have any information on the sun or stars? Are their no mentions of
>> constellations, commets or any other night sky objects?
>
> there aren't any mentions of those kinds of things. it's left for
> individual DMs to sort out.

Hmm. I guess I'd just assume a normal central sun and normal stars.

>> Is there any information about use of magic spells that summon creatures
>> from other planes? Do those spells automatically fail, or do they summon
>> outsiders who get stuck at the end of the duration?
>
> spells like astral projection, plane shift and other like them do not 
> function.
> spells like banishment, or similar effects like found in holy word do
> not send the critters away from the plane, the only stun them for 1d6
> rounds.
> summon monster type spells work normally b/c they don't truly
> physically come so they disappear at the end of the spell
> spells that call critters still work, but are rarely used b/c once
> they arrive they are stuck, and often the critter doesn't realized
> it's stuck and after it does its service to you, you have a pissed off
> powerful outsider who is not real fond of you getting it stuck on this
> world (this can make for some fun though)
> gates still work but they are one-way.

Very interesting. As far as outsiders are concerned, Ptolus is sort of like 
a "nice" version of Ravenloft.

:-P

I think that this does make Ptolus a bit of a weird setting, but *sometimes* 
weird is a good thing.

I'm sure that these sorts of rules would easily transfer over into 
wildspace. Maybe I would be put off by these rules, but if I didn't like 
them, I'd probably dislike them as a conventional campaign setting as much 
as something to use with Spelljammer.

>> I do dislike "the end is nigh" campaign settings - this aspect was the 
>> main
>> thing that disapointed me about The Astromundi Cluster. I think I would 
>> be
>> more likely to buy Ptolus if this wasn't a feature of the setting. 
>> However,
>> it *is* a feature, and I think I would rather do Ptolus properly and 
>> adapt
>> SJ to Praemalspace than chop up Ptolus and put bits of it elsewhere. If I
>> couldn't use Ptolus, as is, I think I would rather not buy it in the 
>> first
>> place.
>
> what i like about Ptolus is well the book does have that end is nigh
> stuff in it, it's written well enough that it can be used or not used
> with little fuss.
> also the individual chapters can be bought in pdf form so if all you
> are interested in is the city you can just buy that and leave off all
> the world stuff, the monster chapter, etc..

I had time to look around the Internet today and certainly need to think 
about this product a lot more before I buy it. The free Players Guide, will 
help. I'll have to set up an account so that I can download it.

> On another note I've purchased Green Ronin's new Pirates Guide to
> Freeport, a rules free setting book, detailing the pirate city of
> Freeport. I can highly recommend this book for use in any game system.
> it's a very dark, and gritty place perfect for a neutral asteroid
> meeting place, for those that don't have Bral, and while I've always
> loved Bral as my favorite little city, Freeport has pushed it off that
> spot.

Hey! Stop trying to spend my money!

;-)

David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
http://spelljammer.wikia.com/
http://www32.brinkster.com/virtualeclipse/